The Primal Hunter

So… skill selections. It had been a good while since Jake had one last, and he would be lying to himself if he claimed he hadn’t been at least a little bit excited. Especially when it was his very first one in C-grade. The fact that he had gotten it while just sitting around waiting on a flying ship had definitely increased his enjoyment too.

He hadn’t rushed it, though. Usually, Jake wanted to jump right into them, but there was honestly no need to, especially not now that he had reached C-grade. While it was true that there could be some negative consequences to delaying picking a skill – primarily that you would end up getting worse options – the opposite was also true. For some factions, it was even pretty normal to delay skill selections until you had practiced a certain technique or magic with the hope of getting a skill.

This was also why there wasn’t even a warning about negative consequences for waiting with the skill selection prompt, contrary to evolutions. He also wouldn’t have to delay that long. Leveling-wise, floor forty-two had honestly been shit as they spent most of their time running and hiding, and with Jake having to constantly be on watch, he barely found any time to do alchemy. That is why he had only ended up getting his profession level while waiting in the capital of the Aloft Empire to meet the Emperor, at which point waiting just a few weeks more for the in-between room wasn’t out of the question.

So that is what he did. But Jake was still Jake, and his patience did have limits, especially when he didn’t just have a profession to choose skills but a class to pick for too.

After entering the boring in-between room, Jake excused himself from the party as the other four went to meditate a bit by themselves to fully recover their resources. He found a nice corner to sit in and, with high expectations and anticipation, began.

Considering his profession had reached 230 first, it was only right to start with that.

*Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper profession skills available*

Accepting the prompt, Jake saw five options appear, making him smile. His smile did fade a bit when he saw the total list had shrunk quite a lot, as many of the skills he had been offered in prior skill selections were now gone.

Though, on second thought, it probably didn’t actually matter that much, did it? He rarely went back and picked skills he had been offered prior anyway.

Shaking his head, Jake’s smile returned as he turned his attention to the skills on display. Man, I have missed this.

He was going to take his time going over every single skill on offer, that was for sure. Starting with quite an interesting one.

[Conjure Virtual Mind (Epic)] – What is better than one mind? Two. Create a simulation of your mind that can think autonomously and develop ideas. This will be a clone of your mind and thus still be limited by your current Records. Can only exist within your Soulspace and cannot directly influence anything around it or manipulate any energy. All information between you and your virtual mind must be relayed orally or telepathically. The duration of the virtual mind and its level of sophistication are determined by Wisdom, Willpower, and Intelligence.

The first skill and the system started out by offering an epic rarity one. This was the C-grade version of epic rarity, too, making it even better. The same as if the very first skill offered in D-grade had been ancient rarity… or maybe not. Either way, the first skill offered was sure something.

This seemed like the first step in creating an avatar, and he had quite a lot of ideas as to why he was offered the skill. The first was naturally Sim-Jake, who had effectively been not just a simulated mind, but an entirely separate version of himself. The second source of inspiration was maybe Minaga and his cloning ability… but that one was a bit of a stretch. Of course, it was also entirely possible this was just a basic skill most people got offered around this point in their Path, as cloning or at least avatar creation did seem like a pretty basic technique for most of those considered truly powerful.

Needless to say, this skill would be far from an actual avatar as the Virtual Mind was rife with limitations. Enough limitations for him to write it off pretty quickly, and not just for the “low” rarity. The real problem with it was… the Virtual Mind was made for thinking and not doing… and Jake recognized he wasn’t the best thinker. He was the type to do stuff until something worked. Or, in fancier words, he preferred doing practical empirical experiments to find solutions rather than relying on studying and theory.

In less simple terms, he wasn’t the smartest cookie in the drawer, and having another mind to think up dumb ideas wasn’t going to help him with anything.

Hence, he moved on to the next one… which he felt like he had seen before.

(Epic)] – Embrace your arcane affinity as you stabilize what properties you desire and destroy the unwanted. Attempt to purify any alchemical ingredient, reducing it to its most basic state while ensuring its stability. Arcane purification can help destroy unwanted properties from an ingredient, making it purer. Must have suitable

This skill is unlocked by and will serve as an upgrade to your Alchemist’s

he had definitely seen this one before. Thinking back, hadn’t that also been during his first skill selection in D-grade? Yeah, he was pretty sure it was. The only difference was that it had now added Grand to the skill name, which had seemingly allowed it to even retain its epic rarity tag. There was probably some more stuff

with problems. The first of these reasons required the person to have a pre-known theoretical reason

to make stuff work by throwing it together. He had very basic plans and outlines of what he wanted to do, but he didn’t draw up entire tomes of

skill on his own already was proof enough that he didn’t need this. Jake couldn’t recall a single time using the skill outside of purifying water a few times since he reached D-grade. Usually, if he wanted something gone, he would only figure that out during the crafting process, at which point he could easily

find a use for it or to merge it with one of his other skills.

could even turn out to be detrimental down the line. So… next skill. And this

cannot be effectively used directly as weapons. Be warned that wielding the power of curses can lead to unexpected results and requires a high level of control. Curse Fragments left unattended may begin to influence the world around them. The quality and amount of curse energy that can be put into Curse Fragments depends on Wisdom

profession, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the last. The last time had been right after he had created Eternal Hunger, and truth be told, the entire concept of curses still very much spooked him back then. Especially considering he had just managed to fight off the influence of Eternal Hunger, so when he was offered Condense Curse Marble, skipping it was a

weren’t quite

he liked it or not, curse energy was now a big part of his Path. Eternal Hunger wasn’t going anywhere but would stick with him until the day

the day. A source of energy that Jake was uniquely qualified to control. While his affinity for dark mana

usurped whatever instinctual presence Eternal Hunger had when it relied on its chimera

to face the reality that he didn’t use curse energy nearly as much as he could or should but only relied on it for special circumstances or with a limited number of skills. Which, in retrospect, was honestly silly when he had one place where he could apply curse energy with great effectiveness:

Curse Manifestation was a way to do just that. It was a way to begin integrating curses into his alchemy and create interesting and potentially more powerful poisons. He could even use these

a contender. Of course, all depended on the

the Alchemist to research and potentially create plagues of various natures. Plagues are incredibly complex self-replicating toxins that can spread independently of the creator by taking root in each infected target and using them as carriers. Do be warned that plagues can mutate and are incredibly difficult to control; thus, incredible caution and patience is advised when working on them. Malefic properties linger in all plagues you create, making them more potent and allowing them to spread faster. Stat bonuses are dependent on the nature of

skill he was offered to be legendary. He wasn’t

he was pretty sure only his Legacy skills

reason he had been so certain he would be offered something like this was due to just how much knowledge he had gotten jammed into his head related to plagues. From both Palate and Sagacity, mind

it wasn’t just because of the multiverse generally not being a fan of plagues, as Jake was pretty damn sure he could

would Jake want to spend a shitload of time cooking up a plague only for it to work on people way weaker than himself? That would just be a waste of time, which was why he had no interest in the

to the final offering, one thing instantly caught

The rarity.

he saw it. The very first Mythical skill

one who is blessed, yet a heretic, is an audacious and auspicious one, but there is safety to be found for those who follow the Heretic-Chosen of the Malefic Viper. Your very presence as a Heretic-Chosen helps protect those around you who follow a similar Path, hiding their identities as heretics by masking them as blessed instead. All those hidden under your shroud also experience a growth in Records gained

muttered to himself while

he was doing a skill selection. Jake

“Well, it’s mythical.”

“Oh? That sounds incred-“