The Primal Hunter

To be stealthy.

An ancient art learned by many teenagers with wary parents and creaky floorboards to remain undetected as they were up to no good. That, or because they just needed to go to the bathroom really late in the night and didn’t want to wake anyone up.

However, this was but one part of the stealth: the art of avoiding sound. Others were stealthy by melding into the environment through camouflage or even found ways to hide their heat signatures or other traces of their existence.

There were countless methods in the multiverse to remain undetected, with Jake’s current method akin to being able to summon a fake boulder he could hide within, which also helped mask his presence and energy. It was far from perfect, and moving around while using it wasn’t advised, but so far, it had kind of gotten the job done.

However, now, it was high time to improve it, and he may as well learn from the best while doing so.

In the multiverse, Jake knew of two beings who had reached the ultimate peak of stealthiness. One of them was naturally Umbra, the leader of the Court of Shadows. Her ability to remain undetected until the moment she decided to strike was unparalleled as she could hide within the shadows themselves only to emerge when she so desired. Her form of stealth was the most classical sort, but there was one person in the multiverse who surpassed her when it came to remaining undetected.

Because another branch of stealth was one where you could be seen, but no one truly noticed you. Where you could stand next to your target on the street without them looking twice your way. The being who had reached the apex of this was, needless to say, Eversmile, the ultimate shapeshifter. He could take any form and become anyone or anything he wanted. His form wasn’t just limited to people, as far as Jake had been told, but he could even mimic objects or non-humanoid races.

So, if one apex emerged out of nowhere, the other emerged from right next to you unexpectedly. These two methods were often recognized as the main branches: obscuration and blending in. Jake was currently doing a bit of both – which most stealth methods did – but he did both kind of poorly.

Jake wanted to still do a bit of both with his improved method, primarily because he wanted to try and learn what Artemis had talked about. At least he wanted to integrate concepts of what she explained, even if it was pretty damn complicated. He did have their entire discussion committed to memory, though, as he recalled what she said during what Jake would call a great discussion on progression methods, while others would probably define it as pillow talk.

“My method of stealth is a lot more simple than what you described,” Artemis had explained. “The Path of the Hunter is naturally intertwined with the world around us. It is one of the most natural Paths to anyone in the system, and anyone who fights and kills partly steps into the Path of the Hunter at least a few times in their lives. Hunters are merely the name we use instead of predators for those of the enlightened races, and many civilizations even call those who fight monsters hunters by default, no matter what weapon or form of combat they use.”

The basis for the entire stealth method Artemis used was to be a natural hunter. A part of an ecosystem. At least, that is the mentality Artemis had when she first learned and improved the skill.

“My form of stealth leans into becoming one with the environment in a more literal sense. Feel the natural mana around you, feel the presence of the world itself, and breathe it in. Let it fill you and become one with everything. Perceive the world as you let it perceive you, and through that, you will know how to hide at the end of Perception. Seek the very edge of where you recognize your own form within the world and obscure what little remains of you that remain as you blend in. If you do this, you will be able to move without hesitation and act entirely normal, as you will simply disappear from everyone’s spectrum of what they perceive. You will never be perfect in this; no one is, but if they cannot perceive the world as well as you do, finding you will prove difficult. Well, unless they have a cheat-like Bloodline,” Artemis had further elaborated.

Jake had probed further and had kind of formed his own interpretation using more pre-system terms. Jake would liken this kind of method to changing how you appear on the color spectrum. The human eye, before the system, was unable to see things like ultraviolet light but had a limited spectrum. The same was true for what one could hear, and Jake wouldn’t be surprised if the same had been true for smells and pretty much everything else.

spectrum had expanded. Magical elements were introduced; one could see and feel mana, and Jake could see things he never would have been able to before. With his Perception alone, he could easily peer through

was one of the reasons why someone like Arnold also had Perception as his highest stat, as it allowed him to perceive things others couldn’t. Jake was the

able to understand them, it was definitely an essential factor. Not to say everyone needed it to reach the peak, as someone like the Sword Saint was so in tune with the concepts

of the world. This spectrum was eternally expanding without any end. Jake’s Bloodline allowed him to see everything within the physical spectrum with his Sphere, and as it existed outside of the system, it wasn’t limited. Of course, it wasn’t entirely accurate to say that he saw everything as if he actually could;

this spectrum far more than he could usually handle, which was also why

Artemis used was to “see” yourself on this spectrum of the world and then become one with it. To move yourself on the spectrum from where even a level 0 could see you to somewhere no one would know you were there, even if you stood right next to and breathed them down the neck. Simply because they wouldn’t be capable of registering you even existed. Jake would liken it to himself from the visual spectrum of light

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he was pretty damn sure he wouldn’t be able to, as that sounded like at least a Mythical C-grade skill that would effectively make Jake entirely undetectable to anyone who had

while fighting due to how much energy one had to give off

that, after all, and could even make use of some of what he learned from his Bloodline. As for the rest

stealth for a long time and just never got the opportunity. That is where all his ideas for using arcane energy came from. Artemis had just given him even more good ideas to put on top, and now, in this House

could serve as a foundation for more upgrades. One that he could potentially even train on

time working on the stealth skill at the House or doing practical testing while also completing some Merit Point Missions, which would fund his Grimoire experimentation once a month or so. In between,

little bit of progress as he implemented some improvements to the stealth skill he had long been considering, which resulted

[Arcane Stealth (Rare)] --> [Improved

within the same rarity, which indicated it had been a pretty low-level C-grade rare skill after Jake evolved. Which made sense, considering the skill had avoided getting downgraded a rank after he evolved. This upgrade had brought it back to be considered a pretty good C-grade rare skill, but it was naturally far from enough. All Jake had

a good one and felt both wouldn’t turn out well – but had also made plenty of progress

he became nearly indiscernible from his surroundings when he camouflaged the mana around him, and even if he moved and used energy within this

Arcane Stealth (Rare)]

drawbacks. First of all, he couldn’t really move when it was fully activated. He had to maintain

use it on an open field and try to just make it entirely transparent, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well as, say, within a forest. Plus, he would still have the problem of being

by design. It was essentially a ”camping” skill for Jake to sit still and wait for his moment to attack while even hiding him

well, but its limitations did mean getting it above epic rarity wasn’t likely. This is where the concepts Artemis spoke of

everything on the spectrum of Perception like Artemis talked about. However, he was confident in moving himself when it came purely to the visual realm. He kind of already did something similar when he made his arcane construct