The Primal Hunter

Multi-tasking wasn’t something Jake would consider himself good at, but what he was pretty decent at was switching his hyperfocus between different subjects one at a time. This did result in Jake often forgetting a few of his current projects, but in the House of the Architect, Jake found a cheat:

Attendants.

They were like super-assistants who didn’t actually wanna assist with anything unless explicitly asked and couldn’t do anything that required any skill. However, what they did do was work as perfect alarm clocks that Jake could ask to come tell him whenever he had to switch to another project. They could even follow semi-complex requests, such as not disturbing Jake if he was in meditation but waiting till he was out if he asked for that.

What he primarily used these attendants for these days was to remind him once the cooldown period for crafting Grimoires was soon over. He had them tell him five or so days before every new attempt so Jake could switch and research a bit more on the topic while also making sure he had all the necessary ingredients for when it was crafting time. There were also quite a few things to consider when it came to crafting Grimoires, as it wasn’t as if there was just one type to craft.

Now, for a bit of clarification. Jake had come across three Grimoires in the past, all of them Akashic Tomes. Akashic Tomes were pretty much just a high-level version of Grimoires that granted a specific class or profession. They were highly focused Records on doing just that, and while that was certainly powerful, it didn’t mean they were superior to other forms of Grimoires.

They did vary a bit from usual Grimoires, though. There existed several ways to make Grimoires, and one wasn’t entirely in control of which one was chosen during the crafting process and the primary difference came from the cost and skill required to do different kinds. As an example, If one was incredibly skilled and invested enough time, an Akashic Tome could be made like any other Grimoire; however, many instead ended up making them the ”easy” way.

The easy way, in this case, being the one where you added too much of the core ingredient: your own Records. As Akashic Tomes were nearly always an attempt to make direct copies of prior professions or classes to pass down, one could cheat the crafting process by just pouring in more Records. Sadly, this did result in one not getting the full ”refund” for a successful craft. Yet, despite this, Akashic Tomes were by far the most popular type of Grimoire out there, and for a simple reason:

They were sometimes the only option. Also, in many cases, the person who made them didn’t care about this extra cost. They were people who had already given up on progressing and just wanted to leave a successor, or people who were approaching the end of their lifespan and wanted their Path to survive even after their death.

Crafting other forms of Grimoires took either a lot of research and dedication or a skill specifically suited for it, such as the one Jake got. Grimoire-making skills weren’t actually that rare, but many of them sucked and still only made Akashic Tomes the only real option. Many theorized the effectiveness of the Grimoire-crafting skill correlated to how much the system wanted to propagate a Path, which meant rarer Paths got better versions. So, needless to say, Jake got quite a good version.

These people with lesser crafting skills or no crafting skills for Grimoires at all would thus use the easy crafting method by nearly entirely using their own Records to make Akashic Tomes. This was how the vast majority of Grimoires were created, as Grimoire-crafting was difficult in the multiverse, especially if you wanted to make decent ones. Additionally, the system loved distributing these more than regular Grimoires, improving the chance of finding a good successor.

Jake had considered trying to create an Akashic Tome but found himself unsure how to do that properly and instead decided to go for a far more general one, the risks associated with Akashic Tomes also playing a role in putting him off them. These general Grimoires were simply collections of Records regarding a certain Path for someone to consume just before evolving. The incredible influx of Records would, in nearly all cases, lead to huge impacts during the evolution, allowing the user to choose a new class or profession related to the Records associated with the Grimoire.

Also, it had to be emphasized it was class or profession. When crafting a Grimoire, you had to focus the Records on one Path, which in Jake’s case was the profession, primarily because he used a profession skill to create the Grimoire. Trying to do both class and profession would end up just being useless, even if Jake read it was technically possible. Just ill-advised.

Either way, Jake wanted to go for a high-level, regular, profession-focused Grimoire. If he was satisfied with just an okay Grimoire, he could have made one months ago, but he may as well make a decent one, right?

Now, it was just a question of what would come first: his new stealth skill or the Grimoire. In between working on these two and some other things, time quickly passed, with Jake especially enjoying messing with innocent beings within the different worlds to test his stealth skill. Temlat also didn’t escape unscathed, as Jake often attempted to quickly hide before he entered a room Jake was in. This proved to be really valuable training, as hiding from someone who knew you were there and hiding from those completely unaware were very different.

Ultimately, the winner ended up being the Grimoire. Jake hadn’t even expected it to be the case, but on that day, he had just really gotten in the groove while crafting the book. To clarify, yes, one did have to make an actual physical book. The ingredients one needed to craft a Grimoire were very much expected, with there being three primary ingredients: the book itself, the Records, and the ink.

enough, the book didn’t actually matter much; it was the content. One could often buy books that could be used for Grimoires cheap, and the Merit Point Exhange did sell them. The ink was a whole other story. Jake had decided to mix the ink himself

inside of the book’s pages. This was what many of Jake’s drawings looked like, but it wasn’t like it was a requirement. In truth, it didn’t matter what one drew on the inside; all that mattered was that the crafter was the one who drew it, as one had to infuse energy and Records during the entire process. Jake chose to make different symbols he remembered from alchemy as he believed that represented his Path as an alchemist, but he also made different motifs here and there. Perhaps there was even a beer bottle or two mixed in

This was where he could either choose to summon his Alchemical Flame to burn the book and start over or commit… and this time, he

entire thing locked up as the pages seemed to merge, and the book was filled with energy that turned it into more than just a simple collection of pages. Its durability skyrocketed as it began floating

couldn’t recognize formed on the cover of the book as a title was written with a motiff also forming on the cover just beneath this title. The runes and new drawing hummed for several seconds before everything

Grimoire of the Heretic-Blessed (Unique)] – A new kind of creation has been

mountains standing side by side with humanoid figures standing atop

from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on

the opportunity to potentially unlock a Heretic-Blessed profession if compatible. Must

Lvl 99-199 in any profession.

the only new addition here being the requirement to use the Grimoire

also trigger an evolution at any level, but it was only a chance, not a guarantee. This was why most people or factions saved Grimoires to be used right before natural evolutions and not in the middle of grades, as if one didn’t trigger the

book title. It had been just

version of. He could admit he was a bit perplexed no one had been Heretic-Blessed before, but maybe no one just ever been able to make a proper Path out of it. Who knows, and honestly, who cares… Jake being the first was only

it to be recognized. In the uniqueness department, it also couldn’t get any better, as what was more unique than a unique Path never really seen before, crafted by its progenitor? So, yeah, to conclude, it was a damn good creation Jake was proud of

skill, which was taking longer than he would have hoped. It was that final snag of ”moving” himself on the visual spectrum that really

the level where Temlat had no way to find him. He even fooled the C-grades in the different worlds enough to be able to stand

sudden moment of insight or anything Jake lacked to understand what

from there before Jake could walk without any problems. It did take a lot of focus to do,

energy. This energy could then

leak at all. Any kind of distortion ruined his shifting on the visual spectrum, but Jake believed he was getting close

(Epic)]

It was a skill that would allow Jake to stay entirely hidden as long as he didn’t exert himself too

look at a picture for an hour without noticing anything was wrong with it, but the second someone pointed out a minor error, you couldn’t unsee it. This was sadly just one of the downsides of this stealth method, but compared to some others, it was incredibly minor. Plus, Jake already had some budding ideas as to how he could exploit the concept… but all of that wasn’t for this

the kind of stealth skill Jake had wanted for a long time. He had one more upgrade to go, and this

had passed since Jake

as he approached a castle. A transparent and extremely thin barrier of stable arcane mana covered his entire body, making his form look slightly see-through and shimmering, remnicent of those cloaking devices in games pre-system. He definitely looked out of place with his cloak and mask and shimmering form, yet no one seemed

grabbed a fruit from one of the many stalls and tossed a few coins of the local currency into the till. The moment he had the fruit in hand, it was affected by his stable arcane barrier, too, promptly

up the stairs to the castle, Jake easily slipped by the many guards who didn’t even glance at him. Opening the gate to get inside wasn’t something Jake had confidence in doing undetected, though, so he had to take a small break.