The Primal Hunter

The levels had come faster than Jake expected during this particular training session. Maybe it was because he was actually crafting a lot this time around, but it could also be due to him simply progressing in so many areas at the same time. Not that he had any way to truly find out, as the system wasn’t very liberal with sharing information on exactly how experience worked. Shit, for all he knew, the recent “D-grade drama,” as Villy called it, could have helped him progress. Anyway, it got him to 180 in his profession, which gave him another skill selection that he had very much been looking forward to.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 180 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 176 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

Jake liked skill selections, even if he had to admit a lot of the initial excitement and enjoyment had begun to wane the more he got. It was rare that he was offered more than one or two skills he would even consider, and the only truly interesting skill choice he had recently was the last one for Avariocious Arcane Hunter which made him go back and pick up the common rarity Stealth Attack skill. That one had actually taken some thought and not just to pick the highest rarity one every time. After skipping the fucked up ones, like the curse or slavery-related skills, of course.

But the level 180 skill selection was a bit different for one simple reason: it was the last one before C-grade. Each profession or class came with some built-in skills that would be offered no matter what, and often the best was saved for last. For his class in E-grade, it had been Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, a skill that was still extremely potent now.

He hadn’t really had one for his profession in E-grade, but that was due to him hunting down the nine “of the Malefic Viper” skills, making him not really care about anything else. But this time around, he had no such thing. In fact, the last two skills he had picked for his profession had been about rituals and core refinement, both things that weren’t part of this core skill set. Truth be told, Jake didn’t really need that many more alchemy skills due to how all-encompassing the Malefic Viper Legacy skills were. This did also mean he had no idea what to expect when he saw the prompt and opened it.

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

Jake would usually go through the options one by one at this point. He would write some off for being weird and more just view his offered skills as representations of the progress he had made. But this time was also different in that aspect.

The offerings were the usual ones. There was an upgrade to Graft Plant that seemed a bit interesting, a skill about creating special acids that he maybe would consider, another one about curse magic that he didn’t want, and finally, a fourth one related to Jake leading group prayers for the Viper that he noped the fuck away from.

He barely registered these as he went to the bottom skill. As said, then Jake had no idea what to expect from this final skill offering, and he had to admit, it was a surprise. A good one… maybe?

[Anomalous Soul of the Heretic-Chosen (Legendary)] – Heresy and orthodoxy united in one body, power claimed from both. To be both a Chosen and a Heretic requires not only mental deviancy but a truly anomalous soul to reconcile opposing concepts. A soul that only grows more unique as you walk further on your Path as a Heretic-Chosen. Due to your connection to your Patron, your mana will begin to carry faint hints and morcels of the Records of the Malefic Viper when crafting poisons, making each creation more potent. Due to your identity as a heretic, this is not granted but taken, resulting in significantly increased mana expenditure during this process. As your soul mutates, so does it get empowered, allowing it to break convention. Going forward, every stat point in Wisdom increases your Mana Points by 12.5 rather than 10. May your very existence become an anomaly that shuns normalcy for power as you continue paving your own Path as a Heretic-Chosen. Note that this skill results in a permanent change. Losing your status as a Heretic-Chosen or your profession will make the skill further mutate and transition into a race skill.

It was weird. Just weird in so many ways. This was a skill of a type he had not been offered before, that was for sure. It was entirely passive from what he could see and did something Jake always looked for in skills – it had an ability he could not in any way replicate himself.

But this one felt a bit out of the left field, even if he should ask himself if it truly was. Jake walked a very weird Path, and he intermingled many concepts and Records with himself at all times. The mere fact that his Soulspace was as powerful as it was proved that Jake was an anomaly, as Villy had made it very clear that sealing something like the Eternal Hunger chimera in there was not something a D-grade should ever be able to. He knew this was likely just a side effect of this Bloodline, but his choices also had to have contributed. Integrating sim-Jake had only strengthened him further, too.

The actual effects of the skill were in the simple department, at least from the looks of it. It was essentially an all-around buff to all poisons Jake crafted, with the downside being an increased mana cost during the crafting process. On top of that, it granted an overall increase to his mana pool. The biggest part of the skill was clearly the mana pool from Wisdom, and this was also what he was the most worried about.

This skill would permanently alter his soul. It would give him 25% more mana, which was even more together with the existing 25% bonus from the Mask of the Fallen King. However, he knew that these kinds of alterations did not just come for free.

His soul as it was could already be considered fully utilized, so to somehow expand it had to come with losing something in return. There had to be some consequences. The system had some innate sense of “balance,” and even if gods like Villy found ways to slightly skirt around these balancing mechanics, Jake was not at all at a level where he could do that. At least, that is what Jake believed. He wasn’t sure at all, though. Gritting his teeth, Jake delayed his choice for a moment as he asked his Patron god:

“Villy… is skills that permanently alter your soul generally considered good or bad?” he asked his dear Patron god after reaching out.

“I will need some more information than that,” Villy asked in return near-instantly and seemed very interested right from the get-go.

“I am offered a skill that allows every point of Wisdom to give more mana than it already does, but it permanently alters my soul in return,” Jake answered.

“Do you, in turn, lose some of your stamina or health?”

“No,” Jake answered. “It also allows some of your Records to get mixed in when I craft to make poison better at a higher mana cost, but it doesn’t seem directly connected to the Wisdom part. And it is the Wisdom part I am worried about.”

“So, you are wondering what else you will lose to allow you to get this increased mana pool?” Villy asked.

“Yeah,” Jake nodded.

“Firstly, did you know that while the 10 points per stat are pretty standard, it isn’t universal? In fact, it is only really a thing for the so-called enlightened races. Many beasts have innate racial skills, especially those of massive size, that make each point of Vitality give them far more health points per stat. How else do you think a massive mushroom that is around your own level can have a mana pool ten times your own? Or how a massive whale the size of a planet doesn’t waste all its vital energy to heal a minor wound? But you are right in your case as an enlightened race; it usually comes with a trade-off. The trade-off is built into the races who gain these racial skills, but for you, as a human, you have no such thing. But I think I see a way and an explanation for you to be offered it anyway without the usual trade-offs,” Villy said after explaining something Jake honestly had kind of figured out a long time ago. If not, then it made no sense how he could fight and damage beasts for so long without them dying.

“What way?”Jake asked curiously.

“You are walking your own Path that is already incredibly hard as it is. Your soul is already ridiculously powerful as it is, and you can handle this mutation without losing yourself at all. That is why you get it offered, I reckon, as, without a powerful soul like yours, the system would never even give you the choice of risking such a mutation. As for the price of the skill… I think it lies in proving your Path. To put it in simpler terms, you increase the Records you need to progress, and you have to prove yourself more than before to gain each level or evolution. Along with that, then faltering in your Path may lead to downright disastrous results. I am talking a full-on soul implosion or you evolving into something very unpleasant,” Villy explained.

Jake listened as he tilted his head. “Doesn’t seem like an actual drawback? Or more just something I already deal with as a high-tier profession? Wait, will it make each level slower to get experience-wise?”

“It is an extreme drawback for most, and no, it will not make each level easier or harder. At least, I don’t think so. Jake, I need you to understand that you are really walking your own kind of Path here. You are forcefully channeling the Records of a Primordial through your soul without dying, you experience true Records of a time long passed, and you have a Soulspace far more powerful than any D-grade I have ever encountered. You are a heretic and a Chosen at the same time while getting away with it. Your sheer level of ego is forcing two opposing concepts to unite within you. So I do agree… the actual drawback a soul mutation brings likely won’t negatively affect you as you are already a damn anomaly and a freak,” Villy said. Jake was not entirely sure if the god was praising him or not, but he chose to take it all as a compliment. Also, Jake had not shared the name of the skill, but Villy still called him an anomaly, so clearly, he agreed the skill fit Jake.

“Anyway… good skill? Also, how come you didn’t pop in this time but chose to keep the conversation telepathic?” Jake asked two questions at once.

“Of course it is a good skill. Very upgradeable, too, I reckon. Don’t worry about evolving it, by the way. Improving it should not increase the drawback at all. Why do you think all my Legacy skills can only be obtained at Ancient rarity and below, where they only give one stat point per level in your profession? As for why I didn’t pop in, well, I got my own stuff to deal with sometimes. This is one such time where I don’t want to dedicate an avatar to visit,” Villy explained.

“Fair enough, mate. Thanks for the help as always, and good luck with your endeavors,” Jake said his goodbyes. He had a feeling Villy didn’t wanna share what he was up to and naturally respected that.

“See you around, and keep up the leveling,” Villy said in return as the connection was cut off.

Without delaying further, Jake selected the skill.

Are you sure you want to select [Anomalous Soul of the Heretic-Chosen (Legendary)]? This skill will lead to permanent alterations to your soul.

Another prompt asked him if he was really sure, once more putting emphasis on the skill not being a casual choice. With resolution Jake confirmed. The moment he did, he felt an odd sense of vertigo. His Sphere of Perception momentarily retracted entirely into his own body, and all of his senses were completely cut off. It was only for less than a second before his sphere spread out again like before, and all his senses returned.

He expected more to happen, but it didn’t. The only thing that felt different was Jake now feeling a slightly larger pool of energy he could pull from and control. Jake wanted to make sure nothing had somehow gone wrong as he checked his status.

Status:

Health Points (HP): 50198/50210

Mana Points (MP): 60123/100296

Stamina: 31851/37060

Yep, his mana had increased from around 80.000 total to over 100.000. It was so odd that having his soul change and mutate didn’t do more than it had. So very odd. Jake stared at his status for a good while longer before reaching a conclusion.

“My stamina is way too fucking low compared to my mana points now.”

Okay, not a conclusion as to why he didn’t notice a soul mutation more, but as to what a big future issue would be. Currently, Jake never really ran out of mana during a fight as he already had a large pool and further increased regeneration from the mask. Then there was the occasional poison he was infected with or the mana from the Scales of the Malefic Viper legendary upgrade, which allowed him to absorb a bit of energy from magic attacks.

This meant his current bottleneck when it came to Endurance was his stamina. Rather fitting considering the name of the resource pool. Still an issue, though. But he had just the solution - he just needed for Meira to return first.

He spent the next few hours testing out stuff and drinking mana potions to fill up his pool to see if that felt different. Jake had wondered if maybe he would feel it when it went above the 80.000 he had before the skill, but nope, not a problem.

After four hours, Meira came home, and Jake quickly approached her in the hallway. “Hey Meira, wanna come shopping with me?”

Meira was taken aback at the sudden question. “Are you sure you don’t just want me to go out and acquire the desired products as usual?”

“Yeah, I’m sure I want to go myself this time and wondered if you didn’t wanna come,” Jake answered with a smile. “I also wanted to take you shopping to finally get you some proper equipment. You are above level 140, so there have to be some good things available for your level by now that you can hopefully use for the rest of D-grade.”

While Jake had leveled a lot, Meira’s speed was far faster. When Jake had first met Meira, she was level 109. So even if her skill was not meteoric, it was still pretty damn fast, and one had to remember that she was not grinding levels through fighting and nearly only with her profession. She had mentioned getting quite a few class levels, too, due to her healer class benefitting from some things, but it was only three or four levels.

“Equipment?” Meira asked with genuine confusion. “Why?”

It was a pretty good question. Meira could borrow everything she needed for alchemy, and Jake had gifted her a spatial item quite a while ago for convenience’s sake. So why the equipment?

“The world sucks, and you will need to learn how to fend for yourself a bit better, so I think getting some practical experience under your belt would be healthy,” Jake said.

“I… is Lord Thayne sure?” Meira said nervously.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, won’t have you join a war or something, just do a few dungeons or go hunting a bit with a party. You will be fine,” Jake said to try and calm her down. Didn’t work very well, but what can you do?

“Okay…” Meira muttered. “What does Lord Thayne need to buy?”

Jake smiled. “A whole lot of elixirs.”

What better way to get more Endurance than that?