The Primal Hunter

In the sky, there had once been a cloud island. It had been quite large, too, with a few elementals spawning here and there. Using past tense was very important in this case, as now there was no island to be seen anywhere. It turned out that clouds and giant tornadoes did not mix well. Or, well, it could be said they mixed really well, considering how the entire cloud island had been swept up, and Sylphie tried to use all the cloud mana to amplify her own attack.

It hadn’t worked, but it was a nice attempt. In fact, their fight was constantly marred by the same thing: not much working for either side. Jake could not deal any significant damage to Sylphie due to her newfound ability to be half-ethereal and turn into wind at will, and while Sylphie did have attacks more than capable of dealing severe damage to Jake, actually hitting him was another story. What few chances she did get, she ended up abandoning or dodging as Jake happily countered. After the first use of Eternal Shadow, she didn’t retry.

Neither had been fully serious and gone all-out, or the outcome would have been different. If Sylphie was willing to take a few blows to land one on Jake, it could get dangerous for him, and if Jake began to use poisons, it would get dangerous for Sylphie. Ultimately, the likely outcome of their fighting would be Sylphie retreating or losing, something she realized, much to her annoyance. At least Jake saw her occasional pecking as a sign of annoyance.

“Hey, it was a good workout,” Jake smiled as he slowly flew through the air back toward Haven, with Sylphie refusing to fly herself. She was a bit tired too, which was another difference between them. Jake could last far longer in a fight, and he didn’t waste as much energy with his attacks. Sylphie had a large mana pool, and her wind attacks didn’t seem to cost much mana, but that was just her normal wind magic. Her attacks using her physical body were large and flashy, which ended up still consuming a lot.

More than that, it took a lot to turn herself into wind and become corporeal again. Something she did perhaps a bit too much as she loved showing it off.

“Ree!” Sylphie complained with another peck.

“If you wanted to win, you should have come for me before I also evolved,” Jake teased her.

“Ree! Ree!”

“True, that would have been very not-nice,” Jake nodded, his slight head movement making her peck him again. It didn’t actually hurt; he just smiled and stopped himself from shaking his head at the bird’s antics.

To conclude their fight, Jake had decided Sylphie was more than fine to bring along to Nevermore. She was by far the strongest C-grade Jake had ever met for her level, and she also didn’t seem to have any large weaknesses. Her magic was limited, yes, but her wind magic was not simple at all. The green wind did things Jake could not quite understand, sometimes easily tearing through an arcane barrier and other times assisting or even healing Sylphie herself. It could even heal Jake a bit. Far from what an actual healer could do, but it was something that added to the mystery.

One thing that had made Jake apprehensive was her lack of survivability. She had a small frame, and he was sure that a mega-dungeon like Nevermore would have enemy types capable of locking her down. To know that she could turn herself into wind at will and that destroying her body didn’t actually matter much to the small hawk had alleviated nearly all of these worries. Jake was honestly not confident in being able to kill Sylphie even if he tried, and she decided to run away. As for her offensive prowess… it was there. Her charges were capable of tearing Jake apart if he wasn’t fast enough at dodging, and even her area of effect magic was impressive.

Now he just needed to confirm with three more, and he would have a full party for Nevermore. Jake already knew the King had evolved to C-grade like him, so that shouldn’t be an issue level-wise, but the Sword Saint and Carmen were both unknowns. This was why Jake was heading back to Haven to talk to Miranda and have her check in with them. Also, it was an excuse to delay going to Arnold.

Getting back did not take long, and he headed straight for her office. Ten minutes of scolding with Jake and Sylphie both getting an earful later, and Jake got an update on what the other major characters of Earth had been up to. Firstly, she told him the King had evolved the very same day he had, likely within the same hour, making Jake know he would also get some snide remarks from the Unique Lifeform about how he had delayed the King’s evolution.

Secondly, the Sword Saint had yet to evolve but was working on something himself. Hearing that gave Jake mixed feelings as he hoped for the old man to evolve soon so they could go to Nevermore together, but it also felt nice to know Jake had evolved first.

Thirdly was Carmen. She had not evolved either, but was killing a lot of things and “figuring stuff out” the last Miranda had heard, which was about four days ago. That one was kind of expected, as she had fallen a bit behind after the whole Ell’Hakan thing and the actions of Valhal during it.

After getting his update, Jake prepared to head over to Arnold to check in about the Nanoblade and if he had any other projects Jake could take advantage of now that he was evolved. However, what Miranda said next made him stop.

“Arnold contacted me right around the time you and Sylphie decided to create widespread panic, mentioning that you forgot to leave the materials you promised to bring him the last time you visited,” Miranda said nonchalantly.

Jake stopped abruptly halfway out the door and searched his necklace. He quickly found the list.

“Shit.”

“…You forgot?” Miranda said a bit judgingly.

“In my defense, I promised him like… decades ago,” Jake said, trying to use his time-dilated training session as an excuse.

“So you are even more overdue than I first thought?” Miranda teased him back. “Be happy it wasn’t a loan with late fees.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jake waved her off. “Hey, Sylphie, it seems like I am going to the Order first anyway. Wanna come along?”

“Ree!”

“Fair,” Jake shrugged at her refusal. “Just don’t go and level too much. You need to be below 210 for the event at Nevermore. The lower, the better.”

“Ree?”

“Yeah, working on your skills seems like a good idea,” he approved. Sylphie seemed full of determination as she jumped off his head and flew out a nearby window.

“I will admit… I still don’t understand how you can interpret anything from those screeches,” Miranda said with furrowed brows. “It seems utterly unrelated to the translation skill.”

“Eh, I think we had this talk before? It isn’t really words but more about intent or something like that. I dunno, but I get it. Other beasts do too, you know, so it isn’t that big of a deal,” Jake shrugged unbothered.

“That says more about you than me,” Miranda smiled and shook her head. “Also, it is a bit late, but congratulations on your evolution. Looks like you… didn’t change at all. Not even your height.”

“How about my face?” Jake asked after taking his mask off. He hadn’t noticed anything himself, but maybe Miranda would?

“No… the same. Maybe a few minor things are ironed out? I honestly don’t know. You are the person I know who changes the least. Well, besides maybe Arnold…”

“Hey, why change perfection?” Jake smirked. “Anyway, I should get going back to the Order and pick up the stuff for Arnold. Might be a bit as I have some other stuff to handle too while I am there.”

With that, Jake made his way back to the lodge and down to the laboratory below. He honestly felt a bit bad about having commissioned it, considering how little he used it. He had planned for it before he knew about the whole mansion ordeal at the Order, so at least he had an excuse there.

Down there, Jake began setting up the formation that would allow him to teleport to the Order. He could just go to the Mangrove and use the main one, but he wanted to place one back in Haven anyway. Unsurprisingly, it was far easier to set up now that he was C-grade. In fact, everything just felt easier. His energy moved more fluidly, his mana felt denser and more potent, and his head was clearer than ever.

After he had set the formation up, he activated it, and a quick trip through the void placed him back on the grass outside of his mansion in the first universe.

“The prodigal son returns, now a true elite of the multiverse,” a voice said behind him a second or so later.

“Hey, Villy,” Jake said as he turned to regard the god. He had wondered if he could see something “more” about the Primordial with his evolved Bloodline, but sadly it was just the same old. His instincts still just made it utterly clear that the god was at a level of power so far beyond him it wasn’t even worth considering countermeasures.

“So, how does it feel? To undergo yet another metamorphosis and get closer to truly shredding your mortal coil?” Villy said.

“Normal?” Jake said. “It doesn’t feel different than any prior evolutions, outside of this one being the most potent yet. But I assume that is only to be expected.”

“For you, perhaps it is to be expected, but in the multiverse, C-grade is quite the barrier, and reaching it is a point of pride,” the Viper said. “C-grade is when life truly begins for most beasts. It was when I, for the very first time, had true intelligence. When most monsters for the first time experience sapience. By now, the Path is mostly set, and what they have going for them now is what they will use to eventually grasp for godhood. Their foundation is built, and it is now time to create a pillar that will stand eternally. So, do you feel confident in the Path that you have chosen? That it is one that will allow you to reach the apex?”

Jake just smiled and shook his head. “Nothing has changed on that front either. Why wouldn’t I be confident? Since day one, it has been godhood or death, and dying seems like the worse of those options.”

“Confidence is indeed a qualifier, but so is the mindset. To become immortal is not just about power but being the right kind of person to live that long without going insane. Even your current grade is a challenge to some. Do you know what the lifespan is for C-grades?” Villy asked.

“No,” Jake confessed. “Not the maximum anyway. I read C-grade humans tend to live well into the tens of thousands?”

“Ten thousand is the natural lifespan for humans, before other modifiers, like the Vitality stat, increasing it a bit,” Villy clarified. “The maximum lifespan for a C-grade is ten times that or a hundred thousand years. Of course, to reach this lifespan, you will need some natural treasures, alchemical goods, or to just be a race that lives this long naturally. For reference, elves naturally live about five times longer than humans on the average but are, of course, still limited to a hundred thousand years total.”

“Ten thousand years,” Jake muttered. “Nearly taking a hundred to reach C-grade doesn’t seem that bad, then.”

“Not a sprint, it’s a marathon, bla bla bla, you know the deal,” the Viper waved it off. “I just wanted to come by and congratulate you. Also, to try and see if I can feel anything when up close… and nothing. You still give off the aura of a perfectly average human. Bar the Bloodline, of course.”

“Good to know,” Jake said, feeling a bit relieved.

“You are here for the bee ritual, right?” the Viper asked after a bit.

“Actually, I am here to get some stuff for Arnold, but also tending to the ritual was the plan,” Jake confirmed. “Why, are you curious about what will happen?”

“Yes,” the Viper said, not a hint of jest. “I genuinely am. You see, the Sylphian Hawk I could write off as a fluke, as it also included my own Records. It was an odd amalgamation of energy that helped give birth to her, so I could write it off as something non-replicable. Then Eternal Hunger. Followed by Sandy. Those two did still rely on natural treasures with powerful innate energies, but they were still mostly you. Finally, we have the fact that you managed to even change your own race into something more than human. Everything indicates that influencing these evolutions is something you can do at least semi-intentionally.”

“Yeah… about that…” Jake said as he began to explain the deal with his profession evolving. More specifically, he told Villy about the Harbinger of Primeval Origins evolution option, including the fact it gave the maximum number of stats and the full description.

Jake knew there were many hints of potential alchemical applications in that evolution option, and who was better to ask than Villy? More than that, to hear if there were any pitfalls.

The more Jake explained the profession, the more the Viper frowned and the deeper in thought he seemed to be. After Jake was done talking, the Viper took a deep breath.

“First of all, good you didn’t pick it,” the Viper said. “Not just because it would be a very sudden shift in your Path that could be problematic, but because it seemed too good. Harbinger is an incredibly specific word to be used in this context and often refers to an innate inevitability. I do think that your assertion it would be mostly uncontrolled is correct, and you would have seen passive skills that would influence the world around you, intentionally or not. Moreover, it could influence you to walk down a Path that you do not intend. Also… if you picked it, you probably shouldn’t have ever gone to the Order or Nevermore.”

“Wait, why?” Jake asked with a frown.

“Think for a bit. What do you think would happen if anyone found out that you are a passive wellspring of powerful evolutions. What if another human who is about to reach C-grade experiences what you did? A sudden discovery of a human variant? People would put two and two together, and soon enough, you will find yourself in quite a pickle. Being my Chosen, perhaps some will hesitate to force you, but at the very least, you will have people flocking around you at all times to benefit from your presence. This all assumes that being the Harbinger of Primeval Origins is a good thing in every instance. What if you can influence people towards an Origin that is less than ideal? Spawn things that are best never seen? If that happens, it may be decided leaving you alive is too dangerous, and there are pacts I am a part of that could compel me to take action. If your very existence was deemed a threat to the multiverse, I would have to kill you myself,” Villy explained, outlining quite a few potential issues Jake had not considered.

“Ah, not to say you shouldn’t aim to become an existence that endangers every other lifeform in the multiverse,” Villy smirked as he added. “You should just do it intentionally and only make people aware of the danger you pose once you are strong enough to make those threats a reality.”

“Noted,” Jake said after considering the words for a while. “Another reason not to pick it is also that it would make you sad I no longer wanted to do alchemy with you, right?”

“You could probably still do some alchemy, but sure, let’s say that was one of the reasons,” the Viper waved him off. “I doubt the profession would have removed the Blessing either. Shit, it may even have rolled back some of the restrictions it placed on me, so at least I could take the Blessing back and wash my hands of you.”

“Ouch,” Jake said, acting hurt. “Anyway, since I am gonna work on the ritual, any tips?”

The Viper, seemingly happy with the change of subject, nodded. “Just one. Do it properly. Ectognamorph females are powerful by default, especially the Queens. If you spawn one at C-grade, you may even be able to make one that is….”

“One that is what?“

“Not saying anything more. Giving you advice is counter-productive, so I shall take my leave here. Again, my only advice is to do it properly and don’t half-arse it,” Villy said as he flashed a teasing smile before he disappeared.

“Didn’t plan on half-arsing it,” Jake muttered as he turned and looked towards the formation.

And… well, there was one downside to having a lot in the best stat…

It allowed him to see how many damn mistakes he had made in his D-grade incompetence.