The Primal Hunter 9, page 12
The fourth showed Jake standing in the middle of what looked like the World Congress hall, surrounded by faceless humanoids.
Path of the Ruler - Permanently increases Wisdom, Willpower, and Intelligence by 10%.
Another one showed Jake silently sitting in a cave, meditating in complete calmness.
Path of the Hermit – Permanently enhances Willpower, Agility, and Vitality by 10%.
In the next, Jake stood in the middle of a burned-down city, corpses all around him and a smile on his face.
Path of the Outcast - Permanently increases Vitality, Agility, and Intelligence by 10%.
The following scene nearly made the real Jake puke, as he saw himself wearing black robes on his knees in front of a statue depicting Villy while surrounded by fanatics.
Path of the Faithful – Permanently increases Wisdom, Vitality, and Intelligence by 10%.
The third to last displayed Jake surrounded by enemies on all sides, yet not a shred of fear was on his face. He remained stoic, his arcane magic revolving around him to form different magical constructs.
Path of the Indomitable – Permanently increases Vitality, Willpower, and Toughness by 10%.
In the second-to-last version, a bloody Jake stood upon the massive corpse of a manticore, his bow in hand, wearing nearly the same armor as the real Jake. This Path fit him really well, but it was not the one.
Path of the Slayer – Permanently increases Strength, Agility, and Intelligence by 10%.
Then there was the tenth Path. It was not actually the tenth, going by order of appearance, but the second Path of the ten displayed. Jake had saved it for last for a reason. Because he’d already known this was the one from the beginning.
Gatherers were often paired with another way of life in humanity’s history. While the gatherers collected all they could, this other group was in charge of obtaining a far more hazardous source of food, willingly risking their lives to hopefully defeat something much stronger than themselves.
Down the final Path Jake evaluated, he saw a nearly spitting image of himself, wearing the same armor and holding a bow. He had his back turned to the real Jake, staring at a monster of ridiculous size in the distance.
It was naturally the Path of the Hunter.
Path of the Hunter – A human who walks the Path of a hunter, forever seeking his next prey. Any community needs those willing to face dangerous foes to sustain the group, be it through gaining food or scavenging valuable materials of the slain prey in a dangerous situation. You have walked a Path where you do neither. You hunt not for material gain, but for the experience, Records, and thrill. Permanently increases Perception, Agility, and Endurance by 10%. Grants the [Wisdom of the Hunter (Unique)] skill. Upon selecting this Path, you will instantly gain a one-time bonus to the Perception, Agility, and Endurance stats.
Note that all Paths are Paths to the pinnacle. Choose that which suits you.
There was no real decision to be made here. Even if the system said that all these Paths were equal in principle, only one of them truly fit who Jake was. He was the Primal Hunter, for Villy’s sake.
As for the Paths themselves, Jake had read about them. It was a way to further specialize yourself, and getting a 10% increase to three stats was usually considered huge. It was still big for Jake, but this was an instance where diminishing returns on additive titles really came into play. The relative stat increase Jake would get compared to someone with barely any titles was more than noticeable. At least for the percentage part. Because with these Paths also came a one-time bonus. Quite a big one, too.
Jake did not further delay selecting the Path, and once more, time began to move, and the influx of energy resumed. All other paths ceased to be as the Path of the Hunter turned into pure energy. A rush of Records and energy repeatedly went through his body, his skin almost seeming to ripple. While experiencing this oddly wonderful feeling, he got some more prompts.
Per your choice to walk the Path of the Hunter, you will experience a one-time increase to all stats associated with the aforementioned Path. Perfect Evolution stat increase applied. +550 Perception, +550 Agility, +550 Endurance.
Feeling the stat increase while also undergoing his evolution was nearly impossible. Feeling much of anything that was not his own body while within the void was hard, but Jake still went through all the other prompts.
*Race Skill Gained*: [Wisdom of the Hunter (Unique)] – You walk the Path of a hunter, a pillar of any community and one of the few who dare pressing into hostile territory to hunt. Rather than stay and improve the safe settlements of humanity, you seek more power through the act of killing your foes and claiming all the bounty that comes with it. A potent yet risky Path. +10% Perception, +10% Agility, +10% Endurance. Increases all experience gained from slaying foes. Increases alignment with all classes or professions related to the Path of a hunter. Allows you to more easily pass on Records related to your Path as a Hunter.
His one race skill gained in C-grade, it seemed. Perhaps a bit underwhelming, but such were the race skills of the human race in general. Not that the skill itself was underwhelming. Sure, Jake didn’t really need the part about teaching others his Path as a hunter or whatever, but everything else was great. More experience from kills and more "alignment"—whatever that meant—had to be good. Oh, and of course, the nice stat bonuses, but he already knew about those.
To scroll back a bit, the one-time increase to his Endurance, Agility, and Perception stats had increased by 10%, too, due to Jake reaching level 199 in class, race, and profession before evolving. That prompt above had mentioned it already, but Jake had naturally gained yet another Perfect Evolution title.
[Perfect Evolution (C)] – You have undergone a perfect evolution to become a C-grade human. +660 all stats.
All in all, it was a numerically massive increase in his stats. However, that was far from all. Evolutions did not only improve one with an increase in stat numbers, but also stat effectiveness. Every stat point mattered more than before, every health point was more valuable, every mana point contained more energy, and every point in Strength made him stronger.
Exactly how much this was, Jake didn’t know, but as with his D-grade evolutions, he felt at least twice as powerful as before. Without fighting, he would have no way of knowing, but he was confident that in his current form, he could handle ten pre-evolution versions of himself without even using Arcane Awakening—with them naturally allowed to go all-out.
The next system message Jake had received was also a very expected one. He had gotten it at every evolution so far, after all.
*Bloodline Ability Evolved*
The evolution has stirred your Bloodline, allowing it to evolve along with you.
*Bloodline Ability Upgraded*: [Bloodline of the Primal Hunter (Bloodline Ability - Unique)] – Dormant power lies in the very essence of your being. A unique, innate ability awakened in the Bloodline of Jake Thayne. Grants the Sphere of Perception. Grants an improved sense of danger. Enhances all instincts and intuition. +25% to Perception.
The description was the same as ever, and it added another 5% to his increase in Perception. Coupled with the 10% increase from the Path of the Hunter, Jake saw that he had now reached one of those numerical milestones that, in reality, didn’t mean anything but still made him feel damn good.
He had reached a 100% stat increase in Perception. Was this overly massive compared to a 95% increase? No, it was not, but reaching 100% still felt significant somehow. Overall, his stat amplifiers had gotten quite extreme by now—something he could only feel proud and happy about. There was just something satisfying about seeing numbers going up.
Within the void, Jake felt the intake of energy slow down significantly, and he knew the evolution was about to come to an end. The race evolution of humans was never the most exciting, though Jake had ended up making this one interesting through the revelations it brought. Nevertheless, the real meat was in the profession and class evolutions.
He then frowned, as he already felt it just floating there. The improvement to his Bloodline was significant.
Jake still vividly recalled his last evolution and the resulting barrage of information once he’d returned to the real world. This case would be far worse than the last time if he didn’t do anything… but this time, he was far more prepared and knew it was coming.
As he knew he was soon returning to the real world, he focused his mind and tried to limit the Sphere of Perception. He reined in all his senses and closed his eyes, trying to restrain himself as much as possible. His Bloodline naturally responded to his will, and while he had no way of knowing how far his sphere extended within the void, he knew it had gotten far bigger and would have to be smaller for him to not risk passing out or causing severe damage.
Taking a deep breath, Jake prepared to return to his lodge in Haven. Prepared for all the bad things there were to come.
He wasn’t just talking about the backlash from his own senses improving, but something all newly evolved C-grades had to face:
The horror of seeing many of your hard-earned skills reduce in rarity.
The Fallen King felt the change instantly. The little hunter had finally bothered to evolve, thus opening the Path for the King too. At least the King did not have to wait long, as the fight with the alien Unique Lifeform had left him weakened and unable to evolve for quite a while. Not that the Fallen King wouldn’t say it hadn’t turned out for the better, as he had managed to consume the core of the Ashen Phantom Devourer and assimilate its Records into himself.
Standing within his domicile in the mountain range in which he had fought this other Unique Lifeform, he saw no purpose in delaying his claim of earned power. The prompt appeared before him as he willed it to be; the thought of evolution quests was naturally a laughable subject for one such as him.
Chapter 13
The Ups and Downs of Evolution
*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 200 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*
The level was gained, and he returned to the real world.
Jake had been prepared this time around. He had steeled himself and done all he could to limit his senses to not experience sensory overload. His control since he became D-grade had increased significantly, and Jake had far more confidence this time around when he was teleported back to the bed in his lodge.
The moment he appeared, he was still hit hard. Thousands of smells, extremely loud sounds and so much information from his sphere got fed straight into his brain. He imagined colors he didn’t even know existed, heard impossible sounds, and experienced the mana in the air as suffocating.
Gritting his teeth, the cracking sound from some of them breaking was deafening, but it allowed him to focus on that one sound. He kept grinding his teeth, the sound echoing within his head like he was living inside a drum set, and focused solely on this noise as he tried to filter everything else out. Not opening his eyes had been a godsend, and for a few moments, he even considered just stabbing something into both of his eardrums.
Minutes passed, and slowly, he felt some calm. The sounds were now more muted, and his body and mind adapted to all this new sensory information. Increases in senses like this from evolutions were completely normal, and everyone felt these heightened senses, but usually, the system helped in advance. It did still help Jake, but only with the same level of assistance it would give everyone else. This is to say, it was far from enough.
The smells were still bothering him, primarily because he could not distinguish or place them. It was just a huge mass of different scents—some of them nice, some of them foul, but all mixed together in this amalgamation of pure stench.
Muting these smells took a while, and Jake began to breathe heavily, taking in some of the atmospheric mana.
Throughout it all, Jake had managed to restrain the worst offender when it came to sensory overload: his Sphere of Perception. Even then, it had still grown to nearly five hundred meters, and Jake knew this was due to his suppression of it. The level of detail throughout the sphere remained mostly the same, but he detected more energy now compared to before. For a few moments, it had felt like he was back in the Forgotten Sewers dungeon filled with dark mana, blinding him entirely. Luckily, his instinctual filtering quickly kicked in and helped.
Choosing to shelve the issue of the sphere for now, Jake opened his eyes and, surprisingly enough, felt fine. He was confused for a moment… until it clicked. Jake was used to using his eyes a lot and straining them to the utmost, while he usually didn’t actively practice with and use his sense of smell or improved hearing, as those two were more obstacles than beneficial outside of tracking.
It was the same case with many of his other senses. His sense of touch, feeling, and more were things Jake was used to and, in many ways, desensitized to. They also just didn’t feel as overwhelming as the auxiliary senses.
Jake, hoping to test this, took out one of his hated enemies from his inventory: a mushroom. He stared at it for a moment before throwing it into his mouth and chewing.
“Still tastes like shit," he muttered as he gulped down the necrotic toxins within the fungi. Nothing seemed to have really changed with his sense of taste, so that was good, at least. There were still many other tests left, but Jake returned to his sphere once more.
Focusing, Jake slightly released it, feeling it spread out. Six hundred meters, seven hundred, eight hundred. The added area covered for every meter it extended was larger than the one before, only making the pressure on his psyche grow. After it reached a kilometer, Jake had to stop and forcefully pull it back into around the four-to-five-hundred-meter range, where it felt the most manageable.
The maximum limit is… a lot higher.
He had already limited it in D-grade, but now he had to limit it even more. It annoyed him, as he felt like he was wasting potential, but on the other hand, he knew processing so much information was too much for him. Even at a few hundred meters, he didn’t truly process everything at once, but it felt more like certain things triggered instinctual responses to make him notice them.
Even so… Jake wanted to see how far it could truly go. Was it risky? Yes, but he was also far more durable now, and even if there were some issues, he believed in his own ability to recover. It should be fine. Definitely.
I can take it… right?
Yeah, he should be able to.
Oh, well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Closing his eyes and cutting off all other senses, Jake let go for but a fraction of a second. It was as if a pulse was released that went outwards and took a snapshot of everything it encountered on the way before finally being cut off, leaving Jake with just an image in his head—and a splitting headache.
As for the range… Jake felt it as the pulse spread and scanned everything.
A kilometer, twelve hundred meters, fifteen hundred meters, two kilometers… three… five… ten… twenty… fifty… a hundred… two….
Jake saw Arnold in his workshop at the Fort. He saw Miranda in her office… a party around a hundred kilometers out in the forest… every single home at the Fort… every single person living there… every single thing…
Jake was overwhelmed, and the mental picture faded before he could process even a fraction of it. He opened his eyes as he felt the blood drip down onto his shirt, coming out of his nose. He just stared into the wall and frowned.
A bit over two hundred and fifty kilometers. That was the actual range of Jake’s Sphere of Perception if it was fully released. It was so large there was simply no way to process all this information… It was just not possible for a C-grade. At least, not Jake. Maybe someone like Arnold could, with some of his special skills and fucked-up mind that had probably been warped by eldritch influence.
However, while Jake could not process all this information, that didn’t make it useless. Closing his eyes once more, Jake repeated his action, releasing another pulse. It swept out, and this time Jake did it with a purpose. His instinct guided him, and as the snapshot faded, he still felt something.
Over a hundred kilometers away, a Mark had been placed on Arnold’s assistant. A smile crept onto Jake’s lips. "The possibilities…"
Jake was turning into a living, walking surveillance state. At least some of the time. Just releasing a few of these pulses made him feel drained, and he knew he was straining himself whenever he did it, making it a limited technique only to be used sparingly.
Shaking his head, Jake moved on to another thing he had dreaded facing nearly as much as the outcome of his Bloodline evolution:
Skill rarity adjustment.
All newly evolved C-grades would experience this horror, and Jake chose not to needlessly delay his suffering. He had already been spammed with messages and dove straight into it.
Skill Rarity Adjustment Initiated.
As your power grows, so do your Records. What may have been an achievement before is now only to be expected, and what may have seemed rare before may now merely be uncommon. Thus, an adjustment must be made to represent your progress.
All skills will be adjusted to your current grade, resulting in potential downgrades in rarity. All functionalities of the skills will remain unchanged. Some skills may be adjusted without having their rarities affected. This may or may not result in increased difficulty of further rarity upgrades.
Even if the description said the skills wouldn’t get nerfed and be worse, that didn’t really make Jake feel that much better. It still sucked to see the rarities decreasing. It felt like taking a step back in one’s progress.
