The Primal Hunter 8: A LitRPG Adventure, page 67
Once more, the Viper was deep in thought. After a bit, he voiced his considerations. "I do see the problem… Trying to design a method for every kind of potential product and with every single combination of ingredients is impossible. Just learning enough about different ingredients is utterly unfeasible…"
Jake nodded along, as he knew the direction in which this was going. He saw on the face of the First Sage that he was also hoping for the Viper to realize what he meant. It felt good to have it figured out before the snake god. Second time in a row, too.
The Viper asked a few more minor questions as he slowly understood. With realization, his eyes opened wide. "Will the system allow such a thing? No… will it actively help to do something like that?"
"Never has the system demanded perfection, only adequate proof that you are qualified. Invisible thresholds are in place for us to discover, and all it requires of you is to pass this threshold, and it shall assist you.”
As for what they were talking about? Well, system assistance—or, more accurately, to have the skill recognized as what the Viper wanted it to be. He had hit the nail on its head already: Manually improving everything was simply impossible.
When Jake used Brew Potion, the system assistance from the skill always did the same thing—at least, if one focused on the outcome. However, in reality, its effects varied for each individual craft. No two ingredients were one hundred percent identical. Sometimes it took a millisecond more to heat something, or perhaps a single more point of mana was injected. All of this led to variation, and with each variation, the minor corrections from system assistance varied in turn.
This is to say that if Villy wanted to make Sagacity based solely on his own experiences, then it would never work, as he naturally couldn’t have an experience identical to anyone else. No, what Sagacity—his current version, too—did was adopt the functionality of the usual system assistance. Because the system obviously knew exactly what corrections had to be made.
As for how the Viper had realized this goal... Well, Jake guessed it still had to do with a shitload of trial and error and learning how to craft a myriad of different things manually. Then, at some point, he had passed a threshold, as the First Sage said, and the gaps had been filled in.
Of course, none of this related to the upgrade Jake wanted. This was just Jake finally understanding how his current version worked. However, realizing how it worked with the crafting skills allowed Jake to understand that the same concept applied to the alchemical knowledge skills.
Almost as if the old man had known of Jake’s thoughts, he continued, "The same is true when it comes to the knowledge of what. Learning the how of crafting only matters after you know what you can craft with and become able to recognize potential. Right now, you use ingredients you have consumed countless samples of, or at most variants. You know them, but what about when you encounter something new? You eat it, I would reckon, but is that truly the best approach to learning even just the basics?"
Jake barely had to listen anymore, as he already knew what he wanted to do and what direction he wanted to take the skill. He had not even reached the crucial part of the vision yet, where he merged with the Viper, but had already begun his own process of upgrading the skill.
Merging Herbology and Toxicology into Sagacity was a given. Keeping the crafting skills separate had a purpose, at least for now, so he had no interest in merging those, but the knowledge-related skills had no extra bonus. They just passively gave knowledge that he could access through Identify.
So, if he combined the two, it only made sense for Identify to also pull from Sagacity. It perhaps already did; Jake had no way of being sure. He reckoned it did pull from Sagacity, as he guessed one of the reasons he’d even gotten the skill selection option was because of the Trial of Myriad Poisons, which gave him a lot of knowledge through Palate. An event that should, in retrospect, have resulted in at least Herbology evolving.
But… Jake was not satisfied with merely pulling on Sagacity when he used Identify. The First Sage talked about pulling knowledge directly from the system. The Sagacity skill already did this in his usual form, but Jake did not have the usual form. He had a bastardized version tied to a drop of blood from the Viper. A drop of blood that Jake controlled inside his Soulspace. So, why couldn’t Jake pull on this drop too? Link himself more with it and extract knowledge in a fashion similar to what the old Herbology and Toxicology did?
Jake split his attention between his own internal thoughts and plans and the conversation between the Viper and the First Sage. The old man spoke more words of wisdom while the Viper worked on properly creating the Sagacity skill for perhaps the very first time. It likely hadn’t been called Sagacity back then, but Jake knew it was a massive undertaking nevertheless.
It was creating a framework. An entire methodology separate from traditional alchemy, all boiled into a single skill. Some corners had to be cut—such as the lack of stat effectiveness bonuses—and several other minor things here and there. This first version would be a far cry from what Sagacity was during the 93rd Era, but it was a monumental feat for a C-grade.
Such a monumental feat that the Viper obviously struggled. He had a hard time getting it all together and creating a framework capable of facilitating such a massive undertaking. He had clearly worked on it a lot, but even as the time in the vision sped up, he lacked progress. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. The Viper was unmoving for more than a decade, and yet the First Sage never left his side. He remained there to answer any questions the Viper had, even if months passed between the Viper exiting meditation.
Yet even after this long, the Viper was not done. Frustration began to appear on the future Primordial’s face. "I… It’s difficult," he said, shaking his head. "There are too many elements, too much to slot into place…"
"Visualize it," the First Sage said. "A metaphor is there to ease understanding. Simplify elements into a concept you do understand. What does your skill look like in your mind?"
"I…" The Viper frowned, not saying more. It was obvious he wasn’t sure where to go or what to do.
The First Sage sighed. "Once. Once I can assist you."
The Viper perked up. "Really, Master?"
"Yes. But only this once.” The old man nodded as he stood up. He went over to the Viper and knelt in front of the cross-legged snake in human form. He smiled at his disciple, who began to look a bit conflicted. Worried, even. "I already promised. Now, allow yourself to indulge in creation. Open your mind."
The First Sage raised a hand… and Jake felt like the world twisted.
He felt something he had only ever felt once before. Like the bounds of reality shifted to allow the impossible through sheer will and enlightenment. The hand gave off an aura that pressured him on a fundamental level, accelerating his heartbeat. There was not a shred of doubt in his mind…
A Transcendence.
Jake had no idea what it did… but he knew he was about to find out. This had to be the most important part of the vision, and the system also clearly agreed, as Jake felt himself merge fully with the Viper the second before the old man laid his palm on the head of the Viper.
A cool sensation spread throughout the Viper’s—and thus Jake’s—body. His mind felt clearer than ever before. Then everything changed. The walls of the room they were in disintegrated, revealing a world of nothingness beyond. A perfect white void, reminiscent of the spaces the system had conjured at times.
"Everything needs a foundation," the voice of the First Sage echoed. “Allow your mind to form the Origin.” He was nowhere to be found, and yet it felt like he was everywhere.
The Viper focused as a massive disc of stone appeared below his feet, more than fifty meters in diameter. Jake sensed that Villy somehow knew what to do, despite not being entirely sure why he knew.
"Visualize your desires. What do you want—nay, demand—of the skill? Breathe in, and with your exhale, may your reality materialize."
Villy inhaled some unknown particles. In the next second, he breathed out, and a storm of colored wisps exited his mouth. They swirled as a wood-like structure appeared on the edges of the disc in all directions, as if the Viper was building a tower around himself.
The wood-like structure began to morph further as it divided all over. It took Jake a moment before he realized what was being made. They were bookshelves.
These shelves shot upwards into the white sky, expanding beyond Jake’s realm of perception within a mere second… and they just seemed to keep going. Then, from the bottom, books began to appear. All of them had the exact same blank, black cover, but each gave off a slightly different sensation.
A hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion… The books kept multiplying infinitely into the sky, though at some point, they stopped giving him any sensations. He knew it was because they had no content… no Records.
"A library of a sage," the First Sage spoke, narrating what the Viper made. “Its contents are not infinite, but it contains infinite space for expansion. The system allowed the role of the scribe, as the blank books are filled with insight upon your demand. You, the sole librarian. With time, omniscience the goal.
"An ambitious desire. Can you truly realize it?"
The old man appeared in front of Jake and Villy. He held out his hand with the palm up, and the Viper reached out. Villy held his own hand in front of the palm of the Sage as he gritted his teeth. Blood began to flow from his eyes, ears, and nose, and a bloody mist seeped out of his body. There was something off with the blood, though.
This entire place was not real—or at least, it wasn’t directly linked to the outside world. The blood seeping out represented something different from physical damage. A sacrifice. An offering. It took Jake a moment to understand, but soon enough, he knew what it was. It was the Records of another skill. Villy was upgrading it, or maybe sacrificing it to get what would eventually become Sagacity.
Jake watched on intently as the blood pooled together and formed a single drop. Then, in the very next moment, the entire library tower that Villy had created began to turn red and melt into blood. The blood pooled together towards the center of the platform they stood on before rising up and merging with the droplet. Finally, even the platform turned into blood and merged with the droplet.
"An offering made, a framework created, an Origin formed… Now claim it," the First Sage said as his own body faded away.
The drop of blood floated forward and entered the forehead of the Viper. The moment it entered his body, the white void around them shattered like it had been made of glass. As the world itself fell apart, Jake tried to understand everything that had happened. He had so many questions, and he hoped to maybe figure out what the hell the First Sage had actually done.
Villy’s body disappeared, disconnecting Jake from him and leaving him to float alone, ready for time to rewind again. He really wanted to once more experience the—
The collapsing world froze. It was as if time itself had stopped, and Jake felt a stream of attention focus on him. In the next moment, the First Sage appeared right in front of Jake and stared straight at him.
"Records not of this time. An Origin that—"
And then Jake was back in his living room.
Chapter 77
Profession = Done
Jake just sat and stared into the wall for a good few seconds, wondering what the actual fuck had just happened. It was as if the vision had been interrupted somehow, or maybe forcefully ended. Or maybe it was always meant to end in this fashion? Though that would also be incredibly odd.
The skill had allowed Jake to do something he thought was impossible. He had experienced a Transcendence, a skill that should be outside the system. Based on what Jake knew, a normal skill like his Path of the Heretic-Chosen should not have allowed this, in the same way that no skill would allow someone to hide from Jake’s Bloodline-made Sphere of Perception.
Yet it had. Maybe it was because Jake experienced Records of the past as they were? Though this experience did make him wonder if it truly was like that. Jake remembered how it had felt like Valdemar had, in some vague way, been aware of him. Meanwhile, this time, the First Sage had one hundred percent been aware.
Did this mean that all the way back in the First Era, these two had actually seen him? If that was the case, didn’t it kind of play into the whole theory of predetermination, as it would mean that the system had known, all the way back in the First Era, that Jake could be born in the 93rd Era and then get a skill to view these Record Fragments?
Or maybe it created a new kind of reality if they noticed, a bit like the simulated world sim-Jake came from… It was hard to tell.
Then there was the entire Transcendence itself. Villy had said the First Sage had several, and this was Jake’s first time seeing one. What it actually did, Jake had no idea, but he reckoned it had something to do with skill creation or modification somehow. If that was the case, it was a damn strong one, especially as it could be used on other people, though it did make Jake question the repercussions of using such a skill. The First Sage had clearly wanted to avoid using it and had said he would only help once, indicating there was a good reason to not overuse this Transcendence.
Though Jake could not argue with the result. Even now, Jake remembered the feelings he’d shared with the Viper. The sheer level of comprehension. He’d felt like every book was at his fingertips, his mind clearer than ever, and only his desire to create the skill had mattered. To call it enlightenment was not quite accurate, as it had felt… different. Like it was more than that.
Jake shook his head as he tried to focus on what he could control and what mattered. Upgrading his Sagacity. While this vision had been the weirdest one he had ever experienced by quite a margin, it had done its job quite efficiently.
Visualizing a skill was not anything new to Jake. He was pretty good at visualizing things. His Soulspace was proof of that, with a massive, cursed chimera monster roaming about. Jake was a very visual person by nature—something his insane Perception should maybe have indicated. Seeing the library that the First Sage had had Villy build made Jake understand far better what Sagacity truly was.
And allowed him to upgrade his own version.
Jake sat down in meditation and got to work on properly condensing all he had learned and all he wanted into the skill. He’d felt right at the cusp even before the vision and was now more sure than ever. In fact, he felt a bit bolder than before.
It still ended up taking nearly a full day for Jake to get what he wanted, but he got it in the end.
[Sagacity of the Malefic Viper (Ancient --> Legendary)] – Blood containing Records, personal teachings, insights from a sage, and the knowledge of a traditional alchemist. Combined, you bring honor to your Patron as you strive for omniscience. Allows the alchemist to extract knowledge from a fragment of the Malefic Viper’s Records to claim his knowledge as your own. Grants the Alchemist of the Malefic Viper a far better understanding of mana and of most affinities. Grants the alchemist knowledge of a myriad of alchemical ingredients, allowing him to far more easily Identify them. Allows the alchemist to make creations he does not have the associated crafting skill for. (Does not receive stat effectiveness bonuses without associated skill). Passively provides 3 Wisdom per level in Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your search for knowledge be as inexhaustible as the Malefic One.
Jake felt like an influx of knowledge slammed into his head the moment everything fell into place. It was like a library—akin to the one Villy had constructed—appeared in his head, reorganizing itself to be more systematic and usable. Almost as if all of Jake’s prior alchemical knowledge had come from a massive pile of books that had now all been sorted and categorized.
This knowledge was also far more than what he’d had before. One had to remember that Jake only really had knowledge of herbs and toxic materials, with the Identify skill also being restricted to these two categories of alchemical ingredients. What would have been the geology, metallurgy, and several more skills were part of Sagacity now.
It was all sorted into this metaphorical library, the books ready to be pulled out whenever Identify found something it corresponded to. It was not like Jake suddenly knew a shitload more about rocks, just that he could now at least pull out the knowledge.
This part of the upgrade was great, even if it was more wide than deep, with Jake not immediately seeing much value from his newfound abilities. He couldn’t exactly use rocks and metal for much with his usual alchemy methods, after all.
However, it did not end there. Herbology and Toxicology were now gone, but both had been intrinsically tied to another skill of his that now also showed signs of evolving.
Identify was a skill that had last evolved when Jake got his profession and thus the Herbology and Toxicology skills. It had not shown signs of upgrading since, which Jake partly recognized was his fault for never truly trying. Now that it showed signs anyway… Jake dove in, still sensing his mind’s focus and clarity from the Sagacity upgrade.
The skill did one thing and one thing only: It allowed Jake to peer into the Records of an entity. It could be protected against, but Jake had found ways to circumvent this protection before using his high Perception, so that was the first thing he thought about. Secondly, Jake had spent over a decade practicing how to sense and thus veil his own Blessing. It made no sense for him to not leverage this.
He thought it would have been harder to upgrade the skill… but surprisingly enough, it took little effort as long as he put his mind to it.
[Identify (Common)] - Identification skill, known by all but the smallest of children of the myriad races. The skill allows you to attempt to identify any object or creature you are focusing on.
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[Identify (Rare)] – An improved version of the standard Identification skill, a skill known by all but the smallest of children of the myriad races. The skill allows you to attempt to identify any object or creature you are focusing on. Allows for the detection of Blessings. The Identity level limit and effectiveness is based on Perception. Cannot Identify any creature above your own grade.
