The Primal Hunter

Chapter 971: The Cost of Saving A Friend

The Viper said there would be pain… and that had definitely been an understatement.

Jake was usually very good at dealing with pain. Most C-grades would find themselves unaffected by pain when wounded and just soldier through. To Jake, pain was just another point of feedback informing him what his next action should be, not much different from all his other senses.

However, what Jake felt when the Viper got to work was different. It was unlike any kind of pain Jake had ever felt before, counting both bodily harm and soul damage. This type of pain wasn’t just informing him of damage taken but of something far more… existential.

Like what was causing his pain could truly erase him entirely in both body and soul.

The Viper had barely gotten started as his body erupted with power, putting pressure on Jake’s very being.

“Small note: don’t try to fight back; it will only make my job harder and the end result worse and far more painful. Be advised some things might break during this process,” the Viper spoke, seemingly not even purposefully infusing his voice with energy.

Jake did as he said, despite every fiber of his being screaming at him to escape the situation. But there was no escape, as he could only grit his teeth. What he felt besides the pain, Jake couldn’t comprehend at all either.

Villy lifted a hand, and all Jake saw was a dark green color that made no sense to him. Instinctively, he knew this was made of pure Records, and as the Viper looked at it, he sighed. “You really did a number on yourself.”

Parts of the Malefic Viper’s form began turning into wisps of light that merged with the summoned mass of Records, as something was clearly happening. Jake felt everything so vividly mixing with the pain that muddled his mind, yet he couldn’t help but try and understand, and he knew the Viper was making it this visual for his sake.

Time slowly passed, as the Viper’s body kept disappearing, his entire lower half soon done, leaving only his upper body above his stomach, with one side also entirely faded, leaving mostly a head, a shoulder, and a single arm.

“Fuck me, this is even worse than it looks,” the Viper muttered. “And get those thoughts out of your head, I‘m also learning here. This is uncharted territory, but unlike you, I have the actual ability, skill, and knowledge to back up my actions.”

Jake wasn’t saying anything as the Viper lifted his one remaining arm toward the sky of Jake’s Soulshape.

“You better be grateful, for no other god would go this far for their Chosen,” the Malefic Viper said, looking up. His mouth opened, and Jake only had time to hear a single word. “Malefic-“

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…

Jake blinked, the pain gone. In front of his eyes, an ocean of warnings and redacted messages, and a feeling that only let him know that some time had just passed. Time he had no memory of. Staring, he saw the form of the Malefic Viper standing there, nearly fully tangible, as he turned to Jake.

“There. Patched you up best anyone in the damn multiverse could. Even went a bit above and beyond and was nice enough to preserve that broken half of a Planetary Core you had in there. Despite sealing the stomach, you should still benefit from that thing, at least, though really fucking slowly. The good news is, you have a potentially infinite amount of time to fully absorb it because you sure as hell can’t take anything in and out with how it is now. As for the rest of the effects of Palate, they should stay the same. Oh, and for the soul damage, that’s up to you to deal with; I think I’ve done enough,” the Viper said, his form already beginning to fade away.

Without being told, Jake knew he had done more than he first promised.

“Thank you,” Jake muttered. “But… what happened there? What did you do?”

“I told you already, I went above and beyond. Tried to use what you had given me to get the job done, but it wasn’t enough, so I needed a little extra. System didn’t like that, but oh well, what’s done is done,” the snake god smiled.

Jake kept feeling the area within his own Soulspace as he just clenched his fists and nodded. “Again… thank you. I would have been royally fucked without your clutch save.”

“Ya sure would have. So better pay me back in spades and turn this piece of charity work into a brilliant investment,” Villy said jokingly, shaking his head. “I should stop dilly-dallying. Good luck with the system event, and have fun recovering. Oh, and remember to thank the healer who kept you alive during all this. Without him, you would have been fucked even with my assistance.”

With those words, the form of the Malefic Viper faded away, leaving Jake alone back in his Soulspace. Above, the sky was still cracked in many places, and the ground had several fissures. The drop of blood left by the Viper remained unaffected by everything that had happened, and despite Jake’s fears, Eternal Hunger was also fine and was already waking up after the Viper’s departure.

However, right now, Jake couldn’t really think about anything but the lingering feeling left behind by the Malefic Viper within his Soulspace. It felt different from anything he had ever felt before from the Viper. More… powerful? Unfathomable? Jake wasn’t sure how to classify it, but it certainly felt “more.”

That… wasn’t that really unsettled Jake, though. It wasn’t why Jake hadn’t even tried asking more questions but just thanked the Viper. It was something else in the lingering presence. A unique kind of signature Jake recognized from the Sword Saint, and not a single shadow of doubt remained in Jake’s mind:

The Viper had used a Transcendent skill.

It explained why Jake couldn’t remember what had happened. It explained the warnings from the system. He only now realized that to fix Jake’s mistake using powers considered “outside” the system, the Viper needed to do the same.

Gritting his teeth, Jake slammed his fist on the ground of the Soulspace despite the pain it shot through his body.

Fuck.

Jake knew… one didn’t just use a Transcendent skill. It came with a cost. It potentially had a permanent cost, and even if it wasn't, it still dealt a lot of harm. For the Viper to use it to save Jake, he would have had to lose something in return, and all because Jake had been a moron who had to be stupidly arrogant one too many times.

One thing was more certain now than ever before… Jake owed Villy even more now than ever before, and the next round of beers was definitely on him.

It seemed to happen in an instant. Eron had continued to battle with the desolation despite the utterly suppressing aura that pressed him down and actively dealt damage to his soul throughout it all. The task had been far from easy, but Eron couldn’t take any risks.

Even the biggest fool would realize something had gone catastrophically wrong. The spark that represented the hunter’s soul flickered, weakened, and began to look far more unstable as it was replaced and consumed by the green inferno. Then, the green flames had stopped actively devouring Jake’s soul, but the damage was already done.

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Eron genuinely wasn’t sure Jake would make it until suddenly, the desolation stopped coming. Not long after, the presence also disappeared, and all Eron had to do was heal Jake’s body of any residual damage.

However, things weren’t fine. Despite the green flames dispersing and stability returning to the spark, it was still damaged. Severely so. From the look on Jake’s face when he finally opened his eyes, it was clear he also realized this.

Jake couldn’t wallow for too long. He had to keep moving despite feeling pain all over and having a killer headache. Before he even fully opened his eyes and turned his attention to the outside world, he gathered himself a little. He would have to reflect a lot on what had happened, and there were a few things he had to address.

One of which was perhaps the least important… but despite how utterly shitty everything had gone, Jake had still ultimately upgraded his Scales of the Malefic Viper, which had come with a few levels. To see them, he did have to scroll by a bit over a thousand warning messages, though, some of which had been caused by Jake, but the majority due to whatever the Viper had done.

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 279 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 280 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 288 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

Usually, Jake would have celebrated that he had unlocked another use of Path of the Heretic-Chosen and was ever closer to level 300, where he would have his suspected meeting with the First Sage… but he wasn’t exactly in the mood for any kind of celebration.

After taking stock of his body and his thoroughly damaged soul, Jake finally opened his eyes and saw Eron standing there, looking down at him. The man looked haggard in his own right, his clothes mostly destroyed despite being powerful equipment.

“Thanks for the help,” Jake said as he gave Eron a nod, genuinely grateful. As Villy had said, without him there, Jake wasn’t sure how any of this would have turned out.

“It’s my pleasure, genuinely, and I believe this a mutually beneficial situation. Experiencing desolation in C-grade was very valuable, and I made some good progress. One skill upgrade and three levels, in part due to said skill upgrade, which I myself view as quite the gains,” the healer said with a satisfied smile.

“Glad at least one of us came out of this better than we went in,” Jake said with a small smile, trying to press down the pain. “I will admit, I wasn’t even sure you would show. I kind of assumed desolation wouldn’t mesh well with your Path and be one of the most dangerous concepts to you.”

“Oh, that assessment is entirely accurate,” Eron nodded. “Desolation would be unbelievably dangerous to encounter, but not in this passive form. In this form, all you need to beat it is a superior quantity of energy. However, if it’s controlled it’s a whole other beast, incomparable to the passive influence of desolation. Seeing and experiencing the concept like this is still a valuable experience I wouldn’t do without, though. It allows me to consider countermeasures should I reencounter it, even if that encounter is in its controlled form.”

Jake nodded in understanding as he knew what Eron meant. One could compare it to fighting against all the water in the ocean. If it was just there, one could easily work on evaporating and get rid of it over time, with the only real threat the water held being its innate concept to crush you should you go too deep. However, if you faced a water mage able to control just a lake of water to actively try and kill you, it would be far more dangerous than even the entire passive ocean.

“Rather than worry about me, you should assess yourself more closely,” Eron said in a slightly scolding tone. “Your soul is damaged severely. From my diagnosis, it does not look like your stats are outright affected. However, the resource pools tend to be the first to suffer and weaken… and so are yours.”

“I know,” Jake sighed. He had already seen it before. The sad state of that part of his status menu, reflecting the damage he had suffering.

Status

Health Points (HP): 141,365/153,099 (206,470)

Mana Points (MP): 3981/198,367 (442,484)

Stamina: 9203/185,041 (222,170)

--

Ignoring the fact his resource pools were nearly empty, the maximum pools had been reduced. Stamina and health both only by around 20% or so – with stamina a bit less affected. However, his mana was fucked. His maximum mana pool had been more than cut in half from the soul damage.

While this did look really fucking bad, it was honestly the best outcome from such a bad situation. As Eron put it:

“The damage does seem limited to there. I do not know how familiar you are with this kind of soul damage, but I would compare it to experiencing frostbite. Like the human body, the soul will always seek to protect its life, and the outer extremities will be the first to go, which, in the instance of the soul, are the resource pools. Contrary to the physical body, where often an amputation would be required, the resource pools are also the part of the soul most easily recovered should the soul damage be significant enough to cause any semi-permanent damage,” Eron gladly explained, Jake not interrupting despite already knowing these things from his own prior research.

He did recognize that Eron probably had a good idea of his situation, which also made him ask:

“Will it heal on its own?”

Despite the resource pools being the easiest part to recover didn’t mean recovery was a given. There were many instances where it ended up requiring certain natural treasures or other sources of external support.

Eron took a moment as he looked deeply at Jake, staring at something clearly only he could see before answering. “Yes. The fashion in which your soul was damaged is frighteningly controlled. As if your soul was a sculpture smashed into a million pieces, then put together perfectly once more. Of course, putting the sculpture together does not make it whole. Only time will be the glue that fully fuses everything back together.”

Jake smiled lightly at Eron’s answer and explanation. Villy had really been as nice as possible with what he had to do to save Jake, which only made Jake feel even more guilty over what kind of consequences the god was facing over having gone so far.

Vilastromoz sighed as his projection disappeared from within Jake’s Soulspace. Still with him back in the Order, the Autarch from the Altmar Empire had a serious look on his face as he looked at the Viper.

“I’m not going to ask you what happened, but it must have been more than just a Chosen doing something questionable if you had to use that.”

The Viper gave a tired smile. “Thank you for your understanding... and I hope it’s fine if we end our meeting here.”

“Naturally,” the Autarch nodded as he got up. “If you need any items or any other form of assistance…”

“I will be fine,” Vilastromoz waved him off. “Thank you for the concern, though.”

“Of course,” the elf said as he disappeared, teleporting away. Always the polite sort that one.

Vilastromoz sighed as he also disappeared with his summoned body and entered his divine realm.

The reason why the Autarch had left was simple… he knew the Viper had just used a Transcendent skill and what that meant.

Every Transcendence had a cost when used. If Eversmile used Karmic Annihilation on someone, it would also affect himself, making Eversmile unaware of nothing more than the fact he had used the skill. Not who he had used it on or why, just that it had been used.

Jake’s Transcendent human friend would lose levels and had to painstakingly regain those if he used his full Transcendence. Others the Viper knew about required one to offer incredibly powerful items in exchange. Some forcefully would downgrade skills or even make you lose skills entirely. Permanent or temporary loss of stats was also a very common cost.

The point was no one would ever use their Transcendent skills lightly due to the associated cost that went far above just spending some mana or stamina. It was a significant moment when it was used, especially by a Primordial, where any kind of even semi-permanent loss was massive. Even those that weren’t as bad as the fully permanent ones would often take innumerable years to make up for and would set you back significantly… especially because there would always be a cost in Records when using one, no matter what.

This was all common knowledge, and the Viper knew that Jake also knew this. Perhaps knowing he had forced the Viper to use his Transcendent skill should help really hammer home the stupidity of his actions and help him in the future.

To clarify, Vilastromoz did have to use it and hadn’t just done it to show off or teach Jake a lesson. He really didn’t have any other choice unless he wanted to leave Jake in a really shitty state.

The Transcendent skill the Malefic Viper had used naturally also had a cost. A truly horrific one… at least, that’s what most would believe.

“Man, I do feel bad about lying to an old pal like that, but oh well, gotta keep up appearances,” the Viper smiled, chuckling within his divine realm. It wasn’t like he was going to spill the beans now, as that would likely lead to some annoying people hassling him.

Because the Viper had a little secret. One he had never shared with a single soul in the entire multiverse. Not his wife, not Jake, not any Primordial, and he never intended to share it either. Some secrets were simply meant to be kept under wraps for eternity.

It was true that his Transcendent skill had a very steep and grueling cost that was often seen as one of the very worst consequences possible. Whenever he used the skill, he would lose memories, and memories tended to be the most heavily associated with Records, making it a significant permanent loss that couldn’t simply be made up for.

Except… the Viper couldn’t lose memories. He had the Bloodline of the Immortal Mind. He was unable to forget.

Yet his Transcendence made him pay in memories… which he couldn’t.

The end result?

A completely consequence-free Transcendent skill. All by design, as the Viper had made his Transcendent skill first and done all he could to assure this would be the cost, all with the aim of later obtaining the Bloodline of the First Sage.

There was a reason the Viper was known as a good schemer, and quite a few had even called him a scam artist throughout the ages… a badge he gladly wore with honor. For, truly, what greater honor was there for a scammer but to scam the very universe and system itself?