The Primal Hunter

To be stealthy.

An ancient art learned by many teenagers with wary parents and creaky floorboards to remain undetected as they were up to no good. That, or because they just needed to go to the bathroom really late in the night and didn’t want to wake anyone up.

However, this was but one part of the stealth: the art of avoiding sound. Others were stealthy by melding into the environment through camouflage or even found ways to hide their heat signatures or other traces of their existence.

There were countless methods in the multiverse to remain undetected, with Jake’s current method akin to being able to summon a fake boulder he could hide within, which also helped mask his presence and energy. It was far from perfect, and moving around while using it wasn’t advised, but so far, it had kind of gotten the job done.

However, now, it was high time to improve it, and he may as well learn from the best while doing so.

In the multiverse, Jake knew of two beings who had reached the ultimate peak of stealthiness. One of them was naturally Umbra, the leader of the Court of Shadows. Her ability to remain undetected until the moment she decided to strike was unparalleled as she could hide within the shadows themselves only to emerge when she so desired. Her form of stealth was the most classical sort, but there was one person in the multiverse who surpassed her when it came to remaining undetected.

Because another branch of stealth was one where you could be seen, but no one truly noticed you. Where you could stand next to your target on the street without them looking twice your way. The being who had reached the apex of this was, needless to say, Eversmile, the ultimate shapeshifter. He could take any form and become anyone or anything he wanted. His form wasn’t just limited to people, as far as Jake had been told, but he could even mimic objects or non-humanoid races.

So, if one apex emerged out of nowhere, the other emerged from right next to you unexpectedly. These two methods were often recognized as the main branches: obscuration and blending in. Jake was currently doing a bit of both – which most stealth methods did – but he did both kind of poorly.

Jake wanted to still do a bit of both with his improved method, primarily because he wanted to try and learn what Artemis had talked about. At least he wanted to integrate concepts of what she explained, even if it was pretty damn complicated. He did have their entire discussion committed to memory, though, as he recalled what she said during what Jake would call a great discussion on progression methods, while others would probably define it as pillow talk.

“My method of stealth is a lot more simple than what you described,” Artemis had explained. “The Path of the Hunter is naturally intertwined with the world around us. It is one of the most natural Paths to anyone in the system, and anyone who fights and kills partly steps into the Path of the Hunter at least a few times in their lives. Hunters are merely the name we use instead of predators for those of the enlightened races, and many civilizations even call those who fight monsters hunters by default, no matter what weapon or form of combat they use.”

The basis for the entire stealth method Artemis used was to be a natural hunter. A part of an ecosystem. At least, that is the mentality Artemis had when she first learned and improved the skill.

“My form of stealth leans into becoming one with the environment in a more literal sense. Feel the natural mana around you, feel the presence of the world itself, and breathe it in. Let it fill you and become one with everything. Perceive the world as you let it perceive you, and through that, you will know how to hide at the end of Perception. Seek the very edge of where you recognize your own form within the world and obscure what little remains of you that remain as you blend in. If you do this, you will be able to move without hesitation and act entirely normal, as you will simply disappear from everyone’s spectrum of what they perceive. You will never be perfect in this; no one is, but if they cannot perceive the world as well as you do, finding you will prove difficult. Well, unless they have a cheat-like Bloodline,” Artemis had further elaborated.

Jake had probed further and had kind of formed his own interpretation using more pre-system terms. Jake would liken this kind of method to changing how you appear on the color spectrum. The human eye, before the system, was unable to see things like ultraviolet light but had a limited spectrum. The same was true for what one could hear, and Jake wouldn’t be surprised if the same had been true for smells and pretty much everything else.

With the system, the spectrum had expanded. Magical elements were introduced; one could see and feel mana, and Jake could see things he never would have been able to before. With his Perception alone, he could easily peer through things like naturally-formed mist or clouds despite it being completely impossible to see through before the system, and with time, he knew he would even be able to see through things like non-magically reinforced walls.

Where this spectrum being expanded truly mattered was in the realm of concepts. It was one of the reasons why someone like Arnold also had Perception as his highest stat, as it allowed him to perceive things others couldn’t. Jake was the same, and as an example, he had only recognized and gained his arcane affinity because his growing Perception allowed him to notice it.

This spectrum continued to expand even now, and while Perception was far from the only criterion to “see” concepts and become able to understand them, it was definitely an essential factor. Not to say everyone needed it to reach the peak, as someone like the Sword Saint was so in tune with the concepts that mattered to him, it wasn’t as much about perceiving them as it was simply “living” them, if that made sense.

All of this is to say that Perception allowed you to detect and see more on the spectrum of the world. This spectrum was eternally expanding without any end. Jake’s Bloodline allowed him to see everything within the physical spectrum with his Sphere, and as it existed outside of the system, it wasn’t limited. Of course, it wasn’t entirely accurate to say that he saw everything as if he actually could; his brain would explode from perceiving concepts even Primordials couldn’t comprehend. It was more right to say he saw everything he already knew could exist, with perhaps a bit more shown here and there.

Also… upon reflection, what had happened in the final moments of Jake fighting Valdemar probably included expanding this spectrum far more than he could usually handle, which was also why Jake couldn’t remember everything he had felt back then anymore. He had touched upon things that simply didn’t exist to him yet.

Anyway, to get back on the topic of creating a stealth skill, the method Artemis used was to “see” yourself on this spectrum of the world and then become one with it. To move yourself on the spectrum from where even a level 0 could see you to somewhere no one would know you were there, even if you stood right next to and breathed them down the neck. Simply because they wouldn’t be capable of registering you even existed. Jake would liken it to himself from the visual spectrum of light into the ultraviolet in pre-system terms and move every sound he made into the ultrasonic, with the same being done for every other trace of his existence.

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Of course, this was Artemis’ method, and Jake had the feeling he wouldn’t be able to replicate something like this perfectly. In fact, he was pretty damn sure he wouldn’t be able to, as that sounded like at least a Mythical C-grade skill that would effectively make Jake entirely undetectable to anyone who had less Perception than himself.

What’s more, Artemis said that her stealth skill even worked in combat to help keep her hidden, even if the effect was lessened while fighting due to how much energy one had to give off that inadvertently disrupted and warped the natural world around her. Not that it mattered, as this was definitely out of Jake’s realm of possibility.

However, he did believe he could move himself in the physical realm of Perception. He had plenty of experience observing that, after all, and could even make use of some of what he learned from his Bloodline. As for the rest of the stealth capabilities? That would have to be mimicked using other means. Primarily, his arcane energy, where he already had some good ideas and a stealth skill already with that ability.

It had to be reiterated once more that Jake had thought about how to improve his stealth for a long time and just never got the opportunity. That is where all his ideas for using arcane energy came from. Artemis had just given him even more good ideas to put on top, and now, in this House of the Architect, Jake would throw them all together.

What’s more, he wanted to build a skill that could serve as a foundation for more upgrades. One that he could potentially even train on together with Artemis if they ever got the chance to further improve it.

This is how Jake’s next period of intense practice began. He would spend his time working on the stealth skill at the House or doing practical testing while also completing some Merit Point Missions, which would fund his Grimoire experimentation once a month or so. In between, he would sometimes help out Temlat and make sure he was also making progress.

After only the first two weeks, Jake already had his first little bit of progress as he implemented some improvements to the stealth skill he had long been considering, which resulted in a nice little notification.

*Skill Upgraded*: [Arcane Stealth (Rare)] --> [Improved Arcane Stealth (Rare)]

It was small and nice indeed. The skill stayed within the same rarity, which indicated it had been a pretty low-level C-grade rare skill after Jake evolved. Which made sense, considering the skill had avoided getting downgraded a rank after he evolved. This upgrade had brought it back to be considered a pretty good C-grade rare skill, but it was naturally far from enough. All Jake had really done was tighten up what the skill already did and improve all aspects of it using all he had learned since he made the skill while still in D-grade.

Only another one and a half months later, Jake had failed another two Grimoire crafts – primarily because he wanted a good one and felt both wouldn’t turn out well – but had also made plenty of progress when it came to improving his stealth skill.

He infused more stability into the mana constructs around him, making him appear more like a physical thing and not a person than ever before. When he stood still, he became nearly indiscernible from his surroundings when he camouflaged the mana around him, and even if he moved and used energy within this construct, it couldn’t be detected on the outside. It became as if he had placed a dome around himself, hiding him away from the world. The concept of Jake’s original Arcane Stealth skill had been taken to an extreme, and the system recognized it.

*Skill Upgraded*: [Improved Arcane Stealth (Rare)] --> [Supreme Arcane Stealth (Epic)]

Now, this is where the truly hard part began. Jake’s newly acquired Supreme Arcane Stealth was a good skill in its own right, but it had severe drawbacks. First of all, he couldn’t really move when it was fully activated. He had to maintain the construct around him to stay hidden, and if he did move, it would look as if some big rock or something was gliding around.

This led to another problem: the skill could only really be used in places where there were other things to mimic. He could use it on an open field and try to just make it entirely transparent, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well as, say, within a forest. Plus, he would still have the problem of being unable to move around, as even if it was transparent, it would still affect the world around him and leave faint distortion.

To conclude, Jake’s original upgrade path for Arcane Stealth was severely limited by design. It was essentially a ”camping” skill for Jake to sit still and wait for his moment to attack while even hiding him when he charged up his often devastating opening strike.

It did this extremely well, but its limitations did mean getting it above epic rarity wasn’t likely. This is where the concepts Artemis spoke of came in.

Jake simply wasn’t skilled enough to “move” everything on the spectrum of Perception like Artemis talked about. However, he was confident in moving himself when it came purely to the visual realm. He kind of already did something similar when he made his arcane construct invisible, as concepts would bleed through, but this time, he wanted to do it fully.

This in itself would usually not result in a good stealth skill. Hiding from sight was, in general, not considered super difficult; the truly hard part was hiding everything else. Your energy signature, presence, mana, internal energy you gave off, traces you leave behind, and so forth.

However, for Jake in particular, he was confident in sealing in those things. That is what his entire Arcane Stealth path was all about, after all.

His plan was to merge these two concepts. On the one hand, he would make himself one with the world when it came to the visual realm, and on the other, he would hide everything about himself using his stable arcane energy that didn’t exist in the physical realm.

This was not as good of a technique as what Artemis talked about, as Jake wouldn’t truly ”make himself one with the world” as she talked about, where everything that was ”Jake” would merge with the environment. Even so, it would allow Jake to do things he couldn’t before. It would allow him to move around even while using his stealth skill, and sneak to a better position to attack from.

Jake wanted to retain the functionality of effectively creating a camping dome when he wanted to attack, as it was very difficult to hide the level of energy he gave off otherwise. This did mean that Jake couldn’t use skills that required too much energy while using the stealth skill he wanted to make, but that was a sacrifice he had to make. He wasn’t going for perfection the first time around, after all.

Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. Jake was getting close with his Grimoire project but still wasn’t satisfied and purposefully failed every craft so far, even if he could have succeeded. In the stealth department, things were also moving along, but this final step on the upgrade path was by far the hardest, as Jake had to integrate a new and pretty high-level concept. There was progress, though.

One day, Jake was meditating on a bed in one of the many rooms in the lab area as he worked on his stealth skill. He breathed deeply as he tried to mimic his environment and ”move” himself on the spectrum as he had done many times before. Once more, he felt a faint shift, and opening his eyes, things appeared distorted for a fraction of a moment until everything returned to normal once more. Jake kept focusing as he tried to remember this feeling, not even knowing if he had succeeded with anything that mattered.

Just then, a figure peeked into the room. Temlat walked by the door with a book as he looked in, and Jake was just about to greet him when his student frowned. He looked around and seemed to focus a bit on where Jake was sitting as he muttered. ”Weird, I’m sure Lord Thayne was in here…”

Right as he turned around to leave, Jake spoke up: ”I am here.”

When he did, Temlat whipped his head and looked straight at Jake, clearly capable of seeing him. Alright, when I announce myself like this, the effect drops as others become aware of my existence… got it.

”Lord Thayne, did you just arrive, or?” Temlat asked, confused.

”Just working on something,” Jake smiled. ”Can you tell me, when you entered the room, did you know I was here?”

”I felt your presence, but I couldn’t see you, so I just figured you had just left,” Temlat answered honestly. ”Am I interrupting? I can come back later.”

”No, it’s fine, I think I am ready to move on to the next step of my experiment. Now, did you have a question?”

As he looked at his student, he got a nice idea. Wouldn’t his little student be the perfect test subject for Jake while he improved? You know, sneak around and see if Temlat could find him and try to mess with him a bit… purely for research purposes, of course. Definitely not something Jake would ever take pleasure in.