The Primal Hunter Chapter 1223 - An Act of Grand Consumption

Deep within the Malefic Viper’s form, Jake could sense the internal stomach of Palate beginning to churn. He realized immediately that the Viper’s capacity was leagues beyond his own. While this was expected given the gap between an A-grade and a C-grade, the sheer magnitude of the difference still left Jake feeling stunned.

As time slowed to a crawl, Jake observed the Malefic Viper opening a conduit between the internal stomach and the physical world. This struck Jake as unusual at first, but he quickly deduced that the Viper intended to ingest something in the vicinity, even if Jake’s own senses couldn’t pinpoint a target.

Unlike Jake, the Viper wasn't restricted to holding just one item within his Palate. Several objects radiating immense power were detected by Jake, though the only one he could truly identify was the Eye of the Magus, which the aspiring snake god had already consumed.

While Jake speculated on the Viper’s next move, the answer revealed itself. With the channel wide open, the Viper began to inhale deeply. He wasn't aiming for a specific object; instead, he was devouring the very mana saturating the atmosphere. At first glance, it seemed like an incredibly basic action.

However, as the process continued, Jake saw the complexity beneath the surface. Within the boundary set by the World Leader—now under the control of the Viper’s ally—the future Primordial was consuming every scrap of energy trapped inside, including the lingering remains of the fallen A-grades.

A massive wave of Records flooded into Palate’s stomach in the following instant. Jake was particularly sensitive to these Records now, realizing that the Viper’s true goal was to swallow the concepts hanging in the air.

Whenever powerful entities clashed, they left behind traces: remnants composed of energy and concepts. Usually, this mixture was simply referred to as concepts. Every type of elemental energy possessed inherent concepts, a fact Jake had begun to grasp long ago—such as the way dark mana sought to consume other types or how life mana pushed for growth.

The concept-heavy energy left in the wake of a powerful being's death was far more potent and intricate than the ambient mana found in nature. These concepts could fundamentally alter the world, occasionally spawning new domains that benefited certain monsters, though they more frequently resulted in the corruption of the land.

This was common knowledge to Jake, as was the fact that such leftover energy was generally considered useless to most. While it could eventually create holy grounds where monsters thrived, this only happened after the system slowly filtered and released the energy and Records back into the environment.

Though rare formations or rituals could utilize this lingering power, it was usually ignored. Typically, those who defeated a powerful foe would simply purify the region to ensure no traces of the deceased’s energy remained.

A clear example of this was the ongoing conflict between the Risen and the Holy Church. The death of a powerful undead left behind concepts of death, whereas a fallen member of the Holy Church left behind holy energy. Both sides made it a priority to cleanse any captured territory, as the Holy Church could not thrive in a land saturated with the death affinity.

With this context in mind, Jake watched with curiosity as the Malefic Viper began to feast on the energy of the dead A-grades. As Villy pulled the energy in, Jake understood that the Viper wasn't actually absorbing it in the traditional sense.

All the valuable Records had already been claimed by the Malefic Viper upon the kills, and the Truesouls had vanished long ago. While he was ingesting some soul remnants, what he took in didn't seem particularly useful or powerful.

Yet, as the Viper continued to vacuum up everything, Jake realized there was no attempt to absorb the energy into his own being. He was simply digesting and storing it within the internal space.

The Viper soon finished clearing the area inside the barrier, but Jake sensed his hunger wasn't yet sated. Although he couldn't read the mind of the would-be Primordial, Jake felt a vague sense of the dragon's intent. His eyes widened just as the Viper gave an order to his companion.

“Release the barrier.”

The cloaked individual didn't even show themselves, and Jake detected no specific action, but the barrier suddenly shattered like glass. As expected, every fragment of the barrier was immediately pulled into the A-grade Viper’s maw as he looked down and opened his jaws even wider.

Power surged through his body as Jake felt the Malefic Viper push Palate to an even higher level, widening the scale of the consumption. The world below was affected instantly. To Jake's surprise, the Viper wasn't pulling in physical matter like the dense rock of the crust. He wasn't even focused on mana anymore; he took only the minimum amount required to secure his true prize:

Concepts.

Jake watched in silence as the environment underwent a slow transformation. Below him, the rocks began to lose their hue, and the air itself turned to shades of grey. Like a void draining all life and color, the Malefic Viper pulled everything in, leaving a vacuum behind as the planetary scale of the effect grew.

The range continued to expand until the entire planet was being drained. Jake felt a staggering number of concepts entering the internal stomach. Some were familiar, but the vast majority were far beyond his understanding, especially since he wasn't even attempting to decipher them.

The Viper wasn't trying to understand them either. He continued to store everything while the planet withered. Jake knew that by the time this was over, no life would be able to survive there. To be clear, the Viper wasn't actively killing; Palate lacked true offensive power and could only drain environmental energies. However, by removing everything else, the Malefic Viper left only one thing behind:

Desolation.

In just minutes, the planet had been rendered a wasteland, with no one capable of halting the future snake god. Even the World Core was drained dry, unable to resist the power of an A-grade, particularly after the World Leader had been defeated.

Despite witnessing this, Jake was left with one burning question: why?

Why perform such a massive act of consumption? He had gathered so much useless energy, and he couldn't possibly hope to comprehend all those concepts. Furthermore, most of these concepts were so basic they wouldn't even benefit a D-grade.

It made no sense—until the Malefic Viper finally shut his mouth, ending the feast and beginning the process of digestion.

With his maw closed, the link between the internal stomach and the outside world was cut, allowing the passive functions of the stomach to resume. The first effect was a passive acceleration of time, but it was the second effect that truly gripped Jake’s attention.

Just like Jake’s own version of Palate—before he had accidentally ruined it—the Malefic Viper could utilize Touch to refine his consumed items. However, the Viper wasn't trying to refine the objects directly. Instead, he sought to accelerate and boost a single trait of the natural treasures he had stored:

Their capacity to absorb energy from their surroundings.

Once Jake realized this, the Viper's strategy became clear. The Malefic Viper knew he couldn't use those concepts himself. They were worthless to him, which is why he had no intention of actually absorbing them.

Instead, he had gathered them to create a perfect environment for his treasures to feed and grow. One treasure in particular, the Eye of the Magus, was feasting greedily.

The Malefic Viper had collected Records in the form of concepts used by a dozen elite A-grade mages, and now the Eye of the Magus was drinking them all in to enhance its own power.

The brilliance of the plan was that the Malefic Viper didn't have to do any of the work himself. He wasn't forcing the items to act. He simply let their own system-integrated abilities do the heavy lifting, which removed any danger. Had he tried to manually control the process, he might have corrupted the potent natural treasures, but this method ensured only benefits.

About a minute passed as the Malefic Viper finalized the setup, even isolating the Eye of the Magus slightly so it could claim the best concepts without competition from the other treasures.

Jake understood that most of what had been consumed was indeed garbage. Only a tiny fraction would be useful, while the rest would eventually be expelled or slowly broken down by Palate over time, turning into basic resources for the Viper.

But that was a concern for later. For now, the Malefic Viper faced a long period of digestion as the items slowly absorbed the new nutrients. Jake also saw that if the Viper wanted, he could refine specific items while using the lingering concepts to assist the process, but Jake forced himself to stop following that train of thought.

It was more vital that he focus entirely on how the skill functioned, rather than the potential gains he might see once it was part of his own Cultivation.

As soon as Jake had that thought, time rewound, placing him back at the start of the Malefic Viper’s devouring process. It began exactly as before, with the hooded figure atop the barrier and the Viper speaking:

“Keep the barrier active for now and let it drop at my signal.”

After the figure vanished, Jake only had enough time to confirm the person was definitely male. Setting that trivial thought aside, he focused all his mental energy on understanding Palate. To his surprise, it was remarkably easy.

During the first loop, Jake had already gained a solid grasp of the upgrade’s purpose and mechanics. He suspected this clarity was partly due to his actions right before entering the vision.

Currently, his body and soul were overflowing with concepts and Records. The system had stabilized his mind for the vision, allowing him to process the concepts already within him—at least the ones relevant to this Palate upgrade.

As the second repetition of the vision concluded, Jake felt the skill beginning to take shape within his Soulspace. The Records that had been lost or corrupted were being replaced. The parts of the system the Malefic Viper had broken to save Jake were being reconstructed from scratch using perfect Records.

Midway through the third loop, Jake finally heard the familiar sound of a system notification. He knew he wasn't finished, but he checked the update with a sense of immense relief.

[Palate of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] --> [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)]

The change was minimal. A few lines of the description had shifted, but it was essentially the same Palate Jake had broken before. At that moment, his connection to his internal stomach was restored, allowing him to focus on the true upgrade the vision was leading toward.

Jake had been working on it already, but with Palate fully repaired, he could now commit his entire mind to the task. He watched the Malefic Viper use the skill half a dozen more times, yet he held back on finalizing the upgrade, wanting to absorb every detail possible.

By the seventh loop, Jake felt ready, but he continued to wait. After the ninth, he sensed the vision was nearing its end. When the tenth began, he knew it was his final chance.

For the last time, Jake watched as the Malefic Viper consumed the world and the remnants of the A-grades. In the process, he had also swallowed the concepts of all the weaker inhabitants and various other useless bits of data.

That was the part Jake studied most closely: the filtering and purification of the absorbed material. The Malefic Viper didn't need the curse energy born from so much death. He let the treasures handle most of the filtering but stepped in to eliminate anything that might corrupt them.

Finally, aided by the concepts flooding his being, Jake succeeded in consolidating everything as the tenth loop drew to a close. With a focused mind, he confirmed the upgrade.

[Palate of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] --> [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Mythical)]

He didn't stop to read the new description immediately, as the vision hadn't ended. Jake expected an experience similar to his time in Valdemar’s vision—that the scene would continue a little longer rather than simply repeating.

He also suspected that this was considered a High-Record fragment because of the hooded figure’s presence, or perhaps because the Eye of the Magus was more significant than he realized. Either way, he was desperate to see the stranger's face.

The Malefic Viper wasn't known for being trusting, so seeing who had earned the future Primordial’s confidence was intriguing.

Just as Jake anticipated, time didn't reset. The Viper floated high above the ruined planet, no longer paying it any mind. Magic swirled around him as he used Polymorph to return to his humanoid form.

Villy was breathing heavily; the process had clearly been exhausting. The Malefic Viper turned his head, and the robed figure teleported exactly into his line of sight.

“Well, that was about as smooth as we could hope for,” the Viper remarked to his ally.

“It was,” the figure replied in a raspy, metallic tone. He raised his hands and pulled back his hood, finally showing his face.

Jake didn't recognize the race at all. He couldn't tell if it was a monster or an enlightened being; it was unlike anything he’d ever seen. The figure was humanoid, and if Jake had to pick a comparison, human was the closest, but the man was much more… mechanical.

His lower jaw was crafted from silver metal, his eyes were robotic, and his head was hairless, dotted with small ports. He lacked ears, having metal plates on the sides of his head instead. When he had moved his hand, Jake noticed he didn't have fingers, but a strange, shifting fluid metal where a hand should be.

Instead of a human, he looked like a cyborg from a science fiction movie—a fusion of tech and biology. For a moment, Jake wondered if he was an automaton, though that didn't feel quite right despite the similarities.

“I assume our agreement remains in effect,” the mechanical man said.

“Naturally,” the future Primordial replied with a nod. “I’ll take my share of the benefits and help strengthen the Eye of the Magus, then we can finish the trade.”

“Excellent,” the metal humanoid said, his face remaining expressionless. “We will remember your help and hope our alliance continues to prosper.”

“Don't mention it,” the Viper said, smiling casually. “Actually, I should be the one thanking you. Who wouldn't want to be on good terms with the most powerful faction in the universe?”