The Primal Hunter Chapter 1271 - Primal Hunter's Spirit of Man

What makes something truly overpowered in the vast multiverse? Everything boils down to perspective. A legendary skill of Jake's might seem insanely powerful to someone who barely managed to reach C-grade by luck, but figures like Carmen or the Sword Saint would view those same abilities as merely solid. For Jake himself, not even the mythical skills he'd acquired struck him as overpowered.

Awesome beyond measure and truly impressive? Absolutely, yet far from overpowered. Maybe the sole things Jake deemed overpowered in his existence were his Bloodline, which he couldn't help but measure against Transcendent Skills and rival Bloodlines rather than ordinary ones.

Valdemar's bizarre Fighting Spirit clearly counted as overpowered, though Jake figured that most Primordials and mighty gods possessed abilities that would strike him as utterly absurd. Naturally, the most broken and overpowered deity of all wasn't a Primordial—it was Minaga with his endless clones. Even the system acknowledged that skill's overwhelming nature by layering it with countless restrictions for the Unique Lifeform.

Considering just mortals and those near him, Jake viewed the Sword Saint's Springtime Advent as overpowered. This ability let him surge in strength dramatically, and that was merely one facet, judging by Jake's knowledge.

As for Bloodlines, Ell’Hakan's stood out, enabling his transformation right at the fight's climax. That one was undeniably overpowered, yet it paled next to Jake's own Bloodline.

Still, the ultimate overpowered being in Jake's mind wasn't a god. It wasn't some top-tier mortal by multiverse norms either. Despite everything Jake had witnessed or endured, no entity rivaled the First Sage, a figure brimming with boundless methods.

Comparing the First Sage to anything else just felt off, since that individual was an outlier among outliers, someone Jake preferred to exclude from all such evaluations.

Yet, as mentioned, overpowered status hinges entirely on relativity, so assessing his fresh Spirit of Man skill meant stacking it against other variants of the same. Jake had studied hundreds of documented types, and he could declare without doubt that the one bestowed upon him...

Yeah, it was fucking overpowered.

Its immense length alone marked it as the most feature-stuffed skill Jake had encountered, surpassing even the absurdly detailed Legacy skills from the Malefic Viper. Had it been mere padding, Jake might not have been so struck, but quite the contrary—it crammed in far too many potent effects to seem logical.

Right from the start, the introductory description highlighted how this skill encompassed more elements of Human Spirit abilities than typical ones, a fact evident in the initial effect: boosted experience gains. Straightforward like that, without prerequisites unlike the ones Jake glimpsed before the system glitched. To top it off, he earned extra experience from hunting or profession tasks—activities that dominated his routine. Plus, collaborating with fellow humans amplified it further.

This single effect alone proved the skill fused numerous variants, possibly every single one, excluding those labeled "unbeneficial for his Path" in the description.

Following that came the core human trait of enhanced Record transmission, now upgraded. Once again, a simple boost, unbound even to humans alone. What propelled this into outright madness, if it hadn't already, was the subsequent line:

This... was insane. Jake struggled to grasp its mechanics. He recalled a leadership-focused Spirit of Man that boosted experience for direct underlings. He figured Miranda might choose something similar, but what stared back at him was wholly distinct.

The sheer list of conditions was ridiculous, with no mention of range limits. Jake's hunch was that it blended multiple leadership Spirit of Man skills aiding various groups' experience, dumping them all into his version.

For an instant, Jake pondered if the "or" at the end meant stacking benefits for multiple matches or additive experience buffs, but the skill's innate understanding assured him otherwise. Incidentally, his own experience boosts did layer with each other, as distinct effects.

Even if it stopped at Record sharing, experience giving and receiving—plus the stats yet to come—it would rank as the top Spirit of Man skill Jake knew... but the Primal Hunter's version offered vastly more.

It also shielded Jake from all environmental hazards. Normally, such skills targeted specific threats tied to their theme—like elements for some, space or time for others—but Jake's bundled them all together.

Ridiculous once more, yet it didn't eclipse the following section:

Jake was aware of various Spirit of Man skills that heightened damage resistance via different triggers, often suiting tankier types. This went beyond that, hinting at its root in the skill's very Origin for resistance drawn from other humans' Records above B-grade. It might even pull from historical figures... not that it changed much. With countless humans around, any assault type had likely been faced by some.

Regarding the resistance amount... Jake couldn't pinpoint it from the intuitive insight, but it seemed modest. Still, any edge strengthened him, especially from a race skill he'd anticipated little from. And surprisingly, another powerhouse effect emerged that Jake hadn't imagined:

Such a feature hadn't crossed Jake's mind. One book described a similar Spirit of Man effect, though the writer dismissed it as dubious without corroboration. Jake had doubted outright rejection, given vague mentions elsewhere of unverified instances, but he'd never anticipated it, since recipients of comparable skills led... unusual lives.

Jake viewed constant nudity enthusiasts as pretty unconventional by his measure. Indeed, the only cases he'd heard involved nudists, with the system endorsing their path via a tailored Spirit of Man to offset gear-less stat losses.

Typically, such a skill wouldn't shine, since hitting the stat cap with equipment wasn't tough. Many overcapped deliberately, banking stats for level-ups to claim them later.

The key outlier was high-base-stat folks like Jake. With equipment caps as a total stat percentage, he required superior gear to max out, possibly full mythical sets near C-grade's end—seemingly unattainable... though likely not.

Relying solely on Malefic Viper Chosen perks, Jake could snag complete sets every ten levels to stay capped, but he rejected that. He preferred earning gear somewhat, sourcing most from Arnold.

This left his equipment subpar to potential, shorting him on stats. By late C-grade, he'd miss roughly 30,000 stats from gear versus his near-400,000 total—not trivial. Calculations grew complex, factoring his Administrator’s Seal ring, and equipment stats interacted differently with skills than innate ones.

Now, equipment stats ceased to worry Jake, at least for raw numbers. To clarify, he still craved quality gear for defenses, like how his Umbral Cloak aided him repeatedly, or those multiverse-best boots.

It simply freed him to prioritize gear with unique effects over stat dumps. Stats on items remained inevitable, and no longer a drawback, easing his passive stamina drain for basic vitality.

...wait, disregard that. Probing his stamina use, Jake couldn't discern if the uptick stemmed from B-grade alone or the Primal Hunter’s Spirit of Man. The added cost existed but felt negligible, barely worth noting. Perhaps boosting skills would highlight it more, but time would reveal.

At last, Jake reached the skill's stat section, arguably its mildest aspect. His version outdid others, granting all nine stats versus their six, but it wasn't wildly skewed. Jake stayed a blatant cheater, sure, yet against the skill's other absurdities, this felt downright modest.

This stemmed from the no-overlap rule for Spirit of Man stats. Even his Bloodline-enhanced take abided by it. Probably wise—Jake dreaded the explosion if all merged stats hit at once, his soul overwhelmed.

Or perhaps the system would adjust. Regardless, Jake had zero grounds to gripe after landing this ludicrously potent skill. It delivered +2505 to all stats immediately, plus his percentage multipliers. The non-round 2500 irked slightly, but level 350 in B-grade yielded +15 instead of +10.

Shaking his head, Jake drifted in the void briefly, the system pausing before resuming. He'd felt let down by his variant race's lack of flair beyond skipping Race Evolution Quests, but now it delivered massively. The skill was so stellar, Villy would demand he keep mum about it to all.

That thought sparked another: Jake had dreaded variant exposure via Identify or similar, alerting gods to his non-standard humanity and sparking chaos.

With this unalarming skill, he'd snagged elite human race perks minus risks. Sure, odd effects might draw notice, but explanations abounded over him being a multiverse-first superior variant.

Jake mulled the skill further, yet pushed ahead, sensing the system's push to wrap the evolution. He'd scarcely begun this phase, with much ahead, and truthfully, he wasn't eager for more shocks like the Primal Hunter’s Spirit of Man.

Unless they matched this skill's brilliance, then Jake would graciously welcome extras.

--

In a cozy private bar, a god couple lounged, the man clutching a mug, the woman nursing a half-drunk wine bottle. They nestled close, savoring each other's presence amid chats on multiverse events.

“This batch holds plenty of prime talents, and no faction should dismiss us lightly,” the woman remarked smilingly to her companion.

“Aye,” the man agreed, downing his mug in one go before adding, “Still, we missed some targets.”

“Opportunity lingers; otherwise, solid ties suffice,” she replied with a shrug. “Valhal endures regardless, with this ale-swilling brute around.”

Her words came as she clung to his arm, drawing his hearty belly laugh. “Far livelier with all the fascinating sorts in our ranks, though.”

“Can't argue there,” replied the female god, known as Gudrun, with a grin.

“That girl's solid, but against Vilas’s Chosen and those other beasts, I'm unsure she fully measures up,” the male god noted, gesturing as his mug refilled instantly. “That said, her Runemaiden Ritual success caught us off guard too.”

“I welcome pleasant shocks,” Gudrun affirmed.

The male god—Valdemar himself—gazed at his beloved wife, basking in her nearness briefly. She briefed him on cosmic news and intrigue, but really, these sessions masked their stolen moments from faction scrutiny.

Valdemar raised his mug for another pull, halting midway with a scowl.

Gudrun eyed him puzzled. “What is it?”

He set the mug down deliberately, hand to his chest, staring into nothingness as if scanning the void. Silence stretched seconds before he relaxed, sighing.

“Felt a twinge... unclear what,” Valdemar grumbled, shrugging it off for a sip. “I'll sort it if it matters.”

--

“How intriguing,” the Eversmile murmured, his spirits high that day. He observed Primordial-4 amid the ripple. He sensed the hunter's B-grade evolution instantly, though the outcome still caught him off guard.

In a delightful manner.

All members of a given race linked through faint karmic ties, born of their common Origin and Records. An extremely faint connectio