The Primal Hunter Chapter 350: Reflecting On A Loss and the Question of What the Hell A Transcendence Is

There were many things one could do after suffering a setback. One could wallow and feel sorry for themselves, blame someone else and act like it wasn’t their fault, ignore it entirely and move on like nothing, or a slew of other things. Jake ended up going with a far more productive approach as he reflected on it all.

First of all, he had undoubtedly gained a lot from the fight. Skill upgrades and all that, but also some realizations that could only come with losing. Sure, one could argue if Jake truly lost, but in his mind, he had. Even if he had killed his opponent, too, he wouldn’t exactly call it a win if he also had to die himself.

The first thing he realized was that he actually cared more about losing than the prospect of death. It was odd… his survival instincts were through the roof, and he naturally had no desire or intentions to die, and yet the thought of it didn’t really bring up any innate fear. Just a feeling that death was a natural consequence if you fucked up too bad, and that was okay. Jake killed people, and he fully understood that death was always around the corner when fighting powerful foes.

It did take some mental gymnastics to both be fine with death but not fine with dying or getting killed. Or perhaps it was just a natural adaption he had made, potentially due to his Bloodline? If he walked around with fear, it would impede him and make failures far more likely. Or maybe Jake was just weird and had an odd mindset.

Either way, he moved on as he continued reflecting on what had happened towards the end of the Treasure Hunt and the Hunt as a whole.

When you succeed, all you really learn is what works, even if the victory is achieved through struggle. It is often said that failure is far more valuable to long-term success as you find out what doesn’t work and what is lacking to succeed. Additionally, Jake hadn’t magically forgotten his many years of formal education on business strategy and operations. There, failures were often viewed merely as learning experiences, and as long as the losses were not too significant, they could even be a good thing.

Hence, Jake tried to go with a logical approach as he analyzed the battle to figure out where he fucked up the most and how to improve. He knew he had fought a challenging opponent, and even if he made mistakes, it didn’t take anything away from the Sword Saint. So he thought long and hard about both the fight with the Monarch of Blood and the Sword Saint as a conclusion appeared swiftly.

“I kinda suck at fighting?” he asked himself half-rhetorically.

. In his own opinion, Jake wasn’t bad with his bow, though he surely had room to improve. But melee combat? He had to admit… he didn’t really know what he was doing.

The only reason Jake was managing was due to his instincts allowing him to dodge most blows and instinctively strike back. However, these counters weren’t really thought about. Instead, he just reacted and attacked with straightforward slashes and stabs while coating his weapon in arcane energy and poison.

This was one of the reasons why Jake preferred duel-wielding; because his arms kind of just moved, and two weapons were just superior in his mind. At least a part of him thought that. Jake had always been ambidextrous and good with both hands, and that had naturally only improved after the system arrived. He had a strong feeling everyone could be considered ambidextrous now, which raised the question: why did someone like the Sword Saint only use one sword?

Because one thing was absolutely clear and had been from their first clash. The Sword Saint was far better at using his weapon than Jake, and so had the Monarch been. This was one of the reasons he could only dodge, while the Sword Saint managed to not only block but also counter and land attacks despite his far lower stats than Jake during the boss fight.

Jake realized he had in many ways been ignorant and naïve as he had begun to believe that he didn’t really to learn how to use a sword or melee fighting in general. If he could predict the other party’s moves and instinctively counter, why would he need to learn how to actually fight like some martial artist?

Perhaps that would be partly right if the field of martial arts also clearly didn’t develop. He had seen himself hit by blows he did not understand properly, seen the Sword Saint block blows far too powerful for his feeble blade and low stats to resist.

He shook his head as he sighed. Sylphie had been silent throughout it all, just sitting on his lap and resting, not giving any input besides just cuddling up to him. Jake scratched her as he considered her, and one of the reasons he had not really learned how to use weapons.

Why would knowing how to fight wielding a sword be effective versus a beast? Swordsmanship was inherently rooted in learning how to battle other human beings – blocks, techniques, attacks, methods, et cetera - all focused around beating your fellow man. Knowledge of lethal attacks also naturally all centered around hitting vitals in the human body.

Swords had historically primarily been used against other humans, and it was not seen as a hunting weapon. Jake could far more easily see how a bow and learning how to use that made better sense against beasts. Same for even things like spears or axes. Yet clearly, the Sword Saint did not struggle with non-humanoids.

He finally decided to stop only thinking about it himself as he opened up the line of communication and spoke to his Patron god: “Hey Villy… do I kinda suck at fighting?”

It took only a moment for the connection to fully form as the Viper answered:

Jake didn’t need to ask as the Viper elaborated.

“

“Yeah…” Jake said, nodding after listening to the Viper more or less say what he already knew himself. He began explaining what had happened during the final parts of the Treasure Hunt, having to backtrack a bit to tell him general stuff about the Treasure Hunt meanwhile. It quickly became clear Jake had a lot of questions, but for now, they focused on the topic at hand.

After his explanation, the Viper was silent for a while and seemed almost a bit distant. A few moments later, he returned his attention to Jake.

Jake heard the genuine surprise in his voice as he only had one question: “What the hell is a Transcendent?”

Villy explained.

“Still haven’t told me what the hell it is,” Jake commented impatiently.

the Viper kept explaining.

“Seemed like a pretty damn good thing for the Sword Saint. Also, how many of them are out there? Just on Earth?” Jake asked.

the Viper finished.

“Do you have a Transcendent skill?” Jake asked curiously. “If yes, how many?”

The Viper finished his explanation with Jake just slowly nodding. There was a lot in there, and he did feel like he had a far better understanding of what those skills were about. But, one burning question was in his mind:

“Any advice on getting one?”

It was natural. Jake saw something great and wanted in on the action as he saw what it had done for the Saint. To have something like that as a trump card…

Jake’s resident god answered, making Jake slump down a bit.

the Malefic Viper began.

“You mean I should just buy time or run?” Jake quickly caught on.

Villy said.

“Yeah, but if I use a boosting skill too, we are both on a timer, right?”Jake countered as he asked. While he did recognize that he could probably have just run away from the Saint if they fought outside of a collapsing world, he still wasn’t sure if the Springtime Advent would outlast him. He had noticed how him damaging the Saint sped up his aging, so he really had no way to tell.

“I… I think I saw the Holy Church do stuff like that. Also, if there are many rituals and items, why not skills?”

Feeling a bit dumb, Jake shook his head and directed the conversation away from the not-too-pleasant topic.

“Anyway, now I know what a Transcendant is, and that running away is fine if someone suddenly transforms and becomes way stronger out of nowhere. Now, where were we… oh yeah, something about me not knowing how to fight.”

Jake heard the Viper chuckle and had a feeling their talk wasn’t going to be a short one.