Chapter 1138 - Event Horizon

The wonders of skill selection. Jake always liked them. They offered a great opportunity to review Jake's accomplishments since receiving his last one, but far more importantly, they provided the best system-supported method for directly experiencing a power increase. Outside of evolutions, that is.

This skill selection was perhaps the most exciting yet. At the end of every grade, one would get a skill related to the essence of that class. Before C-grade, Jake’s classes hadn’t been the best, but they had increased gradually with every grade, and now, Jake had a pretty damn good one, which meant he would also get a pretty damn good final offering. Just going by the tier of his class – extrapolated from the stats it gave per level – Jake already had high expectations of the final skill, and more or less already assumed now he would pick it.

For reference, in E-grade, Jake had gained Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, a skill that had now become the legendary Protean Arrow. In D-grade, he had gained Relentless Hunt of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter, the skill allowing Jake to accumulate Hunting Momentum while fighting. It was effectively another massive passive skill that would allow Jake to make some devastating attacks by expending his Hunting Momentum, all without any cost.

And now it was time to see what the final C-grade class skill would be.

Jake could be wrong, but he was fairly confident it was going to be either a peak legendary skill or just straight-up a mythical one. Seeing as Jake already had three mythical class skills, he knew his chances of getting another one were larger than usual.

Of course, before it was time to see that skill, he had four more options to go through meticulously while waiting for the Sovereign to finish playing around with the Forest Fae. The first of which was at least a little interesting, if only for the reason Jake assumed he had it.

[Entangling Arcane Vinearrow (Epic)] – A meeting between life and arcane, resulting in the entanglement of your foe. Allows the hunter to shoot an arrow of life energy that will sprout into vines upon hitting a foe or whenever the hunter wills it to. These vines will try to wrap themselves around your target to limit their movement, and once the target is bound, the vines shall seal themselves in place using stable arcane mana. The durability of the vines depends on Wisdom. Adds a bonus to the effectiveness of Agility, Strength, Perception, and Wisdom when using Entangling Arcane Vinearrow.

Artemis’ influence was evident with this one. Jake had never even tried to make a vine arrow himself, but lo and behold, just because he spent some time with a goddess who was known to specialize in that kind of thing, he was offered the ability to.

As for the skill itself, it looked… fine? Nothing particularly outstanding, really. The only notable thing was that this was a fusion between the life affinity and Jake’s arcane affinity, at least to some extent. Its ability to turn stable and lock down a foe was also a novel application of Jake’s affinity, and he even theorized that he could make the entire vine blow up should he so desire.

However, Jake also got the feeling the skill was actually worse than it looked, at least for what Jake would use it for. Sure, it would definitely be able to constrain another C-grade around Jake’s level, but he had no confidence in it working against something like the Sovereign or the Chimera. Both of them would likely tear through the vines before they would even have a chance to wrap their bodies, all with very little effort.

There was just no scenario where Jake saw an epic rarity skill from a C-grade be capable of entangling a B-grade for any meaningful length of time, and if Jake wanted his foe to keep still, he already had Gaze.

Never having even considered taking it, Jake moved on to the second option, this one just straight-up boring.

[Arcane Clusterbomb Arrow (Epic)] – One explosion can easily be the beginning of many more. Allows the hunter to release an arrow that, upon impact, will explode into several explosive arcane orbs that can then be further detonated. This ability can be charged to increase the amount of arcane orbs. The maximum amount of mana the arrow can contain depends on Wisdom. Adds a bonus to the effectiveness of Agility, Strength, Perception, and Intelligence when using Arcane Clusterbomb Arrow.

Arcane explosions. Yay. Not like Jake didn’t already have a hundred different ways to make that happen. In fact, looking at this skill, Jake got the impression it only had two real use-cases.

The first one was if Jake was fighting huge armies of enemies and wanted to create some chaos by creating a lot of explosions. In that case, Jake would rather just shoot a good Rain of Arrows with exploding arcane arrows to get the job done, but this skill could technically be better.

A second way to use it was for terraforming the local environment through arcane destruction. A practice recommended by zero out of ten environmental agencies. Jake wasn’t big on widespread destruction in the first place and saw no reason to get a good skill that really didn’t seem useful in any other situations.

Hence why he rapidly continued on to another interesting skill… a really interesting one, actually.

[Ceaseless Riposte of the Shadowed Hunter (Ancient)] – With one step ahead and a foot within the Shadow Realm, you always find an opportunity to strike. Allows the hunter to counterattack with a piercing thrust after successfully dodging a melee attack. While disengaging from this riposte, the hunter will be covered in shadows, allowing you to perform a minor vault, concealing your movements while providing defense against minor attacks. Has a low internal cooldown that’s reduced with every successful dodge. Successive strikes without taking major damage yourself deals additional damage. Adds a bonus to the effectiveness of Agility and Strength when using Ceaseless Riposte of the Shadowed Hunter.

So, this was definitely the newest addition to the list by Jake’s estimates, having perhaps been born not even a full hour ago when he was within the Shadow Realm and interacted with Umbra. The mere fact that Jake got a skill inspired by what had just happened proved the Records obtained by the experience were substantial, even if it didn’t feel like a massive deal to Jake.

The skill itself did look very Jake, though. Dodging was definitely Jake’s greatest ability, and this one directly took advantage of it. Additionally, Jake was limited when it came to melee skill as he only really had Piercing Fang, and another one like this would be nice, even if Piercing Fang and Ceaseless Riposte felt like they would have some overlap, seeing as both were effectively just stabbing attacks.

If Jake was desperate to develop his abilities as a melee combatant further, this would definitely have been an option, but more than anything, Jake looked to it for a bit of inspiration for when he had to update Piercing Fang eventually. Jake doubted he could even use the Shadow Vault portion of the skill, but he did like the look of dodges, making his attacks harder, especially the more damage from successive strikes portion looked tasty.

Looking through skills like this was great food for thought. Even if Jake knew there was no shot that he was gonna end up selecting it. Sufficiently inspired, Jake continued on to the second-to-last skill, and this was the first legendary one, as well as the first skill directly related to his class.

[Arcane Hunter’s Tracking of Horizon’s Edge (Legendary)] – You are a hunter willing to track your prey all the way to the edge of reality, and once you have their scent, there is no escape. Grants extreme proficiency in tracking down prey as long as you know their basic signatures, be they physical or magical ones. Makes it far easier to distinguish different tracks. Relying on your instincts, you are capable of picking up tracks and clues about your prey that others may be unable to, and while tracking, all your senses can be focused on the act. Once you have met all the conditions to properly track a foe, you will innately know their location, wherever it is. While tracking down prey, Relentless Hunt’s Hunting Momentum accumulates far faster. Bonus experience earned when slaying a tracked prey (dependent on the total time spent tracking). Adds a large bonus to the effect of Perception while tracking. WARNING: This skill is unlocked by and will serve as an upgrade to your existing Bestial Hunter’s Tracking, resulting in the loss of the skill.

Ah, tracking. Jake had done a bit of tracking here and there, including here in the Hunting Grounds, especially when he was looking for the Forest Fae. Of course, he had failed to actually find her before he went and teamed up with the Sovereign, but if he had this skill upgrade back then, he would have likely been able to track her down himself.

There were a lot of elements to this one for sure. It seemed to make every aspect of the Bestial Hunter’s Tracking skill it upgraded better while adding on a few more things, including the faster accumulation of Hunting Momentum and bonus experience earned for killing his prey. Assuming this bonus experience stacked with Hunter’s Mark, a skill like this would be good at making up for the experience penalty Jake suffered due to his Anomalous Soul and powerful Path.

Of course, another way to overcome those penalties was just to keep improving and hunt down B-grades, something Jake planned on doing, anyway. He also didn’t want to ”waste” a skill selection on upgrading a tracking skill he honestly didn’t care overly much about.

Pulse of Perception was already more than good enough at finding things, and he could always work on improving his tracking skill by himself. Heck, maybe Artemis could even give a few tips in that department, seeing as she was definitely skilled in all the traditional hunter abilities, of which tracking was definitely one.

More than anything, from the very beginning of this entire skill selection, Jake had known it would be the final skill he was most interested in and would pick ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Looking at the next offering, Jake had indeed been entirely correct, as he was offered his very first mythical skill in a class skill selection... well, the first real one anyway, as he didn't count the useless war god skill he was offered after his little duel with Valdemar.

[Event Horizon (Mythical)] – For a moment, you glimpse the ultimate goal of the Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge. At the end of your Path, at the edge of all one seeks, you find the Event Horizon… and make it your prey. Allows the hunter to glimpse the Event Horizon, designating a target to be one with it and thus considered your new Event Horizon. Upon activating the skill, gain a glimpse of your true Event Horizon, creating a reality where only you, the horizon, and any potential prey exist. The Event Horizon encompasses all realities, inescapable and unavoidable. Only you are capable of glimpsing the Event Horizon, and what you are capable of perceiving is determined by Perception. Your arrows naturally seek toward the subject designated the Event Horizon and will always reach it should you so desire. You will always see the location of the Event Horizon once a subject has been specified. All effects that scale off distance to your target will have their effectiveness maximized when hunting the Event Horizon. The power of your soul determines the duration of Event Horizon. Your Path has led you here, but for now, a mere glimpse of the Event Horizon is all you are capable of, knowing it carries the promise of an endless domain to one day make your own.

Jake… had a lot of questions. This was definitely a complicated skill that Jake needed to read several times over to get a good understanding of, and even then, he knew he still had a lot of things he wouldn’t be able to grasp before taking the skill.

To remove any doubt, this would be the skill he was going to select, but he still wanted to ponder it before accepting, not just out of habit or vanity but to try to get an understanding even before he would receive innate knowledge upon acceptance.

Starting from the top, Event Horizon was a rather simply named skill and referred to a known concept. The Event Horizon was the endpoint of everything, at least from the viewpoint of an observer. It was, quite literally, the horizon of all events that could ever have happened. At the true Event Horizon, everything ceased to be, and nothing could escape it.

Most often Event Horizons were talked about when discussing black holes pre-system, but now, with physics changed, something like the Event Horizon had turned into something entirely conceptual. A concept of immense power based on what Jake could see, and perhaps most importantly, one that was limitless by definition.

The skill even referred to it as ”your Event Horizon” and didn’t speak of the concept as an absolute, once more clarifying its relative nature. Again, overall a very confusing skill, but, in words similar to what the Sword Saint would probably say, there were many profound truths contained within.

Getting to the actual effects of the skill itself, it seemed to have two major parts to it. The first part was when first activated the skill which would allow Jake to glimpse the Event Horizon for a moment, at which point he would only be able to see himself and potential prey according to the description. Definitely something he would have to test to really figure out how worked.

The next part was when one got to the meat of it. Jake could designate a target to be one with the Event Horizon, at which point quite a few things seemed to come into effect, the most notable one definitely being the part about all damaging scaling off distance getting maximized.

This would effectively just be a straight-up damage bonus alongside the other weird stuff the skill did. It also seemed like the skill would make it easier to hit his target, though, again, experimentation was required. The distance thing looked as straightforward as could be, though, and lest it be forgotten, Jake had one skill that gave him a damage bonus to enemies based on how far they were:

His Archery skill.

”Adds a small damage bonus to all arrows based on distance traveled and Perception.”

Jake never thought much about this aspect of his archery skill, as frankly, he often couldn’t control how far he was from his target when shooting. Being too far away also had its obvious downsides, so he’d never even tried to see what the maximum damage he could get out of his Archery skill was.

What he did know was that the distance portion of his Archery skill seemed to also scale with Perception, the two effects complementing one another. This part of the skill also wasn’t something Jake had even thought about upgrading as he worked on improving his Archery skill, but now with Event Horizon, Jake felt an even bigger fire under his ass to finally upgrade the damn skill.

He also saw a new upgrade path that focused more on increasing damage based on Perception and distance traveled, rather than trying to implement any other complicated concepts like time magic. Yeah, he should just keep things simple when it came to his Archery skill when he already had so many other passives taking effect whenever he shot an arrow.

By now, Jake had spent long enough considering the skill he knew he would end up picking anyway, so without further ado, he made his selection.

Instantly, innate knowledge flooded his mind, telling Jake far less than he would have expected. The only actual knowledge he got was how to activate the skill, and he considered for a moment doing so; however, sadly for Jake, he found himself distracted by the approaching B-grade.

Turning his head, he saw the Sovereign flying over, looking a bit more injured than before, but it wasn’t hard to determine who had won the duel between B-grades as he carried a head in one of his talons.

”It is done,” the Sovereign said, definitely looking tired as he observed Jake. ”And somehow, you appear more powerful than when we last parted. From my guess, you grew once more from your battle with the Chimera, only confirming the foolishness it would have been to fight you.”

”Hey, don’t be that negative. Also, I do have something I would like to test out if-”

”I would remain still and accept my untimely end without any resistance,” the B-grade said without missing a beat.

”Spoilsport,” Jake muttered. Oh well, he would have to find something or someone else to test it on. For now, as Jake gazed out over the planet and looked at the Sovereign, he felt that there wasn’t much left in this Hunting Ground actually worth hunting.

The Chimera had been the strongest B-grade, which really showed the low average quality of the place, and Jake had even defeated an even more empowered version of that monster, so unless some other B-grade had abilities that directly countered Jake, he doubted he would find any proper challenge.

I guess it’s time to head home… though I do have a few stops to make on the way, and a promise to fulfill.