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Jake was certain that something like Big Game Hunter relied on some concepts Jake could eventually learn to manipulate himself – just look at Yip of Yore, who somehow manipulated insane concepts to make himself stronger to a ridiculous degree - but for the current Jake, there was no way in hell.

That means if he lost that conceptual aspect, he had no way to add it back. That had been Jake’s biggest fear with upgrading Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, as his arcane affinity tended to be somewhat overpowering whenever he applied it to anything. Thus he had decided to avoid messing with the true core of the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter by adding an arcane layer all around it to keep all influences from other concepts away from it. He would still affect these concepts a little, as not doing so was impossible if he wanted to improve the overall capabilities of the skill, but he did so with a steady hand.

The upgrade to epic rarity had been easy enough, but going beyond that would be quite a challenge. One once more had to remember that this was all Jake working on improving the skill. There was no pre-defined way to upgrade the skill; he was going purely by feel and what he wanted to do.

Jake didn’t know how much time he would have before he was needed elsewhere, so he got to work right away. He informed the Fallen King that they shouldn’t contact him through the Golden Mark unless it was an emergency or they needed to ask something vital. The Unique Lifeform naturally didn’t argue but understood that Jake was working on something important, leaving him wholly alone to improve the skill.

Well, he was not entirely alone as he was surrounded by a bunch of innocent beasts that would become test subjects. There were also a few nearby villages of natives if that became relevant… Jake would have no shame using those as test subjects either, considering they planned on cleansing the planet anyway.

After meditating a bit on the subject, Jake began to draw a mental map of what he wanted to do. The very first thing was to deconstruct the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter-part of his newly upgraded skill. More accurately, he wanted to isolate the concept responsible for the skill dealing more damage to more powerful foes. After that was done, he would work on improving. Jake already knew that one potential direct improvement of the Ambitious concept was the Avaricious one, so that was an obvious contender. The Horizon-Chasing concept from his new class was also an option as that seemed even higher-tier… but Jake did sometimes know when to limit himself.

The reason he needed to isolate this concept was to make sure he would place it at the very center of the skill. Right now, Jake didn’t need to “place” it anywhere as the skill had an automatic summoning process, but if his improvements worked as he desired, then he would have to design the entire arrow by himself with minimum system assistance. There would still be some system assistance – if not, it wouldn’t be a skill – but it would be far from an automatic process.

In addition to this Ambitious or Avaricious concept, there was whatever made him deal more damage to foes he was more familiar with. That one was equally confusing and difficult to understand, so he also had to make sure he isolated that. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how much he would touch it; he just hoped to successfully retain the concept with everything else he planned. If things did work out, it would change from being a requirement to something that would allow him to make a better arrow if he knew more about his opponent.

Essentially, these two concepts were ones he would isolate but not really touch much besides just trying to give them some overall improvements. Those improvements would likely come naturally from him just infusing more energy into the skill and the system coming in with an assist when the skill upgraded in rarity, but he still had to keep an eye out.

Now, when it came to the arrow itself… well, the idea of having a layered arrowhead was useful, and Jake did consider going forward with this same concept but ultimately decided against it. The reason he had even made the Double-Layered arrow upgrade was to confirm that this next part of the plan would work. And it had. Also, if Jake wanted to design and summon the entire arrow from scratch, what could he possibly create it from, if not his own arcane affinity?

If he did this, he would also have more leeway when it came to what he would add with this upgrade. The reason he was so insistent on being able to design the arrow himself in such detail wasn’t just due to his desire for control but due to what he would add to this creation process. What he would mash into the arrow during its creation.

As for what he wanted to add? Well, this was where his desire to make the arrow go in all directions at once came in.

Jake could have chosen to go an upgrade path where he would infuse the arrow with a shitload of destructive arcane energy attuned to the inherent concepts in the skill, and he didn’t doubt that would be very powerful. He could also have chosen to instead lean into his poisons… or dark mana. Maybe even curses.

He had considered getting a skill using curse energy as an example, but it was hard to dedicate a skill for just that, especially if the skill could only be used in limited circumstances. Of course, skills being hard to use could also lean into also making them stronger, Touch of the Malefic Viper being a prime example of a skill that was limited by design in its current grade to optimize power. This wasn’t exactly what Jake wanted, but he did purposefully add complexity to the skill, making the summoning process longer in trade for a better final product – and a more customizable product.

In fact, part of Jake’s inspiration for this upgrade path he had chosen was a way to shore up a potential weakness: what if he faced an opponent he knew was weak to something but didn’t have a good way to deliver the super-effective attack?

Well, that is what he hoped this new skill could become: a way to deliver whatever kind of arrow he thought suitable for the specific situation he found himself in.

In summary, Jake wanted to create an arrow he would build from its very core.

A core would be created, consisting of stable arcane mana locking in conceptual energy related to the Avaricious, with the arrowhead containing the “better against an enemy I know” concept. Around it would be a second layer of arcane barriers housing energy Jake could choose entirely on his own. Blood from the Malefic Viper, poison mist from Wings of the Malefic Viper, curse energy from Eternal Hunger, destructive arcane mana, dark mana, or even just fire mana or whatever else he decided to toss in there. The point was he wanted it to be customizable.

It seemed simple enough in principle, but Jake liked to keep it that way. Of course, he knew that, in reality, it was far from easy to accomplish what he wanted. So he did the only thing he knew how to do:

Repeatedly try shit until suddenly everything somehow works out.

Jake wasn’t the kind of guy to sit down with a notebook and sketch out different hypotheses while scratching them off one by one as he slowly found the right solution. He was instead the kind to fail spectacularly while leaning into his absolutely massive Perception stat to spot what was wrong while relying on his intuition to decide his next course of action.

Thus Jake got started as he quickly found a target and held out his hand. He fought back as the skill began to activate as he tried to get a good read of what exactly was happening when he summoned it. With some effort, a single string of arcane mana formed, followed by a few more that began to create an outline. He then tried to infuse a bit of-

And it broke.

He went again and tried to-

Broke again.

Alright, what if he-

Shards of arcane energy fell all over the ground.

Ah, but-

Energy feedback was a bitch, and now Jake had quite a few burn-like marks across his hand as it got frayed. Luckily, he had two hands!

Okay, a few hours later, he was down to one hand, but in his defense, he had tried something new that could have totally worked. Nothing a potion couldn’t fix!

Given enough time, things were sure to turn out just like he had imagined, right? He should have sufficient time with his party members traveling to their respective destinations, so he just had to keep on keeping on. Sure, it could get a little dangerous at times, but hands could always be regrown, so was it really that dangerous?.

Besides, he had confidence. It wouldn’t take that long, right?

A long time later.

Jake held out his hand as the air just above his palm seemed to shimmer as a film of extremely thin arcane mana appeared, showing the outline of a shaft. Stamina, health points, and mana left his body as this shimmer condensed into barely visible energy within this fine film. Once it had reached a certain threshold, Jake sent out thousands of strings with a mental command. They all wrapped around the arrow like he was weaving something, spinning around what would become the arrow’s body.

Quickly, a solid purple-ish shaft was created as Jake turned his attention toward the tip of the would-be arrow. Another fine barrier of arcane mana appeared as Jake focused on the native Tri-Worlder in the distance. An odd energy Jake could not truly describe gathered within the arrowhead as Jake summoned a ball of stable arcane mana around it to make sure it couldn’t escape.

Once he felt certain the energy was properly sealed within, faint destructive arcane energies licked across this ball as it sheared off parts until, finally, a broadhead tip was formed. Jake nodded, satisfied as he moved on with the next part. Another firm fill covered the entire arrow at once as Jake focused.

Pink-purple destructive arcane energy crackled to life within the thin barrier of arcane energy, entirely locked away from the energies sealed in the shaft’s core and arrowhead. He kept pouring in destructive arcane mana as it became denser and denser until he stopped just before it would explode. He had a lot of experience with the entire thing exploding at this point.

Another web of arcane strings appeared, spinning around the entire arrow as it was nicely wrapped up and strengthened. Studying the arrow, he checked for any imperfections and saw nothing outrageous. He had to constantly focus on all of the different energies and keep them stable throughout this process while not letting any of the conceptual power leak out.

So far, so good, Jake told himself.

Jake reached out with his hand and touched what he had just summoned, barely able to fit his hand around it. It was more than two and a half meters long and quite thick, with a large broadhead that didn’t look especially sharp, but Jake knew looks could be deceiving. Giving the shaft a good squeeze, he felt for its constructional integrity, and seeing that his hand didn’t get blown up, he nodded in satisfaction.

Now it was down to the final part.

With careful hands – but not too careful, as he wanted to make sure the entire thing wasn’t too unstable – Jake nocked the frankly too-large arrow, the size so stupidly big he had to use some light telekinesis to keep it level. As he stood there with it nocked, he took a deep breath and felt for the final concept he wanted to introduce. One that he hadn’t really thought he would add, but when he had reached this point before, it had just felt right.

Focusing, fletchings began to slowly grow out of the arrow. They were subtle and looked plastic, but Jake knew they were far from simple as they practically radiated with a familiar energy. It was true that Jake didn’t have confidence in infusing the concept from his class into it… but he still had confidence in using some of the concepts from his archery skill.

Jake did a final lookover at the frankly massive arrow he was barely holding up. This was far from his first time getting to this point, and he took a deep breath as he prepared for the final part of the process.

Here goes nothing.

Focusing all his will, Jake exerted pressure on the arrow from all sides as he willed it to condense. A loud crack sounded out as, in an instant, the entire arrow was smashed from a two-and-a-half meter long arrow down into one just a bit over a meter and twenty. Jake stood frozen with bated breath as he carefully observed every part of the arrow.

A few seconds passed, as nothing happened.’

Nothing happened was good.

Fuck yeah, Jake grinned as he knew he had succeeded, a notification confirming it right after.

*Skill Upgraded*: [Double-Layered Arrow of the Ambitious Arcane Hunter (Epic)] --> [Protean Arrow of Avaricious Horizons (Ancient)]

Smiling, Jake read the notification and was honestly surprised at seeing an all-new word used in the skill name. Protean. That was not one Jake had run into before, but it was one of those words that sounded powerful. As far as he recalled, it was pretty much a synonym for versatile but probably considered a level higher. It also tended to mean something with being the “first” or something… which gave Jake pause. Arcane was not mentioned anywhere in the skill name, so what if that was mixed into that Protean word? Or was he just overthinking things, and the reason it didn’t mention his arcane affinity in the name was because it was a less-significant building block than the other parts?

He was unsure and exited his thoughts.

Jake looked at the random native in the distance he had designated his desired target when creating the arrow. He stared for a few seconds before he sighed, shaking his head. He lowered his bow and, with a simple mental command, dispelled the arrow. It had been difficult to make, but he knew that with the skill upgraded, it would be far easier the next time. Plus, he found no joy or satisfaction in slaying a random E-grade farmer.

What he did find joy in was reading the description of his new skill.

[Protean Arrow of Avaricious Horizons (Ancient)] – An arrow born not of a single desire but to create something that could encompass all of them. Grants the skill to design and summon a powerful layered arrow to strike down a targeted foe. The Hunter may envision his foe and channel his Willpower into the creation process. The arrow will possess extra layers, and the Hunter can inject desired energy into these stable arcane layers surrounding the true arrow. The arrow summoned deals significantly greater damage to the envisioned target dependent on Willpower and your familiarity with the target. Damage increased further based on level disparity, Perception, and distance traveled. Due to the Hunter’s powerful connection to the arrow, he can influence its flight path. Stat bonuses are applied depending on the nature of the summoned arrow.

There was a lot to unpack, but all in all, Jake had gotten exactly what he wanted. Plus, there was clearly room for growth. The description mentioned he could do multiple layers of energies, but Jake was pretty sure he could only do a single one right now. He also kept all the things he wanted and added some nice extra scaling to the arrow with the Horizon concepts. It even mentioned he could influence its flight path, something Jake hadn’t explicitly aimed at becoming able to do but something he was excited to test out.

All in all, this arrow truly was an amalgamation of so many different concepts, and he was all for it.

Seeing as he was done with the upgrade, Jake decided to return to the real world and contact his party members, which he had neglected for… he wasn’t sure how long.

“I am done with the skill upgrade,” Jake communicated through the Golden Mark, quite happy with himself.

“About time,” the Fallen King sent back in a slightly judgemental tone.

“I wasn’t that long… was I?”Jake questioned. He had a tendency to lose track of time when really focusing on stuff like this, but he couldn’t have been that long if his party members never contacted him during his training, right?

“You should check your notifications,” the Sword Saint just sent.

“What? Have you guys managed to… oh...”

Yeah, alright. Looking at the missed notifications, Jake could see he had mayhaps taken a bit longer than expected.