Chapter 1157 – Innate Advantages

Jake really wanted to find a good reason to shut down the name Jasper, but he couldn’t make up one. To make matters worse, the Warpsnatcher’s big eyes lit up when it heard the suggestion.

“Ja…per!” the little guy said, trying to pronounce the name, looking very happy with it. Jake suspected part of the reason why the Warpsnatcher liked the name was the fact that it started with ‘Ja’, which made it at least slightly similar to Jake.

“Do you like the name Jasper?” Jake asked the C-grade beast.

“Jas…per!” the Warpsnatcher tried to pronounce the name again, doing a way better job this time around.

“Should I take that as a yes?”

“Jasper!”

“I’ll take it as a yes,” Jake smiled, shaking his head as he looked towards where the Forest King was, his gaze seemingly ignoring all physical obstacles in the way. “Happy now, you grump?”

“As long as I put a stop to your inane focus on making up a name, then yes,” the Unique Lifeform answered. “I also found your explanation of how your ability as a Harbinger of Primeval Origins works interesting.”

“Oh please, you already knew for the most part,” Jake waved the King off. “Or did I severely overestimate your power of deduction from all the damn context clues you must have collected over the years?”

“No, I had my suspicions, but having things be confirmed is still a different matter,” the King said. “Though I do still wonder what the source of this energy of yours is. It cannot be simple in nature, so the method of acquisition must be equally complex conceptually. Not to mention the potential for backlashes when misused or other unknown limitations regarding its application. I would question why you would waste something so precious on a beast you’ve only just met, but I shall leave it up to your discretion. Having spent quite a few years around you, I’ve come to learn that your own seemingly impulsive decisions usually lead to favorable outcomes on account of your ridiculous ability to intuit matters.”

“That’s quite the praise,” Jake chuckled.

During his explanation to the newly named Jasper, Jake hadn’t shared everything regarding his ability. Just everything that could be relevant to the little guy. The origin of Jake Juice wasn’t something that had any impact on the outcome, so he’d naturally kept that hidden. The origin of the energy was also Jake’s biggest secret regarding the ability, as most other aspects of it could be guessed from the outcomes.

However, as could be seen by the King’s thoughts, not even the Unique Lifeform assumed the Primeval Origin Energy was something Jake could just passively produce on his own. He assumed it was far more complex, and Jake really couldn’t blame him, as he would also assume there would be some serious limitations on that kind of ability.

Sure, there were some limitations on how much Jake could use as it replenished incredibly slowly. Passively, that is. Jake also regenerated some of this energy whenever he leveled up or even just gained experience. Actually, it was entirely possible that Jake didn’t passively regenerate Jake Juice at all, but only got it through gaining experience and Records, and whenever he got a level, he just got an extra boost.

There were still a lot of unknowns regarding all the Primeval Origins stuff, which was part of the reason why Jake wanted to do this kind of experiment with the Warpsnatcher in the first place.

“I never denied that you have certain outstanding abilities. That has never been what I questioned. What I instead question is the person possessing these abilities,” the King said, straight back to being a bit of an asshole.

“You know, abilities color personality, and I’m as much a product of my Bloodline as you’re a product of being born with a golden spoon permanently stuck up your ass,” Jake shrugged.

“You speak of innate advantages? Of being born with a silver spoon? Remind me once more, what incredible merit did you accomplish to gain a Bloodline that even I, a Unique Lifeform, find too ridiculous?” the Forest King countered.

“Alright, alright, we’re both the system’s version of privileged rich kids, and-“

“I wasn’t done. I believe the system recognizes that we Unique Lifeforms are indeed too innately powerful, which is why it has limited us in several ways. Perhaps the biggest limit placed upon us is our inability to produce more of our kin, forcing eternal solitude upon us. To be clear, I find this an understandable limitation. If Unique Lifeforms could reproduce, the multiverse would risk being dominated by us. Just imagine if Minaga could reproduce and clone an army capable of producing another army that could clone themselves all over again.”

“Yeah, that would definitely be ridiculous, but-“ Jake tried to say, but was interrupted yet again.

“Oh, good to see that you agree. Now, please enlighten me as to why you are able to pass on an equally ludicrous Bloodline onto your offspring,” the King finished saying, finally getting to the point.

“Hell if I know,” Jake sighed and shook his head. “But I would argue there are differences and limitations. First of all, Bloodlines aren’t always passed down, and the more powerful they were, the lower the chance of passing them down. Additionally, when passed down, it’s never a one-to-one. Bloodlines always change at least a little, more often than not growing weaker in offspring, which is why many factions and families try to get two people with Bloodlines to have children, as that can cause their Bloodlines to merge and mutate. Alright, there is also the very rare chance of a child being born with a more powerful Bloodline than the parent, but that usually only happens once the Bloodline has been severely diluted over time, and even then, I’m not sure it can ever match the power of the original Bloodline Patriarch.”

“Those are a lot of words to excuse what’s ultimately still a massive advantage your Bloodline has,” the Forest King commented. “Then again, the fact that it can be propagated through reproduction also has its downsides. At the very least, I have no need to be in fear of females wishing to pass on my Lineage.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m afraid either, but sure, it can be annoying,” Jake shrugged. “And not like that’s an exclusive challenge for people with strong Bloodlines. Those with powerful variant races face the exact same thing.”

Looking down at Jasper, who had just been listening in on their conversation, Jake smiled. “I guess that’s another potential risk we need to add if you agree to the ritual. If things work out well, you may face issues with female attention.”

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“It not good?” Jasper asked, tilting his head.

“Well, depending on the perspective, it might be,” Jake shrugged.

“The hunter fears the horrors of social interactions more than nearly anything else, so it’s only natural that dealing with the complexities of humanoid mating rituals will be a major challenge for him. This is especially observed in scenarios where he isn’t even interested in the other party in the first place. Watching him trying to navigate conversations while trying to escape is truly a sight to behold,” the Unique Lifeform continued to make fun of Jake.

“Alright, alright, enough from you for now,” Jake waved the King off. “Go back to your training or whatever. I need to actually focus on preparing what’s next.”

“You know what? For the first time in a while, you have a good point. We both have better endeavors to engage in,” the King agreed. “I wish you luck with your future Path, Warpsnatcher.”

“Bye!” Jasper said, waving toward where the King was sitting, and Jake got the distinct feeling that the little fella wasn’t just mimicking where Jake looked at earlier, but was also aware of the Unique Lifeform’s exact location.

Jake also couldn’t help but smile, seeing how much more comfortable Jasper had gotten with the King in such a small amount of time. Then again, seeing two powerful people bicker back and forth had to be a good way to make them seem less scary.

“I’ll need to go do some research about how to set up the ritual,” Jake said as he looked around the cellar room. “But just one warning. You may have to move your collection to a bigger room, as I’m considering integrating it into the ritual.”

The Warpsnatcher tilted his head to the side, looking a bit concerned. “You take?”

“No, at least not directly,” Jake shook his head. “Either way, that’s something to think about later. For now, let’s just figure out how to get this entire ritual off the ground in the first place. I admittedly do also have a few other projects I’ll be working on in the meantime, so preparations won’t be done for a while. Also, you can come to me at any time with questions or concerns if you have them, and I hope it doesn’t need to be said, but you’re free to change your mind and drop out at any point.”