Chapter 1181 – Planeswarper

Primeval Origin Energy, or Jake Juice as he quite frankly couldn’t stop himself from calling it mentally, was still something Jake had little understanding of. He knew he had it, and he knew some ways to use it, but he still wasn’t entirely sure of why he had it, how much he had, and all the secrets it definitely still held.

Jake had gone into this ritual with the assumption that it would leave him completely drained; however, he found himself in pretty good shape instead. When considering the amount Jake did expend during the ritual, there was only one conclusion he could reach:

His Jake Juice storage was growing.

While that shouldn’t have been a surprise, Jake still hadn’t been entirely certain before. Back in the Colosseum of Mortals, Jake had been reduced to level 0, yet he still had access to the mysterious energy pool. As for all the other times Jake expended it, he was never sure if it was ever topped up.

This time around, Jake was reasonably confident that his total pool of Primeval Origin Energy was nearly full, which helped him confirm it was growing. However, this also left another major question for him to ask:

How much did he actually spend? What was the cost of an evolution like this? Was he even able to find an answer to that question, or was it entirely on a case-by-case basis?

Perhaps the reason it had felt so “cheap” to evolve Jasper was because a Shimmerfur Warpsnatcher was already a relatively high-tier creature in the first place. It was also entirely possible that the jewel Jasper had borrowed helped by granting the then C-grade a lot of Records, meaning Jake didn’t have to supply as many.

Honestly, there were too many questions for one ritual to possibly provide enough data, but Jake also wasn’t going to go around performing a whole bunch haphazardly. He could maybe consider doing more rituals akin to when he helped the Demon Prince, but he needed a good reason to agree to do that in the first place.

All these thoughts were filling Jake’s head as he, Artemis, and Jasper soon reached the upstairs of the palace. Jasper had been happily lying in Artemis’ arms throughout the walk, really hammering home the shift he had in how he viewed her. Previously, he would always hide away when she was nearby, whereas now he seemed perfectly comfortable around her. In fact, more than that, he seemed to be weaponizing his cuteness to get closer to her purposefully.

A smart strategy for sure, as why wouldn’t a newly evolved B-grade want a close bond with a powerful Godqueen?

Walking outside, the three of them were soon spotted by the fourth person living in Jake’s palace. Usually, he kept himself isolated, just doing his own thing, but the appearance of the slightly unfamiliar aura of a B-grade instantly caught the attention of the Forest King.

It didn’t take long before the Unique Lifeform joined them as he flew over and levitated down to land in front of them.

“You completed the ritual, I see,” the King spoke as he observed Jasper. “Based on your prior results, I shall assume you’ve created another monster that shall cause a ruckus once the multiverse learns of his appearance?”

“Nah, I think we’ve got more of a Sandy situation on our hands at best,” Jake shook his head.

“Worm?” Jasper asked, remembering Jake’s mention of the cosmic space worm.

“Yeah, a space worm,” Jake nodded. “Very powerful and walking a Path quite similar to yours, as you both aren’t focused on combat but instead the acquisition of natural treasures to grow. I think you two would get along, but I digress. What I mean by that we’ve got more of a Sandy situation here is that while I don’t doubt you’re awesome, your appearance doesn’t necessarily warrant more widespread precautions.”

“I concur with that conclusion,” Artemis agreed. “If there were, I believe Yggdrasil would have reached out to me already.”

“And the Viper would have told me,” Jake, feeling at least somewhat confident about that statement. Sure, Villy could have purposefully not told him, but Jake seriously doubted that was the case.

“Good or bad?” Jasper asked, looking a little confused.

“Neutral to good,” Jake smiled, shaking his head.

“At least it’s not another True Royal,” the Forest King commented. “I’m entirely unfamiliar with the kind of creature this Shimmershroud Planeswarper is, but I find myself curious to learn if this one lives up to my high expectations after seeing your other creations.”

“Only one way to find out,” Jake said with a shrug as he looked at Jasper. “Wanna show off a bit of what you’re capable of?”

“Okay!” the cat-like creature said as he jumped from the arms of Artemis and landed softly on the grass, not making a single sound throughout. Right after he landed, Jasper once more hid himself, and despite Jake staring directly at the B-grade, he lost sight a second later.

Only through his sphere did he confirm that Jasper was still there, the little guy now covered in what could best be described as a shroud of energy. Jake saw that the Forest King had also lost track, showing that Jasper’s stealth skills were truly at an insane level. As a reminder, the King didn’t have eyes but perceived souls, which made it a lot harder to hide from him using conventional stealth skills, so the fact that Jasper could hide was a great sign.

“Extreme stealth skills,” the King commented. “Certainly different from the worm in that regard.”

“Sneaky!” Jasper said a moment later, revealing himself standing on top of the King’s head.

Jake had expected the Unique Lifeform to react in some way, but he just spoke again instead. “Curious. Despite being in physical contact and seeing that’s the case, I do not feel anything on top of me. Something that indicates not only the ability to possess no discernible physical properties but also that he doesn’t have any detectable weight.”

“Soft!” Jasper confirmed happily.

“I can confirm that,” Artemis nodded with a smile. “The Unique Lifeform is also correct that Jasper’s physical body doesn’t seem to interact with the world in a typical fashion. When he moves around, he produces no sound at all, and when I say that, I don’t mean he’s extremely muted but that there truly is no sound. As for the weight thing, I can say that when I held him before, I certainly felt some weight.”

“Magic!” Jasper explained as he jumped once and landed back down on the King.

“Indeed, now I feel some weight, even if I cannot feel his touch,” the Forest King commented.

“So, we confirmed Jasper is very soft, nearly undetectable, and superb at hiding,” Jake said with a nod. “All of those things sound like they come from the Shimmershroud part of the name, which leaves the Planeswarper aspects.”

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Jasper took the cue to show off a little as he disappeared, only to appear on top of Jake’s head next, but he moved on quickly as his entire body just… disappeared.

“Did he enter stealth once more?” the King asked.

“No, he’s not anywhere,” Jake shook his head. He wondered if Jasper had managed to teleport all the way out of his range, but a quick Pulse of Perception revealed that wasn’t the case. Not unless he’d teleported out of the range of even that, which was entirely possible.

Looking toward Artemis, she just smiled, likely wanting Jake to learn for himself what was going on soon. He was definitely curious.

When Jasper teleported, he didn’t do so using space magic. Neither had he done so before his evolution. Jake was very used to that kind of instantaneous movement where one teleported from one spot to another, to at least include some space magic, but nope. He also knew that Jasper didn’t just fast but actually teleported, which was seen when he easily moved through solid matter.