Chapter 1278 – A Way (B)etter Jake

Jake reveled in the euphoric sensation of suddenly experiencing an extreme growth in power, and the feeling of the winds hitting his face as he shot upwards only broadened his smile further.

Far in the distance, he saw the moon, and without even trying, he could easily see its surface. When he focused, he could even spot individual rocks and signs of dust being thrown about here and there from whatever Arnold was doing inside the celestial object. There were signs it was now inhabited, not least the defensive formation that covered the moon.

From what Jake knew, it wasn’t a super high-level one, just a formation capable of keeping the random meteor out while granting Arnold – or perhaps more accurately, whatever monitor system he developed – knowledge of anything and everything going on within.

After Jake passed through the atmosphere and entered space properly, he truly let loose and began to do some small tests for himself. He allowed his senses to fully spread and even expanded his Sphere of Perception a little, finding it a bit less overwhelming than while on the ground, as there was less stimuli, though in truth, it wasn’t much better even in space.

Space appeared empty, but it really was far from being so. Sure, there was nothing physical, but Jake’s Sphere also picked up energies, and space was full of that. Moreover, as Jake focused on his surroundings, he began to feel the familiar sensation once more that came when he used One Step.

Actually using One Step, this sensation only grew stronger, and Jake immediately knew what he was feeling.

Concept of space… no, not just space.

Jake couldn’t quite describe it, but he felt as if there was something everywhere around him that he could vaguely detect, but not quite interact with. He could already detect affinities before, and with there being plenty of mana all around him, he could naturally already detect the space-affinity mana and whatnot, but he couldn’t detect the concepts this easily before. He knew they were there, but knowing something and feeling it were two very different things, especially to someone like Jake.

He didn’t know if this newfound increased ability to detect concepts was only due to his B-grade evolution or if it was caused by his Perception getting a massive increase, but if he had to guess, he would say it was the first one. It wasn’t that different from how he learned to detect mana all the way back in the Tutorial, and later learned to distinguish and feel affinities. This was just another layer of complexity on top of that, and it wouldn’t be weird if B-grade was when everyone started to detect concepts naturally.

In S-grade, he knew that everyone knew how to do things like teleportation, and some level of time manipulation was also just something everyone could do. He suspected this had a lot to do not only with the increase in power but also with a natural increase in one’s ability to detect and comprehend concepts.

More to talk about with Villy later. For now, he had one skill he wanted to test above all else.

Slowing his flight for a moment, Jake stopped and floated there as he looked toward the moon. Taking a deep breath, Jake activated his new class skill. Immediately, Jake felt his vision clear up, and before, and he actively felt his Perception experience a massive increase. The stones on the moon suddenly got detail as he could see the individual cracks in them, but Sight of the Boundless Horizon did far more than merely increase his eyesight.

His sensation of surrounding concepts spiked instantly, and even things like his Sense of the Malefic Viper were affected as Jake suddenly felt a powerful response from… the closest planet to Earth, towards the sun, was called Venus, right? Jake tended to mix up Mercury and Venus, but he was pretty sure the closer one to Earth was Venus.

Either way, there was some potent, toxic natural treasure there, and he would have to check it out at some point.

Exploring the effect on his other senses, Jake knew that his hearing, smell, and other such things had also improved, though it wasn’t super easy to tell, being in space and all. The most notable effects could definitely be seen with his eyesight and supernatural senses.

As the seconds ticked by, Jake also took proper note of the skill’s effect on his body. As it had been mentioned in the description, using Sight hampered his defensive stats a lot, and that really wasn’t an understatement. Jake had hoped that after his evolution, he would be a bit more durable, but while using Sight of the Boundless Horizon, he definitely turned into a glass cannon. He couldn’t tell exactly how much it reduced his defenses, but it was definitely by more than half.

Seeing as that was the case, one would naturally conclude that one should avoid using Sight while in direct combat due to how risky it was… but Jake thought differently. Even if his defenses were lowered, his physical prowess otherwise remained the same, and he could still move as well, if not slightly better, while using Sight.

Would it be devastating if he were actually hit while using the skill? Sure, but that was easily addressed by just not getting hit. Jake was very confident when it came to dodging, so he could definitely see himself using it even while in melee.

Not for too long, though, as he soon started to feel the strain on his soul. As a final test, Jake looked toward the moon again, trying something. Narrowing his eyes and focusing, Jake glared at the rocky surface of the moon for a few moments, until he suddenly felt like he saw something move. Focusing more on those movements, he followed them and saw what appeared to be silhouettes moving beneath the surface of the celestial object.

It didn’t take him long to put together what they were. Drones were operating a few dozen meters down, digging tunnels for cables from the looks of it. Jake couldn’t see many details, but he definitely saw them moving, making him grin.

Not quite X-ray vision, but not that far off.

Jake considered whether this came from the part of the skill about perceiving things beyond regular limitations, but again, it could just be an effect of extremely high Perception.

Having done his tests for now, Jake deactivated Sight of the Boundless Horizon, wondering if any kind of weakness would follow. After stopping the skill, his Perception immediately returned to normal, and over the next five or so seconds, he felt his body and soul become tougher, until everything was back to normal again.

No weakness lingered, and Jake couldn’t even feel any sense of weakness from his soul. Perhaps things were different when Jake used Sight alongside Arcane Awakening, but for now, it looked like the decreased durability resulted in Jake not really experiencing any drawbacks as long as he didn’t go overboard using his new shiny skill.

He still had a lot of tests to do, including how the skill worked with Primal Gaze and especially Event Horizon, but he needed to fight something to do that, and currently, there weren’t any volunteers.

Feeling pretty good about things so far, Jake continued his flight toward the moon, though soon, he switched to using One Step, also taking the chance to try to glean any inspiration from the concept of space.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

At the same time, Jake also quickly took stock of one more thing as he briefly checked how his stats had developed after his evolution.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (B) – 349 –> 354]

Class: [Arcane Hunter of the Boundless Horizon – 349 –> 350]

Profession: [Primeval Alchemist of Malefic Origins – 349 –> 359]

Health Points (HP): 414,087/414,087 –> 591,900/591,900

Mana Points (MP): 687,111/699,718 –> 954,359/954,359

Stamina: 302,099/387,675 –> 534,337/534,337

Stats