Chapter 815: Nevermore: Spectrum of Perception

Chapter 815: Nevermore: Spectrum of Perception

To be stealthy.

An ancient art learned by many teenagers with wary parents and creaky floorboards to remain undetected as they were up to no good. That, or because they just needed to go to the bathroom really late in the night and didnt want to wake anyone up.

However, this was but one part of the stealth: the art of avoiding sound. Others were stealthy by melding into the environment through camouflage or even found ways to hide their heat signatures or other traces of their existence.

There were countless methods in the multiverse to remain undetected, with Jakes current method akin to being able to summon a fake boulder he could hide within, which also helped mask his presence and energy. It was far from perfect, and moving around while using it wasnt advised, but so far, it had kind of gotten the job done.

However, now, it was high time to improve it, and he may as well learn from the best while doing so.

In the multiverse, Jake knew of two beings who had reached the ultimate peak of stealthiness. One of them was naturally Umbra, the leader of the Court of Shadows. Her ability to remain undetected until the moment she decided to strike was unparalleled as she could hide within the shadows themselves only to emerge when she so desired. Her form of stealth was the most classical sort, but there was one person in the multiverse who surpassed her when it came to remaining undetected.

Because another branch of stealth was one where you could be seen, but no one truly noticed you. Where you could stand next to your target on the street without them looking twice your way. The being who had reached the apex of this was, needless to say, Eversmile, the ultimate shapeshifter. He could take any form and become anyone or anything he wanted. His form wasnt just limited to people, as far as Jake had been told, but he could even mimic objects or non-humanoid races.

So, if one apex emerged out of nowhere, the other emerged from right next to you unexpectedly. These two methods were often recognized as the main branches: obscuration and blending in. Jake was currently doing a bit of both which most stealth methods did but he did both kind of poorly.

Jake wanted to still do a bit of both with his improved method, primarily because he wanted to try and learn what Artemis had talked about. At least he wanted to integrate concepts of what she explained, even if it was pretty damn complicated. He did have their entire discussion committed to memory, though, as he recalled what she said during what Jake would call a great discussion on progression methods, while others would probably define it as pillow talk.

My method of stealth is a lot more simple than what you described, Artemis had explained. The Path of the Hunter is naturally intertwined with the world around us. It is one of the most natural Paths to anyone in the system, and anyone who fights and kills partly steps into the Path of the Hunter at least a few times in their lives. Hunters are merely the name we use instead of predators for those of the enlightened races, and many civilizations even call those who fight monsters hunters by default, no matter what weapon or form of combat they use.

The basis for the entire stealth method Artemis used was to be a natural hunter. A part of an ecosystem. At least, that is the mentality Artemis had when she first learned and improved the skill.

My form of stealth leans into becoming one with the environment in a more literal sense. Feel the natural mana around you, feel the presence of the world itself, and breathe it in. Let it fill you and become one with everything. Perceive the world as you let it perceive you, and through that, you will know how to hide at the end of Perception. Seek the very edge of where you recognize your own form within the world and obscure what little remains of you that remain as you blend in. If you do this, you will be able to move without hesitation and act entirely normal, as you will simply disappear from everyones spectrum of what they perceive. You will never be perfect in this; no one is, but if they cannot perceive the world as well as you do, finding you will prove difficult. Well, unless they have a cheat-like Bloodline, Artemis had further elaborated.

Jake had probed further and had kind of formed his own interpretation using more pre-system terms. Jake would liken this kind of method to changing how you appear on the color spectrum. The human eye, before the system, was unable to see things like ultraviolet light but had a limited spectrum. The same was true for what one could hear, and Jake wouldnt be surprised if the same had been true for smells and pretty much everything else.

With the system, the spectrum had expanded. Magical elements were introduced; one could see and feel mana, and Jake could see things he never would have been able to before. With his Perception alone, he could easily peer through things like naturally-formed mist or clouds despite it being completely impossible to see through before the system, and with time, he knew he would even be able to see through things like non-magically reinforced walls.

Where this spectrum being expanded truly mattered was in the realm of concepts. It was one of the reasons why someone like Arnold also had Perception as his highest stat, as it allowed him to perceive things others couldnt. Jake was the same, and as an example, he had only recognized and gained his arcane affinity because his growing Perception allowed him to notice it.

This spectrum continued to expand even now, and while Perception was far from the only criterion to see concepts and become able to understand them, it was definitely an essential factor. Not to say everyone needed it to reach the peak, as someone like the Sword Saint was so in tune with the concepts that mattered to him, it wasnt as much about perceiving them as it was simply living them, if that made sense.

All of this is to say that Perception allowed you to detect and see more on the spectrum of the world. This spectrum was eternally expanding without any end. Jakes Bloodline allowed him to see everything within the physical spectrum with his Sphere, and as it existed outside of the system, it wasnt limited. Of course, it wasnt entirely accurate to say that he saw everything as if he actually could; his brain would explode from perceiving concepts even Primordials couldnt comprehend. It was more right to say he saw everything he already knew could exist, with perhaps a bit more shown here and there.Aall newest chapters on n.o./velbi/n/(.)com

It did this extremely well, but its limitations did mean getting it above epic rarity wasnt likely. This is where the concepts Artemis spoke of came in.

Jake simply wasnt skilled enough to move everything on the spectrum of Perception like Artemis talked about. However, he was confident in moving himself when it came purely to the visual realm. He kind of already did something similar when he made his arcane construct invisible, as concepts would bleed through, but this time, he wanted to do it fully.

This in itself would usually not result in a good stealth skill. Hiding from sight was, in general, not considered super difficult; the truly hard part was hiding everything else. Your energy signature, presence, mana, internal energy you gave off, traces you leave behind, and so forth.

However, for Jake in particular, he was confident in sealing in those things. That is what his entire Arcane Stealth path was all about, after all.

His plan was to merge these two concepts. On the one hand, he would make himself one with the world when it came to the visual realm, and on the other, he would hide everything about himself using his stable arcane energy that didnt exist in the physical realm.

This was not as good of a technique as what Artemis talked about, as Jake wouldnt truly make himself one with the world as she talked about, where everything that was Jake would merge with the environment. Even so, it would allow Jake to do things he couldnt before. It would allow him to move around even while using his stealth skill, and sneak to a better position to attack from.

Jake wanted to retain the functionality of effectively creating a camping dome when he wanted to attack, as it was very difficult to hide the level of energy he gave off otherwise. This did mean that Jake couldnt use skills that required too much energy while using the stealth skill he wanted to make, but that was a sacrifice he had to make. He wasnt going for perfection the first time around, after all.

Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. Jake was getting close with his Grimoire project but still wasnt satisfied and purposefully failed every craft so far, even if he could have succeeded. In the stealth department, things were also moving along, but this final step on the upgrade path was by far the hardest, as Jake had to integrate a new and pretty high-level concept. There was progress, though.

One day, Jake was meditating on a bed in one of the many rooms in the lab area as he worked on his stealth skill. He breathed deeply as he tried to mimic his environment and move himself on the spectrum as he had done many times before. Once more, he felt a faint shift, and opening his eyes, things appeared distorted for a fraction of a moment until everything returned to normal once more. Jake kept focusing as he tried to remember this feeling, not even knowing if he had succeeded with anything that mattered.

Just then, a figure peeked into the room. Temlat walked by the door with a book as he looked in, and Jake was just about to greet him when his student frowned. He looked around and seemed to focus a bit on where Jake was sitting as he muttered. Weird, Im sure Lord Thayne was in here

Right as he turned around to leave, Jake spoke up: I am here.

When he did, Temlat whipped his head and looked straight at Jake, clearly capable of seeing him. Alright, when I announce myself like this, the effect drops as others become aware of my existence got it.

Lord Thayne, did you just arrive, or? Temlat asked, confused.

Just working on something, Jake smiled. Can you tell me, when you entered the room, did you know I was here?

I felt your presence, but I couldnt see you, so I just figured you had just left, Temlat answered honestly. Am I interrupting? I can come back later.

No, its fine, I think I am ready to move on to the next step of my experiment. Now, did you have a question?

As he looked at his student, he got a nice idea. Wouldnt his little student be the perfect test subject for Jake while he improved? You know, sneak around and see if Temlat could find him and try to mess with him a bit purely for research purposes, of course. Definitely not something Jake would ever take pleasure in.