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”Ha, ha, very funny,” Jake responded to the quip from the Viper. Just because Jake had cut off his hand a hundred times or so over the last few days didn’t mean he was into self-harm.

Well, except if it was productive self-harm, in which case he was all for it.

“Heh, so, got a good upgrade this time around? From a cursory glance, it seems like you finally managed to upgrade Blood. I had quite honestly expected that to be one of the first ones considering you stole a drop from me,” the Viper said.

“Yep, I got it, as well as a vision…” Jake.

“Spill it. What kind of embarrassing moment did it show you now? Oh, I know. Is it this time I filled an entire lake with my blood and turned it into a “healing potion” to help the local wildlife, only to poison them all and end up killing off an entire army, to then just get pushed out of the area by a giant weasel that was immune to my toxins?”the Viper asked.

“No, but I am sure there is an interesting story there. This vision was quite a bit more relaxed but far more intriguing. First of all… I didn’t know you once had someone you called Master?” Jake asked a bit teasingly. ”You seemed to respect him a lot too. Truly a loyal disciple.”

A few seconds passed. “I have had several people whom I would call Master throughout my life. But based on me actually showing genuine respect, only one comes to mind. The original owner of my Bloodline.”

“That is the one,” Jake said. “So, what is the story there? I have so many questions.”

“You know, Jake… you are the first one besides my wife to ever know about him. Not even the other Primordials are aware he existed,” Villy said in a very out-of-character serious, and melancholic tone.

“I never even learned his name, only knowing his title. He was simply known as the First Sage. For reference, the country he belonged to had sages as their elders of sorts, and he was naturally the highest-ranked one. He, too, was alive when the system arrived and was already an accomplished, if troubled, man. I took quite a bit longer to progress through the grades than many others and, quite honestly, fell behind. The area of the planet I was from was considered weak and desolate, so by the time I reached C-grade, the world was already full of them. However, on my planet at the time, there was no doubt who the most powerful person was. He was a man who I believed I could fool, and I wanted to take advantage of him to teach me alchemy. The old man saw through my disguise like nothing and instantly knew I was the feared Wyvern of the Desolates. But what did he do? He invited me in for tea.”

Villy spoke with far more emotion than Jake was used to, making him just shut up.

“He was intrigued by my skills and wanted to learn more about me. Tell me, Jake, from what you saw did he strike you as a talented alchemist?” Villy asked.

“For sure,” Jake said. The old man had been insanely talented and was no doubt-

“He wasn’t one. In fact, he never truly chose to specialize anywhere but always ended up pursuing new things. On top of that, he was not a fighter, not because he couldn’t fight, but because he chose not to. I understood why. There was not a single entity on our planet that stood a sliver of a chance against him.”

“I don’t understand… if he was this strong and talented, along with having a Bloodline, why didn’t he evolve into B-grade? Or did he end up evolving?” Jake asked.

“No, he died still in peak C-grade,” Villy answered, exasperation clear in his voice. “To this day, it still troubles me. I actually think meeting him was one of the reasons I even managed to become a god. Jake, you are talented, but this man… was something more. Your talents are bizarre but specialized, while he was a universal genius. A jack of all trades, master of all. With no effort, any skill he had would reach legendary rarity and beyond. It was like he didn’t truly exist within the world like the rest of us. As if he stood above it and observed. By the time I was in peak C-grade, I knew I still would not have stood a chance against him. Not that I would have after just evolving to B-grade either… he was a monster. Far more than I.”

“I am just getting more and more confused here,” Jake said. “Why not evolve then? What stopped him?”

“Nothing except his own will. He… chose not to evolve. As I said, to this day, it still troubles and frustrates me. He could have evolved, and truthfully, I do not doubt he would have become a god. But he had no desire to be one. He had barely any desire at all. Like such desires were beneath him, or perhaps just not something he cared about,” the Viper explained. “I partly understood why, for he was also pained. Tortured. He did not wish to keep living, and to him, perhaps immortality would have been a curse.”

Jake’s frown only deepened, but he didn’t interrupt without getting asked.

“The First Sage taught me only for about a decade. During this time, I never left his side and took in everything like a sponge. My alchemy reached levels I had never even imagined, but more than that, he helped refine my mindset. If you haven’t noticed, I like to find ways to take advantage of the system. This man was the one who originally instilled those thoughts into me. He was also the first one to teach me what a Transcendent was. He was a premier scholar in all things system and what he discovered back then is now common knowledge throughout the multiverse. The knowledge that man had was out of this world… and before you ask, then yes, he was a Transcendent. Not just one either… I learned of four Transcendent skills he possessed, but he might have had more I never knew about. Wanna hear the funniest thing? One of them was made with the express purpose of shortening his lifespan.

“If you think that one of the reasons for his blight was his Bloodline, then you would be entirely correct. I have told you it is not one that offers combat power, and that is entirely correct. In fact, many would call its effects rather mundane if not useless. I have never told you what it does, and I guess it is about time I tell you, considering how much I know about yours.”

Jake would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. Especially after hearing so much about the original owner.

“Its name is short and sweet. Bloodline of the Immortal Mind. It gives no stats, no boosts to anything… besides one thing. It gives perfect memory,” Villy explained, leaving a pause for Jake to ask.

“But don’t you get that already with high enough stats?” Jake asked predictably.

“You do, which is why many find the Bloodline useless and unnecessary. I will also admit that I was critical of it, as the First Sage explained, but I have come to believe it was a big contributor to his power. Allow me to explain. As I said, like me, he existed before the system arrived, and yet he had a Bloodline that allowed perfect memory, which makes me question if perhaps this allowed him to know and remember things the system never intended for anyone to be aware of.”

“Is that why you wanted it? Wait, how did you even get it?” Jake asked, confused.

“As I said, I got it from a system event after becoming a god. It was a bit like your Tutorial, and in the end, you could request a reward. I asked for the Bloodline of the First Sage, and to my surprise, the system gave it. Not cheaply, but cheaper than expected. Once more, I felt like the old man had expected this to someday happen,” Villy explained.

“I see,” Jake simply answered. “Why did you leave your first master? I cannot believe you learned everything from him in only a few years.”

“I did not,” Villy said, hesitant to continue.

“Then why?”

“I told you my first Master was peculiar, and it was only at the end I realized his true purpose in making me his student. You see, he was obsessed with Records to a probably unhealthy level and wanted to ensure that even after death, they remained known. To him, they were the truly perfect form of memory. The memory of the world itself. I don’t know how or why, but he clearly believed that I would be able to reach the pinnacle and thus chose me. He wanted to immortalize his existence through me and through the system,” Villy said as he sighed.

“The old man had only ever asked me one favor, and it came in those final days. The only thing he ever asked me was to remember him and absorb his Records once and for all. He asked me to kill him,” the Viper said, sadness in his voice.

“It was also only then I truly became aware of how much he suffered. You see, usually, memories are controlled. Your brain only pulls something up when you need to remember it, but for the First Sage, it wasn’t like this. He remembered everything all the time. Don’t even begin to think you can comprehend what that is like. He spent ages simply becoming able to function. But what truly made him suffer was remembering all that once was. Every little negative thing, every setback, every period of grief he experienced every day. Do you think negativity bias is bad for normal humans? For him, it was all-consuming. He never showed it, not truly, but after I got the Bloodline myself, I understood. It is said time heals all wounds, and trauma and grief eventually fade? To him, every second of every day was filled with those emotions, like he had experienced mere moments before,” Villy explained, but Jake got an odd feeling.

As if he was not only talking about his old Master but himse-

“Before you say it… yes, I experience this negative downside too. However, there is a stark difference between him and me. First of all, I got the Bloodline after becoming a god and can handle all this far better. Second of all, I was not born with it and thus had ways to still separate it from the core of my being. Thirdly, and perhaps the most important one: his mindset differed from mine. He was more emotional on a base level, and he grieved more than I ever did. Even when I suffer, my first thought is not to grieve but to try and fix the problem. I comfort myself with pretty lies of being able to find a solution. And I can admit that even if the Bloodline has downsides, the benefits it brings are also exemplary. I wanted it for a reason,” Villy said.

“Did you… you know?” Jake asked.

“Yes. How could I not fulfill the one request my Master ever made of me? I did not want to, but I respected him too much to refuse. However, as I said, then I like my pretty little lies. He wanted to be immortal but not alive, and he found his Path through me. Today he is forever immortalized through the Records of the multiverse, and to him, dying was simply a form of transcending above the mundane world. Transcending through me. I still remember his smile as his life faded, and that is the memory I choose to see over his times of suffering,” the Viper said, Jake practically seeing his sad smile on the other end.

Jake just sat silently, not saying anything. He had never heard Villy speak this highly of anyone before, not even his fellow Primordials. There was always a quip in there, a joke about their shortcomings… but with this First Sage, there was only sad recognition.

Neither of them spoke for a while, even as the telepathic connection remained. Jake did not ask any of his usual questions, like if the Viper thought Jake would be able to match the old man if they were the same level or anything like that. Jake already knew that the answer wouldn’t be one he wanted to hear… not necessarily because it would be a no but because of how pointless it was. A minute or so more passed before Villy sighed.

“The First Sage is the apex of why motivation and drive are important. He had the talent of a thousand geniuses but the will to claim power of none. There was no passion in anything he did, and he truly never cared to get stronger. There was only a sense of hopelessness, like the Path he once followed was impossible. Or, perhaps, in death, he got exactly what he wanted. I truly don’t know, as even now, his mentality and mind are above my level of comprehension. All I know is that he was perhaps someone that was never meant to have existed, but that I am glad he did,” Villy finally finished.

“Next time we meet,” Jake said with a smile. “Let’s share a toast for the old man. While it was brief, I also learned some good stuff from him, and you are not the only one grateful he lived.”

“Let’s do that,” Villy said on the other side with a smile.

No more words were necessary as the connection was cut off soon after that, leaving Jake alone inside the stomach of Sandy. His mind was still filled with thoughts as he considered everything. While Jake had to recognize the old man had him beaten in energy control… Jake was not aiming to be the best at everything.

He was fine with just being the best at killing things.

Feeling his distance from Sylphie and Haven, Jake triangulated it and concluded he would soon reach his goal. The mountains the Fallen King had made his home were close to the ocean, and they would get straight there as long as they continued straight ahead.

But before he reached his destination, he had some alchemy to do in preparation.

Villy cut off with the connection with Jake as he smiled a bit to himself. Parts of his memory he had sealed away were now unleashed and flooded him as he remembered times he had chosen to forget. There were many things he did not tell Jake this time around, and he truly believed that was for the better.

Knowing of the First Sage was not necessarily a good thing. The comment he was perhaps someone that never meant to exist was not just an offhand one. It wasn’t that it was bad he existed, but that his existence was never intended.

Because something he had not told Jake was that the day he had killed the old man was not the final time he had seen him. The system took many forms when it appeared in front of people… Jake had described it as a humanoid monotone figure. Others had described the system as a giant floating orb, some as winged beings and others like other humanoid forms reminiscent of their own races.

As for Villy? Every time he saw the system appear in any form, he met his first Master. If it was truly him, Villy did not know as it didn’t act differently from any other system entity.

But he liked to think that the old man had achieved his goal and had achieved his own form of immortality.