Willpower.

Out of all the stats, it was the one Jake understood the least. Intelligence made him a bit faster at calculating stuff and probably helped with other mental things while making magic more potent. Strength made him stronger. Wisdom made it easier to remember things and increased his mana pool.

All of them made sense and had some form of scaling in combat. Perception was also a difficult stat to understand at times. It increased all his senses, even if he suppressed most of them the majority of the time, as knocking yourself out from every bad smell seemed like a bad idea. But… Jake knew what it did, with it also improved his reaction speeds and such. Jake also noticed a very noticeable correlation between high Perception and increased energy control. However, another factor for energy control was Willpower.

Willpower as a whole was weird. Every single action someone performed included aspects of Willpower. Of the more tangible aspects, It also increased mana regeneration, but Jake would definitely say the primary benefit of Willpower was assisting in controlling energy. It was the primary stat together with Perception when it came to controlling pretty much anything. That was why when Jake used the domain part of Pride of the Malefic Viper, he could summon far more magic in his immediate area as his Willpower was “buffed” inside the domain, so to say.

This was a very overt and obvious application - the conscious use of Willpower as Jake actively tried to control something. However, when Jake was merely swinging his weapon or firing an arrow, he did not actively infuse Willpower into the process but just went through the motion. As these motions were willful, Willpower would naturally come into play and enhance the effects. It was subtle, but Willpower more or less made everything done more powerful, as long as the action was done intentionally.

Then there were Words of Power, the absolutely most direct use of pure Willpower there was. It was when you only used Willpower and a bit of energy mixed in to make something happen. You quite literally imposed your will upon the world and made your words law to make it obey. Be it by forcing something to move a bit or ordering an entire planet to explode, both things were possible depending on how much Willpower an individual had and their ability to apply it.

Words of Power were to speak your will to further amplify and focus it. It was incredibly standard, and the most common use of Words of Power was when speaking the name of a skill or an incantation related to one. Some skills even required one to speak to muster enough Willpower to make it possible. The Sword Saint was a good example of this, as many of his skills made use of Words of Power. This did not mean speaking the skill was a good idea every time. Jake, as an example, had no skills where it would help with anything, and Words of Power also had the downside of increasing the cast time of skills. Also… it would look stupid if Jake went around screaming “Arcane Arrow!” every time he shot one.

The one place where it made sense for Jake to use Words of Power was when he was practicing using his Willpower or ordering a pen to fly to his hand while working. This incident happened to fall into the first category, albeit accidentally, as Jake finally found the trigger for Stealth Attack.

One so simple it was stupid.

He just had to will for it to happen. To actively infuse his Willpower into an attack to make the stealth attack concept appear. He did this instinctually with physical attacks due to the common skill, but not with magic skills. Jake naturally tried and willed for his magical attacks to work with Stealth Attack, but it was not enough without him actively focusing on that aspect. It was not a matter of stats either, as influencing more energy naturally required more Willpower.

However, the concept was reinforced when he spoke – no, ordered – the explosive arcane arrow to work with the skill. Not just the small physical impact, but the entire arrow was thoroughly infused with his will and intent for it to be a Stealth Attack.

He saw it fly forth as the concept remained strong until it finally hit the unsuspecting Vinewood beasts that looked like a mix between a bear and a horse with long thin legs. The resulting explosion was more powerful than any explosive arcane arrow Jake had ever landed before without using Arcane Powershot or Arcane Awakening.

About a third more powerful.

The Vinewood Beast was enraged at being attacked, but Jake was not in the mood to play. Arcane Awakening activated at 30% as he engaged it and quickly finished the level 172 creature off before he retreated and once more returned to being a stealth archer.

He searched for his next foe and nocked another explosive arcane arrow. This time he did not speak but merely focused on the arrow, as there was no way he would make speaking a habit when trying to be stealthy. That would be utterly moronic and look very, very stupid.

And a little bit funny… but mostly stupid.

Jake focused on infusing his Willpower into it as he spoke and willed in his mind for it to work. He soon enough felt the same sensation as before. He released the string the moment he did, and as the arrow flew forth, a notification appeared.

[Stealth Attack (Common] -->

[Enhanced Stealth Attack (Uncommon)] – The strongest blow is the one not seen coming before it is too late. Increase the power of the first attack made on an otherwise unaware foe. Adds a bonus to the effects of Enhanced Stealth Attack dependent on the nature of the attack. This effect is further improved by the level of Arcane Stealth.

An explosion sounded out once more, with Stealth Attack working exactly as he intended. The word intended was crucial here. As with all skill upgrades, it had to come through conscious thought and not just happenstance and accident. Of course, there were some cases where it was arguable if something was truly intended, but the system did what the system did.

Jake smiled as he flew forward and finished off his prey before properly looking at the upgraded skill.

The upgrade seemed like the most straightforward kind there was, just adding an enhanced tag. All Jake had done was add magic, but from reading it, he now guessed it was all attacks, no matter what kind they were. It also changed the scaling of the skill dependent on the nature of the attack while still retaining the tie-in with Arcane Stealth.

Usually, people would be happy and lay off a bit when getting a skill upgrade, but Jake felt the exact opposite. He was already so engaged in upgrading and analyzing the skill that stopping now would be a complete waste of momentum. While he would test the new version and confirm his theories, he would also move on to the next task:

Make it more consistent. Now that Jake had added power to the skill, he needed it to actually work. More power didn’t matter if it remained useless against beasts and enemies with even halfway decent senses and Perception. Using his newfound discoveries of the importance of controlling and infusing this “stealth concept,” he began the next step.

A step that included the wanton slaughter of foes more than a dozen levels above himself as he enthusiastically tried to find a path to an upgrade.

The Vinewood creature rapidly moved on its four legs as vines and thorns spread out to attack the group, but several barriers sprung up to block the ranged blows. Most of the barriers broke, but the hunting group managed to hold on through collective effort.

Arrows, spells, thrown weapons, and even non-projectile ranged attacks rained down on the Vinewood lizard. Individually only a few of these attacks would deal noteworthy damage, but together they proved highly effective as the creature was forced to retreat, allowing the group leader to make his move.

Sterling pushed his palms together as magical scripts revolved around him. Space compacted as the Vinewood creature was suppressed by the spatial bindings, allowing the melee strikers to launch the final assault.

A man and a woman, each carrying a massive sword, attacked with their blades raging and burning with deep red flames as they smashed the creature. Fire damage was highly effective on Vinewood creatures, and the lizard struggled as nobody in their group let up before it was dead for good.

“Good job, everyone,” Sterling said as he nodded at his group.

Taking down a level 171 beast with their group consisting primarily of individuals between 120 and 130 was an achievement, even if he was 143 himself. They were twenty-two total in this party, quite a lot more than the customary five, but Sterling had always found the number five needlessly arbitrary. As long as you avoided dungeons, it was better to have more people.

He watched as the scavenger began taking all the useful parts of the Vinewood creature for their alchemists back in the city. His brother was the City Leader and had emphasized the importance of keeping their progress and power up. The United Cities Alliance had a lot of internal competition, and even if Sterling was highly valued due to being a space mage and was even a central figure in the largest hidden project of the United Cities Alliance, he could not slack off. In fact, he had to keep progressing to keep that position as their success would have a huge impact on deciding their planet’s fate

After they were done cleaning up and relaxed a bit, they moved on. Two archers functioned as scouts, and a few minutes later, they found their next foe. It was a large sloth-like beast at level 179 – a bit above what they usually went for – that was lazing around in a tree.

“Alright… prepare to strike,” Sterling said as everyone knew what to do. The archers had their arrows enchanted, the mages prepared spells, as the melee folk got into position.

However, just before he gave the order to engage, something else happened.

A pillar of powerful energy descended from the heavens as the entire tree exploded, with something impacting the sloth itself. It was smashed onto the ground as the ground shook from the impact. The beast managed to stand, but another pillar fell as the sloth nearly lost an arm trying to block.

Several more attacks fell as the beast tried to flee, but the attacks kept finding it no matter where it went. Sterling finally managed to see the attacks and saw… arrows? They bent around the trees and struck from unexpected angles from above, making the sloth utterly unable to escape. Moreover, he saw the sloth bleed far more than usual, and the repeated self-healing he would expect from a beast did not happen.

Sterling just stared as he made his group pull back. Only he and the two warriors remained as the sloth finally succumbed to its injuries. The moment it died, a figure descended. Black wings of death and a body burning with powerful energy akin to the arrows landed right before the sloth, his presence alone making Sterling fearful.

The space mage instantly knew who it was. Sterling froze and took a few steps back as the man turned towards them. Beastly yellow eyes stared him down as Sterling bowed and retreated fully, cold sweat running down his back. The warriors did not hesitate for a moment either and followed suit. As he ran, he failed to hold himself back from taking a peek and saw the man penetrate the body of the beast with his hand and pull out the bloody Beastcore. Barely audible, he felt like he heard the man speak to himself under his breath.

“Still not there yet…”

Jake had felt it that time. For an incredibly brief moment, less than a hundredth of a second, the stealth attack concept had persisted even after being discovered. It was such a short time, but it was there. Jake would not fault anyone for believing their senses had merely been off, but Jake wholeheartedly trusted he was on the right track.

He threw a quick glance at the retreating hunting party as they hastily ran. He didn’t bother with them but did judge them a little as he found that hunting in a big crowd like that was highly inefficient. Five was the sweet spot for a reason, and having more than twenty was just overkill outside of wars. Okay, to Jake, the optimal number was one, but he did recognize some did better in parties. Still. Twenty was not a party but a god damn rave.

Turning his attention back to his failed Stealth Attack, he finally believed he was onto something. It had soon been a week since he upgraded the skill to uncommon rarity, and while that seemed like a long time, his growth had been meteoric when it came to improving the skill. He had even figured out how to time attacks to hit two Splitting Arrow shots within the same moment for both to benefit.

Yeah, that part was not that useful.

What Jake had also learned was that the stealth concept was very… fragile? Ephemeral was probably a better big boy word for it. Few potent concepts would just disappear like that, but this one clearly did not matter what he did. However, there was some progress, as he did discover that the Stealth Attack did linger for such a short amount of time that even Jake could not notice the concept disappeared when the beast became aware. That it was not instant meant that he had a path. He just needed it to linger longer.

Jake had tried many things to do this. He had infused more of the stealth concept and tried to make it more prevalent but found that useless. Many other methods had even been attempted, like trying to somehow “copy” his Arcane Stealth effect to make the arrow not look like an attack and meld into the environment, and while that seemed possible theoretically, it was not something Jake could figure out in any short amount of time. It would probably be easier to upgrade Arcane Stealth somehow when he thought more about it.

He kept trying out things, but during a brief round of Serene Soul Meditation, he remembered something. Arcane Barrier.

It had talked about suppressing concepts. Jake did not want to suppress a concept, but he did want to influence it, and clearly, his arcane affinity could. Concepts and affinities were heavily interlinked, after all. Jake’s arcane affinity could also be called his arcane concept, and within that concept were primarily two parts. Destruction and stability.

And what did Jake’s Stealth Attack need, if not a bit of stability?

With that idea in his head, he got to work. His recent kill was proof it was possible to extend the Stealth Attack for a fraction of a moment without losing any of the effects, so he would just need to do what he did best:

Continually smash his head into a wall until it worked.

It was a bit like mixing a concoction or an alchemical brew. Jake needed to find the right mix and achieve balance for him to avoid “washing away” the stealth concept. At the same time, he had to make sure the Stealth Attack got enough stability to do what he wanted. Now, mixing two affinities outright was not easy, but the Stealth Attack did already contain some stability within. It had to.

Stability as a concept was in no way unique to Jake’s arcane affinity, and he had to truly separate it from his affinity before it worked. He needed to reinforce the stability of the Stealth Attack and not try to mix in anything more related to his arcane affinity. It did take some time to truly figure it out. He just had to really get the infusion of Willpower down. With every try, it got slightly better until finally…

Jake took aim at the owl that sat on a tree. He was once more flying above the jungle with the owl marked so he knew where he was aiming and had perfectly remembered its surroundings. He took aim as Arcane Powershot charged. The concept of Stealth Attack appeared automatically due to the skill as Jake mobilized his Willpower more to try to stabilize it.

The moment he felt it was good, he let go of the string. Before it even hit the target, he knew, and the following fight was just a slaughter as the owl lost a wing from the initial impact – an impact that was fully empowered by Stealth Attack despite the beast noticing the attack just before it hit

Another upgrade in the bag!

[Enhanced Stealth Attack (Uncommon)] -->

[Superior Stealth Attack (Rare)] – The strongest blow is the one not seen coming before it is too late. Increase the power of the first attack made on an otherwise unaware foe. Has a brief grace period between the foe being aware and the effect still triggering as long as the foe is still not conscious of the hunter’s position or the nature of the attack. Adds a bonus to the effects of Superior Stealth Attack dependent on the nature of the attack. This effect is further improved by the level of Arcane Stealth.

Jake looked at the skill upgrade and smiled. Once more, it was viewed as a more or less straightforward upgrade, and he was totally fine with that.

In less than two weeks, he had managed to bring the rather useless skill from common to rare, now making it a powerful and reliable skill that suited him nicely.

A skill upgrading journey that had also resulted in quite a body count as he had found unwilling test subjects.

And a big body counts meant experience and levels.