The Primal Hunter

Jake was absolutely certain of one thing: two identical Bloodlines could not exist. Even if someone with a Bloodline had a child, the child would have their own Bloodline with its own unique signature. One would be able to feel the difference between two family members even if the effects of their Bloodlines were identical.

But the old man had the exact same Bloodline as Villy. Jake was completely zoned out of the vision where the two discussed as he tried to figure out how the hell this was possible. It was impossible for the Viper to somehow be the kid of this old man, and one could not give their Bloodlines to others as the Bloodline resided in the Truesoul. Only the system could give a Bloodline, the Viper had said to himself. So Jake saw only one explanation.

The Viper had gained this old man’s Bloodline sometime after he had died. Assuming the Viper had been truthful when he said he got his Bloodline after reaching godhood, then it had to be a lot of time afterward. However, this also raised some questions. Had the Viper requested this Bloodline? If he had, then it had to be a powerful Bloodline, and if it was a powerful Bloodline, then why was the old man stuck at peak C-grade and talking about his time soon being up? Maybe it was just Jake being biased, but he assumed anyone with a truly powerful Bloodline should at least be able to break through to B-grade.

I will definitely have an interesting talk with Villy after this, Jake confirmed to himself as he began to actually focus on the vision at hand.

It was just the Viper explaining what he was doing, and what he was doing was trying to make a healing poison using his blood. The Viper talked about how it was hard to fully isolate the vital energies in the blood both before he put it in the cauldron and when it was in there.

Jake listened in attentively and quickly got the gist of it as he had been struggling with the same thing during the last few days. His issue was that the Blood of the Malefic Viper infused blood was so tied to him it was difficult to make it more untied. This was not a problem with poison usually, as it was just a catalyst and got infused into all the other materials, but in this case, he wanted it to be a primary ingredient.

As for why he wanted it? He wanted to make a “better” health potion that acted faster and maybe didn’t even trigger the potion cooldown. One that could help him heal a wound incredibly fast and resonate with his Blood of the Malefic Viper. He also just wanted to see if he could upgrade Blood to allow him to heal faster in general.

The health potion was more a representation of what he wanted and a way to practice isolating and controlling the vital energy in his blood, not the primary objective. The Viper said the same as he explained how he wanted to better control his vital energies and blood in general.

“Heh,” the old man chuckled. “I find it interesting how you try to create a health potion when that is not truly what you want to make. Controlling your blood better is only one piece of the puzzle, and you will never be able to infuse enough vital energies into the blood to heal fast enough for what you want. If you want that, you need to heal yourself in the ethereal realm – heal your Soulshape – and not your physical body. But we both know the inefficiency in that… so what you truly want is a way for your body to do what you want it to and for more vital energy to work at once. A healing potion does supercharge you with vital energy, true, but what is the biggest obstacle when trying to infuse your blood to heal you faster?”

“Time,” the Viper instantly said. “But a health potion fixes that; I just need it to-“

“Why does it need to be a health potion, and why do you need to infuse your blood every time?” the old man asked pointedly.

“I am not sure I get it,” the Viper said. “I need a health potion for it to heal… I have tried making toxins that heal me, but it never works. And I need to infuse my blood every time for the vital energy to be properly carried in it.”

“Is that because your blood is bad at carrying energy?”

“Well, it is good at carrying energy, but only toxic energies… but… I think I understand what you are getting at. You want me to attune my blood to better carry vital energy, but won’t that just be a step backward after I improved it to better carry mana?”

“Vital energy, mana, stamina, why do we have to put a label on everything? Why do we need to define what a poison and a healing potion are anyway? The system shall handle all the definitions we need; we just need to force our own understanding. Who is to say a poison cannot be a healing potion and a healing potion cannot be a poison? Ask yourself, who is it meant to heal? If it only needs to heal one person, why does it matter if it is poison or not? As long as it to you is a healing potion, the system shall respect your will,” the old man smiled.

He opened his palm as an orb of energy appeared. Jake felt the intense vital energy from it as it suddenly changed into mana, and then into stamina, and back into vital energy again. With a swipe of his hand, the vital energy suddenly spread out throughout the room and hit the walls, making cracks appear all over them. Another pulse of pure stamina was released that somehow repaired the walls. No, had it not been mana there right at the end? Jake wasn’t sure…

“Energy is energy; as long as you have one, you have them all. You think too much about making your blood work with one or the other when you need it to work with all of them. Your body is your temple, and you decide the design. Your blood is a part of your body, just like any other element. If you can control how your hand moves, how fast your heart beats, and know how to smile like you are right now… so can you dictate what your blood is,” the old man said. “Within reason, of course.”

Jake barely considered the words as he was still stuck on what the actual fuck the old man had done before when he demonstrated the energies. The level of energy control he deployed was… not normal as in, absolutely bonkers. Jake had no idea how the hell he had done what he did. Jake could also change mana into vital energy and vice-versa, but that was a long and arduous process when crafting. Not what the old man had just done where he morphed the energies effortlessly in seconds. No, less than seconds.

The Viper also stared at the old man as his eyes shone with enlightenment. Jake then felt himself truly merge with the Viper and instantly noticed some differences. Jake’s blood was not toxic by default but infused with heavy doses of vital energy, while the Viper’s blood primarily had poison in it. He naturally healed from vitality-based poisons in his body, whereas Jake healed from regular vital energy.

It was nearly the opposite of Jake, as Jake had to put effort into making his blood toxic, and Villy had to put effort into making it non-toxic. But what the Viper did now was more or less to prime the blood. Make it far more malleable to other energies, using the system’s assistance to make it all possible. This instantly made the level of toxicity in his blood rise, and Jake did not hesitate to join in as he mimicked the Viper – but with the opposite result.

His blood became more filled with vital energy as he repeated the process of what the Viper did. Yet he also felt like all poison made from it would be more potent. What Jake did when he infused Blood of the Malefic Viper with mana and turned it toxic was just to use the mana as a catalyst to change the vital energy. It was all process that was now being refined and improved.

One could almost say the blood became thicker. Better at carrying energy than before. It did come with the cost of each drop of blood being more valuable, and hence Jake or the Viper losing more health points upon wounded and bleeding… but the tradeoff was worth it, and it wasn’t a one-to-one increase either. Because Jake also felt that each health point now counted ever-so-slightly more.

Moreover, the total capacity of the blood changed as it was ready to receive energy at any point.

The old man came with a few comments here and there as Jake and the Viper both meditated. About half an hour passed before the Viper opened his eyes, smiling from success. Jake was still not there and was about to curse as time rewound till just about when the Viper began meditating, skipping the first conversation.

This time around, Jake got it, and as he willed it, the time rewound the third time to show the entire starting talk. The Viper and old man chatted as Jake just listened in, still feeling the changes in his body. A bit later, the vision ended, and Jake returned to the real world with an upgraded skill and a lot of questions.

Jake appeared within Sandy’s stomach with the worm not even asking where he had gone this time. Without further ado, he checked out the upgrade.

[Blood of the Malefic Viper (Ancient --> Legendary)] – The blood of the Malefic Viper is a toxin more deadly than most poisons and the lifeblood of an immortal being. Allows the Alchemist to infuse their blood with energy to turn their blood poisonous, imitating their Patron and even carrying traces of the True Blood of the Malefic One within. The blood can be used as an ingredient in alchemy or as a deadly weapon against your foes. The nature of the poison is determined based on the Records of the Alchemist. Allows your blood to carry more energy than usual, including vital energy, passively speeding up regeneration. This effect is further amplified when consuming a health potion or other sources of beneficial vital energy. The blood’s toxicity level is based primarily on Vitality and Wisdom but receives an increase from all physical stats. Increase in natural regeneration based on total health pool. Passively provides 3 Vitality per level in Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your blood be forever the bane of all that wishes you harm and that which brings you eternal life.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 189 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 190 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 192 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

It was as expected for the most part. The two levels were a nice surprise, as Jake had only expected a single one. For the skill itself, a bit of the wording had changed here and there, but the big takeaways were that it specified the blood now carried more energy than before, and that effect was further amplified when using a healing potion. But, it still specified that what Jake did when he infused his blood was to turn it poisonous. He could not simply infuse it with more vital energy if he wanted to when he used the skill.

To add on, due to his blood now passively carrying more vital energy, it increased his natural regeneration. He could feel it wasn’t by much, but it was there. The big thing was that this effect was amplified after using a healing potion, and the entire increase in regeneration was based on his total health pool.

Finally, there was also an increase in Vitality for each level. Considering Jake was towards the end of D-grade, the instant influx of stats was huge, especially considering Vitality was the stat in which he had the second-best percentage amplifier due to the Bloodline Patriarch title and Blessing of the Malefic Viper both including it.

With a bit of excitement, Jake cut off the hand for the hundredth or so time over the last few days. Instantly he felt his vital energy move as it began naturally regenerating. It healed faster than before, no doubt about it, but it wasn’t like it just suddenly popped out. He would estimate about twenty-five percent faster, with the vital energy consumption about ten percent higher, to achieve the same effect. Health Point-wise, he lost about the same.

After he fully healed the hand, he repeated chopping it off again and then drank a potion. This time around, the change was noticeable. Before the upgrade, it took Jake a few minutes to heal a hand, but now?

He watched intently as what appeared like blood vessels grew into thin air. Soon they transformed into bones, flesh grew on the bones, and his hand reformed. The entire process took only thirty to forty seconds, and Jake nodded, knowing this was not the best it could be.

Taking out his cauldron, he got to work. The vision had not been solely about transforming his blood but also about how to use it. To make full use of it. One of the objectives had been to make a healing potion, after all.

When Jake usually made a healing potion, he didn’t use any Blood of the Malefic Viper. His blood was inherently a poison, there was no way around it, and even this upgrade did not change that. Jake made healing potions according to the methods he had read in books and followed the recipes to the T as, well, it worked. He had never even considered using his blood over purified water when making a health potion. Not that Jake hadn’t tried to make beneficial things with his blood, as he had done just as the Viper and tried to make a vitality-based poison that could help heal him. One that could even circumvent the potion cooldown.

Jake now realized that the entire thought process was flawed. Health potions worked because they were health potions, not because of all the ingredients put into them. When Jake tried to make these poisons of vital energy, he – and the Viper from the sounds of it – had missed the most essential ingredient of a health potion: a truckload of system-fuckery.

Without further ado, Jake began the crafting process of a health potion. The only true change was that Jake poured in his blood as the base rather than water. He knew that he first had to prime the blood and make it focused on vital energy, which was indeed what he started out by doing. Once the liquid was ready, Jake just did as he usually did when making a health potion, following the recipe to the letter.

And as usual, the process was straightforward. Perhaps a bit more challenging than usual, but it was not much, and after only failing two brews, Jake succeeded.

*You have successfully crafted [Malefic Health Potion (Common)]– A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned*

Jake looked at the batch and bottled up some of the liquid. It was red, just like a normal health potion, but he did get a slight reaction from Sense of the Malefic Viper when looking at it, making it clear this was poisonous.. Using Identify on the potion, he was surprised, though.

[Malefic Health Potion (Common)] - Restores 22310 health when consumed. Will cause damage to anyone besides the creator if consumed.

Jake stared at it for a while. Everything was pretty much as expected, and what Jake had made was poison to any who was not him. The rarity was common as expected too. Jake knew that rarity was based solely on the amount of resources a potion restored, and after entering the academy, he had learned that the minimum for uncommon rarity potions was a hundred thousand resources restored. Yet the number still stood out.

This was the first health potion Jake had ever made that restored over twenty thousand health, and it had instantly jumped to twenty-two thousand. It was about a twenty-five percent increase from his usual max… about the same as what his natural regeneration had increased with.

After putting all the liquid in bottles, Jake – once again – cut off his hand. With great expectations, he chugged the new health potion. It did not disappoint.

Instantly blood vessels sprung out into thin air, and a red hand shape was formed where it was supposed to be as flesh grew on the bones within seconds. The red shape was filled out, and skin grew over it all. Finally, with a simple mental command, Jake equipped the glove.

Seven seconds.

From drinking the potion to fully regenerating a hand, it had taken him seven seconds. Jake grinned from ear to ear to himself at the result as one of his biggest weaknesses – amputation - had been significantly addressed. He was more than happy with the upgrade and also felt that the blood was just overall more potent now in every way, which would empower all poisons he made by a little. All in all, great stuff.

With all of that done, Jake moved on to the final thing. His talk with Villy.