The Primal Hunter

Jake had done the impossible. Accomplished something that surely deserved a 25% bonus to Nevermore Points simply due to this momentous achievement. As for what kind of miracle Jake had pulled off?

He had managed to actually stick to a plan.

Three Creations had been planned, and Jake had worked on them without any distractions or random things stealing away his attention. He didn’t even go fuck around in any of the worlds but just hunkered down and did his alchemy, with any expedition he did make highly focused on his goal.

For the transmutation, Jake wanted to pull out an old method from the Order that Jake had never really learned. Jake’s Touch of the Malefic Viper had begun to integrate parts of his arcane affinity in the transmutation process early on, which had certainly led to many advantages, but there were also drawbacks.

Jake’s arcane affinity had powerful innate concepts, but so did the original Touch of the Malefic Viper skill. The Path of the Malefic Viper was a Path that had led to the pinnacle and allowed a lowly snake to ascend all the way to godhood. Yet Jake didn’t really use many of these Records in any of his transmutation efforts. This was a ”weakness” Jake sought to address as he wanted to also be able to use a way of transmutation the Viper was incredibly well known for:

Corruption.

This wasn’t anything new to Jake. He had corrupted many things before but recently had kind of stopped. Now, he only corrupted stuff using his curse energy, and he wouldn’t even call what he did with his arcane energy corruption.

Jake recalled his fight against the Great White Stag, where he corrupted a ritual using his poison and Touch. He recalled when he infused the Quintessence with dark and poison energy down in the lake during the final dungeon in the Tutorial. Those times were far more classic cases of corruption where Jake infused concepts innate to toxins into objects or magical constructs to corrupt them.

Mind you, none of this would be an attempt to upgrade his Touch of the Malefic Viper. He wasn’t trying to do anything the skill didn’t already explicitly allow, but instead, something he had neglected properly learning how to do.

In some ways, one could view transmuting something through corruption to be akin to permanently poisoning an object.

Now, the process of learning – or perhaps relearning just at a higher conceptual level – was quite simple. Jake would just go around and corrupt whatever items he could find. Jake was kind of lucky that the factions in the many worlds did have items, even if they all tended to suck and never reached above epic rarity while at the same time barely being for C-grades. Alas, they were good enough when it came to learning how to corrupt things.

Ah, that was another thing. The prior times Jake corrupted stuff, he had kind of just rolled with it. He had no real control or end goal but had just poured in whatever toxic energy he could, hoping things would work out. He had focused too much on merely making an object toxic to its surroundings and never thought about controlling the corruption.

The reason why the Malefic Viper was so feared in the multiverse wasn’t just because of his ability to spread corruption… it was his ability to meticulously control it. To change an entity into something it was never meant to be, his every action made with intent behind it. In fact, his name itself came from his ability to corrupt things. It was the basis of the malefic-affinity, after all.

So… to summarize, Jake wanted to learn how to control the malefic concept infused through Touch of the Malefic Viper. At least the aspects of the concept he needed to transmute things. It was a pretty slow and arduous process, but with enough trial and error, Jake quickly got it down as he looted the armories of most of the factions in the medieval world – everyone still too distracted by the fact some maniac had blown up all their castle roofs to notice the sneaky thief who stole all their weapons.

The second thing Jake worked hard on was his ritual, which he managed to complete a lot faster than he had ever expected. Perhaps he had set the bar too low for what he wanted to accomplish, or perhaps it was something else that had ended up playing a role.

You see, even if Jake had stuck to his plan, that didn’t mean unexpected gains couldn’t appear. During the last many years, and even recently with his Unseen Arcane Hunter skill, Jake had truly pushed his Perception to the limit. During all this crafting, Jake poured in all his focus and attention as he scanned and kept an eye on everything during the crafting process.

One day, when he felt especially frustrated while trying to make his ritual work, Jake did everything to try and find the flaw. Kneeling down, Jake put both his hands on the magic circle as he poured in energy to try and identify what he was doing wrong, but he found nothing. At that moment, he was annoyed. It was so much easier when he used a cauldron as Jake had an almost innate feeling for everything going on within as he practically merged with it while crafting. That is when he questioned… why couldn’t he treat the entire ritual circle like his cauldron?

Why couldn’t he make it feel as if it was one with his body? So Jake tried to do just that as he attempted to pour in some of his soul energy. At first, it didn’t work at all, but after a bit of pushing, he found an opening, and ever-so-slowly it slipped inside. Jake began to feel the entire magic circle far more intimately, and through that also discovered a minor flaw that led to a bottleneck in the energy transfers within, which was what currently hindered his progress.

Having done so, Jake had a thought and decided to just give it a go. Perception was his most powerful stat by far, and in all honesty, perhaps this was overdue, so Jake finally consolidated all of his improvements since before even evolving to C-grade.

Sense of the Malefic Viper was one of those skills Jake rarely thought about but always used. Whenever he did any kind of alchemy, he would immerse his senses in the craft, and when he held a cauldron, it was as if it merged with his soul, allowing him to far more easily keep track – and thus control – everything going on within.

He also used it when looking for alchemical ingredients in all of the many different floors he had gone through. He had even made several improvements to the skill already, even if it hadn’t gotten him an upgrade. When he evolved the skill originally, it only gave him the ability to feel alchemical ingredients in his surroundings, but this had many limitations.

Herbs and toxins of high quality often had ways of hiding themselves or had defenders that helped hide them. While Sense could sometimes get around this, there were also many times it couldn’t.

However, no matter how well something was hidden, Jake’s Sphere of Perception and Pulse of Perception would still pick it up. Before evolving to C-grade, everything within his sphere would also be more than close enough for him to feel it using Sense of the Malefic Viper, but after evolving, that had changed, especially when introducing Pulse.

Pulse of Perception was hundreds of kilometers in radius, even going below ground, which his Sense had a hard time penetrating. When going through the floors, Jake often had to forage for his own ingredients, and using Pulse had proven invaluable there. Without even thinking about it, he quickly adapted Sense of the Malefic Viper to even work with things he only ”saw” using Pulse. It wasn’t as good as if he laid eyes on them, but it gave him a good general understanding of the properties of whatever he found.

There were many other things, but none were represented in the skill description itself. Jake wondered if all of this would be enough, but after only a little bit of pushing, the skill gave way as a notification popped up in front of him.

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[Sense of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] – The Malefic Viper’s greed for natural treasures is neverending; his desire to discover all the world has to offer ceaseless. Gives a passive ability to detect herbs and poisons in different forms and a strong feeling of their properties and affinities. Allows the alchemist to far more easily detect affinities in the environment and detect areas optimal for cultivating herbs. Massively improves your ability to sense the poison you have inflicted and its effects on any inflicted entities. Allows you to temporarily merge a part of your soul into a Soulbound cauldron or similar crafting device, making it effectively act as part of your body. Even without fully merging your soul, you will still receive all sensory benefits from using a Soulbound cauldron or similar crafting device. Adds an increase to the effectiveness of Sense of the Malefic Viper based on Perception. All effects of Sense of the Malefic Viper are further improved within the body of the alchemist. Passively provides 3 Perception per level in Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your gaze scour the multiverse for all that is rightfully yours; may all truths lay bare before you.

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[Sense of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] – The Malefic Viper’s greed for natural treasures is neverending; his desire to discover all the world has to offer ceaseless. Gives a passive ability to detect alchemical ingredients and gain an innate understanding of their properties, no matter the detection method used to uncover them. Allows the alchemist to far more easily detect affinities in the environment and detect areas optimal for cultivating herbs. Massively improves your ability to sense all energies you have inflicted other entities with. Allows you to temporarily merge a part of your soul into objects and magical constructs you are in physical contact with during crafting, effectively making it a part of your body. Adds an increase to the effectiveness of Sense of the Malefic Viper based on Perception. All effects of Sense of the Malefic Viper are further improved within the body of the alchemist. Passively provides 9 Perception per level in Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper (C-grade variant). May your senses transcend comprehension as you scour the multiverse for all that is rightfully yours, as all truths lay bare before you.

Sometimes, the best gains were those least expected, and this was definitely one of those cases. Jake had not entered this Challenge Dungeon thinking he would improve any of his Malefic Viper skills, much less do it so easily.

Jake wasn’t sure that simply expanding the ability to infuse parts of his soul into more than a cauldron or a crafting device would have been enough for an upgrade, which was why the improvement to its base detection was more than welcome. It was more of a formality to add it, even if it did have some interesting implications. The wording had also changed quite a bit, with especially the last sentence standing out:

”Gives a passive ability to detect alchemical ingredients and gain an innate understanding of their properties, no matter the detection method used to uncover them.”

This sentence pretty much just clarified that the skill would work no matter how Jake found the alchemical ingredients, even if it was through Bloodline stuff. He couldn’t help but wonder if this would have other implications down the line and how exactly the skill interacted with his intuition when searching for alchemical ingredients, assuming it interacted with those instincts at all.

Now, one little piece of clarification. Jake had no interest in submitting this skill improvement at all, primarily because nearly all of the improvements had been gained outside of the House of the Architect. Plus, it was still an in-rarity upgrade, making it far worse than something like his new Unseen Arcane Hunter skill.

No, what he would submit were the two things he promptly used his newly improved Sense of the Malefic Viper to accomplish.

Because with the upgrade to his Sense of the Malefic Viper, both the transmutation and ritual projects went even more smoothly. Jake had already semi-cheated by merging with weapons using Fang of Man when holding them to better feel the energies moving within, but Sense getting upgraded just made everything even easier. Especially when he didn’t try to corrupt a weapon.

About a month passed from when Jake gained his Sense of the Malefic Viper improvement till he was ready to make the final push for these two submissions – the third project, the general poison, still far from ready.

Jake stood before a magic circle that was nearly thirty meters in diameter as a giant orb pulsed in the middle, having surrendered to Jake. The multi-colored orb was nearly five meters in radius and it looked like a glass marble with cloudy energy constantly moving within.

[Elemental Confluence Spirit Orb (Ancient)] – An orb made up of a myriad of elemental orbs from C-grade elementals that died natural deaths. The elemental energies within retain some of the instinctual wills of when the elementals were still alive, making the Spirit Orb incredibly challenging to work with. Contains a mix of highly concentrated and untamed elemental-affinity mana within.

The Spirit Orb had been surprisingly cheap in the Merit Point Exchange, probably due to how hard it was to work with. Which had been exactly why Jake bought it. The Spirit Orb had fought everything Jake tried to do with it, vehemently resisting any attempts to affect or draw out any of the dense mana within, but now, it was entirely defenseless as Jake drew out its energies despite its resistance.

A dark green aura enveloped the orb the very next moment as the Spirit Orb quivered. It was as if an invisible hand grasped it, and Jake began to extract some of its energy as he separated elemental energies from the confluence. Two new small Spirit Orbs appeared, floating in two focal points of the magic circle, as Jake moved on to the next function of the magic circle.

And the next Creation, as it was now transmutation time. That’s right, this was a two-for-one. A ritual magic circle and a transmutation job.

With a smile, Jake quickly remerged these two small Spirit Orbs with the main one and activated Touch of the Malefic Viper as he touched the magic circle. Dense and powerful dark green energy wormed its way into the defenseless Spirit Orb as it began to take root. The energies within the orb once more tried to fight but were entirely pacified as the corruption slowly overtook the Spirit Orb. Within half an hour, the entire orb changed color. From a multi-colored rainbow, it became a mix of dark green with occasional flashes of multi-colored, yet oddly muted, light. Looking at it once more, Jake used Identify.

[Unstable Corrupted Confluence Spirit Orb (Ancient)] – An orb once made up of myriad elemental orbs corrupted by powerful toxic energies. The elemental energies within have been corrupted nearly beyond recognition, making them highly volatile and destructive. Contains a mix of highly concentrated and equally unstable malefic elemental-affinity mana within. Due to its unnatural form and the lack of balance caused by the corruption, the Spirit Orb has become unstable: Unable to maintain its current form in: 127:11:57

This was where Jake usually stopped his corruption. He would make an unstable mess that would explode within less than a week… but this wasn’t what Jake was going for this time around as he activated Touch of the Malefic Viper once more.

True corruption requires stability and control. The malefic affinity was one used with intent and purpose and was very rarely found on anything that could be considered unstable. Despite its destructiveness and propensity for corruption, it was a very stable affinity created to follow the intent of its creator, so unless Jake wanted to or was fine with making the item he transmuted unstable, it shouldn’t happen.

Infusing his energy into the orb once more, Jake continued the transmutation process. He sought to stabilize his Creation, but without using even a smidgen of his arcane affinity. He relied solely on the concepts inherent to the Touch of the Malefic Viper skill as the floating orb slowly became more muted. The multi-colored flashes stopped, and the dark green cloudy energy within became the only thing visible.

The entire process ended up taking nearly five hours, but in the end, Jake got a notification as he smiled while looking at the giant floating marble of pure malefic death.

[Malefic Confluence Spirit Orb (Ancient)] – An orb once made up of myriad elemental orbs, now thoroughly corrupted by the Chosen of the Malefic One. The elemental energies within have been corrupted beyond recognition as the malefic affinity has taken root. Contains a mix of highly concentrated malefic affinity elemental mana within. The energy within is highly toxic and has many alchemical uses. The energies within remain highly hostile and resistant to anyone but the creator of the Malefic Confluence Spirit Orb.

The energies within stabilized, and Jake was left with a highly useable and equally destructive Spirit Orb that would also serve quite well as a bomb if he just gave it a small nudge. Of course, that wasn’t what he was going to do with it.

This would be one of his Creations… with the other one, the magic circle beneath he had channeled his energy through. Even if they worked together well, they were two entirely separate disciplines that required very different skill sets and relied on highly varied concepts.

About a year had passed at this point since Jake entered the House of the Architect, and he felt like things were going incredibly well if he had to say so himself.

One thing was for certain… when Jake left the Challenge Dungeon, he would be an even better alchemist and significantly more skilled in several diverse disciplines. And, in some ways, wasn’t progress a reward in its own right?

Ah, who was he kidding? Jake would get incredibly disappointed in himself if he didn’t get a good overall evaluation.