The Primal Hunter

Man, it felt like so long ago since Jake really dove into a field of alchemy that had nothing to do with poisons or curses. It was almost foreign that none of the energies he handled contained any harmful elements but that everything was just… nice.

Sure, the ingredients didn’t always agree with him, but the entire crafting process wasn’t one that could result in a large explosion capable of spreading a toxic cloud capable of killing a few nearby towns. Valhal had clearly expected Jake to be doing poison crafting, though, based on the lab they had assigned to him. It was within the classic large glass bubble that was effectively just a big bottle.

Actually, thinking about it, this was perhaps the most used clever use of system mechanics in the multiverse. It made use of the fact that the system allowed one to quite easily create bottles capable of storing pretty much any liquid or gas created using alchemy. One could make a poison so powerful that a single drop could turn a planet into a wasteland, and yet a simple bottle made by a common E-grade would be able to contain it without any problems. Of course, any normal person would put it in more secure storage than just its glass bottle, but the mere fact that the bottle could handle it was ridiculous.

The fact that the bottles were a borderline cheat when it came to containing poisons was then used to just make bigger bottles. House-sized potions and poison bottles with entire laboratories within. Jake had one in the Order, one on Earth, and now one here. Making these special laboratories was such basic knowledge that even Hank back on Earth knew about it – or one of the people he worked with had known – way back when the lab was made.

As Jake worked within the laboratory, he thought about other common exploits that had just become normal and were used daily. It was possible some had become so darn common that people didn’t even know it made use of what was effectively an exploit in the system.

Then again… was it really an exploit? If it was, couldn’t the system just shut it down any time it wanted? Based on everything Villy had said, the system was effectively omnipotent. It actively chose not to interfere in some matters, not because it couldn’t, but because it had decided to designate that thing as “outside the system.” It was that or something just being the way it was due to system-fuckery.

So maybe the big bubble laboratories had always been an intended system feature? Or was it just like those bugs in games before the system that the playerbase ended up finding fun to use, only to then see them turn into official features?

It would be funny if that were the case… but just before Jake’s mind wandered to the glorious history of bunny-hopping, his current brew was finished, drawing him fully back to the present. With a smile, he looked at the yellow-brownish liquid in the cauldron and, after bottling it up, used Identify.

[Body Potion (Common)] – Restores 41,222 health and 25,051 stamina when consumed.

Better ingredients naturally meant one could make a better product, but the reason the ingredients were better in the first place was because they contained more energy and energy of higher purity and potency. This made them harder to deal with without fucking up, and while Jake would gladly be selfishly reckless with the Order’s ingredient storage back in the first universe, that wasn’t really an option here.

Even if Valhal wanted Jake to take the best they had, they didn’t have that big of stock in the first place, as they couldn’t get stuff from other universes but only had what they could gather themselves. So, Jake decided to save some of the better stuff for when he got better at making these potions to go for that uncommon rarity push.

He also needed to add one more important aspect: making the potion truly his own. He considered if he could modify using either his arcane affinity or by attuning it to his own blood and adding the Malefic tag, and after very little consideration, he settled on the latter. The potion already restored health, so it was the most obvious choice in the first place. It didn’t really synergize with the stamina portion of the potion, though, but Jake saw that as a sacrifice he was willing to make, even if it would throw the balance off a little. He often needed more health points than stamina anyway, primarily because he had so much mana and that many of his skills used both mana and stamina at the same time, giving him a lot more longevity in fights compared to someone using purely one of the resources.

Anyhow, Jake crafted a few more mixtures of the regular Body Potion after that before he switched gears and tried experimenting by mixing in his blood and attuning the potions to his own body. From there, he tried many different things, with the mixture failing every time as he couldn’t quite get the balance right. He’d only learned about Body Potions ten days earlier, so it was natural he still wasn’t that good at making them. Alas, it wasn’t like they were ultimately that hard, and after only three days, he found the right equilibrium and got a successful craft.

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

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 281 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

Jake smiled at his success as well as the gained level. It was frankly a bit overdue, and it had been way too long since he’d made some real progress due to all the damn soul damage and whatnot. Now that he was picking up steam again, though, he had a feeling he would begin to see a lot more progress.

The mixture itself had turned from its yellowish brown to a very deep red with a tinge of green in there, with the entire thing looking very toxic to consume. Nevertheless, Jake happily bottled it up and looked at his creation with a satisfied nod.

[Malefic Body Potion (Common)] – Restores 59,920 health and 27,711 stamina when consumed. Will cause damage to anyone besides the creator if consumed.

It was pretty damn good for a first try. His best Malefic Health Potions right now could restore just about 80,000 health, which meant this potion was technically better purely numbers-wise. Sure, it gave quite a lot less health in exchange for the stamina, but overall, it was an improvement for sure. More than that, it proved the potential for Jake to soon get his very first uncommon potion that didn’t just restore mana.

Checking if he had any messages, Jake saw nothing important had happened in the wider multiverse yet, making him return to his alchemy as he began to mass-produce Malefic Body Potions with a focus on improving the process. He ended up failing about a third of all crafts, primarily because he tried something new that didn’t work. When it did work, he saw quick leaps in progress, though, and as the hours turned to days, the progress was slow and steady.

What else was slow and steady was the depletion of high-value ingredients offered to him, and if he had more shame, Jake would probably have felt guilty for robbing them, but he was too busy crafting to worry about stuff like that. Plus, it wasn’t as if Valhal didn’t benefit as he, at times, had other alchemists come and talk to Jake as they were also curious about the different methodologies of alchemy within the Order of the Malefic Viper.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

As the days passed, Jake also really began to feel the benefits of his improvement in mana control from practicing so much with the Puzzle Box of the Seeker, as it allowed him to pick up on any flaws far more quickly than usual, something that astounded the other alchemists at Valhal.

Jake also had his massive Perception making him even better at learning new stuff, as he could detect the flaws in what he was doing and adjust on the fly far more effectively than pretty much anyone his level. Perception was an important stat for pretty much all crafting professions, after all, and Jake had a lot of Perception.

The overall difficulty of making these potions also still wasn’t that hard, perhaps because they had been designed to be made by Valhal alchemists, who didn’t really have any Legacy classes or professions that focused a lot on Perception or alchemy in the first place. This was at least why Jake guessed it didn’t even take him a week to have another major breakthrough.

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

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 282 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 289 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

Jake reveled in the feelings of even more levels as he checked out his newest creation.

[Malefic Body Potion (Uncommon)] – Restores 71,015 health and 29,631 stamina when consumed. Will cause damage to anyone besides the creator if consumed.

100,646. A number that the keen eye would observe was above 100,000, and thus in the realm of uncommon potions. Due to promises he’d made, he went to the other alchemists – who were also the ones who restocked him with ingredients – and showed off his newest creation. This was the first uncommon potion any of them had ever seen crafted by a native of the universe, and besides the Malefic tag excusing why it was so much better than what they could make, it was just like theirs, just better.

What the other alchemists cared about more than anything wasn’t Jake’s unique crafting methods or even that he made something better than them. That was only to be expected, as even if he was on his way to being a Usurper, he was still the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, and the fact he wanted to usurp the Path of the Malefic Viper was proof he genuinely cared about alchemy. No, what surprised them more than anything was his rate of improvement.

They had seen his first Malefic Body Potion and could now see how much better Jake had gotten in less than a week. One of them couldn’t help but question this as he looked at the uncommon potion like it was a mythical piece of equipment:

“What’s your secret to achieving such rapid improvement? How do you eliminate flaws in the crafting process and increase the efficiency so much in such a short amount of time?” the alchemist questioned.

“The key is high Perception,” Jake said teasingly. With his level-ups, he’d also gotten some extra potential stats to get from elixirs, which made him take out his Void Marble and give it a good lick while making sure five other alchemists saw him. “And, of course, a proper diet.”

After fucking with the poor alchemists, Jake went back to work immediately. Only occasionally did he get interrupted with updates on everything happening with the Yip of Yore conflict or what was going on back on Earth, but it appeared that their strategy for the Milky Way Galaxy had worked out well, as nothing much was really happening everywhere. Stuff had stabilized as everyone watched the first universe with bated breath as Yip of Yore and his alliance were closing in on Primordial-4 by the day and things only continued escalating.

Jake, like everyone else, could only continue waiting as he kept doing his alchemy, now working toward making Body Restoration Potions and, of course, Malefic Body Restoration Potions after that. This would net him not only new kinds of creations but it would also be his first time properly making any kind of regeneration-style potion at all. If he even managed to make an uncommon Malefic Restoration Potions, that would just make things even better.

Days turned to weeks as Jake was making far more progress than expected, and not just when it came to making potions. His experience gain was honestly extreme, and Jake was astonished at the effects of not having crafted for a while and making new stuff… at least, he assumed that was the reason why he gained so many levels.

Soon enough, over a month had passed and Jake had long succeeded in most of his goals. On the forty-eighth day since he made his first uncommon Malefic Body Potion, Jake succeeded in making a second kind of uncommon potion.

You have successfully crafted [Malefic Body Restoration Potion (Uncommon)] – A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned

It also happened to be Jake’s very first successful craft after he infused the regular Body Restoration potion with his blood, with the end result being far better than first expected.

[Malefic Body Restoration Potion (Uncommon] – Restores 61,099 health and 24,703 stamina. Increases health and stamina regeneration significantly for the next sixty (60) minutes, or until an additional 61,099 health and 24,702 stamina has been restored. Will cause damage to anyone besides the creator if consumed.

Jake hadn’t managed to make a regular Body Restoration Potion at uncommon rarity yet, though he was close. So, in that sense, it wasn’t surprising to see the Malefic version of the potion get over the threshold, but just how much better it ended up being did shock him.

It restored 171,604 resources in total. With how the formula worked, that meant the extra regeneration over the hour only counted half, this one landed at 128,603 resources restored according to the uncommon rarity upgrade requirement formula.

Seeing how good it was, Jake decided then and there that he would keep improving on these Malefic Body Restoration Potions. He was the kind of fighter who was okay with drawn-out combat if he failed to take his target down in the initial opening attack, especially with his Hunting Momentum and high Perception, allowing him to identify flaws in his opponent the longer the fight went on.

So, having a bit of delayed regeneration wouldn’t affect him much, and because of how potions worked, the extra health restored went straight to healing him quicker during the entire hour. Also, the wording was a bit ambiguous, but it didn’t actually take a full hour to restore the additional amount; it was just an upper ceiling for how much could be restored.

After testing the potions by drinking one, he also discovered something else very neat. The Malefic tag didn’t only make the potions better for Jake but also helped make them activate quicker to speed up healing after consuming one… and this turned out to also work with the delayed effect. The health portion of it, anyway.

Within not even ten minutes, he could consume the entire secondary health restoration effect if he was badly injured, nearly doubling the actual effect of the potion he was making. It was a result that surpassed all expectations… but it was nothing compared to the amount of levels he’d gotten. In one and a half months, Jake had earned so much experience it quite frankly felt unbelievable.

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 283 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

…

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 288 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 290 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

…

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 292 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

Jake had gained six whole levels in his profession. That was about a level a week, which was so extreme Jake considered if he should cripple his soul more often if this was the kind of progress one could make following it. Or maybe this was just the effect of learning a new crafting methodology? Either way, it was great.

With the uncommon Malefic Restoration Body Potion made, he naturally went to meet all the alchemists again to show off his creation. After showing it to them all and feeling quite good about himself, he walked back to his lab to continue crafting, hoping for some more levels.

However, before he could even begin to craft anything… he got a notification.

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 289 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

Jake stared at it in confusion. He… hadn’t crafted anything? Why did he get a random level without crafting anything?Nôv(el)B\\jnn

That’s when realization struck. Jake hadn’t been getting levels this fast because of all the new alchemy he’d been doing. Sure, it had helped… but the true reason was something entirely different, and as he stood there, contemplating if this could really all be because of the war between Yip and the Viper, a loud banging was heard from behind as Carmen rushed into his laboratory, and with a single sentence, Jake under understood…

“Yip has reached Primordial-4.”

… they were in the endgame now.