The Primal Hunter

Lavender, Evergreen Grass, a lot of mana and a bit of love, and you have a perfectly healthy potion. It seemed simple on paper, but there was a bit of work going into it. The mana-control aspect of the crafting process was something that could always be improved, and the more you trained, the better your potions would inadvertently get. While there was a cap caused by the ingredients and your own stats, it wasn’t one Jake could ever feasibly reach.

He did improve a whole lot, though. His potions got better and better, and he honestly took quite a while to get proper pricing down but ended up just settling on 20.000 for each potion. While he certainly could charge more, he didn’t feel the need to. He didn’t craft them to make money, to begin with, but to level his profession and get as comfortable with his new D-grade mana control prowess as he could before he would begin crafting some more interesting things.

Like some uncommon-rarity poison.

Well, his pricing scheme was like that for the first week until he talked about it with Miranda.

“Why don’t you have someone else sell it for you? Merchants or others with compatible professions apparently get great experience selling items through the store to other cities and have even better methods to price goods with their skills. That way, they can gain levels, and you can gain Credits without thinking about putting them up for sale yourself,” she said, sounding quite reasonable.

“Do you have anyone in mind?” he had asked.

This was when he learned that apparently, being a City Lord’s assistant also included selling stuff as a part of the job, at least the system agreed it did. Lillian came by later that day, and from the first week and moving forward, she handled all the commercial stuff for him. She just came by once a day or so and took all the potions he had already made while giving him any stuff he asked her to buy or look out for.

Jake still bought most of the items he wanted himself, as quite frankly, he only knew he wanted it when he saw it. Every item above common-rarity was more or less an impulse buy because he thought: ”hey, I guess I can use this for something.”

It had now been two weeks total since the World Congress ended, and Jake was spending most of his time every day experimenting on making an uncommon-rarity poison, but he did still spend a few hours pumping out potions.

The experience was great when he mass-produced things, and he had gained two levels during this period. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, one had to remember that leveling only got harder and harder as time went on. Villy had told him that sometimes going years between levels at higher grades was just to be expected.

*’ DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 103 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

*’ DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 109 - Stat points allocated, +15 free points*

*’ DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 104 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

As for what kind of poison he was trying to make an uncommon variant of? He had decided to start with the old trusty one: Necrotic Poison.

Necrotic Poison did have some drawbacks, but against any living being, it was just great. Against elementals, it was quite bad, but it even functioned okay-ish versus plant-based foes. It also happened to be the poison Jake had the most experience with.

Finally, he decided to go for this poison because of a certain herb. Or, more accurately, mushroom. An old friend of his, but in a new and improved form.

[Aged Bluebright Mushroom (Uncommon)] - A poisonous blue mushroom that emits blue light. The Aged Blue Mushroom has grown to a point where simply being touched by its light can bring you harm, and the juices found within are more toxic than ever.

Jake had discovered that the System Store was indeed a bit dynamic and adaptable. He had bought all the normal common-rarity Bluebright Mushrooms that he could and found that the store stocked a few more every time, with it even giving out a few uncommon-rarity ones every time now.

do and ate them. All competent doctors

but had a bit stronger flavor, and the juices within them sizzled in his mouth when he ate. He was perfectly aware that without Palate of the Malefic Viper,

mushrooms always gave the best insights, and it was far more valuable than just trying to experiment with them blindly. Jake did run into the issue of needing to get more, and he knew he would need these mushrooms in the long run, even after the System Store disappeared. Problem is… Jake had never actually done any proper gardening in his life, and he also really didn’t feel like starting

do it for you? Maybe train someone to do it properly. That should also

considered it, but that would also take time… there was also the issue that he couldn’t just take anyone random. They had to know the basics and be strong enough not to be killed by the mushrooms. He considered it for a while

due to the mana it leaked, but the issue was that the dungeon portal leaked life-affinity mana, while the mushrooms primarily had death-affinity or perhaps rot-affinity mana. Chances are the mushrooms would get worse if put down there, or possibly mutate if Jake got lucky

the cavern was far more suitable to grow other kinds of herbs and plants in. There were many different types of mushrooms too, and ones used in hemotoxins or many other types

of a rush as he could save

having the occasional playtime with Sylphie or meeting with Miranda and/or Lillian. All in all, it was quite relaxing, and

Dungeon time.

deep breath as the mana hummed to life. A green sheen overtook the entire area as the light danced and weaved in seemingly random patterns. But there was a method to the madness as she began chanting words in a language she truly didn’t understand. It wasn’t a question of her

hold

an old enemy most in the city would recognize as an Oakwood Tiger – the kind of beast that

around a large peculiar tree - likely a natural treasure of sorts. Out of all the tigers, one of them was special. It had a small mark on it that it could neither detect with its mana sense nor see with its eyes. It was a green sigil depicting a circular mark, looking a

they could fight with regular magic, flinging fire and ice like any other caster, their specialty

Candles burned around the perimeter, and several items were placed in key spots of the formation. Among these items were the heart of an Oakwood Tiger she had killed days prior, leaves from the forest, bark from many different kinds of trees, and several catalysts she had bought using her Credits from the Ore &

Verdant Mark, she weaved her spell, and through it, she would bring them

the items placed around the

the Lagoon’s Insatiable

tree. It was a natural treasure that served as a natural gathering point for all the Oakwood Tigers in the

but most didn’t. Many types of natural treasures – this one included - functioned better for some beasts than others. This tree was highly beneficial to the

be their doom and that this haven they had

it was subtle. A few of the tigers noticed a shift in the air as a green wind seemed to sweep through, with even less noticing the green grass below them

anything was wrong, it was already

one of the tigers. It struggled, but another arm came up, followed by a dozen more as they began dragging it down. Down to the depths

hands that sought to bring them down, and

The first to be grabbed was also the first to be fully submerged as

it. They were all half-corporeal but physical enough to bite and tear into the tiger as it struggled. As

joined it below as they too suffered the same fate. They did all struggle, and they managed to “kill” many of the creatures trying to devour them, but there were just too many.

nearly half an hour before the depths below

aura from the ritual faded. Not a

of blood even flowed out her mouth as she had taken a bit of damage towards

all the catalysts burned away by the green fire. It had been an expensive one, and it had