The Primal Hunter

The methodology had been established, and there was nothing to explain related to Jake’s approach as he began the process of selecting a new skill. As dictated by proper practice, he would begin from the first – and lowest rarity one – on the list.

Firstly, he was faced with one related to contemporary happenings but with a disappointing rarity.

[Condense Curse Marble (Uncommon)] – Make the intangible powers of curses material as you forcefully condense their energy into a physical shape. Allows the alchemist to create Curse Marbles of curse energy. Must be able to fully control the curse energy in order to condense it into a curse marble. Be aware that based on the nature of the curse, it may be harder to restrain and keep sealed within the marble. Adds a minor increase to the effectiveness of Condense Curse Marble based on Willpower.

Jake wasn’t sure what the think about this one besides… why would he ever want that? Not to be misunderstood, Jake understood why someone else would want it as it allowed them to condense curse energy and add it into alchemical creations, but why would Jake want it?

The answer is he wouldn’t, so he moved on.

[Distill Powder (Rare)] - Sometimes, poison can be more than a liquid. Perhaps it is in the air itself. Allows the alchemist to distill a concocted poison, creating powder with similar effects. Mixing the powder of different distilled poisons will work synergistically if possible. If the powder is burned, release the poisonous effect into the air. The poison powder’s effects and nature depend on the poison distilled and potentially powder-mixes. Adds an increase to the effect of the powder based on Wisdom.

Another blast from the past. Jake had passed over this skill back the first time he was offered it as uncommon-rarity, and to be honest, not much seemed to have changed except he could now mix powders to make new kinds of poison. Kinda neat and definitely something he would consider looking into doing.

He just didn’t need a skill for it, as he already had Sagacity. Due to that, he decided to move on down the list. The following skill jumped from rare to ancient rarity and was the first interesting one.

[Soul Ritualism of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Ancient)] – As a master of your own path, the power of your Soulspace and authority of self is unquestionable. Grants knowledge of and allows the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist to perform rituals pertaining to the soul. Soul Rituals must be performed both within the Soulspace and the real world. As a forger of your own path, Records infused during any soul ritual will hold more weight. Effects of the ritual are based on the nature of the ritual performed as well as the materials used during the ritual. All rituals will scale with Willpower in addition to other stat bonuses applied according to the nature of the ritual performed.

Soul ritualism was a term Jake had met a few times during research, but he still wasn’t entirely clear what it was about. Well, basic deduction dictated it had something to do with the soul, but soul magic in itself was just an incredibly broad realm of magic if it could even be called that. Mental magic was technically a form of soul magic but was most often not classified as such.

Curse magic was, too, due to how it affected the soul. Yet, again, it was often not put in the same classification as pure soul magic. Soul magic, when actually called soul magic, tended to be unbelievably pure and messed directly with the soul without any intermediate layering. The King directly draining Jake’s resources and breaking down his soul layers was an example of the purest form of soul magic.

Interestingly enough, the classes that most often used soul magic were healer-variants. Many of them had ways to directly shield souls, and with the soul shielded, it could also block other magic that interacted with the soul through some intermediate means. Heck, as health points were part of the soul, one could argue anything that did damage interacted with the soul.

However… perhaps the purest form of soul magic was contracts or unions. Like the Union Oath Jake had made with Sylphie, the bond created between an individual and any Soulbound item, the bond created between Jake and the King, or anything in the same vein. This skill would allow Jake to probably make bonds like that… though he would for sure make it more like Sylphie’s. To be fair, he probably wouldn’t do them at all. Unless maybe it was in relation to the next type of customary soul rituals:

Soul Nurture rituals.

Jake had already participated in one such ritual before when he helped Sylphie. Of course, that one had been directed by Mystie using her own magic, but Jake had been a big part of it. Jake had actually considered asking Mystie for help when he wanted to awaken the Bee Queen and maybe still would, but he was also aware he would have to take the lead on that one.

It wasn’t that Jake didn’t think Mystie would be helpful… he just didn’t think she was strong enough. The Bee Queen would be born at level 100 and already be a fully-fledged D-grade right out of the egg, and the one doing the ritual had to be able to really influence it, and Jake believed he was the only one capable of that.

the rarity was good, it wasn’t exactly legendary. Also, everything it did, he could learn himself by studying and

way, he moved on, and next

seems like a

far more control of the curse energy related to any curse assimilated. Increases the potency and effect of all curses wielded by the alchemist when infused into Soulbound

would allow Jake to far better use curses in any aspect of his life… but

like Casper would absolutely fucking love a skill like this and probably even had one similar to it. Jake would find it a bit funny if he were offered a better one than his mate, though, even if this wasn’t really related to actually using a

already had enough problems dealing with the influence of the curse, so bonding

on…

remain dominant over the harsh emotional energy of curses, allowing you to far more easily manipulate it. Transform a portion of your mana, health, and stamina to permanently become curse energy, empowering and reducing the cost of all curse-related skills and abilities. This energy intrinsically feeds off and amplifies emotions while often doing soul damage to your target. Also allows the user to more transform all other energy sources into pure curse

was Jake’s second time seeing an attunement skill. The first time was all the way back during the Forgotten Sewers dungeon, where he had been offered the Dark Attunement skill.

an attunement skill to an affinity one has an incredibly high level of compatibility with. Jake could, as an example, easily use a bit of fire magic and even some water and earth magic if he tried, but he did not have high compatibility with any of those affinities. The only

as they were a concept. There was no curse mana or curse stamina or such like with other

be Jake permanently choosing the path of a curse user, which was something Jake

had been to simply mute everything, which honestly hadn’t ended very well as Jake had only a handful of positive memories of his life before the system. Shit, he had muted huge

led to high compatibility with curses. However, this compatibility also came with risk. Perhaps Jake could become a damn strong curse user, perhaps even

curses. They felt a

the entire list a bit and considered a few skills he had been offered prior but ultimately decided to just go with Soul Ritualism of the

skill, Jake felt the knowledge begin to enter his head as Jake closed his eyes and reveled in the influx of information for a few moments while also waiting

top form, it was time to explore a bit further down the hive and maybe,

be careful when performing risky experiments or rituals,

with something

risk and come out on top yet again. The Viper was beginning to think it truly was happening a bit too often to be a coincidence, and once more, the only explanation he could find was the Bloodline… or perhaps more accurately, the insane level of synergy between Jake’s entire personality, mindset, drive, ability, and Bloodline. As with most things, it was hard to determine if these traits came

certainly risky, but after the suppression and successful absorption of a drop of your blood, it should not be surprising he was able to,” Duskleaf nodded along as he had observed Jake as he transmuted

Merging with such a curse while only in D-grade isn’t generally recommended,” Vilastromoz asked

less than fortunate path to C-grade for those around him. Maybe he would do something a bit akin to what you did to your own planet? Such a path holds a lot of value, and it isn’t like the loss of a minor planet like

Viper smirked. “Not sure how Jake would feel about

too weak or unwise to avoid him would be no loss of consequence anyway. Doubt any but a few on

it would be of little consequence in the long term, even if the effect on his