The Primal Hunter

Jake didn’t really know all that much about curses. But he did know a bit. He had the Root of Eternal Resentment in his Palate for a long-ass time, and it had housed a shitload of curse energy. Now, as for infusing that concept into a poison? Well, that was something entirely different.

He shared his idea with Reika and got a very skeptical response initially. She did point out some rather glaring issues. Curses tended to be born from strong emotions, yes, but they are also extremely hard to control as they were essentially emotions so strong they had tangible effects on the world. To contain a curse within a poison should not be easy, especially while avoiding it overpowering the life affinity aspect of the finished product. So that would be a bit of a challenge, but at least he was a bit better at another aspect of the task.

Jake had some experience with something that was kind of a life affinity poison. Well, one real experience - all the way back in the challenge dungeon where he had created his Unstable Amalgamation of Malefic Vitau. He now knew in retrospect that it was pretty much just a vitality-increasing elixir on crack and made unstable as fuck, but he also knew that this wasn’t possible to do with the materials he currently had available.

Firstly, the amalgamation had not been made from life affinity energy but more a vital affinity. They were closely related but not exactly the same, and changing it into a vitality-increasing energy type would likely result in it no longer counting as truly life-affinity.

Secondly, the only reason it had worked back then was due to Malefic Viper’s Poison triggering and upgrading the poison to above what it would usually be. It had been a direct impartment of Records by the Viper himself and not something Jake could replicate even if he wanted to.

Jake thus spent a good while considering how to make it, and Reika also came with plenty of input. One thing quickly became clear: if he wanted to use his curse energy, they would have to find a way to infuse it without overpowering and dominating any other part of the concoction. Transmutation was quickly ruled out as its transformative effect likely wouldn’t work well with the curse energy.

There was the possibility of infusing a catalyst but there tended to be rather stringent requirements before one could infuse an object with curse energy. One requirement tended to be time and connection to the curse. Infusing a mushroom with a curse related to hating mushrooms sounded like a good way to just make it implode. The same was true for doing it to a Lifecore.

Yet this did not deter Jake or Reika as they began working on another way: ritualism. And for this, Jake had a skill that he hadn’t really used much but would no doubt prove useful.

[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.

While this skill primarily revolved around souls, it also gave some general knowledge about rituals. Curses were also deeply related to the soul anyway, as they were born from it. Most curses came into being when someone died, as it was the remnant emotions in one of the layers of the soul that managed to collect and take a form with intent. Most often, it was due to a lot of people dying with similar grievances and thus empowering each other. However, the part of the soul that would turn into a curse upon death could also be focused on and extracted to forcefully make a curse. An oversimplification, sure, but this was effectively it.

This is what Casper did. He focused, extracted, and infused his own emotions into vessels that he then used as weapons. That he could also mix it with mana was the kind of technique that Jake was still very unsure of how he did. Anyway, none of this was that important as Jake didn’t plan on making a truly cursed item but just a poison with a bit of curse energy mixed in to give it direction.

It didn’t take him long to figure out how he wanted to infuse the energy. He was limited to materials from the dungeon, but as he discovered earlier, he could also use his blood. He could naturally also use his own mana and energy as that was just a part of the crafting process, and one could argue Jake was technically part of the dungeon as he was within it, so his plan should work.

With enough focus and a ritual to further amplify the effects, Jake believed he could make his blood into essentially a cursed liquid that would mix with an otherwise non-damaging life affinity item. Life affinity was by itself not damaging unless made volatile or, as Jake hoped to do, self-destructive.

Because yes… when Jake considered earlier how infusing a curse would just make the life affinity item self-implode, Jake saw that as an opportunity.

What he wanted to do was to make the life affinity latch unto the vital energy of the mushroom man, making it self-implode in self-hatred upon entering the body out of pure disgust, turning it into poison. Would this work? Maybe. Was Jake going to try, hoping to see a mushroom man consume itself and effectively commit suicide? Fuck yeah, he did.

just making a highly dense life-affinity liquid using the mushroom juices of slain foes and further infusing that with Lifecores.

was one of the most ambitious things Jake had ever done, but he

flask. Reika was the one who crafted it using her skills and managed to create several common rarity flasks for Jake to experiment with.

planned on making a ritual where he would infuse his own blood into the Lifecore using a ritual. However, as he attempted to do this several times, he repeatedly failed to actually create a curse. He didn’t understand why as he kept trying until a realization struck him. One he never thought

isn’t

possible, Jake didn’t know. He did hate mushrooms; of that, there was no doubt. But… he had to admit his hatred was not as strong as the level he had seen from others. It wasn’t like mushrooms had killed

initially channeled his anger toward those who killed his now-ghost-girlfriend Lyra. That was some real anger, and Jake knew that while Casper was a very introverted person, he was also the sort of person go to all in when he felt

at that level. Feeling a bit distressed at the thought of failing, Jake remembered: he was not alone in

spoke.

best if we

ten, how

depends

not instantly saying eleven,” Jake

you are just being unreasonable,” Reika argued with a sigh. “It is

I was a kid, and my mom tried to make me eat those shitty white button mushrooms or whatever the fuck they are called, I have despised them. They bring nothing good to the world, and their only use is when they are destroyed and their juices are squeezed out to kill things. Because even in death, mushrooms bring only suffering,” Jake said, getting a bit flared up and feeling like he was a step closer already to successfully creating the

the fold

with Reika. Jake looked at him

scale of one to ten,

deserving of the

good enough to use in the final concoction,

our plan

Draskil cut him

I need you to pour all your hate into your Blood of the Malefic Viper, put it in my cauldron, and then join me in my hatred of mushrooms for the ritual,” Jake shortened

said

“Yep,” Jake nodded.

a dead Mushroom Man – and by now, Jake was

was off the table when

he realized that Draskil’s hatred for mushrooms seemed to rival or even surpass his own. That, and Jake also ran into the issue of Draskil’s

a challenge to overcome, but one Jake gladly took on. Draskil was incredibly patient, far more than Jake would have expected, and assisted Jake with rituals throughout the next two days as he improved more and more. At