The Primal Hunter

Submitting the acid was uneventful, which shouldn’t really surprise anyone, considering Jake and Nevermore had spoken only a few days prior.

By now, Jake just wanted to be done with the Challenge Dungeon and move on to the next. He didn’t like spending too much time in the laboratory as he had caught himself with less-than-pleasant thoughts more than once. Especially after one of his more focused crafting attempts, Jake exited it excitedly, and as he looked at his concoction, he briefly wondered why Temlat hadn’t come to ask him anything recently, only for realization to instantly set in right after.

There were just too many bad memories and reminders there, so without any unnecessary delays, he went to work on the final Creation.

The Hemonecrotic Poison, like the acid, had more or less already been completed before. In fact, he had already managed to create an improved version of the Potent Hemonecrotic Poison before, one that he nearly felt was good enough to submit.

[Heartrot Poison (Rare)] – The heart blackens as it rots away. Blood pumps throughout the body as every beat brings with it only death. Mixing potent Hemotoxin and Necrotic Poisons, a Hemonecrotic Poison has been made, capable of rotting your foe from the inside. If inflicted, the poison will spread throughout the bloodstream, binding itself to your foe’s vital energies and using it as a vehicle to spread necrotic toxins. This poison seeks toward the heart and binds itself to it, making it linger for far longer and spread faster. Wounds caused by necrotic poison are extremely difficult to heal. Cleansing the Hemonecrotic Poison from the bloodstream is extremely difficult.

This poison was an improvement over the general Hemonecrotic Poison in every way. Rather than simply infect the bloodstream, this one would seek out the heart and try to bind itself to it. This would not only make the poison a lot harder to heal, but effectively contaminate the vital energy of whoever Jake hit. Coupled with the stickiness of hemotoxins and the damaging aspects of necrotic poison, this poison would surely do a number on any vitality-based lifeform he hit it with.

What’s more, it was great at accumulating. As it all gathered in one spot, Jake would have an easier time controlling and amplifying it with Touch of the Malefic Viper, making it even better.

It was, without a doubt, Jake’s best poison to date, but he still decided to keep crafting more until he ran out of ingredients with the hope of making the best concoction he could.

Jake had asked the attendants, as he didn’t want to waste the time of Nevermore, what would happen to any excess Merit Points he had once he exited the Challenge Dungeon and had it confirmed he would lose them. He then considered just buying some rare stuff before leaving but was promptly informed that any materials he bought within the Challenge Dungeon would also be lost upon exiting. So Jake had to use everything, or it would go to waste. He couldn’t even bring any of what he had created out with him, but at least he could use the materials for a bit more crafting experience.

After Jake had crafted a particularly good Heartrot Poison, he considered calling it quits but saw he had materials for one more attempt. After that, he would be out of both Merit Points and ingredients, and Jake thought it would be cathartic to use this last batch. To have a clean break with the Challenge Dungeon to allow him to move on more easily.

Sitting with his cauldron, Jake first poured in some purified water, followed by some of his blood, naturally infused with Blood of the Malefic Viper. Mixing everything for a bit, Jake soon tossed in the epic rarity black moss he had bought, followed by a mix of mushrooms and roots that either contained hemotoxins or necrotic toxins, with a few also in there to serve as binding agents for the two, allowing them to work together. Finally, he just straight-up poured in two pre-crafted poisons of the hemotoxic and necrotic kind.

As Jake placed the last ingredients in the cauldron, he let his mind wander.

The House of the Architect had been a weird Challenge Dungeon for Jake. He had made some great progress in many aspects, especially his alchemy. Many things had begun to fall behind during these last many years doing Nevermore, and now he had time to finally play catch-up. Not only that, Jake had even managed to upgrade his stealth skill to legendary rarity, something he was incredibly happy about.

had managed to replenish, but

a Grimoire. That was a great and invaluable experience, and he knew the next one he made would be even better. If he had a scribe produce the ink and make

Jake had spent focusing on his alchemy, this was definitely the most fruitful when it came to pure progress, only capable of being slightly rivaled by the time shortly after he went to the Order of the Malefic Viper. However, it was indisputable the gains of this Challenge Dungeon had been plentiful, and Jake had gotten a lot more done

first student. Jake was far from adequate to do anything like taking students yet and would need a lot of time to properly learn how to not suck ass at teaching. To be able to have at least some confidence in what he was doing. Even if he wanted to be a free-range teacher who fostered independence and self-study, he at least wanted to be

at the very least, be able to look at his students with a smile and feel like he didn’t let them

looked down, and his eyes narrowed as he felt the mixture between his hands near completion. It actually took him a millisecond to remember he was even crafting right now… which was why it didn’t make sense that what he saw felt like,

looked like a single scaled finger momentarily appeared

is not

He had felt it a few times before, after all, which also meant the notifications that

power of the Malefic Viper has forcefully increased the rarity of your creation to

crafted [Malefic Blackheart Poison (Ancient)] – A new kind of

simple. The skill always seemed to trigger at odd or highly impactful

down at his

heart of your foe black, as only death awaits them. Mixing potent Hemotoxin and Necrotic Poisons, a Hemonecrotic Poison has been made, capable of rotting your foe from the inside. If inflicted, this poison will merge with the heart, turning it black as death overtakes it, forcing it to pump out necrotic toxins into the body rather than vital energy. Wounds caused by necrotic poison are extremely difficult to heal. Cleansing the Blackheart Poison is impossible unless the heart is completely destroyed. Should the heart be destroyed, all the remaining necrotic

improved in every single way. Seeing it, Jake honestly had some mixed emotions… and not just because of everything with his student and how his wayward thoughts regarding

for himself and hand in the regular Heartrot Poison. Jake would very much like to

matter for the evaluation, so he did what any reasonable person would do, which also happened to be the one way he knew for him to keep a part of the poison with him. Starting with the Heartrot Poison he had left over that wouldn’t make any sense to turn into Merit Points, Jake

It tasted like shit.

and honestly wasn’t worth it, but there were some minor gains, and Jake honestly had nothing better to do with it. However, something he did know was good to drink was

consumed by Jake. Especially the first poison had given Jake some great insights into vital energy and whatnot, with him sadly only passively absorbing a bit of the poison he used

the same time having the benefits of being recognized as the crafter of it. Actually, thinking about it, Jake wouldn’t be surprised if this skill was

Heartrot Poison, it was time to move on to the main course. Jake was a bit more careful with this one as he only dripped a few drops of the poison on his tongue at first. As it entered his stomach, Jake felt

opened his eyes not long after, frowning a bit. It’s not

his passive skills, but he could even consume the poison in a far more effective way. Turning the weapon on himself, he stabbed himself in the arm, allowing the