The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1007: Valhal Alchemy Intermission Sometimes, it was good to take a little break to take your mind off things and just chill. And Jake’s ultimate method of taking his mind off things was to really dive into doing some alchemy… so that was precisely what he did. Plus, being at Valhal, this was a great opportunity.

Different factions all had varying methodologies for their Professions and crafting in general. Their Legacies were based on prior heroes of the faction and what they passed down to the next generation through knowledge in the form of books, recipes, and still-living teachers, but also – and perhaps far more importantly – Records and skills.

The Order of the Malefic Viper was a good example of this. The Order was filled with alchemists because the Malefic Viper had been hailed as the greatest alchemist in the multiverse when it came to making poisons and certain branches of transmutation. The Records of the Viper was naturally passed down to the next generation, who often relied on skills granted by the Legacy, such as Palate of the Malefic Viper, and any research they conducted ended up with certain assumptions and lack of exploration in certain areas. The easiest example of this was how the Order didn’t really have any methods to lessen the expulsion of toxic fumes during crafting, but instead even had ways to amplify it, as to them, these fumes just helped better understand what one was crafting. There were countless more examples, but it all boiled down to the same thing: how Legacies colored one’s thought process and approach to something.

Valhal was the same. They had a lot of brewers because of Valdemar and his love of alcohol, and culturally, it was viewed as one of the “cool” professions to have. Valhal also had a lot more cooks than organizations like the Order or nearly any other faction, as they naturally needed good food with the booze. With how much they broke stuff, those focused on construction were also a must, and none of this mentioned their many special professions, such as the one Carmen had that revolved around making effigies and offerings to the warriors of old.

However, in the same vein that the Order also had builders, cooks, smiths, and all other professions, Valhal also had their fair share of alchemists. Alchemists who had built knowledge over dozens of eras and developed their own approaches to the profession. They didn’t have Palate; thus no natural poison resistance, and Valhal also didn’t really do poisons in the first place.

Neither did they do much transmutation, acids, classical formations, or much of what Jake had learned a lot about. Instead, they focused on the far more classical alchemical creations: potions, flasks, and elixirs. To Valhal, potions were perhaps the most important as they were supportive tools to help you last longer in a fight or to boost yourself before it. Elixirs were pretty much mandatory for one to fill up those extra potential stat points one could get, though there were many other ways to get those permanent bonuses than alchemy. Shit, on Valhal’s planet in the Milky Way Galaxy, they had what Jake could only describe as a large gym filled with odd formations and training machines with the ability to permanently increase stats the same way as elixirs.

Anyway, the point was, while Valhal was far worse at alchemy in general than a place such as the Order of the Malefic Viper, they did have a different perspective and methodology on how to best use the profession. Having been told several times to broaden his horizons more to get new inspiration, Jake decided to take his time in Valhal to truly experience their alchemy.

With the help of Bobby, Jake got access to a lot of otherwise confidential material and, with a bit of pressure from Carmen, the ingredients he would need to do his experimentation. Jake had considered how to spend his time at Valhal the best and only really boiled it down to two options of what to focus on:

Potions or flasks.

Flasks were… tempting, if for no other reason than to try something new. Jake had never really learned how to make them, primarily because he didn’t really feel a need to. Flasks had the ability to grant temporary buffs, but the problem with them was that these buffs pretty much always replaced or were overwritten by boosting skills. Jake could, in theory, make a flask that increased all his stats by 20%, but what the hell would that help when Arcane Awakening did it better?

Not to say they were useless, far from it.

Firstly, they were supremely useful for people who didn’t have a proper boosting skill. While Jake kind of took it for granted as every one of his pals had one, they were far from universal. Boosting skills also came with a high risk as they effectively put you on a timer when used in nearly all cases, and overstraining the body for too long could be very unhealthy. Flasks did tend to be more gentle and perhaps more importantly, did not always make you consume more resources for the temporary power increase.

Secondly, they could be far more specialized. Jake had a boosting skill that increased all his stats, in part because he used all of them while fighting due to his style. However, others had more specialized ones. Carmen’s boosting skill increased her melee combat power by boosting her physical stats, but it naturally didn’t give her more Wisdom or Intelligence. While it probably wasn’t relevant to her, having a flask in a situation where boosting one of the skills her normal boosting skill didn’t affect could be incredibly useful.

about it, though. It was a form of flask Valhal called “Berserker’s Boon,” and while It definitely had another name in other places, they tended to

of blowing yourself up afterward… something that did tend to be quite the negative for people who weren’t like Jake

where one could trade one thing for another in order to gain more power with less cost. As the name Berserker’s Boon indicated, it was a potion that also used the concept of Berserkers and effectively allowed any warrior who consumed it to turn into one… at the cost of also having the mind

There, he

talented alchemist from Valhal. Allows the user to temporarily enter a Berserker’s Rage, increasing all physical stats while lowering mental ones. +50% Strength, Agility, Toughness, Endurance, and Vitality. The effectiveness of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Perception is significantly decreased. All mental faculties are additionally reduced. During Berserker’s Rage, natural regeneration is significantly improved the lower the user’s health is, all pain is ignored, and the user can keep moving for a short period of time even if Health Points reach 0. This flask lasts for a maximum duration of thirty (30) minutes. Duration is reduced based on the actions of the

how useful it is and if the tradeoff is worth the extra stats provided. Not being in your

Stolen novel; please report.

say a 50% increase in stats isn’t worth it? It makes any warrior who consumes it become a powerhouse instantly, and sure, they might

sure about the actual use case,” Jake tried to clarify. “Seeing as it’s ancient rarity, I doubt they are cheap or easy to make, so it’s not like

answered, motioning Jake to proceed and get to

first place to be worth the investment… which means they likely already have a boosting skill able to compete with it. One

stared at Jake for a moment, genuinely confused. “What in the nine hells are

far higher level of stat increase than the regular person. As he used his own arcane affinity for his boosting skill,

stats by 60% for a pretty limited amount of time, and even then, he would be taking damage throughout. He could boost his offensive or defensive skills by 50% without any real backlash, so his boosting skill was definitely better than this flask, but

to spend a long time learning how to craft something he would never personally be able to benefit from. And, again, all his friends already had banger boosting skills, so they didn’t need it either.

encouraging her to keep working hard on her berserk flasks, Jake went to visit some other alchemist to study something that would

the alchemists at Valhal, though that was in part due to his far superior stats compared to everyone else. Higher stats just made crafting easier, thus allowing one to faster improve one’s technique, and stats also just helped add to the final product, making Jake overpowered just from that alone. Coupled with his skills in crafting potions… yeah, he was pretty damn good, and one would be hard-pressed to find other alchemists at his level capable of crafting equally as good potions. They could still be more skilled than him, though it was hard

to learn when it came to making potions. While Jake wouldn’t say Valhal had a better Legacy when it came to making potions compared to the

uncommon rarity when he crafted his first potion capable of restoring over 100,000 mana. However, even now, he still wasn’t able to make a health potion capable

Brew Potion skill – a goal many didn’t meet. Jake wasn’t satisfied with just making the easiest