Chapter 810: Nevermore: To Study the Curse


    Curse energy was a great tool forbat. However, when it came to using it to craft while doing alchemy, things were very different.


    The energy was actually pretty damn hard to store outside of your body, something Jake already knew and now had to find a way to work around. Jake had a talk with Casper back during Minagas City Floor, where the Risen shared that he primarily used wooden stakes due to innate concepts within the element. Wood was great at storing energy of different kinds, as trees in the multiverse tended to be very diverse. You could find trees capable of housing anything dependent on their environment. This included curse energy.


    To be fair, most nts were very adaptable, but wood was one of the only things that retained most of these properties even after the tree itself had been cut down. It was also part of the reason why Yalsten had even fallen. If it hadnt been a giant tree that granted that world its unique properties but had instead been some special kind of star or big rock, the chances of the curse taking hold would have been far lower. The fact it was a tree also helped it survive for as long as it did, even if the curse was eventually reduced to a single root.


    Curse energy also didnt mix well with anything; something had run into this many times with his own magic. Jakes Sin Curse especially did not do well with any other form of energy. One could even say that Jakes destructive arcane energy and his curse energy were exact opposites.


    One wanted to simply destroy everything, while the other wanted to devour it. When these two met, the result would be mutual destruction until there was nothing left of either. However, the story was different with his stable arcane energy. As long as Jake kept the hungering curse energy and destructive arcane energy apart by just a small sealed barrier of stable arcane energy, they would ignore each other.


    It was a bit odd that the curse energy didnt even try to eat his stable arcane energy, but he just chalked that up to another special trait of his arcane affinity. Maybe the energy just wasnt tasty or something, or maybe it was because the barrier registered as something physical and not energy. Honestly, who knows? Probably Villy, but Jake digressed.


    Due to the difficulty of using it, he only actually had a single skill that actively used curse energy. Piercing Cursed Arcane Fang made use of Jakes ability to seal in the curse energy with a coating of arcane mana that he would then stab into stuff. It was as simple as could be, really.


    Either way, Jakes problem with curse energy was that it inherently wanted to eat everything, so if he tried to mix it into a concoction, surprise, surprise, it would try to eat the concoction. This is what was called a bad thing in the alchemical world. Even if the curse energy was far from powerful enough to consume the rest of the concoction, all Jake would have aplished was to destroy a part of what he was trying to make.


    In all honesty, Jake had no way around this. The only ce where Jake could mix poison and curse energy was duringbat. Eternal Hunger didnt passively give off the curse energy when not in use  it was simply too greedy to do something like that  which meant Jake could coat it with poison with no problem. The curse energy would then activate to attack foes he stabbed or cut, ignoring the poison it was with to feast on something far tastier.


    Jakes idea for a unique poison came from a simple question: what if Eternal Hunger didnt ignore the poison? More specifically, what if he wanted the curse energy to eat it? What if he made a type of poison specifically made to be eaten by his curse energy to empower it?


    Mind you, methods to empower curses werent new, far from it. There were many catalysts or liquids Jake could make to empower curse energy; Jake had even been offered a skill to create cursed items that he could thenter use to empower his curse energy.


    But this wasnt what Jake was thinking about. No, he wanted it still to be a poison. To aplish this, Jake looked into another branch of alchemy that he didnt study much but was considered a side-branch of ethtoxins  soul poison. Some poisons existed out there that didnt deal any damage or even registered as harmful at any point, some of which even made the person you infected more powerful but at the cost of grave consequences once the poison ran out.


    One could almostpare it to doping someone forcefully. Whats more, this always came with effects that infected the mental state of the target. Something that made them more bold, reckless, and overconfident. The effects wouldnt be overly powerful, and the poison was considered very hard to make, but he had found it intriguing, even if something was a bit weird.


    Jake wondered why he had never really run into this type of poison before until he read a book that exined its fatal w: it only worked against idiots. Not just idiots when talking about intelligence, but beings that didnt even have any instinctive wisdom either. Even elementals who were just beings of pure mana would notice something was wrong.


    Considering the poison didnt register as a poison and had subtle effects by design, anyone who didnt suck could quickly purge it when they noticed it and rely on their Willpower to get rid of any mental maniption in the meantime. This made the poison hard to craft and hard to use, making it subpar due to this alone. When you did use it, it very rarely worked, and even when it did work, it made your target a bit stronger for a period of time before it would then be weakened, making it an overall shitty poison.


    All in all, it was one of those types of poison many had researched but never really used. It was more a branch that some alchemists rmended looking into to make better sks using some of the concepts to also benefit from some Malefic Viper poison-rted skills. Because, yes, poison sks were also a thing but that was a topic for a whole other time.


    Anyway, this type of poison that sucked to use against people gave Jake an idea. What if he made a poison that effectively boosted the curse energy? Curse energy was odd in that it kind of lived, if that made sense, so Jake was pretty confident he could affect it. He also didnt care about any of the subtlety or the potential consequences of using too much of a steroid. The curse energy just had to go wild and eat whatever it struck anyway, and if it did so more ravenously and uncontrolled than before, all the better.


    However there was one huge problem with crafting this kind of poison. It included a lot of ingredients ssified as psychedelics  which could also be used to make sks or potions to help one hallucinate and gain enlightenment  and these kinds of ingredients tended to have one thing inmon. One terrible thing.


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    Violet Cap Sporeduster of at least rare rarity, Mindcap of epic rarity, Rainbow-Spotted Satyr Mushroom of rare rarity, Illusiary Puffball of rare rarity, and finally a bag of mosscap and moss mix. Rare-rarity, please, Jake asked the Merit Exchange worker, holding back any vomit.


    Thats right pretty much every single ingredient was mushrooms. Even the goddamn moss was mixed with small mushrooms that grew on and inside of it. To make matters even worse, Jake would have to eat many of those disgusting shrooms for Pte of the Malefic Viper.


    Oh, and also, all of these were psilocybin mushrooms, or what Jake before the system would have called magic mushrooms. They didnt really affect Jake much in their raw form due to his Pte, but some of their effects did leak through as they didnt register as necessarily being detrimental. Jake wondered why the hell an effect that made everything take on a rainbow sheen or made him feel like his feet were twice as big as before didnt register as detrimental, but who the hell was he to question the Legacy skill of a Primordial?


    Oh wait, he was Jake, so of course he would question it.


    Sometimes I do wonder to myself if there is any particr reason why psychedelic mushrooms dont register as purely poisonous to Pte of the Malefic Viper? Oh, wait, is it rted to how alcohol also has some effect despite clearly being a toxin? Could it possibly be that the Malefic One, in his infinite wisdom, purposefully wanted to still leave himself an opening to get both drunk and high? No, that possibly cannot be it, Jake spoke out loud while getting back to the alchemy room.


    It was naturally purely coincidental he spoke to himself while in the only area the livestream was live, and he was pretty sure the Malefic Viper was listening. Coincidental, for sure.


    Another reason why Jake chose this kind of poison was naturally due to how different it was from anything he usually made. This would add a lot to the journey part of the craft, and due to how different this kind of poison was, it opened up the possibility of Jake also submitting a more normal poison without much penalty if he ended up not making anything he thought was better.


    Speaking of unique, Tet was doing pretty damn well if Jake said so himself. He had brought the young man back from the dystopian megacity about a month prior, and by now, most of his nervousness had bled away and been reced by a singr focus on getting stronger.


    Jake had kept tempering him with his own curse energy over this period and had seen it slowly feed the young mans curse of hatred. Based on his talks with the guy, his progress was beyond anything he had ever seen before.


    To try to boost his progress further, Jake had also considered giving him a Blessing but ultimately decided not to. First of all, Tet didnt really exist. He was effectively just a copy of someone who died trillions of years ago, so Jake wasnt sure he even could bless him. Secondly, even if Jake could, he wasnt sure he wanted to, as it risked exposing Jake could bless someone without the Vipers approval. There was also that it was a bit of a dickmove to do it without the Viper saying it was okay in the first ce. Oh, and finally, say Jake did give him a Blessing, wouldnt that just contaminate the Records Jake wanted to impart? Wouldnt the Records of a Primordial rece many of his own and make it much less Jakes Creation, worsening the final evaluation? Probably, which is why Jake stuck to just helping his student the usual way.Exclusive ? material by N?(/v)elDrama.Org.


    Progress-wise, Tet had only gained a single level this month, but Jake was all good with that. The young man had instead improved many of his skills, and based on how fast the potency of his curse energy grew, Jake didnt doubt he would be able to level up fast when necessary.


    In the alchemy department, Jakes little student had even made a bit of progress. Jake had expected him to have a profession rted to being a pet, which he did kind of have, but it wasnt what Jake expected. The one he had was pretty much a double-agent kind of deal and gave him a bunch of skills to try and deceive people while keeping himself hidden. The profession was also rted to curses, so that was a win for sure. Plus, there were a few skills in there he worked on turning more alchemy-like.


    One skill he had that was already useable was one to condense curse fragments. It was pretty much a worse version of the skill Jake had been offering to make curse marbles, but it was a start. As for how he would use his curse energy, Jake wouldnt dictate. He was very much a hands-off teacher and just believed in creating the best environment for Tet to figure shit out himself while helping him improve his fundamental power. Ah, but he did do some teacher-like things, like answering questions as best as he could.


    I dont get this part of the ritual circle, Tet asked as he brought a book rted to rituals that could utilize curse energy. The lines dont seem to connect at all with the other segments


    Jake studied the book for a bit as he recognized the issue Tet spoke of. Its because the connection will be established by the liquid you need to pour into the formation indents here, here and here. Blood is rmended, but as you dont have the Legacy skill of the Malefic Viper, you need to figure out a way to make your own useful.


    Can I use someone elses blood?


    Sure, but they need to be strong enough for their blood to support the rest of the formation, and I reckon you need to infuse them with a lot of curse energy beforehand. Oh, and they need to be kept alive throughout, Jake dly answered. If they die and their Truesoul disperses, so will their Records and the power in their blood. So at least keep the Truesoul around.


    How would I do that? Tet asked curiously.


    There are many ways to dy someones soul from dispersing. In your case, modifying the ritual circle a bit to include focal points to seal in the creatures you want the blood from is probably rmended. That way, their soul will disperse the moment the ritual circle is done doing its job, Jake said as he sent out a string of mana and took a book from one of the big piles Jake had thrown there. Here, check this one out; it talks about it.


    Thank you, Lord Thayne, Tet said in a respectful voice. I will be sure to make you proud and hopefully make me worthy of being your student.


    Just keep up the good work, yeah? Jake smiled, pretty satisfied so far, just happy that Tet seemed very interested in something.


    Also, Lord Thayne, I am allowed to study all the books here, right? Tet asked. Nothing is off-limits?


    Of course, Jake shrugged. Thats why I brought them. Why, do you have any more questions regarding anything? While I am not sure whats in all the books, I have read quite a few of them.


    No no, I simply wanted to make sure, Tet said as he bowed. I shall return to my studies.


    Dont forget resistance trainingter, Jake said, seeing the young man shiver at the mention of it.


    Resistance training was, of course, Jakes signature presence-resistance training regiment. He knew from helping Caleb train his shadow assassins that just a little bit of resistance training did wonders, and from the looks of it, Tet was also helped tremendously. It helped him manage his own energy better and keep his head calm even when wielding amounts of curse energy, which some would argue was too much for him.


    Watching Tet walk off after looking for a few books, Jake couldnt help but feel like things were really going smoothly.


    Sadly, Jake did run into having to do a few more Merit Point missions. He learned that the things Tet worked on couldnt be refunded to the exchange, and Jake had been experimenting a bit too much, losing more than he had earned. But he made something positive out of it as he scouted out all the other worlds properly.


    He also took the opportunity to confirm that he could bring Tet through portals to other worlds, which confirmed Jakes theory that once the young man had gone through a portal, he could use it from that point onward. This proved to be really advantageous when Jake discovered one of the worlds turned out to be a great ce to level for someone like Tet.


    Something Jake, of course, made the young man do so he could get a grasp of Tets power level, and, well lets just say Jake would also have to throw somebat lessons in there.