The Primal Hunter's
Alchemy

Jake enters the cave, looking through all the different mushrooms and mosses, deciding to identify the famous blue mushroom first. When he did it before, he had just gotten back a message saying [Mildew], so he was hoping for more. That expected.

[Bluebright Mushroom (Common)] – Poisonous blue mushrooms that emit blue light. Although it is not toxic to the touch, the juice found in it is highly toxic. Often used for lighting because it only requires mana to support itself.

Knowing the name of the blue threat does not diminish his dislike of the evil fungus. It was nice to see that they were only poisonous if squeezed or eaten. The next target is another type of mushroom, this one looks ordinary.

[Flytrap Mushroom (Inferior)] – Carnivorous and poisonous mushrooms that eat insects to accelerate their growth.

This one is of lesser rarity, but still poisonous. Jake looked further around, finding several different types of mushrooms, almost all of which were rare.

Shifting his focus to the green moss growing everywhere on the wall, he used Identifying once again.

[Green Moss (inferior)] – Types of moss are widespread, found in places with little or no sunlight and which saturation is adequate. Typical ingredients in potions and poisons.

So, jack-of-all-trade moss. Jake then notices that a patch of moss is darker than the others, so he also identifies it.

[Aged Green Moss (General)] - A widespread type of moss, found in places with little or no sunlight and which saturation is adequate. Typical ingredients in potions and poisons. This moss has been completely immersed in mana from time to time.

A rare moss. Does this mean that age is a factor in terms of crop scarcity?

Not finding anything more interesting in the cave, he went out into the garden. The first thing he did here was identify the grass. Again, notice some colored patches spreading throughout.

[Evergreen Grass (Inferior)] – Herbs are widespread found throughout the multiverse in any place with which the natural affinity is adequate. While grass only offers a small restorative effect, it is a great catalyst when mixed with other herbs.

[Aged Evergreen Grass (General)] A widespread herb that is found throughout the multiverse in any place with which the affinity of nature is adequate. While grass only offers a small restorative effect, it is a great catalyst when mixed with other herbs. This grass has aged and absorbed more mana than most Evergreen Grass.

The concept is the same as the moss in the cave. Given some of the knowledge provided by the system, he knew that moss was often used when concocting poison, whereas grass was used when making potions.

Many flowers are also scattered throughout the garden, the most abundant types being the four types of lavender: the blue one, the red one, and the green one. Among the small patches of these flowers are rainbow-colored lavender, all of which seem very fantasy-like. Again, Jake identifies all the plants.

[Blue Lavender (Inferior)] – Very abundant herbs found almost everywhere with mana type. Mana is stored in small flowers that grow on its stalk, with the stem itself containing useful fruit juice. Known as the main ingredient of mana herb.

[Red Lavender (Inferior)] – Very abundant herbs found almost everywhere with mana type. Mana is stored in small flowers that grow on its stalk, with the stem itself containing useful fruit juice. Known as the main ingredient of health herbs.

[Green Lavender (Inferior)] – Very abundant herbs found almost everywhere with mana type. Mana is stored in small flowers that grow on its stalk, with the stem itself containing useful fruit juice. Known as the main ingredient of stamina potion.

[Rainbow Lavender (General)] - A relatively abundant herb found almost everywhere with mana, usually surrounded by a lower variant. Mana is stored in small flowers that grow on its stalk, with the stem itself containing useful fruit juice. Known as the main ingredient of rejuvenation herb.

These flowers instantly told him that it was the main ingredient in the potion. And he had a very, very strong feeling that he would come to make a lot of potions.

More flowers are present in the garden, some of which do not even return anything when he identifies it and others are just rare. Lastly, he went to a small pond and surprisingly managed to identify the water.

[Pure Water] – Pure water, free from any kind of contamination. Great for mixing potions and poisons.

And with that, he had everything he needed to start making stuff. At least he assumed he had. The only way to find out is to test it. What could possibly go wrong, mixing up a bunch of unknown substances in an old temple left behind by a snake-worshiping sect that might be long dead?

Jake begins picking up plants, but only rare plants, as he considers them the easiest to experiment with. Opening his bag to include some lavender flowers, he noticed the 10 silver mushrooms he took during his first challenge in this dungeon.

He had to admit that he had somewhat forgotten that. Without any expectations, he decided to identify one of them and was surprised by the results.

[Frame Argentum Vitae (Frare)] – Silver mushrooms only grow in places with very high mana density. Mushrooms have a sturdy exterior, which if broken, indicates the actual fungus inside. This type of mushroom juice is usually very toxic, but this mushroom has evolved to bring life. +1 vitality when consumed.

He took a deep breath after reading the description. This was 10 free points for vitality, the 11 factors in his Bloodline Patriarch title gave a 10% bonus%.

He was just about to eat one when he stopped himself. This mushroom is still raw. What if he could gain more than one vitality per mushroom.

There were also all things with poison in his body that would ignite and kill him within a month. He would not feel inappropriate for this mushroom to be somehow necessary not to die. So he decided to let it go for now and instead continued to gather more materials.

Leaving the garden through the cave, he also collected a pile of mushrooms, heading straight for the laboratory.

He passed through the lab once again, this time being able to open the closet and interact with all the equipment. All the cabinets are filled with small glass bottles, and the water inside the barrel is the same pure water found in a small pond.

Jake initially plans to make something soon, but quickly encounters his first obstacle. He doesn't know how. He had been given some incredible basic knowledge, but nothing had allowed him to actually make anything. In fact, some of the pieces of knowledge he had only served to tell him that he didn't know enough.

Each plant has requirements on how to handle it properly - each herb or poison is their own recipe. None of this was given to him for free, which led him to another room covered in barriers earlier.

In the library/office where he first arrived, he could now touch all the numerous bookshelves. Oh, and on a side note, the door he had originally entered had been lost, so returning to the previous challenge room was not an option.

It was not that he had any intention of leaving. Walking onto one of the bookshelves, he took out a random book, and the first thing he noticed was that it was written clearly in English.

Which is quite impressive considering he is multilingual, but chose English. What if I want it .. oh now . Before his eyes, the entire text had now changed language. He could not help but try it again and found it to switch back and forth with just a thought.

Jake finds it funny enough to experiment, but unfortunately he can't play around forever. So he began to actually read what was written.

The first book seemed to be some kind of history book, detailing the history of alchemy. Although interesting and very enlightening, that was not what he was looking for. He quickly threw it away and started reading the covers of several different books. Go from top to bottom on the bookshelf. He quickly found the first one he wanted - a book detailing the creation of a rare health herb.

The three books of potions were quite short and had many drawings and diagrams of various herbs, most of them recognizable by him. Alchemy for Novices is a ledger and contains many diagrams and step-by-step guides as well, but most contain only text.

The most comprehensive book was a book on poison, and a book he decided to keep for the latter.

Checking the timer, he had spent about a few hours since he got his profession. Having no time to waste, he began to read the first volume of beginner alchemy.

The first thing he noticed was his speed. He was already an experienced reader, having finished university and was used to a lot of reading. But this is on a completely different level. It only took him an hour to read the first hundred pages. And that is with pen and paper placed on the table which is often used to make bookmarks and notes.

It all brings Jake back to his college days. The only thing he really lacked was hot tea and good music.

The book is exactly what the cover says. It introduced alchemy. It had a small part on transmutation and pill-making, and even some details reminded Jake of more modern chemical theories. However, its main content is detailing the process of making herbs using herbs.

It discusses how to process herbs, the tools that are often used when doing so, what type of water is suitable for different types of herbs, how to properly store and prepare herbs, etc. The knowledge of concocting poison is somewhat limited, and quite a lot of it is only focused on how to avoid putting poison into your creations.

After a few hours of reading later, he wanted to give it a try. Is he ready? Probably not, but at least he felt like trying. Jake got up and stretched his body before walking towards the laboratory. He had left his bag back in the lab, because he saw no reason to take it anywhere.

He had learned a lot from his readings, one of which was how foolish it was to just pluck a bunch of plants and put them together in one big bundle inside the bag. At least he wasn't stupid enough to also throw out the moss and mold.

After a little saving, most herbs are still useful. Jake brought along some of his books and notes. Without further ado, he began to meticulously follow them on how to concoct potions.

Grind the grass into a paste, mix it with water, inject mana into a small magic burner to boil pure water. Rather than a university, where all the reading and numbers are, this feels more like chemistry. Much more practical.

Herbs for health and mana are not made one by one. At least not rare. You usually create batches that can vary slightly based on how well you do them. The mixture can quickly become too weak or too strong, resulting in adverse effects, the system recognizes it as a failed creation.

Mana also plays a big role in alchemy. The bowl where you mix the batch where it is needed to be injected, so go through it. The same goes for dimples and pestles, the pestle itself is bewitched to receive the mana channeled through it.

All the equipment used for the craft was fascinated with practical matters. Self-repair is found in almost everything, and Jake has learned from his robe and bracelet that Self-Repair also comes with a self-cleaning function.

His first batch was an attempt to make mana potions, the most complex of the three types. It turned into a not-so-blue mixture that smelled very. Fortunately the lab also comes with a sink that has a faucet, and all that is to be expected. Unfortunately, the water that comes out is not classified as pure, so it must continue to take water from the pool.

A lot of information is found in different books; the most interesting is the section on statistics. That even helps explain the effect, more than Jake himself can infer so far. It should be mentioned that the information is very limited, almost like the system has censored some things.

As for the good stats for alchemy, wisdom was mentioned as the most important overall. This increases the total mana and ability to retain knowledge about recipes and such. The fact that neither the poison nor the potion's effectiveness is enhanced by wisdom also plays an important role without a doubt. The second most important is willpower because it increases mana regeneration, something that is new knowledge for Jake.

Willpower also helps with focus while doing alchemy, although the book mentions that no amount of statistics can cover a lack of personal perseverance. It clearly looks like the book should have more info than that, but most of it has been cut out.

Although this was a definite mystery, there was one that made him even more annoyed. Why did his profession increase vitality by 2 and toughness by 1 as well? However, it was a mystery that was quickly solved as he skimmed a small passage about the statistics in the book on poison.

Concocting poison, compared to almost all other aspects of alchemy, was not a safe practice. Its smoke alone could kill the most, and being close to poison every day carried many dangers. In addition, those who dabbled in poison also sometimes used their own bodies to test their latest potions, the occasional alchemist even went so far as to cultivate the poison within their own bodies.

Therefore, the book says that one should not dabble in poison before he has sufficient vitality and serviceable toughness. The book also mentioned that most of the alchemical professions did not increase vitality or toughness, either, so investing free points in statistics is recommended if one wants to pursue concocting poison as a specialty - a recommendation Jake can easily ignore because he gets a lot.

After emptying the mixing bowl and cleaning it, he tried mixing the mana potion again. He used the entire blue lavender flower, grounding the stalks and flowers, mixing them with green grass.

Making a move once again, it ended in another failure. Injecting mana was not as simple as just channeling it as with a quiver; instead, one had to do it carefully. The injection part is where the difference between a skilled alchemist and a novice is found.

He must somehow control which one he injects into it. Guide the whole process with his mana. Fortunately it didn't take much to make which potion was the most basic, but it was still a challenge. The books have detailed how to do it, but many of them are still touch-and-go.

After making another four failed batches, he still had enough mana but ran out of ingredients. After the round trip to the park, he had enough for another craft session.

He kept trying, making batch after batch, while jotting down notes on why he had failed and what to fix. Slowly he felt an increase. His last attempt turned out to be very similar to mana potion but had yet to get there. By that time, he had been doing it for almost 12 hours and was exhausted both mentally and physically. His stamina was still high, but he could barely focus.

Going to the room with the bed, she quickly looked into the closet and closet, finding clothes in both. They look rather simple, but it's nice to have something to change. His old clothes under his cloak were now completely broken, and if he had to be honest, it smelled a little.

But to be honest, Jake was too tired to think about it any further when he collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.

Waking up, he felt completely refreshed but a little panicked as he checked the timer. He let out a sigh of relief as he only slept a little over five hours. His stamina was depleted, while his mana was 70% - more than enough for another fine round of alchemy.

Feeling refreshed and sharp, he went to the laboratory once again after a quick shower and changed clothes. He read a quick look at his notes and started working. The part where he had to prepare the materials he had became T. The time to add ingredients to the mixture is also enough.

No, the final hurdle is mana injection. It is not an understatement to say that it is 90% of the process. One had a lot of leeway to make mana potions when it came to temperature control, so once everything was mixed and one had to combine the ingredients into an actual herb, it was just pure mana control.

And now, with his head clear, Jake feels sharper than ever. He knows what to do and how to do it. He just has to execute. Mana was gently poured into the mixture as she controlled it with the help of complicated runes written on the mixing bowl. There's a lot to go through with feeling, and this time Jake feels like things are going the way they should.

A while later, a refreshing scent permeated the laboratory as he put out the flames. Beautiful blue mixture in the bowl. He knew he had succeeded and the system message shortly after that only confirmed it as he smiled to himself.

*You have successfully created [Mana Potion (Inferior)] – New types of creations have been created. Bonus experience gained *

*'DING!' Profession: [Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 1 - Allotted stat points, +2 free points*

*'DING!' Race: [Human (G)] has reached level 5 - Allotted stat points, +1 free points*