The Primal Hunter's
More Skills

Lying in bed, Jake is proud of his progress today. He had mixed so many potions that he finally had to throw the mixture into the sink. It was very futile, but he had nowhere else to put it.

Although there were undoubtedly many bottles, it was far from infinite. He reused the bottles after he drank the mana potion but said the consumption of the potion was almost nothing after Jake got his Palate of the Malefic Viper.

It was not that he had completely run out of bottles; in fact, he had a lot left over. He only knew that the potion he was making right now was not something he wanted to save. He also doesn't know where to keep it. Almost every surface in the lab was filled with potions.

During the day, she also eats two new types of mushrooms. One was called [Reddot Stool], a small white fungus with red spots on it, with the other identified as [Brunneius Aqua Mushroom] , the brown fungus found grew from a small puddle in a damp cave. Both are naturally low in scarcity.

Overall his days have made considerable progress.

*'DING!' Profession: [Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 7 - Allotted stat points, +2 free points*

*'DING!' Race: [Human (G)] has reached level 8 - Allotted stat points, +1 free points*

*'DING!' Profession: [Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 8 - Allotted stat points, +2 free points*

*'DING!' Profession: [Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 9 - Allotted stat points, +2 free points*

*'DING!' Race: [Human (G)] has reached level 9 - Allotted stat points, +1 free points*

The only significant difference is that it has decided to save free points. Wisdom seemed to add almost nothing to his mental abilities at this moment, and he was not sure if there were any other stat that would help him in any way at the moment. He had considered determination and endurance, hoping it would allow him to stay awake longer and reduce mental fatigue.

But for now, he will save them. He was very close to level 10 in his alchemy class, where he would likely unlock other skills or other benefits. So, he decided to wait for the final level.

He had completed a book on basic poison, two basic alchemy books, and had decided that he was ready to try concocting poison the next day. He had eaten the mushrooms and moss he needed as ingredients, and he had even found a book explaining the recipe.

The recipe mentions Reddot Stool and Brunei Aqua Mushroom, which is why he decided to chew it.

After getting up from his bed, he headed straight for the cave to collect a lot of mushrooms and moss. And with that, he started working. In retrospect, Jake is not sure it could even be considered successful given how easy it is to walk.

Concocting poison and making potions has a lot in common. Injection and mixing mana are basically the same, with only a few minor differences here and there. The most significant difference was the requirement to suppress any vitality element within the ingredients while simultaneously strengthening the damaging properties.

When making a health herb, the direct opposite of a poison, you only need to expel the already existing vital energy found within the plant. The same vitality is found at lower levels in poisonous plants. After all, they are living beings.

This vitality would lower the effects of the poison, and sometimes even damage the potion completely. This makes Jake think that the silver mushrooms he has provide vitality when consumed. In one of the books, such cases are described, where poison and vitality react together, strengthening each other. It can then lead in either direction, becoming extremely poisonous or filled with vitality.

Due to the powerful nature of such ingredients, new alchemists were generally recommended to avoid trying to use them to not waste such precious natural treasures. Reading it does give him an idea for later, but that idea is for later.

Currently, Jake is not mixing ingredients that are difficult to use. He was mixing Reddot Stool and Brunneius Aqua Mushroom and green moss in a mixing bowl. Both components float in pure water.

Pure water is used for almost all types of liquid toxins. It is completely uncontaminated and is nothing more than a filler. All he did was dilute the mixture a little, but that was it.

The mixing itself went easily, as he had the method described in the memorized books, and when he got to the more challenging part of the mana injection, he had to do it, he was almost stunned by how easy it was.

Now, making mana potions was very easy for him, and he barely needed to focus while brewing them. But the ease and familiarity he felt right now was incomparable. It felt like he had worked with the ingredients thousands of times before. The moss and mushroom felt like an extension of his own body, quickly absorbing mana, doing what he wanted when he wanted to.

It took him only a few minutes before he was greeted by a highly welcomed collection of system messages.

*You have successfully created [Weak Hemotoxic Poison (Inferior)] – A new type of creation has been created. Bonus experience gained*

*'DING!' Profession: [Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 10 - Allotted stat points, +2 free points*

He had not expected to level up so quickly again. Not that he'll complain about it. Examining his new creation, he is happy with the results.

[Weak Hemotoxic Poison (Inferior)] – Increases bleeding in affected entities and makes wounds more difficult to heal. Toxins must be put directly into the bloodstream to get any effect.

According to the books, the poison is a weak type of poison that disrupts the body's usual balance, thins the blood, and increases blood loss. It was also, like the dagger he had, making healing the target even more difficult. Overall it was not a very strong type of poison. Still, given his current strategy in combat where many were revolving around the kiting and slowly drawing out the opponent's blood, he did not doubt its effectiveness.

He stored the poison in a rectangular bottle with a huge bottleneck. Although the number of bottles of this type was much less than ordinary potion bottles, there was still a cupboard containing several hundred. This kind of bottle was designed to dip arrows, needles, and daggers into it, to soak weapons inside the poison. Something he believes will become especially relevant when he gets out of this challenge's dungeon.

His level also came with the expected notice of new skills.

*Alchemist skills available from Malefic Viper*

He has five skills available. Looking at the five skills, he used the same approach as the last time he obtained the offered skills and learned them one by one.

This one is, without a doubt, good. But it's not at all in Jake's lane at the moment. He was all about potions and poisons. It could prove useful on the phone, but for now, it's not for him. Making gold out of iron did seem admirable in the real world, but he doubted the skill would be useful to cure him of the poison in his system. Also, who would care about gold if people could go around making it? Basic economics, yo.

Therefore, he quickly moved.

[Plant Graft (General)] – Sometimes, two plants are larger than the sum of their parts, and a perfect plant can be made, not found. Provides the ability to transplant plants. Plants must be compatible. Must have appropriate materials and equipment to facilitate plant splicing. Add a slight improvement to the effectiveness of the Graft Plant based on discretion.

This one also looked really cool, and he had read about the art of grafting plants in some alchemy books. Most plants can be found naturally in the world; what surprises Jake, however, is that the system does not create the majority of them. Many of the plants found were originally made by alchemists who grafted something to be more suited to their needs.

Those systems over time then integrate these plants into ecosystems, naturally growing them around the multiverse. The author of the book is unsure about how the system does it, but its involvement is incontrovertible, as plants even seem to spread to other universes.

This must have caused many to not know which plants the system made and which ones were grafted by the alchemists. Jake doesn't know how old the multiverse is. He knew that the universe, according to modern physics, was 13.4 billion years or more. He also recalled that the system said that his universe was 93rd to be introduced to the system. Another older universe is a fair bet in opinion.

But despite the engrossing thoughts of time and grafting, Jake is honestly not using it at the moment. It was described as a somewhat advanced type of alchemy in all books, and something that beginners should avoid. The main reason for grafting, the lack of suitable materials, was not a problem because he had his own garden and cave, both of which were still almost full despite having been used for the past few days. So, unless he wanted to become a master-grafter, he wouldn't do it.

So, with that thought, he switched to the next skill.

[Alchemist Purification (General)] – Trying to purify any alchemy material. Purification can help remove unwanted properties from a component, making the mixture purer. Must have appropriate materials. Must have appropriate materials. Purification does not require additional tools or equipment, but the effect of skill can be amplified using a particular catalyst. Adding a slight increase to the effectiveness of Alchemist Refining based on wisdom.

Other useful skills. Jake assumes this is what has been done to the water he uses in alchemy, given the name Purified Water. If grafting allows you to create the plants you want, this one allows you to try to turn the ones you already have into something more useful.

However, Jake had no idea what effect the skill had on its ingredients at the moment. He did not need to purify any water as it was plentiful in number, and so far, he had not encountered any problems with the unexpected nature inside the plant he was using. He really doubted he could clear the vital energy of a living being.

Again referring to the book, this skill is mentioned widely as one that is important to all alchemists. Many of the herbs found throughout the multiverse are useless. That, or they are very specific only to vague recipes. Thus, refining some of these materials could allow them to be used in more types of creations.

This one was clearly a competitor, but he was still unsure of its current usefulness. He knew that he had to pick it up at one point, but since the six skills offered at level 5 were still on his list, he could get them later.

The next two skills were very similar, such as the Herb Sense skill and the Poison Sense.

[Germinate Herb (Common)] – Grow herbs, make them grow faster and improve their quality. The Germinating Herb allowed the alchemist not to wait for the many years normally required for the herbs needed to mature. Germination herbs do not require any additional tools or equipment, but the effect of the skill can be amplified using certain catalysts. Adding a slight increase to the effectiveness of Herb Germinating based on discretion.

[Cultivate Toxin (Rare)] – Grow the desired toxic material, allowing it to strengthen its deadly poison. In poisonous plants, this skill will also allow the plant to grow faster and improve its quality. Toxin cultivation does not require any additional tools or equipment, but the effects of skills can be amplified using certain catalysts. Adding a slight increase to the effectiveness of Poison Cultivation based on wisdom.

This was also a pretty amazing skill and was often mentioned in almost all the books he read about alchemy - both important skills of an alchemist who dreamed of having their own garden. The skill was very interesting with its usefulness in leveling the profession.

Not all alchemists had the privilege of a fully filled garden in the basement of a challenge when they first began to perform alchemy. Many started out just by tending to the gardens of senior alchemists. This is also how many achieved their profession to begin with. Some books even have the assumption that the reader has already started that way.

Of these, the Germinating Herbs, without a doubt, were the most mentioned. The use of herbs throughout the multiverse was considered standard practice, and one needed to grow the materials used. Jake also knew that many alchemists started with the Germinate Herb skill from scratch.

The profession comes in many forms and variants. One of the books on how to properly care for materials and care for the garden mentions more than ten different types of alchemist professions that can be opened from cultivating different types of plants.

However, the most common way to obtain a profession is not through effort or hard work, but through teaching by someone who already has the profession. But many senior alchemists still had their disciples try and learn the craft themselves in the hope that they would open a stronger variant from scratch, or perhaps just a more specialized one.

Jake's Alchemist of the Malefic Viper is one of his variants. It was stronger and specialized in poison compared to the more traditional alchemists.

Stronger variants often offer better skills with higher levels of scarcity and provide more statistics per level. The downside is that, although they can often learn almost any type of skill that is generally available, usually that skill is rarely used and/or at a higher level.

This is also shown by Transmute, for example, being inferior-rarity, and the same with Geology, Pill Consolidation, and Metallurgy skills at level 5.

However, overall, there is a strong consensus that variant classes are better. Statistics alone make them much more valuable by themselves.

One aspect he still did not understand was constantly mentioning something called Records. He had seen the same word used in the title [Bloodline Patriarch] and even in the description of the bloodline itself. The stronger variant classes, especially the ones named like his, came with the Inherited Records. While he has yet to see an explanation of what exactly is meant by Record, from what he can infer, having multiple Records is a good thing. Or maybe a high-quality recording?

This made him wonder if Records was a hidden achievement system or something - another mystery he had to solve when he finally got out of the dungeon.

Returning to the skill, he did not hesitate before choosing the Cultivate Toxin skill.

*Gained Skill*: [Cultivate Toxin (Rare)] – Plant the desired toxic material, allowing it to strengthen its deadly poison. In poisonous plants, this skill will also allow the plant to grow faster and improve its quality. Toxin cultivation does not require any additional tools or equipment, but the effects of skills can be amplified using certain catalysts. Adding a slight increase to the effectiveness of Poison Cultivation based on wisdom.

He felt a slightly puzzling experience as knowledge was downloaded directly into his mind. The reason why he chose this skill for himself was quite clear.

First of all, this was the only skill with an unusual rarity. Second, it fits perfectly into the overall poison-themed profession. It may also be the only skill Jake can instantly use during a challenge. He could use it to gain experience and spice up his day while trying and making a poison that was stronger than the ingredients.

Delighted by her new skills, she prepares to work once again. He still has a lot of work ahead of him.