The Primal Hunter

Jake didn’t really know all that much about curses. But he did know a bit. He had the Root of Eternal Resentment in his Palate for a long-ass time, and it had housed a shitload of curse energy. Now, as for infusing that concept into a poison? Well, that was something entirely different.

He shared his idea with Reika and got a very skeptical response initially. She did point out some rather glaring issues. Curses tended to be born from strong emotions, yes, but they are also extremely hard to control as they were essentially emotions so strong they had tangible effects on the world. To contain a curse within a poison should not be easy, especially while avoiding it overpowering the life affinity aspect of the finished product. So that would be a bit of a challenge, but at least he was a bit better at another aspect of the task.

Jake had some experience with something that was kind of a life affinity poison. Well, one real experience - all the way back in the challenge dungeon where he had created his Unstable Amalgamation of Malefic Vitau. He now knew in retrospect that it was pretty much just a vitality-increasing elixir on crack and made unstable as fuck, but he also knew that this wasn’t possible to do with the materials he currently had available.

Firstly, the amalgamation had not been made from life affinity energy but more a vital affinity. They were closely related but not exactly the same, and changing it into a vitality-increasing energy type would likely result in it no longer counting as truly life-affinity.

Secondly, the only reason it had worked back then was due to Malefic Viper’s Poison triggering and upgrading the poison to above what it would usually be. It had been a direct impartment of Records by the Viper himself and not something Jake could replicate even if he wanted to.

Jake thus spent a good while considering how to make it, and Reika also came with plenty of input. One thing quickly became clear: if he wanted to use his curse energy, they would have to find a way to infuse it without overpowering and dominating any other part of the concoction. Transmutation was quickly ruled out as its transformative effect likely wouldn’t work well with the curse energy.

There was the possibility of infusing a catalyst but there tended to be rather stringent requirements before one could infuse an object with curse energy. One requirement tended to be time and connection to the curse. Infusing a mushroom with a curse related to hating mushrooms sounded like a good way to just make it implode. The same was true for doing it to a Lifecore.

Yet this did not deter Jake or Reika as they began working on another way: ritualism. And for this, Jake had a skill that he hadn’t really used much but would no doubt prove useful.

[Soul Ritualism of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Ancient)] – As a master of your own path, the power of your Soulspace and authority of self is unquestionable. Grants knowledge of and allows the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist to perform rituals pertaining to the soul. Soul Rituals must be performed both within the Soulspace and the real world. As a forger of your own path, Records infused during any soul ritual will hold more weight. Effects of the ritual are based on the nature of the ritual performed as well as the materials used during the ritual. All rituals will scale with Willpower in addition to other stat bonuses applied according to the nature of the ritual performed.

While this skill primarily revolved around souls, it also gave some general knowledge about rituals. Curses were also deeply related to the soul anyway, as they were born from it. Most curses came into being when someone died, as it was the remnant emotions in one of the layers of the soul that managed to collect and take a form with intent. Most often, it was due to a lot of people dying with similar grievances and thus empowering each other. However, the part of the soul that would turn into a curse upon death could also be focused on and extracted to forcefully make a curse. An oversimplification, sure, but this was effectively it.

This is what Casper did. He focused, extracted, and infused his own emotions into vessels that he then used as weapons. That he could also mix it with mana was the kind of technique that Jake was still very unsure of how he did. Anyway, none of this was that important as Jake didn’t plan on making a truly cursed item but just a poison with a bit of curse energy mixed in to give it direction.

It didn’t take him long to figure out how he wanted to infuse the energy. He was limited to materials from the dungeon, but as he discovered earlier, he could also use his blood. He could naturally also use his own mana and energy as that was just a part of the crafting process, and one could argue Jake was technically part of the dungeon as he was within it, so his plan should work.

With enough focus and a ritual to further amplify the effects, Jake believed he could make his blood into essentially a cursed liquid that would mix with an otherwise non-damaging life affinity item. Life affinity was by itself not damaging unless made volatile or, as Jake hoped to do, self-destructive.

Because yes… when Jake considered earlier how infusing a curse would just make the life affinity item self-implode, Jake saw that as an opportunity.

What he wanted to do was to make the life affinity latch unto the vital energy of the mushroom man, making it self-implode in self-hatred upon entering the body out of pure disgust, turning it into poison. Would this work? Maybe. Was Jake going to try, hoping to see a mushroom man consume itself and effectively commit suicide? Fuck yeah, he did.

Reika was supportive of his idea, and the two of them began experimenting in this direction. He had decided to begin by just making a highly dense life-affinity liquid using the mushroom juices of slain foes and further infusing that with Lifecores. He also had to remind himself that the final concoction would require the Lifecore of the General, which actually worked out perfectly with his plans. He wanted it to be a controlled self-implosion, after all.

It was one of the most ambitious things Jake had ever done, but he felt confident, and he really wanted to do it.

Hours passed as iteration after iteration was made. Soon they settled on a stable version of highly focused life energy in the form of a flask. Reika was the one who crafted it using her skills and managed to create several common rarity flasks for Jake to experiment with. She added that when it came to the real thing, she should be able to make an uncommon flask using the best materials they had.

Jake, on the other hand, focused entirely on the poison aspect of the creation. He planned on making a ritual where he would infuse his own blood into the Lifecore using a ritual. However, as he attempted to do this several times, he repeatedly failed to actually create a curse. He didn’t understand why as he kept trying until a realization struck him. One he never thought possible.

My hatred isn’t strong enough…

How it was even possible, Jake didn’t know. He did hate mushrooms; of that, there was no doubt. But… he had to admit his hatred was not as strong as the level he had seen from others. It wasn’t like mushrooms had killed his family, cut off his Path, or removed his freedom. They had just made Jake mad and annoyed, and there was that one time where it tied him to a toilet for far too long.

Casper had an extreme natural affinity to curses and initially channeled his anger toward those who killed his now-ghost-girlfriend Lyra. That was some real anger, and Jake knew that while Casper was a very introverted person, he was also the sort of person go to all in when he felt something.

Jake could not claim his hatred of mushrooms was at that level. Feeling a bit distressed at the thought of failing, Jake remembered: he was not alone in his hatred.

“I need Draskil,” Jake spoke. ”I need his hate.”

Reika raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t it be best if we all joined in and contributed to the ritual?”

“On a scale of one to ten, how much do you hate mushrooms?” Jake asked.

“Well, I guess it depends on the type of-“

“Already disqualified by not instantly saying eleven,” Jake shot her down.

“Now you are just being unreasonable,” Reika argued with a sigh. “It is utterly illogical to hold such a level of hatred towards fungi.”

“Hate is illogical by nature. And it is in my nature to hate mushrooms. Always has been. From the time I was a kid, and my mom tried to make me eat those shitty white button mushrooms or whatever the fuck they are called, I have despised them. They bring nothing good to the world, and their only use is when they are destroyed and their juices are squeezed out to kill things. Because even in death, mushrooms bring only suffering,” Jake said, getting a bit flared up and feeling like he was a step closer already to successfully creating the curse.

“Okay…” Reika said, shaking her head as she went off to contact Draskil as Jake made modifications to the ritual. He needed to bring Draskil into the fold and not just make his hate part of the curse. Curses were naturally inclined to combine similar negative emotions, so it wasn’t a difficult adaptation.

A few minutes later, Draskil appeared together with Reika. Jake looked at him and asked.

“On a scale of one to ten, how much do you hate mushrooms?”

“Not worth giving number, not deserving of the thought energy to consider,” Draskil sneered.

Jake looked at Reika, who reluctantly resigned herself and went back to making a flask good enough to use in the final concoction, or at least in one of their four available test concoctions using the Lifecores of Mushroom Man Commanders.

“Draskil, our plan is to-“

“I don’t care,” Draskil cut him off.

“Fair. I need you to pour all your hate into your Blood of the Malefic Viper, put it in my cauldron, and then join me in my hatred of mushrooms for the ritual,” Jake shortened his speech down to only what the dragonkin needed to do.

“Make curse?” Draskil asked, clearly a little interested even if he said he wasn’t. Jake understood. It was about hating mushrooms, after all.

“Yep,” Jake nodded.

Draskil nodded, fully understanding without needing any more explanation. Jake began the ritual without further ado as Draskil and Jake mixed their blood together with the Lifecore of a dead Mushroom Man – and by now, Jake was beginning to realize that he was pretty much doing a blood ritual with what was effectively the heart of a monster.

It was a bit morbid… but nothing was off the table when it came to slaying mushrooms.

Jake instantly felt the difference as he realized that Draskil’s hatred for mushrooms seemed to rival or even surpass his own. That, and Jake also ran into the issue of Draskil’s blood being far more potent than Jake’s. And it wasn’t just due to the level disparity, but clearly, Draskil had Blood of the Malefic Viper at a higher rarity than himself.

It was a challenge to overcome, but one Jake gladly took on. Draskil was incredibly patient, far more than Jake would have expected, and assisted Jake with rituals throughout the next two days as he improved more and more. At the end of the second day, since he began making rituals together with Draskil, he made a Lifecore.

[Cursed Mushroom Man Mage Lifecore (Common)] – The cursed core of a Mushroom Man Mage. This Lifecore contains a large amount of life affinity energy that has now been contaminated with a curse of immense hatred towards its own kind. The core is slowly degrading due to its inherent nature caused by the curse making it seek to consume and destroy itself.

It wasn’t much, but it was honest work. Sure, it would self-detonate within an hour or two, as far as Jake could tell, but it was good enough. They didn’t even need the finished concoction to last very long, just long enough to pass the floor.

Draskil also seemed pretty happy at the finished creation and decided to stay and help. During the last two days, he did go off once in a while to hunt some more mushroom men, but he always returned quickly and got really engrossed in the process.

Only about a day and a half later, Jake got frisky and tried to use one of the Commander Lifecores. The first attempt failed, but feeling that he was close, he tried again, only to succeed the second time around,

[Cursed Mushroom Man Commander Lifecore (Uncommon)] – The cursed core of a Mushroom Man Commander. This Lifecore contains an immense amount of life affinity energy that has now been contaminated with a curse of immense hatred towards its own kind. The core is slowly degrading due to its inherent nature caused by the curse making it seek to consume and destroy itself.

With that, he and Reika began the final part of the process – fusing the Lifecore and flask. One would think this would be hard, but it was actually incredibly straightforward. Jake just had to place the Lifecore in the liquid of the flask and slowly diffuse it into the concoction while controlling the process.

He did also have to keep infusing some of the curse energy during the entire thing, needing Draskil present at all times. About a day after the first Commander Lifecore was made, they also made their first uncommon rarity concoction using it. If this had been the General’s, it would have been enough then and there… but Jake was pushing for more.

Refining the process more and more, it finally culminated nearly a full day later. Using a large ritual and with Reika and Draskil both assisting in the process, they gave birth to liquid justice.

[Desired Fate of the Mushroom Men (Rare)] – On the border between a flask and a poison cursed by intense hatred, a bane of the mushroom men has been created as this very liquid desires nothing but their demise. Contains an intense amount of life affinity energy that will act to help those who seek to slay mushroom men. If consumed while actively killing mushroom men, this concoction will temporarily increase health regeneration as the life affinity helps you on your quest. If injected or consumed by any mushroom man, the effect will be the opposite, turning natural regeneration into active degeneration and flooding the body with intense amounts of hostile life energy as long as the will of the curse remains or the concoctions runs out of energy. The concoction is currently stable but, with time, may slowly begin degrading due to its inherent nature caused by the curse making it seek to consume and destroy itself.

With great satisfaction, he looked at Draskil and Reika. Reika just seemed relieved and Draskil happy upon seeing the completed product. Inspecting the item itself, Jake was more than satisfied. He was happy to see it was even somewhat stable, even if it did carry a warning that it was temporary.

Was this kind of poison actually useful in practice, one might ask? No… no, not really. It had taken far too much effort to create, it was unstable, and Jake could quickly see that one would have to infect the foe with pretty much a full bottle’s worth to get a proper effect, contrary to normal poisons where just a little would be highly effective. This was more the kind of poison you had to fool a mushroom man into drinking, which Jake had a hard time seeing.

This didn’t make Jake any less satisfied with what they had made, though. It was objective proof of his and Draskil’s hatred of mushrooms and a rare rarity item.

Now for the moment of truth. Would the concoction they had made qualify as poison and allow them to pass the floor?

With much anticipation, Jake placed the concoction in the cauldron in front of the final gate as he stared intently at the progress bar on the wall beside it.

Progress: mushroom men killed: 2000/2000. Poison placed in the cauldron: 1/1

After the obligatory round of high-fives and waves of relief, their entire group took a well-deserved rest.

Well, besides Bastilla, who kept dismantling, and Irin, who kept making food for Draskil and Jake. But before eating, Jake decided it was high time to get a bit of meditation done and check something he had neglected over the last few days: his notifications.