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“I never said it was easy, just that it needs to be done. Maybe figure out how others do it. Though I will admit that it is a major hurdle. Moving in water is simply not optimal with the human body, and it eliminates all footwork and weakens every attack,” sim-Jake mulled over the issue. “I can see using the destructive arcane energy as a way to partly eliminate the pressure at all times, especially when striking, but that also creates problems.”

“Sustainability,” Jake nodded.

“Exactly.”

The mana cost from infusing every movement with mana would be too much for him to bear, and they both knew it.

“A solution will have to be found at some point,” sim-Jake concluded.

“Naturally,” Jake agreed before asking something that had been on his mind. “What happened, by the way? Not to be rude, but you were on your way out the last time we met. Now, you are more you once more. What changed?”

“Honestly,” sim-Jake said. “You should know it. I am you, and you are me, and not existing is one of the thoughts that we fear on a very base level. When I did feel myself begin to fade away and become nothing, something triggered in me. A sense of survival, even though I know that remerging with you is still me surviving. I guess you can just say that I don’t wanna die. After meeting Sandy and seeing Earth transformed and not just that boring mansion in the Order and the occasional mind-numbing alchemy lesson, I realized that I still want to enjoy at least a few more adventures.”

Jake had indeed kind of known this was the case but wanted to ask anyway as he wasn’t entirely sure what his other self was thinking. “But this doesn’t mean the merging stopped.”

“No, that it does not. But let us just say that I will immortalize myself one way or another. You won’t be rid of me that easily. Luckily too, because there is more to improve in our fighting style than I originally estimated, and two heads are better than one,” sim-Jake said. “Ah, and don’t worry, our new Vault skill will come, even if I know that the Records of that skill keeps me alive right now. Keeps me, me.”

“Just don’t begin to get any fancy ideas about taking over the body and replacing me,” Jake smirked.

“We both know that won’t happen. I can’t. Your Records trump mine so many times over it isn’t even funny. Being best buds with Villy is just cheating,” sim-Jake snickered in return. “Now go back to Sandy’s stomach and get to work. I have business to attend to.”

Jake shrugged and complied as he exited his Soulspace, leaving sim-Jake behind.

Sim-Jake did not immediately begin practicing but went towards the chimera of pure curse energy. It looked satisfied after having a feast and didn’t even react as sim-Jake laid a hand on it. Closing his eyes, energy moved between them for a few minutes before he nodded and returned to improving the Vault skill.

Jake, in the outside world, had not seen any of this happen but was busy getting back the glove he had lost in the body of the shark. Rather than needing to retrieve the physical object, Jake could use the remaining glove to regrow the other one on his formerly severed hand. It would have been cheaper to just retrieve the glove, but he had honestly forgotten about it as the item had turned inert after he cut off the hand. Sandy had already shot above the water and was flying through the sky, so turning back was not an option either.

Watching it reform on his hand over the next hour was relatively interesting. It was all system-fuckery to the extreme, but he was not complaining. Once the glove was back in his hand – and put on his hand - Jake turned his attention to something perhaps even more important.

During the fight with the shark, he had a eureka moment. More accurately, as he felt his blood flow and carry the vital energies, he questioned something.

Blood was a damn great vessel for energy. It was what made Blood of the Malefic Viper such a potent skill and why there were many creatures you could slay, and their blood turned into valuable items. Vampires consumed blood due to its richness and purity of vital energy too. All in all, blood was essentially a naturally-occurring treasure-tier liquid found within most biological lifeforms.

Its usual effect was carrying vital energy through the body more efficiently. Heck, this was why regenerating dozens of holes in the body was easier than healing a severed hand, even if the pure mass of flesh one had to heal was larger. Regenerating the hand relied mostly on transporting energy through the Soulshape, while holes in the body could be supplied with blood in the nearby area to heal faster. Healing potions also instantly attached themselves to the blood of the body and used that to find where it was most efficiently used. Because the body naturally knew where the vital energy was needed.

Blood was clearly tied to vital energy, and vital energy comes from Vitality. Blood of the Malefic Viper even gave Vitality, and it was a fact that someone with more Vitality could produce more blood than someone that had a lower stat. All of those things were true, and yet Blood of the Malefic Viper had nada to do with vital energy at all.

[Blood of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)] – The blood of the Malefic Viper is a toxin more deadly than most poisons. Allows the Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper to turn their blood poisonous, imitating their Patron. It has been further improved, even carrying traces of the True Blood of the Malefic One within. The blood can be used as an ingredient in alchemy and as a deadly weapon against your foes. The nature of the poison is determined based on the Records of the Alchemist. The blood’s toxicity level is based primarily on Vitality and Wisdom but receives an increase from all physical stats. Passively provides 1 Vitality per level in Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your blood be forever the bane of all that wishes you harm.

The more Jake thought about it, the less it made sense. The skill gave him Vitality, but nothing about the skill seemed to truly indicate it had anything to do with the stat. For all other skills, he saw it make far more sense, but not with this one. Heck, the toxicity of the infused blood scaled with Vitality andWisdom. They were equal when it came to scaling, but with all other skills, the stat it offered was also the one that empowered the skill the most.

Jake reflected a bit on the skill. He had first gotten it at epic rarity and then upgraded to Ancient after the Trial of Myriad Toxins by absorbing the drop of blood from Villy. That had been the catalyst, and what was that drop of blood?

It was a fragment of Records. It was knowledge given physical form, which could also be seen with how it was tied to Sagacity. So the upgrade path Jake had gone back then was by making the blood better when used and giving it far more scope. The part about carrying traces of the True Blood of the Malefic One was a buff when it came to alchemy too. All of this made Jake think he had missed something obvious.

He began experimenting right away as he tried out his theory. Jake could not truly control the blood he infused, and he had always used it as an external tool, either as an ingredient or a weapon. However, blood was meant to be inside the body the last time he checked, so would there not be an application there?

Focusing, he infused the blood inside his body as usual. This time, he tried to control it – something usually not needed as the blood adapted according to his will after being added to a mixture. It was more difficult than Jake expected, and he ended up having to apply some methods from his usual alchemy as he effectively turned his body into a cauldron and the blood in his body into the batch. But rather than a poison, Jake wanted to make a health potion.

The result? Him spending the better part of an hour only experiencing failure. The worst part was that Jake knew what he was missing; he just couldn’t fix it. He needed to properly infuse more active vital energy into the blood, but he couldn’t control the process, at least not satisfactorily. As he wondered what to do, Jake got a brilliant idea.

Taking out Eternal Hunger, Jake proceeded to cut off his hand once more and consumed a health potion. Vital energy flooded his body and, as usual, bound itself to his blood. Jake then began the process again, but rather than trying to infuse vital energy from scratch, Jake used the energy from the healing potion as a base and guide. He poisoned the healing potion liquid and tried to make it better. It went okay as he focused on healing the severed hand for the second time that day.

Once it was healed, Jake kept experimenting until the potion cooldown was ready, and he cut it off again. This continued for nearly an entire day as he slowly began to form a coherent idea and became more familiar with his blood and vital energy both.

He was still not quite certain what the purpose of what he was trying to achieve was besides making more active vital energy to make his blood better when it came to healing. Jake did feel like he made some progress, but he needed the healing potion every time to properly do it. The highly-active energy in healing potions was the apex of vital energy due to the amount of system assistance it got, and Jake knew he could not actually replicate it, but he wanted to at least make some progress…

Or just make his usage of the healing potion better.

Another day passed, and Sandy didn’t ask him to come out a single time, even if the worm did find some stuff to steal here and there. It was understood that Jake did not want any more water combat, and Sandy, quite frankly, also didn’t seem to enjoy being underwater that much either.

This day was spent with Jake cutting off his arm a good forty or so times total, sometimes choosing not to use a healing potion as he healed it. He also tried inflicting injuries on himself in other places. He even took some of the venom from that Emperor Urchin that the whale had given him and consumed it. It was potent enough to deal noticeable damage, even if it was primarily of a neurotoxic nature. He needed it for Palate either way, so why not?

He began to feel like he was touching upon an idea, but he was still missing something. Jake was certain that with another week or so, he would have it down… but he wasn’t that patient when he had other options.

Do you wish to experience the Legacy of the Malefic Viper? Uses remaining: 2

Jake did not know if the charges would carry over to C-grade or if the skill changed, so he should use them all now, right? Also… he kind of liked learning about Villy. It was a bit like stalking your friends on social media for embarrassing photos from their teenage years, and Jake was all for it to get some ammunition to make fun of the god with.

With that in mind, Jake activated the skill as he experienced another vision.

“I am once more incredibly impressed with your continued progress,” the old man said as he smiled proudly. “To do all this without any dedicated alchemy skill…”

“Saying it is entirely without a skill isn’t correct, Master,” the Viper in his human form said. “While it is true they are not dedicated alchemy skills, there are stark similarities.”

“True. However, you specialize in poison as per your heritage. This is the exact opposite of that,” the old man shook his head. “And yet it isn’t. As unsightly as it is, an old man like me does find it enviable to have such heavenly gifts. A body that is an alchemical ingredient in itself.”

Jake was confused as he observed the scene playing out in front of him. He saw the Viper sitting with a cauldron inside of a large stone chamber, with the old man scrutinizing his work. Moreover, the Viper said a word Jake could have never imagined the Viper would say… he had called the old man Master. He also felt like the Viper was pretty young in this vision, but he wasn’t sure if it was the youngest he had seen him. It had to be close.

“And I wish I had Master’s knowledge of alchemy,” the Viper smiled.

“Heh,” the old man chuckled. “I have no doubt you will surpass this old man in due time. You will learn all I have to teach with the time I have left.”

A sense of sadness came over the room as the Viper frowned.

“There is no reason to be sad,” the old man soothed the Viper. “Time will claim all, but we enlightened races have our own Path to immortality. As long as our knowledge remains, so shall we remain. The Records of the multiverse are forever. Any who dies; any who has lived and will ever live is eternal.”

“Easy for you to call knowledge eternal… why not pursue actual immortality?” Villy scoffed.

“Because knowledge can be both a curse and a gift, and your old Master had decided his Path,” the old man shook his head at the would-be Primordial. “Now stop dallying and explain to me the process of what you are attempting to do.”

“Fine,” the Viper said as he looked down at what he had just brewed. “So, the thought process behind this attempt was to…”

Jake listened but began to zone out even if he knew he should be listening. He couldn’t stop himself as he stared more at the old man and faintly noticed something. Something that was barely detectable, perhaps due to the nature of the vision… the old man had a Bloodline. That in itself was noteworthy, but what stood out more was that it felt familiar. He had seen it before, which made no sense. Because the one who Jake remembered having the Bloodline was also present in the room.

This old man had the same Bloodline as the Malefic Viper.