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The figure raised a long log-like arm as space seemed to distort. A giant bullet of ash was collected that was fired out of the domain and towards the residence of the King. The King responded as a barrier appeared, and the Unique Lifeform emerged.

Ash can leave the area, forcing it to generate more, Jake quickly concluded as more ash just seemed to appear within the domain. Focusing, he tried to look deeper and get a feeling for what he was facing. His high Perception had already allowed him to look past the clouds that blocked out his vision, but now he wanted to see something not visible to the naked eye.

The domain of the Unique Lifeform was its Soulshape, which meant it had to leave something there. Some part of itself, at least in the metaphysical realm. Usually, Jake saw the Soulshape of a creature by relying on the poison running through their bodies and using Sense of the Malefic Viper. However, in this case, he could not feasibly poison the Unique Lifeform to do this without it discovering his presence.

According to him, the King could see the full body of the Ashen Phantom Devourer. His sight was not the same as that of a human’s but far more magical in nature, and Sandy could likely also have sensed the body of the Unique Lifeform. The environment it occupied simply had to be different in some way, even if it was not currently within his visible spectrum.

The human eye had limitations. Examples were such as how it could not see infrared or ultraviolet light and overall had a relatively narrow spectrum of wavelength visible to it. Probably a good thing, too, as being able to see outside of it would be a miserable experience considering all the wavelengths in the air at all times stemming from phone signals, radio waves, the internet, and whatnot. Yet humans had found ways to still see these things. Measure them using devices to translate them into something humans could see and understand.

Jake had none of such measurement devices, and post-system, they likely wouldn’t even work either. What he did have was a superhuman body and Perception above anything a D-grade human should ever have. He could see mana of different affinities, use tracking to detect things that weren’t truly there, and even adapt and get used to these things, such as when he got used to dark mana. So why should he not be able to also see outside of the visual spectrum of humans and see the metaphysical? Gaze of the Apex Hunter already allowed him to “see” his opponent’s soul based on the description, and that skill had permanently modified his eyes to allow this. Shit, at times, he felt like he had seen someone’s soul, such as when he tried to get around Identify protection.

At this point, it was no longer just a theory that he could do it but a conviction that he simply hadn’t found the proper method.

The battle below continued as the two powerful entities crashed repeatedly. The Fallen King purposefully played it defensively and blocked most attacks with his powerful telekinesis while allowing the weaker blows to merely fizzle out upon encountering his barrier.

Ash formed into different shapes appeared to be the primary method of attack deployed by the Ashen Phantom Devourer, but Jake quickly saw it wasn’t that simple. The ash was not simply compressed but layered in odd ways. A single spear of ash looked like it was made of obsidian, making it far more condensed than what made sense. To add on, the ash could also change shape even when in flight, and rather than fly straight, it often seemed to teleport.

Because it did teleport.

Another thing the King had already mentioned was the ash’s ability to not only do damage but multiply by itself. Jake was not entirely certain what affinities ash existed of, but he assumed it had to do with fire of some kind. Now that he observed it in action, he became more and more certain of one thing that also made the Phantom part of the Unique Lifeform’s name make sense.

Dark mana. The ash is heavily infused with dark mana, Jake concluded. The dark mana materialized as the ash consumed the mana of the King whenever they clashed, and a reason why ash constantly filled the huge domain was due to the Unique Lifeform absorbing energy from outside into its territory at all times.

Every particle of ash also had dark mana within, absorbing some of the King’s simply by passively touching his barrier. This dark mana appeared weaker than its space and ash magic and pretty much only included the assimilation parts of the dark affinity. From Jake’s initial assessment, the King was superior in both power and resources, but the Devourer won out in durability and endurance.

Not that either of them wasn’t considered pinnacle creatures, even in their weak areas.

The more Jake understood his opponent, the more he knew what he was looking for. Focusing, he began to see an outline. Following that path, the outline turned entirely black as huge parts of the mountain range suddenly got covered in complete darkness.

It was… massive. Jake knew this was the true body of the Unique Lifeform, and he now also knew he had severely underestimated the size of his foe. It truly was nearly as large as the C-grade whale had been, but he also saw something different. Its size shrank whenever it launched attacks to then grow in between attacking or defending.

Size represented by resources remaining, Jake then also concluded.

The entire domain could also naturally move. The King retreated out of it several times, and that was when Jake noted down one more crucial aspect. It moved using physical ash. In order to move the domain, the ash had to “push” the perimeter of the domain by flying in the direction the Unique Lifeform wanted to go, meaning that a physical barrier would obstruct it. Jake breathed out a sigh of relief upon realizing this as that ruled out the Unique Lifeform fleeing below the ground by simply moving its domain downward.

Jake kept refining his vision as the dark blob began to become more transparent. He then began to see that light also refracted here and there within the domain whenever space magic was deployed, and more ash appeared.

Golden light and waves of pure force met ash as the two Unique Lifeforms fought, leaving the entire area broken and destroyed - even more than it already was. The King’s golden attacks seemed to do significant damage to the Ashen Phantom Devourer whenever ash was destroyed, and sometimes the entire domain seemed to move in order to try and avoid attacks. However, more often, the other Unique Lifeform moved to block. At nearly all times, it also kept a figure condensed somewhere, and Jake also realized the reason for this.

It needs a focal point of energy. Like a catalyst at the center of a ritual circle, condensing a body allows it to focus its energy into a single entity to then further condense and launch attacks.

Another potential weakness. Destroying this condensed body would do more damage than striking anywhere else, as it contained more energy than anywhere else. If the Unique Lifeform had been C-grade, it could likely have made far more of these forms or perhaps not had to at all, but as things were, this was a limitation in its abilities.

The entire battle between the Unique Lifeforms ended up taking around an hour. After an hour, the King began to launch larger and larger attacks, damaging the Devourer more and more. Yet it also left him open, and the Devourer struck and tore off some of his natural bark-like armor and smashed the King back several times.

Yet just as the King looked like he was about to unleash some final attack, the Ashen Phantom Devourer simply retreated. The domain moved away the same way it had come, and Jake stared after it as he saw it reach a large hole in the ground more than fifty kilometers from the King. When it reached the hole, the entire domain shrank and entered. The domain was only about sixty to seventy percent of its regular size at that point, too, visualizing the damage it had taken. It had clearly gone to absorb more energy again and return at full power, while Jake could see the King had taken far more damage and would need longer to heal.

A good strategy if you are not in a rush and play it safe… to bad it read the situation wrong.

Jake took out his token again, and as he saw the King retreat to his residence, the connection was formed.

“Hey Miranda, that was fast. So, how you holding up down there?” Jake asked the King

“As predicted. The Ashen Phantom Devourer should estimate that I am at about half resources now, and by the time it fully recovers, I would barely be able to reach around sixty to sixty-five percent. I used my boosting skill liberally this time around to appear more desperate too. In reality, I can consume a few Soul Marbles, and I should be back to over eighty percent. Before you ask, potions do not help; besides, potions barely work on Unique Lifeforms. My guess is that the Devourer shall return within the next twelve hours in an attempt to finish me off. In fact, I think it wanted this battle to be the last but decided to retreat to fully secure the kill without being harmed too much itself.”

Jake nodded. “Twelve hours is plenty enough time. Miranda, be ready to inform the Sword Saint. I will eat my bow if that orange bastard doesn’t have some method of coming to help fast, so we need the old man on his toes.”

“Of course,” Miranda agreed. “I will leave you to your preparations now. Neil has also prepared, and if everything goes as hoped, we should be able to also return to Haven promptly.”

Jake once again nodded. “I have a good feel for what this Ashen Phantom Devourer can do now, and I believe it will be in for quite the surprise. You have confidence in fulfilling your part even with your injuries?”

The last part was naturally asked of the King.

“More than ready,” the King responded confidently.

“Very well. See you when the Ashen Phantom Devourer arrives. I will prick your soul when I engage. Jake, over and out.”

With that, the conversation ended, and nothing more needed to be said. All that was needed now was execution, and Jake had twelve hours to make sure everything was perfect. Luckily, he had already done most of these preparations by creating the one crucial factor to make their strategy work:

A working neurotoxin.

Due to the lack of time, Jake had not held back when it came to using ingredients. Jake had sought deep and taken out everything he had stored and bought from all around. He had experimented a lot and found one ingredient that mixed incredibly well with the kind of toxin he wanted to make. It was an old gift from his little brother.

[Umbral Lotus Leaf (Ancient)] – The leaf of a legendary rarity Umbral Lotus. This leaf is incredibly poisonous and releases dark-affinity mana all around it. Consuming it may lead to adverse effects. Many alchemical uses and creations will have neurotoxin and perception-limiting effects.

Jake had kind of forgotten he even had the lotus leaves. As he didn’t have enough of them to actually experiment, Jake had one in Palate since the day he began working on the neurotoxin and instead used lesser dark mana poisons. His control of dark mana proved invaluable during this process and allowed him to get better far faster than expected.

The second ingredient was naturally the Lifeblood.

[Lifeblood of the Emperor Urchin (Ancient)] – The Lifeblood of a slain Emperor Urchin, an incredibly poisonous creature only found in areas with extremely dense water affinity. Its very blood is toxic to consume and especially toxic if directly injected. The Lifeblood is of a neurotoxin nature. Has many alchemical uses and is especially potent when combined with other neurotoxins or poisons with the water affinity.

Then, for a third ingredient, he also pulled out something he hadn’t really ever made use of. A reward from the entrance-exam dungeon of the Academy in the Order.

[Refined Manticore Stinger (Epic)] – the refined stinger of a high-tier D-grade Manticore. The venom within is now more powerful than ever, even compared to when it was alive. This toxin is of the earth affinity and will petrify anything it comes into contact with. Slowly produces more venom when infused with appropriate energy. Has many alchemical uses.

Jake had carried it around with him for a long time, producing plenty of venom passively during this time. He had found that only natural passive mana seemed to work with it, meaning Jake could not infuse it himself… but Sandy could. So, Sandy had been nice enough to dedicate a stomach to storing the stinger and constantly infusing it with energy to pump out more and more venom.

The petrification effect was good at adding a certain rigidity to the neurotoxin. He did not need the petrification effect, but just making it a bit harder to move was more than fine. Just as he ended up refining away the water affinity part of the Lifeblood, so did he remove most of the earth affinity of this one.

Finally, to finish off the concoction, Jake naturally added his blood as well as some good old moss. Moss was always good in these kinds of concoctions.

It had taken many days of experimenting and many failed products. Jake did make several neurotoxins, but every time he made one, he ran into the same issue of how to deliver it properly. Making a poison that had to contact the ash itself was not feasible based on what the King had told him during his preparation phase, so Jake had gone in a direction where it simply needed to touch the Soulshape.

This meant Jake sacrificed a lot of potency for easier delivery. He also sacrificed a lot of other aspects of the poison. It did not need to deal damage; it did not need to even be particularly potent… it just had to work and be hard to deal with in a short amount of time.

Making a poison like this in only a few weeks was not easy, but Jake luckily had enough good ingredients with him to waste. What he didn’t have enough of, Sandy helped him find. Finally, three days before they arrived at the mountain range, he had made the first batch of poison.

[Soul-Petrifying Shadow Poison (Rare)] – A special poison created by combining several powerful ingredients with the singular goal of creating a potent neurotoxin able to affect the soul. This is a soul poison that will actively attempt to affect any Soulshape it touches due to its nature. Once infected will make the Soulshape more rigid, severely limiting all mobility. The dark energy makes all movements of energy more difficult for any affected target. This poison is incredibly difficult to cleanse and has a slight ability to self-replicate if not actively challenged, and it will strengthen itself the more poison is injected.

The poison looked good and had a long description, but quite frankly, it was atrocious. It was weak as hell, and Jake would prefer to use common rarity poison on his arrows over this new neurotoxin. Each dose was just so weak. However… it did its job. Because it had an element of scaleability beyond any other poison he had ever made.

More importantly, it was relatively easy to make as long as he had all the ingredients. The rarity was only what it was due to the ingredients used, and the level of difficulty – or rather lack thereof – was also reflected in him having only gained two levels.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 191 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 192 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 193 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

These levels included all the batches Jake had made. He only had three leaves, but luckily each leaf had enough energy for several batches of poison each. This meant Jake had managed to create a total of fourteen batches of the poison, resulting in seventy-one bottles. He had only failed a single concoction, and that had been his third-ever attempt, once more reflecting the easy crafting difficulty.

Compared to his Sleeping Night Toxin, this poison was shameful, and he would gladly forget he had ever made it once done… but for this fight, it should be enough. If he had more time, perhaps he could have made it better, but he didn’t.

One good thing, though. After this fight, he wouldn’t have any more of the poison because all of it was getting used today.

With twelve hours or so to the fight, Jake began preparing. He would show that while the two Unique Lifeforms could perhaps match or even beat him in a straight-on fight, the game changed when he had preparation time.

The Ashen Phantom Devourer was about to learn why messing with an alchemist, or worse, an alchemist-hunter, was what many would classify as a very bad time.