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One immortal mortal, if you may.

Jake had wanted to ask more, but Eron had refused and asked Jake to question the Malefic Viper instead. No matter how much he pressed, the healer had been utterly unwilling to share more.

Shortly after that, Eron had left, just leaving Jake. After a bit of reflection, It got him questioning… was it truly a good goal? Was giving immortality to everyone even a good thing?

People dying was, as cruel as it sounded, necessary. Most enlightened never even reached D-grade during their lives, but even so, a single human could live hundreds of years. In that time, it was pretty common to have dozens of children. If all these children also grew up to have dozens, even a planet like Earth would be utterly overpopulated in just a few centuries.

Even now, wars and such were customary on low-level planets to cull populations. Yet even with these measures, age was likely the primary killer for most beings in the multiverse. Many individuals in high grades reached points in their lives where they believed that further evolution was not an option, and they chose to settle down and create families or nurture their factions. This is not even mentioning the many people who never cared about battle to begin with, but only focused on their professions. If these people who never fought lived forever… Jake wasn’t even sure the system would allow it.

There was also the problem that Eron – to put it nicely – didn’t give a flying fuck about other people or who they were as individuals, nor what was good for the multiverse as a whole. All he cared about was them not dying. Not once did he consider the ”gift” he wanted to give the multiverse a curse to some.

Immortality was not necessarily a good thing. It took a certain mindset to handle, and Villy had mentioned before this mentality was rare but a fundamental requirement for attaining godhood. What would happen to someone becoming immortal that did not have the mindset for it? Insanity? Would they ultimately end their own lives?

There were many thoughts in his head, but Jake did recognize they were likely useless for two reasons:

The first was that the chances of Eron achieving this goal were minuscule. He wanted to do something countless others had tried before, and while he did have his Bloodline, would that truly be enough? Even if he got help from others with Bloodlines and Transcendents, Jake refused to believe others hadn’t tried that before in the trillions of years the multiverse had existed. Even if Eron succeeded, Jake doubted it would be anytime soon, in which case it would be a future-Jake problem.

Secondly was that Jake knew the system still did have some restrictions that not even Bloodlines or Transcendents could overcome. The most obvious one was the rule that everything took something to use – a law of exchange, if one may. Not necessarily an equivalent exchange, but few things were free. That was why the Sword Saint could not just instantly have created a Transcendent that turned him into a god then and there. He had to instead pay with levels for the power he gained. Jake’s own infusion of Records related to Primeval Origins was similar, as the system had restricted him in how often he could do it without fundamentally harming himself. It likely knew that a Jake capable of mass-producing pinnacle-level creatures would be too imbalanced.

So, what would the price of granting someone else immortality be? Sacrificing other lives? No, it could not be that simple. Jake thought for a good while and concluded that it was likely the system would never even allow Eron to create a method to make everyone immortal… but if it was just healing the impact of time? To – using his metaphor – refuel the Truesouls of others, giving them more years of lifespan?

That… could be possible. With help, of course. Eron would need assistance from many people, but there would be just as many opposing it, Jake reckoned. As with Sanguine, anyone breaking the power balance established by the gods would find themselves facing much opposition. Jake had faced this with his special ability, too. One could just look at the Automata Legion, which was less than keen on him at the moment.

Ultimately, Jake didn’t want to rule out the mad healer’s goal. Even if Eron’s goal was utterly delusional, he was not the only one Jake knew who had such far-fetched dreams. The healer actually reminded Jake a bit of Arnold and his goal of fully comprehending the entire multiverse and the system through the power of math. It was so utterly outrageous Jake could only respect it. They both had goals that weren’t just ”get strong,” but both goals still required them to reach such high levels of power before they would become feasible that by the time they succeeded, they would be approaching the pinnacle either way. To them, power was just the means to an end – the end just being so far out of sight it wasn’t a demerit whatsoever.

Shaking his head, Jake tried to dispel the thought as much as he could. Worrying right now was useless when the possibility of Eron’s dream even becoming a reality was so low. For now, he would shelve even thinking about it and instead discuss it with Villy after he was done with Nevermore. That sounded like what Eron hoped he would do anyway.

Jake smiled a bit to himself, reflecting on all the people from Earth he had just met up with. They all had their own goals and aspirations, some grander than others. The person he was most worried about was Caleb… he was his little brother, after all. He had not shared it with the group, but Jake did know that his goal was quite simple: He wanted to protect his family. That itself was a good goal to have, but it was rarely – if ever – a Path that led one to the pinnacle.

Umbra had likely known this too, which was part of the reason he got the Legacy of Tenlucis. The Path of Tenlucis was essentially about forcing someone to keep progressing or die from the pressure of the dark heavens crushing you to death. It would force Caleb to keep going even when he wanted to sit still, and while it was selfish of him, that gave Jake some relief.

Jacob was even worse off than Caleb, Jake did recognize that, but he didn’t feel the same sense of worry. One was his little brother, and the other was just his old boss and friend from work. It was his own problem if he didn’t have the right mentality to go all the way. If he wanted to get on a Path to godhood, he had to find it himself.

Feeling done with reflecting on the group, Jake left the hotel room towards one of the many alchemy labs provided to get some proper crafting done and rake in those final Minaga Coins to finally move on and explore the rest of Minaga’s Labyrinth.

Time passed as Jake continued grinding out alchemical creations to finally get enough Minaga Coins to pay his toll. He ended up being a lot slower than the Sword Saint, who finished only a week after their meeting by dumping his entire ”art” collection on the Brokers.

It still took Jake nearly three months to get done, as his speed had slowed down a bit. He did not rush as much while even mixing in a bit of experimentation here and there. They would have to wait a bit for Sylphie and the Fallen King no matter what, with Dina also done collecting all her Coins shortly. It also didn’t help with motivation that his leveling speed felt significantly slower, though he did manage to rake in two more levels.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 225 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 226 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 222 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

And, as mentioned, he was good on Minaga Coins.

Current Minaga Coins: 214,390/214,000

Now Jake just had to figure out what the hell his plans were as the others also got ready. As things were, he saw a few options.

The first one was to continue grinding alchemy while focusing more on experimentation. This one was slightly problematic in the sense that Jake would still feel some diminishing return due to him having just churned out stuff for over one and a half years. He also didn’t know what kind of foes he would face on later floors, so even if he wanted to research a new kind of poison, he had no idea what he should focus on.

A second option was to try some of the Challenge Dungeons. The Sword Saint had considered this, but Dina had discouraged them both. According to Nature’s Attendant, it was best to focus on all the Challenge Dungeons as late as possible to get as powerful as one could. At least for some of them. The problem was you didn’t know what kind of Challenge Dungeon you would find yourself in before entering, and as with Nevermore’s general rule of information-limiting, people couldn’t share what they knew of the Challenge Dungeons either. Dina had also mentioned that often these Challenge Dungeons had a very set ”theme” and was about progressively getting more difficult, making one go further on average if they were attempted as late as possible. The final nail in the coffin was that some of them had limited attempts, and entering and leaving again counted as one attempt. Jake had chosen to take this advice and wait.

The third option of things to do was to use the charge of Path of the Heretic-Chosen he had gained when he reached level 220 in his profession. When he had initially gained the charge, Jake had considered using it, but in the end, he had delayed. His problem with the skill right now wasn’t that he didn’t know what to use it on… it was that he had too many things to use it on. One had to remember that it had gone from only working on his “of the Malefic Viper” skills to now working on a shitload of things.

“Focusing on any core skill, event, or entity related to the Malefic Viper’s Legacy will allow you to peer into the True Records of the past as you journey through time, space, and reality to experience history firsthand.”

What was it called again? Decision paralysis? Choice overload? Jake wasn’t sure, but whatever the hell it was called, Jake felt like he had so many choices it was difficult to make one. The problem was even worse by the fact that he felt he could now choose any of the nine Legacy skills if he wanted, as the requirement of adequate understanding was also gone.

But… he could also focus on the First Sage, as Jake was incredibly curious about that guy. Shit, Jake even considered checking out the other Primordials if he could. He had already seen Valdemar in one vision and gained a lot from it, so should he see a vision with him again? Maybe someone else? Eversmile, perhaps?

There were also events, though that one was a bit harder, as Jake was not clear on that many interesting events, as not much was known about the first era before the different Primordials rose to godhood. Jake also felt that there were some things he could not see. As an example, he poked the skill to see if it would show him the moment the Malefic Viper gained his Transcendence or when he ascended to godhood, but both of those were no good. If it was because they were not “related to the Malefic Viper’s Legacy” or because the system had restricted the skill in some way, Jake didn’t know.

Ultimately, Jake just couldn’t choose. He kind of wanted to focus on a skill to try and upgrade it, but without the requirement for him to understand it, how would he even know it could help him? No, he wanted to wait and use it when he felt like he truly needed it, and that time just wasn’t right now.

That left Jake with the fourth option. This was his original idea for what he would do when he was done collecting Minaga Coins, and it still seemed like the most attractive one:

He was gonna play with his Puzzle Box.

[Puzzle Box of the Seeker (Divine)] – A puzzle box created by the god known as the Seeker. This box is filled with a total of 10000 levels of mana puzzles of ever-increasing difficulty. Fully unlocking the box will reveal an item sealed within. Soulbinds to anyone who beats the first level. Levels completed: (1/10000).

This was probably Jake’s favorite gift from the entire Chosen ceremony. Sure, all the other items had been nice, and Jake had used quite a few of them during this crafting session – such as the items gifted by the Risen – but this one still stood out.

He had loved the practice cauldron Villy had given him back during the intermittent period between the Tutorial ending and his arrival on Earth, and this one gave off similar vibes. This was not quite the same as it didn’t focus on just alchemy but was more about general mana control.

Mana control was very much like practicing with any weapon or tool, and from the very first time Jake had interacted with Villy, the god had emphasized the importance of improving his control. Getting better at mana control improved your alchemy skills, abilities as a mage, ritualist… anything that required mana. Usually, one just practiced using mana for practical things or while using all skills, but puzzles like this weren’t that rare either. Jake even did one during the Treasure Hunt when he first met Reika.

This Puzzle Box was, needless to say, on an entirely different level than anything he had ever done before. The first level had been incredibly easy as it was just a method to Soulbind the item, but when he took out the box and infused energy into it this time, he found his consciousness sink into the box, and he instantly realized things would not continue to be that easy.

Jake also had his mind transported to this place when he initially bound it to himself, and back then, he had just seen a few squiggly lines that didn’t properly align with each other and were easily fixed.

However, this time he found himself surrounded by broken lines of pure mana, tangled messes, and mana just in pure disarray. Jake looked at the absolute mess in front of him and couldn’t help but smile. If this was still only level two… man, did he have a lot of fun ahead of him.