The Primal Hunter

This vision had definitely been on the shorter side, and compared to his last one where Villy got smacked around by Valdemar, it was also far less valuable. Then again, that vision had consumed two charges of the skill and allowed him to see two future Primordials duking it out with a focus on more than one of the Malefic Viper skills.

Jake was teleported back into the dungeon as expected and was excited to get to his new skill but noticed something was off. Draskil was staring at him weirdly, and Irin was flying over together with Reika and Bastilla. Reika looked surprised more than anything, while Irin and Bastilla looked utterly dumbfounded.

As he was still wondering what was up, Reika poked him mentally and informed him: “Whatever you just did released a wave of a presence or something… it was yours but different… I think they know you are the Chosen of the Malefic Viper.”

His brain took a while to process what she had just said as it clicked. Oh… fuck.

Path of the Heretic-Chosen.

When he used the skill, he tapped into his direct connection to Villy and momentarily seized it to gaze upon the Records of the Primordial. He hadn’t even considered what that could do as all he knew was that he momentarily disappeared… unaware of what he left behind when he did that.

Still unsure what kind of explanation he should try and come up with, Irin made him fully aware he was way past the point of explaining it away the moment she got close.

Without any hesitation, she kneeled in front of him and pressed her forehead to the muddy soil as she spoke in a voice that seemed both pleading and apologetic. “This one greets the Chosen.”

Fuck me,Jake cursed internally as he realized he had truly fucked up. As he was about to say something, a prompt appeared in front of Jake and everyone else.

Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon: Nine Floors of the Indigo Caverns

Objective: Defeat the supreme leader of the mushroom men: the Mushroom Man King (Completed).

Dungeon shutting down in: 00:00:03

He saw the three seconds left just as two boxes appeared in front of them. Jake was quick and opened them both, taking the items in his inventory before he was whisked out of the dungeon.

Jake and the four others appeared outside the dungeon, Irin still kneeling and Draskil still staring. Reika and Bastilla were both in the air when they had exited and were now standing unmovingly on the ground. The unmoving part was not something unique to them as everyone was frozen. Even the air itself had stopped moving.

“Just some simple time magic,” he heard a voice say as Villy appeared right beside him. Jake turned to the Viper, who patted him on the back. “Quite the pickle you just made for yourself. You know, every time you use Path of the Heretic-Chosen, you leave behind your anchored Truesoul… but that anchored Truesoul does not have the protection you worked so hard on making with Shroud. Not that it would have mattered as you tapping into my Records clearly leaves behind some traces, and those familiar with me are bound to notice. Now, what was the vision about? We can deal with this entire thing after, I care more about what you saw.”

Still uncertain what to do, Jake just gave the cliff notes. “About Touch. It was you with a party led by an elf in golden armor, killed a late C-grade beast, you poisoned all of them with flasks and poisons, killing them and stealing the corpse as well as everything they owned.”

Villy failed to hold back a smirk. “You know I am not a believer in fate, but this coincidence is a bit too perfect, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Jake asked, his brain still trying to make up a plan.

“You see a vision of me killing my own party after a hunt and now find yourself in a situation where you must choose if you want to do the same,” the Viper said. “With them alive, I do not see you hiding for long. The girl from Earth managed to solve this issue by having all those humans she brought with her sign a contract, but that isn’t an option here. The demon is bound by a contract already, and signing one of confidentiality in this matter would go directly against that. So, Jake…. what will you do?”

“Oh,” Jake said after hearing everything Villy said, not really caring about the last part. “Guess I am kinda screwed then.”

“You can still kill them,” the Viper shrugged. “Sure, the dragonkin may be a bit too much for you to handle, but you can go through official channels and use some of that Chosen clout to get him killed. Just ask Viridia, and I am sure she would gladly remove him or anyone else from existence.”

“The chances of that happening are nil,” Jake shut it down instantly.

“So you value their lives above your own secrecy?” Villy raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. I can just keep trying to hide or tell people to leave me the fuck alone or something. At the very least, ask them to keep it a secret. Also, you said Irin had another contract, right? Does that contract really require her to report any secret the Malefic Viper or his Chosen told her not to divulge? Sounds like a shit contract.”

“Got me there,” the Viper said, putting up both his hands defensively. “But I am serious when I say you just made another weak point when it comes to your hidden identity. She will be forced to report something. Soon the cracks will spread, and your mask will shatter entirely, revealing the ugly mug of my Chosen beneath.”

“I will handle that when it happens,” Jake shook his head. “Also, quick question, does this count as time dilation?”

“Nope. I just stopped this cavern; time moves normally everywhere else. Localized time stops are pretty damn basic tools of the god toolkit. Anyway, you made your decision to just come clean to these three, right?”

“Seems like that is what is happening, yeah,” Jake nodded.

“Great. Then introduce me to your friends already,” Villy said with a teasing smile. The moment he was done speaking, time returned to normal as everyone looked confused. Draskil’s eyes quickly darted to the person now standing next to Jake and knelt down instantly, joining Irin, who was still pressing her head to the ground.

Reika and Bastilla stared confused for a moment before Jake realized neither of them had seen the Viper in his human form before nor were Blessed and thus felt his presence. It was like with Meira, and they would only truly be affected once they knew who he was, so if they-

“Hello there, my name is Vilastromoz, but most people call me the Malefic Viper, your pleasure to meet me,” Villy said with a grin.

The effect was almost instant as Reika began shaking a bit before failing to stay upright, with Bastilla making an odd scared whining noise before just straight-up laying down in a fetal position.

Irin, now finally noticing something was off, looked up and saw the Viper standing there. She made eye contact for a fraction of a second before slamming her head down onto the ground again. Not a single word was spoken by her, and it was Draskil who opened his mouth first.

“Draskil greets his Patron,” the dragonkin said in a tone Jake had never heard before. Rather than his usual domineering attitude and tone of confidence, he now seemed as meek as a baby lizard before a true dragon.

“You really wanted to play this casual, huh?” Jake muttered as he looked at Villy.

“No, I actually just wanted to fuck with you a little and have some fun when meeting your little friends,” the Viper chuckled, clearly in a good mood. “And now that I have met them, I can’t be arsed to stay. Since you decided not to kill them, I shall leave the rest to you. See you again a bit later, and by later, I mean in two days as I got some new ale done brewing by then.”

“Can you just leave already to not make this worse than it already is?” Jake exclaimed with exasperation, knowing that the Viper was saying and doing all those things just to mess with him.

The Viper didn’t even respond as he disappeared without a trace, leaving Jake and his party behind with only a final mental message to Jake sent mentally: “I made a barrier covering this entire cavern so go wild talking.”

Jake took a few seconds to gather his thoughts and, in a glorious attempt to not address the elephant in the room, began talking. “So… ahem, we should discuss how we split the dungeon loot. I hurried to pick it up and-“

“Jake,” Reika spoke as she looked up with red eyes and sweat pouring down her face, unable to be nice by not pointing out the damn elephant.

With a big sigh, Jake sat down with his legs crossed on the ground. Nobody else moved, and they were all either lying prone or kneeling. “So… yeah… I got the True Blessing of the Viper. We met under weird circumstances, got along well, and here we are. Sorry for keeping it a secret, but things tend to get weird when people know, and if possible, can we just act like I don’t have it or at least not think about it too much? Let’s just return to ten minutes ago mentally, alright?”

He knew he was reaching and knew it was a losing battle. Even after speaking, he knew he was not helping his situation. Jake felt utterly fucked, but he had neglected to consider that there already was one person in the group who knew and didn’t act all weird about it.

Reika stood up and took out a handkerchief to clean her brows as she shook her head. “The mere presence of the Malefic One is truly something; I can’t understand how you manage to stay upright and so casual.”

Jake picked up on what she was trying to do and responded jokingly. “It’s mainly the Bloodline, but plenty of practice sure helps.”

Their casual demeanor seemed to slightly affect the others as Draskil finally looked up with questioning eyes. He stared at Jake as he frowned. “Why hide?”

At least he asked an easy question, Jake thought as he answered. “Due to exactly what is happening right now. I want to actually have normal interactions with others and not whatever you guys are doing.”

Draskil still seemed confused and again asked: “Why?”

“Because that is who I am,” Jake just said. “I didn’t treat you differently when you thought I had a lower-leveled Blessing than you, did I? I want it to be like that with how you treat me. Also, Irin… why is your head still glued to the ground?”

Irin barely reacted as she shook a little. Jake was about to talk again as Reika stopped him. “Jake… can you go over there for a moment?” she asked, pointing to a corner rather far away.

Jake was confused before he looked at Reika, who gave him the kind of stare that told him he should really agree.

“Alright…” he said as he walked away. Shit, I am bad at this.

Wanting to take his mind off things, Jake sat down in the corner nearly a full kilometer away from Reika, who set up her own barrier. He had put it off due to the “situation” but now found the time to finally go over his upgrade and what he had at least gained out of this entire thing.

As expected, the notification he had heard was Touch of the Malefic Viper finally upgrading.

[Touch of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)] – With a single touch, the Malefic Viper has slain countless foes. Attempt to inject poison into a being through physical contact. The nature of the poison is determined by the user. The alchemist can only use toxic effects he has concocted or created prior. Can be used with all compatible types of mana affinities, further altering the effects. This effect is especially effective using your arcane affinity. Vastly increases the potency of transmutations made using Touch of the Malefic Viper at the cost of partly binding them to your soul. Some effects cannot be replicated. Adds an increase to the effectiveness of Touch of the Malefic Viper based on Intelligence and Wisdom. Passively provides 1 Intelligence per level in Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your touch be the catalyst of corruption as you bend the world to your will.

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[Touch of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] – With a single touch, the Malefic Viper seizes control of the world. Attempt to inject toxic energy into a being through contact. The nature of the toxic energy is determined by the user. The alchemist can only use toxic effects he has concocted or created prior or to further empower an existing toxic effect within the target. Allows the alchemist to far more effectively control all toxins he is in contact with when using Touch of the Malefic Viper. Can be used with all compatible types of mana affinities, further altering the effects. This effect is especially effective using your arcane affinity. Vastly increases the potency of transmutations made using Touch of the Malefic Viper at the cost of partly binding them to your soul. Some effects cannot be replicated. Adds an increase to the effectiveness of Touch of the Malefic Viper based on Intelligence and Wisdom. Passively provides 3 Intelligence per level in Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your touch be the catalyst of corruption as you bend the world to your will.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 175 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

Jake once more considered how damn long those skill descriptions were getting. It was truly proof of how utterly bonkers the Malefic Viper Legacy skills were. The description itself only had minor changes but impactful ones. It no longer said “through physical contact” but merely “through contact,” no-doubt reflecting the synergy with Pride. It also added the effects of empowering existing toxins and even the part about increased control. Rather than one major improvement which he often saw with upgraded skills, it was several smaller things that Jake had been working towards for a long time. The part about empowering toxins was something he had already done before. He had, of course, also trained to improve his control at all times, and the only truly new thing was the use of Pride. Even then, it wasn’t entirely new, considering all the training Jake had done when it came to Soulshapes.

The level to his profession was also welcome. As Jake looked at his status, he noted that he was now more than halfway through upgrading his nine Malefic Viper Legacy skills to legendary. He still needed Blood, Wings, Sagacity, and surprisingly enough, Sense of the Malefic Viper. For Wings, he had a good idea what to do, Sagacity, he had a feeling was heavily linked to the drop of blood in his Soulspace, but with both Blood and Sense, he wasn’t that sure where to take them. He decided that he should definitely dedicate more time to them as he wanted to get all four skills to legendary rarity before reaching C-grade, just like he had gotten them all to Ancient before D-grade.

As a final thing, Jake checked and saw that his Dungeoneer title had also upgraded once again.

[Dungeoneer VIII] – Successfully clear a Dungeon suitable for your level. +14 all stats.

It was just three to all stats, but everything was welcome.

Having gone through all his menus and some internal reflection, Jake considered what to do now. He didn’t want to go through the loot from the dungeon alone and looked over towards the barrier that was still up and wondered what they were talking about as he sent some encouraging thoughts their way.

Go Reika! I believe in you!