Scarlett had a hard time imagining it. The first time she met the Chosen had been so brief, and she had barely had any time to talk to him as he was busy just making his way through the Mangrove. She also didn’t fully realize who he was back then. With time she did come to understand and began to think about how she could make herself useful to the Forefather and his Chosen.
She was naturally elated when the Chosen trusted her enough to defend his comrades from danger and even more happy when those comrades chose to stay. Ms. Wells even taught Scarlett so many things. The more senior servant of the Forefather’s Chosen told her about how some enemy Chosen of an extremely powerful god had backstabbed the Forefather’s Chosen and tried to kill him. Or, well, maybe the goal was not to kill him? Scarlett wasn’t sure. All she knew was that several comrades of the bad Chosen were killed, and the coward fled, resulting in the Malefic’s Chosen taking over the world just as one would expect. As things should be.
Now, after his victory, he had finally returned to the Mangrove, where they were doing everything to help him, Old Grumpy snake even making a formation for the Chosen to teleport to the Order as he pleased.
But what she had truly had a hard time imagining was not any of his feats but his demeanor and sheer presence. Scarlett had met many humans and beasts, but one thing was for sure:
The Chosen was the coolest of them all.
Like, he was so cool in everything. He was only D-grade, sure, but Scarlett felt like she walked beside a far more powerful beast than herself. Logically she knew she didn’t, but his presence was still awe-inspiring. To add on, he had not a shred of fear. Scarlett had honed her skills in evaluating humans. She could quite literally smell fear and weakness, and any kind of nervousness would be clear before her eyes. Yet she felt none of those things from the Chosen. In fact, she was the one who felt scared and nervous when she walked with him… how couldn’t she? He was the Chosen of the Forefather.
“Scarlett,” the Chosen asked, making her feel all bubbly inside from him using her name. “Have you considered what your future plans are?”
Scarlett was perplexed for a moment about what he meant. Thinking a bit about it, she didn’t really have any plans besides helping the Chosen. The formation was not anything she could help with, and the Mangrove was firmly under their control. Even if she was not there alone, the other C-grades could easily handle anything that cropped up. Besides that, her only plan had been to maybe explore the ocean and hunt there – something she had already been doing for a while. It wasn’t the best hunting ground, and it often took a long time to find worthy prey, but she had to take what she could get. Worst of all, she had to do the hunting in her true form.
Not that anything she currently did mattered if the Chosen had other thoughts in mind.
“Does the Chosen have anything he wants me to do?” she asked, feeling a bit of hope. Maybe he had more he wanted her to help with?“No, not anything like that,” he answered, making Scarlett a bit disappointed.
“I was just considering if you have considered going to the Order of the Malefic Viper? I have explored a bit of Earth, and while it is possible, I doubt the planet is that good of a place for someone like you to grow. I am positive there are no B-grades, and even peak C-grades would be astronomically rare, assuming they even exist. Meanwhile, going to the Order would open up a multiverse of possibilities,” the Chosen said, Scarlett, listening intensely while barely holding herself back from screaming “YES!” after the very first sentence as she tried to remain respectful.
“Going to the Order of the Forefather would be both an honor and a privilege,” Scarlett answered with a big smile on her face as courteously as she could, even bowing a bit, the same way she had seen some young human women do it.
“Great,” the Chosen said with a smile. “Now, if possible, can you show me a safe place for a measuring device within the settlement?”
“Naturally,” Scarlett complied without asking further questions.
“And can you then do me one other small favor after?” the Chosen asked as he turned and looked at her.
“The Chosen does not even need to ask,” Scarlett answered with conviction.
“Nice, I just wanted you to bite me a few times.”
Scarlett froze and took a moment to process what he had asked before her face turned red, and she completely zoned out… only to still hear the very next sentence.
“Eh, to make it fair, I could bite you too?”
In retrospect, maybe Jake’s words could be misinterpreted, but he really couldn’t hold himself back forever when standing next to a snake girl like her. It was irresistible and impossible not to ask for at least a little bite to get some of that sweet snake venom.
From a distance, her venom was not detectable, but when walking right next to her, his Sense of the Malefic Viper kept making him aware that the small snake girl harbored venom capable of killing hundreds of D-grades with a single drop. It was so strong that not even Jake was sure how he could handle it with Palate at legendary rarity, but he just had to give it a go.
It took him a minute to calm the poor snake girl down after she looked to have short-circuited. Once he got her to relax and listen to his explanation, it suddenly made a lot more sense to the girl, though that still added the complexity of her now being super embarrassed she had misunderstood.
“Are you certain, Chosen? My venom is quite potent, and I have only honed it further since I received the Blessing from the Malefic One, my Toxicity stat growing significantly,” she asked. Jake biting into the last part.
“You have a dedicated Toxicity stat?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes?” Scarlett answered. “Oh! Yeah, humans have different stats. I got a stat called Toxicity that is related to how toxic anything I do is, making it stronger.”
“Did it replace any of the nine we humans have?” Jake continued asking curiously.
“I do not have the Intelligence stat. This one allows my toxins to be far stronger, but it does limit my magical capabilities in many other areas,” she explained openly.
“Makes sense,” Jake nodded. “But I still want some venom for my own Palate skill. It has been a while since I encountered a toxin it proved ineffective against. Don’t worry; if it goes wrong, I have plenty of anti-toxins.”
Not that he was sure those would work, but why worry her? Jake was confident in his survival.
“Okay… but…” Scarlett kind of agreed, clearly unsure.
“Aight, you win. No rush, we can always do it after going to the Order if you want where we got assistance nearby if we do mess it up,” Jake smiled to comfort her. It maybe was also smart to have Meira nearby as she was a healer. Oh, and Duskleaf.
“Let us wait…” Scarlett said with relief.
“Got it. Now let’s go get this weird machine placed for Arnold.”
It only took him a bit before Scarlett showed him a place where he could deposit it safely, and Scarlett even told a C-grade snake to keep an eye on it. Jake activated it right away and saw it spin to life as what looked like a satellite dish emerged from its top, and he faintly detected the device sucking in mana.
With that done, Jake didn’t really have any more plans before it was time to go to the World Congress. A Congress that should, for all intents and purposes, be nothing more than a formality.
Scarlett was clearly intent on shadowing him, and he saw no reason not to allow it. It was a bit awkward, though, like going to a birthday party as the oldest cousin and having teenagers ten years younger than yourself follow you around.
Luckily, what he planned next did not include a lot of moving around. With some time to spare, Jake found a nice place to relax and noted down his aptly-named pre-C-grade checklist:
1. Become World Leader at the World Congress.
2. Upgrade Sense of the Malefic Viper.
3. Upgrade Sagacity of the Malefic Viper.
4. Go to Order and defeat baby Snappy
5. Mythical skill creation with the help of sim-Jake
6. Actually evolve.
Jake nodded at the mental checklist and didn’t immediately notice anything missing. The first item was easy and would come in a couple of days if all went to plan. As for two and three, then upgrading the two skills was something Jake had subtly been working on for a while and had thought a lot about, even during his holiday, and it honestly should not be too hard. Plus, he would use Path of the Heretic-Chosen for both as he had two uses left.
Four and five Jake would combine, though it is more accurate to say that Jake wanted to do four during five. Jake knew that he needed a good battle for an upgrade, and he had discussed the skill sim-Jake wanted a lot with his other self. He also knew that it was not as easy as both of them had hoped and that they would likely need more preparation than first expected. However, in any case, then they both knew that live battle was the best time to consolidate everything and make the skill. It was only when in a life-and-death situation that Jake’s instincts were at their sharpest, and the best results could be reached.
Number six should also be kind of easy. As for the evolution quests, Jake wasn’t worried. In fact, he had a strong feeling as to what they would be. Especially the one for his profession. But, rather than theorize, it was better to just see the quest, and the easiest way to do that was to get one more level in his profession.
So why not kill two birds with one stone and also get in a skill upgrade? As for the skill he would upgrade first, it really was a no-brainer. It was the skill Jake should have arguably upgraded as one of the first but had somehow ended up never really focusing on. It was naturally Sense of the Malefic Viper.
Checking the description, Jake focused on the part that mattered:
…Gives a passive ability to detect herbs and poisons in different forms and a strong feeling of their properties and affinities. Allows the alchemist to far more easily detect affinities in the environment and detect areas optimal for cultivating herbs. Massively improves your ability to sense the poison you have inflicted and its effects on any inflicted entities…
Rather than focusing on what the skill currently did, he focused on what it didn’t do. The usual goal when upgrading was to find aspects the Viper’s version had and add those or improve current functions. Feeling herbs and poisons, the skill already did damn well, and the ability to detect affinities was also something Jake found hard to improve upon. Same for detecting poison he had inflicted. Which made him fast conclude he had to focus on adding additional functionality.
An obvious one was the ability to also sense natural treasures, but Jake kind of already could. Most natural treasures gave off intense affinities, so he could find them when close, and if they were of herbal or toxic nature, the skill still worked on them. So, while that would likely be an easy addition, Jake wasn’t sure if that alone would be enough to qualify for an upgrade or even be useful to him. No, he needed something else.
Jake considered what would be useful to him. What he could really need. He had thought about this a lot and even looked at some of the other Malefic Viper skills for inspiration. That did give him some ideas, but ultimately, the direction Jake went in fit him far more. He went as simple as he could.
Perception was by far Jake’s highest stat, and he made use of it in everything he did.
When forming magic, Jake felt the flow of mana; he felt how it formed and assembled itself, including noticing any mistakes. Jake did many micro-corrections all the time when doing magic or really anything requiring control.
He also used Perception in combat, even in ways Jake did not quite understand but that sim-Jake had helped him at least be aware of. He sensed the flow of battle, the concepts of momentum, and many other things that fed his instincts during battle.
Even when using stamina, Jake used it. He felt it flow through his body, and he directed it. Because it all came down to one basic concept.
Seeing is understanding, and before something can be controlled, you need to understand or at least be aware of it first. Perception was the first step of everything and, needless to say, had also become a massive aspect of Jake’s methodology in alchemy.
Jake could notice far more than other alchemists when crafting due to his insane Bloodline-boosted Perception. He could learn and understand more simply based on what he could perceive. His collected data from any experiment was immense compared to the average alchemist, something his trip to Skyggen and teaching their alchemists made extremely clear. But they could still detect a lot during crafting, not due to a Sphere of Perception and an insanely high stat, but due to their skills. Which is when Jake asked a very fundamental question.
Why did Sense of the Malefic Viper not help with anything during crafting? When he first got the skill, Jake had thought maybe that was just not what Sense of the Malefic Viper was about, but that the skill only revolved around one thing: finding materials. However, it now also helped him locate places good at growing materials and detect affinities in general. It even had the function of sensing the poison he had inflicted. So why not allow him to better sense what he was crafting?
The problem was just how to upgrade that. How to try to feel more when crafting using Sense? It didn’t make much sense – pun intended – to Jake to try and do that. He already was trying to feel as much as he could during crafting, and Sense of the Malefic Viper naturally already helped during that, though indirectly.
No, what Jake wanted was not just to feel more but to feel different. Pick up things he didn’t before, either because he wasn’t aware of them existing or his Perception somehow not being high enough.
If Jake was being honest, he would be fine if all the upgrade did was just add a line about increasing the effectiveness of Perception during crafting, as that would be a huge boon in itself, but he knew he needed more.
As he was sitting in meditation with a snake girl who also chose to “meditate” nearby while throwing looks his way every five seconds, Jake kept tossing around ideas in his mind. While considering all the different options he could possibly see work, he tried to check the Path of the Heretic-Chosen skill, and wouldn’t you know it? He had passed the invisible threshold.
Do you wish to experience the Legacy of the Malefic Viper? Uses remaining: 2
Well, don’t mind if I do, Jake promptly agreed as his vision turned black.
If he couldn’t figure it out himself, why not see what the Viper had come up with?