The submissions of Jake’s two latest Creations went as smoothly as always, with no real surprises. The Architect was good at forcing him to leave once the job was done, not giving him any way to glean more details than she allowed.
Jake was fully aware both the transmuted Spirit Orb and the ritual itself weren’t that good Creations, at least not by the standards of Jake being a Chosen. Sure, they were okay Creations and many would be proud of them, but nothing to write home about. In some ways, Jake had chosen to submit them not just because he wanted some diversity with his submissions but because he wanted to improve both those aspects of his current alchemy. Especially the two of them in conjunction with one another.
It would effectively allow Jake to set up far larger rituals to corrupt things. The ritual would naturally also work with his arcane affinity, and he could totally see himself laying that down for large-scale transmutation projects down the line.
Anyway, with the ritual and transmutation-based Creation submitted, Jake had four more overall but only needed to come up with two more. Temlat and his “normal” poison were both work-in-progress, and he had already semi-counted them.
With that in mind, Jake had a significantly shortened list remaining, with only three topics to work on… though he may have to come up with more.
1. Skill-related thing. Based on magic and mana.
2. Origin-related Creation. This may be done during one of the prior Creations.
3. Something weird Bloodline-related?
It was a very short list, and it really put into perspective how difficult it was for someone to submit ten sufficiently different and valuable Creations. Even if you could include intangible things like skills, it took a lot of imagination to guess what a good Creation would be. Would it be considered good to submit a Creation that was just Jake wiping out all life in the different worlds? Or would it instead be good to maybe submit one where he made peace between all the races in that medieval world? That was the kind of stuff Jake could definitely see someone like Jacob or even the Fallen King doing. Though their methods would differ quite noticeably.
These worlds added so many layers and possibilities. However, Jake still believed the best Creations came in the form of items. If he had to guess, then the Grimoire was probably Jake’s best Creation so far, with the Unseen Arcane Hunter skill a pretty close second despite its intangible nature.Temlat had a good chance to take the top spot, but Jake felt like he needed one or maybe even two more real bangers to ensure he got a great overall evaluation. However, with Jake’s remaining list, he wasn’t sure how to do just that.
The most obvious choice would be to just improve another skill… the problem here was that Jake didn’t have any he wanted to do that with. Sure, he did have an inferior-rarity Alchemist’s Purification, but honestly, that skill was just fodder for his Malefic Viper Legacy skills at this point. Even if he did improve it, Jake had no idea how to do it in a satisfactory way that didn’t also risk messing up any potential fusions down the line.
He had confidence in getting it to maybe epic rarity just by infusing concepts he was already familiar with from his arcane affinity. However, that wouldn’t even make for a good submission as it didn’t require learning anything new, and besides, it would mess up fusing it later on. No, If he wanted to somehow make it a good one, it would just take way too much time, as Jake would have to learn a lot of new stuff. Something he didn’t want to spend the time and effort on
Now, there was one other cheat-like option to get an upgrade Jake had purposefully been avoiding: Path of the Heretic-Chosen. In fact, Jake had kind of ignored using the skill during his entire time in C-grade as he felt he didn’t want to waste it. He was up to two charges now and damn close to another. Even so, he wasn’t sure if it was worth using, even if it helped get him a better evaluation in the Challenge Dungeon.
Not to mention, Jake wasn’t sure if it even worked. The skill was very special, and Jake felt very unsure how exactly it would interact with Nevermore and the Challenge Dungeon rules. His main question was… were any Records and improvements he gained during the vision considered as having been achieved within the Challenge Dungeon? The wording on the skill wasn’t exactly precise:
“Allows you to experience the Legacy of the Malefic Viper on a far more direct level by relying on your direct connection as a Chosen and the mentality of a heretic. 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…”
It specifically said Jake would journey through time and space. Based on what others had said, Jake would also disappear whenever he used the skill with even his physical body leaving. An anchor of sorts would remain, sure, but did this anchor count as Jake still being within the House of the Architect? Was he in both places at once? Would that make any gains only count for half, according to the Challenge Dungeon?
Jake had these doubts and even asked the Architect… only to get the answer that she wouldn’t answer that but for Jake to just give it a try and see, and then she would gladly accept the result as a submission. So, yeah, definitely not a risk Jake wanted to take, especially not considering one final thing…
He still remembered the first vision he had of Valdemar. That vision had been far more valuable than any other but also consumed two charges at once. If he didn’t have two back during the fight with baby Snappy, Jake likely wouldn’t have gotten such a good vision. This begged the question, what would Jake see if he consumed even more charges at once? One could argue that there probably weren’t any individuals who warranted taking three charges to get a vision of, but there was one person Jake wanted to see more of than anyone else who he believed could require just that. The one man even the Viper recognized as a genius above geniuses:
The First Sage.
To glean some of his secrets couldn’t be cheap. Hence why Jake didn’t want to risk using Path of the Heretic-Chosen just to get some more Nevermore Points. Jake genuinely believed the visions he got would have an impact far beyond just this mega-dungeon, not to mention the Challenge Dungeon he was currently in.
With all that in consideration, in addition to there not being any other obvious skill-upgrade candidates, Jake moved on to something entirely different. He chose to instead use what he always used whenever he didn’t know what to do: his Bloodline.
One of the two remaining Creations would obviously include him using his Jake Juice. Of course, he couldn’t make anything that required a living being, as anything with a Truesoul couldn’t be a submission in itself, but something like a core was an option.
The problem with that was Jake doubted he had enough juice to fully transform a core into a fully-fledged Origin Core... and even if he did, would he want to submit one? In either case, Jake had decided to go with something else a bit less impressive. At least, he thought it would be less impressive, but that was all up to the Architect, right?
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With a very loose plan, Jake began to work on a method to integrate his Jake Juice into a Creation. He also wanted something that would show off his skills in manipulating mana. Even if Jake had shown off a lot of his skills related to mana during many of his prior Creations – most of them, in fact – he still wanted to do one that was just pure freeform mana manipulation. Put a bit of that practice from his Puzzle Box of the Seeker into use in a more direct way.
Thus, Jake began to work on that project as he split his time between Temlat, the poison he was working on, and this mana creation. He quickly got on something he wanted to show off regarding his mana manipulation, and if everything worked out as he hoped, the submission should be pretty damn awesome.
Months slowly passed as Jake worked hard on all three projects, making impressive progress across the board. Temlat was still improving by the day, and even if his leveling wasn’t fast, Jake knew he was improving his skills at a rapid pace. He also volunteered to go do combat practice all by himself, showing that his confidense-level had grown significantly. Jake believed that he would evolve before Jake had been in the House of the Architect for two years, which also showed Jake that getting a student fast after entering the Challenge Dungeon had been an excellent call.
Poison-wise, things were slow but steady. Out of everything Jake was doing – besides maybe the first submission that was just Jake being Jake – this was the thing he had the most experience with, and it only made sense this Creation would take the longest. Jake was trying to make a poison that he was happy to put on nearly all his arrows and katars going forward, so it was only natural he took his time to make something proper.
Finally, there was the mana project, which would definitely be the first one to finish. Jake studied quite a bit regarding what kind of mana construct he wanted to create, but moreso, he worked on exploring to see if what he wanted to do with his Jake Juice was even possible.
He had to take a calm and studious approach, as he didn’t have the Jake Juice to just experiment with willy-nilly. He had one shot, and if he failed that, he would be back to having two Creations to figure out. That’s why he wanted to get this one right the first time around.
Even so, there was a limit to how much Jake could learn without just saying “fuck it” and giving it a go. So, one day, when everything just felt right, Jake stopped stalling and got to work.
Locking up the room, he made sure no one would disturb him as Jake regenerated and made sure he had full mana. Then, he just jumped right into it.
Jake needed no tools for this. He needed no skills or anything like that. Everything would just be purely mana and his Jake Juice. Yet Jake wanted to create an item… which usually wouldn’t be possible. But Jake had confidence as he began to summon monstrous levels of mana all at once.
Every pore of his body opened as he pumped out arcane mana and filled the room. At the same time, he began to gather it between his hands as he sat in a lotus position and focused on his sphere to take in everything around him.
Tens of thousands of mana gathered quickly as a small ball was formed. More and more mana was released from his body every second as soon, over a hundred thousand mana filled the room without any signs of stopping. This was another reason why Jake didn’t want Temlat to enter on accident… this kind of environment definitely wasn’t healthy for a D-grade.
Jake’s output of energy continued as more and more mana gathered in front of him as the minutes passed, with the ball rapidly also growing in size. Energy began to spin around the ball as Jake kept it in its mixed state, where it neither sought destruction nor stability. After nearly one hundred and fifty thousand mana had been poured into the orb floating in front of him, Jake began to feel the pressure.
What Jake was currently doing usually had little practical use. He was just gathering all of his mana outside of his body in an orb through a process that was far from fast, efficient, or generally considered useful. Hours went by as Jake had to slow down to remain in control, but once he gathered his mana in the maelstrom around the orb, he could keep it calm and simply revolve there without his direct need for control.
Every hour, Jake consumed a mana potion on the dot to make sure he wouldn’t run out. He used a lot more mana than he gathered as the efficiency fell the more time passed, and he had to use the majority of his mana just to control the environment.
His Willpower and senses were strained as he took his foot off the gas. Jake continued slowly and steadily as he tamed the orb of pure mana floating in front of him. It was about the size of a wrecking ball at this point, which was far too large, and Jake knew it.
Feeling he was at the limits of what his mind could handle, Jake initiated the final part of this entire endeavor. With a deep breath, he forced the rest of the mana toward the giant mass of mana and began to condense it.
Gritting his teeth, Jake pressed with every inch of his Willpower to make it smaller, but even so, the ball of incredibly intense arcane energy got no smaller than one and a half meters in diameter.
Jake, standing up from his lotus position while pressing his palms together, opened his eyes wide as his body exploded with arcane energy as Arcane Awakening fully activated. A new rush of pure power allowed Jake to condense the orb further. However, the more pure mana he squashed together, the more unstable it became. Should Jake lose control for only a moment, the entire thing could explode, and while that wouldn’t harm Jake much as it was his own arcane affinity, it would be a massive waste of time and effort.
Pressing on, the mana slowly grew denser and denser. Jake had to control every inch of energy he poured in and make it fit as the internal balance structure within the ball was constantly maintained. It was like trying to fill in all the gaps of a puzzle, where he had to carve out every puzzle piece himself to leave no gaps and use all the “space” efficiently. However, despite all his efforts, Jake couldn’t hold on much longer when the mana orb was still the size of a large beachball. Blood began to pour out of his nose and ears as his skin peeled from the use of Arcane Awakening, signifying not just his mind but his body had reached its limits.
He had a choice to make: allow everything to break down or commit. Jake wasn’t a quitter and chose the latter.
The sound of a heartbeat sounded out from deep within him as a single spark of energy was summoned. Jake instinctively knew what to do as he reached out and touched the giant dense orb that contained more than three hundred thousand arcane mana with just a single finger.
This small spark of energy traveled from around Jake’s heart until it reached the orb and left his body as he sent it off only with his will in tow.
Without any warning, a shockwave sent Jake flying back, dealing no damage but pushing him away. Jake slammed into the back wall as he stared toward the arcane orb with a mix of anticipation and worry. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he knew that the moment he was blasted back, his connection to the orb was severed as he lost control. He expected an explosion to follow, as the mana was now entirely uncontrolled and unrestrained, but nothing happened.
Staring, Jake looked at where the orb had been but found it gone. Before any panic could set in, he instantly saw what had happened, as on the floor right below where the orb had been, something was lying on the ground. Jake quickly got to a standing position and walked over to pick it up, pinched between two fingers as he felt nothing dangerous coming from it.
Jake held the small marble, no larger than the tip of his finger. It was purple, but when Jake really focused, he could see what looked like an occasional small red dot deep in the center. Holding it, he instinctively got the feeling that trying to smash it would be utterly impossible… and yet just a mere thought from him and a whisper of arcane mana wishing for it to be destroyed seemed to be capable of utterly unraveling it.
Shaking his head, Jake steeled himself. He had stalled enough, and it was time for the ultimate test. Jake took a deep breath as he used Identify on the small marble, fully not expecting any real result… which was why it came as a delightful surprise when he did.
[Perennial Arcane Marble (Unique)] – A marble made entirely from the arcane mana of the Harbinger of Primeval Origins. The arcane marble is perfectly stable, leaking no energy, and remains utterly unaffected by all outside influences that do not originate from its creator. This marble is incredibly durable, but should it be damaged, it shall react violently and lash out with the power of pure destruction at whatever broke it. A faint amount of pure, unrecognizable energy is sealed within the marble. Through this energy, a perennial existence awaits.
Jake flashed an exhausted smile as he read the description. He had no idea if this was a good outcome or not for what he had done, but in either case, Jake was bloody exhausted as he laid back and closed his eyes.
Dispensing Jake Juice always took a lot out of him, after all.