Chapter 1247 – Impressively Ignorant & Overpowered

Jake hadn’t seen much curse-related yet for him to take inspiration from, but this brief talk about the concept of death had certainly given him some food for thought. When it came to poisons, Jake was best at death-affinity poison, but he also knew that its usage was very limited and specialized.

As Lyra said, Jake focused almost solely on making death energy an antithesis of life energy, thereby inflicting significant damage on biological lifeforms. From her explanation, it also made sense why most poisons Jake came across contained at least some aspects of the death affinity.

Most poisons were designed to kill their targets, making them naturally aligned with the concept of death. There was synergy there, something Jake had no doubt taken advantage of unknowingly with all the death affinity poisons he’d been crafting.

Though it did seem like Jake’s own limited understanding had likely hampered him somewhat. Not to say it still didn’t. There was a vast difference between knowing something about a concept and understanding it. Same as how someone who knew that gravity made something drop to the ground doesn’t mean that person also understood precisely how gravity worked at the same level as a theoretical physicist.

Still, having that initial knowledge could serve as a starting point towards true understanding, and the next time Jake had a good meditation session at the Gate of Enlightenment, he would definitely keep this talk in mind.

Having talked about the death affinity so much also made him think about what he at least understood to be the direct opposite of death: life. It made him think about the concept of life, and that perhaps Jake’s understanding of that was also oversimplified.

There were many things Jake had never quite fully understood about Dina and Eron’s magic, including how they were capable of healing someone like the Fallen King and even, to some extent, Sylphie, who was part-elemental. They had explained it to him somewhat, but it still hadn’t made much sense to him.

Thinking about life and death like this, Jake had another question that was probably also a bit dumb.

“Say, how do Risen and other undead heal themselves or each other?” Jake asked. Okay, self-healing wasn’t that complicated, as all beings could inherently heal themselves, but how did healing magic amongst the undead work?

“Oh, that’s easy,” Casper shrugged. “Skills primarily, though some also use freeform magic to get it done.”

Based on that answer, Jake was fairly certain Casper found his question stupid, but he nevertheless followed up.

“Yeah, yeah, but what concepts are involved? Am I at least right to assume that the life affinity doesn’t work on the Risen and other undead?” Jake questioned.

“Yes and no,” Lyra was kind enough to answer. “Life energy doesn’t work on the undead and actively harms us rather than heals us. That isn’t to say the concept of life can’t benefit us, though. In fact, the blight affinity actually contains traces of the life affinity within it. I guess you can say that if the concept of death is the transformative state towards nonexistence, the concept of life is the exact opposite, where a fading existence can be revitalized.”

“So, undead healing magic contains some traces of the concept of life?” Jake asked curiously, wondering if he should be taking more than mental notes for this talk.

“Strictly speaking, I’m not sure healing magic is even the right term,” Casper joined in, being at least a bit more serious now. “It’s more like mending death magic. This magic can stimulate and flood our bodies with excess spirit… wait, you do know what spirit is, right?”

“I would be offended you could even think I didn’t, but considering I feel like I’m on a run of questions that seem very dumb and ignorant to you two, I’ll let it slide,” Jake sighed. “Spirit is the resource undead have rather than stamina and health points, replacing vital and inner energy.”

While Jake could admit he was impressively ignorant for someone who was nearly B-grade, he did know some things! Sure, he mainly knew stuff like that because of his alchemy research when he learned how one would make potions to restore resources for other races, but it still counted.

“Right,” Casper nodded. “As I said, healing magic on Risen is more or less just a way to stimulate our innate regeneration, same as how one would heal an elemental or any other creature without health points. So, yeah, rather than call it healing magic, it’s more that they use the concept of recovery or something like that. Honestly, neither of us are experts in that area; we just know that it works.”

Jake nodded as he was starting to consider whether he should begin to replace the term system-fuckery with concepts wherever applicable. Then again, some things, like equipment limits and stuff like that, were for sure just pure system-fuckery, and he refused to ever acknowledge otherwise, no matter the explanation.

“Well, this has been a very enlightening conversation that I would love to continue later, but for now, let’s get some more hunting done,” Jake said, reckoning it wasn’t very productive for the three of them to just stand and talk in the first area of the dungeon.

“I’ll return to the locket to recover,” Lyra said with a small bow before she turned into ghostly energy and entered Casper’s body once again.

“She can’t be outside the locket for too long and recovers way faster inside of it,” Casper explained. “To be clear, she can be outside for a few days easily, though she still can’t move too far away from me. We’re working on improving that.”

“I didn’t ask,” Jake shook his head. “Not judging you for having a stay-in-locket wife.”

Casper threw Jake a look, but the hunter just chuckled and looked toward his prey in the distance. “Seeing as you two were so kind as to kill the first one, I guess it’s only right I also show off a little and take one down.”

“Go ahead,” Casper said, motioning with his hand. “The only piece of advice I can offer is that they’re quite durable, Toughness definitely being their highest stat. That, or all their Records are focused on defensive skills. Should you break through their exterior, they’re easily destroyed.”

“Thanks for the advice; I know you mean well,” Jake said in a slightly teasing voice, the reason for which would become apparent very soon.

It hadn’t taken much mental energy to design and create a Protean Arrow as they were talking anyway, and while Casper’s advice didn’t help him much, seeing the fight had been beneficial. At least it had made the arrow he was about to shoot more powerful.

Casper was right that the only real challenge was breaking through the hard shell of these Construction Golems, but by infusing his Protean Arrow with Penetrating Arrow, he was confident he could do so. Especially considering everything else he would throw into this one attack.

“Impressive-looking arrow,” Casper commented. “And is that the cursed weapon you put as the arrowhead?”

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“It sure is,” Jake smiled, nocking the arrow as he took aim. Drawing the string, he activated Arcane Powershot and Arcane Awakening at the stable 30%, seeing no need to go all out considering the kind of opponent he was dealing with.

Energy revolved around him as he kept charging the attack. Casper watched him throughout, his look neutral at first, but as Jake kept channeling the Arcane Powershot and the intensity of the energy surrounding Jake increased, his face soon turned serious.

He looked like he wanted to say something, but stayed quiet so as not to disturb Jake. Several more seconds passed before Jake felt like it was enough, and with a poor, solitary Construction Golem carrying a large pillar of metal in his sights, he released the string.

His body exploded with arcane energy as the arrow flew forth, his enemy unable to detect its incoming demise courtesy of Unseen Hunter. Only right at the end did it try to react, but a quick Primal Gaze stopped it entirely in its tracks; the use of that skill also confirmed something else.

Pathetically weak soul.

The arrow struck the Construction Golem, its hard exterior ultimately offering little resistance as the entire B-grade was blown apart at its midsection, sending its arms and head flying into the air in a glorious explosion of arcane mana. In an instant, before the golem could even properly realize it was being attacked, it had been slain, leaving no room for resistance.

*You have slain [Aginian Construction Golem – lvl 352] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

Lowering his bow, Jake clicked his tongue. “Definitely a contender for the weakest B-grade I’ve ever encountered. These golems must be mass-produced.”

Casper was still staring at the destroyed golem in the distance. The parts of it, anyway. After a few seconds, he looked back at Jake.