Chapter 1266 – Peak C-grade

After Jake deployed his Mega Soulflame Cauldron Secret Stratagem, he was truly swimming in it. No, not only potions but also something else Jake had hoped to get out of this mass production:

Experience points.

Jake hadn’t just wanted to have fun with his Soulflame and find ways to use it, but actually had a real reason to do alchemy in this way. While he hadn’t been sure it actually worked that way, a quick check-in with Villy confirmed that doing bigger batches of poisons did result in more experience points gained.

Moreover, this method of making potions was far harder and more time-consuming than simply using a small cauldron, further increasing experience gain. It did take Jake several hours per batch using this crafting strategy, but compared to the gains, it was more than worth it.

With this crafting spree, time slowly passed as Jake flooded the market with potions. He primarily focused on health potions, but also threw in some mana and stamina ones here and there.

Mana and stamina potions were often viewed as a luxury, as it was rare to run out of resources during a fight without a winner being decided. Plus, with the shared potion cooldown, it was risky not to keep the ability to consume a health potion. Even for people doing relatively “safe” hunts, the idea of popping potions to increase hunting speed rather than just taking an extra few hours to meditate seemed ludicrous.

That’s why most stamina and mana potions actually ended up being consumed by crafters. Blacksmiths and other crafters who needed to perform physical tasks during the creation process could risk running out of stamina partway through, resulting in the failure of their current project. That’s where a quick stamina potion could come in and ensure success.

In the same vein, a mana potion, while working on a formation or even doing alchemy, could do wonders to keep one going. Jake himself also constantly popped potions to reduce the breaks he had to take, though he was definitely still far more liberal than pretty much all other crafters in existence.

Meanwhile, health potions were considered essential for anyone entering a fight. A health potion could easily be the difference between life and death, even if they didn’t work as well on others as they did on someone like Jake, who had Malefic Viper Legacy skills that empowered his use of potions.

Many also took health potions simply to recover faster, as being injured wasn’t a pleasant experience. Understandable from a layman’s point of view, as most people could handle being tired, but far fewer were fine with a large gash or missing a limb.

Jake just hoped that Miranda appreciated all the potions he sent her way with the help of Lillian. He also dumped his old stock of potions, seeing no need to keep them around with B-grade this close. Besides, his new potions were better than the old ones, so he just kept a few in stock in case he ever needed them. He knew he would likely use at least a couple when he pushed for the actual evolution.

As a reminder, even after getting to level 349 in both class and profession, he would still need to farm that one last level, pushing him to 350. Of course, it was also entirely possible he would end up getting that level using alchemy, dependent on what Profession Evolution Quest he ended up getting. Jake would definitely prefer getting his last experience through a quick hunt, though.

Speaking of the Profession Evolution Quest… with Jake’s rapid production of potions using his new and more difficult method, it ended up coming a lot faster than he’d first assumed. He’d already known that just pumping out successful crafts was the fastest way of leveling his profession… well, outside of upgrading Legacy skills or doing weird feats often involving gods or enemy Chosen. Anyway, the point was: Big pot with many potions equals many levels.

It still took over a year of crafting, but in the end, Jake got those two last profession levels and reached the absolute peak of C-grade in both his class and his profession.

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 349 – Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 349 – Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

When Jake heard that double-ding from getting both his race and profession maxed out, he couldn’t help but grin before promptly turning his Soulflame into a flame once more and absorbing it into his body. He still had a few thousand potions for Miranda, but that would wait as Jake had something far more important to do.

After going up from his underground alchemy lab, Jake took a seat inside his lodge and finally checked out the first of two new system notifications he’d gotten. He was a little nervous as he opened up the first one and saw his second Evolution Quest for C-grade, this one for alchemy.

Profession Evolution Quest

Steadfast in your Path, you continue onwards as a Heretic-Chosen, claiming the power of your Patron on your own terms, yet with his complete acceptance and knowledge. Your Records remain supreme, your Path your own to define, with nothing off limits in your pursuit of power, no matter how heretical some might call your actions. Continue to invoke the power of the Malefic One, make his Legacy your own, and prove your Path.

Objective: Upgrade all nine skills related to the Legacy of the Malefic Viper (9/9). Upgrade at least one skill related to Legacy of the Malefic Viper to mythical rarity (2/1). Perform an alchemical feat worthy of calling yourself a Primordial’s Chosen (1/1). Perform a feat worthy of calling yourself a Primordial’s Heretic (1/1). Perform a feat worthy of calling yourself a Primordial’s Heretic-Chosen (1/1).

So… a bit to unpack there. Jake once more appreciated the glazing from the system in the flavor text, as who didn’t like being complimented by an omnipotent and omniscient system? Alright, practically, it also confirmed to him that he was on the right path with all he’d been doing in C-grade.

When Jake looked at the objectives for his evolution quest, he first noticed there were more than for his class. Upon reading them through, he also understood why the system had been so nice to him in the flavor text. Despite there being five objectives, Jake had already completed every single one of them. As for how he had completed them… he had some ideas.

For the first two, the answer was simple enough. He had indeed successfully upgraded all his Malefic Viper Legacy skills during C-grade and even made two of them mythical rarity, so all was well and good there. The only interesting objectives were the final three, which also seemed closely related to one another, aside from maybe the first.

“Perform an alchemical feat” wasn’t something Jake knew the meaning of, but based on him having completed it already, it couldn’t have been that hard. Or maybe it had been incredibly hard, but Jake had cheesed it with one of his Primeval Origins rituals.

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When it came to these vague objectives, Jake truly had no clue, and he could only imagine the frustration he would have felt if he hadn’t managed to complete them already. The same was true for the next two objectives, as they were equally vague, telling him to perform feats worthy of a Primordial’s Heretic and Heretic-Chosen both.

Again, what did this even mean? What made a feat “worthy” in the first place? What even constituted a feat? Was Jake calling Villy an ass enough to prove himself a heretic? Or did he have to do more, like the little play he put on to fool Yip of Yore by acting like he was joining Valhal while actively insulting Villy? Or, seeing as that had all been part of the Viper’s plan, would something like that instead count as a feat for a Heretic-Chosen?

Man, Jake didn’t envy those who actually had to figure out how to complete these non-specific quests. It sounded like nightmare-fuel having to just try different shit until the system finally decided something qualified. He also understood more why evolving to B-grade became a barrier to many, if objectives could be this weird.

Shaking his head, Jake dispelled any thoughts related to these objectives he had completed anyway. Rather than think about what he’d already done, he thought about what the objectives hadn’t included.

A part of Jake had almost expected to see something related to the First Sage. If not anything directly related to the Viper’s Master, then at least something tangentially related. Of course, it was entirely possible that the Heretic-Chosen feat he’d accomplished was actually something like meeting the First Sage, but Jake seriously doubted that was the case. In fact, giving those objectives one last thought, he was pretty sure that the entire Ell’Hakan and Yip of Yore debacle completed all three of the vague ones.

He also couldn’t help but think about what kind of objectives he would get at the peak of B-grade… but there was a long time before he would have to worry about any of that. For now, he still had one more system notification he had to check out pertaining to another quite important matter:

Jake’s Race Evolution Quest.

Out of all three quests he would receive for his B-grade evolution, Jake was definitely the most curious about this one. There was something weird going on with Jake’s race, seeing as he was the first person Villy had ever heard about who didn’t get an evolution quest while evolving to C-grade. Back when he hadn’t gotten the quest, the two of them had a lot of theories, but they had no way of knowing the true explanation. One thing they had also questioned was whether Jake would get an evolution quest when evolving to B-grade… and now it was time to get the answer.

With a deep breath, Jake opened the system menu and right away… something felt off.