Chapter 1283 – Mote of Progress

Sometimes, the best way to progress was to take a step back and reassess what one had to work with. Jake had already realized that directly using his Lesser Primeval Energy while crafting was far beyond his current abilities, making him switch to instead altering the ingredients.

However, this wasn’t just as straightforward as infusing the energy into the raw ingredients. First of all, Jake’s purpose for practicing using Lesser Primeval Energy was to learn how to control the outcome, so he wanted to do more than just successfully infuse the energy without whatever he used it on blowing up. Making it not blow up was definitely an important step, but only the first one.

Second, when Jake actually tried to infuse a bundle of grass, it still exploded. His problem remained very much the same as when he tried to use the energy in a mixture, just on a far smaller scale. Herbs, outside of very rare cases, didn’t consist of singular energies, but possessed several that were in balance. The grass that Jake used for potions had a strong water affinity, life energy, and a plethora of other concepts and energies perfect for making potions.

When Jake then came and infused his energy, certain aspects were more affected than others, creating an imbalance, and boom, it went again. He could try to control the infusion far more carefully, but even after a few days of trying, he felt that it, too, was beyond his current abilities to do consistently.

So, Jake took another step back.

Rather than try to alter a herb, he instead attempted to infuse his Lesser Primeval Energy into the most basic ingredient in any potion:

Purified water.

It was the most basic of ingredients and something Jake could easily make himself from regular water simply by using Alchemist’s Purification on it. Using it, he removed anything he didn’t need and kept the pure, mostly affinity-less water for his potions.

Which was pretty much all Jake ever used the skill for, and reading its description, it wasn’t like it was useful for much more.

[Alchemist’s Purification (Inferior)] – Attempt to purify any alchemical ingredient. Purification can help remove unwanted properties from a component, making the finished mixture purer. Must have suitable ingredients. Must have suitable materials. Purification does not require any additional tools or equipment, but the skill’s effect can be amplified using certain catalysts. Adds a minor increase to the effectiveness of Alchemist’s Purification based on Wisdom.

As an inferior-rarity skill, even when Jake was in C-grade, it was naturally pretty shit. From the description, it may have seemed more useful than it was, but the word “attempt” did a lot of heavy lifting, as in truth, if Jake wanted to use Alchemist’s Purification on any high-rarity item, chances were he would ruin it. Even in cases where he could successfully use the skill, the effects were minor, and honestly, he found it more useful just to remove unwanted properties during crafting using his destructive arcane energy. This became extra true after he got his Supreme Arcane Soulflame, making the process even faster.

Still, it did its job purifying water, and if Jake ever wanted to go for a swim in a pool he suspected was dirty, a quick purification could also do the trick. For anything else, though, it was a dead skill.

That’s why Jake had planned on merging it with one of his Malefic Viper Legacy skills at some point. Have it go the same way as Cultivate Toxin, though not necessarily merged with Touch of the Malefic Viper, even if that skill seemed the most likely candidate.

Jake considered the limitations of Alchemist’s Purification and the role it played in his current abilities. Although it was largely underwhelming for rare or complex materials, its reliability with water was undeniable, offering a useful, if niche, utility in his arsenal. More than anything, the skill offered him absolute reliability when he used it on things it was actually good at. Failing to purify water wasn’t even an option, and if he used it on lesser materials, he also saw a one-hundred percent success rate.

Building on this, Jake pondered whether the true value of Alchemist’s Purification lay not in its versatility, but in its absolute consistency with specific tasks. While other skills promised grander effects, few could guarantee flawless results every single time for their intended use. That certainty, even if limited in scope, was something Jake could definitely use, seeing the unpredictability and volatility whenever he used his Lesser Primeval Energy.

Reflecting on this, Jake realised that having a skill that performed one function flawlessly was a rare asset to keep hold of. Sure, he could try to fuse it with Touch of the Malefic Viper, but what if he instead repurposed the skill to work with his Lesser Primeval Energy?

Deep in thought, Jake opened up his system menus and went way back as he looked for something specific. A source of inspiration for what Purification could potentially become.

He quickly found it, having to go way back to level 230 in his profession, where Jake had been offered an upgrade to Alchemist’s Purification. A skill he’d rejected at the time, but now he was definitely grateful it had even been an option.

[Arcane Alchemist’s Grand Purification (Epic)] – Embrace your arcane affinity as you stabilize what properties you desire and destroy the unwanted. Attempt to purify any alchemical ingredient, reducing it to its most basic state while ensuring its stability. Arcane purification can help destroy unwanted properties from an ingredient, making it purer. Must have suitable ingredients. Purification does not require any additional tools or equipment, but the skill’s effect can be amplified with the use of certain catalysts. Adds a small increase to the effectiveness and chance of success of attempted purifications based on Wisdom and Intelligence.

Compared to Jake’s current Alchemist’s Purification, this didn’t even seem that much better, and he strongly suspected that if he’d picked the skill, it would have undergone a downgrade to rare rarity during his B-grade evolution. He would be able to check if it did when he reached level 380 and got his first skill selection of B-grade… if he remembered.

Anyhow, as Jake noted, this arcane version of the skill was effectively just regular Purification with his affinity added to it. Both served to remove unwanted properties and impurities, making an ingredient purer; however, there was still one big difference. The arcane version didn’t only remove impurities, but resulted in something Jake found very interesting.

“…reducing it to its most basic state while ensuring its stability.”

While Jake wasn’t necessarily a fan of the phrase “reducing it,” as that implied a loss in the transformation process, the core of this functionality was what sparked Jake’s curiosity.

Primeval Origin Energy had the ability to stimulate objects, bringing them closer to their Origin, which really wasn’t that far off from reducing something to its most basic state of being. Of course, more often than not, the Origin was far more powerful than what something had originally been, making it conceptually far more potent than whatever an Alchemist’s Purification skill could ever pull off, but Jake still believed there were some similarities.

Lesser Primeval Energy, as an inferior type of energy, which, funnily enough, had its Origin in Primeval Origin Energy, should have some of the same properties, even if the word Origin was gone from the same. While Jake wouldn’t expect any skill that he made to suddenly be able to reduce something to its Origin or even close to it, having it take just one step in that direction would be huge.

Of course, any attempt Jake had made to use his Lesser Primeval Energy in any capacity so far had ended quite badly, which was why he also cared about the second part of what the arcane version of Purification introduced: stability. The wording of the skill suggested it ensured stability while reducing something to its most basic state, making it a transitional effect.

Needless to say, being able to stabilize something during the Lesser Primeval Energy infusion process was definitely something Jake would need, so if he could find a way to combine the two…

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Having an idea of what he wanted to do and actually pulling it off were two very different things, though. He didn’t already have the Arcane Alchemist’s Grand Purification skill, which was probably for the best, as if he did, also introducing Lesser Primeval Energy into the process may have been harder, as Jake didn’t necessarily want to reduce something to its most basic state. Something very close to it, sure, but not exactly the same.

To get the process started, Jake began with water. Having already purified it, he next attempted to infuse some of his Lesser Primeval Energy into it. Rather than make a small marble this time around, Jake conjured a cup of stable arcane energy and poured purified water into it before proceeding to put a finger inside.