Jake was still within the vision of the Viper repeatedly doing alchemy but no longer focused much on it. As odd as it was to say, then Jake didn’t really have much to learn from the current Viper within this Record Fragment. Jake was better than him already when it came to making potions, and he had already seen all he needed to see during the first few rewinds.

Checking his notifications, Jake saw the level-up.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 199 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 197 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

197, Jake thought. He could almost taste the evolution now. With this level and his reaching the peak of D-grade, he also got one more thing: his very first evolution quest. Jake checked it, and if he was being honest, it was pretty much exactly what he expected.

Profession Evolution Quest

To walk the Path of a Heretic-Chosen is to not simply be given but to claim the power of your Patron. With every step, you move closer to the Malefic One, yet you remain a heretic, unswayed by the Records of a Primordial as they fail to supersede your being. Go forth, claim the Legacy of the Malefic Viper and make his Records yours to wield.

Objective: Upgrade skills related to the Legacy of the Malefic Viper to legendary rarity (8/6)

Jake had already completed it. It could be called anti-climactic, but as mentioned, Jake had expected this outcome. Why wouldn’t he have?

Evolution quests were not about pushing the person to their limit – it was to test that the person had reached the expected achievements of the class or profession. If it required Jake to do something insane for even him, all it would have been proof of was that Jake had not lived up to expectations during his journey to C-grade.

Not that this one was easy… it required Jake to upgrade at least six skills to legendary, and based on the ”8/6,” it seemed to still count more upgrades he got now. He read that as an indication that the system still recognized him upgrading more as part of the quest. Especially because the quest was still there and had not just been completed automatically.

Jake knew he could evolve his profession there and then if he wanted. Needless to say, he had no interest in this as he was aiming for the Perfect Evolution and also wanted to upgrade the last skill anyway.

Smiling to himself, Jake closed the quest menu just as he felt the vision was also about to end. He had barely been paying attention and still found himself merged with the Viper, but as had happened before… the vision extended a bit beyond the usual during this final time.

Still merged with the Viper, Jake felt the would-be Primordial’s happiness at his success, and he celebrated a bit by himself. Jake just smiled alongside Villy, happy for his buddy’s success, even if it was just a peek into history. Yet, mere moments before the vision ended, he felt something observing him – observing Villy.

A powerful presence that Villy did not at all notice but that Jake naturally picked up on. A familiar gaze that Jake had felt during a previous vision.

The First Sage?

The vision ended just as Jake became sure of the source and returned to the real world.

Scarlett felt all giddy as she guided the Chosen around the Mangrove. The thought of getting invited to the sacred Order of the Malefic Viper had never even crossed her mind, but the more she considered it, the more excited she became.

The Chosen was also nice and allowed her to stay with him during his visit to the Mangrove. She knew she had much to learn from him and would observe his every action whenever she could. Scarlett also noticed how the other humans of the Mangrove looked at him, and she felt their emotions. Their odd mix of emotions.

Fear and nervousness were two of the strongest senses other humans got from watching the Chosen. It was only right to feel fear before a superior being, and she could only approve of their understanding to not approach and needlessly annoy or delay the Chosen in his matters.

After he was done with his business, they went to the largest building in the Mangrove, where she led the Chosen to a room for him to meditate in. He did also make some weird comments along the way… like asking for her to bite him…

She didn’t get it. Was physical contact not rather shunned by humans? Also, did he really trust her that much to allow her to use her venom on him? It was all a bit too much for her, and she was happy that he decided to meditate for a while so she could observe him a bit longer.

But… not long into meditation, she felt something. An odd shift in the environment as whispers of a presence that did not belong on a small planet like Earth appeared. Her eyes opened wide as she recognized it and stared wide-eyed at the Chosen as her heart began pounding from the pressure. Then, at the very next moment, he disappeared, leaving only a lingering presence behind.

Scarlett tried to calm herself down, but she could not stop herself from shaking. That had been the presence of the Malefic One… the Forefather of her entire race. What had the Chosen done? It was like he, for a moment, became the Forefather himself, their Paths and Records uniting.

Not long passed before he reemerged, the aura still present for a moment before it dispersed like it had never been there, leaving only the Chosen deep in thought…

Jake kept frowning as he sat in the main office in the Mangrove. Why had the First Sage looked at Villy? How had he been aware of him? Villy’s description said that the first time they met was when the Viper tried to sneak in and learn from the First Sage, but this vision said otherwise. Or maybe it didn’t, at least not from the perspective of the Viper.

Villy was not omniscient, and Jake began to suspect that his choice of seeking out the First Sage had more to it than the Viper knew. Had he been led into seeking out the man? If so, for what purpose? Did he just want someone to kill him, like Villy said? Leave a student, perhaps? Something entirely different Jake had no damn clue about?

All were likely, with the final one being the most likely. Shaking his head, Jake decided not to mull it over too much. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to ask Villy about it… maybe it was just better to keep it to himself and hope that a future vision could give some insight. Villy clearly cared a lot about this First Sage, and Jake didn’t want to pollute a memory for no reason. Yeah, best keep it to himself and return to more current matters.

Jake opened his eyes and addressed the snake girl in the room, who was staring at him with wide-open starry eyes.

”I… I felt the presence of the Forefather. What happened? Did you go see the Malefic One?” she asked with much interest.

”You can say that,” Jake smiled. ”I used one of my skills as a Chosen, that is all.”

She just nodded enthusiastically. ”Thank you for allowing me to witness it! I will never forget this honor.”

Jake smirked and shook his head, not having the heart to tell her that he just didn’t really see any reason to hide something like this. She knew he was the Chosen already, so him doing Chosen stuff was just to be expected.

Oh, and finally… Jake kept forgetting that part that blasted out the presence of himself and the Viper whenever he used the skill. In his defense, he had not actually planned on just using the skill right away, but when he focused on stuff, he kind of tended to forget everything and everyone around him, with it already having led to outing himself to everything from friends in the Order to projections within dungeons.

”Would you mind if I did some alchemy?” Jake then asked the snake girl. It was more a rhetorical question as she, of course, instantly nodded.

”Thank you, I plan on staying here for a bit before heading back to Haven before the World Congress,” Jake informed her, Scarlett naturally not voicing even a sliver of negativity.

Jake smiled again at her and decided to get some practice in with his new skill, and he had just the thing to craft: Perception Elixirs. He did have some already in storage, but he wanted to craft some more before he evolved anyway. He had three hundred stats to get and saw no reason not to claim them right away. Could he increase other stats? Sure, but Jake wanted Perception.

He also still had some materials in store, so he could get started right away. The moment Jake summoned the cauldron and laid his hands on it, he instantly felt the difference from the newly upgraded skill. It was like everything within the cauldron appeared clearer than before, even if it was currently empty.

With a mental command, Jake manipulated the very air within it. He felt the different affinities and, out of curiosity, focused on them. Water, wind, space, time, nature, wood…. so many affinities he recognized. Jake chose one as he strained himself, and in the middle of the cauldron, a small droplet of water began to condense as Jake extracted the humidity from the air.

Definitely noticeable, Jake concluded as he got to work.

Adding the ingredients, he tried to discern what the difference truly was. In all honesty, the upgrade did not help much during crafting like this, as there really weren’t many details he couldn’t already catch with his Perception. It was far more effective during experimenting, that was for sure. He also faintly considered trying out the soul-merging effect but decided against it as his intuition warned him of the outcome.

Villy had destroyed his cauldron, and while Jake was confident the Altmar Cauldron would survive, he was certain it would be damaged and be in need of repair afterward. It had the rune on the bottom to accomplish this, but it would take time, and as mentioned, he didn’t need it.

Jake thus just dove into the alchemy as time passed. Scarlett stayed by his side silently for nearly two days, simply staring at everything he did with interest. She was damn lucky Jake had been conditioned by Villy’s constant staring, allowing him to completely ignore it and make plenty of elixirs.

Once it was about time to head back to Haven, Jake went on a drinking binge.

You have assimilated a strong energy of Perception.

+5 Perception.

You have assimilated a strong energy of Perception.

+5 Perception.

You have…

Elixir after elixir went down and seeing as he had enough, he even offered some to Scarlett. She graciously accepted but only wanted a single one, which was a bit weird. Especially as she looked to have no interest in drinking the elixir but simply held onto it for a while before storing it away.

Another easy 300 Perception in the bag, Jake smiled after he was done drinking. Over just a few days, Jake had gotten around one thousand more Perception from the skill upgrade, elixirs, and Free Points, making him feel quite good about himself. Jake knew that stat distribution also greatly impacted evolutions, and he wanted to make it absolutely clear to the system that he was a Perception-based guy.

At least, that is what he told himself to excuse his decision.

”Thanks for accommodating me,” Jake said to Scarlett as he prepared to head back. ”After the World Congress, I will come back here, and we will travel for the Order of the Malefic Viper, so make your preparations, alright?”

”Yes!” Scarlett enthusiastically nodded. ”Will you need me to do or bring anything in particular?”

”I won’t need you to bring anything, but we do need to talk about a few details related to my identity at the Order, but that can wait,” Jake answered.

”Very well,” she acknowledged. ”I once more thank the Chosen for blessing us with his presence.”

Jake waved it off. ”That is part of what you will need to work on fixing. Be more casual, alright? Anyway, I am off!”

With that, Jake headed for the teleporter, with Scarlett still following him and bidding him goodbye.

A swift teleportation later, Jake found himself back at the Fort. The convenience of these teleporters was truly, well, convenient, even for someone like Jake, who had quite the insane travel speed. Jake still chose to fly back towards Haven, not because it would be in any way faster, but because he had already felt the aura approach, and he decided to meet halfway. As for who this presence was?

It was a small green ball of feathery death.

They had been apart for a long time. Thinking about it, this was probably their longest separation since the little featherball had been born.

His grin only grew as he flew forward and felt her approach pretty fucking fast. She had gotten a lot swifter, that was for sure, and it did not take long before he saw the small green form enter his vision and barrel straight toward him.

[Sylphian Eyas – lvl 199]

She had reached the peak of D-grade, something entirely expected. Jake stopped in mid-air and opened his arm wide to hug the bird. However, Sylphie had other plans and expertly dodged his attempt, flying in between his hands and dodging beneath his legs before doing a quick circle, landing perfectly on top of his head.

Sylphie stood proudly as if she had reclaimed her rightful place, and Jake nearly failed to hold back a laugh as he raised a hand and nuzzled her. ”It’s been a while, eh?”

”Ree!” Sylphie screeched in complaint, making Jake indeed fail to hold back his laugh. ”I missed you too.”

She showed mercy and allowed Jake to lift her off his head and give her a hug. Sylphie had not changed in the slightest since they separated. Well, besides getting a lot stronger and making Jake’s Sense of the Malefic Viper now pick up how the wind mana itself seemed to change in her vicinity.

”Did you have fun with your adventures?” he asked, still holding the small hawk in his arms like she was a newborn baby.

”Ree! Ree!” she semi-explained as Jake play-fought with her talons.

”Lots of strong beasts, huh?” Jake nodded. ”Managed to take down some C-grades?”

Sylphie proudly screeched in affirmation as she went on a tirade of screeches explaining what had happened. Jake nodded along, still unsure how the hell he understood what she meant. She had gone to the cloud layer where C-grades lived and managed to defeat a few C-grades while hunting with Carmen.

Speaking of Carmen… ”Where did you leave Carmen? Isn’t she also here?”

”Ree!”

”She isn’t that slow.”

”Ree!”

”Okay, she is a little slow,” Jake laughed in agreement as the hawk insisted.

Feeling victorious, Sylphie once more brought the topic back to her adventures, Jake listening intently as he continued to nod along while slowly flying back towards Haven, and he at least managed to extract the fact that Carmen was back there talking with the Sword Saint, Miranda, and Arthur.

Oh… and two others who had also come back to Haven for a visit. Two hawks Jake hadn’t seen for even longer than Sylphie: her parents, Hawkie and Mystie.