Smiling in satisfaction, Jake got out two empty bottles. Usually, a batch such as this would quickly fill four or five bottles, but the first creation’s output wasn’t exactly good. He had taken a long time doing the crafting and had thus evaporated a lot of the concoction. But it was kind of expected, so Jake didn’t think that much of it. It was a success, and that was the most crucial part.Bottling it up, he identified the poison.[Hemotoxic Poison (Common)] – Greatly increases bleeding on afflicted entities and makes any injuries harder to heal. The poison must be introduced directly into the bloodstream to have any effect.It was literally the same description of the inferior-rarity version, save for it adding "greatly" at the beginning. But Jake could feel that it was quite a lot more powerful. The energy it gave off was palpable, as one should expect after expending more than 2500 mana during the concoction.Not because the crafting process required that much typically, but beca

As the Den Mother died, Jake felt like he had finally gotten out many of his frustrations. However, the feeling of relief was short-lived, as his entire body started aching only mere moments later. He had pushed himself to the limit, perhaps even above limits he didn’t know he had.His stamina was nearly depleted after only one fight. His mana had also taken quite the hit, since he had used more than a few Infused Powershots.This fight was likely the first time Jake had ever fully realized his body’s potential.Experiencing a doubling in physical stats in only a few days had done much to increase his combat strength.And the results spoke for themselves. Jake had won a convincing victory with the odds more than stacked against him.Deciding to go through his notifications, he first saw that the three Alphas had all been below level 70. Which meant they were indeed all weaker than any of the other Alphas he had met so far. Nevertheless, the three had still awarded a level as the last

Jake was enjoying his trip towards the next mountain quite a bit, though he had a faint suspicion his current prey wasn’t.The raptor struggled and writhed as it was held down by its throat. Its assailant's second hand didn't give it time to muster a response before it brought down a bone-like knife on its temple.Even with the knife in its brain, it didn't die instantly. However, when the venom from the dagger was secreted into its brain, the beast’s vital energy quickly gave out, and it stopped moving.Another raptor jumped Jake but didn't even get close before he whipped around and punched it hard on the side of its head. It stumbled a bit from the blow, giving Jake ample time to wrap his arm around its neck in a chokehold.The highly distraught raptor panicked as it started trying to get him to let go. But Jake easily held onto it, using Touch of the Malefic Viper on the beast. It took a few seconds, but the creature soon stopped struggling as he got the sweet kill notification.L

The path up to the mountain wasn’t as easily traversed as he had hoped. Unlike the badger valley, he didn’t find any easily accessible way forward.Instead, he was met with a wall of stone—a steep cliffside. He tried climbing it a few times but quickly found that his climbing skills, coupled with the smooth stone surface, made it improbable that he could climb up there. He tried to use his weapons to climb, but it was more than a little unwieldy… Venomfang was too strong, and the cold from his sword made it break the stone as it cooled down.After walking back and forth for a few minutes, trying to find a spot to climb, he got an idea. Could he use his mana strings?He had made several strings over time and even used them to retrieve dropped weapons and such. In theory, he should be able to make a rope from his strings and climb up the cliffside.Thinking it was quite a shot in the dark, he was surprised when he quickly strung together an invisible rope of mana. After practicing for a

The otherwise peaceful pond was now disturbed by blood and dead beasts—a situation that seemed to not sit well with the Great White Stag as it slowly walked in.Jake was a bit more than a hundred meters away at this point, observing from a small hill. His head barely popped up to the top of the grass, leaving it still partly covered. He was unsure if this distance was safe, but he guessed it was. If it weren’t… Well, he would handle that problem if it presented itself.The Great White Stag slowly walked around the clearing for a bit, sniffing the ground here and there and inspecting every single one of the corpses. The three does following it did so silently, though Jake could clearly feel that they were very alert and ready to spring into action at any moment.He couldn’t help considering attacking now. The stag was alone with only its three usual followers with it. In the center, it was always surrounded by close to a hundred other beasts… but he didn’t attack.His mind told him “ye