Chapter 1463 - Level Up! (Patreon)

When all was said and done, Jake was quite happy with the outcome of this little trip to Venus, and also quite pleased with the recruitment. He’d sent roughly five thousand into the World of the Exalted Prima thus far, and expected to send more once the Arachnecs and Venusians brought more qualified individuals.

He had some questions about who to recruit, though. The system said he could recruit anyone weaker than himself, yet so far, he’d only sent people he wouldn’t exactly consider threats. Sure, he would have to retreat and rely on long-range bombardments if the turtle cavalry chased after him, but he didn’t view them as a threat.

Jake had wanted to bring in some true elites, but Villy had advised against it. At least for now.

”Better to focus on bringing quantity over quality for the foreseeable future. Actual armies to occupy and dominate Territories within the World of the Exalted Prima. The ones you are recruiting are already far beyond the average power level of the virtual world, with the stronger variants like those Archstalkers comparable to some of the top elites from other factions.”

”But why?” Jake asked, not seeing the logic. ”Won’t it be smart to send some top-tier elites who are only slightly weaker than me?”

”Eventually, it will be, but as I said, not yet. There is also a reason why you had to limit the amount of Prima Credits spent. Revealing your full hand from the get-go is never a good strategy. Plus, give the factions from Venus some time to get more familiar with their new existence. Finally, you should make the elites of the Arachnecs and Venusians come to you, asking for the opportunity. Only then should you grant it to them. Will make them view you even more favorably.”

”Seems like you have a lot of smaller reasons why we should wait…” Jake muttered, still unsure, as he would have liked to at least see if he could get one Archweaver or maybe one of the stronger Venusians to enter the virtual world.

Right now, the Venusians and Arachnecs were gone, gathering more for him to recruit, but rather than singular elites, they were going for elite parties, primarily from the Venusian side. Not quite what Jake hoped for, but still good, of course.

”Which sometimes is enough.” The Viper clearly wasn’t going to agree with Jake. ”Take your time. Have patience. We are not in a rush, and this World of the Exalted Prima event isn’t one that’s going to end in just a few years.”

”I guess,” Jake relented as a thought suddenly struck him.

He had been so busy with everything that he hadn’t even considered… what came next?

After the ceremony and dealing with all the initial recruitment stuff, Jake had gone back to a small private residence he’d been given on the island. It had decent accommodations and had top-tier formations for privacy, allowing not even the Great Sea Serpent to peek inside.

Jake had just gone there while he still had questions for Villy and to get away from everything. But now that he was sitting there, he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing.

I guess the first stage of the Venus annexation is fully over, huh, Jake finally allowed himself to let out a breath of relief, which was when something else weird happened.

Despite being a B-grade and having experienced many things throughout his Path so far, there was one thing he still didn’t understand at all. One massive source of experience that seemed to just come and go, appearing without warning for reasons utterly beyond him. The timing was especially weird to him, as the system message that popped up in front of him the second he relaxed nearly made him jump.

You have successfully performed your duty as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, led a major religious ceremony, and recruited the leading figures of the Minor World known as Venus into the Order of the Malefic Viper. Not only have you helped expand the faction, but have gained valuable assets for the Order’s current efforts in the World of the Exalted Prima. The achievement of an extraordinary Chosen – A new feat has been accomplished. Bonus experience earned.

”What the hell,” Jake muttered out loud, wondering why the hell it had decided to appear now of all times. It had been hours since the ceremony ended, and he’d just spent that time recruiting people and doing his small experiment to figure out how recruitment worked in the first place.

”Finally got the feat accomplished message? Took its time.” The Viper easily understood why Jake reacted the way he did.

”I sure did,” Jake said, shaking his head. ”How do these things work? Why now?”

”There are some things not even I fully know,” Villy surprisingly confessed a major character flaw that made Jake fundamentally question his qualifications as a Patron. ”Feats are weird and seem to appear at random, but I believe it’s not. Feats are very subjective, especially when trying to determine when a feat begins and when it ends, or even what counts as a feat in the first place, so I believe the system is very loose with how it’s applied, and thus also with when it ends a Feat Period. Ah, a Feat Period is what I call the time between a scenario starting and ending, during which experience and Records are accumulated, to be given when the feat is considered fully accomplished. Think of it like a fight. The experience you get from a fight comes all at once after slaying your foe, but is in reality from the entire fight.”

”I feel like you said a lot of things there while somehow still not answering my question at all,” Jake replied in a monotone voice.

”Ah, but I did,” Villy countered. ”The answer is that the Feat Period ends when the system decides it does. Be it influenced by when you mentally consider a task done, when others consider it complete, or some other unknown explanation, no one knows. So the answer is simply that it’s determined by the system, and it’s not something you should waste your time thinking too much about.”

”Says the person who just went on a tirade about his theory of how it works,” Jake shot back.

”I said it’s a waste of time for you to think about it. Not me. Some things should be left to those more blessed in the thinking department, after all,” the evil snake god rudely said with a chuckle. ”I am curious, though. How many levels did this little event end up giving you?”

Oh… right… Jake kind of forgot to check the full list of system messages below the ’feat accomplished’ one, and only checked now.

He wasn’t disappointed.

”Enough for me to consider whether doing this kind of thing occasionally is worth it for the experience points alone,” Jake answered with a smile.

 ’DING!’ Profession: [Primeval Alchemist of Malefic Origins] has reached level 364 - Stat points allocated, +125 Free Points

…

 ’DING!’ Profession: [Primeval Alchemist of Malefic Origins] has reached level 367 - Stat points allocated, +125 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (B)] has reached level 360 - Stat points allocated, +135 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (B)] has reached level 361 - Stat points allocated, +135 Free Points

Four entire levels for what was effectively only a couple of weeks’ work, also factoring in the preparations Jake made. If he could do this kind of thing more often, it would be a stupidly efficient way to level fast.

“Oh, so now it’s your turn not to answer my question?” Villy said, at least sounding like he found the amusement in what Jake had said.

“Right, yeah, 4 levels in my profession. Pretty fucking good if I say so myself,” Jake nodded with satisfaction.

“Decent for sure,” the snake god acknowledged. “Not to burst your bubble, but by definition, this isn’t the kind of thing you can do often. You only got so much because this was your first time doing this kind of thing, so if you stumble upon the next Minor World and we have a repeat, don’t expect the same windfall.”

“I’m fully aware of that, yet at the same time I fully expect you to keep presenting me with scenarios like this, and knowing what an asshole you are, don’t tell me it isn’t going to happen again way more times than I’d like. I’m just trying to find the silver lining,” Jake said, knowing that these kinds of things were mostly one-time bonuses. If Jake wanted to level his profession, alchemy remained the primary way of doing so.

“Me? No, I would never purposefully put you in uncomfortable situations for my own entertainment,” Villy defended himself in an adamant tone. “Quite heretical of you to insist otherwise.”

“Write me a formal performance review, and I might take it up for advisement.” Jake chuckled, shaking his head. “But I did start thinking-“

“You? Thinking? Whatever comes next can’t possibly be goo-“

“Fuck you,” Jake cut him off quickly. “As I was saying, I started thinking what exactly I should be doing now that the ceremony is over. Clearly, I’ll have to remain here, but did you have anything in mind you wanted me to do while waiting around, anyway? More religious missions?”

“Only one,” the Viper said, back to sounding serious again. “Continue to grow stronger. Remember why Venus is interesting to the Order in the first place. It’s a paradise for those walking Paths involving toxins. Last time I checked, you’re an alchemist who makes quite a lot of poisons.”

Hearing him say that… yeah, why hadn’t he pulled out his cauldron already or at least started meditating while taking in the atmosphere? This entire world was full of unique and interesting toxins, and without Palate, Jake wouldn’t be able to exist there without constantly healing himself or drinking potions to not die.

“You know what? Good point. May as well stick around for a while and enjoy what Venus has to offer while also being a good Chosen and recruiting armies of turtle-riding frogs,” Jake said with a nod of affirmation.

“In case no one has told you, there are other Venusians you could recruit. They don’t have to all be riding turt-”

“Good talk, till next time,” Jake cut off the god before cutting the connection, saving his divine friend from saying something heretical this time around. Not recruit frog cavalry? Absolute blasphemy.

Anyhow, Jake had plenty to get to now that he knew what he wanted to do. Venus was a treasure trove, and they even happened to be on an island usually used by the Nomads to harvest valuables from the ocean of poison surrounding them, so there was bound to be plenty of good things for Jake to eat and experiment with.

Speaking of the ocean, Jake also considered taking a bit of a dip. Granted, just a small one, and he definitely wouldn’t try to dive too deeply into the ocean, as he knew that while Palate of the Malefic Viper was a damn awesome skill, it didn’t give him outright immunity to all toxins, and the deeper parts of the ocean could instantly kill even highly poison-resistant early A-grades, so Jake wasn’t going to take any chances.

… okay, maybe a small chance, but just for funsies.

Closing his eyes and entering meditation, Jake decided to start out by properly taking in the Venusian atmosphere for the very first time. To truly let himself breathe it in and try to get a proper feel for what he was dealing with. After that, it was time to see if he could rob the Nomads of valuable alchemical ingredients to experiment with. Preferably ones unique to Venus.

With a smile on his face, Jake looked forward to doing some fun alchemy and enjoying the Minor World a little now that he had the time. Hopefully, at the same time, his other self would have at least as much fun being an absolute menace within the World of the Exalted Prima.

--

Narrowly dodging the swing from the warrior, the hunter took advantage of the brief opening left behind to land a quick stab before teleporting away right as a ray of blue light descended upon where he’d just been standing.

Appearing in the sky, he held a bow and unleashed an Arcane Arrow Storm upon his opponents, filling the sky with explosions that sent the enemy retreating in an attempt to escape. Their healer was already attending to the wound of the warrior, and despite having had several exchanges already, the other side was barely injured.

Smiling, Sim-Jake had to admit he was a big fan of the changes brought by this phase of the World of the Exalted Prima. There were more people worth fighting than ever before as the larger factions were throwing Prima Credits at recruiting the strongest people they possibly could, resulting in parties like the one in front of him.

Dodging, he avoided a thin wooden spear that whirled past him before exploding like a grenade, sending out small splinters, each coated in some kind of venom. Raising an arm, he allowed himself to be struck just to feel the level of toxin he was dealing with.

He found it a bit disappointing, but alas, he would have fun with what he could get.

After giving the party time to recover a little, he moved again, wanting to see what more they had to show him. The surrounding area was torn apart in the ensuing battle as the hunter and elite party of five from the United Tribes clashed repeatedly, in what to an outside observer might have looked like an even fight.

In reality, the party and Sim-Jake both knew that this was far from equal, but it wasn’t like they had any choice but to fight the hunter. Sim-Jake also just enjoyed himself, bombarding them with arrows as he had to make a confession…

The bow was kind of growing on him.

At first, he hadn’t found the weapon particularly appealing and primarily used it because of its effectiveness, in large part because of Jake’s many skills that relied on it. However, his view of the bow gradually shifted from slightly negative to neutral, as he even began to see some positive aspects, especially when it came to stealth attacks.

Striking from stealth with a melee weapon was naturally far more difficult, and he had to admit that unleashing a Protean Arrow from stealth was far more effective than Sim-Jake had expected it to be. A bit boring, too, given that it usually ended the fight before it even began, but that was also only proof of its power.

Besides that, Sim-Jake also started to like the feeling of the bow in his hand. It felt nice, and there was a strong sense of satisfaction whenever he landed an arrow. Before the system, he hadn’t been a fan of guns, and while he still wasn’t, he did at least see the value of ranged combat, and a bow was honestly the best way to go about that. It was a weapon that relied on his superior physique and senses, making it a well-chosen tool for combat.

Did he still prefer using his katars? Sure, but he also saw the appeal of the bow now and had to admit that Jake hadn’t been entirely wrong to pick it up. Granted, he did also believe that his connection to his other self had affected his thought process on the matter, but that was just how things were.

People he didn’t believe were fans of the bow were the party of five he was currently dismantling, though. After seeing all they had to show him, even finding himself pleased when they managed to land some minor blows through impeccable teamwork, he decided to finish matters.

Once that decision was made, they weren’t long for this world, and only a few minutes later, the warrior died as the last one, having been unable to help his allies as Sim-Jake had systematically picked off the squishier party members first.

When the warrior died, Sim-Jake was already preparing to leave, not wanting to stay in the same place for too long at a time, but just then, something appeared in front of him. Something that made his eyes open wide as he couldn’t help but smile.

“Now, isn’t that interesting?”

’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of the Boundless Horizon] has reached level 356 - Stat points allocated, +125 Free Points