The Primal Hunter 11, page 75
Jake had made a prediction that paid off. He had been told before that his stable arcane mana registered as something physical and not made of mana. However, it was more accurate to say that his stable arcane mana registered as non-summoned simply due to how stable it was. Any analyst would still be able to figure out it had mana in it—everything did to some extent—but Jake’s stable arcane energy was more akin to a naturally occurring piece of metal than a pure mana construct.
That was actually a pretty good comparison. Jake’s stable arcane affinity was very much akin to something like metal, in that they were both very, well, stable.
Everything contained mana, and everything leaked and absorbed mana at different speeds, with absorption nearly always faster than the leakage, which was how raw materials grew in rarity and energy density as time passed. Most metals were known to be very slow at both of these things, making them take a long time to improve in rarity in the wild. This lack of leaking and absorption also made metals incredibly stable, which was where the entire concept of stability came from.
Stability merely meant being unaffected by environmental factors—both good and bad.
Yet no matter how stable a magical construct was, it would never be as stable as a real item. It would always just be a collection of mana, as it lacked aspects that made it truly physical and corporeal. Lacked the Records to be an independent item. Even if a metal or earth mage summoned a giant wall, it would disappear within a short period, assuming it wasn’t just made by manipulating material that was already there. With time, the internal mana structure would simply be broken down if the source of the mana was a person and not environmental mana.
In the same way, a weapon summoned by a metal mage also needed to be constantly supplied with new mana. More importantly, it also wouldn’t be Identifiable despite looking very much like a regular item. Yet the arcane marble Jake had just made was. It registered as a standalone item, entirely separate from Jake’s own existence and mana. This meant that even if Jake died, the orb would remain—something utterly impossible for any other kind of mana-summoned object. Holding it in his hand, Jake also felt it would remain for a long time. A very, very long time. Unsurprising, considering the word perennial in the item name.
Now, it had to be mentioned that creating an actual item out of nothing using only mana was theoretically possible; however, not for someone like Jake. With enough Willpower, it was possible to “will” something into existence, including real items, but the sheer Willpower required was entirely out of the realm of possibility for anyone doing this Challenge Dungeon. Making something from nothing was the kind of feat only gods or perhaps peak S-grades could reliably pull off.
In conclusion… Jake had pulled off something a C-grade shouldn’t be capable of. He had created a true item out of nothing but his own stable mana. He had created something real. A marble capable of existing even long after Jake’s own death, assuming he messed up dodging one time too many.
One might ask what the function of this item Jake had miraculously made was, and… well… it was very tough and would exist for a long time, so that was definitely two things. Ah, it was also a little pretty, and its sheer uniqueness definitely made it a nice collector’s item. As for practical uses…
Yeah… it was entirely useless. It was just a very hard marble, and any Origin Energy within would instantly be destroyed should something break it. In fact, Jake felt that the Origin Energy would actively work to destroy itself and anything that broke the stable barrier that defended its existence. It was pure instinct to aim for mutual destruction, as should the marble break or leak in any way, the energy would instantly dissipate and greedily be absorbed by the environment.
Instinct was actually quite a keyword here. Jake hadn’t been the one to really intend to create something called a Perennial Arcane Marble. It had all been up to the Origin Energy. In the same way that Jake didn’t control how a core would mutate and transform when he infused this unique energy, he also hadn’t controlled what the energy would do this time. He’d only sent with it the hope that it would be stable and not break apart, with the Origin Energy then doing the rest of the work itself by forming the marble.
The more I think about it, the more this Origin Energy seems kind of alive, Jake thought to himself as he lifted the marble and looked at it more closely before he got up and headed straight toward the Architect to submit it. Or maybe it’s more correct to say it makes things come alive? It definitely makes whatever I infuse it into change by itself when infused…
Jake still felt very unsure exactly why this energy worked the way it did, and he felt he wouldn’t fully figure it out for a long time. The best he could do was figure out aspects of the energy and be satisfied with that. To focus on the outcomes and not the underlying explanation for everything. Then again, maybe he could ask the Architect if she would spill a little bit of insight. With her direct system connection, she had to know something, right?
Reaching the door leading into her room, Jake didn’t even have to knock as it opened by itself. The Architect sat in her usual spot and opened her eyes to regard Jake right as he stepped inside.
“Quite a peculiar submission you have this time around, if you are showing me what I believe you will show me,” the Architect said, her eyes already fixated on the small, useless arcane marble in Jake’s hand.
Jake tossed the marble into the air before catching it again, noticing how the Architect’s gaze never left the small thing. This gave Jake an idea, and he sighed loudly. “I will be honest; I’m not even sure if it’s worth submitting.”
“Oh?” she questioned.
“I have no idea if it’s considered good or bad… It’s technically just a bunch of mana made into a marble with a tiny smidgen of this admittedly pretty unique energy within,” Jake said, continuing to play with the marble as he faked being deep in thought. “Actually, how long have I been in the House of Architect by now?”
“A bit over sixteen months,” the Architect answered.
“In that case, I got time to do something else,” Jake said, faking relief. “I was pretty fast in some of the prior Challenge Dungeons too, and with the time my teammates and I allocated, I could easily spend a year more in here.” The Architect didn’t say anything as Jake held up the marble and looked at it closely. “I apologize for wasting your time; I don’t think this one is worth submitting.”
Jake waited patiently, and the Architect just sighed after a few seconds of silence. “You are not a particularly good actor, but fine, I’ll bite. I do want that little marble of yours. As for why… well, let me ask you something instead. All Nevermore Attendees make use of this World Wonder to gain power, levels, and Records. With that in mind, what do you think the Wyrmgod and I get out of all of you being here?”
“Information?” Jake questioned. Nevermore collected data on everyone, after all, so… Wait. “No… you get Records?”
Nevermore—the Architect—smiled at his response. “Precisely. As you harvest your gains, so do we harvest some of what you reap. We learn about all those who pass through here, and your Records become one with the World Wonder, allowing it to keep growing era by era. This is part of the reason why unique items are so highly valued in this Challenge Dungeon. It is still an evaluation of your skill, yes, but selfishly, we value uniqueness highly due to how much it benefits us, as it expands the spectrum of Records available. Of course, everyone is unique in some way or another and helps expand it. No two people have the exact same Records, but there will be inevitable overlap between those who follow similar Paths. Your Path is unique in its own right, and your Bloodline of the Primal Hunter is one of the most potent ones I have come across, meaning any Records related to it are highly valued. A mere evaluation in a Challenge Dungeon is far from doing them justice.”
Jake slowly nodded, surprised he’d gotten the Architect to spill so much when she had been tight-lipped for over a year. She really wanted his small marble, huh? However, with the things she said, Jake still hadn’t fully gotten his answer.
“That is all very enlightening… but that doesn’t answer my question. Will this small marble even be considered a good submission? Despite its uniqueness, it’s still just a bunch of stable arcane mana squished together with some of my unique energy in the center. That it is considered a real item is probably impressive, but I am not sure exactly how impressive. Sure, you may value it due to how unique you find it, but that doesn’t make it a good submission according to the rules of this Challenge Dungeon.”
“You are aware I will not answer if something will receive a high evaluation or not before submitting it, but I will dispel some of your doubt. As I am well aware that you already know, creating an item from mana alone is far from a simple matter and carries many implications. This is not to mention the nature of the specific item you created. I cannot reveal much, but I will say that you are far from understanding the true meaning of this Primeval Energy. You all are far from fully understanding it, your Patron included. I will end my comments on the matter here. Decide to submit it or not. I will not force you, nor will I make any promises regarding an evaluation. The only promise I will make is that nothing regarding this little marble will be leaked to any other being, even the Wyrmgod.”
Jake didn’t need to think much more before he chose to submit the arcane marble. He had always planned on doing so, but he had genuine doubts about how good of a submission it was. There still was some doubt, but much of it had been dispelled after this conversation.
The final sentence was a clue. For the Architect to specifically promise once more that she wouldn’t leak anything meant that her leaking it would be a big deal. That communicated to Jake this little marble was a big deal, similar to his Grimoire, though probably in a very different way. The kind of way where more people would want to explore Jake’s special little energy as they came to realize it potentially had more effects than just bringing out the Primeval Origins in cores to give birth to powerful ancient variants.
Either way, Jake had now submitted it, meaning he only had one more potential Creation he needed to come up with while he kept working on his poison and “teaching” Temlat here and there. Jake wouldn’t really say he was teaching much, which was why he felt weird thinking about it as teaching. He was more just giving occasional advice, pointing the young half-elf towards books, and helping him out when stumped. True, there was also the curse nurturing and presence-resistance training Jake sometimes offered, but those didn’t really include Temlat learning anything.
Shaking off the thought, Jake focused his attention on this last Creation he had to come up with. For what felt like the umpteenth time, he went through all of his skills—not to look for one to upgrade, but to see if there was one that would give him any inspiration for a crafting venture.
Sure, there was still the possibility of just making an elixir, even if Jake had written it off… He could also just be boring and submit a potion? Nah, that would suck too much. As Jake was thinking, he suddenly got an idea that would be awesome if it worked.
With excitement, he tried to pull a certain item out of his inventory and, surprisingly enough, found himself successful. With a grin, he held the mythical-rarity Cradle of Soul’s Kindling as he peeked inside with the hope of getting lucky. It would be perfect.
Using the extracted Soulflame, Jake’s Alchemical Flame would upgrade several grades at once, and he would even have technically crafted it, as it was fully born when he took it out of the Cradle. All that needed to happen was for Jake to get lucky by having a good Soulflame inside, and he would be golden.
However, reality proved cruel as Jake checked the Cradle and found no good Soulflame available. Soulflames had the qualities of elementary, low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier, pinnacle-tier, and Supreme Soulflames, and as Jake looked inside, he saw that while the area where arcane affinity Soulflames spawned was still expanding, the best Soulflame with his affinity was a mid-tier one. Ah, but he did spot a few high-tier Soulflames in there. Sadly, these were all of different affinities.
Alas, sometimes Jake couldn’t get super lucky. After infusing what little mana he had remaining into the Cradle to give his arcane affinity a bit more of an edge in the battle of affinities, he put the Cradle away again, finding himself back at square one.
You know what…? Fuck it, let’s just focus on the poison, and I am sure I will hit on something along the way. If not, maybe I can just submit my inability to get on anything good as a Creation… Jake thought self-deprecatingly as he went toward the alchemy lab to play with poisons.
Within the Architect’s room, she was looking at the marble in front of her. It didn’t look like much, just a small gem or pearl. There was none of the aura a high-quality item would usually leak, but just a completely inert object. Yet the Bound God found it more than intriguing, even if it raised more questions than it gave answers.
Still looking at it, she felt the probing of her fellow ruler of the World Wonder as the Wyrmgod curiously approached her. Likely because he had seen the Chosen leave her chambers.
“I see he has handed in another submission. My guests grow curious, so—”
“No,” Nevermore said, cutting him off. “Not only am I unwilling; I am incapable of sharing.”
“Incapable?” the Wyrmgod questioned. “Like with…?”
“Yes, the same as with four of the Creations from the man called Eron, the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord. Truly curious to see two individuals with such aberrant Bloodlines appearing on the same planet.”
The Wyrmgod grumbled but stopped probing as Nevermore kept looking at the small marble. He knew that when the system set down a hard line like this, there was no need to keep trying. It had decided to block certain information, making it so there were things not even she could see, and what she could see, she was physically incapable of sharing with anyone.
She wanted to probe it more… but she knew that even if the system allowed it, all she would be doing was breaking the marble. Breaking the stable energy surrounding the spark would result in the spark infusing the rest of the energy to destroy itself. A truly peculiar Creation with no real use to anyone.
However, even if it didn’t have any practical use cases, this small marble was Perennial. Everlasting. Something that shouldn’t be possible. With time, all items degraded. A sword would lose its energy, becoming inert. A magic circle would need constant repairs to remain active. Any structure would require maintenance… Even a small rock would change with time, finding itself affected by the environment.
Yet despite how much the world would change or how many eras would pass, this small marble would remain. Unless destroyed, it could potentially continue to exist forever… a fate usually only reserved for the divine. Achieved with not a single smidgen of divinity.
Peculiar indeed…
Chapter 85
Checks & Balances
”Isn’t it entirely expected a few of his Creations will be entirely hidden even from you? You know how the system is with Bloodlines,” Nature’s Attendant commented within the divine watch party living room. ”If I am correct, little Dina must also have submitted some items that were restricted when she did the House of the Architect.”
”She did,” the Wyrmgod confirmed. ”However, it is rare that Nevermore herself shows interest in a Creation. Much less several Creations within a short time span. My attention wasn’t truly on the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord, as while his methods and Path are interesting, it isn’t one I find particularly appealing. However, it seems there is more to him than I initially believed.”
”All Bloodlines have secrets and are irregular by definition.” Vilastromoz shrugged, fine that the topic had switched away from Jake. ”For him to have his own special means is indeed only to be expected.”
The Viper wouldn’t say he was worried about how things would go in the House of the Architect for his Chosen, both when it came to Jake doing well and regarding if he would reveal something he probably shouldn’t. The Bound God of the World Wonder was a quasi-system entity, making her subject to its rules. Even if she wanted to share all of Jake’s secrets, she would be unable to.
It did annoy the Viper a bit that Nevermore knew more about Jake and his secrets than his Patron god, but there wasn’t really anything to do about it.
When it came to the overall evaluation Jake would get, the Viper also had great confidence. Even without factoring in Jake’s Bloodline, alchemists tended to do very well in this Challenge Dungeon. Statistics showed that of all the popular profession archetypes, alchemists were the overall top performers in this Challenge Dungeon simply due to how diverse of a craft it was. Poisons, potions, elixirs, pills, transmutation, magic circles, herbology, and many more disciplines were part of the art of alchemy. All very different, with the only truly common thing being their requirement for high-level mana control.
This also meant that his Order was one of the factions that had the best average performance. Alright, it also helped that the Order only tended to accept elites, but the fact it was an alchemy-focused faction was definitely the most important factor.
With all that in mind, Jake would likely get a decent evaluation even if he only had his alchemy to rely on. But Jake, of course, didn’t only have his alchemy. Throwing in the Bloodline meant that Jake had a great whiff of uniqueness in there, and the Viper was sure Jake would pull off something impressive, bringing him from a decent to a great evaluation.
However, it was far from assured Jake would get a top-tier Grand Achievement.
”Jake and even Dina would definitely have earned a top score if this was Nevermore right after it got established,” Nature’s Attendant shared with a nostalgic smile. ”It sure was interesting back then before all the checks and balances.”
The Wyrmgod scoffed. ”Balance had to be achieved. With the further propagation of Bloodlines, something simply had to change. A Bloodline should not result in an automatic top-tier evaluation. At least Record inflation meant that the Leaderboards from back then are now useless.”
That was actually a pretty good comparison. Jake’s stable arcane affinity was very much akin to something like metal, in that they were both very, well, stable.
Everything contained mana, and everything leaked and absorbed mana at different speeds, with absorption nearly always faster than the leakage, which was how raw materials grew in rarity and energy density as time passed. Most metals were known to be very slow at both of these things, making them take a long time to improve in rarity in the wild. This lack of leaking and absorption also made metals incredibly stable, which was where the entire concept of stability came from.
Stability merely meant being unaffected by environmental factors—both good and bad.
Yet no matter how stable a magical construct was, it would never be as stable as a real item. It would always just be a collection of mana, as it lacked aspects that made it truly physical and corporeal. Lacked the Records to be an independent item. Even if a metal or earth mage summoned a giant wall, it would disappear within a short period, assuming it wasn’t just made by manipulating material that was already there. With time, the internal mana structure would simply be broken down if the source of the mana was a person and not environmental mana.
In the same way, a weapon summoned by a metal mage also needed to be constantly supplied with new mana. More importantly, it also wouldn’t be Identifiable despite looking very much like a regular item. Yet the arcane marble Jake had just made was. It registered as a standalone item, entirely separate from Jake’s own existence and mana. This meant that even if Jake died, the orb would remain—something utterly impossible for any other kind of mana-summoned object. Holding it in his hand, Jake also felt it would remain for a long time. A very, very long time. Unsurprising, considering the word perennial in the item name.
Now, it had to be mentioned that creating an actual item out of nothing using only mana was theoretically possible; however, not for someone like Jake. With enough Willpower, it was possible to “will” something into existence, including real items, but the sheer Willpower required was entirely out of the realm of possibility for anyone doing this Challenge Dungeon. Making something from nothing was the kind of feat only gods or perhaps peak S-grades could reliably pull off.
In conclusion… Jake had pulled off something a C-grade shouldn’t be capable of. He had created a true item out of nothing but his own stable mana. He had created something real. A marble capable of existing even long after Jake’s own death, assuming he messed up dodging one time too many.
One might ask what the function of this item Jake had miraculously made was, and… well… it was very tough and would exist for a long time, so that was definitely two things. Ah, it was also a little pretty, and its sheer uniqueness definitely made it a nice collector’s item. As for practical uses…
Yeah… it was entirely useless. It was just a very hard marble, and any Origin Energy within would instantly be destroyed should something break it. In fact, Jake felt that the Origin Energy would actively work to destroy itself and anything that broke the stable barrier that defended its existence. It was pure instinct to aim for mutual destruction, as should the marble break or leak in any way, the energy would instantly dissipate and greedily be absorbed by the environment.
Instinct was actually quite a keyword here. Jake hadn’t been the one to really intend to create something called a Perennial Arcane Marble. It had all been up to the Origin Energy. In the same way that Jake didn’t control how a core would mutate and transform when he infused this unique energy, he also hadn’t controlled what the energy would do this time. He’d only sent with it the hope that it would be stable and not break apart, with the Origin Energy then doing the rest of the work itself by forming the marble.
The more I think about it, the more this Origin Energy seems kind of alive, Jake thought to himself as he lifted the marble and looked at it more closely before he got up and headed straight toward the Architect to submit it. Or maybe it’s more correct to say it makes things come alive? It definitely makes whatever I infuse it into change by itself when infused…
Jake still felt very unsure exactly why this energy worked the way it did, and he felt he wouldn’t fully figure it out for a long time. The best he could do was figure out aspects of the energy and be satisfied with that. To focus on the outcomes and not the underlying explanation for everything. Then again, maybe he could ask the Architect if she would spill a little bit of insight. With her direct system connection, she had to know something, right?
Reaching the door leading into her room, Jake didn’t even have to knock as it opened by itself. The Architect sat in her usual spot and opened her eyes to regard Jake right as he stepped inside.
“Quite a peculiar submission you have this time around, if you are showing me what I believe you will show me,” the Architect said, her eyes already fixated on the small, useless arcane marble in Jake’s hand.
Jake tossed the marble into the air before catching it again, noticing how the Architect’s gaze never left the small thing. This gave Jake an idea, and he sighed loudly. “I will be honest; I’m not even sure if it’s worth submitting.”
“Oh?” she questioned.
“I have no idea if it’s considered good or bad… It’s technically just a bunch of mana made into a marble with a tiny smidgen of this admittedly pretty unique energy within,” Jake said, continuing to play with the marble as he faked being deep in thought. “Actually, how long have I been in the House of Architect by now?”
“A bit over sixteen months,” the Architect answered.
“In that case, I got time to do something else,” Jake said, faking relief. “I was pretty fast in some of the prior Challenge Dungeons too, and with the time my teammates and I allocated, I could easily spend a year more in here.” The Architect didn’t say anything as Jake held up the marble and looked at it closely. “I apologize for wasting your time; I don’t think this one is worth submitting.”
Jake waited patiently, and the Architect just sighed after a few seconds of silence. “You are not a particularly good actor, but fine, I’ll bite. I do want that little marble of yours. As for why… well, let me ask you something instead. All Nevermore Attendees make use of this World Wonder to gain power, levels, and Records. With that in mind, what do you think the Wyrmgod and I get out of all of you being here?”
“Information?” Jake questioned. Nevermore collected data on everyone, after all, so… Wait. “No… you get Records?”
Nevermore—the Architect—smiled at his response. “Precisely. As you harvest your gains, so do we harvest some of what you reap. We learn about all those who pass through here, and your Records become one with the World Wonder, allowing it to keep growing era by era. This is part of the reason why unique items are so highly valued in this Challenge Dungeon. It is still an evaluation of your skill, yes, but selfishly, we value uniqueness highly due to how much it benefits us, as it expands the spectrum of Records available. Of course, everyone is unique in some way or another and helps expand it. No two people have the exact same Records, but there will be inevitable overlap between those who follow similar Paths. Your Path is unique in its own right, and your Bloodline of the Primal Hunter is one of the most potent ones I have come across, meaning any Records related to it are highly valued. A mere evaluation in a Challenge Dungeon is far from doing them justice.”
Jake slowly nodded, surprised he’d gotten the Architect to spill so much when she had been tight-lipped for over a year. She really wanted his small marble, huh? However, with the things she said, Jake still hadn’t fully gotten his answer.
“That is all very enlightening… but that doesn’t answer my question. Will this small marble even be considered a good submission? Despite its uniqueness, it’s still just a bunch of stable arcane mana squished together with some of my unique energy in the center. That it is considered a real item is probably impressive, but I am not sure exactly how impressive. Sure, you may value it due to how unique you find it, but that doesn’t make it a good submission according to the rules of this Challenge Dungeon.”
“You are aware I will not answer if something will receive a high evaluation or not before submitting it, but I will dispel some of your doubt. As I am well aware that you already know, creating an item from mana alone is far from a simple matter and carries many implications. This is not to mention the nature of the specific item you created. I cannot reveal much, but I will say that you are far from understanding the true meaning of this Primeval Energy. You all are far from fully understanding it, your Patron included. I will end my comments on the matter here. Decide to submit it or not. I will not force you, nor will I make any promises regarding an evaluation. The only promise I will make is that nothing regarding this little marble will be leaked to any other being, even the Wyrmgod.”
Jake didn’t need to think much more before he chose to submit the arcane marble. He had always planned on doing so, but he had genuine doubts about how good of a submission it was. There still was some doubt, but much of it had been dispelled after this conversation.
The final sentence was a clue. For the Architect to specifically promise once more that she wouldn’t leak anything meant that her leaking it would be a big deal. That communicated to Jake this little marble was a big deal, similar to his Grimoire, though probably in a very different way. The kind of way where more people would want to explore Jake’s special little energy as they came to realize it potentially had more effects than just bringing out the Primeval Origins in cores to give birth to powerful ancient variants.
Either way, Jake had now submitted it, meaning he only had one more potential Creation he needed to come up with while he kept working on his poison and “teaching” Temlat here and there. Jake wouldn’t really say he was teaching much, which was why he felt weird thinking about it as teaching. He was more just giving occasional advice, pointing the young half-elf towards books, and helping him out when stumped. True, there was also the curse nurturing and presence-resistance training Jake sometimes offered, but those didn’t really include Temlat learning anything.
Shaking off the thought, Jake focused his attention on this last Creation he had to come up with. For what felt like the umpteenth time, he went through all of his skills—not to look for one to upgrade, but to see if there was one that would give him any inspiration for a crafting venture.
Sure, there was still the possibility of just making an elixir, even if Jake had written it off… He could also just be boring and submit a potion? Nah, that would suck too much. As Jake was thinking, he suddenly got an idea that would be awesome if it worked.
With excitement, he tried to pull a certain item out of his inventory and, surprisingly enough, found himself successful. With a grin, he held the mythical-rarity Cradle of Soul’s Kindling as he peeked inside with the hope of getting lucky. It would be perfect.
Using the extracted Soulflame, Jake’s Alchemical Flame would upgrade several grades at once, and he would even have technically crafted it, as it was fully born when he took it out of the Cradle. All that needed to happen was for Jake to get lucky by having a good Soulflame inside, and he would be golden.
However, reality proved cruel as Jake checked the Cradle and found no good Soulflame available. Soulflames had the qualities of elementary, low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier, pinnacle-tier, and Supreme Soulflames, and as Jake looked inside, he saw that while the area where arcane affinity Soulflames spawned was still expanding, the best Soulflame with his affinity was a mid-tier one. Ah, but he did spot a few high-tier Soulflames in there. Sadly, these were all of different affinities.
Alas, sometimes Jake couldn’t get super lucky. After infusing what little mana he had remaining into the Cradle to give his arcane affinity a bit more of an edge in the battle of affinities, he put the Cradle away again, finding himself back at square one.
You know what…? Fuck it, let’s just focus on the poison, and I am sure I will hit on something along the way. If not, maybe I can just submit my inability to get on anything good as a Creation… Jake thought self-deprecatingly as he went toward the alchemy lab to play with poisons.
Within the Architect’s room, she was looking at the marble in front of her. It didn’t look like much, just a small gem or pearl. There was none of the aura a high-quality item would usually leak, but just a completely inert object. Yet the Bound God found it more than intriguing, even if it raised more questions than it gave answers.
Still looking at it, she felt the probing of her fellow ruler of the World Wonder as the Wyrmgod curiously approached her. Likely because he had seen the Chosen leave her chambers.
“I see he has handed in another submission. My guests grow curious, so—”
“No,” Nevermore said, cutting him off. “Not only am I unwilling; I am incapable of sharing.”
“Incapable?” the Wyrmgod questioned. “Like with…?”
“Yes, the same as with four of the Creations from the man called Eron, the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord. Truly curious to see two individuals with such aberrant Bloodlines appearing on the same planet.”
The Wyrmgod grumbled but stopped probing as Nevermore kept looking at the small marble. He knew that when the system set down a hard line like this, there was no need to keep trying. It had decided to block certain information, making it so there were things not even she could see, and what she could see, she was physically incapable of sharing with anyone.
She wanted to probe it more… but she knew that even if the system allowed it, all she would be doing was breaking the marble. Breaking the stable energy surrounding the spark would result in the spark infusing the rest of the energy to destroy itself. A truly peculiar Creation with no real use to anyone.
However, even if it didn’t have any practical use cases, this small marble was Perennial. Everlasting. Something that shouldn’t be possible. With time, all items degraded. A sword would lose its energy, becoming inert. A magic circle would need constant repairs to remain active. Any structure would require maintenance… Even a small rock would change with time, finding itself affected by the environment.
Yet despite how much the world would change or how many eras would pass, this small marble would remain. Unless destroyed, it could potentially continue to exist forever… a fate usually only reserved for the divine. Achieved with not a single smidgen of divinity.
Peculiar indeed…
Chapter 85
Checks & Balances
”Isn’t it entirely expected a few of his Creations will be entirely hidden even from you? You know how the system is with Bloodlines,” Nature’s Attendant commented within the divine watch party living room. ”If I am correct, little Dina must also have submitted some items that were restricted when she did the House of the Architect.”
”She did,” the Wyrmgod confirmed. ”However, it is rare that Nevermore herself shows interest in a Creation. Much less several Creations within a short time span. My attention wasn’t truly on the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord, as while his methods and Path are interesting, it isn’t one I find particularly appealing. However, it seems there is more to him than I initially believed.”
”All Bloodlines have secrets and are irregular by definition.” Vilastromoz shrugged, fine that the topic had switched away from Jake. ”For him to have his own special means is indeed only to be expected.”
The Viper wouldn’t say he was worried about how things would go in the House of the Architect for his Chosen, both when it came to Jake doing well and regarding if he would reveal something he probably shouldn’t. The Bound God of the World Wonder was a quasi-system entity, making her subject to its rules. Even if she wanted to share all of Jake’s secrets, she would be unable to.
It did annoy the Viper a bit that Nevermore knew more about Jake and his secrets than his Patron god, but there wasn’t really anything to do about it.
When it came to the overall evaluation Jake would get, the Viper also had great confidence. Even without factoring in Jake’s Bloodline, alchemists tended to do very well in this Challenge Dungeon. Statistics showed that of all the popular profession archetypes, alchemists were the overall top performers in this Challenge Dungeon simply due to how diverse of a craft it was. Poisons, potions, elixirs, pills, transmutation, magic circles, herbology, and many more disciplines were part of the art of alchemy. All very different, with the only truly common thing being their requirement for high-level mana control.
This also meant that his Order was one of the factions that had the best average performance. Alright, it also helped that the Order only tended to accept elites, but the fact it was an alchemy-focused faction was definitely the most important factor.
With all that in mind, Jake would likely get a decent evaluation even if he only had his alchemy to rely on. But Jake, of course, didn’t only have his alchemy. Throwing in the Bloodline meant that Jake had a great whiff of uniqueness in there, and the Viper was sure Jake would pull off something impressive, bringing him from a decent to a great evaluation.
However, it was far from assured Jake would get a top-tier Grand Achievement.
”Jake and even Dina would definitely have earned a top score if this was Nevermore right after it got established,” Nature’s Attendant shared with a nostalgic smile. ”It sure was interesting back then before all the checks and balances.”
The Wyrmgod scoffed. ”Balance had to be achieved. With the further propagation of Bloodlines, something simply had to change. A Bloodline should not result in an automatic top-tier evaluation. At least Record inflation meant that the Leaderboards from back then are now useless.”
