Chapter 813: Nevermore: The Prodigal Son Returns

"So, you're not angry I had one of your employees act like a test dummy for several weeks? Imagine how many perfectly pristine statues he could have looked like he was cleaning during that time!" Jake joked as he stood in front of the Bound God after having presented his second Creation.

"Calling them my employees is not entirely accurate, now is it? They are merely summoned creatures, created to serve a simple function and give ambiance to the House of the Architect," the Architect answered as she was already done putting away Jake's poison.

"Can I, you know, get a little hint of how good this Creation was? I know it isn't as unique as the first one, but just a tiny bit of direction would be great," Jake said with a smile.

"No," the Architect outright denied him. "Now, be on your way before you try to glean any more information than you should."

"No thoughts on any of my current projects? Anything to say regarding my little student? He's an interesting lad, don't you thi-"

Jake still had his mouth open when he appeared standing in front of the entrance to the Architect's room, the door shut. He stood there for a moment before shaking his head. The Bound God was really stingy when it came to giving out tips or even allowing Jake to be in her presence. It sucked a bit, as Jake would have loved to have "gleaned some things he shouldn't," as she said.

Returning back to the alchemy lab, Jake wondered what his next project should be. He had worked on poisons for a good while now and considered if he should go in an entirely different direction. Referring back to his list, Jake put on his thinking cap.

He considered looking into making an elixir or perhaps a ritual. He also had the skill improvements to think about... so much to do and so much time if he was fine fucking over his party members by spending several years within this Challenge Dungeon. Something Jake obviously wouldn't do, which was part of the reason he had submitted a rare poison and not tried to make something more impressive.

Considering Temlat should also soon be back - assuming he survived - Jake went with just reading some books on something he knew he would want to craft no matter what. So, walking to the stacks of books he had left so Temlat could take what he wanted, he began to go through them. He had noticed how Temlat had brought a few books with him, but Jake didn't really care. Jake would get them back at some point anyway, and even if his student died, he could just go retrieve them himself.

After looking through the stacks a bit, Jake finally found one that looked promising as a starter: Grimoire Creation: To Forge a Legacy.

It was a bloody huge tome that Jake picked up and began to slowly go through. Even if he had a skill that gave him some instinctive knowledge, it never hurt to also study a bit on the subject. He also saw a few more books on the subject when he picked this one up, so he definitely had plenty of reading material for a good while.

Five or so days went by before an attendant walked into the alchemy room, giving Jake a big smile on his lips. Putting the book away and getting up from the bed he had been lying in, Jake walked out of the lab and toward the portal room, where he knew a certain someone had just arrived. He had asked the attendants to inform him when someone arrived through one of the portals, and it appeared someone just had.

Entering the portal room, Jake saw a young man lying on the ground, breathing heavily. Blood colored the otherwise pristine white floor as it dropped from several wounds, both new and old. Temlat was looking bloody exhausted, and a dense air hung around him, infused with his cursed energy, and without even having to check, Jake knew the young half-elf had made quite some progress.

[Half-elf - lvl 194]

Temlat had already maxed out his profession before following Jake, meaning he had gained levels solely from leveling his class. Ten or so class levels, it appeared, all in the span of two and a half months or so. Great progress, especially at late-tier D-grade, which proved he hadn't been slacking off.

"Still alive, huh?" Jake said, smiling beneath his mask as he walked over.

The young half-elf groaned as he sat up and looked at Jake. "I am."

His gaze held a level of defiance and indignation Jake found endearing. What's more, Jake detected a minor hint of hatred that stemmed not just from the fact he was surrounded by the curse energy but a small grudge against Jake for having put him through this kind of hellish training. At least Jake assumed that was the reason.

"Are you angry with me?" Jake said as he stood over the sitting Telmat. "Do you think this method was too harsh? Too risky? Do you despise me because you nearly died more than a few times?"

Temlat didn't answer, but his silence was good enough of a response. "Articulate why you feel this. Explain to me your indignation."

Jake's student remained silent for a while before he finally answered. "You just threw me away to fend for myself."

"I am perfectly aware of that," Jake said without arguing. "But so what?"

"You... you barely taught me anything and then just left me there to die... what did you even do? How are you even teaching me? I... if I died, everything up till now would have been for nothing!" Temlat practically yelled as he gritted his teeth, clearly having built up quite the resentment over these last couple of months.

"Remember what you asked of me when I took you in as a student. You want me to make you strong, and that is exactly what I am doing. Do you think power comes without risk? Do you think anyone truly powerful hasn't risked their life innumerable times throughout their Path? What exactly did you expect when you accepted my offer? That we would sit in a lab for a few years, and you would emerge an expert capable of fulfilling all your desires without ever having to risk your life?" Jake said in an admonishing tone.

"But if I died, I-"

"Being dead is a preferential alternative to being weak," Jake cut him off. "You always have the choice of going back to your old life. Your former owner didn't look like she would ever risk your life if you could even call what you had back then a life. Besides, wasn't it you who said it? That you would rather die than go back? You may have just said it in the heat of the moment, but I took that seriously."

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Temlat just stared back at Jake with a mixed expression on his face. Jake got the feeling he wasn't sure what to say, taking the lead instead. He was meant to be the grown-up in this relationship, after all.

"I am merely sticking to my promise of helping you get strong, so you stick to your promise of doing whatever you can to do just that. I am not interested in seeing you die, but I will expect you to take risks that could result in your death if you mess up. The key part of this being that you would need to mess up. As long as you do your best and don't get incredibly unlucky, you will eventually reach your goals and get your revenge, alright?" Jake asked.

Temlat slowly nodded, making Jake smile. "Now go on back to your room and rest up. Come find me when you are back in peak condition and feel ready to continue. Ah, but don't dally too much; you don't want me to be the one coming to find you."

"Thank you... Lord Thayne," the young half-elf said as he stood up and began walking slowly back toward the alchemy lab. The hatred in his eyes had lessened, and his anger was replaced with introspection. He would have plenty of time to ponder while limping back and recovering in a bed.

Could Jake have given him a health potion? Sure. The young man had clearly run out, but Jake purposefully chose not to. He wasn't just being harsh to be an asshole either but relied on the only person whose teaching style he did know, and the half-elf being in some pain wouldn't hurt him in the long run.

Jake, having no experience with teaching, chose to just go with the teaching style the Viper used. Which was the one where he wanted Temlat to mostly figure out stuff himself while helping him in some areas, such as progressing his curse energy. He would do this while instilling the mentality of the law of the jungle that both Jake and the Viper subscribed to, making Temlat understand that he shouldn't just feel like he wanted to get stronger. He should feel like he had to get stronger and like it was the most important goal in life. Because without power, he would never be able to do what he wanted, and to stagnate and stop progressing was no different from lying down and dying.

He had no way of knowing if this was the best approach, but it seemed to be working out so far. Besides, if he taught like the Viper would, he would play his role as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper way better.

Looking at the portal to the world with the centaurs in, Jake entered to take a look at the carnage Temlat had left behind. Appearing on the other side, Jake's Sphere of Perception instantly spread out, making Jake frown and turn around as a figure was standing there.

It was a centaur a bit larger than any of the others Jake had seen, and it was even wearing armor. It had a few cuts on its body and a single arrow sticking out of its side, wielding a halberd filled with blood. A faint curse energy could be felt from the centaur himself, but way more came from his weapon. Using Identify, Jake checked the creature's level while also releasing a Pulse of Perception to see the surrounding area.

[Centaurian Warlord - lvl 203]

Below the risen stone platform they were standing on, a sprawling centaur village had once been. Now, it was filled with corpses and had a dark aura hanging all over it, while the survivors mourned or were filled with hateful looks. What's more, nearly all of the centaurs looked like they hadn't been killed by Temlat but by each other. From the many who were cleaved cleanly in two, the Centaurian Warlord in front of him had clearly done his fair share of killing himself.

"You... who are you?" the centaur said in an angry voice. "Where did the half-human go?"

"He went home," Jake answered casually as he studied the centaur closely. "As for who I am... his teacher, I guess?"

Jake's answer instantly got a rise out of the Centaur Warlord as it's body exploded with a mix of wind and earth-affinity mana as it pointed its weapon toward Jake. "Then you die!"

Despite the clear aggression, Jake didn't make any moves as the Centaur Warlord got into a position to charge. The anger he felt from the centaur was extremely powerful, but in all honesty, who could excuse the C-grade? He had just been confronted with someone claiming to be the teacher of the person who had ruined his home.

The curse energy was doing very little to amplify the anger that was already there. One didn't need to be cursed to lose all rationality, and it appeared that Temlat's actions had been enough to push this Warlord over the edge, even if he didn't affect the C-grade with curse energy.

Jake looked as the C-grade centaur charged, but he didn't bother to move. Instead, he just looked at it as his eyes glowed. Instantly, a feeling that far surpassed that of anger overtook the Centaur Warlord. The one emotion that trumped all: fear. A sense of fear so overwhelming it made the centaur's survival instinct kick in instantly as all attempts to attack were abandoned, and the C-grade jumped back, shivering, too scared to even try and continue his retreat.

"I will not apologize for what he did, but neither will I offer any form of recompense," Jake said with a sigh. "So let the matter end here. Ah, but one warning... if he does come back, be better prepared the next time. Assuming your job was to protect this place, you failed miserably and only got yourself to blame that someone so much weaker than you could wreak this level of havoc."

With those words, Jake turned around and walked back through the portal again. He no doubt looked like some divine being in the eyes of the centaur as he managed to disappear entirely out of nowhere, considering it couldn't see the portal.

Back in the portal room, Jake could admit he had pretty mixed feelings after seeing the devastation Temlat had managed to wreak. From the looks of it, he had spent most of the time he was in the world slowly picking off centaurs while somehow spreading his curse throughout the village.

Even if he had failed to kill anything with the curse, he had managed to fuel their emotions of anger above a boiling point. Most of them had killed each other in what quickly became a self-fueled circle of violence and hatred. Someone may have done something wrong, making another lash out in anger and attack. What was meant to just be a punch of rage escalated as the one who got punched felt righteous fury from someone daring to strike them. From there, a brawl would turn into a fight that eventually resulted in death.

Relatives or friends of the killed would have their anger toward the killer empowered, making them seek out revenge, and from there, a near-unstoppable cycle would be formed. The curse energy would fuel itself through all the hate and spread autonomously as long as the original source - Temlat - still existed.

This was one part of the reason why curses were so feared. They were hard to understand, could be fueled merely by emotions, and were often hard to detect for those inflicted. Especially considering how the curse would alter the mental state of those affected, making their ability to address their own out-of-character actions severely inhibited.

Jake's guess for how this particular centaur conflict ended was through the C-grade coming back and putting a stop to everything. As a C-grade, the Warlord would have been able to resist the curse created by a D-grade and keep a clear head long enough to address the carnage. It had clearly taken a few deaths as the Warlord was a fighter and not someone with the ability to heal or dispel the curse, but after a bit of killing, it seemed like he had calmed the situation down enough.

Sighing, Jake walked back to the lab, and once he entered, he saw the sleeping half-elf inside his room through the sphere. He looked peaceful despite having just led to the deaths of nearly a thousand. His actions had clearly been exhausting, and he hadn't even changed out of his ruined clothes before flopping down on the bed.

"He's getting more powerful for sure. I guess that was the goal all along, so I shouldn't really be complaining; he is progressing fast," Jake muttered to himself. His only real problem now was that he had no idea what Temlat would ultimately turn into.

Which was one-hundred percent a problem for future Jake to address.

For now, he had tomes to study and a Grimoire to make. Who knew? Maybe he could even get some other forms of crafting in there and bang out some quick Creations... though he should probably keep an eye on Temlat in the meanwhile and make sure he didn't lose himself completely to the curse he was nurturing. There definitely weren't going to be any more portal adventures in the next little while.