The Primal Hunter

The smiling white-haired man stepped through the void, into what appeared to be an ordinary western suburban house. But outside the windows was not the streets of the suburb, but a vast void of nothingness.

He waved his hand and summoned a broken, nearly body-shaped mess of metal, blood, and gore. With another wave, time itself reversed, and the armor returned to pristine condition once more. Everything returned to normal, except for the life of the person inside the armor.

Death, even with the system, was not that easily circumvented. To restore a broken body was simple. But to truly revive someone who has died… difficult. Difficult and costly. Even to the gods of the highest order.

Even if one managed to revive the dead, it often came with several drawbacks - mental issues, inability to utilize their stats, missing skills, etc. But perhaps most crippling was the loss of a future. The inability for the revived to progress properly further on their own path.

There were ways to truly revive the dead. Ways for it to have not a single drawback… but that required several conditions to be met, and often special items or skills with a considerable cost. Luckily, Eversmile had all of those.

Flicking his wrist, he took out a small golden leaf. [Golden Leaf of Yggdrasil]. An item far from easily obtained, and one that couldn’t be bought no matter how much money one spent. To Eversmile, it had cost him a favor to the old tree herself. A hefty price, but he had believed it to be worth it.

Yet, it had cost him another favor for something as simple as retrieving the body of an E-grade mortal. A cost he had not expected. Eversmile did feel an ounce of annoyance towards his fellow Primordial for exploiting his desires, but it was par for the course for the Malefic One.

Eversmile moved the body of William to a bed in the room and lay the leaf on the young teenager’s forehead. Moments later, it started shining and sunk into his brain, disappearing.

Moments later, the teenager’s eyes opened wide as he screamed towards the ceiling.

William’s last memories flickered in his mind. The sudden pain, the shaking, the disorientation, and the feeling of powerlessness. And then… nothing.

He had died. William felt it. He remembered dying; he remembered how it all turned to nothing. Everything he had been, everything he could be snuffed out in mere moments.

“Good, you seem awake and aware,” William heard a voice say as he sat up with shock. He saw a weird-looking man with a creepy smile on his face.

“What the fuck happened, and why am I here?” the teenager asked as he jumped up from the bed.

“You died, of course,” the old man said, “and I revived you.”

William looked with wide eyes at the creepy old man as he kept smiling. He had really died…

“Why would you do that?”

“Because, little one,” he said as he ran his hand through his beard, “I find you worth studying.”

“So, what, you revived me to be some fucking guinea pig or something?”

“No, no, not at all. I revived you for you to continue being you. Of course, your death changed things a little, but perhaps I can turn this to my advantage,” Eversmile said, smiling as always.

“What would you say to becoming my disciple, little one? To become my student, and on your path to power, so shall I learn from you. I believe this would be very mutually beneficial.”

“Disciple? What are you on about? Where the hell am I, and what happened to the damn tutorial? What the fuck is going on!?” William asked, distraught at the situation.

In a few minutes, he had gone through dying, being revived, finding himself transported to who knows where, and now asked by a creepy old smiling man to become his disciple. What the hell was this?

But don’t worry, you will still get a reward of some sort. But you have lost half of your points and the qualifications to receive any extra bonus awards based on what happens in the

a small spot I picked, and I hope you like the surroundings. I hope

parent’s house. He saw the familiar globe on his desk, his bookcase, dresser, and he had

Earth?” he asked, his

is still transforming. I just assumed

get my house to wherever here is?” William yelled out as he tried looking down a window. A window that

I just remade it to look like it. Copied it, if you will. Why, do you

creepy as fuck, you are weird as fuck, and this

any harm at all. I understand your frustration, but please, ask of me

get me out of this creepy ass house and tell me who the fuck you are

one is easy,” the old man said,

lights little by little as William lost his footing but kept floating where he had been. The whole house disintegrated in a matter of moments, leaving the two floating in the vastness of nothing, the only source of light left

as Eversmile of the Twelve Primordials. I am a god, but more than that, I am a scholar. I hold many other titles, little that hold any

that with a single thought the being in

do you

prosper from that knowledge,” Eversmile

you want me to learn?”

said. “The bonds that bind us all together, the connections we form willingly or unwillingly. The feeble strings of fate that bind us together, the unbreakable chains that

judges the truth from the lies. A concept none can escape from, that

to comprehend what was going on, but a single figure appeared in his mind when he heard the

the memories just before he felt his mind rattled come forth like a tidal wave. The final word he heard a cold “die,” the last thing he saw was those two eyes staring at him… William was afraid… he didn’t want to meet those eyes again… ever… they regarded him

“I…I don’t-“ he muttered.

smiling as he saw the young

Oh no, far from it. This was good too. But he did plan on making sure that the subject didn’t encounter the Viper’s Chosen any time soon. He had a feeling the results of that would be…

not for

It was amazing how something so normal for him less than two months ago felt so

conversation… and it had helped him get his

nice to know that apparently, his bloodline was pretty damn good. The things about fate and destiny and all that crap were really far above his paygrade. Jake just wanted to hunt and challenge himself right now… he didn’t want to or feel like he had the time or

back on something he had asked just after the Viper had summoned

it mess up the tutorial that

did I? The system can be pretty lax when the interference is non-existent like this. But if I went and actually

little the gods could actually do in the tutorial. He assumed there were some limitations.

to think a bit more clearly about what had happened. The entire fight, if you

and had underestimated Jake to the extreme. He hadn’t been

it would have been a fight. But instead, he was smashed into the ground before he could react, the dark mana, as well as the impact, disorientating him. He hadn’t managed to

Jake had far higher agility, as one would expect from an archer. Coupled with a powerful weapon, a rare quality skill, and the element of surprise, it

finally saw the messages he had received - the first one

Metal Savant - lvl 60

considering how easily he had died. Also… what was better, prodigy or savant? Maybe similar? Damn, he

other part that surprised him was the number of tutorial points. That was actually a lot. Jake had more than William, even before he had just gotten half of his, but that still meant William had gathered nearly 150 million