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?

don’t worry, you will still get a reward of some sort. But you have lost half of

the tutorial to where we are now. Just a small spot I picked, and I hope you like the surroundings. I hope they are

him for the first time and noticed… this was his damn house. His parent’s house. He saw the familiar globe on his desk, his bookcase, dresser, and he had been lying on his

on Earth?” he asked,

it is still transforming. I just assumed that familiar surroundings

did you get my house to wherever here is?” William yelled out as he tried looking

it, if you will. Why, do

This is creepy as fuck, you are weird

said, still smiling amicably. “I do not wish you any harm at all.

ass house and tell me who the fuck you are already!” William yelled,

is easy,” the old man said, as he waved

kept floating where he had been. The whole house disintegrated in a matter

larger. “I am known 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

He felt that with a single thought the being in front of him could make him cease

what do you want?” William stammered

want you as my disciple. My follower. I wish to teach you and see you prosper from that knowledge,” Eversmile answered, unconcerned with the mortal’s apparent fear. His aura was bearing down on William, indifferent with the distraught it

me to learn?”

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

the lies. A concept none can escape from, that affects us all. The favors owed, the promises made, and,

was going on, but a single figure appeared in his mind

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…

“I…I don’t-“ he muttered.

he saw the young man before him slowly deteriorate

was ruined. Oh no, far from it. This was good too. But he did plan on making sure that the subject didn’t

for

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

lot from the conversation… 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

it made him think back on something he had asked

tutorial

if

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

more clearly about what had happened. The entire fight, if you can even call it that, had been over in an

had underestimated Jake to the extreme. He hadn’t

he could react, the dark mana, as well as the impact, disorientating him. He hadn’t managed to muster any retaliation

something entirely normal for a caster. Jake had far higher agility, as one would expect from an archer. Coupled with a powerful weapon, a rare quality

had received

lvl 42 / Metal Savant - lvl 60 /

bit shocked that he had reached level 60 in his class, especially considering how easily he had died. Also… what was better, prodigy or savant? Maybe similar? Damn, he should have checked

the number of tutorial points. That was actually a lot. Jake had more than William, even before he had just gotten half