The Primal Hunter

Chapter 278

Jake had signed quite a few contracts during his life. It had been a staple of his pre-system work, and of course, when you made large and important purchases such as a car or a home, you had to sign. So he knew a bit about signing stuff, and there were a few things one had to always remember.

First and foremost was naturally to spend an unreasonable amount of time practicing your signature solely not to be embarrassed when you sign like a kid during an important business meeting or when the judgemental lady from the bank stares over your shoulder. All of this while being fully aware having a good-looking signature was just a stupid social construct created by archaic and unreasonable expectations in a world where digitalization had taken over, so why even bother improving your handwriting?

Anyway, the second thing one had to remember was always to read the contract closely. Jake’s mom always told a horror story of how her father’s brother’s best friend’s sister’s husband once signed without reading the contract, and he ended up buying the wrong car. In retrospect, it was a bad story, but she had told it to him so many times.

The rule of reading contracts had only become more important after the system came. At least in some ways. In others, not so much. Because each contract now gave one a sense of what they were about. You couldn’t sign it unless the system believed you understood it. But, of course, there were levels to understanding. For example, one could fail to consider the future properly but think the contract was worth it in the short term. So one had to always consider a contract properly before signing and take some time to go over it in one’s head. Possibly wait to sign till the next day if possible to sleep on it.

Now, this wasn’t a possibility when floating in some weird soul-space-thing with a half-elemental half-beast hawk and an ancient living natural disaster. But then again, the contract wasn’t exactly complicated. The massive tablet had only a few words on it, though they were quite open to interpretation.

Awesomest Uncle Jake Thayne and Bestest Bird Sylphie agree to be Forever-Friends.

“Is this seriously enough?” Jake asked, highly skeptical of the entire thing.

“Seems fine to me?” Stormild answered, looking at him like he was stupid.

“Ree!” Sylphie agreed. She had been the one behind the wording of the contract.

“Seriously?” Jake reiterated.

“Yep.”

“So, hypothetically speaking, what would breaking this contract look like? What if Sylphie and I have a disagreement? Or maybe we just don’t meet and talk for a while? Does that mean that one day it suddenly counts as us breaking it? Also, what if either of us dies? Doesn’t that automatically mean the other party broke the terms?” He asked. Every fiber of his being refused to believe this could count as a proper contract. Perhaps it was his years in the corporate world, but this couldn’t be okay, could it?

“Uhm, friends sometimes fight, so no problems there. I am still super good friends with big snake man, and we didn’t meet in super-duper long, so that’s fine too, I guess? Oh! And you can be friends with dead people too. My last best friend, er, Chosen, died because she couldn’t figure out how to become a god, but we’re still friends,” Stormild answered, completely dispelling all of Jake’s concerns.

“Ree! Ree!” Sylphie agreed, adding on something more.

“Right on, Sylphie! Dad is still dad if dad dies, and Uncle is still Uncle even if Uncle dies, so why is Forever-friend not still Forever-friend even after death? Friendships can have all shapes and sizes, so as long as you don’t outright say you aren’t Forever-Friends anymore, all is good. Oh! And you have to mean it. Sometimes people say stuff they don’t mean in anger, right?” Stormild said as she flew around them in a circle, clearly in a great mood.

“Ree?” Sylphie asked.

“Of course we’re friends!” Stormild agreed.

“Ree?” Sylphie then asked, looking at Jake.

a friend of big snake man, so we’re also friends. Oh hey! It’s not often I’m hanging out with two friends like this! People normally act all weird and beg me not to kill

“Ree! Ree?”

This one

a story about this one time she was being chased by fanatics that tried to find the planets she would pass by next to hopefully be consumed by her. To her credit, she apparently tried

a lot to consider with this contract, if you could even call it that. Jake knew it was pretty much just an excuse to allow Sylphie to enter things like the Treasure Hunt and to give her some valuable Records. It was one-sided for sure, but Jake was okay with that. It didn’t seem like this would impede him in any way but instead help Sylphie in

then he reckoned it would all end fine. He also knew that Villy had become aware of the tablet’s contents too and hadn’t commented on it,

then he did a backflip, snapped the bad guy’s neck, and saved the day!” Stormild

was a party-pooper and brought the two distracted birds back

we go about making the Union Oath?”

on the tablet began glowing with different colors as two imprints appeared on the tablet, with a larger imprint on top of it all, looking almost like a thundercloud ready to judge the ones making the

make the Oath! Then, the system will ask, and

but flew over and touched the imprint with her wing. Jake followed suit soon after and placed his hand on it, and the moment he did so, he felt something. He felt like a tendril

the innermost layer as a connection was established. He intimately felt that two other connections also extended – one towards Sylphie

the system probe as it asked for his consent at the contract. He felt like understanding of it was downloaded unto his mind… and it truly was a vague contract. It could only be so vague because it wasn’t actually the system itself

THUMP!

something he didn’t like to. Superiority. Not just in strength but status. Existence. For him to recognize Stormild as an entity that was like an unreachable heaven that could bring down a tribulation upon him if he went against her will. It required him to allow

THUMP!

He didn’t like that.

didn’t like that

bloodline – his base of

THUMP!

note either as he felt a sense of indignation boil up. Had he misunderstood the contract? Partly… but not really. At that final moment, he just

the thing is, he still wanted the

THUMP!

the tablet. Jake’s symbol shook

THUMP!

expanded across the tablet, not seeking to destroy it… but equalize it. The heaven

THUMP!

of the skill and magic fight against him. He was breaking rules right now, seeking to supersede the intended function of the contract. His will and bloodline

immense feeling of weakness, and his sense of danger exploded. He was trying to mess with levels of magic and power he couldn’t even begin to touch upon. While he had the qualitative ability to cause change… he didn’t

enough to do it with

knew someone who

a connection one could only send

request. One he initially failed to resist as the one trying to pull on his power simply didn’t need to ask, which was great because this was an instance where he couldn’t assist under normal circumstances. Jake had reached a stage where he didn’t need to ask, just take. Vilastromos knew it was due to the profession, which was very much based on his bloodline, that unreasonable thing. Did this mean the Viper couldn’t stop it? No, it didn’t. But that wasn’t something he was

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