The Primal Hunter

Jake and Villy moved to the living room of Jake’s mansion, and when Jake went to grab something to drink, the Viper just pulled out two beer bottles that gave off a response from his Sense of the Malefic Viper. Poison beer, nice.

They sat down across from each other as the Viper leaned back on the couch and began talking.

“Bloodlines have quite the history in the multiverse. As those with Bloodlines are often compared to Transcendents, it only leads to more scrutiny and interest, especially from those who possess neither. Bloodlines were a thing from the beginning, and many of those with Bloodlines in the first universe did grow up to be powerhouses who dominated, even if they failed to make it to godhood. Naturally, as time moved on, many also became gods… but their survival rate back then was just abysmal.”

“Why?” Jake asked, a bit confused. Did a Bloodline not give an advantage if it was beneficial?

“Hm… did you know not a single one of us Primordials had Bloodlines? At least not ones anyone knew about?” Villy asked

“No,” Jake shook his head. “I had kind of assumed someone did… though it is true I didn’t feel one from Valdemar, and does the current Eversmile even have one? I didn’t feel it. Not from Stormild either, now that I think about it…”

“Stormild does not have one as far as I know, while Eversmile does, his is just hidden due to the nature of his Bloodline. Well, he may have had it always, but no one knew, not even others with Bloodlines. The point is no one with a known Bloodline became a god during the first Era.”

“That is odd,” Jake thought out loud.

“No, not if you understand the landscape back then. You see, people are greedy. Beasts, humans, elementals, it doesn’t matter the race. We are all greedy for power. So when we see someone with something we don’t have, and we don’t know how to get it… we try anyway to take it, no matter how futile the effort. If you had a Bloodline back then, you had a target on your back. In the beginning, because people wanted to capture you and try to extract it, with even rumors spreading that you could gain a Bloodline by consuming someone who had one,” the Viper explained, shaking his head.

“That sounds fucking rough,” Jake said.

“Oh, it was. This was how the entire first Era went. Most with Bloodlines were slaughtered before realizing their potential, and those who survived lived as test subjects until their death. It was a curse more than anything else. Some with Bloodlines were used as Bloodline Detectors and were strutted around to find others with Bloodlines to capture them. Towards the end of the first Era, I don’t think a single person in S-grade even had a Bloodline.

“When the second Era began, people seemed to have gotten the message that you can’t steal Bloodlines, especially as we Primordials spread it with our nascent factions. However, it was discovered that they could be passed down, so I guess you can imagine the next step in the evolution of Bloodline hunting?” Villy asked grimly.

“Treat them like cattle?” Jake asked with a deep frown.

was even worse than before, especially due to how propagation works with the system. Have we ever had the talk about the flowers and the bees?”

I know. You can’t force it, can

life takes intent the same as most kinds of magic. The female cannot get pregnant, and the male cannot impregnate unless they both wish for it to happen. In what should not have been a surprise to absolutely anyone, people with Bloodlines that have practically been turned into

as he nevertheless asked. “Did that ever lead

true members of the clan… some also just broke and began helping out of desperation. Ultimately, it wasn’t efficient in the least, and there is also the fact that you want the one with the Bloodline to be powerful. The Bloodline alone is nice, but

even sometimes had them end up the new leaders. In fact, this is how many still-existing factions began. There was also a growing tendency to just leave those with Bloodlines alone, sometimes watching from afar and hoping for them to amass power themselves. However, as I said, these were the

I doubt those with Bloodlines themselves would help, and unless

It even expanded to beasts where variants were often confused as ones having Bloodlines… the entire situation was utterly fucked and in no way sustainable long-term. Yet it continued, and this craze

a possibility; they will just

Nobody will dare try,” Villy said,

my Blessing, I

Until they went after someone they shouldn’t have, and all hell was unleashed upon them, leading to a treaty that still stands today, banning the abductions, enslavement, and coercion of those with Bloodlines for purposes

asked a question, slightly changing the

was overseen and deployed by all of us Primordials during the seventh Era. It was signed by nearly all publicly acting gods at the time. All of us also act as executioners of any who breaks this treaty. The most known example was during the eighty-second Era when a Pantheon emerged that didn’t seem to care. They had many gods among them and were desperate for expansion. At the same time, a small clan that was rapidly growing to power appeared within their territory, all having powerful Bloodlines. The Pantheon’s leader was a god who was most known for having fought the Starsiezing Titan,

came as a surprise. He knew factions could be

be his own mistresses to sire powerful children and the men to copulate with his own daughters. This was caught within a week of it happening… and this moronic god learned the consequences of breaking the

in charge fled to his

time seeing someone like Eversmile purposefully avoiding doing certain things just due

a bit of a bastard, but he is not a liar. His word means more than you can understand due to the Path he walks. A promise

nodded along slowly, still believing Eversmile was an asshole. “Anyway, to conclude, this treaty means I am more or

kidnapping is to research or forcefully spread the Bloodline. Not that there is much other reason to. As I am sure

beginning to get a good understanding of the situation by now. “The method

smile. “If a faction recruits someone with a Bloodline as a member or even just bribes them or pays them to join temporarily as mercenaries

with Bloodlines are still treated as commodities,” Jake