The Primal Hunter

The hours quickly passed as Jake just sat back and chatted with Carmen. After a while, the two of them went to talk a bit with the old man too, but he was busy being the leader of the Noboru clan and all that. Honestly, Jake wasn’t a big fan of this entire World Congress as there were two votes that didn’t matter at all to him personally. He was also annoyed at so many people staring at him constantly, including this guy who kept trying to be sneaky about it and even used some weird scouting skills.

Nevertheless, he was still glad he had attended due to the appearance of the King, and he still had a good talk with Carmen, but he sure wouldn’t classify it as productive or a good way to spend his time. Once the political maneuvering was coming to an end, Jake gathered with Miranda and Lillian again, with Neil still busy with other space mages, having occupied a booth by themselves while not allowing others to interfere.

“So, what is the expected outcome of the vote? And what should I vote for?” Jake asked Miranda once in their booth, and they had isolated it properly.

“This one is hard. Many want the Independent Worlds, some want the Devoted Ones. Many also want the Unusual Unions, but it is honestly hard to get a feel for the room, and many keep their cards close to their chest. I have a feeling no one can truly know before all the votes are cast,” Miranda answered, shaking her head.

“What do you want?”

“Honestly, if I am truthful, the Paths of the Recognized Supremes will probably be best for Haven, considering your presence and just overall what we are going for as a city. We focus on the powerful and the influential, not the masses. Most who want to live in Haven are those who do know their Path already, and those who don’t would probably do best by taking advantage of your Records, or maybe even the Records of Arnold or me,” Miranda answered.

“I have a feeling not many other factions shared this sentiment,” Jake said, shaking his head a bit.

“No, in fact, it was futile to even bring up, so I didn’t. The second best would probably be Unusual Unions based on the general interpretation of it, and that is a fine choice for us. It is also a popular one. It may even be the most popular.”

“So, we voting for it?” Jake asked

“I believe that would be the wisest,” Miranda nodded.

“You talked to the King about it?” Jake then also asked. Hey, a thousand extra votes were always welcome.

“I only heard that he would abstain… Jake, what exactly is your relationship with that… thing?” she asked a bit nervously. “You told me about your Tutorial, and I have put together that was the former King of the Forest, but didn’t you kill him? And if you did kill him, how did he come back to life?”

“Remember that Soul Renewal from the Auction event? Well, the King managed to survive by hiding a bit of his soul within my mask that I got as loot from him, and using the Soul Renewal, I then healed that part to fully revive the King, who has now changed from the King of the Forest into the Fallen King. I am pretty sure the name change is due to some Unique Lifeform stuff,” Jake explained.

“Wait… why would you go so far to resurrect a Unique Lifeform that you have slain prior?” Miranda said as she looked at Jake critically. “The mere fact the King didn’t try to kill you first-thing is already a miracle, and who is to say he won’t try and get rid of you subtly now? Moreover, even if he leaves you alone, what exactly do you have to gain besides putting an extremely powerful new contender into play on Earth, that may or may not negatively affect Haven and everyone else?”

All good questions Jake honestly had no answer to. He was silent for a bit before answering.

“I did not know about the nobility title before the resurrection, and as for what I get out of it… well, a good fight for one, and as I still have the mask, I made a gamble it would improve the item. Even though it didn’t turn out that way, I don’t regret resurrecting him. I don’t think he is an enemy, let me just say that, as he can’t really kill me or make me too pissed for reasons I won’t share,” Jake just said.

sighed. “You took a massive gamble… wait…

“Yeah?” Jake said.

“How long after?”

I decided to do it. I did think enough to do it outside the city, and away from any settlements in case things went south,” Jake explained a

Famine arrived… could it have been a

Famine?” Jake asked, a bit confused. He

everyone suddenly began to become gluttonous,” Miranda

Miranda’s words, he also seriously doubted if he should tell anyone he did. Well… anyone besides Miranda and Lillian. Miranda was the City Leader and blessed by those Verdant Witches, and Lillian was bound by a contract, so it was all good, right? Not that he really wanted to explain

not know how it happened…” Jake said a bit meekly as he explained

looked at him surprised in the beginning before her surprised face turned into a frowning one before finally looking

had gotten the curse under control. He didn’t go into details, but Miranda clearly knew enough about curses

was confident I could make it work… and that even if I fucked up, I could

then you even decide to seal away a portion of the curse within your

taken the form of a chimera within his Truesoul. Though to be fair,

“While I will admit I did not know the global

a negative effect on every single individual and faction on the planet and that if it was discovered you or Haven were in any way involved with it, our diplomatic situation on Earth would become a lot more complicated. Our talks of neutrality would go right out the window as we had effectively just launched unprovoked attacks on every other faction. Intentionally or not,” Lillian said. “And to do something so massive and then not inform us of any of that is a shitty thing to do if you expect us to handle Haven. What if someone knew it was you? In fact, does that Risen Casper not know? He asked how you

his mouth open a bit as he took the words in. He wanted to argue but didn’t really come up with any good arguments that wouldn’t make him

you did, but that you didn’t at least inform us you would do it, or even just a quick update after the fact. Even if it hadn’t helped us, it would have allowed us not to spend time and resources trying to discover the source. A single sentence could have saved everyone from a lot of work and even allowed us to potentially help obscure what had happened if someone came close to finding out. I had an idea it was maybe you behind it, but when you never mentioned

felt more and more shitty the further she got. It really felt like he got scolded, and the worst part was that

the start had stopped all of this from happening. She had always been updated about what he was doing, and Jake had been updated on everything related to Haven. But recently, they had drifted a bit apart, with Jake having so many

recognized. “Sorry… yeah, it just slips my mind. It is no excuse, but I tend to

a bit, but Jake had been dismissive back then and hadn’t wanted to explain as he was busy dealing with the curse. He

Jake finally asked. “I know it is a bit harder, but if you can contact me

a good idea. We can even make them monthly

agreement then,” Jake nodded. “And while we wait for the vote result… let me tell you about the newest drama in the Order of the

would be a good time to finally mention one secret he had kept from them both so far: the fact that he had a Bloodline. The entire Order would soon know, and it would be odd for Miranda not to. He would still keep all details a secret, but he did reveal he had one and that it was related to presences. He even used it to explain away a bit of how

he had something like that, especially as she knew Eron

it all out in the open. She did show quite some schadenfreude when Jake told her about the many people who would be hounding him in the Order but

have a backer is a great way to do that. Just make it clear that you cannot make the decision on your own but need the permission or maybe even command of your mysterious backer. Make it clear that convincing you is a waste of their time and that they should aim to convince the backer instead, as without his involvement, you are unable to

the Viper…” Jake began as it clicked. “Who no one can discover, and even if they think they find out, they won’t actually believe it possible for the Malefic Viper to be my backer. So I would just put them all