The Primal Hunter

The Path of Myriad Choices was an event quite a bit different than any prior. It was not one that was decided by simply being strong or one that could be teamed up for a strategized to beat. All you had was who you were fundamentally and simulations showing you what your choices could have changed.

To some, no simulation shown made them more than what they were. One such person was Miranda. She saw five previews. One where she died because she led them in another direction than where Haven would eventually be founded, resulting in Jake never saving her, Hank, and the kids. Three more were about choices in the Tutorial, only one of which ended at least a little happily as she saved Hank’s wife and left the Tutorial with them to settle down in a small settlement ruled by the Holy Church. That was the one she had selected, as the fifth choice was her trying to take over Haven from Jake and getting herself killed. With all these choices being, well, bad, Miranda did not get any particularly valuable reward. Except for one thing that was perhaps better than any minor item or title.

Confidence. Confidence in her Path and the choices she had made to get where she was. Many had this happen to them as all they saw were worse or maybe equal outcomes from making different choices. They experienced newfound belief in their own decision-making and Paths, which would no doubt help move them forward. To some extent, Jake was also in this camp.

Then there were the ones who saw only utterly negative options. One such person was the former King of the Forest. All of his choices included him not becoming the Fallen King. He had three options. One where he stayed on his old planet and nothing of particular interest happened for the entire period until Realtime, one where he killed Jake during the Tutorial and returned to Earth only to overconfidently try and take over the planet, resulting in death by humanity. Finally, a third choice of fleeing the fight with Jake during the Tutorial, resulting in him still getting hunted down just a year or so later back on Earth. All choices meant a far worse outcome, and the Fallen King despaired at seeing how fortunate it was for him to get killed.

A whole other segment saw Paths that were just… meaningless. Ones where no choice was made truly had any major impact at all. All the examples were of faintly similar scenes with only slight variation unless some just led to early unfortunate deaths.

And then… then there was one person who got three options of so little consequence the system should have been embarrassed for even offering them. Sylphie had been given these minimum three, and none of them had any impact whatsoever. Even the one where she rejected getting Stormild’s Blessing ended up with Sylphie accepting it the next day after getting a minor bribe from Jake to at least consider it.

Second-to-last, there was one more person with just outstanding choices. One person who was offered six choices, but all had only minor variations of their Path. It was the Sword Saint who, no matter what choices he made, would end up with a sword in hand and one of the strongest on Earth.

Finally… there was an anomaly. A person that stood out from the get-go. The thing is, the Path of Myriad Choices event was based on, well, choices. Singular events with huge impact. So, what happens if said person had never made a choice without considering everything about it first and rapidly evaluating the outcome and course-correcting? You would get a person who kept re-aligning his Path again and again.

You would get Arnold.

He and others also appeared within the Administrator’s Garden. Soon enough, he was joined by the Sword Saint and a lot of individuals from other worlds. All-in-all, around two hundred people ended up in the Administrator’s Garden, making them Candidates.

“Hm?” the Sword saint suddenly said as he looked towards the far end of the hemisphere garden and saw two people already there. Talking as they gazed out into the vastness of space, both of them were clearly in an excellent and friendly mood as they chatted away heartily.

Before anyone else made it to the garden, Jake and the man sized each other up after the other party greeted him, as Jake finally replied. “It does indeed appear I am the second to arrive. I assume you also did the system event?”

“I did. Quite an interesting experience, wouldn’t you agree? Did you find it enlightening? I personally found much inspiration from seeing how much impact a simple choice can have on one’s entire Path,” the alien man answered in a friendly tone.

“Definitely an experience,” Jake agreed as he began walking over. The other party gladly took a step to the side and invited Jake to join him at the edge of the hemisphere.

Jake asked. It was probably a bit rude of a question, but

we seem to share most of our traits with elves and the starborne. Naturally, we are not born as powerful entities like the

assume you already guessed I am human?” Jake

man smiled and chuckled. “But

his head at the overly polite nahoom

all mine,” he bowed, and Jake returned the bow politely. “Now, do tell, what kind of world do you hail from? What exists in the cosmos has

from somewhere named Earth,” Jake answered. “A quaint little place that got

it is a world of greenery and vast oceans or one of dust and rock,” Ell’Hakan asked

Jake answered. “Plenty of greenery too. Heck, I live within a city placed in a forest called Haven. Well, I live there sometimes. I am more the traveling kind

important,” Ell’Hakan disagreed slightly. “I hail from a planet that is more on the red side. Most of our water is found underground, but we made it work, and I live in a beautiful city myself. One that I also rule, just as you do. Of course, without my companions and friends,

me and have several good friends that I made mainly through fighting. At least I consider them friends. Shit, I even

admit that when I look back, most of my greatest allies right now are there due to our shared Patron. Do tell, are you also blessed?” Ell’Hakan asked in his continued friendly tone. Jake definitely got the feeling that the guy was trustworthy just from their brief conversation. He was

share more, but it wasn’t like he usually bothered hiding it, and Ell’Hakan seemed like a good dude, so why not? “I am blessed by the Malefic Viper.

meet them and reach your own conclusions. My Patron also has unsightly rumors, but I shall not

also clearly knew of the Viper, which would only make sense if he was blessed by another god. The twelve

he was making an ally for life. He didn’t even bother when other individuals appeared on the

Ell’Hakan muttered out loud after the barrier was formed to give them some more privacy.

untrustworthy could listen in. “Eh, I am actually 169 in both race, class, and profession level, so that is

me, and please do forgive me if I am wrong, but you are the Chosen of the Malefic One, are you not? I heard from my Patron he chose a mortal from this new universe, and with how impressive you are, I cannot help but wonder if it isn’t

confirmed. “I

helped me a lot, but I also know it is because

no reason to hide it. They could both detect it due to how Bloodlines worked,

I cannot say my own Bloodline is one that offers a lot of

is called

*THUMP!*