The Primal Hunter

Jake stood with his hand covering his face in a solid facepalm as he stared at the chaos that was his living room. Using his sphere, the very moment he teleported into the garden, he saw everything. The trip had been smooth, if a bit nauseating as usual, with no void stuff along the way, and he had entered with expectations of finally relaxing a bit, only to come home and see two honored gods acting like children.

In the doorway to the room lay an unconscious Meira, and on the sofa, Villy was busy arguing with Duskleaf about Duskleaf wanting a ”temporary leave of absence” from the Academy to do a minor experiment that would “only be a few thousand years tops,” with Villy telling him that he would take away his cauldron if he did. Jake really didn’t want to get involved, and luckily they both stopped arguing when Jake entered the house and went towards the living room.

”Should I expect an explanation?” Jake asked the moment he entered the room.

”It is a welcome party,” Villy said as he lifted up and showed a can of beer. Lifted from a pyramid of beers made on the sofa table.

”I wasn’t gone for that long, only a few weeks,” Jake commented.

”Which is basically forever for you mortals, isn’t it?” Villy cheekily countered.

Jake shook his head and looked at the plump Duskleaf sitting on the couch just looking at him. ”Hey Duskleaf, been a while. I didn’t take you as the sort to join in for these kinds of things.”

Duskleaf looked a bit embarrassed and combed his beard with his hand as he tried to look wise. ”I am not here due to this welcome party but to discuss your recent commitment issues. I saw you headed back to your little planet not long ago after only being here for a short while, and I firmly believe that was a gross miss-prioritization of your time.”

”Oh. Well, I was asked by a friend to help out, so I had to head back,” Jake just shrugged.

”While that is an understandable sentiment, you must remember that alchemy always takes precedent!” Duskleaf argued with great fervor.

”I also needed to head back to gather the necessary items to participate in a system event that may eventually lead to taking partial control of a Great Wonder,” Jake added, shrugging again. ”But I guess you got a point. Titles giving percentage bonuses to stats and controlling Great Wonders probably isn’t worth my time.”

”I…” Duskleaf said as he just shook his head. ”Naturally, it is healthy to sometimes take a brief break to reflect on recent experiments and obtained data. But that break is over now, right?”

”I am back, aren’t I?” Jake just smirked. ”Thanks for the concern. I do plan on staying for a while. Now, with all that handled, why is everyone ignoring Meira just lying there?”

He finally decided to address the fainted elf in the room as he went over to her.

Villy shook his head and sighed. ”You know that is entirely your fault, right? Suppressing one’s aura and presence takes conscious effort, and as I said, it doesn’t really work if the individual knows who you are, and no way I will bother making myself invisible when visiting. We have gotten used to not needing to hold back our auras in your presence, so it is one-hundred percent your responsibility to make sure she can handle it.”

Jake looked over to Villy as he levitated Meira over to a chair and sat her down on it as he argued: ”And how do you expect for me to handle it?”

”Well, by either not caring that she faints or by training her not to,” Villy answered, giving a surprisingly reasonable response. Jake wasn’t really sure why he hadn’t considered using his special ”talents” to help Meira train her resistance to presences. It would make life a lot easier if she didn’t constantly faint whenever Villy stopped by. Then again, maybe she would still faint, presence or not? Either way, it seemed like something he should do.

”Are you confident that would be wise?” Duskleaf asked Villy. ”The elf is commonly known as Jake’s, and any development in resistance to presences such as the one he provides is outside the norm. Considering it is also known that his Bloodline offers resistance to presences, it wouldn’t be an overreach to conclude others would infer that he can also, at the very least, train this resistance to others if the elf gets it. Right now, only Umbra – due to Jake’s brother - and the two of us truly know. A few others may also, but it may spread and become public knowledge if he does teach her. Jake has chosen not to do so yet to hide this ability of his, right?”

Duskleaf asked Jake the last part, and he felt a little bad at seeing the level of belief the old alchemist had in him. Villy threw Jake a knowing smile as Jake just scratched his head a bit and chuckled. ”Eh, I don’t think it is a big deal if people know? Isn’t it actually pretty easy to hide the real truth? I can just say it requires a slave contract or something to share the resistance due to a skill or something.”

will work until people become aware of your brother,”

share it? I am sure people can come on a hundred different

be out of the egg soon no matter what you do, so I truly don’t think it is that big a deal. You may even be

it is your

smiled at him. ”Thanks for the concern

up some papers that Meira had dropped. Jake did find it a bit funny she

when Jake brought them over and looked interested. ”Oh,

me per-se. You see, I

Meira a real member of the Order by properly teaching her and how he had her attend lessons and do her own thing. Duskleaf nodded along and motioned for Jake to hand him the papers.

nodded as he muttered mostly incoherent words under his breath. ”Shoddy…

Villy asked teasingly: “So, is the girl some

at all. Her dedication to detail is respectable, but she made several mistakes,

not knowing

at least,” the old

are they rare?”

the multiverse, even if they are the rarest type of class. We are talking about here in the context of the Order,” Villy butted in. “If you haven’t noticed by now, we here in the Order tend to be self-serving assholes, so

sense. I assume that gives

to learning, studying, and taking notes are

an idea and tossed Duskleaf a sly look. “Guess I will add teaching

around. The resistance training is fine as you can do that passively, but spending dedicated time on teaching

his head.

the background and nearly failed to hold back a laugh as Duskleaf shook his head. “I am not

arcane affinity and Bloodline in a ritual with the Bee Queen to make another creature a bit like Sylphie,” Jake sighed. “I was even hoping to ask you for advice and have

and clenched his

I was really hoping to see what kind of being

you did what?”

nothing. I already talked with Villy about it, and seeing how busy you are, I don’t want to waste any more of your time talking about such boring topics,” Jake waved him off as he made

before. “Trying to

you keep

a green fist-sized seed and prickled his finger to put a single drop of blood on it. The seed sprouted instantly

techniques I told you about, Jake,” Villy said with a smile from the sofa as he asked Duskleaf. “How much of

Duskleaf answered. “However, they have a limited duration as it runs on

long?” Villy asked

“Takes about

some might feel bad about how he roped in Duskleaf and even made him spend a seed he had