The Primal Hunter

So, some good and some bad news. On the good side, Jake had now figured out how to put other people in a coma that they didn’t seem to wake up from by themselves even after three days. On the bad side, Jake had now put someone into a coma and didn’t really know a way to wake them up.

Izil had been “sleeping it off” on the couch for a full three days, and Jake’s initial assessment of it only taking a few hours tops for her to wake up had been a little off. In his defense, he had kind of gone in with the assumption that Izil had some kind of innate poison resistance like everyone else seemed to, but Meira made it clear Izil never worked with poisons at all. She had come to the Order to learn about poisons exactly because she lacked knowledge in that area. So yeah, pretty big oopsie there.

The type of poison he had infused was inspired by the ethtoxin he had killed the big blue mushroom under Haven with – the kind that was incredibly hard to detect and eliminate. So hard to eliminate that Izil’s body didn’t seem to register it as harmful and had just absorbed it all into her very soul within a short period.

At least it appeared to be slowly losing effectiveness by itself, but with how slow it was, Jake reckoned it would be measured in months and not days when she would wake up by herself. Maybe, in hindsight, it wasn’t a good idea to infuse so much damn poison that fast just because he wanted to knock her out instantly?

Meira was beside herself with worry, and all Jake could do was assure her that Izil was technically fine. It wasn’t like she was in any danger from the toxin, and as a D-grade, she didn’t have to drink or eat. Jake had, on the third day, turned to Villy despite really not wanting to because he knew what was coming. He had chosen to do so during a time when Meira was out and attending a lesson in case the Viper decided to do exactly what he did next.

The very second Jake tried to contact the god, Villy popped into his living room like he had been waiting. “Finally, you come crawling! Fucked up a bit, now have we?”

“Yeah yeah…” Jake muttered, having already accepted the incoming mockery. “I messed up and now must ask my honored Patron for any advice on how to fix it. I considering infusing her with more poison to counteract it, but that just seems like a bad idea.”

“Definitely something you should only do if you have confidence in your abilities and full knowledge of both poisons. So yeah, that is totally out of the question, considering your recent track record,” Villy smirked.

Jake sighed again as he tried to briefly change the topic. “How did it go with those two?”

Villy knew what he was talking about and shrugged. “Viridia handled it. She made some smoke and mirrors, sent some fake messages, and reported to the family that the scalekin was from that she died during a mission. She then gave them some compensation and what is essentially an entrance ticket to the academy for any youngster they want to send here.”

“Are you sure there won’t still be trouble down the line? I can’t see them not investigate and raise a ruckus if they find something amiss,” Jake said, a little worried. Mainly for Meira as she had interacted with them for a long time, and he feared that they would approach her to investigate.

“I think you severely overestimate how much these factions actually care about some D-grade dying. Even if they suspect something is amiss, they won’t do anything about it. The only reason large families like that would make it an issue was if they felt slighted or to save face. What you did is quite the opposite, and one of their members dying for the Order only reflects well on them. In fact, I have a feeling they will gladly play into the story and make use of it,” Villy explained. “While the bond between parent and child may seem strong to you as a human from a newly initiated universe, it matters little to most who reach high levels of strength. I guess you cannot fault them, as when you outlive your child number one hundred, it gets hard to care for each one individually, and you begin to view them more as assets than people. It is only if they prove themselves and become strong that the parents will begin to actually care. Well, that, or have talent making them worthy of recognition.”

Jake frowned as he heard this. It was hard to grasp parents not caring for their kids at all. Okay, maybe they did care a little, but still. Maybe it was just his pre-system mindset and his relatively young age that made him think that. For someone that had lived for tens of thousands of years and had hundreds of children, perhaps it was just a natural reaction to seeing your children die to begin caring less. A defense mechanism, perhaps.

note how funny it is that you go so far to hide your identity as my

wouldn’t want to hide it if it didn’t come with my life turning into a damn circus of clowns wanting to suck me off. I never hid on Earth that I am your Chosen and happily answered anyone who asked because people there didn’t have the insane reaction to it everyone has here.

at Izil, who was sleeping on the sofa. “Alright, let’s get on with the topic on hand. If you want to wake up that

poison and extract it from her by isolating it somehow. I could

poison has entered and been integrated with her soul, making it far harder for you to do anything with

Jake agreed, having already figured that out. Usually, a poison would operate within the Soulshape and physical body of a target, but this poison had entered a deeper layer of Izil’s soul, and Jake couldn’t truly detect or feel it anymore. He only vaguely got a sense of how much there was remaining from Sense of the Malefic Viper. And even that was only because he had made it and thus had

fear

Jake

the simplest shit to solve a problem, you have really gone above and beyond yourself this time,” the Viper said as

mind and

of antidote to that?” the snake god

to relax?” Jake asked, a bit

Jake muttered as he face-palmed. “You are never going to let me live

my dear Chosen. So, what is the complex solution

slap or a solid shake…” Jake

yelled loud enough or splashed some cold water on her, it could work too,” the

A long sleep, sure, but any external stimuli should wake her up in a jiffy the moment her soul had finished absorbing all the poison. He had essentially only “knocked her

and become an official member of

her progress as I quite frankly don’t care, but I am sure Duskleaf knows. However, chances are, she could join on her own merits by now. The

thought you didn’t care to know about

under your belt and upgrade some of those skills. Chop, chop, I didn’t give you

the sudden sense of urgency. “Is

just smiled. “You are in a newly integrated universe… there is always something coming up. Now get

but I still have time to drink with you?” Jake asked