The Primal Hunter

Vilastromoz grinned as he waited for Snappy to return. Genuinely, he hadn’t been sure if Snappy would actually give his True Blessing to the worm. He had gone with the tried and tested strategy of starting with the most extreme example of a Blessing while only expecting a Divine Blessing. A Greater Blessing also wouldn’t have been that off from his expectations.

He would lie if he said it didn’t please him. Then again, Snappy was better at judging the abilities of the Cosmic Genesis Worm than the Viper was. As mentioned, then while they both walked Paths where consumption was a big part of it, Snappy walked one where eating things was the primary element. If Villy was a master, then Snappy was a grand master.

As expected, Snappy returned soon after handing out the Blessing, looking a bit worse for wear. Giving out a True Blessing was never easy, and it quite literally ate your Records when you did it. If giving out a normal Blessing – even a Divine one – could be said to consume a limited resource pool, then giving away a True Blessing was giving away a portion of your maximum energy pool with the hope that the one you gave the pool to would improve the maximum. That, or die too early, making you permanently lose a portion of this pool that you would then have to make up for. Losing a single Chosen prematurely was a significant loss, even if it wouldn’t necessarily result in any loss of combat prowess.

What it would do in every case was limit the potential of a god and make it harder for them to progress. In the same way, then if the Chosen did well, it would also help the god. Records mixed, too, giving other benefits. While Jake enjoyed plenty of the Viper’s Records, then Vilastromoz too enjoyed the Records of Jake’s achievements. The exchange was not equal but heavily favored for the Chosen, at least in the lower grades. What an S-grade did simply resulted in more meaningful Records for a god than nearly anything a D or even C-grade could possibly achieve.

This was why most gods waited to A or S-grade to make someone a Chosen. The chance of the person dying then was just lower, and one would nearly always get their investment returned. Especially as many gods hoped for the ultimate bounty of their Chosen reaching godhood, resulting in not only a huge return on investment but a new loyal god joining them in their factions.

However… the gains from someone you blessed even earlier on their Path reaching these levels of power were nothing compared to what the Viper would get from Jake. While the Viper had made Jake his Chosen rather impulsively, it wasn’t as if he had done so without any thought.

“Had an enlightening conversation with the Cosmic Genesis Worm?” Vilastromoz asked Snappy.

“Moreso than expected,” Snappy answered. “I must admit, I had not expected the level of presence resistance to be that high. It went above and beyond anything I have seen of any C-grade before. A result of your Chosen, I believe?”

“Yep,” Vilastromoz confirmed. “This is that Sylphian Hawk all over again, though slightly less potent as far as I can tell.”

“Sandy was still affected,” Snappy agreed. “Just able to ignore it far better. Stoic is not the word I would use, but perhaps willfully ignorant is more accurate.”

Vilastromoz nodded, having his thoughts reaffirmed. “So, what made you decide to give the True Blessing?”

Snappy was silent for a moment. “No singular factor was behind it. However, I had feared that Sandy would have been bound to your Chosen too tightly and not have enough independence. It was good to have it confirmed that is not the case. Moreover, as the Cosmic Genesis Worm was in my realm, I could feel its conceptual level of digestion and analyze how their inner world works.”

“And?”

“I found it acceptable to make Sandy my Chosen,” Snappy simply said with a smile. “The worm also had an acceptable personality and demeanor.”

Vilastromoz also smiled and shook his head. “Keep your secrets, then. Though I must add, I am surprised Sandy could get the divine skill you chose to give. As far as I know, the compability requirements are through the roof on that one.”

Snappy sighed. “How do you already know?”

Villy just kept smiling as he kept an eye on Jake and the worm. “Happy thoughts. At least you don’t have to be that worried about Sandy dying to any unforeseen circumstances now.”

When Jake thought about it, he had never actually gone that far into the sky. The furthest he had gone was with Hawkie while exploring the cloud continent, and that had still been in the lower layers of the world above. He had, for a long time, theorized one could find many powerful things up there, and that theory was soon proven true.

Earth had several layers of clouds, and entering each layer was like entering an entirely new world. Clouds above and below made it look like one was within a cave of clouds in the sky, and as Jake and Sandy entered one of the extremely far-up layers, Sandy suddenly stopped to shudder.

“This place is good,” the worm said.

“Really?” Jake asked rhetorically with delight. “That is great! Now see if you can move to the side too. Towards the west, that is.”

Sandy could actually enter the airspace above where the Fallen King was before they could call this a

in the area to the west, and far in the distance, Jake saw something

no more problems but made it clear that going downward through any of the cloud layers was not an option. Jake asked Sandy to spit him out, and

in the air outside, Jake stared

twenty-five kilometers from the surface, so he was now around

goodbye too… I can’t

Jake said as he kept looking down and

them. In his vision, the layers of clouds thinned, turning into only a faint mist. Focusing more, the mist began dispersing as layer

smiled to himself. Okay, no one had really

It was a bit far off to the side, though, but he had time to get in position. Nothing was

looking at?” Sandy finally

figure out the best spot to

all the way down there?” Sandy asked with confusion. “That is like super far, isn’t it? And isn’t all the stuff in the

I may have to go a bit lower while I prepare as I don’t want

it is goodbye…” Sandy said with sadness. “Oh well, I guess nothing can be

the first. It took him a moment,

The sky is way better than the water, that is for damn sure,” Sandy said cheerfully. “But do say hi again when you are done dealing with human stuff, okay? Just take the egg- I mean, rock-thing, I gave you earlier and infuse some energy into it, and I

patted his wormy friend. “I will. See you around,

and I hope that weird stuff you prepared

would lie if he said he wouldn’t miss the giant gluttonous worm, but such was life. At least he now had a method of contact, and even if he didn’t, then he could at least contact his fellow Chosen

that. Not that he complained, as he preferred it that way. He did wonder what that entire egg business was about, as

egg had to come from a divine skill, even if it felt rather mundane. Villy had said that no combat-oriented skills could be given, but that didn’t mean Jake had any idea what the worm had gotten. I guess I will find out at some point.

in around two minutes if he went at full speed. This put his speed somewhere around two and three times

As he did this, he also took out a token and activated

had activated the ritual circle to establish a connection

said, surprising Miranda a bit. Not only with how fast

within feasible striking distance?”

“Yes,” Jake simply answered.

came to these kinds of things. “Very well, I will now form the three-way connection. Wait

her mana in and controlling the ritual, a second connection was formed. Focusing, Miranda took these connections and channeled them first through herself and then into the circle as he connected them all with

been a while since we last spoke, little hunter,” a voice spoke to not only Miranda but everyone else part of the ritual. Jake being everyone else in

hear you have been struggling with some ash guy or something? Do you mean

a strong word to describe a creature of equal class. That neither of us can kill the other is only a testament to the power

need an expert in killing Unique Lifeforms. I guess I can consult,

items to make this Unique Lifeform weak enough for you

bad, guess we will have to just kill it the old-fashioned way then, huh? Oh wait, you also tried

nice to each other,” Miranda finally cut in to mediate the two bickering… eh… peak powerhouses of Earth? The peak of D-grade, at

to assume that both of you are ready to engage the next time the Unique Lifeform

“Yes,” the King answered.