The Primal Hunter

Jake, by now, realized: he had fucked up. At least he felt like he had fucked up. But upon looking at Vesperia sitting beside him, calmly drinking her tea while Villy explained, he couldn’t say he regretted what he had done. Despite only meeting that day, he liked Vesperia. Who couldn’t like someone with a damn stinger gun?

”This is… kind of bad, isn’t it?” he finally asked, making Vesperia look at him confused.

”Why would it be bad that you managed to sire a True Royal? The Endless Empire, no, any faction would welcome you with open arms, and no one will dare attempt to kill you for fear of the Malefic One choosing to strike back. That is not even mentioning the many other factions who will also desire your protection and growth,” Vesperia asked.

”Yeah… the thing is, I am not really public with this entire Chosen of the Malefic Viper thing,” Jake scratched his head.

Vesperia looked at him weirdly for a few seconds. ”I… don’t understand?”

”Jake here is weird; we agree on that, right?” Villy asked Vesperia with a grin. The True Royal nodded, Jake, choosing not to take offense as she clearly just agreed with the god to be nice and because he was a Primordial. Right?

”Well, part of his weirdness is a constant fear of recognition and having people suck up to him. I do kind of get it, as having armies of annoying insects running after you constantly is less than ideal, and it is made worse for Jake by his preference for people to treat him like a person rather than a symbol,” the snake god explained.

Jake confirmed with a nod. ”Can you blame me for just wanting normal interactions with other people and not them constantly walking on eggshells or treating me like royalty?”

Vesperia now looked even more confused. ”But… you are, aren’t you? You have helped birth a True Royal, and I recognize you as my sire and parent. You are a being above nearly all others.”

”Not disagreeing that I am awesome, just that I don’t want to be treated based solely on some perceived status people think I have. The problem is that others don’t seem to be able to respect that I want to be treated like a person and not some semi-divine figure based on their preconceived notions of who and what I should be,” Jake tried to explain.

The True Royal nodded, though Jake had a feeling she didn’t quite get it. Which was kind of fair. As a True Royal, it was innate of her to be treated like royalty by others; it was simply how things were supposed to be.

”Anyway, let’s get back on topic,” Villy cut in. ”My point here is that hiding what you have done is… not possible. While I am also awesome, and while Shroud of the Primordial can block nearly all things, there are gods out there capable of piercing through it. I know of at least one of the leaders in the Royal Council that would be able to trace you if she ever examined Vesperia here, and no amount of cloaking on my end can stop that. It will make her unable to find you, but she will know who you are. Ultimately, Shroud of the Primordial is about hiding things about you, not the fact that you even exist.”

”The Odonstrom Hive Queen,” Vesperia nodded.

”Dragonfly True Royal, leading the Odonata Lineage,” Villy clarified for Jake. ”They are Perception-focused, so you may like them, and their senses are wicked. The True Royal has a compound eye on her forehead, able to see things not perceivable to nearly any other visual organ I know of. Karmic threads, mana, emotions… she is even able to view different fragments of time through her eye, observing both past and future. A real scary one.”

”Hm,” Jake said with a frown. He had to admit, he had kind of banked on Shroud of the Primordial being perfect… but he had clearly miscalculated on that one. However, there was also one other issue.

”Wait, does that mean she already located Vesperia?” Jake asked, not sure if he should be worried or not.

Viper shook his head. ”We are still on my turf, and while in the Order, I can hide her. However, the problem is that they will instantly know her location and descend when she is not covered by the formations here. Of course, it is not even certain that is an issue.

the last part to Vesperia, who

hands. ”You aren’t some prisoner here, Vesperia. If you want to stay, I am fine with it, but from what I have gathered, you are already pretty damn connected to the

turned to the Viper. ”May I ask what

his head. ”And if I did, this still wouldn’t be my decision to make, but Jake’s. If you haven’t noticed, then we don’t have a traditional Chosen-Patron relationship. I don’t tell him what to do; I just enjoy his antics. Sometimes I

in mid-air.

really necessary?” Jake asked. ”It isn’t

is the Chosen of Snappy, and the hawk is blessed by Stormild and a peculiar little creature that is only loyal to herself and the people she fancies,” Villy shook his head and motioned to Vesperia. ”What we have here is a scheming True Royal Hive Queen with an innate connection to the Endless Empire, a notoriously reclusive faction, who also makes every single non-ectognamorph they ever allow to enter their heartlands also sign a similar agreement. She knows your secrets, Jake. Better safe

have to do. However, if I signed an agreement facilitated by the system itself, I

The good of the hive is your prerogative, and if revealing everything about Jake can help the hive, you should have

to the same hive.

interested eyebrow. ”Odd word choice. Same

would be ideal considering he is not a Hive Queen. This

Jake feeling

superior,” Jake tried to argue but

Vesperia shook her head. ”This is only natural. A True Royal born and nurtured by another True Royal will still view their parent as superior on a personal basis even if they both sit at the pinnacle of the hive as equals. Fighting

contract. We will need to agree on what it says, but do note that it cannot include outright lies, or the entire thing will be deemed invalid. So we can’t just write up

to do or say, as the

move on, let me just make clear: you are planning on returning to the Endless

yes,” the Hive Queen nodded. ”I am not saying it has to be immediately, but there are many reasons I

backing of the entire Order behind you and the Vespernat Hive Queen, we would still not be able to assist her a tenth of what the Endless Empire can. They have special resources, crafters, areas, heritages, teachers, and whatnot to assist Hive Queens. They have had eras to hone their skills in nurturing their own race and are far larger than the Order. There simply is no competition. Though I do wonder… does the Endless Empire have any special

know if I go there,” Vesperia

situation not to turn into a massive shitshow. Because that is a risk. While the Endless Empire and many other factions would love your ability to birth powerful variants, other factions, not so much. Especially Rigoria would be quite pissed if she found out

changed the contract in front of him as a damn

one lucky bastard who stumbled across it and managed to do a ritual resulting in a True Royal appearing. If we lean into this and say it was a one-time

hand again, a second

me. We can say that I assisted you – something I technically did – and helped provide you with materials and instructions to make it happen while still using a unique item. This way, most will write it off not as you being awesome but instead just give me all the credit. The benefit of this approach is that no one will really hassle you for it… but it will probably require fully outing you as my Chosen because there is no fucking way anyone will believe

and a third

we will keep the exact requirements of how it can be used more times ambiguous. It is the truth that you cannot use it repeatedly and that there are requirements, but we also need to really emphasize that only you can do this. We can explain this away either with your arcane affinity or Bloodline, but I think it would be best to just say the item you gained from the system is Soulbound. However, be aware this solution is not without