The Primal Hunter

“Is he…?” the plump old alchemist asked as he looked at the screen.

”Yep,” Vilastromoz confirmed.

“This scene is a bit odd, isn’t it?” Duskleaf questioned.

“Not gonna question it,” the snake god shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with the admittedly weird-looking scene.

They were naturally watching Jake give Vesperia head pats, the prideful True Royal sitting perfectly still but, based on the antennas shaking slightly, clearly enjoying it. If any outsider saw this, it would look like a younger man patting the head of an older woman, perhaps even finding the entire scene indecent.

“You know what Jake and I talked about?” Vilastromoz asked his disciple. ”About him coming out as Chosen?”

“Yes, and I also know what you are going to argue,” Duskleaf shook his head.” Him revealing it purposefully does not mean you win our bet on when he would leak it on a technicality.”

“Well, he can’t leak it if he openly reveals it, now can he? Something already well-known can’t be leaked, can it? Or did the definition of the word leak somehow change within the last few minutes?”

Duskleaf just looked at him for a few moments before shaking his head.” Fine, you win, happy?”

“Not really when you act like that,” Vilastromoz pursed his lips. Still kinda happy.

“Our stupid bet is meaningless before what Jake managed to accomplish today anyway. I had assisted him in the ritual and based on the Sylphian and that cosmic worm, I had begun to hope he could perhaps even hatch a Quasi-Royal, but to see a True Royal be born… one of a fallen Lineage too,” Duskleaf said in awe. ”This truly is unprecedented, and I feel fortunate to have been involved in her creation. Rewarded too.”

“Wait, you don’t mean?” the Viper asked, surprised.

“I did not expect to gain levels from a C-grade succeeding in a ritual I assisted with either,” Duskleaf shrugged and smiled.

Vilastromoz nodded and smirked to himself. So I wasn’t the only one.

Jake had to admit that his thought process when he decided to pat Vesperia on the head had not been all that sound. He had spent far too long considering what he wanted to say and not what he would do, but as he saw Vesperia clearly feeling sad, he did the first thing that sprung to mind: head pats.

head pats… so… yeah, not the best

her slightly lean into his hand, and her antennas shook oddly as she just sat there, eyes closed. Jake had no idea how long he was

a hug, but that seemed a bit too much. Jake had never been the type to show much physical affection, and head pats were

stared. Jake, sensing some confusion, shook his head and grinned.” Feeling

but what does the

sense. He patted her on the head again. ”That

the time whenever Jake got upset or if he needed him to calm down. It worked back then, and it worked still. He felt like it was

really know Jake and that he often didn’t act with thought, and Jake had to also admit that he didn’t truly know Vesperia very well. They had just met, after all. So he thought it only natural to have a good conversation that wasn’t about history, skills, or anything system-related. Just two people getting to

thoughts on different topics. Being a True Royal only born that very day, Vesperia had a personality primarily formed from her Lineage Knowledge and innate disposition, making her appear aloof and straightforward while viewing herself as a superior creature to most others. In some ways, she

his entire life working on not acting on this feeling. This was simply the coping mechanism he had learned while growing up

feelings and manipulate others, but considering Jake sucked at manipulating others socially, he just went with hiding how he really felt by suppressing it entirely. It had made him come off as meek and unopinionated to others and resulted in

thinking he was innately better than anyone else while also not thinking anyone else was better than him. This went against his nature

Lineage, born to be a decisive leader that would put their own existence over others. If she died, her hive would die, and she had to have a personality making her willing to sacrifice millions of her kin

to learn from that. Vesperia also seemed to think so and was gleeful when

Patron,” Vesperia voiced her thoughts. ”Others will grovel, so just accept it with stoicism. Some will give you gifts, so accept them. These gifts are as much for the giver as they are for you. It is to openly display their support and respect towards you and the Order, and to reject these gifts due to your own personal feelings will be a slap in the face to the giver. It will reject their goodwill and communicate to the rest of the world that you don’t want

he would never truly be able or

not… Jake still had Shroud of the Primordial and always wore a mask. Going out in public while staying incognito was still an option as long as everyone wasn’t actively looking for him. He would just have to either wear another mask or walk

make the big

Yeah, fuck that.

fucking way Jake would do that. He felt like he had gotten better at dealing with social situations, but that didn’t mean he felt comfortable at some big announcement where he was the center of attention. While he had some confidence in controlling

make him look more intimidating. A lot more like the Chosen of some snake god of

resources available, she still wanted to work on

least had a heads-up. He did not doubt Reika, her roommate, all the

and hopefully scramble in panic. He did want to be a fly on the wall for whatever emergency meeting they would have, but he would just have to ask Villy for an update as he was

missing a lot of potential stats, and the defensive capability of of his current equipment was less than ideal, so it was definitely

an overview, Jake took status of what he already had, fully aware he would probably have to replace or upgrade everything. Starting from the top, he got on with

utterly useless for a long time and only functioning outside of combat. He would just