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

to be a great success. It was subtle, but he felt her slightly lean into his hand, and her antennas shook oddly as she just sat there, eyes closed. Jake had no idea how long

hug, but that seemed a bit too much. Jake had never been the type to show much physical affection, and head pats were already a lot for him. After he stopped rubbing her head, she looked up

sensing some confusion, shook his head and

brief pause.” I… am unsure… but what does the rubbing of the

the only thing that made sense. He patted her on the head again. ”That you needed some

dad used to do it all 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 a nice middle ground between

and Jake had to also admit that he didn’t truly

a True Royal only born that very day, Vesperia had a personality primarily formed from her Lineage

had spent his entire life working on not acting on this feeling. This was simply the coping mechanism he had learned while growing up to properly fit in with modern

true 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 them often walking right

too much. He didn’t necessarily view this as a bad disposition to have, and he himself felt like he had found a good middle-ground by not thinking he was innately better than anyone else while also not thinking anyone else was

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 keep herself alive. She fully embraced her role and innate superiority as part of her Path, outwardly displaying it with

Jake did have something to learn from that. Vesperia also seemed to

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 a good relationship with them. So just accept them with pride. If you choose to use the gifts is up to you, or if you choose to take advantage of those offering to serve you is ultimately your own choice, but do not reject what is given outright. Only do this if the

He had little sense of decorum or knowledge on how to act like a proper Chosen, and he knew that he would never truly be able or want to act like one. Jake was still Jake, after all. But it would probably be a good idea to begin putting some thought before some of his actions when he was acting in an

Going out in public while staying incognito was still an option as long

make the big announcement with

Yeah, fuck that.

where he was the center of attention. While he had some confidence in

did make him look more intimidating. A lot more like the Chosen

resources available, she still wanted to work on her skills and potentially spawn some proper guards for herself. She would only work on the eggs for now, but she seemed eager to get

get done before it was time for the big announcement. First and foremost was shopping, but he also wanted to warn those he knew in the Order about what was about to happen, so they at least had a heads-up. He did not doubt Reika, her roommate, all the alchemists from Earth, Irin, Draskil, as well as Meira and Izil would get hounded after his big reveal. It was only proper to at least allow them

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 sure the

He was missing a lot of potential stats, and

overview, Jake took status of what he already had, fully aware he would probably have to replace or upgrade everything. Starting

time and only functioning outside of combat. He would just replace this one. Also, he didn’t need to go into that much detail with every piece of equipment if he didn’t care much for