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.

so… yeah, not the best

his hand, and her antennas shook oddly as she just sat there, eyes closed. Jake

never been the type to show much

Jake, sensing some confusion, shook his

Vesperia asked after a brief pause.” I… am unsure… but what does the

thing that made sense. He patted her on the head

effective. Jake remembered his 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

he felt Vesperia was fully calmed down. He guessed that one of the reasons why she felt as she did was partly because she didn’t 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

and Vesperia sharing her own thoughts on different topics. Being a True Royal only born that very day, Vesperia had a personality primarily

pretty much everyone else, but he 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

he was better than everyone else was a great way to fail in the old world. True narcissists knew how to hide their 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 over him,

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 better than him.

never needed to suppress her feelings of superiority. As a True Royal, it would even be detrimental. She was born to lead her 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

seemed to think so and was

eyes of many, and if you act meek or like others are equal to you, it can prove detrimental to both yourself and your 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

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

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

big

Yeah, fuck that.

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 his facial expressions,

he had to admit it did make him look more intimidating. A lot more like the Chosen of some snake god of

their own matters. Even if Vesperia did not have any special 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 started

to 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

else and hopefully scramble in panic. He did want to be a fly on the wall for whatever emergency meeting they would

was address his equipment. Something he had honestly neglected for a while. He was missing a lot of potential stats, and the defensive capability of

aware he would probably have to replace or upgrade everything. Starting from

for a long time and only functioning outside of combat. He would just replace this one. Also, he didn’t need to