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.

loved head pats… so… yeah, not the

turned out 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 he was supposed to keep things up, but considering her lack of complaints and his own amusement at the movement of the antennas, he probably went

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

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

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

eyebrow and did the only thing that made sense. He patted

him to calm down.

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

the rest of the mansion, Jake telling her about himself, and Vesperia sharing her own 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

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

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

stand out 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 better than him. This

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 have a personality making her willing to sacrifice millions of her kin to keep herself alive. She fully embraced her role and

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

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

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

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

make the big announcement with

Yeah, fuck that.

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 couldn’t entirely

more intimidating. A lot more like the Chosen of some snake god of questionable morality, that

conversation continued for a while longer until they mutually decided it was time for them to get to deal with 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

so they at least had a heads-up. He did not doubt Reika, her roommate, all the alchemists from Earth,

to do that. They could learn the truth at the same time as everyone else 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 Viper would

address his equipment. Something he had honestly neglected for a while. 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

already had, fully aware he would probably have to replace or upgrade everything. Starting from the top, he got on

functioning outside of combat. He would just replace this one. Also, he didn’t need to go into that much detail