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

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 on longer

show much physical affection, and head pats were already a lot for him. After he stopped

some confusion, shook his

am unsure… but

that made sense. He patted her

it all the time whenever Jake got upset or if he needed him to calm down. It worked back

thought, and Jake had to also admit that he didn’t truly know Vesperia very well. They

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 a superior creature to most

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

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, with Jake seemingly not caring. All

middle-ground by not thinking he was innately better than anyone else while also not thinking anyone else was better than him. This went against his nature and even Bloodline, but shaking off his entire upbringing was not that easily done, and he did believe it helped ground him. Sim-Jake had been many things, and overly arrogant towards anyone that wasn’t his literal clone in the real Jake was definitely one of

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 think so and was gleeful

Viper, it is only expected of you to act with a certain demeanor. You are second only to the Primordial himself in the 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 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

matter. 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

out in public while staying incognito was still an option as long as everyone wasn’t actively

also make the big announcement

Yeah, fuck that.

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

more like the Chosen of some snake god of

Even if Vesperia did not have any special resources available, she still wanted to work on her skills and potentially spawn some

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

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

his equipment. Something he had honestly neglected for a while. He was missing a lot of

had, fully aware he would probably have to replace or

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