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…

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

she needed a 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

some confusion, shook his

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

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

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 a hug

didn’t act with thought, and Jake had

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

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 modern

at manipulating others socially, he just went with hiding how he really felt by suppressing it entirely. It had made

him as better than them in order to not 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 went against his nature and even Bloodline, but shaking off his entire upbringing

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 innate superiority

to learn from that. Vesperia also seemed to think

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

considered much of what she mentioned and the broader implications of him sticking to his personal feelings on the 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 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

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

also make the big announcement with Villy

Yeah, fuck that.

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 his

had to admit it did make him look more intimidating. A lot more

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 would only work on

a few things he also needed 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 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

Emberflight… yeah, he wasn’t going 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

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

what he already had, fully aware he would probably have to replace or upgrade everything.

change color while self-repairing. Verdict: utterly useless for a long time and only functioning outside of combat. He would just replace this one. Also, he didn’t need to go into that much detail