The Primal Hunter

Jake appeared somewhere he had not expected to. A vast wasteland stretched out towards him, and he recognized it instantly.

The Divine Realm of the Malefic Viper?

Why had he been teleported here, of all places? Jake frowned as he considered if perhaps the situation was far more serious than he had first thought, and Villy wanted to protect him by sending him there. But that didn’t quite seem to fit? Because something had definitely been wrong during their dick-measuring contest.

The Viper had shown himself as weaker than the aura Jake had felt before. While Jake couldn’t really distinguish between two extremely powerful gods, he could compare auras. The sheer level of power he had felt that time within the Viper’s realm was far beyond what the god had shown during the ceremony. However, even then, Yip of Yore had been a lot more powerful than Jake had expected him to be.

“You know, I really hoped not having to explain stuff to you,” a voice said from behind as Villy appeared. “But it seems like not saying anything is an even bigger risk.”

Villy looked serious, also making Jake adopt a serious demeanor. “What do you mean?”

“You noticed Eversmile in the crowd before he appeared,” Villy sighed.

“Yeah?” Jake nodded.

“I couldn’t.”

“What?” Jake asked, confused.

“You may think I am good at stealth, but Eversmile is number one in the entire multiverse. If he does not want to be recognized, you won’t. Do you know what his race was before he became a god?” the Viper asked as he waved his hand, summoning something to sit on.

“He looks pretty human, but I have no idea,” Jake admitted.

“Eversmile was a Doppelganger. A shapeshifter. When he changes, everything that isn’t the very core of his Truesoul changes with him, making him impossible to spot through any normal means. If he displays none of his power and wants to hide, nobody in the multiverse can find him, period. Even someone like Oras can’t. That is how he can be such a mystery despite having lived so long. He can be anyone at any time,” the Viper explained.

“That’s something. But doesn’t it kind of ruin his disguise that he is always smiling?” Jake asked, surprised that Eversmile had always been a cloak-and-more-cloak kind of guy.

“Perhaps, but I wouldn’t ever want him to stop,” the Viper shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Him smiling is part of his karmic Path… if he released that smile, one of two things will happen. One would be that his Path will break, and as a god, he will be significantly weakened. That or something that has built up for ninety-three eras will be unleashed. I frankly don’t care to find out either way,” Villy shrugged.

“Anyway, this is a sidetrack. The reason why I dragged you here is that a larger game is going on, and you can, annoyingly so, see flaws in what is happening. Your damn intuition may lead to something getting fucked, so rather than risk you saying something dumb or revealing something you shouldn’t, rather just get you up to speed.”

“Alright,” Jake nodded. He had known some stuff was going on behind the scenes and that it was related to Ell’Hakan and his Patron god, Yip of Yore. However, some things really bothered him. “Can I ask some things first?”

“Go right ahead.”

“I remember you said Yip of Yore is from the ninety-second universe, literally the last one before this. Which makes him only an era old at max if he lived during the integration… how the hell is he so strong then? Or is he not actually that strong?” Jake asked.

he considered his answer. “Hm, this isn’t really common

“Sure,” Jake nodded.

a lot easier. In fact, with each era, it gets easier. The reason for this is

we need more Records. There are many ways to get those… but the further you go, the harder it becomes. Your options are simply limited, and you exhaust all opportunities. What is left is but an incredibly slow and arduous grind to try and improve just a tiny bit

thought he understood as the

god in the first place. All you have to do is stay true to your Path and gain levels while continuing to work on your skills and abilities. The level cap also varies from person to person and is individually applied. What it ultimately just means is that the maximum power level a god can reach is set higher in each era compared

managed to close

most ambitious ones I have ever seen. He directly claims Records and levels based on his legends, and his way of gaining power is tied directly to his narrative. Every time he proves himself capable of standing before a Primordial, it becomes more

become as powerful as a Primordial,”

a title given to the gods seen as the most powerful in the multiverse. To slay

be a thing, people need to think he is as powerful as you, right? Why not just go full power and fight him to prove that isn’t the

even without his tricks. I don’t think any of us Primordials could kill him even if we wanted to. That is also why he fought Valdemar first. Because if anyone could kill him, it would have been Valdemar, but Yip knew he wouldn’t. So now it is common knowledge Yip of Yore can escape a fight with the Primordial often recognized as

differently already. And, Jake, while I will give you some rough ideas of what is going on, I cannot tell you the full

Jake said,

also wouldn’t call you the most careful with what you say. Shit,

“So, the thing with

it would happen way beforehand,”

“Yip showing up?”

set up

“Eversmile?”

everything today was planned. Granted, I believe both Yip and I

badly for you?” Jake

now won’t it?” the Viper smiled, clearly not going to answer that

that entire deal with

“Can’t fool the system, which was why it had such an impact. It had the

being signed in the first

smiled for a second before

old reputation. Even the many gods and factions who have shown up and displayed loyalty are still not really dedicated. They are testing the waters, and their levels of belief in my abilities are lacking, to say the least. You saw a lot of factions have already left this ceremony, and the reason why I gave everyone an hour was for them to reconvene and decide their course of action,”

test of loyalty?” Jake

able to kill me? If they do, then abandoning the Order only makes sense. If they don’t, and they only see the words of Yip as the delusional bullshit of some upstart, then they will stay. Of course, things are a bit more muddled as some

was afraid some automata was going to take advantage

standby,” Villy dismissed his fears. “Besides, they wouldn’t risk it. Making a move like that wouldn’t be worth it, even if they did manage to kill her. Unless they also decided to kill you so you

something he had been wondering. “Back when we first met, and you unleashed your aura to try and scare me… did you

“Yes.”

the Viper. “Give it to me straight. Yip does have a point, doesn’t

when you asked how strong I was, and I said there wasn’t anyone in the multiverse I believed

asked something like that a long time

older gods are aware of. He is running on assumptions, which, granted, are good enough for him. He doesn’t need to actually operate based on the truth or facts, he simply needs to convince enough people of his bullshit and have a strong enough delusion, and his abilities

his lack of knowledge then a weakness?” Jake asked. Yip just