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.

this isn’t really common knowledge, so keep it

“Sure,” Jake nodded.

it gets easier. The reason for this is indeed that we now know more, and there are more Paths, but that isn’t the biggest factor. The biggest factor is

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

listened on as he thought he understood

by thinking about it like an old massively multiplayer online game. Each era is an expansion, and each era brings with it an increased level cap. This level cap is still one you have to achieve, but reaching it is far easier than the task of becoming a 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

managed to close the gap?”

circumstances. The Path Yip of Yore walks is one of incredible power and, quite frankly, one of the most ambitious ones I have ever seen. He directly claims Records and levels based on his legends,

would genuinely become as powerful as a

a legend but simply common knowledge that he had the power of a Primordial. He wants to claim the innate power and Records of a title given to the gods seen as the most powerful in the multiverse. To slay a Primordial has never been done before, and if he does become the first, he will establish himself as one of the most powerful gods in existence. Ambitious, to say the least,”

people need to think he is as powerful as you, right? Why not just go full power and

shook his head. “Fact is, Yip of Yore is powerful 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

him to stop. If I did, I would have done things differently already. And, Jake, while I will give you some rough ideas of what is going on, I cannot tell you the full truth. You merely knowing may ruin everything, and let’s not kid ourselves; I can’t fully trust you won’t let anything

Jake said,

you the most careful with what you say. Shit, my level of carefulness should be quite clear just from me

Jake nodded. “So, the

would

“Yip showing up?”

set

“Eversmile?”

today was planned. Granted, I believe both Yip and I agree it

following his story not end badly for you?” Jake asked.

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

that entire deal with

Villy nodded. “Can’t fool the system, which was why it had such an impact. It had the outcome I wanted. Ultimately, while Yip has

deal being signed in the first place?”

a second

he says the Order is only coasting along on my 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

test of loyalty?”

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 factions

advantage of everything that happened and would try to kill Vesperia,”

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 couldn’t spawn more, that is, which would be an outright declaration of war. Considering their leader is Rigoria, she is smart enough to know that would

slowly nodded. He thought for a while as he asked something he had been wondering. “Back when we first met, and you unleashed your aura to try and scare me… did you

“Yes.”

he looked at the Viper. “Give it to me straight. Yip does have a point, doesn’t he? You

“Remember when you asked how strong I was, and I said there wasn’t anyone in the multiverse I believed could truly beat

asked something like that a long time

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

asked. Yip just seemed more