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.

considered his answer. “Hm, this isn’t really common knowledge, so keep it between us,

“Sure,” Jake nodded.

a lot easier. In fact, with each era, it gets easier. The reason for this is indeed that we now know more, and there are more Paths, but that

in order to raise our level caps, 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 every few billion years. That is… unless suddenly a huge infusion of new Records appears. Something like the integration

on as he thought he understood as the Viper still

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

to close the gap?”

is a supreme genius, but one era is still too little time. At least, it would be under usual 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, and

become as powerful as

longer merely be 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

order for his legend to 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 case, ending his stupid story prematurely? Or, you know,

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 the most powerful in pure combat. Something he can borrow to

the snake god grinned. “I wouldn’t want 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

Jake said,

call you the most careful with what you say. Shit, my level of carefulness should be quite clear just from me wanting to only discuss this in

“So, the

was aware it would happen

“Yip showing up?”

set

“Eversmile?”

and break us up. In fact, pretty much everything today was planned. Granted, I believe

story not end badly for you?” Jake asked. If Yip was truly

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

entire deal with Valhal? Is

system, which was why it had such an impact. It had the outcome I wanted. Ultimately, while Yip has his own plans,

being signed in the first place?” Jake

for a second before

gone for a long time, and Yip of Yore isn’t wrong when 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

of loyalty?” Jake

the delusional bullshit of some upstart, then they

going to take advantage of everything that

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

thought for a while as he asked something he had been wondering. “Back when we first met, and you

“Yes.”

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

his chair. “Remember when you asked how strong I was, and I said

something like that a

running on assumptions, which, granted, are good enough for him. He

of knowledge then a weakness?” Jake asked. Yip just seemed more and more overpowered the more