The Primal Hunter

As Jake had been briefed on earlier, then the majority of presents would not be handed to him directly. Most would go through the Order and simply be delivered to his residence, or somewhere else he designated, with Miranda or Viridia briefing Jake on any important things he may want to bring along to Nevermore.

Only gifts from the top factions would be handed over directly and opened in front of everyone. Even if the gift was not one that could just be handed over, they would still voice what it was. This was not really for Jake but for the factions handing over the gift. It was their way of showing intent toward the new Chosen of the Malefic Viper and, at the same time, flex on other factions. In some ways, this did benefit Jake as the gifts given openly had to be impressive in some way, or it would be an embarrassment to show everyone how shitty gifts you could give.

Viridia led Jake to one side of the room as the tiled floors raised themselves to form a small platform. Jake honestly thought this was overdoing it, but he knew these kinds of theatrics mattered to others. The many people present all observed him as Viridia invited him up to the stage before the Hall Master turned to address them.

“I do wonder what the denizens of the multiverse wish to gift our Chosen, considering his rather unique status as someone from a new universe and still a C-grade. Even more so when you consider his upcoming trip to Nevermore,” Viridia said with a big smile, pretty much hinting to the faction they better have something useful.

“Now, who would like to go first?” Viridia asked.

Jake was pretty damn sure this wasn’t a real question, as only one person responded. A Risen wearing a golden crown and immaculate robes stepped forward and bowed. “The Risen would be more than honored to do so.”

The man wasn’t some low-level person either. He was an S-grade and even had a Divine Blessing from the Blightfather himself.

“One of the Ghost Kings of the Risen. A title given to those who are deemed to have a high chance of reaching godhood,” Viridia informed him with telepathy.

“Considering the Chosen’s affinity to alchemy, we made some inquiries and believe that these gifts will be more than fitting, especially considering your adventure to Nevermore. Specialties from the depths of the Ghostlands itself, the Blightsea,” the Ghost King said as he kneeled and presented two items.

One of them was a box, and the other a black flask. Jake used telekinesis to accept both items as the Risen retreated a bit, giving Jake the opportunity to check out his things. This was pretty much mandatory, and something Jake had been briefed on. He needed to “show off” the items to everyone. That was part of the deal.

As he opened the box and saw ten black roots within, intense death mana was released, and he flashed a pleased smile beneath his mask after using Identify.

[Blightroot (Legendary)] – A root found on the shores of the Blightsea. Contains incredibly dense death affinity energy and is extremely potent when mixed with necrotic toxins. Has been pre-primed for alchemy, making it easier to work with than usual Blightroots. Direct consumption for non-Risen is not recommended.

They were pretty fucking good. Without delay, Jake also checked the flask

[Dead Man’s Flask (Legendary)] – A flask containing Blightsea Shore Water. Indestructible to anyone below S-grade. The water within will never lose potency, no matter how much time passes. The Interior is spatially expanded.

He lifted it up and took the small cork off, and poured out a single droplet which he also quickly Identified.

[Blighttsea Shore Water (Ancient)] – Water that has been taken from the shores of the Blightsea. Contains incredibly dense death affinity energy and is extremely potent when mixed with necrotic toxins. This water is primed for alchemical use, making it far easier to work with. Direct consumption for non-Risen is not recommended.

The liquid floated there for a while, long enough for everyone around to see it, before Jake put it back into the bottle and the cork back on before he nodded.

“I hope the gifts are to your satisfaction, Chosen of the Malefic One,” the Ghost King said.

smile from the man as he bowed one more time before retreating back into the crowd, with everyone else nodding and a few clapping at

just felt relieved he had managed to receive a gift that was actually useful. They quickly moved on as Viridia introduced the next guest who would give gifts. This guy

with that…

finally settled on a gift we believe is only proper: assistance in establishing your dominance within the newly integrated universe. Thus we would be honored to offer the Chosen one thousand D-grades and one million E-grade slaves who are all natives of the ninety-third to help populate and expand the Order of the Malefic Viper. Naturally, they will come with resources to make the transition as easy as possible, too,”

million fucking people? That was just… insane. How was he even

the Chosen commands,” the man smiled as he bowed out and walked down from the stage, getting more claps as people clearly thought it was a

Jake’s total count of new slaves to five million. Naturally, they had to

it was then time for someone Jake actually wanted to receive a gift from. A high elf woman wearing a white dress with

from one of

presented it to Jake as she spoke. “Per the wishes of the Chosen, relayed by my little cousin who

purposeful in communicating that the Altmar Empire had talked with him beforehand and that they had a personal connection while also explaining their gift and why it was so special. She also sprinkled in that she was family with Izil, though from what

to reveal a ring. Just what Jake had hoped to get to replace his current Altmar Signet, and he used Identify with high expectations as he already felt the dense energy

He was not disappointed.

Trial Signet design but has been further refined and improved to make a fitting gift for a Chosen. The first time the wielder equips the ring, they will become able to distribute the signet’s energy into whatever stats they desire. Distributing any of the stats will make the ring Soulbound. A brief recharge period is required between each re-distribution of stats.

in

better in every conceivable way. Five thousand fucking stats packed into one small ring was utterly insane and surpassed all items he had seen prior. Then again, the ring only gave stats with no other functionalities, which was

there and then but knew he would have to wait till later. One thing was certain, though: with this ring, he had hit the stat cap from equipment and even gone well beyond, allowing him to get more and more out of every level-up as the cap increased. Jake was even able to get the stats he wanted… and as he could change stats,

ring was bloody insane, and Jake did all he could to not have a giant grin on his face. That would

sincerely thank the Altmar Empire, the ring surpasses my expectations,” Jake said, making the high elf smile as she slowly retreated away. More claps all around, though, for some reason, people seemed to think this

knew the ring

few slaves, too, because why not? Jake had honestly not

many offered it, Jake could act less and less thankful every time and simply nodded when they mentioned the gift of slaves. After these four, the ones who only gifted slaves didn’t even want to come up to the stage anymore, and those who did offer other items along with slaves only spoke of it as an

fucking million slaves. More than many countries pre-system. Jake already felt bad for Miranda when he saw her stand in the hall with a hollow

was also from some merchant group, he wanted to scream, but then she mentioned which merchant group. Golden Road Emporium. Jake remembered that was the one Sultan and Renato were both in, and as Viridia

dark elf that Jake naturally didn’t know, but Viridia informed him he

Emporium spent a long time considering what kinds of gifts we fought suitable for the Chosen. Anyone can simply offer slaves, but we would like to offer something even better. Knowledge and training for those who join the Chosen,” the dark elf

working close with the Chosen, gave us the idea to diverge from the other merchant alliances, and we have thus prepared two gifts. One is a set of special formation discs that can be used to summon a projected expert from the Golden Road

one - it was something entirely different for Earth as a whole. Granted, Jake didn’t really care overly much about how everyone else was doing, but he could see it give him some good PR to pretty much create public system schooling. If they had these experts teach others who could then go on to teach themselves… yeah, that could be useful. Throwing

spatial ring that contained these formation discs as the dark elf

himself and was specifically recommended by your associate. We would like to offer the Puzzle Box of the Seeker. A box created by the famous god of puzzles and

as people seemed to question a gift such as this. Jake himself was also confused about what kind of gift

puzzle box created by the god known as the Seeker. This box is filled with a total of 10000 levels of mana puzzles of ever-increasing difficulty. Fully unlocking the box will reveal an item sealed within.

and was incredibly surprised. Then he read the rest of the description. He stood there and stared at the box still held out