The Primal Hunter

“Earth?” Jake questioned as he responded to Eron. ”Pretty sure it’s still there. Was the last time I checked. Speaking of, how did you even leave the ninety-third universe? The Dao Sect does not strike me as the kind of faction to have blessed beasts capable of setting up a formation capable of teleporting anyone to another universe.”

“It was not beasts, no. I was invited by a temple that had prepared a teleportation circle for them to leave,” Eron answered.

“A temple?” Jake questioned as he looked at Jacob and Caleb. ”Was there a faction capable of constructing a cross-universe teleportation circle we didn’t know about?”

“I never heard of it,” Caleb shook his head, Jacob also looking unsure.

“You said it yourself; the Dao Sect likes its isolation. Earth is far bigger than any of us had time to truly comprehend, so is it truly that odd that some would have been hidden from sight? They never claimed a Pylon or engaged with anything system-related. They simply stayed at the old temple they had always lived in and, with guidance from the Dao Sect, constructed a way for them to join the faction properly,” Eron explained rather forthcomingly.

“I have been wondering, how is this Dao Sect related to those following similar ways of life to their beliefs before the system?” the Sword Saint asked.

“As I am sure you all know, Records bleed through to a new universe even before the integration. It often ends up slightly warped due to the change in natural laws from an integrated and a pre-integration universe, but the influence is still stark. We see this with many religions and the Holy Church, but also with places like Valhal and entities such as Yggdrasil being known names even before the system integrated us. For the Dao Sect to also be present is only to be expected,” Eron gladly continued to explain.

“Huh,” Carmen said.” Not gonna lie; I never even bothered thinking about it. But I guess it does make sense the Holy Church inspired those annoying fucks that go around knocking on people’s doors at all times of the day, wanting you to join some shitty cult.”

“Records of Valhal created ripples that gave birth to pillaging rapists that raided the innocent all across the globe,” Jacob shot back.

“While the Holy Church taught us the goodness of burning women at the stake,” Carmen scoffed.

“Hey, they never changed that mindset,” Casper chimed in, throwing Jacob a glance. ”They still want to purge everything that doesn’t fit their mold.”

“That… I can’t argue against,” Jacob sighed.” The attitude towards what the Church calls corrupted enlightened is not something I am a fan of.”

“Also, I never said Valhal were the good guys. Let’s not kid ourselves; all our factions fucking suck. Well, maybe not the Dao Sect, as I don’t know anything about them, but look at the rest of us? Evil snake god cult, assassin cult, death cult, ”holy” cult, fighting cult, mercenary cult… actually, I guess the old man is the only one not part of any damn cult. Aeon doesn’t have a cult, right?”

“No cult, as far as I am aware,” the Sword Saint chuckled.

“But they do have fanatic fans of his watches. You know, the kind to buy an expensive watch and then somehow make the fact that they own that watch become their entire personality,” Jake pointed out.

“So, still kind of a cult,” Carmen nodded.

shook his head,

call the Order of the Malefic Viper an evil snake god cult,” Jake protested in jest. ”It’s an

I know of,” Jacob cut in. ”There is little control and support embedded in the organization’s structure. Perhaps

control of everyone,”

consequences, expectations, and responsibilities, but is that really so big of a sacrifice? That you feel slightly inconvenienced at times to bring peace to a trillion living souls who were less fortunate

thing as perfection, just making the best of a given situation, and I believe the Church will bring the most good for the largest number of people. Even if it does mean that sometimes sacrifices have to be made… sacrifices nobody at the Church like to make but still sees the necessity of making. I wish it

here to try and recruit us, huh?” Carmen raised an eyebrow. ”It may just be me, but I would rather struggle for myself than be

not slaves, and you have the privilege of being who you are. We all do. You can’t expect everyone to be like us or expect them to turn their

can you expect me to struggle to make them comfortable,” Carmen

more. ”But do let me offer some words from someone who has spent his entire life training and managing a large organization… it is hard. You can’t make everyone happy all the time, and in the end, it is rare that anyone can say what the right choice is when a hard decision is made. The same is true for the factions we belong to. They are all flawed in

the old man as they

get strong enough to change it for. Make it your own version of perfect. The Holy Church does what the Holy Church does because that is what the Holy Mother and the Holy Pantheon want. Reach a level where you can stand beside them and actually change shit if you want to make things better. It may take a

even reaching S-grade is incredibly low, much less godhood. While it may be your dream and goal, I don’t believe it is healthy to anchor the changes you wish

a pussy with no

realist with a clear head and no delusions,” Jacob

for godhood is to not only delude yourself into grandeur but truly embrace that delusion… enough to one day make it into reality through your own actions,” Eron finally chimed in after being satisfied just listening in

Saint shook his head. ”To many of us, godhood is not truly a goal, just an inevitable consequence of us walking our Paths. Either we will become gods walking

what is your goal?”

To truly make myself worthy of the

will you do with all the power you accumulate through that

do not gain power to use that power for anything in particular. I gain power to overcome my own self. To reach further and beat myself over and over again. I do not dwell on the why; I simply focus on the how. I have an innate desire to improve… to change. Not changing would be denying who I am. Getting stronger is not something you have

be the same. This reminded Jake of one of the conversations he had with Villy about how important internal motivation was. To have that innate drive to progress, no matter what. Thinking about why you wanted to get stronger was a waste of time in Jake’s

Jacob sighed. ”I just don’t see the meaning in having power if you have nothing you want to accomplish with

commented on the matter after that, as the topic once more changed. Eron finally got to ask some questions about Earth, and it became clear he truly had no idea what was going on. He had only heard that Jake had become World Leader and found the notion amusing. The guy was also surprised when the

of people on Earth yet to be weeded out. Spies left behind to keep an eye on things, or devout individuals who failed to evacuate in time and now hoped to make themselves useful for the Church. Yeah, Jake really didn’t

what they had been up to, only giving snippets here and there. Casper, on the other hand, gladly told them all about how they were growing New Yalsten. The realm was also still attached to that meteor just flying through space towards who-knows-where. Not even Casper was

but they still told

on sharing information about Nevermore only applied to people who had not passed a floor yet, so they could all discuss their journey through

unanimously despised that one horrible water floor, with Maria especially complaining about how shit it was. Being a