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.

his

of the Malefic Viper an evil snake god cult,”

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

the Holy Church only sees control of everyone,” Jake

in this room was part of the Church, you too would have immense freedom. Just not absolute freedom. There would still be 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

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

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

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 entire

to struggle to make them

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 their own ways, and we can argue from now till we get kicked out of Nevermore and never agree. Ultimately we belong to factions or have backers that fit who we are as individuals, and isn’t that as close

and Carmen seemed to listen to the old man as they nodded tentatively and let the topic drop as

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 while, but shit, if you’re aiming for godhood, you literally have forever,” Jake said

so casually,” Jacob shook his head. ”Statistically speaking, the chances of any one of us 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

of a

with a clear head and

embrace that delusion… enough to one day make it into reality through your own actions,” Eron finally chimed

us walking our Paths. Either we will become gods walking this Path, or we will die with no regrets as we lived true to ourselves. At least, that is how

what is your goal?” Jacob asked the

to the name I have come to embrace. To truly

what will you do with all the

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 to

saw Carmen 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

Jacob sighed. ”I just don’t see the

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

Holy Church likely still had a lot 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.

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 sure exactly where they were going, but it sounded like they

Caleb had been up to, but they still told a

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

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