The Primal Hunter

Jake was teleported out of the godly meeting and appeared in front of the Challenge Dungeons like nothing had happened. He couldn’t help but smile a bit to himself after what had just transpired, finding the entire ordeal quite amusing. It was also really nice to see Artemis again.

He couldn’t lie… there was something about her divine aura that was just fundamentally appealing. Jake hadn’t been able to hold himself back from teasing her a little, and based on her responses, he hadn’t offended her too much. In fact, he was pretty sure he had quite an interesting meet-up planned for after Nevermore.

Shaking his head, Jake tried to refocus on the task in front of him. He still had to finish Nevermore before anything else could happen, and he got the feeling that while he found Artemis’ divine aura appealing, she would very much like it if he performed extraordinarily well in the World Wonder. At least he was telling himself this because who didn’t want a bit of external motivation along with the internal one? Either way, Jake stopped dallying as he thought about the next dungeon to enter as a notification popped up in front of him.

*You have successfully taken part in a meeting between gods standing at the apex of the multiverse without compromising on your Path as a Heretic-Chosen. Instead, you have further proven yourself capable of standing tall even when confronted by the most powerful gods, acting far above your station. All while performing your duties as a Chosen and acting according to your Patron’s will – A new feat has been accomplished. Bonus experience earned*

Jake stared at the notification for a while, quite frankly having forgotten he could even get these. Sure, he had gotten one when he made William turn away from Eversmile and even when doing other heretic and Chosen stuff, but he pretty much only leveled his profession using alchemy normally, making it easy to forget this was a thing.

He hadn’t really expected anything out of doing this secret god meeting outside of meeting some gods… and looking at the following notifications, he definitely hadn’t expected the level of rewards to be so high.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 252 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 259 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 254 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 257 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

8 fucking levels from just meeting a bunch of gods in some casual get-together? Wasn’t that wholly too much for something so completely non-extraordinary? Jake hadn’t done anything super special in his own mind and had acted just like he had when interacting with others… which was maybe the reason he had gotten this “feat.”

This was Jake’s first time doing it in a public setting and the first time for the system to truly recognize it. For anyone that wasn’t Jake, just being able to exist in that meeting would have been an extraordinary feat in itself, while Jake had even talked to them and gotten into a metaphorical dick-measuring contest with a Primordial. All in all, he had entered the meeting, acting not just as one of the random gods there but as a being standing on par with the Primordials.

As Jake considered the matter more, he also quickly concluded this wasn’t replicable and some secret super-fast leveling exploit. He could go back to the meeting again, and it wouldn’t really reward him as he wouldn’t “accomplish” anything in the eyes of the system. These feats would only give massive rewards the first time he did something. Jake did believe that if he continued to attend meetings and continued to show off, he would be able to get more levels out of it. He would also make a lot of enemies and feel wholly uncomfortable doing it, so it wasn’t going to happen, but as a Heretic-Chosen, this was a legitimate way to level.

He also guessed that one reason why the experience gained was so high was due to how little he did as a Heretic-Chosen and how much he did as a pure alchemist. Jake, doing something he rarely did, was probably rewarded extra by the system, a bit like how he got more experience from working on transmutations after making potions for a long time. At least, that is what he guessed as he shook his head and decided to move on with what truly mattered.

Getting 8 random levels was definitely nice, but it didn’t really change anything, and he still had to focus on the Challenge Dungeons to come. The Test of Character Challenge Dungeon had been chosen purely as a way to recover from the Colosseum of Mortals, and it honestly had been the one he wanted to do the least and the one he guessed he would do worst at.

thought were a lot more interesting. This was despite Jake not truly knowing what they were

Maybe something with imagination and your ability to make up and design new things, or if he got really lucky, a Challenge Dungeon that was similar to his Puzzle Box from the Seeker, where he had to fix and work on mana constructs? Or

one, but he took a shot in the dark that it wasn’t about riding some weirdly scary dog-looking dragon through the sky as if he was taking part in some neverending story that wasn’t truly endless. There was a good chance it had to do with traveling, though. Maybe some sort of endurance

made about this one. Minaga’s Labyrinth on the prior floors had been a piece of cake for Jake, and he looked forward to utterly breaking

Jake could do them in any order. All would be a pick-me-up after the horrible Test

which

help but sigh at how his life had changed. How he had gone from being a diplomat and teacher at the Order of the Malefic Viper

story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please

period of his life had only really revolved around one thing. Or, more accurately, one person. How could he have known that the fateful day he talked

into the Emberflight clan. Nothing complicated that he, as an A-grade, hadn’t done many times

became clear why as the young Bloodline Patriarch was revealed to

a passive Chosen who just trained and did alchemy. Instead, he seemed to create

Dragonflight – also known as the Azureflight. Albaromoz wasn’t sure about the details; he just knew that an Azure Dragonkin blessed by the Venerated Azure Dragon had attempted to get close to a comrade of the Malefic Viper’s Chosen and somehow ended up offending the Malefic Viper himself, making the

then, as no one knew the Bloodline Patriarch was the Chosen until after the Chosen ceremony was over. However, after, every faction dug up what they could on the Chosen, and

Chosen first, Albaramoz had become the go-to person if anyone had questions. As he had interacted with the Chosen before he revealed his identity, many believed that Albaromoz had known him better than pretty much any other person among the nine Dragonflights. Helen had also been called in for many things but had quickly been dismissed as all her meetings had been under the oversight of Albaromoz, making him the go-to. She

gotten worse as other Dragonflights also wanted to know more about him. The Azureflight was just the beginning as more and more got involved. Especially his ability to manipulate Origins caught the attention of many high-ranking beings, as plans were slowly being formulated behind the scenes to try and get

a reprieve, at least for a while. Sure, he would likely perform incredibly well in the World Wonder and gain much renown, but nothing chaotic would happen that required

…right?

Grand Elder of the Emberflight who

“Have you been following recent happenings in

I

it hasn’t spread amongst the mortals yet,”

best it is kept that way,” a third

a fourth

quickly pieced together that they discussed something only gods knew about. So why was he there? There were a few options,

the second Grand Elder spoke up again. “You were the first to identify the Chosen of

already knew.

he was revealed as a Chosen, how receptive would you estimate he was to the contact we made?” a fifth Grand Elder asked. “I am referring

interest in Helenstromoz was also low. Moreover, recently, she has

will show interest in any other attempts