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.

all thought were a lot more interesting. This was despite Jake not truly knowing what they were about, just him relying on his

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 maybe it was about creating physical structures where he could maybe cheat with his arcane affinity? Doubtful, but hey, maybe. No matter the case, Jake felt pretty good about

a bit of a weird 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

Jake, and he looked forward to utterly breaking the poor Unique Lifeform’s dungeon while listening to his ever-increasing complaints about how much of a cheat Jake was. Needless to say, Jake definitely

them in any order. All would be a pick-me-up after the horrible Test of Character,

the question just was… which one should

but sigh at how his life had changed. How he had

Amazon, be aware that it has been

one thing. Or, more accurately, one person. How could he have known that the fateful day he talked to a C-grade who participated in his lesson on Soulflames and made Albaromoz suspect he had a Bloodline would lead to

had just been a simple mission to try to recruit him into the Emberflight clan. Nothing complicated that he, as an A-grade, hadn’t done many times before. It turned out to be a bit more complicated due to some unknown backer,

young Bloodline Patriarch

trained and did alchemy. Instead, he seemed to create chaos and “happenings”

great example of this chaos he could create was the entire ordeal with the Azure 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

hadn’t led to anything back 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 through that, the Emberflight’s name was mentioned. Albaromoz was mentioned. Something that caught the interest of all the

Azureflight himself present. As the person from the Dragonflights who had made contact with and talked with the Malefic Viper’s 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

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

reprieve, at least for a while. Sure, he would likely perform incredibly well in the World Wonder and gain much renown, but

…right?

Peak and entered the Dragon Cave of the Grand Elder of the Emberflight who resided there. While kneeling, he also regarded the

“Have you been following recent

a bad feeling before he answered honestly. “No, I do not believe I have heard anything out of the

spread amongst the mortals yet,” another Grand Elder

that way,” a third voiced

a fourth chimed

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

again. “You were the first to identify the Chosen of the Malefic Viper

already knew. Who else

to the contact we made?” a fifth Grand

and he quickly shook his head. “He seemed neither positive nor negative, just as if he preferred as little interference with his life and Path as possible. His level of interest in Helenstromoz was also low. Moreover, recently, she has begun to get closer to the Malefic Dragonkin called Draskil, who carries a Divine Blessing of the

he will show interest in any other attempts to form a closer relationship with