The Primal Hunter

A hooded young man walked through the busy streets, sticking with all the civilians who made sure to stay out of the way of the patrolling soldiers who occupied the middle of the road. They all invited respect, yet fear from everyone. It was not necessarily due to their own power but what they represented. Who they represented.

The orange skin of these people made them easily discernable from humans, even if there were many similarities. Many had tattoos that marked their caste and origin, too, many of which were prominently displayed. It was a society where one was born into their station in life with little hope of ever changing. The newest leader of the planet had enacted some change, allowing people to ascend by joining the army, but it was an arduous process that had only truly picked up speed after the system arrived.

Integration. That is what the common term was across the multiverse, but here, it was called the Celestial Prophecy. An event that was foreseen by their glorious and unquestionable leader. A being born under the Twin Maidens and the Golden Patriarch. The names of the two moons and sun that shone brightly in the sky. Due to the nature of his birth, he was of the highest caste, selected by the heavens themselves, and given a title the moment his provenance was discovered.

The Celestial Child. Ell’Hakan, the son of the twin moons and the sun itself. A living god in the eyes of many.

Born of the universe as a blessing to the Nahoom, their savior and leader by birthright. Legends flourished, how he was born on the day of the twin eclipse, having simply appeared atop the highest mountain on the planet. Another legend said he fell from the heavens, bringing with him rain and the best year of harvest in recorded history. There were too many legends to count, but they all had one thing in common.

They were all absolute bullshit.

Yet the natives believed every single one of them. How could they not? The Celestial Child had only brought miracle after miracle, and the entire planet had never been as united and happy as now. Well… at least they thought they were happy. But to his eyes, he saw something else.

Everything was wrong. The threads hung in the air, invisible yet frayed. Broken, incomplete, tangled, miscolored… nothing was as it should be. Their emotions toward one another were not as they should be. The karmic connections were not formed genuinely.

William continued to walk through the city, staying as inconspicuous as possible. His body was covered from head to toe, and despite his appearance so suspect, no one looked twice as if he blended into the environment.

If anyone with detection skills were around, they could surely find the karma mage, but there wasn’t anyone of note around. Most of the powerful people on the planet had left for Nevermore already, leaving only the bare minimum. None of which were a threat to William and his purpose for visiting.

He had already been on the planet for a few months now, and he planned on staying a little longer. Looking at the karmic threads that spanned the planet, he had noticed a few that were very out of place - ones he had to research more than others to try and find the truth he had been searching for.

The rest of the day passed as William left the city and walked to the outskirt slums. Large orange mountains surrounded the city, having served as a natural barrier for millennia from both invaders and the environment. Flying to the top of one of these mountains, he sat down and stared out at the vast nothingness beyond the mountains.

An endless desert of sand continued as far as he could see, with the occasional movement of monsters being the only disturbance to the tranquil world. Compared to Earth, the Nahoom homeworld was simply far less dangerous, having apparently never spawned any creatures stronger than low-tier C-grade. It was also far smaller, being only about a third the size of current Earth, with most of its dangerous monsters could be found inside of the planet. Ell’Hakan had managed to conquer the world truly, having convinced every other nation to join him after the system arrived, with most having given in even before the initiation.

Before the system, things had been pretty bad, though. The environment was very dry, and the average temperature was quite a bit higher than on Earth. This meant something as basic as water was hard to come by, and large underground wells had to be dug for the people to survive. The entire planet was pretty much just a massive desert with only the occasional oasis here and there. It didn’t have any true oceans, but just a few large rivers and lakes, with most of the ecosystem sustained due to many of the massive mountains spread across the planet getting covered in ice every year. Ah, and the poles also had ice, which was honestly a pretty common occurrence for habitable plants.

Turning away from the dunes and looking out over the city, William sighed as he saw the countless warped threads of karma once more. It was karmic power forged through false premises, lies, and delusion. All this falsehood was surrounded by golden buildings and grandeur as the massive capital city of the Nahoom homeworld stretched out before him. A city matching the largest Earth had ever seen, if not surpassing it, with tens of millions living there.

As he looked out over the city, he couldn’t help but wonder how a place could even become like this. So whole, yet broken. There were so many things that were just wrong, and William wanted to get to the bottom of it. However, right as he thought this, he began to feel his body failing.

and the very next second, his body

His vessel had lasted quite a while this time around, William getting better at using the skill he had “taken” from his former

William no longer found himself under the control of Eversmile. The bad part was that he couldn’t get any

a bit as he considered going but ultimately decided to delay. He had no reason to rush it. His trip to Nevermore

back on Eversmile, William still felt his connection to the jellyfish remain the same, making him believe it didn’t know. This did indeed turn out to be the case, as it gladly helped him when he claimed it was on Eversmile’s order. Of course, while the jellyfish was a damn good space

been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon,

William put back the Nevermore token. It wasn’t time yet. He still had an objective on the planet to complete, and he had

he formed a connection as the empty husk came to life; William connected to it through karma. The construct was almost like a living karmic void, having no connection to even the world around it. This made it far harder to detect, and those who did notice

wanted to check out there. Evidence he needed to find to use against Ell’Hakan when the time was right. After

But at least it was by a fellow Earthling and not some god, even if they did probably contact him at the behest of

in the middle of the vastness of space, another being

just need better control of where you reappear

is easy! It’s like digging in the sand. You just plop down, start wiggling, and you make a hole! But… yeah, it’s a bit hard to know exactly where you end up

Sandy knew the horrible man had been hired by

to learn? Well, stuff

the simplest of terms – according to the teacher, anyway – two spots getting connected through a hole in space. In between these two spots, Sandy would have to swim through very dense cosmic dust, but after getting out on the

like really resistant sand. Also, the cosmic dust slowly damaged Sandy, even with all

outside world. Sandy did have the speed and resistance part pretty much figured out, though. Getting

where this hole would bring Sandy when Sandy didn’t know anything about where Sandy was in the real world? It wasn’t like there was any real direction inside of the cosmic dust. Sandy could swim straight in one direction and somehow end up entirely opposite. It was very

have to learn to get food, tell me the

already learned how to bend space far more efficiently, and your control of the space affinity is improving at an astonishing rate. However, only you can truly learn the secrets of the cosmic

at the damn teacher telling them that again. Why could a hydra with so many heads not figure out that Sandy needed a teacher who could also feel and see the same cosmic dust? Cosmic dust was everywhere, like sand in a desert, so it shouldn’t

cosmic sand didn’t necessarily exist but was just Sandy’s conceptual comprehension of the concept of space materialized through will... or some

space magic stuff?” Sandy asked after a bit more of trying to

Chosen desires, it can be arranged. However, we shall still do so with the intent of improving your understanding of this cosmic dust,” the god said as he waved his

surrounded by a cube-like barrier the very next moment, getting entirely trapped. A second later, a second layer appeared, then a third and

The flow of cosmic dust was disrupted by the sealed space, but it wasn’t perfect. The god purposefully left the kind of vulnerabilities C-grades and early B-grades would also fail to fully address, allowing Sandy to find more loopholes to wiggle through. Sometimes, Sandy could also just eat their way through a

it to be more useful, but also just to learn more about how it all worked. Sandy also had to check in on all the people Sandy had eaten recently. There were lots of bad people in there who had tried to say Sandy couldn’t take food that clearly belonged to Sandy by virtue of existing.