The Primal Hunter

Jake floated silently in the air as the aura of Temlat slowly faded away. With his death, the curse and plague both disappeared, curing all those who had been infected nearly instantly. Looking down at Eternal Hunger, he wondered if anything had changed but found no obvious changes to the weapon, at least not besides its clear satisfaction with having consumed another Sin Curse to fuel itself. He did feel that the Records of another Sin Curse had slightly affected it, but… Temlat had simply been far too weak to truly affect the mythical weapon in a major way.

Sighing yet again, Jake headed toward one of the portals leading back to the House of the Architect. He had no reason to stay on the ruined planet and would leave while only offering it a few more thoughts. As Temlat had said, chances were the survivors would eventually rise again. While ninety-nine point nine percent of the population had died, hundreds of thousands, if not a few million, had survived. With no wild beasts on the planet either, there was no threat to these people, and using the materials of the old world, they should be able to rebuild.

Hopefully, the memory of Temlat would persist for a long time. It would be good if he could serve as a legend and a warning that should they indulge too much and become too corrupt, another being like him could appear. Jake hoped this, even if he knew that a case like Temlat rarely happened. In most cases, the fucked up society would just persist.

Cases like this megacity weren’t rare across the multiverse. For there to be a clear divide between grades and those who had power and those who didn’t wasn’t anything new. To take advantage of those below you was just the natural next step in the eyes of many.

Jake would also leave Temlat’s world with a lesson on what Earth absolutely couldn’t become. He wasn’t averse to those in power having more, well, power, but that didn’t mean one could just exploit others without any consequences. If that was allowed, how would people be able to rise and claim power for themselves?

After blowing away some debris, Jake arrived at one of the portals and left Temlat’s world behind. He walked straight toward the room of the Architect to submit his eighth Creation… even if it felt damn weird calling what had happened a Creation.

He had given little thought to what Temlat’s Path would mean for his submission, much less if his death would have any impact. Even if he had considered these things, Jake sure as hell wouldn’t have refused his first student’s final request just because he wanted some more Nevermore Points.

Arriving at the door, Jake once more didn’t even have to knock as he just walked in, seeing the Architect already waiting for him.

“I’m here to submit my eighth Creation,” Jake said in a calm tone.

The Architect nodded, motioning for Jake to clarify exactly what he was submitting.

“I would like to submit Temlat’s Path. From when he became my student till his end,” Jake said.

“The evaluation will only take into account the impacts on his Path that you had,” the Architect clarified for Jake. “Be they directly or indirectly.”

Jake just nodded. “Alright.”

The Architect’s eyes flashed golden for a moment before the light faded. “It has been done.”

in thought. The Architect didn’t make any moves to throw him out immediately,

question. Off the records,”

am not giving any advice on Creations,” she said, but luckily didn’t just

isn’t from him,” Jake began as he just laid it out straight. “I am a shit teacher, right? My first student and he ends up turning into a living calamity

a simple yes or no isn’t possible,” the Architect said. “It is all subjective. If your goal was to guide your student toward godhood, you did indeed fail. If your intentions were for him to realize his goals and form his own Path with you only

of obligation. The student also takes a teacher for similar reasons. In the end, it is a relationship between two people. If the student and teacher are both satisfied

did also allow Temlat to walk down a Path of self-destruction that

Path he chose,” Nevermore said. “If you had taken responsibility for him, and you promised to help him live a long and fulfilling life, you did indeed mess up, but your student walked into this with both eyes open. He

if you say that, isn’t it my responsibility to at least warn him? To nudge him away from pitfalls like that? Temlat wasn’t

teachings once more. Were you his guide? His guardian? His friend? Such things need to be decided before anyone can talk about if there were any failures. If you do feel like you made a mistake, it is something to reflect upon, but your conflicted emotions on the matter do not

Jake questioned, despite already knowing the answer. He knew Temlat hadn’t once blamed Jake but only felt

suppress even hinting it? The answer was that he couldn’t. Never

on teaching, but I will say one thing. You are used to your own perspective where you value absolute freedom, and that style isn’t compatible with many. However, in the cases where it does work, it is the one style that

Amazon, it's taken without the

a bit like Villy by just allowing Temlat to do whatever he wanted and only answered questions when asked, never volunteering any advice. In some ways, it had worked, but Jake didn’t feel

one major flaw with how he had done things. As Nevermore said, Jake was too used to his own perspective, and he also had to consider that the advice Villy gave was with whom Jake was taken into account. Jake had his damn Bloodline, which was essentially a cheat against making horrible decisions, as his intuition would always scream at him whenever he tried to do something too dumb. Villy practically never really had to caution Jake compared to other advisors, even if he did sometimes give minor warnings during their

Temlat wanted to do. He would have discussed the outcomes Temlat wanted and made clear to him the consequences of the Path he had chosen. If

was teaching to do something. Well, unless it was something that Jake believed crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed… which wholesale slaughter of a deeply corrupt megacity planet surprisingly wasn’t. Alright, he wasn’t sure how he would have acted if it had happened in the real multiverse… which in itself

said things not necessarily because it was her true thoughts

to think over,” the Architect said with a smile. “I believe it would make more sense to do so outside of my chambers. Good

a bit lost in his thoughts as he appeared

Jake got his shit together and began heading back toward the lab. He had to keep his head in the game and keep moving forward. Jake was still in a Challenge Dungeon, and he had just “wasted” a bit over a week in the megacity world with Temlat. He didn’t regret having done so,

felt the most unsure about.

by where Temlat had stayed and stopped in the doorway.

knew he wasn’t coming back,

the Architect and everything that had happened with Temlat. After these three days, Jake

was truly one hell of a