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.”

a while as Jake just stood there, deep in thought. The Architect didn’t make any moves to throw him out immediately,

have a question. Off the

Creations,” she said, but luckily didn’t just throw him out

lot, right? I know I could ask the Viper after this, but I feel like I need a qualified outside perspective that isn’t from him,” Jake began as he just laid it out

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.

a relationship between two people. If the student and teacher are both satisfied with an outcome, who else is to say either party was good or bad? So I think the only thing you need

point, but... I did also allow Temlat to walk down a Path of self-destruction that ultimately resulted in him taking his own

you allowed him to do something… as if you were responsible for the Path he chose,” Nevermore said. “If you had taken responsibility for him, and you promised to help him

away from pitfalls like that? Temlat wasn’t in a good state of

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

Temlat never blamed me for the doomed Path he walked down?” Jake questioned, despite already knowing the answer. He

would someone with the Sin Curse of Wrath be able to suppress even hinting it? The answer was that he couldn’t. Never once had Jake been the source of Temlat’s anger or resentment… which, for some reason, didn’t

in the cases where it does work, it is the one style that doesn’t impede your student’s natural growth and the most optimal to allow them to build their own Records.

narrative on Amazon,

he still felt unsure about how he had approached everything. He had tried to act 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

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,

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 Temlat still insisted to keep going after that… Jake honestly couldn’t say he would have stopped him. He would just have supported Temlat in realizing his dream, even if realizing it would

he 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

doing. She was doing that thing where she said things not necessarily because it was her true thoughts but because it would make Jake think and reflect… the

over,” the Architect said with a smile.

lost in his thoughts as he appeared in

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, but he knew

truly didn’t. Out of everything, even that weird small arcane marble, this was the one he felt the most unsure about. It probably didn’t help Jake felt like he had done a shitty job. Alas, there was nothing to do now besides just finishing the House of the Architect and hopefully

area, Jake went toward one of the rooms to gather his thoughts. On the way, he walked by where Temlat had stayed and stopped in the doorway. He looked inside and saw the sheets had been taken off, cleaned, and neatly folded on top

he wasn’t coming back, didn’t

Temlat. After these three days, Jake opened his eyes again, having calmed himself enough. He wasn’t sure if what he had

was truly one hell of a