The Primal Hunter

Jake, of course, knew about Shroud of the Primordial. He used it all the time during this Challenge Dungeon to block so people couldn’t tell when he was lying while manipulating it, so it didn’t block whatever truth-telling ability was being used when he told the truth. He didn’t know how to make Shroud display his lies as true answers, only to block it from giving any response at all… but he did have a feeling this was something he could learn to make the skill do at some future time. But considering it took him many decades to learn how to manipulate the responses from Identify, this definitely wasn’t the time or place to try and self-teach himself that ability.

However, one part of the Shroud he had borderline forgotten was its ability to block anyone’s ability to detect karma-related stuff. One had to remember that Shroud’s primary function was to hide Jake so people couldn’t find him unless he allowed them to. It was a counter to divination first and foremost, but in the process of blocking that, many other things were also included. Karma included.

In many ways, it had to be, considering karmic magic was a huge part of most forms of divination. Plus, if someone could track Jake’s karmic threads, they would be able to track him simply by following them. While the phrase “karmic thread” was very much used as an analogy, many karmic mages actually saw literal threads of karma using their skills. It was simply the conceptual understanding they reached, likely even because of this common phrase and the way others taught the concept of karma. That being the case, it would be pretty easy to just follow a thread from someone related to Jake straight back to him, so of course, Shroud had to block that. It had to tangle these threads into a web that no one could make any sense of, and the karmic threads never truly led back to Jake.

All of this is to say that while Jake did form karmic connections with everyone he encountered, to any karmic mage trying to analyze these threads, nothing made sense. As these threads were very much conceptual in nature, and the way most karmic mages – the Guild Founder included – saw them was only by looking for something particular.

As everyone had endless karmic threads leading out from them, karmic mages pretty much had to look for a specific thread or connection in mind. If they didn’t, they would just see every single karmic thread a person had. In Jake’s case, that would include every single person he had ever met or influenced, both directly or indirectly… in other words, billions of people at the very least. The Founder was an S-grade and could search Jake for karmic connections to the limited scope of the room they were in, which was why he was so confused when he didn’t see what he had expected. He had likely assumed seeing Jake have a powerful karmic connection with one of the factions while having an antagonistic one with others… not simply having his skill say Jake had no positive or negative karmic connection with any of them at all.

The only way for this to be the case was if Jake truly didn’t have any strong connection with any of them, either good or bad, period. Well, that, or if Jake, a mere C-grade, was capable of blocking the skill of the Founder, an S-grade, and one of the strongest people in the entire world. One of these was definitely more believable than the other, and the Founder looked at Jake with genuine astonishment.

“You… are truly telling the truth. No, even so, how is this possible? Some karmic connections should have been formed no matter what, yet I can’t find anything,” the man said with a deep frown as he considered matters further. “What exactly are you? How did you accomplish this?”

“Beats me, I don’t know anything about karma magic,” Jake shrugged truthfully. He only knew what little he had read here or there about karma, which was enough to make him decide that it definitely wasn’t a school of magic for him. “Have you considered that I was telling the truth regarding my actions? That I heavily considered the implications behind everything I did?”

The Founder was silent for a moment before nodding slowly. “Now that I think about it… it’s true that your deceit would have been discovered a long time ago by one of the many other karma mages working for these factions if you did try to trick them. Due to their incredible abilities in the areas of counterespionage and scouting, the Path has flourished in the last many millennia, and every faction has plenty of A-grades who would have been able to see straight through the actions of a C-grade Courier no matter how smart he tried to be…”

Jake kept silent, same as the Founder, while he considered these words, while internally, he had a minor panic attack. Fucking hell, I got lucky with Shroud, or things could have ended very badly…

While everything Jake had done seemed like it could work out on the surface, especially considering how dumb the natives of the Challenge Dungeon were, in reality, it should have never gone as far as it did. Under normal circumstances, Jake would probably have been discovered the very first time he became an infinite loop agent if not in the job right after.

Shroud was the only reason Jake was still alive and could continue as he did. It wasn’t just a matter of Shroud of the Primordial being a skill capable of hiding karma, either. Jake was sure many other factions also had abilities to hide karma-related stuff, especially those like the Court of Shadows… but their skills wouldn’t work for shit in this Challenge Dungeon. The skills could hide karma, yes, but if the one searching for it was an A-grade? Even if they walked around with mythic-rarity karma-hiding skills, it would be seen through simply due to the sheer difference in power.

how Shroud worked. When someone tried to pierce Shroud, they didn’t merely try to pierce the hiding abilities of a C-grade. They competed directly with the Records and power of the Malefic Viper. That was why it could hide him even from any but the most powerful of gods in the multiverse and why a bunch of A- and even

to avoid any kind of strong karmic connection with any faction, meaning he

smiled, lowered his head a bit, and nodded to himself. “I

illicitly lifted; should you spot it on

then looked up at Jake, a bright smile on his lips, with the entire mood changed as he even went as far as to bow slightly. “I apologize for my offensive statements, and I hope you can forgive me. For me, as the

man for a second before he mentally shrugged. Yeah, sure, I can

to be done and acted as I saw fit of a Courier,” Jake responded, trying to sound as genuine as he possibly

ever have of you,” the Founder said, looking a mix between relieved and happy. “However, things are still not as they should

Jake responded. “But if I had to guess, it has something to

had done wrong, and set an example of what happens to Couriers who willingly assist factions, along with punishing the factions who used you… but I now realize my wrongs. You

on his back as he couldn’t help but ask: “Say… when you say you would have punished the Courier who did what you thought they

planned on stripping you of your title as a Courier, taking your Courier Medallion, and dependent on your actions, and if you refused to truly repent and see your wrongs, ended your life right then and there. With repentance, perhaps you would have even been allowed to become a Courier once more, but you would have naturally

be able to progress. Starting from the beginning would also suck major ass, as based on what Jake guessed and what would just be logical, the higher-ranked Courier Jobs would give more

slightly laughed as he scratched the back of his head. “I guess it’s good I am not the kind of person who would get involved politically with

never do any of that. How could he? He was the best and most genuine Courier

was the one who made the Guild invite you today for my original plan to ensure you would go. However, with what I know now, I am even happier you are here. So, let me ask you, Courier… would you be willing to assist me in exposing this corruption and

factions did wrong in your mind?” Jake questioned as one thing had been bothering him a bit. “Every Special Courier Job I was given by them went through the Guild. Isn’t the Guild also to blame for all this happening? The Guild accepted all these jobs and gave them to me, making everything appear official. If what the factions did was truly against the rules,

any of these cases. The nobles used the Guild as an arm of their own factions and threatened the employees into accepting any job they wished to assign them. To make matters even worse, I even have records of them manipulating the documentation behind the jobs and falsifying reports regarding completed jobs.

quite a few instances as

expected,” the Founder nodded. “Perhaps it is all my fault. I have been hands-off for too long, and their respect for the Guild and what we stand for has deteriorated with the generations that have passed. Few remember who I am, and even the executives of the Guild have fallen into corruption. I plan on doing a heavy clean-up, but to start properly, we need to remind everyone what the Guild truly stands for and why we used to

but it seemed like a good idea to ally with one of only a few S-grades Jake had ever heard of in this world. Plus, the guy didn’t seem all that horrible compared to the others he had met. His biggest crime Jake knew of so far was inaction and laziness in regard to addressing the problems the Guild faced, and who was Jake to blame someone for not watching

a bit of a softie, considering how he said he wouldn’t