The Primal Hunter

The gods watched the screen as Jake just relaxed on the floor while yawning lazily. In space, the Forsaken Dragonkin was rampaging, truly motivated by a promise of a potential Path to godhood. No one in the room really said anything as they simply observed events unfold until, finally, Minaga chimed up.

“So… another note in the development log?”

“Yes,” the Wyrmgod simply responded.

“Alrighty then,” Minaga smiled, clearly not upset with the situation. Looking at Vilastromoz, he couldn’t help but give a big thumbs up.

“I fail to understand… how did your Chosen even do that?” the Blightfather questioned the Viper after a bit. The Wyrmgod had shown the screen to everyone in the inner circle –the Primordials, Nature’s Attendant, and Artemis – so he was fully aware of the shenanigans Jake had been up to. This was naturally with the Viper’s permission, as he found their reactions very amusing, and what was better than bragging to old acquaintances?

“Do what?” the Viper asked, feigning confusion.

“Project your aura… or at least a cheap imitation of it.”

“Oh, that… yeah, Jake ate a drop of my blood infused with my Records and power a while back and has thus far not volunteered to give it back,” Vilastromoz answered nonchalantly.

There were a few raised eyebrows around the room as the Holy Mother also joined the conversation for once. “Impressive. To be able to handle such Records without seeing his own Path broken is not something you see often, and it truly shows his dedication. It isn’t something I would expect many mortals to be capable of, much less a C-grade.”

“C-grade? No, he ate it in E-grade, and my guy didn’t even ask,” the Viper sighed as he shook his head.

Eyebrows were raised even higher than before at the revelation. The only one that seemed entirely undisturbed was Valdemar. Unsurprising. He and Jake had many similarities in this regard, as Valdemar was also known for eating stuff he really shouldn’t be capable of while he was still a mortal. Even now, as a god, he would just gobble down natural treasures other Primordials were wary of nonchalantly.

“In any case, Jake did pretty damn well,” Minaga said, carrying along the conversation. “He even gave us so much good feedback on the Challenge Dungeon, outlining many things to address for the next era. Of course, most of the stuff he pulled off was things I wouldn’t really expect many others to be capable of, but there were some good data points anyway.”

Minaga was in a great mood, and the Viper couldn’t help but take a jab. “Feels good to see another Challenge Dungeon be utterly exploited after your labyrinth, eh?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, and such accusations are utterly unfounded and unwelcome,” Minaga tried to shut him down with a deadpan face. “Minaga’s Endless Labyrinth is a marvel of dungeon engineering that is perfectly balanced with no exploits.”

“Right, right,” the Viper nodded as he kept smiling.

“You speak as if the Endless Journey Challenge Dungeon was an utter mess, but I believe its self-correcting mechanisms did well. The Viper’s Chosen also adequately adapted to the situations he was in, and even if he had unique advantages, he also faced some extra challenges due to them. Ones he overcame, mostly due to these same unique advantages, true, but if one can say one thing, it is that he is good at exploiting said advantage,” the Wyrmgod finally said after a while.

of problems, though,” Minaga pointed out. “Admit it, this entire Challenge

would argue that nothing truly scenario-breaking happened, and the overall performance was fully acceptable. A few individuals being able to exploit a Challenge Dungeon does not make the entire project a failure. If it did, we would have had to decommission your entire

need to bully the poor Unique Lifeform,” the Viper shook his head. “But hearing you talk about how it isn’t a total failure… I wonder, how are Jake’s team members doing in this Challenge Dungeon? Or if they’ve already completed it, how did they

a glance at Nature’s Attendant, and after the god nodded, the Wyrmgod turned back to the Viper. “Three of them have already completed it, with only the Unique

showed one of Jake’s party members inside the Endless Journey in a highly sped-up fashion, showing their entire runs in mere seconds in Realtime, which was more than slow enough for the gods

they did,the Viper thought as he looked at

many figures present. Among them were dragons in human form, the Founder, and a few other S-grades, including beings Jake had never encountered

was established. A clear political victory, achieved in

and focus on his Path of swordsmanship, that didn’t mean he had to throw away the political abilities he already had. Skills that

Medallion, still a good distance away from getting a mythical one. Perhaps he could have done slightly better if he had not lost two lives trying to set up this political meeting and

then proceeded to peck them, too, until more powerful people came, and she

lengthy criminal record, something she didn’t like, which got her killed as she tried to fight

mad when a woman tried to scam her, making Sylphie retaliate by having a tornado rip a small village to pieces. In the Courier World, this was considered bad business and Sylphie failed her job. This she did not like and raised a ruckus in the Guild, and ended up getting chased away from the city

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more serious and even did a number of jobs, but she barely did one a week as she got bored and just flew around. That is until she got a Special Courier Job that ended up getting her in contact with the son of the Infernal Baron. The difference here was that this man didn’t want to recruit Sylphie but had detected her elemental heritage and now wanted to consume her. This was how Sylphie ended up joining what Jake had called PETE, and Sylphie ultimately ended her Endless Journey while

in this entire Challenge Dungeon was what many would be considered pretty damn substandard for what one would expect of a “genius.” Sylphie was happy enough, though, as she did manage to scam some natural

screen showed Dina walking on a vast grassland as the plants swayed with her steps. The entire land was alive, pulsing with power, reaching the very peak of S-grade as the living planet allowed her presence. All across the massive planet, portals had opened as the enlightened races

returned and managed to get the Forsaken Dragonkin on their side with promises of telling him of a place in the universe that could give him the final push to godhood. Luckily for them all, Dina had managed to work with a seed sent out from this new planet that had landed on the main Courier World

she had relied on her Bloodline perhaps more than Jake and used plenty of summons to carry out tasks. Annoying customers and those trying to scam her were also easily dealt with, mainly through a few compliant-making spores

the Sword Saint about the art of Leadership had really come in handy there. This all led to an ultimately great performance, even

this one for last. He had struggled

utterly failed to get one over him. When it came to the Special Courier Jobs, he also performed great. In fact, he even had many advantages, as the Fallen King managed to leverage his identity as a system-recognized king to get his way in certain situations. One had to

the job done for the most part, as he progressed steadily and kept everyone on their toes while making them hesitant to make aggressive moves toward him. This status as a king would also have its very own note in the Endless Journey Exploits Log, but ultimately deemed a non-issue as C-grades with the system-recognized title

goods during the regular Courier Jobs, and while he did alleviate this a bit through different means, this was ultimately still his big limiter as he continued his Endless Journey. However, even with this,

several others, including the Guild Founder, Phoenix Queen, and even the Nine

figures approached the chamber. The barrier sealing him in naturally faded as Jake stepped

I have hope our future will

Forsaken Dragonkin interrupted as he looked at Jake with narrowed eyes. “Or did

Dragonkin did not hold back as he used a skill to make completely sure Jake was telling the truth. It was certain that should he try and bullshit his way out or lie, the situation would not turn out well, especially considering Jake had yet to be told he could leave the Challenge Dungeon. So he did the

spent from the preview I gave you earlier,” Jake said completely honestly. “But I swear to you that I will share with you the true Path to godhood soon. The method every single one of the dozens of gods