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.

problems, though,” Minaga pointed out. “Admit it, this entire Challenge Dungeon was a bit of a

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 labyrinth many eras ago,” the Wyrmgod said in his usual dry tone as he verbally murdered

talk about how it isn’t a total failure… I wonder, how are Jake’s team members doing in this Challenge Dungeon? Or if

god nodded, the Wyrmgod turned back to the Viper. “Three of them have

one of Jake’s party members inside the Endless Journey in a highly sped-up fashion, showing their entire runs in mere seconds

did,the Viper thought as

present. Among them were dragons in human form, the Founder, and a few other S-grades, including beings Jake had never encountered or even knew existed. This was clearly the end of his run, and the

land, an accord was struck, as peace – at least temporarily – was established. A clear political victory, achieved in an entirely intended way by a man who had been ruling a massive clan and navigated

on his Path of swordsmanship, that didn’t

to say, the Sword Saint’s performance was considered exemplary, as he ended his Endless Journey run with a Legendary 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 if he hadn’t had to make as many concessions

around an entitled customer while pecking him on the head until guards came to arrest her. She then proceeded to peck them, too, until more powerful people came, and she had to run away and flee from the

first Endless Journey Challenge Dungeon life ended with her getting fired as a Courier on her second job with a lengthy criminal record, something she didn’t like, which got her killed as she tried

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

without permission

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 taking down the Duke of Flames in a political act of mutual destruction that also got the

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 treasures out of PETE before she left. She ended up with a Rare Medallion only,

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 entered, the

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 one and made a deal, relying on

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 in the

really come in handy there. This all led to an ultimately great

as Jake and saved this one for last. He had struggled a bit

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 remember that while Jake was also a noble, he didn’t really integrate this fact

their toes while making them hesitant to make aggressive moves toward him. This status as

did have in this Challenge Dungeon was his lack of speed when delivering 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

alone. With him were several others,

naturally faded as Jake stepped forward and saw the S-grades approach. “I take

longer lurking as a threat, I have hope our

a promise to keep,” the Forsaken Dragonkin interrupted as he looked at Jake with

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

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