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.

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

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

the Viper shook his head. “But hearing you talk about how it isn’t a total failure… I wonder, how are Jake’s team

at Nature’s Attendant, and after the god nodded, the Wyrmgod turned back to the Viper. “Three of them have

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

how they did,the Viper thought as he looked at the four screens one

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 mere fact he had gathered all these individuals was impressive in

was struck, as peace – at least temporarily – was established. A clear political victory, achieved in an entirely

had repeatedly said he wanted to distance himself from politics and focus on his Path of swordsmanship, that didn’t mean he had to throw away the political abilities he already had. Skills that were borderline second to

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

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 very first starting

Dungeon life ended with her getting fired as a Courier on her second job with a lengthy criminal record, something she didn’t

to do a bit better but still got 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 again. Having decided to just explore a bit, Sylphie eventually ended up in a too-dangerous area while searching for something

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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 hawk burned to a

was happy enough, though, as she did manage to scam

All across the massive planet, portals had opened as

could give him the final push to

plenty of summons to carry out tasks.

for the larger political issues she faced… well, all the conversations she had with the Sword Saint about the art of Leadership had really come in handy there. This all

still doing the Challenge Dungeon, as he had done the same as Jake and saved this one for last. He had struggled a bit with being

detect lies of those a lot weaker than him was no difficult feat, and liars and scammers 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 remember

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

alleviate this a bit through different means, this was ultimately still his big limiter as he continued his Endless Journey. However, even with

was not alone. With him were several others, including the Guild Founder, Phoenix Queen, and even the

sealing him in naturally faded as Jake stepped forward

smile. “It will take a long time to rebuild… but with the dragon tribe no longer lurking as a threat, I have hope our future will be a bright one… now, let us return to the Human Capital. While there are many losses to

Dragonkin interrupted as he looked at Jake with

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

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