The Primal Hunter

Jake had a few places he wanted to stop by before heading back to Earth. He first went to a few of the factions that had congratulated him on his Leaderboard placement. He did this primarily to be polite and stuff, but this entire tour was also done for one other reason: politics. Well, and optics… but it all fell under the same umbrella of political bullshit.

Before he had gone to visit anyone else, he made his way back to the Order of the Malefic Viper and said hello to Viridia. He even met Draskil there, who seemed a bit annoyed at having failed to place in the top 250, but he was still nice enough to give Jake a congratulations for his achievement. The Malefic Dragonkin had done pretty okay in his own right, but he simply wasn’t a crafter at all, making him pretty darn screwed when it came to some of the Challenge Dungeons, and while his party was alright, they had only reached floor seventy-five and not even done the event boss there.

Anyway, while meeting these two was nice, the one he had come to the Order compound to meet wasn’t Viridia or Draskil, but a certain snake that he found sitting in a chair on a terrace overlooking the vastness of space spreading out beyond the ring that was Nevermore City. It was a sealed-off area, and Jake passed a barrier as he made his way there, ensuring no one could see or hear their following conversation.

As Jake approached the terrace, he had already seen the ice bucket with bottles in it, making him smile. Jake walked onto the terrace, the god sitting in the lawn-chair not even turning to look at Jake as he raised a bottle. “Take a seat and grab a cold one.”

Jake didn’t need to be told twice as he took a bottle, popped off the cap, and sat down. Taking a big swig, he felt the sweet beer run down as throat as he breathed out, satisfied. “Some good stuff. Where’s it from? Doesn’t taste like any of Valdemar’s; he tends to prefer making ale, I noticed.”

“It’s from my personal collection and quite a good lager. Good enough for when there’s cause for celebration,” Villy answered as he turned and looked at Jake. “So, how does it feel to be the top performer of the All-Time Leaderboards?”

“Eh, not really any different than usual,” Jake shrugged. “I just went from being the best to more people knowing I am the best. The title is nice, though.”

“Titles are nice, and they certainly know now you are quite an outlier. Moreso than before,” the Viper smiled as he kept peering out into space. “You know, I’m just gonna be honest with you… I didn’t think you would actually take the top spot. I had hoped for the top ten and maybe the top spot on the Era Leaderboards, but both you and Ell’Hakan did better than anyone estimated. If you hadn’t been here, he would have had all the attention on him for sure.”

“A bit hurt you didn’t think I’d do it,” Jake grinned. “Though I will say it wasn’t easy, and I did get kind of lucky with the Challenge Dungeons. I could straight-up cheese the hell out of one and did pretty damn well in nearly all the others.”

“Luck is such a fickle word. You may think you got lucky, but you need the skills to create that luck for yourself. It’s impossible to design any scenario where some will not have advantages, and your Bloodline can create advantages in many situations, making it incredibly hard to restrict unless you want to make the challenges themselves overly restricted,” the Viper explained as he finished his first bottle and took out another from the ice bucket.

“I guess Ell’Hakan also had his advantages,” Jake muttered before smiling. “Oh well, who cares? I did it, and that’s all that matters.”

“True, true,” Villy nodded, taking another swig before looking a bit more serious. “Good job in there. You did pretty damn well.”

“Glad to impress,” Jake smiled, also quickly finishing off his first bottle before taking another.

“After this, you will have even more eyes on you than before. Being my Chosen and a Bloodline Patriarch with an incredibly potent Bloodline that may or may not include your abilities as a Harbinger of Primeval Origins already makes you a person of interest. Now you have added on an extreme level of talent in combat, too, not to speak of the Records attained from topping the Leaderboards,” the Viper said, still looking pretty serious.

just a mortal who would die off in a relatively short amount of time, and all they really needed from you before this happened was for you to spread your Bloodline and maybe use

explained, as he tilted his head. “Becoming a god was always the plan and definitely a

plan for most young geniuses, but words, hopes, and intentions are cheap. I am sure every single individual in that little party today fully intends to become a god, but statistically, it would be impressive if even a few of you attained immortality. That’s why it was never really something the factions bothered to consider, as the chances were so low. This is no longer the case. Even if your chance is still incredibly low in their eyes, it’s now high enough

offended

on incomplete information. They are not fully aware of your Bloodline, though they do have a better idea now. At least Valdemar does, having seen your little fight in the Colosseum

said as he quickly explained what had happened with Ell’Hakan inside the conference hall. Due to the barrier made by the Wyrmgod, not even the Viper had been allowed to look inside, meaning their

kill but still one to separate from me. And in many ways, their approach is correct. You are gathering so much attention these days, and I’m getting so many benefits with you as my Chosen. In nearly all

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said with a smile, now already on his third beer. “Say, if I wasn’t bound by my weird Path and could

about you abandoning me, or concerned about the effects of

of both, I

the feeling you aren’t the type to jump ship just because there are rumors the boat is taking in water. You’re more the type to shoot an

people to act with this much confidence if they don’t have a reason. Exactly how strong is Yip of Yore, actually? Thus far,

an entire Pantheon shortly after ascending to godhood, right?”

that and the notoriety it gained him as the

killed all those, too, including one surpassing the realm of Godking. He is… well, before you were around, he was known as the biggest genius to ever appear in the multiverse, and as of this moment, he is a god no one can say with confidence they would be capable of killing without him at least being able to escape. All of this is to say that even without all his tricks, he would be considered a pinnacle god, and with them, I can understand why he would have the confidence to aim for the very top. Especially so when his target is me, a Primordial who

at the long answer as he did have one question. “If he appeared right here, right now, would you be able to

Viper shook his head. “I wouldn’t even

to at least fight and beat him if

he motioned for Jake to take another beer. “I will not answer, though. While it

as he sighed. “Alright, alright. Anyway, was me staying silent good or bad during Yip’s

matter what, and in some ways, it’s good he gave you an official apology like that. It proves he was the original aggressor and the one who initiated an antagonistic relationship between you and him. That he is the one chasing you and not the other way around. It also helps further establish they are no longer interested in simply killing you. Ah, but do note

take the opportunity to kill him too if I got the

that is the one good excuse he can have to fight and kill you: that he was merely defending himself from the mad Chosen of the Malefic Viper. I’m sure he would spin some story as long as it has the fundamental truth that you attacked first behind

the topic, you said there would be more interest in me now from major

will likely leave you alone a lot more. I’m sure you kind of even noticed it today. While the young talents of different factions may have invited you to visit or wished to form positive relations, they will do so in a calmer and more

surprised. He had fully expected to be bothered more than before. That was kind of the norm he had gotten used to. Stand out more equals more attention, equals more people coming up to bother him and trying to make