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.

somewhat. To all the divine factions, you were 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 your abilities related to Primeval Origins. Even if you never helped a specific faction with any of these things, they knew that the amount of help you could offer was limited by your lifespan. However,

the snake god explained, as he tilted his head. “Becoming a god was always

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

I feeling offended by that notion…”

now. At least Valdemar does, having seen your little fight in the Colosseum of Mortals,” Villy explained. “But we both know what happened in that arena is far from everything, and at this point, I’m just looking forward to what more surprises you

bastard approached me during the get-together,” Jake said as he quickly explained what had happened with Ell’Hakan inside the conference hall. Due to the barrier made

“I had not expected them to take such a direct approach. But yes, you are definitely right that they no longer view you as a target to 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 ways, that’s good, but should you choose

has been appropriated; report any instances

even an option,” Jake said with a smile, now already on his third beer. “Say, if I wasn’t bound by

me, or concerned about the effects of you abandoning me? The distinction

both, I

if my Chosen did abandon me would be annoying for sure,” the Viper explained. “While I don’t have your instincts, I get the feeling you aren’t the type to jump ship just because there are rumors the boat is taking

wonder: “Ell’Hakan and Yip of Yore are still clearly confident, though. I get the feeling those two aren’t the types of people to act with this much confidence if they don’t have a reason. Exactly how strong is Yip of Yore, actually? Thus far, I kind of got the impression he is a high-tier god who can jump to be close to the

told you he killed off an entire Pantheon shortly after ascending to godhood, right?” the Viper

remember the Viper briefly mentioning that and the

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 hadn’t exactly been doing much for the last many eras. In many ways, he is a counter to someone like me, as much of my reputation is based on stories of

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

considering,” the Viper shook his head.

fight and beat him if he

not answer, though. While it may sound silly to you, speaking things into existence and the concept of jinxing can begin to seem

Anyway, was me staying silent good or bad during

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 that should a situation presents itself where

him too if I got the chance,”

that is. Because 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 it, likely even putting the blame on me entirely. Should he win, that is. If you kill him, who cares?”

you said there would be more interest in

to visit or wished to form positive relations, they will do so in a calmer and more casual tone from now on, and many of them did it out of personal interest to try and forge

had fully expected to be bothered more than before. That was kind of the norm he had gotten used