The Primal Hunter

Was Jake going to question why Minaga had a yellow hard hat, or how he even knew what a yellow hard hat was? No. Was he going to point out how absolutely ridiculous the Unique Lifeform looked with it on his head, as it clearly didn’t fit properly? Yes, of course, he was.

Jake stayed at the construction site for a little while as the projection of Minaga in charge of construction just stood there, seemingly doing stuff behind the scenes. After a bit, it became clear that he couldn’t actually let anyone inside the in-progress dungeon quite yet, but he could make holograms and whatnot of what he was making for others to give live feedback during construction.

Miranda and a few others remained to consult with him as Jake decided there was no real reason for him to stay. According to Minaga, it would take quite a while before anything was ready, and it definitely wouldn’t be complete before the Prima Guardian event was already over. For now, all they could do was wait as the Unique Lifeform did his thing, with the Sword Saint looking into getting a top-tier builder team on the structure that would serve as the dungeon entrance.

Ah, but there was one kind of interesting question asked by a beastfolk who had managed to do well in Nevermore and gotten an idol of her own. She was one of the ”elites” sent by the United Tribes and pretty strong in her own right. She did seem to have a lacking understanding of Minaga, though, based on her question:

“Should we not also turn the surrounding structure into a temple celebrating the All-God Legion?” she asked, being deadly serious.

”Yeah, no, I don’t do temples,” Minaga quickly shot the idea down. ”I don’t do worshippers in general. Faith has nothing to do with my Path at all. All the faith I could ever need, I get from myself. Well, my other selves. We like to believe in each other.”

”You’re just feeling salty you can’t give out Blessings,” Jake pointed out very accurately.

”Neither can you, but you don’t see me calling you out for it,” Minaga rebutted.

”I’m not a god.”

”Oh, and now you’re stereotyping, eh? Why, are all gods supposed to be able to give out Blessings? That’s just pure prejudice right there, and you should feel ashamed,” Minaga shook his head in overexaggerated disappointment.

“In my defense, I’m only prejudiced when it comes to you,” Jake smiled.

Either way, the conclusion was that Minaga didn’t want a big temple to celebrate him. He wanted a large building to instead commemorate the Labyrinth he was making. A pretty respectable attitude in Jake’s mind, to prefer people to praise not him as a person, but the dungeon he had created. Alright, he did want them to then praise him for being such a good creator, of course, but the point was that Minaga wanted recognition for something he’d done and not just for existing.

After everything seemed settled, Jake hung out a bit more with some familiar faces before everyone headed back to do their own thing. Everyone was preparing in their own way for the Prima Guardian to arrive and had taken time out of their day for this Labyrinth-creation day. Jake did have to admit that it felt a bit like a waste of time for everyone to go, but seeing as the idols for the Labyrinth were all Soulbound, they had to show up.

Jake didn’t leave the newly named Labyrinth City on his own, though. A certain hawk decided to join him as they decided to do something Jake was reminded of recently when he couldn’t easily contact Sylphie or even feel where she was when he prepared to head to Labyrinth City:

They were going to remake their Union Oath.

The reason it hadn’t been remade yet wasn’t just because of Jake being forgetful, though that did play a factor. It was also because when he did remember, he didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. To Jake, Sylphie was like a niece. She was family. Asking her to redo the Union Oath felt like overstepping to him, especially when one considered the limitations of the skill.

Sylphie could only have an Oath with one person at a time, and who was Jake to assume it would be him? She was free to make it with anyone she wanted. The benefits of the Union Oath were originally to allow Sylphie to do certain system events, but Jake doubted that would apply much anymore, as there were no indications she couldn’t participate in the Prima Guardian event.

However, Sylphie had asked him to remake it. Jake didn’t know if this was partly with the pressure of Stormild or something, and it honestly wasn’t his business either. He did insist on only making a temporary Union Oath like the first one, though. These Union Oaths were supposed to be for life, and Jake wasn’t going to lock down Sylphie. He wanted her to have ample opportunity to change her mind in the future.

Heading back to Haven using a few teleporters, Jake and Sylphie headed straight for his lodge. On the way, Jake decided to ask a certain someone if remaking the Union Oath temporarily was even possible, seeing as the only reason it had been temporary in the first place was due to him.

”Hey, Villy. During the last Union Oath, you interfered and kinda helped half-break the thing… can you do that again? Or is it possible to do a halfsie Union Oath like last time?” Jake asked the snake god.

exploit what you broke for my own benefit. Secondly, rather than doing a new Union Oath, it should be possible to rely on the Records of the first one to recreate it, with all its benefits and demerits. Just ask Stormild once you do the ritual,” the Viper answered, putting Jake’s mind at peace.

first time dealing with Stormild, and it had been… something. Trying to get a read on the massive living natural disaster was quite a difficult

were inside, they didn’t beat about the bush as

”Ree, ree,” she explained.

place my hand on the magic circle and accept the prompt. I remember,” Jake nodded. ”Let’s hope Stormild is nice this

argued that Big Bird Stormild was

thing. Her entire body began to glow as Jake felt powerful magic at play. Compared to back

Jake touched the magic circle as

use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author.

to begin the ritual to enter a Union Oath of Stormild with Sylphie? NOTE: Both parties can exit the ritual at any

as he once more felt like he existed in two places at once. He was both inside the lodge, and his soul floated as a soul form within a vast starry sky

Jake and Sylphie exchanged glances as they looked at the one other thing in this space. A giant tablet with

Union Oath of Stormild

this time, there were what looked like outlines of runes still remaining toward the top. Jake quickly gathered these were the remnants of the Union Oath they had before and the one they hoped to effectively renew. The entire tablet also looked more worn than last time, with small cracks around the corners, as if it was damaged. Seeing as this

of burning wind appeared between Jake

Jake answered:

the form of a burning wind bird. ”Ah, I

”Ree?” Sylphie questioned.

fix it, just not sure you want to? You want to do a renewal, right? Renewing an eternal oath is kind of funny, isn’t it? I think it is,” Stormild said in her usual childish tone. “Anywho, if I fixed it, we couldn’t renew the old one, now could

before adding:

that to it, sure,” Stormild agreed. ”But both parties have to agree, and it does seem a

had proposed to change the Union Oath to include terms for breaking it, actually putting them into words. From what Jake had gathered, these terms were usually something like one party trying to kill the other or doing something that caused a certain level of bad

you couldn’t do terms that were just ”one party wants

an example, the bad karma would need to be at a level that would only come from either party killing close family members of the other or doing something so

things happened simply by the fundamental promise of the Oath being broken. At which point the one breaking the promise in

Union Oath worked, all of the usual terms and conditions applied by it were a bit wishy-washy, and death was never even on the table. Its effects were also lesser in every way,

enemy, it would also break. No questions, no nothing. This was a simple condition and was effectively an anti-betrayal clause. Seeing as their original Oath was pretty much just to be friends, Jake wasn’t sure how much this small extra clause even did, but having

the new Union Oath wouldn’t automatically

should he interfere again, I’ll

do anything, which was definitely the best for Jake’s long-term health. The words of Stormild also made it

threat, as the

say I’d kill him! Just give him an owie for acting like

”Ree.”

as he really

started with the Union

Sylphie nodded as Stormild got