The Primal Hunter

”How the hell am I supposed to say hi to someone for you if you don’t tell me who…” Jake grumbled as the damn birdbrain didn’t make any sense at all. He genuinely had no idea who she was even talking about… it could be so many. Maybe another Primordial, seeing as Jake had met, like, half of them during Nevermore? Some Void God was also entirely possible… or maybe Artemis? It could even be that Wintermaul elemental, in case the one who’d blessed that guy was closely related to Stormild. Wait, it could definitely also be Minaga. Both Minaga and Stormild were chaotic as fuck.

Shaking the thought away as it really wasn’t worth dedicating any brainpower to, he turned his attention to Sylphie, who looked curiously at him. ”Ree?”

”No, just Stormild messing with me,” Jake sighed. Yeah, that was his conclusion, even if the Primordial could have actually meant something with her words. He really wasn’t a fan of people acting mysterious just for the sake of acting mysterious.

”Ree,” Sylphie responded.

”Yeah, not surprising an elemental spirit likes to mess with people,” he just agreed. Jake also took a moment to really feel the Union Oath once more. It was odd. When it disappeared, Jake hadn’t really missed it overly much, likely because he still always had the Golden Mark of the Fallen King to find and contact Sylphie quickly.

Then, after Nevermore, they quite frankly all could do with a bit of time apart to do their own thing. Now, it felt oddly comforting to have it back, though. Sylphie also seemed happy, which made Jake happy in return.

”So, what are your plans now? Gonna continue to help Whaleman?” Jake asked the hawk.

”Ree, ree, ree,” Sylphie confirmed. She also told him some interesting details he hadn’t heard before. Sylphie had recently adopted the role of primarily hunting elementals and given them stern talking-tos. Elementals tended not to be very good at listening, and even if they were intelligent, they were more akin to children than adults.

Some more adult-like elementals - such as the water elemental at the harbor town Jake, Carmen, and Sylphie had stopped by on their way to Paradise - were already working on taming the elementals close to human land. At the very least, the elementals were trying to eliminate them as threats to humanity.

Elementals trying to control other elementals was a lot easier than beasts trying to control other beasts, primarily due to their lower level of intellect. If a smart and powerful water elemental entered a group of dumb water elementals, these other water elementals would instinctively begin to follow the smart one.

Sylphie was this concept taken to the extreme. Other wind elementals practically worshipped her. She even told him of the time she went to the cloud islands that had drifted away from hanging above Haven a while ago. All the Cloud Elementals, Storm Elementals, and other variants were incredibly subservient to Sylphie without her even needing to do anything.

Maybe it has something to do with that Authority skill, too? Jake questioned himself without having any means to confirm. Sylphie also had no idea when he tried asking her, either.

”Seems like you got a quest ahead of you,” Jake smiled, happy Sylphie had something to do.

”Ree?”

back

nodded in understanding before waving her goodbyes… but not before flying by and stealing one of Jake’s

so that was great. Not much else had changed, though. Truthfully, it would have been weird if the musa had experienced any great changes in less than a year, as these things tended to take their

laboratory beneath the lodge as he didn’t have any more obligations for now. With Miranda back, he also felt a lot more assured that things would be handled elsewhere, and he also trusted that there wasn’t really anyone capable of making trouble for her. At least not anyone where Jake’s skill set of beating people up could help, as he trusted she could do that herself. She had genuinely impressed him with

strong. They still weren’t absolute top-level geniuses, but Jake could see Miranda reach a level where pretty much no one her level stood a chance if they entered her domain. He recalled the Dark Witch and her simple domain that already made her a lot stronger and more difficult to deal with. Adding someone with actual intellect and cunning to control such a domain was just

of mages that didn’t really fight people straight-up but did weird shit to win. To be clear, Jake was

half a year or so specializing in creating his most powerful iteration of Heartrot Poison yet. While he didn’t know for sure the Prima Guardian would be a flesh and blood Vitality-based lifeform, Jake heavily assumed it was based on how most of the Primas had been beasts. It really wouldn’t make much sense for a big robot to suddenly appear… but if it

Jake delved into his alchemy once more, as there really was little more to do now than wait for the

was making its own preparations for the Prima Guardian to arrive, so were all the other planets in the ninety-third universe. The ones that had enlightened ones who successfully united under one banner anyway. Planets like the one Draskil came from

had technically united still faced huge challenges, as even if the World Congress had elected a World Leader, that didn’t mean all civil

their stations and were now grasping

area unexplored, they could perhaps make do even if there was internal chaos.

encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the

mandatory World Congress, the power of the Prima Guardian also scaled with how many Primas had been killed and the overall performance of the people on the planet during the initiation. So, when some people had to abandon the planet – not unlike how the Holy Church and Risen had left Earth – after having killed some Primas, it could cause an imbalance between what the planet looked capable of beating and what they could

the Guardian - if a lot of people from their planet had left to become more powerful with divine

also the entire Prima Guardian Alliance – an aspect of the upcoming event Earth had voted not to take part in. At the cost of splitting rewards, this would allow several planets to band together and assist one another. Meanwhile, Earth would not be able to

all, there was a lot going on with this event, but at its essence, it was pretty

grown more powerful while away. More beasts would likely join them, making it only reasonable to prepare by ensuring that not too many or too powerful beasts would join the Primas. This entire army and the Prima Guardian must be

what the result would be. Perhaps they would enslave the enlightened races, kill them all, or become some sort of benevolent leader, meaning having the Prima win was actually the best outcome imaginable. Or, you know, it could just

point is, no one knew.

events during the initiation of a new universe were unique. They did share some similarities here and there, allowing some

individuals could take control of parts of the World Wonder. With time, perhaps even the entire World Wonder. WIth how things were playing out currently, it was reasonable to assume one potential method to take control was through these system events during the initiation. That was an utterly

all had one hope. The most powerful of planets tended to vote for dealing with the Prima Guardian themselves to get the most rewards, just as Earth had. However, there was one exception to this. One pinnacle planet that

Ell’Hakan.

his skills had grown to newfound heights, as they placed all their trust in him. While he hadn’t beaten the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, he had proven himself

of Yip of Yore, with many of the gods supporting Yip, having blessed people

eventual galactic politics related to the Seat of the Exalted Prima… and who knows, there might even be a Galactic Congress in the