The Primal Hunter

Chapter 985: Intelligence Work Miranda hadn’t stopped her investigation into what had happened to the Fallen King and Sylphie even after the situation had seemingly been resolved. She refused to believe there weren’t more traitors on Earth, perhaps even some high up in the system. A few more administrative staff were identified over the next few weeks who had all been incredibly suspicious. Some weren’t even immigrants from other planets but natives of Earth.

Arthur took the lead in many of these investigations, as the vast majority of these people were from his prior base of supporters. The United Cities Alliance had been formed by the people who opposed the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and, in general, people who wanted to preserve Earth as it was before the system. In other words, they didn’t want any immigrants or non-humans anywhere, and rather than live with beasts in a semi-synergistic society, they would rather see them all killed. They simply refused to see them as the sapient creatures they were now.

The push of the World Council to not only allow immigrants and freed slaves to settle on Earth but even beasts to live among humans had naturally ruffled some feathers, and the recent return of the Risen had only made things even worse. While they had done much to address these people, it was hard to do anything toward people merely harboring negative thoughts or acting in the shadows.

No one wanted a society where you could get in trouble for thinking the wrong thing either, so they’d ended up with a lot of people carrying resentment and a lot of bigotry toward anyone who wasn’t a human while naturally also hating other humans who didn’t share their beliefs.

This was a problem Miranda, Arthur, the Fallen King, and the Sky Whale had discussed extensively, with the shared sentiment that nothing but time could fix these issues. The old generation had to die off and be replaced with more progressive people who weren’t used to a world before the system but what the multiverse had now become.

Anyway, insidious actors had found plenty of people to take advantage of, and many jumped at the opportunity to seemingly do meaningful damage to Jake and his allies, who were ”actively destroying the planet.”

These insidious actors naturally included allies of Ell’Hakan. Quite a lot of them, in fact. However, when looking into them, Miranda and Arthur were perplexed at some of the things they found, and with the assistance of William, they discovered everything wasn’t as simple as they looked. Rather than finding one group… they found two.

One was the agents of Ell’Hakan, who had seemingly gone into sleeper mode for the last pretty long period, likely doing nothing more than reporting things to the other Chosen while not taking any actions. A few had even gone as far as to spread rumors about what had happened actually when Ell’Hakan invaded the planet so long ago, how it had all been a misunderstanding caused due to the Order of the Malefic Viper, and some even claimed it had been a good thing as it ”opened the eyes” of the Viper’s Chosen to what his Patron truly was.

None of them did anything overtly harmful to Earth and weren’t really threats at this moment.

This all seemed to track with Ell’Hakan’s recent official stance where he no longer ran any negative propaganda campaigns toward Jake. Instead, he didn’t seem to say much about Jake at all, and what was said was neutral at worst. Truly, it did seem like he was trying to spin a tale of Jake and Ell’Hakan being enemies due to their respective Patrons and having no personal animosity toward each other… meaning that should Jake ”break free” from the Malefic Viper, they would have no reason to oppose one another. Should he join Valhal, perhaps they would even be allies.

When it came to these people who loyally served Ell’Hakan and acted according to his will, Miranda just kept an eye on them and took notes. Taking any actions would ruin their own plans. Also, keeping an eye on them while not doing anything would instead help Jake’s cause, as she was sure the people she sent weren’t all competent enough to not be discovered, and the fact that Earth’s intelligence network knew and didn’t act against his agents would certainly get back to Ell’Hakan, only further strengthening his delusion that Jake had softened his stance toward his fellow Chosen.

As for the second group, also made up of Ell’Hakan supporters, they were quite a bit… different. These people seemingly were no longer actually in contact with the other Chosen but acted entirely on their own and had made their own small groups and plans, entirely – and purposefully – separate from the true followers of Ell’Hakan.

Of course, ironically, these people believed they were the ”true” followers. As for their exact beliefs… Miranda couldn’t figure them out, and it soon became clear it wasn’t because she was shit at her job but because they truly didn’t have any collective belief outside of thinking that Ell’Hakan was some kind of godlike being and that Jake and the Viper were evil incarnate. They had a flimsy cohesion at best, and all the true fanatics were immigrants who Miranda suspected had also been immigrants on the planets they had arrived on Earth from.

These fanatics had then found allies among the natives of Earth, making wild promises that Ell’Hakan would save them all from the evil snake cult, eradicate all the beasts and monsters, and return the planet to its rightful owners: humanity. Truly, it was all bullshit and didn’t even track with what Ell’Hakan would actually do… but it was good enough to convince the desperate morons who let anger and fear of the foreign rule them over logic.

of but would certainly keep in mind. The predominant one was that Ell’Hakan had perhaps wanted to create followers with absolute loyalty and

if not for all the evidence speaking to the contrary, and while William still wasn’t the most reliable source, he had proven himself honest in all matters so far. Her view of William was a bit odd, as she naturally didn’t know him from back in the Tutorial. She had never really interacted with him or even heard about him until he came and began to actively

absolute psycho during Jake’s Tutorial, and even sided with Ell’Hakan afterward, again due to Eversmile. Casper and Jacob had also confirmed pretty much everything Jake had told her, making it clear she had to be wary even if he had supposedly changed. Caution was never a bad thing in her book, but she didn’t want to be overly cautious and not make use

had also come by after having proven himself useful that day, having investigated a group of fanatics. They ended up not really being that problematic or worth dealing with

writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen

estimate there are out there?” Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow. ”Of these real

have and even glean some insight here and there, but I wouldn’t call it an exact science, and we would undoubtedly catch many innocents in the net if we wanted to cast it

limit it to the people who have been directly influenced by Ell’Hakan? Those with a direct connection to the Chosen?” Miranda asked, these

Leaders who were part of the Prima Guardian Alliance met Ell’Hakan at one point or another, but that doesn’t mean they are loyal to him. Kindroth should be proof

was still a weird figure. By now, Miranda was pretty sure he had his own plans,

sway over many of the other World Leaders and used that to try and out any dissidents. Plus, he was really good at what he did, which, more than anything, was being

eye on him, even if she did believe they would remain allies for now, as their interests did seem to allign. Even if he was useful and competent, he still wasn’t as effective as William, though, as karmic magic was simply overpowered for outing spies, and it was good to have the heretic of a Primordial specialized in

considered and knew asking if using karma to look just for those Ell’Hakan had messed up with his Bloodline wasn’t possible. At least William couldn’t do anything there, as he couldn’t use his skills to track anything Bloodline-related due to

with karmic bonds was also that while they went two ways, one side could have a far more powerful bond

if you are only observing him from

looked at the floor and hesitated before elaborating at least a little. ”Meeting Ell’Hakan would simply be too risky. With his Bloodline… no, I can’t

don’t trust most of my emotions. They still feel foreign at times, and I’m uncertain what influence of Eversmile still lingers. I’m such a

said with a smile. “Having met him myself,

had a track record of being used and manipulated, so

Bloodline to everyone. Miranda had to be extremely careful while around him, always keeping her own emotions in check, and even so, she wasn’t certain it worked. How could she be? If she felt like she hadn’t been influenced, that could easily just be because Ell’Hakan wanted her to feel that

because he had a mind trained with discipline and had an “old soul,” so to say. He knew himself, he knew his emotions, and he knew how to calm them in an almost meditative state, not allowing them to affect him. His mind was like a serene pond that would instantly notice if any ripples formed from outside influence. It was something Miranda admired about the man and certainly one of the biggest reasons he had come as far

Meanwhile, Arnold was Arnold.

cellar beneath her office. Well, rather than a cellar, it was more like a large cavern she had Hank help construct a long time back, also making use of the coffins from the Treasure Hunt and many other natural treasures to help enhance her

was easier for them to simply disappear, consumed by the swamps of the Verdant