The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1002: A Tale of Half-Truths Carmen just stared at Jake as he made his grand declaration of renouncing the Malefic Viper, even infusing his words with Willpower. She knew he and the Malefic Viper had been planning something, but this was… wait, was it even possible to make that kind of announcement without some kind of backlash? At least it had to trigger some kind of system prompt, right?

When he then explained how he couldn’t get rid of the Blessing, Carmen couldn’t help but feel weird about it. Jake wasn’t a good liar. He had never been. But when he said that he couldn’t get rid of the Blessing unless the Malefic Viper died, he seemed genuine. The other Chosen clearly also recognized this as he smiled and affirmed his interest in the discussion to come.

“Oh, lovely that you find my shitty situation interesting, real flattering,” Jake said in an obviously sarcastic tone before sighing. “But, fine, allow me to continue piquing your curiosity. I may not always do it, but I can admit when I’m wrong, and in retrospect, perhaps it was a mistake to jump into bed with a snake god who quite literally had Malefic in his name without properly understanding what exactly I was signing myself up to. But in my defense, I didn’t have a lot of information to go on back then, and it wasn’t like the Viper gave me a lot of time to think things over before instantly making me his Chosen. Say, do you know when I even became his Chosen?”

Ell’Hakan’s face didn’t change as he motioned for Jake to continue. “Do tell.”

“While still stuck in his damn Challenge Dungeon while infected with a poison that would kill me if I didn’t manage to cure myself in time. This was a Challenge Dungeon that had been made all the way back when the Malefic Viper was still active and had been purposefully made as part of an experiment to see if he could actually kill the challengers doing the Challenge Dungeon, and it had successfully killed every single other person who’d attempted it for dozens of eras until I came along,” Jake said in a matter-of-fact tone, and Carmen couldn’t help but keep staring at him as she hadn’t really known any of this.

“So do excuse me for wanting to take any advantage I could get, and everything indicated that being blessed by the god who’d also poisoned you would be a good way to survive. Back then, I had no idea about the implications of a True Blessing either, and the Viper didn’t even give me some smaller Blessing first but went straight for the True Blessing,” Jake continued.

“Now, that is admittedly odd. Why would he do that? You couldn’t have proven yourself much at that point, much less made yourself worthy of being his Chosen. He may be a washed-up Primordial, but he is still a Primordial and should have some modicum of pride,” Ell’Hakan said, seeming genuinely interested in Jake’s history.

“I would hope the answer is pretty fucking obvious,” Jake said in a half-mocking tone. “Same reason I reckon Yip of Yore made you his Chosen. It’s all in the goddamn Bloodline. Perhaps he knew about this entire Primeval Origins business back then and wanted to lock me down nice and early.”

Ell’Hakan looked in thought for a moment before he turned to the Augur of Hope sitting behind him. “Your thoughts on this tale?”

“While I cannot comment on the thoughts of those involved, I can confirm the sequence of events,” the Augur responded. “Jake walked out of the Challenge Dungeon with a True Blessing, meaning he must have obtained it very early on. I have also heard of the Challenge Dungeon in question from the Holy Mother, as well as others like it that were cleared throughout the eras. Many have fallen to them.”

“You say you won’t comment on the thoughts of those involved but do enlighten me nevertheless. Do you truly believe Jake here could have been tricked by the Malefic Viper?” Ell’Hakan asked the Augur, making Carmen genuinely afraid. If the Augur began to shoot holes in the story, things could easily get ruined faster than-

“Very possibly,” the Augur answered after only a moment of thought. “Jake had very little information to go on and was in a perilous situation. The Malefic Viper never truly gave him a choice and colored his view from the early days with the system. What’s more, and this is perhaps a bit speculative, Jake would gladly accept the True Blessing if it gave him power. His Path is a simple one, focused solely on the pursuit of furthering his own personal skills and abilities. It wouldn’t be difficult for the Malefic Viper to take advantage of his fact.”

“Which begs the question,” Ell’Hakan said, still speaking as if Jake wasn’t even there. “Why would he be willing to denounce his own Blessing, knowing the loss of power such a thing would incur?”

Carmen once again had to hold herself back from sweating. Yeah, he wouldn’t do that, right, and-

“Because there is no power without freedom,” the Augur answered without hesitation. “Should the True Blessing end up becoming a shackle, Jake would gladly cut off his own foot to escape, as long as doing so means he would be able to live on his own terms.”

“Not entirely accurate,” Jake pointed out before smiling. “Before cutting off my own foot, I would at least try to take down my captor whenever next he was dumb enough to give me the chance to. Also, pretty rude of you to discuss me when I’m standing right here.”

“I apologize,” the Augur said with a small nod, not trying to give any further excuses.

at Jake once more as he seemed serious. “Am I to understand this correctly: you claim that the Malefic Viper effectively tricked you into becoming his Chosen because he wanted your Bloodline, relied on your innate nature and lack of knowledge to keep luring you in, and now you are effectively shackled

tone. “You know why Yip of Yore chose

this universe and suffered the backlash for doing so,”

you think he used it on? Who he used it on?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow. “Because I know, and the aftermath of him fucking around in my Soulspace using his Transcendent skill left me with severe soul damage for months, and without the Chosen of the

to use lie-detecting skills or anything like that, the people present

their interactions,

--

script as best as possible. He’d missed a few things and included some

Stolen story; please report.

was not expected at all. The Augur was on the other side of the conference call, and yet he’d helped Jake immensely

of his narrative, which made Jake both

Ell’Hakan and Yip of Yore would both only benefit from. They had the motivation to believe what Jake was saying, and besides, why would the Viper want his

more willing to just listen, kept looking

One do with his

said truthfully, shaking his head. “The system blocked out any knowledge about the details. What I am certain of is that he altered parts of his Legacy within me, leaving some things broken still. Things I’m not sure can be fixed without

Jake didn’t know how to fix Palate and would need help from Villy. The

him to use it in the first

detected I was trying to do something that he would prefer I didn’t,” Jake said, rightfully assuming Villy wouldn’t be a fan of Jake accidentally killing himself. “As for how he did it… this is where I’ll need to mention something else by

that was as

the Malefic Viper by absorbing all the poison. It has a rather high mortality rate dependent on the potency of the mixture used, and seeing as it

blood containing their Records,” Jake added in a serious tone. “A drop the trial taker then ends up consuming

Jake with a level of disbelief that Jake believed was genuine, and

Viper implanted a drop of his blood infused with Records inside of you?” Ell’Hakan asked with a

a boon at times, but I also realize it’s a ticking time bomb. As long as it remains within me, the Malefic Viper has a method to kill me at any

how does this drop of blood

can’t say it’s one thing that’s happened that led to the current state of things, but fact is, I cannot renounce my Blessing even if I wanted to. All I know for sure is that my only way to get rid of my Blessing is either through

nodded as he considered Jake’s words. His entire demeanor had turned much less antagonistic and far more curious, interested, and trusting the longer the conversation had been going on. “Seeing as I doubt you aren’t looking to see the end of your own Path, I assume you wish to see the Malefic One be the

go, better him than me,” Jake said in a curt tone. “Truthfully, I’ve never really held any faith toward the Viper in the first place, something I’m pretty damn sure he knew all along. My entire relationship with the Malefic Viper was one born out of mutual benefit. However, gods don’t tend to like that. They prefer worship and loyalty over anything else, and they cannot fathom a mortal seeing past their divinity for what they truly are: just another person. To me, they truly

wanna say, blasphemous,” Ell’Hakan said