The Primal Hunter

After Jake and Villy had time to wind down, it was time to move on to the next session of the ceremony. The two of them had only discussed what had happened a bit, with the Viper reminding Jake that the entire ceremony so far had effectively been televised across the multiverse, meaning all the big factions now knew what had happened. Giving them all an hour meant the higher-ups back at the headquarters of all the bigger groups could decide on their course of action and allow them to make an “official” decision.

Jake wasn’t gonna lie; he had kind of expected ninety percent or more to leave. Yip had just challenged the Viper and declared he would kill him, taunted him openly, and declared he had entered an alliance with Valhal, with even Eversmile appearing. The situation was now messy as fuck, and their staying could easily be interpreted as choosing a side.

There were some factions Jake felt sure would stay. The Risen and the Order were on quite good terms, the Endless Empire and Automata Legion for obvious reasons, and even the merchant groups he didn’t see leaving.

While the Order did have okay relations with most factions, were they really that good? At most, Jake estimated them to be neutral before Yip’s appearance, and if pissing off others, they wouldn’t view it as worth the risk to stay. Jake had expected the Dragonian Accords and all of the dragon factions to at least pull back a little, the Altmar Empire to probably just leave outright, and for most minor factions to flee for the hills.

The only thing he was slightly right on was the last one. A lot of the minor factions had left. Those who only had mid-tier gods as their strongest didn’t risk offending either side and hoped that just silently slipping out would allow them to get away unnoticed.

All of the big factions had stayed, and from what Jake saw when Villy allowed him a peek, the vibe wasn’t even ruined. People almost seemed to not give a shit about what had just happened, and the VIPs were happily drinking away while chatting. Viridia was busy talking to quite a crowd, which included someone from the Risen, a beastfolk from the United Tribes, an elf, a few humans, and even more scalekins of different variants, including dragons in humanoid forms.

“Gonna send you there now,” Villy said after a bit.

“You aren’t coming?” Jake asked.

“If I did, I would suppress others. No, we will meet for the final part, where it will pretty much just be gods present. I also got word that quite the candidate has been brought here by an old acquaintance. You can meet them later, so look forward to it. Now be off,” Villy said, waving him off.

“You’re still gonna be there in disguise, right?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You know me so well,” the Malefic Viper grinned as Jake was teleported out of the divine realm.

Miranda wasn’t going to needlessly beat around the bush. If she still had the physiological function to do so, she would have quite literally pissed her pants during the ceremony when the gods appeared and flared their auras. The only reason why it had not turned into a massacre was that no intent or will to kill had been infused into it, but she and everyone knew that at any moment, any of the gods could have had a stray thought which would have killed trillions.

Luckily, nothing like that had happened, and the entire situation resolved itself. Miranda didn’t even try to think about what was going on and the wider political implications of it all but just focused on moving forward and the task at hand. Most others seemed to adopt a similar attitude, and most of the larger factions seemed to truly not care much.

This did mean they could move on rather swiftly without anyone truly bringing up what had just happened. Miranda did not doubt that most had just checked in on what the gods of their factions wanted to do, and once they got the go-ahead to proceed as normal, they did just that. It was only at the so-called after-after party gods would appear en-masse, and there was a chance for the topic of Yip to be discussed.

For now, it was just mortal politicians. Miranda had been teleported into the large hall that – while still massive – was ultimately still created for human-sized individuals. It had long tables with food of different sorts everywhere, and Miranda stood back as she saw people teleport in by the hundreds every minute as the hour before the time to reconvene passed.

Few approached Miranda, and she was just fine with that. Everyone instead sought out Viridia or other high-ranking officials of the Order, all identifiable by their cloaks with the motif of the Malefic Viper on them. Miranda didn’t have a cloak and probably looked out of place if not for the fact that she stood with a Judge from the Court of Shadows and Maria for a while before both moved away to discuss with others. Maria to some beastfolk from the United Tribes and Caleb towards someone Miranda guessed to also be from the Court.

Miranda did ask Felix how he felt about what had just happened. This was her biggest regret, as perhaps the primary reason no one else came to talk to her during this entire time was the rambling fanatic who wouldn’t stop going on about how honored he was to see not just one but two Primordials in person. Especially how dying to them would have been the greatest thing ever, as that would mean he had been spared at least a smidgen of their attention.

She could only sigh in relief as, finally, the hour was up, and it was time to move on with the program.

Jake appeared in a small side room with a door leading into the main hall. His sphere instantly covered a good part of the large hall ahead, but it was still far too large for him to see it all, so he quickly released a Pulse of Perception. The design of these inner chambers was one long-ass hall with rooms on both sides, with Jake estimating there to be about twenty rooms and each side, with only one on each end. Jake was at one of the end rooms.

The rooms were for discussions behind closed doors, while the hall was large enough to accommodate everyone invited to this after-party. This was especially the case after so many minor factions had left, leaving plenty of room for everyone. These minor factions would only have been allowed one representative each, with the more prominent factions having small groups. Well, there were quite a few cases of even smaller factions having duos, but always with one thing in coming: one of them was an early C-grade below level 210.

In other words, people were sent to compete with those who joined him shortly.

Standing in the room, Jake waited, and soon enough, he was joined by his would-be party members.

Sylphie, the Sword Saint, and the Fallen King teleported into the room as Jake turned to greet them.

“Hello there,” Jake said.

“Ree!” Sylphie responded by flying forwards Jake and circling him a few times. She finally landed on his shoulder and perched herself there, looking cute while doing it. Sylphie was still young but knew she had to be “cool” and look “awesome” to show off her prowess as Jake’s party member. Jake wondered if anyone would dare challenge her, considering she would probably stay sitting on his shoulder for this entire party. Probably not, but primarily because their attention would be focused on the sole other human in the group.

“This is quite the situation,” the Sword Saint commented, obviously referring to what had happened during the ceremony. “This Yip of Yore strikes me as a troubling individual indeed. He is the Patron of Ell’Hakan, the one who invaded Earth, correct?”

“He is, yeah,” Jake confirmed. “And yes, he does look like trouble. So much trouble I will leave it up to the Viper to figure out what to do and not think about it too much.”

He said this not only because it was his genuine thoughts but because he wanted to avoid talking about it in case he said something he shouldn’t. There was one thing to add, though. “But I was informed that Ell’Hakan is also heading to Nevermore with the intent to compete.”

“Oh?” the Sword Saint said as he seemed to consider something. “Odd. Why would he have allowed the death of the Unique Lifeform when he planned on doing Nevermore? Is that not counterproductive? Unless he has four individuals surpassing that creature.”

“The Ashen Phantom Devourer was not truly on his side. It was simply a temporary ally, convinced that working with this Ell’Hakan would prove beneficial. I doubt it would have wanted to attend Nevermore with him, much less a group of party members he shows up with. That is assuming the Devourer even knew about Nevermore and had any interest in participating,” the King said.

“The Unique Lifeform would have known of it,” the Sword Saint said. “At least it would have soon. I questioned my Patron if our going to Nevermore won’t result in the upcoming system event becoming far easier than intended, and he informed me that Nevermore is expected. The Wyrmgod, working with the system, will begin sending out tokens to the new universe in a year to many of those who manage to reach C-grade, allowing them to teleport directly there and home again.”

“Huh, I hadn’t heard of that,” Jake commented.

“Presumably, it has been like that for many eras already. It was just never relevant to us,” the old man said.

“I guess,” Jake nodded. “Anyway, are you all ready to make our grand appearance? The hall ahead is pretty filled, and there are a lot of early C-grades among them. Competition for you all, I reckon.”

“I shall welcome any and all,” the Sword Saint confidently smiled.

“If they wish to indulge in their own ignorance and delusion, they are free to issue a challenge,” the King scoffed.

“Ree!” Sylphie said, making it clear she would take shit from nobody.

“Let’s make our glorious entrance then,” Jake smiled.

He and the others walked towards the double doors leading into the hall ahead, and as they got close, the Sword Saint and Sylphie both unleashed their Blessing-infused auras. The King, refusing to be outdone, released an aura infused with nobility and the unique signature of, well, a Unique Lifeform. Jake held his own aura back on purpose to not steal the limelight.

Jake saw that attention had already switched to the door as Jake opened it, the gazes of all those present landing on the group of four as they entered. A masked man with mostly black armor and a black cloak, a green bird in a vest on his shoulder, an old man in a dark blue robe carrying a sword, and a willow tree-like being with bony ivory claws and feet, floating a few centimeters off the ground.

Definitely the average dungeon group, if Jake said so himself.

This was the first time the group was revealed, and Viridia was ready as she loudly announced them.

“Let’s all welcome the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and his three party members for Nevermore. Allow me the honor of introducing them,” Viridia spoke as she teleported over and stood beside the four of them.

“Firstly, we naturally have the Chosen. He is a multi-talented fighter and is especially skilled at long-range combat while also naturally a skilled alchemist specializing in poisons. Then we have the Sylphian Hawk, a beast variant I am sure none of you have heard of before, but let me assure you, her talents are remarkable, and her wind magic is multi-purpose. Moreover, despite being a hawk, her sylph-related heritage shines through, allowing her to also display properties and unique talents often reserved only for elementals. Last but not least, she is recognized by Stormild, the Primordial.”

Jake had to admit he wasn’t a fan of revealing information related to what they could do, but Viridia and others had assured him there truly was no way around it. The factions that really wanted to know could find out through various means, and not sharing it could lead to misunderstandings when it came to recruiting a final party member.

Saying outright what their roles were also meant that some swordsman would know that trying to join as a fifth member would be a waste of time. He would instead have to target the Sword Saint for his spot. Also, it wasn’t like the information given provided anything specific many high-level evaluation skills wouldn’t already give. Saying Sylphie was related to sylph-stuff wasn’t exactly a spoiler.

“Next, we have the Fallen King. A Unique Lifeform with powerful telekinetic magic and some soul magic. Ah, does he even need an introduction? I don’t think I have to explain why a Unique Lifeform is more than qualified. All I will add is that he can fulfill nearly all direct combat roles unrelated to long-range combat and healing,” Viridia said, getting a few chuckles from her, even bothering to explain that a Unique Lifeform was strong.

Shit, it wouldn’t be an understatement to say the Fallen King was more qualified to be in the party than Jake. Just by being a Unique Lifeform, everyone knew they were dealing with an apex creature. On a side note, the Fallen King was described as not good at long-range combat, which was the truth. He was more classified as a mid-range fighter, as his effective combat range was far lower than someone like Jake. Then again, Jake would call himself an ultra-long-range fighter.

“Finally, we have the human known as the Sword Saint from the Chosen’s home planet. I should add here that all three of them are technically from his planet, so while this is not unique to him, then seeing another human recognized by the Chosen should give you all pause. Also, quite a bold name to call himself the Sword Saint, isn’t it? But that title is not one to be taken lightly. He is a true swordsman, recognized and blessed by Aeon Clok, no doubt also meaning he has some time magic hidden up his sleeves. Oh, and did I mention… he is a Transcendent.”

People were already silent before, but it still seemed to get heavier after she announced that fact. Jake and the others had discussed if they wanted to reveal it, and the Sword Saint had ultimately said he saw no reason not to. Another Transcendent would be able to tell right away, and announcing it would only make their party seem stronger. Additionally… the old man said he wanted to at least have something to brag about, standing next to a Unique Lifeform, a Chosen of a Primordial with a Bloodline, and some mythical half-hawk, half-elemental never-seen-before creature.

The many gazes upon them were evaluating the group both individually and as a collective. Jake, in turn, scanned the room and the many people looking at them. He focused solely on the C-grades among them capable of joining their trip to Nevermore. There were a few hundred at least, and going through them just with a cursory glance, he found the majority sorely lacking and, for some reason, ninety-percent female.

“You will all get ample opportunity to chat with these outstanding individuals from the new universe later, but before we do that, let us move onto something you have all no doubt looked forward to,” Viridia said and displayed a big smile. “Gift opening time.”

Oh shit, Jake thought as now everyone looked at him. Usually, he would feel awkward about it, but the embarrassment was drowned out by a far more powerful emotion:

Greed for some of that sweet, sweet loot.