The Primal Hunter

Jake and Villy moved to the living room of Jake’s mansion, and when Jake went to grab something to drink, the Viper just pulled out two beer bottles that gave off a response from his Sense of the Malefic Viper. Poison beer, nice.

They sat down across from each other as the Viper leaned back on the couch and began talking.

“Bloodlines have quite the history in the multiverse. As those with Bloodlines are often compared to Transcendents, it only leads to more scrutiny and interest, especially from those who possess neither. Bloodlines were a thing from the beginning, and many of those with Bloodlines in the first universe did grow up to be powerhouses who dominated, even if they failed to make it to godhood. Naturally, as time moved on, many also became gods… but their survival rate back then was just abysmal.”

“Why?” Jake asked, a bit confused. Did a Bloodline not give an advantage if it was beneficial?

“Hm… did you know not a single one of us Primordials had Bloodlines? At least not ones anyone knew about?” Villy asked

“No,” Jake shook his head. “I had kind of assumed someone did… though it is true I didn’t feel one from Valdemar, and does the current Eversmile even have one? I didn’t feel it. Not from Stormild either, now that I think about it…”

“Stormild does not have one as far as I know, while Eversmile does, his is just hidden due to the nature of his Bloodline. Well, he may have had it always, but no one knew, not even others with Bloodlines. The point is no one with a known Bloodline became a god during the first Era.”

“That is odd,” Jake thought out loud.

“No, not if you understand the landscape back then. You see, people are greedy. Beasts, humans, elementals, it doesn’t matter the race. We are all greedy for power. So when we see someone with something we don’t have, and we don’t know how to get it… we try anyway to take it, no matter how futile the effort. If you had a Bloodline back then, you had a target on your back. In the beginning, because people wanted to capture you and try to extract it, with even rumors spreading that you could gain a Bloodline by consuming someone who had one,” the Viper explained, shaking his head.

“That sounds fucking rough,” Jake said.

“Oh, it was. This was how the entire first Era went. Most with Bloodlines were slaughtered before realizing their potential, and those who survived lived as test subjects until their death. It was a curse more than anything else. Some with Bloodlines were used as Bloodline Detectors and were strutted around to find others with Bloodlines to capture them. Towards the end of the first Era, I don’t think a single person in S-grade even had a Bloodline.

“When the second Era began, people seemed to have gotten the message that you can’t steal Bloodlines, especially as we Primordials spread it with our nascent factions. However, it was discovered that they could be passed down, so I guess you can imagine the next step in the evolution of Bloodline hunting?” Villy asked grimly.

“Treat them like cattle?” Jake asked with a deep frown.

“Bingo. I would argue it was even worse than before, especially due to how propagation works with the system. Have we ever had the talk about the flowers and the bees?” Villy asked teasingly.

“No… but I have a feeling I know. You can’t force it, can you?”

“Nope, you can’t. Anyone in E-grade has enough control of their body to ignore physiological stimuli, and even if they don’t, you can’t make kids without both parties consciously wanting to. Giving birth to a new life takes intent the same as most kinds of magic. The female cannot get pregnant, and the male cannot impregnate unless they both wish for it to happen. In what should not have been a surprise to absolutely anyone, people with Bloodlines that have practically been turned into sex slaves aren’t exactly excited about becoming parents. Women and men alike were forced into being nothing more than cattle for their masters or dying. It was a shitshow,” Villy explained. One could feel the disgust in his voice… as well as a wave of deep-seated anger. Jake knew Villy was trying to hide it, but Jake felt the bloodlust and hatred subtly leak into the god’s presence.

Jake also felt disgusted as he nevertheless asked. “Did that ever lead to anything?”

“A few times. If they captured them young and indoctrinated them into pretty much making them true members of the clan… some also just broke and began helping out of desperation. Ultimately, it wasn’t efficient in the least, and there is also the fact that you want the one with the Bloodline to be powerful. The Bloodline alone is nice, but the Records of the parents also matter a lot,” Villy explained, as he continued.

“No, the ones who got the most out of it were those who used a more diplomatic approach. The ones who genuinely made them members of their factions, nurtured them, allowed them to prosper, and even sometimes had them end up the new leaders. In fact, this is how many still-existing factions began. There was also a growing tendency to just leave those with Bloodlines alone, sometimes watching from afar and hoping for them to amass power themselves. However, as I said, these were the good ones. The number of hunters looking for those with Bloodlines was far more prevalent.”

“Wait, but only those with Bloodlines can find others. How the hell did they hunt them down? I doubt those with Bloodlines themselves would help, and unless something was drastically different back then, I don’t see every team of hunters having someone with a Bloodline enthralled, as you mentioned before…” Jake commented.

“That is the neat part,” Villy said. “They didn’t. Some kid has a weird hair color? Probably a Bloodline. Kid is talented? Bloodline. Odd affinity they are good at? Bloodline. Anything at all making you slightly stand out from the masses? Probably a Bloodline. It even expanded to beasts where variants were often confused as ones having Bloodlines… the entire situation was utterly fucked and in no way sustainable long-term. Yet it continued, and this craze came in waves. However, there was a shift as more with Bloodlines came to be in power, especially when ones reached godhood. Bloodlines began to propagate, and blindly hunting them down became frowned upon, and it became an activity simply done covertly.”

“So me getting captured is still a possibility; they will just be secretive about it?” Jake asked a bit curtly.

“No. Nobody will dare try,” Villy said, shaking his head.

“Because of my Blessing, I reckon?”

“No, even without it. I said this was how it continued back then… until something happened that made it change. Until they went after someone they shouldn’t have, and all hell was unleashed upon them, leading to a treaty that still stands today, banning the abductions, enslavement, and coercion of those with Bloodlines for purposes of procreations,” the Viper said. When he got to the middle part, Jake felt the killing intent as the air in the living room nearly warped just from the leaked emotions.

Jake wanted to pry but knew better. Instead, he asked a question, slightly changing the topic. “Who was behind this treaty? And how will it be enforced?”

“The treaty was overseen and deployed by all of us Primordials during the seventh Era. It was signed by nearly all publicly acting gods at the time. All of us also act as executioners of any who breaks this treaty. The most known example was during the eighty-second Era when a Pantheon emerged that didn’t seem to care. They had many gods among them and were desperate for expansion. At the same time, a small clan that was rapidly growing to power appeared within their territory, all having powerful Bloodlines. The Pantheon’s leader was a god who was most known for having fought the Starsiezing Titan, another Primordial, and the fight having been mostly deemed a draw. He was confident, but he felt like he needed more. So he looked to this small clan and saw the potential of their Bloodline. He wanted it to expand his faction’s power. However, this small clan did not agree to merge, so… he forced them.”

Jake listened closely as nothing came as a surprise. He knew factions could be ruthless.

“Now, forcing them to join? Meh, that happens. Who cares. The problem was that he also forced them into propagating their Bloodline. He forced the women of the clan to be his own mistresses to sire powerful children and the men to copulate with his own daughters. This was caught within a week of it happening… and this moronic god learned the consequences of breaking the treaty.

“Jake, if there is one thing I want you to understand, it is that of all the treaties in existence, this may be the one no one ever dares break. Even I would not dare do it. Back then, seven Primordials descended. Umbra went, Snappy went in my place, more than ten thousand gods surrounded the planet the Pantheon called home. A slaughter began, the god in charge fled to his realm, where he was promptly followed and killed within. Even if he was stronger in there… even if he was a top talent, one not even another Primordial could kill in single combat, he was no match to the combined might of what may as well have been the entire multiverse. The entire Pantheon was killed and every single member of god’s faction. Trillions died that day, setting an example.”

“Have any Primordial broken it, or won’t they dare to either? I have a hard time seeing someone like Eversmile purposefully avoiding doing certain things just due to the opinions of others,” Jake asked skeptically.

“Eversmile may be able to hide it even if he does break the treaty, but he won’t. Eversmile is a bit of a bastard, but he is not a liar. His word means more than you can understand due to the Path he walks. A promise made by him is more binding and more meaningful than any contract,” Villy just shook his head.

Jake nodded along slowly, still believing Eversmile was an asshole. “Anyway, to conclude, this treaty means I am more or less a protected person due to my Bloodline when it comes to kidnappings and such?”

“Only if they kidnap you for your Bloodline, and only if the kidnapping is to research or forcefully spread the Bloodline. Not that there is much other reason to. As I am sure you can imagine, they would have loved to make Bloodline Holders into slaves, but you can’t enslave people with Bloodlines as we talked about before,” the scaled god explained again.

Jake was beginning to get a good understanding of the situation by now. “The method you talked about working back then still works, though. Integration.”

“Yep,” Villy said with a smile. “If a faction recruits someone with a Bloodline as a member or even just bribes them or pays them to join temporarily as mercenaries to have them spread their Bloodline, it is perfectly allowed.”

“Sounds like people with Bloodlines are still treated as commodities,” Jake frowned.

“Everyone is. If you are a powerful expert, you are an asset. Young talent is nurtured for the benefits they can bring… a god blesses someone for what they can get out of it. We are all selfish assholes in the multiverse. The Bloodline Treaty was not made purely out of altruistic reasons either. The ones who signed it tended to have large factions already and will thus have an easier time simply recruiting those with Bloodlines – something they would prefer to do either way.”

“To circle back… I am still kind of fucked, aren’t I? They just won’t kidnap me but try other “legal” methods…” Jake sighed.

“Yep, big time. Honeypots are aplenty ahead on your Path. Especially the more you progress. If you had a kid in your current grade, it would not be stronger than E-grade, while if you reach C-grade and above you, humans can have kids who are born at D-grade. That is the max, though… unless you go for some high elf or maybe a dragon? In that case, you may be able to go for higher grade babies,” Villy smiled teasingly.

“You know what?” Jake said, returning the smile. “I don’t think I am having that conversation with you.”

“Fine, fine. But just one final piece of advice. Don’t have any offspring for now. In fact, wait as long as possible. Records are essential in anything, and the more children you have, the more spread out those Records will be. The chance of someone inheriting the Bloodline also goes down the more children you have, with the chance being higher for the first child and only falling from there. Of course, you could make up for it by quantity – a reason why male Bloodline Holders and especially Bloodline Patriarchs – are more popular than Bloodline Matriarchs,” Villy finally finished.

“I wasn’t planning on starting a family anyway, so it’s not like that is an issue,” Jake shrugged. He didn’t even have a girlfriend yet, and there was no way he would get bribed into it. He was also pretty confident in resisting honeypots.

“Ah, but do feel free to have some fun; the honeypots will gladly entertain you. I am sure there are many fine ladies interested in-“

“Villy,” Jake interrupted. “I am too sober for that conversation, and I got a lesson in like fifteen minutes, so now isn’t the time to get smashed.”

The Viper just snickered for a moment before he quickly acted all solemn. “I can’t believe how fast they grow up… just a year or so ago, my little Chosen was running around shirtless in a forest fighting local overgrown wildlife, while now he is all grown up and going to school. He is even being responsible with his lessons!”

Jake was about to shoot back with a snarky comment as he felt a presence enter his sphere. It was Meira who was heading over. She was clearly unable to sense Villy, who was currently feeling no different from a normal mortal, and when Jake looked at the snake god, he just shrugged.

“What? If you plan to have her stick around, she may as well get used to it because I may or may not teleport by once in a while when I feel like it.”

“Can’t just make yourself invisible?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.

“The question isn’t if I can, but if I will. A question to which the answer is no.”

Jake just sighed as he stared into the ceiling, hoping whatever progress he had made with Meira wouldn’t be shattered the moment she walked in on him and the Viper sitting in the living room chilling with a beer each.