The Primal Hunter

Meira felt intimidated as she sat in the living room next to the extremely tall winged woman. To make it worse, the woman occasionally looked at her with eyes making her appear far older than she actually was. Her entire demeanor reminded her a bit of one of the old matriarchs she once saw visit her home village. Thinking about the place that used to be her home, she felt a bit down but quickly steeled herself.

Be patient… Izil already said things are stable there.

Izil had helped Meira check in on her old village, and luckily nothing seemed to have changed back there besides who controlled the land and who the taxes were paid to. This made her think that her family members back there should still be safe, as while life hadn’t been easy back then, it hadn’t been that dangerous either.

As for her father… he hadn’t made it. Meira discovered he had died before Meira even became Lord Thayne’s slave, as he had been bought and used by some alchemist in an experiment. Hearing that had given Meira an odd feeling, as while she was sad, she wasn’t as sad as she probably should have been. She couldn’t lie; her father had never been a good man and never viewed her as more than an asset he could use to hopefully further his own status. This was also why he had been so insistent in selling her off to the young master of the Brimstone Conglomerate the day they had been captured.

His death had actually been a relief for her, as if he was still alive, she would have felt responsible for trying to help him. Helping would have meant asking Lord Thayne for assistance, which she really hadn’t wanted to do, especially not in her early days working for him. Even now, she felt uncomfortable asking for help with anything she thought was selfish, even if she knew she shouldn’t. She knew her mentality was not the same as those around her, and she was still learning, with Izil helping her as much as she could.

After spending so much time around Lord Thayne and Grand Elder Duskleaf, two people with statuses so much superior to her it wasn’t even funny, she learned that her father’s mentality wasn’t one everyone had. Lord Thayne at least seemed to genuinely care about her as more than just an asset. In fact, he wanted to not have her be his asset to an almost hurtful degree.

Which did make it a bit funny that he, in his nervousness for the upcoming ceremony, had completely forgotten to strip her of her status as a slave even after she had joined the Order. Something she certainly wouldn’t be the one to bring up herself. Meira smiled as she remembered her small celebration with Lord Thayne and Izil after joining the Order. It was her first time ever being celebrated, and it felt nice.

”You either wear your emotions on your sleeves, or you are terrible at hiding your inner thoughts,” Vesperia said with a smile as she looked at Meira.

Meira blushed as the Vespernat Hive Queen looked down at her with amused eyes.

”You act as if you don’t also show emotions,” she tried to shoot back. Meira had seen the two of them talk, and she knew the Hive Queen was blunt and honest in most cases.

”I display my emotions intentionally; that is the difference. I naturally cannot hide them all the time, but I actively attempt to control them when I am around people I don’t want to be open with. I have to with my position, as making half-hearted decisions based on how I feel or allowing others to manipulate me emotionally would be ill-advised,” Vesperia explained with a smile.

”I never learned any of that…” Meira complained, knowing it was a problem. She knew she sucked at stuff like this, which was also partly why Nella had been able to treat her like she had for so long. Meira had genuinely believed she was her friend until the moment she realized it wasn’t so.

”Do you…” Meira began as she built some courage. ”Do you think Lord Thayne will ever… you know?”

Vesperia looked at Meira for a few seconds before sighing and giving her a comforting smile.

”You like him, I do believe that. Just don’t confuse gratitude and admiration with love and adoration, or the outcome will only be needless hurt,” Vesperia said in a motherly tone. ”He cares for you, but you have a long way to go before your emotions are ones he can respond to in the way you hope. You want fundamentally different things as you are now, and I don’t see him changing. So if you want to pursue more than you have now, you must change. Evolve, not only in power but as a person. Become someone not just looking up to him and wanting to prove herself useful, but a person who can stand on their own, for what you are now is not what he wants.”

Meira fell silent after hearing these words as she clenched her fists. ”How… how would I do that?”

”That, little elf, I cannot answer,” Vesperia smiled as she patted Meira on the head. ”But what I do know is that you will need to find a reason within yourself to change. If you want to change only for others, you will never truly realize your goals and walk a short and fruitless Path. Then again, maybe you will prove me wrong.”

Meira was about to ask more when she heard something outside the mansion. She looked out one of the large windows and saw an entire group had appeared on the lawn outside, and from the looks of it, they were all yelling about something while several had blood coming out of their eyes with a weird tree-like creature lying prone on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

So, Jake made a joke. A pretty good joke, if he had to say so himself, teasing them about the evil eldritch beings dwelling in the void between universes. Now, Jake did know that words held power and whatnot, but how the hell could he have known that the power of jinxing was that powerful?

Things had gone as usual during the teleportation until suddenly, he felt something was wrong. The very next second, Jake felt himself floating in the middle of the void, surrounded by everyone else. They also all seemed to notice something was wrong as they stupidly opened their eyes and looked around, only for the world in front of them to distort and reveal what looked like… a hairy cube?

Jake was assaulted by a headache as the cube vibrated and multiplied before suddenly, a sea of eyes also swept in and made the picture even more fucked up. He wasn’t exactly sure what the hell was going on, but his instincts were screamed at him as he felt not just one but two presences at once.

Because what was better than one eldritch Void God? Two eldritch Void Gods.

”Chosen by the Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge, I congratulate you, and I offer a rightful gift as forepromised,” Jake heard what he believed to be Oras speak.

”Human of Origins Lost. Beings of Paths Once Untraveled. Seek thy meaning, realize and ascend,” a second and even more distorted voice spoke into all of their heads.

Then, the cubes just disappeared as if they had never been there, leaving only the flood of eyes. Then, a small orb appeared before Jake’s eyes, and he instinctively reached out and grabbed it before they were once more thrown through the void and appeared back on his lawn within the Order of the Malefic Viper.

”What the actual fuck was that!” Maria yelled as blood dripped from her eyes.

”I… I don’t…” Miranda muttered as she looked completely out of it.

”Void tastes bad,” Sandy said in a tone that could be perfectly communicated with a sad smiley.

”That felt so wrong,” Caleb shook his head as his body gave off crackles of black lightning. ”So, so wrong.”

The Sword Saint was silent as his eyes were still red with tears of blood coming out. He seemed calm, but inwardly, Jake didn’t doubt he was affected.

Only two people besides Jake came out okay. The first was Sylphie, who had been asleep, and the other was Felix, who still stood with his eyes closed, seemingly entirely unaware of the outside world. It took Jake poking him before he woke up, proud that he had followed the directive of the Chosen to seal off his senses so perfectly.

Last but not least was the one who was worst off: the Fallen King. The second they appeared, he had just fallen over, and Jake felt he was unconscious. Jake had no idea why he had been struck so hard, but he clearly had been.

As the others loudly discussed and yelled to calm themselves down, Jake checked out the item in his hand given by Oras. It felt like a glass marble and was smaller than the tip of his fingers, yet he felt an odd and dangerous energy from it. Not knowing if it would even work, Jake used Identify on it.

[Vision of Oras (?)] – A small bead containing Records and energy created through unknown means by the Void God, Oras. This item has been bound to the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, Jake Thayne, and cannot be used by anyone else. Consuming this bead grants +59783 Perception. Directly consuming this item may cause adverse effects. Beware, staring into the small bead may grant you visions of the void.

Jake just stared dumbstruck at the ludicrous description for several seconds, especially the part about consuming it for Perception. Nearly sixty fucking thousand Perception for eating it? That was nearly three times as much Perception as he had. Not that Jake could even consider eating it for even a second. The level of danger he felt from it was intense, making him fully aware it would be a death sentence. Also, with the stat cap from consumables, it wouldn’t even help him much. Then there was the part about staring at it, and-

”Lick it…”

The voice of a snake god whispered in Jake’s ear.

He thought he had heard wrong as it came again.

”Come on… just lick it. You know you want to.”

”Villy, what the fuck is this thing?” Jake asked the snake god.

”Shh… just lick it.”

Jake was seventy-nine percent sure the Viper was trolling him, but he still complied as his curiosity won out. With much hesitation, he lifted the small bead and gave it a lick. It felt like licking a ball of glass covered in some kind of honey-like liquid and was honestly a bit gross. It was definitely not something he would ever-

+ 330 Perception.

- not do again.

He instantly wondered what the hell that was and saw that on his status, the part related to consuming elixirs had been completely filled after he did his lick. He had needed 330 more stats to cap it out, and this one lick had done just that. For clarification, the amount of stats he could get per level was up from 15 to 45 in C-grade.

Jake was excited as someone slapped the back of his head.

”Jake! Wake the fuck up. What was that?” Miranda had snapped out of her stupor and went for Jake, forgetting all her usual decorum and clearly mad.

”Eh, one of them was Oras,” Jake turned out and said as he quickly stored away the small bead. ”That other thing… I am not so sure. But it seemed encouraging, right?”

”Do I want to be encouraged by that… thing?” Caleb spoke unsure.

”Was that really Oras?” Miranda asked with wide eyes and a red face. ”How in the everliving fuck can Arnold be Blessed by something like that? No, how is something like that even a thing?”

”What did you see?” Jake asked, wanting Miranda to calm down. It helped a bit as he got her thinking, and she slowly regained her composure.

”It… it looked like an endless field of towers with eyes at their tops,” Miranda muttered. ”And that other thing was a pyramid or something?”

”No?” Maria said. ”There was this giant flaming eye that kept expanding as it seared into my mind together with this spinning top…”

”That isn’t-”

”Everyone sees them differently,” Jake clarified. ”They are eldritch beings above mortal understanding, after all. Not sure how gods see them. Ah, but I honestly feel pretty fine this time around. Also, I wonder what happened to that guy?”

Jake referred to the Fallen King, who was still unconscious. Not knowing when he would wake up, Jake decided to just pick the body of the Unique Lifeform up to drag him inside once they decided to enter. However, first, everyone had to get the ”what the fuck” experience out of their systems.

He had already seen Vesperia and Meira sitting in the living room, and from the looks of it, they knew they were there. Meira had headed to the kitchen and was preparing some drinks while Vesperia waited to greet them once they finally entered.

”I should have just kept my damn eyes closed,” Maria complained.

”Yep,” Jake agreed.

”How…” the Sword Saint finally spoke.

”I told you, they look differently based on-”

The old man responded as he drew and raised his sword. In a calm motion, he moved it through the air. A faint black line was left in its wake that quickly faded, but Jake definitely felt the familiar presence of the void for a fraction of a second. However, the Sword Saint just frowned before shaking his head.

”My apologies, such pursuits are too early,” the old man smiled sadly, his demeanor calm as can be.

”What did you just do?” Jake asked.

”Void is the absence of all, the emptiest canvas of all… I considered using it with my painting profession, but it is too unstable with my current power, so I can display naught but a pointless imitation,” he said with regret in his voice.

”That was void stuff. Void stuff isn’t something you just do,” Jake commented again.

The Sword Saint just smiled. ”Perhaps I got lucky with my insights during this encounter.”

Jake just looked at him for a few seconds before shaking his head. Why the hell did people call Jake some kind of genius with that bloody monster around?

Oh yeah. Bloodline.

Everyone else also just looked at the old man for a bit as he tried to wave it off by sheathing his sword again.

”Alright, enough void stuff. Let’s move inside?” Jake asked.

”Let us,” Miranda said while sharing wipers with the others to clean away the blood on their faces. ”I need to sit down and get rid of this damn headache.”

”Fair, fair,” Jake nodded as he extended some mana strings and picked up the Unique Lifeform to move him inside. Sylphie protested as he woke her up and told her to just fly around by herself. Sandy looked around before rolling further onto the big lawn, far away from the others.

”I’m just gonna stay here till the big announcement… my tummy hurts,” Sandy complained as the big worm returned their full size and rolled onto their back.

Seeing as Sandy wasn’t the most social, Jake didn’t fault her as he let the others inside. Carrying the Fallen King with mana strings was easy enough, and Vesperia moved to open the door from the inside once she noticed their approach.

”Welcome back, Sire. I have a feeling you experienced some difficulties during the trip?” the large Hive Queen said as she stood at the door wearing her golden dress.

Everyone stared at her for a moment as Maria spoke.

”I thought you said you made a wasp.”

”I said I made a wasp Hive Queen,” Jake answered her before talking to Vesperia. ”Yeah, we encountered some void stuff.”

”Jake, how the fuck is that an insect monster?” Caleb asked him telepathically.

He didn’t bother to respond, as he just introduced Vesperia to the group. ”Everyone, meet Vesperia, a True Hive Queen of the Vespernat Lineage.”

”And you made her?” Maria asked with a raised eyebrow.

”I played a part for sure, yes,” Jake agreed.

Caleb then put on a big smile and went forward. ”Nice to meet you, Vesperia; my name is Caleb, but you can call me uncle.”