The Primal Hunter

The Sword Saint’s absolutely brilliant plan to make Jake try and seduce the Prime Consort through the power of dangling his Bloodline in front of her had just one minor problem: how was he supposed to prove he had one?

Only people with Bloodlines could tell if others had one, and Jake had not encountered anyone with a Bloodline there in the labyrinth, so he really wondered how in the hell the old man expected him to sell the lie.

This was totally not Jake trying to find a way around the plan by arguing that it was unfeasible to begin with and they had to find another way to get to the Prime Consort. Totally not. It was just that the plan was actually really bad and totally impossible to pull off and-

And…

Why am I here? Jake questioned himself as he leaned against the wall inside the small fogged-up hallway leading to the Prime Consort’s residence. So, yeah, the old asshole had already planned for this. Sure, the Sword Saint couldn’t exactly go around spreading rumors himself, but they had someone in their party whose job was to know about the people entering the city.

The Fallen King had simply informed the Guard Captain that he had discovered Jake had a Bloodline. When asked by the Guard Captain how he had discovered this, the Fallen King just said he had a special ability to detect them, which was tied to his existence as a Unique Lifeform. The Guard Captain had the ability to tell truths from lies, so when he saw that the Fallen King spoke the truth in both instances, he instantly informed the ruler of the city – the Prime Consort.

Technical truths were still truths. The Fallen King had indeed ”discovered” Jake had a Bloodline a long time ago, and the Fallen King did also have a special ability tied to him being a Unique Lifeform that helped him do this… his ability to die and become a mask that Jake then Soulbound.

So, yeah, the Fallen King had been Jake’s downfall. He had even spread details about Jake’s Bloodline. Just the fact that it amplified his presence and made him immune to other presences was the original plan. But the Unique Lifeform also decided to add that it allowed Jake to sense other presences far better and thus more easily read their intent and thus predict any and all attacks. It wasn’t even a lie, either. It was just that this ability to better detect presences was just one part of his overall increased ability to sense… well, everything.

This meant Jake was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. For some bloody reason, the Sword Saint seemed convinced Jake wouldn’t need any assistance when it came to the Prime Consort, showing complete and utter confidence in his seduction skills.

Jake had no seduction skills.

He had never even asked someone out. Alas, this was a challenge he had to overcome… his party relied on him to get the job done, and as much as he hated it, Jake was the only one who could do it. Sure, the Fallen King could have gotten an audience given enough time, but they still hoped to get the floor done within a week, so that wasn’t an option. Sylphie was known to be aligned with the Second Mistress, and Dina was known to be aligned with the Sword Saint, so… yep, that left Jake.

Just bite the bullet, he told himself as he walked through the fog gate and entered the labyrinth room that belonged to the Prime Consort. This room was far larger than any of those prior and had a dozen or so buildings, with the central building being a large circular structure. Through a pulse, Jake saw that the structure had a vast underground complex beneath it in the shape of a pentagram. Definitely a hidden magic circle.

Also, even if the guard faction was not allied with any of the Mistresses or even the Prime Consort, they still protected them, and there were far more guards present here than in any of the other rooms. There were also a lot of high-ranking cultists around, making Jake more sure than ever that this room was designed for a potential big fight taking place there.

Shortly after entering the room, two male Courtesans walked toward him. Both were at a higher level than the ones on the outside and from the shadows, he felt several people observe him. Demonic cultists, no doubt.

”Welcome to the Prime Residence, my lord,” one of the Courtesans said as he bowed. ”Her Excellency is awaiting you inside. I would heavily advise not making her wait for more than necessary.”

”Thank you, I shall go immediately,” Jake answered with a bow, the two Courtesans seemingly satisfied with his answer as Jake walked up the many steps leading to the house of the Prime Consort. Through his sphere, he already saw her within.

While the other Mistresses were distinctively non-demonic, the Prime Consort clearly had demonic aspects to her appearance, such as small horns on her forehead. From a cursory scan, she looked to be half-succubus, though she lacked some distinctive features like the tail. Rather than sitting on a large bed like the Ninth Mistress or casually at a normal table like the Second, the Prime Consort was sitting at a small table close to the ground on some pillows within a large room, likely waiting for his arrival.

Taking a final deep breath to calm himself, Jake entered the building. The moment the door behind him closed, he felt the magical seals set in, and he knew it was only the two of them in the entire structure.

Continuing inside, he finally entered the room where the Prime Consort was waiting and looked at her as she scanned him up and down. He felt the use of Identify on him and responded in kind.

[Prime Consort – lvl 269]

Nothing about her being innocent, Jake noted instantly. He wasn’t there to kill her, but it was still good to know.

”Nine did tell me about you shortly after you met… described you as giving off a powerful feeling and as a worthy candidate,” the Prime Consort said as she summoned two wine glasses from her spatial storage as well as a bottle. ”Come, join me, and let me learn if she was correct or not.”

Jake nodded as he walked over and took a seat without saying anything as the bottle levitated up and poured them both a glass.

”A man of short words?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

”I apologize; I meant no offense,” Jake said, trying to be polite. ”I am just not usually in a position like this.”

”Oh?” she asked. ”A C-grade human feeling uncomfortable around the opposite sex? Now, that is something I have not encountered before… or is it perhaps due to the company?”

”I can’t deny that,” Jake smiled slightly.

”The demonification can be offputting to som-”

”Not that…” Jake interrupted her as he scratched the back of his head. ”It is just rare I spend time with someone like you… like this… in fact, I don’t actually think I ever have before.”

Jake felt slightly cringe saying that, but it wasn’t a lie. In fact, he had never spent any time with a woman ”like this.” The Sword Saint had also warned him that the First Mistress had a skill to tell lies from truths, and seeing as the Guard Captain did too, Jake had gone in with the assumption the Prime Consort could too.

Despite Jake feeling like his words were rather cringeworthy, the Prime Consort seemed quite pleased.

”Oh, please. I heard you had met with the Second Mistress and even spent some time within her residence. Several days, in fact… do you mean to tell me you managed to avoid having her dig her fangs into you during all that time?” the Prime Consort asked.

As she asked, Jake felt something impact Shroud. A lie-detection skill. He instantly let it through as he answered.

”The thought never even crossed my mind. I only had one real conversation with her, and I truly have no interest in her. She only allowed me to stay with the hope I would assist her,” Jake shook his head.

”Did you agree to assist her?” Prime Consort asked.

”I only agreed to do what I believed would benefit me, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that I simply took advantage of her offer to further my goals,” Jake answered decisively.

Once more, the Prime Consort seemed satisfied with his answers, her lie-detecting skill having assured the authenticity of both. The last one had been a pre-prepared line, so he damn well hoped it would work.

”Two is an indecisive girl but talented, and I do have high hopes for her. I also know that, unlike some others, she truly does not covet my position as Prime Consort. That it is contestable is a bit silly, to begin with. In all honesty, then I see no need for this entire setup with Mistresses and me as the Prime Consort anymore… the Demon Lord has no interest in us anyway,” the Prime Consort shook her head. ”He never truly had. Our titles are more there to indicate that we belong to him and heighten his status, and that is a position we will uphold as long as he desires.”

”You truly admire the Demon Lord,” Jake said with a smile. While it was certain that the Prime Consort was far more ”real” than the common person in Nevermore, she still had an odd proneness to just divulging information.

He wanted to follow this line of dialogue if he could and eventually turn it toward the topic of the Secret Scrolls.

”Naturally. Do you not?” the Prime Consort asked, only a hint of suspicion in her voice. He also felt the lie-detecting skill again.

”To gain an audience with him would be a dream come true,” Jake smiled. Because if I had an audience, I wouldn’t have to be here right now.

”Sadly, that is not feasible right now, but dependent on how things go, we might be able to figure something out later,” the Prime Consort said in a suggestive voice as she drank a bit of her wine. Jake did the same to be polite as he prepared himself.

Sense of the Malefic Viper had made him aware of a strong toxin coming from the wine bottle the moment it was summoned. Intended toxins, mind you, as the magical alcohol potency was quite a lot higher than one would usually consume in low-tier C-grade.

Drinking it, Jake actively held back on activating Palate, as him not being at all affected by the alcohol would be damn suspicious. Seeing the bottle and how it had seemingly not lost any content despite her pouring them both a glass, Jake got an idea.

If Jake asked about stuff he shouldn’t, it would obviously be suspicious, but if he asked while drunk? Even better if she was also drunk and didn’t hold back many secrets. Of course, Jake never actually planned on getting drunk in the first place, just a little tipsy at most. While the wine was strong, Jake had had stronger before with Villy several times. A lot stronger… which, yes, had resulted in the type of toxin Jake best resisted, probably being alcohol.

Alcohol was an interesting kind of toxin that wasn’t really a poison. Not truly. It instead fell into the same camp as some herbs that made you hallucinate or maybe feel more clearheaded. These were not actively harmful and didn’t deal any damage to the person who consumed them as long as it wasn’t done in massive quantities, but they could still be extremely dangerous due to the type of toxin:

Soul poison.

That’s right, alcohol was by far the most common soul poison in the multiverse. Granted, it wasn’t that deadly, never left permanent damage, and was easily detectable and pretty much impossible to hide. If you wanted to hurt someone, it was shit. However, what it was really good at was hiding other toxins mixed into the drink while bypassing most lower-grade detection skills.

Anyway, all of this is to say that Jake was drinking and getting drunk purely for work, and not a single part of him enjoyed the expensive wine. Definitely not.

As they were drinking, they naturally got talking, and after the fifth glass, Jake began to share some vague things about himself while also trying to learn more about the Prime Consort.

”When did you first discover you had a Bloodline?” she asked after a bit more useless small talk, finally changing the subject to discussing it.

”Back when I was still too young to understand what it was, but only knew I was different from everyone else. Something I guess hasn’t changed much,” Jake shrugged as he answered truthfully.

”Did you not have an Elder or other family member teach you? I believe that is customary among Bloodline Clans,” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jake shook his head and pointed to himself. ”Bloodline Patriarch. No one in my family even knew what a Bloodline was. I didn’t even know for quite a while.”

“Truly? A Bloodline Patriarch? Those are… rare,” she said with an even larger smile as her interest seemed to grow. “My first encounter, in fact. That must have been quite an upheaval for your clan or family.”

“Oh, there was an upheaval, alright,” Jake nodded, referring to the initiation of the ninety-third universe.

“Being the sole outlier can be… difficult,” the Prime Consort sighed. “Did you know I used to be a royal court mage? Not many do. I studied under many mages as people kept telling me how talented I was, yet I never felt that talent myself. You see, the old court only cared about the “approved” concepts. Those were the only ones you could study. Me? Sure, I was talented… but only as a warlock.”

“A concept of magic that I assume was off-limits?” Jake questioned as he finished off the wine in front of him.

“Naturally,” she said, waving her hand as she filled both their glasses again. “Yet even when I was discovered studying this banned school of magic, the royal family did nothing. They just allowed me to continue my research while keeping an eye on me. In their hypocrisy, they never truly cared as long as whatever I did lead to making them more powerful. They just wanted to use me.”

“Woe of the strong,” Jake sighed as he raised his glass.

The Prime Consort responded in kind as she also raised her, and they both downed them.

“Even so… how did things end up as they are now?” Jake asked. He felt his face get slightly red as he controlled Palate to keep his head clear. The Prime Consort was still nearly unaffected by the alcohol.

“Oh, the Second Prince was especially interested in my magic, and when he lost his bid for the throne, he came to me. He wasn’t happy just getting assigned some faraway land to rule over, as he knew his chances of ever reaching C-grade would disappear if he was. I was his solution. The desperation of a prince with no magical knowledge and access to the royal coffers did wonders for my research,” the Prime Consort grinned. “But enough about old history… how did you end up joining us? From what I see, you are not a warlock or even a true cultist?”

Jake was a bit taken aback by the rather sharp question. His “fake” identity did not really include much of why he was there, so he had to make something up on the spot. Luckily, appearing slightly drunk made it easier to make up a convincing story. Or…

“Why would I not come here?” Jake smiled. “Where else would I find such pleasant company?”

The Prime Consort just smiled as she made sure to keep herself and Jake’s glass full, and Jake gladly cheered again and again, commenting on how good it was. The Prime Consort clearly had some powerful resistance to the alcohol, and coupled with her higher level, she should be able to handle far more than Jake. If not for Palate, of course.

Soon enough, two hours had passed with Jake learning more and more history while discussing things he himself had done. A lot of it was just metaphors, and while it wasn’t really intentional, the two of them seemed to have in common the woes of not fitting in. As they talked, Jake had more and more situations where he began to feel like maybe the Prime Consort wasn’t that bad. Only for her to add a sentence about how child sacrifices were better in demonic rituals as their souls were “cleaner,” and thus, the chances of the ritual getting damaged by a curse of resentment were lower. So, yeah, definitely still not a good gal.

By now, Jake looked pretty damn drunk if he said so himself and purposefully began to ask more and more “silly” questions. He questioned why the cultists still wore robes when inside, the overabundance of bars for the number of people who lived there, and even made a dumb joke about one of the guards he had seen.

Throughout these two hours, the Prime Consort had slowly shifted her position from sitting opposite Jake, to sitting beside him, to slightly leaning against him every time she poured wine from the bottomless bottle. He acted like he didn’t notice and just seemed more jolly than ever.

Finally, he believed it was time. After taking a large chug of the wine, he made another dumb joke.

“Also, why do you have something called Secret Scrolls? Like, if you call them Secret Scrolls, doesn’t that make people want to know about them just because of the name, making them not really secret?” Jake muttered. “Should call them… eh… Boring Scrolls?”

It took Jake’s full Willpower to not die from cringe saying that.