The Primal Hunter

Was Jake going to question why Minaga had a yellow hard hat, or how he even knew what a yellow hard hat was? No. Was he going to point out how absolutely ridiculous the Unique Lifeform looked with it on his head, as it clearly didn’t fit properly? Yes, of course, he was.

Jake stayed at the construction site for a little while as the projection of Minaga in charge of construction just stood there, seemingly doing stuff behind the scenes. After a bit, it became clear that he couldn’t actually let anyone inside the in-progress dungeon quite yet, but he could make holograms and whatnot of what he was making for others to give live feedback during construction.

Miranda and a few others remained to consult with him as Jake decided there was no real reason for him to stay. According to Minaga, it would take quite a while before anything was ready, and it definitely wouldn’t be complete before the Prima Guardian event was already over. For now, all they could do was wait as the Unique Lifeform did his thing, with the Sword Saint looking into getting a top-tier builder team on the structure that would serve as the dungeon entrance.

Ah, but there was one kind of interesting question asked by a beastfolk who had managed to do well in Nevermore and gotten an idol of her own. She was one of the ”elites” sent by the United Tribes and pretty strong in her own right. She did seem to have a lacking understanding of Minaga, though, based on her question:

“Should we not also turn the surrounding structure into a temple celebrating the All-God Legion?” she asked, being deadly serious.

”Yeah, no, I don’t do temples,” Minaga quickly shot the idea down. ”I don’t do worshippers in general. Faith has nothing to do with my Path at all. All the faith I could ever need, I get from myself. Well, my other selves. We like to believe in each other.”

”You’re just feeling salty you can’t give out Blessings,” Jake pointed out very accurately.

”Neither can you, but you don’t see me calling you out for it,” Minaga rebutted.

”I’m not a god.”

”Oh, and now you’re stereotyping, eh? Why, are all gods supposed to be able to give out Blessings? That’s just pure prejudice right there, and you should feel ashamed,” Minaga shook his head in overexaggerated disappointment.

“In my defense, I’m only prejudiced when it comes to you,” Jake smiled.

Either way, the conclusion was that Minaga didn’t want a big temple to celebrate him. He wanted a large building to instead commemorate the Labyrinth he was making. A pretty respectable attitude in Jake’s mind, to prefer people to praise not him as a person, but the dungeon he had created. Alright, he did want them to then praise him for being such a good creator, of course, but the point was that Minaga wanted recognition for something he’d done and not just for existing.

After everything seemed settled, Jake hung out a bit more with some familiar faces before everyone headed back to do their own thing. Everyone was preparing in their own way for the Prima Guardian to arrive and had taken time out of their day for this Labyrinth-creation day. Jake did have to admit that it felt a bit like a waste of time for everyone to go, but seeing as the idols for the Labyrinth were all Soulbound, they had to show up.

Jake didn’t leave the newly named Labyrinth City on his own, though. A certain hawk decided to join him as they decided to do something Jake was reminded of recently when he couldn’t easily contact Sylphie or even feel where she was when he prepared to head to Labyrinth City:

They were going to remake their Union Oath.

The reason it hadn’t been remade yet wasn’t just because of Jake being forgetful, though that did play a factor. It was also because when he did remember, he didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. To Jake, Sylphie was like a niece. She was family. Asking her to redo the Union Oath felt like overstepping to him, especially when one considered the limitations of the skill.

Sylphie could only have an Oath with one person at a time, and who was Jake to assume it would be him? She was free to make it with anyone she wanted. The benefits of the Union Oath were originally to allow Sylphie to do certain system events, but Jake doubted that would apply much anymore, as there were no indications she couldn’t participate in the Prima Guardian event.

However, Sylphie had asked him to remake it. Jake didn’t know if this was partly with the pressure of Stormild or something, and it honestly wasn’t his business either. He did insist on only making a temporary Union Oath like the first one, though. These Union Oaths were supposed to be for life, and Jake wasn’t going to lock down Sylphie. He wanted her to have ample opportunity to change her mind in the future.

Heading back to Haven using a few teleporters, Jake and Sylphie headed straight for his lodge. On the way, Jake decided to ask a certain someone if remaking the Union Oath temporarily was even possible, seeing as the only reason it had been temporary in the first place was due to him.

”Hey, Villy. During the last Union Oath, you interfered and kinda helped half-break the thing… can you do that again? Or is it possible to do a halfsie Union Oath like last time?” Jake asked the snake god.

”To be clear, it was you who broke the ritual the first time around. I just swooped in to exploit what you broke for my own benefit. Secondly, rather than doing a new Union Oath, it should be possible to rely on the Records of the first one to recreate it, with all its benefits and demerits. Just ask Stormild once you do the ritual,” the Viper answered, putting Jake’s mind at peace. Partly.

He still remembered his first time dealing with Stormild, and it had been… something. Trying to get a read on the massive living natural disaster was quite a difficult task, though she had seemed quite helpful the first time around. Her flighty personality just made her a handful.

Once back at Jake’s lodge and the two of them were inside, they didn’t beat about the bush as Sylphie reminded him what he had to do:

”Ree, ree,” she explained.

”Right, place my hand on the magic circle and accept the prompt. I remember,” Jake nodded. ”Let’s hope Stormild is nice this time around.”

”Ree,” Sylphie argued that Big Bird Stormild was always nice.

”Sure, sure,” Jake smiled as Sylphie did her thing. Her entire body began to glow as Jake felt powerful magic at play. Compared to back in D-grade, Jake now had a far better grasp of just how high-level the small ritual circle summoned was. Truly the work of a Primordial.

Reaching out, Jake touched the magic circle as the prompt appeared:

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Do you wish to begin the ritual to enter a Union Oath of Stormild with Sylphie? NOTE: Both parties can exit the ritual at any point until the final Union Oath has been made

The answer being obvious, Jake agreed as he once more felt like he existed in two places at once. He was both inside the lodge, and his soul floated as a soul form within a vast starry sky of nothingness. In the space, he couldn’t see Sylphie right away until he noticed: the wind all around him, in this entire detection range, carried her aura.

A powerful gust swept through as all the wind began to gather before forming a small hawk. Jake and Sylphie exchanged glances as they looked at the one other thing in this space. A giant tablet with a title on the top.

Union Oath of Stormild

Last time, the rest of this tablet had been entirely blank; however, this time, there were what looked like outlines of runes still remaining toward the top. Jake quickly gathered these were the remnants of the Union Oath they had before and the one they hoped to effectively renew. The entire tablet also looked more worn than last time, with small cracks around the corners, as if it was damaged. Seeing as this was a representation of the Records of the Oath, it wasn’t entirely wrong to say it actually was damaged.

”Quite the mess, eh?” a voice suddenly said as a small orb of burning wind appeared between Jake and Sylphie, making Jake instinctively shy away.

Quickly gathering himself, Jake answered: ”The tablet?”

”Yepsie,” Stormild agreed as the orb morphed into the form of a burning wind bird. ”Ah, I don’t blame you. I blame Vilas.”

”Ree?” Sylphie questioned.

”No, I could fix it, just not sure you want to? You want to do a renewal, right? Renewing an eternal oath is kind of funny, isn’t it? I think it is,” Stormild said in her usual childish tone. “Anywho, if I fixed it, we couldn’t renew the old one, now could we?”

”Ree,” Sylphie agreed before adding: ”Ree, ree?”

”We could do slight alterations like that to it, sure,” Stormild agreed. ”But both parties have to agree, and it does seem a bit silly and not at all how the Union Oath is supposed to work.”

”I’m, of course, fine with it,” Jake said, as the suggestion was excellent. Sylphie had proposed to change the Union Oath to include terms for breaking it, actually putting them into words. From what Jake had gathered, these terms were usually something like one party trying to kill the other or doing something that caused a certain level of bad karma between the two of them.

For the record, you couldn’t do terms that were just ”one party wants to break it off.”

It had to be more complex than that for the system to accept breaking an otherwise unbreakable bond. For the karma thing, as an example, the bad karma would need to be at a level that would only come from either party killing close family members of the other or doing something so morally incomprehensive the other simply found it unforgivable.

Of course, the Union Oath would usually be broken before these things happened simply by the fundamental promise of the Oath being broken. At which point the one breaking the promise in the Union Oath would already be dead.

The thing is… due to how Jake and Sylphie’s Union Oath worked, all of the usual terms and conditions applied by it were a bit wishy-washy, and death was never even on the table. Its effects were also lesser in every way, but so were all the downsides. One such lessened downside was that the terms for breaking it could be far less severe, allowing them to simply settle on a term for breaking that wasn’t overly harsh.

Still, the terms weren’t nothing. Sylphie proposed that should she think Jake was really a baddie, the Oath would break. At the same time, should Jake think Sylphie was an enemy, it would also break. No questions, no nothing. This was a simple condition and was effectively an anti-betrayal clause. Seeing as their original Oath was pretty much just to be friends, Jake wasn’t sure how much this small extra clause even did, but having it put into words couldn’t hurt.

Sylphie hadn’t made it with that in mind, though. She did it for the upsides. Because it also meant that should they continue to be close, the new Union Oath wouldn’t automatically expire for a far longer time. It was still not going to last forever, but far more than just a few years like the last one.

”Alright, alright, I’ll help,” Stormild said as the Primordial threw Jake a look. ”Ah, and make sure Vilas knows that should he interfere again, I’ll crush your soul projection so hard it’s not gonna be fun for you at all. Okay?”

Jake knew this wasn’t an empty threat as he nodded. He also felt that Villy wasn’t going to do anything, which was definitely the best for Jake’s long-term health. The words of Stormild also made it very clear that even if a lot of factions wanted Jake and would be angry if he died or got crippled, Stormild didn’t care in the slightest.

”Ree!” Sylphie scolded Stormild for the threat, as the Primordial backed off a bit.

”I didn’t say I’d kill him! Just give him an owie for acting like a baddie.”

”Ree.”

”What do you mean that’s fair?” Jake mumbled, as he really made sure Villy wasn’t going to try anything.

”Great! Then let’s get started with the Union Oath renewal!”

Jake and Sylphie nodded as Stormild got started.

”Ahem,” Stormild said as the entire tablet lit up. Words reappeared as the Primordial asked in a serious tome. ”Do you, Awesomest Uncle Jake Thayne, take Bestest Bird Sylphie to be your Forever-Friend, and do you agree that should you become a baddie in the eyes of Bestest Bird Sylphie, you are no longer Forever—Friends and the Oath will be undone?”

”I do? Yeah, I do,” Jake agreed, a bit confused until he remembered the initial wording of their Union Oath. A simple promise to be Forever-Friends… oh well, it had worked, hadn’t it?

”And do you, Bestest Bird Sylphie, take…”

Stormild asked the same thing of Sylphie, as she also agreed. The light of the tablet intensified, and a final system prompt popped up in front of Jake to indeed confirm his decision, proving whatever Stormild had just done was pure theatrics.

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They both naturally agreed, and Jake once more felt the Union Oath be established. He also felt his own heartbeat speed up slightly, but he kept it under control. He wasn’t going to fight anything this time, and compared to the first Union Oath, his reaction was far less extreme. Stormild also clearly chose to stay out of the Oath entirely but was more of a facilitator than a guarantor – which was also the primary reason the Union Oath didn’t have any punishment should it be broken.

Feeling the connection once more made Jake smile. He also vaguely felt Sylphie be happy about it, proving the Oath had been a great success.

”Ree!” Sylphie screeched, thanking Stormild.

”No problem, no problem! Just keep working hard, okay? You already claimed Authority, which is a super good start and mega impressive for C-grade!” the Primordial said. Jake was still far from sure what an Authority was, even if Sylphie and that Wintermaul elemental from the Nevermore get-together had mentioned it. All he knew was that it was a good thing.

”Ree!” Sylphie gladly accepted the praise.

”I don’t really have any big pieces of advice to offer except to never become a slacker! Unless you’re really tired, then slacking off for a little while is totally fine, but then you have to come back and have super much energy after, alright?” the Primordial whom Jake really had a hard time taking serious continued.

Sylphie just nodded as if such advice was entirely unneeded. Which is probably was. Sylphie was always full of energy and definitely not the type to begin slacking off. And if she did…

”Oh, trust me, I’ll make sure she doesn’t become some freeloader,” Jake assured the elemental Primordial. freёwebnoѵel.com

”I’m not saying she has to be as zealous as you… just not lazy,” Stormild muttered. ”Anyhow, Union Oath over! Bye, Sylphie, I’ll keep your uncle for a second!”

”Ree!” Sylphie screeched while raising a wing to wave goodbye. With that, she disappeared, leaving Jake alone with the Primordial, giving him a bit of a deja vu from the first Oath.

The moment Sylphie was gone, Jake felt the entire atmosphere shift. It turned incredibly serious as the burning bird of wind looked at him. ”You and Sylphie have both grown faster than I expected. Startingly so. I have also heard of your other exploits, and while I don’t care much for the Nevermore stuff, am I right to assume Sylphie was your first creation using your talents as the Harbinger of Primeval Origins?”

Jake, going along with the more serious mood, nodded. ”She was. My ability was not the only factor, but I’m certain she was affected.”

”Good. The progenitor of any Path is advantaged,” Stormild said in a pleased tone. ”That was all I really wanted. Do treat her well, for she intends to treat you well.”

”Of course, I will,” Jake answered, almost offended she felt she even needed to say that.

”Good, good. Oh, and do say hi from me next time you meet our mutual acquaintance!”

”The Viper?” Jake asked, unsure who she was talking about.

”No,” the Primordial simply said.

”Then who?”

”That’s for you to find out, isn’t it?” Stormild said in a teasing tone, before throwing Jake soul out and back to his lodge, as Stormild once more proved themselves quite a handful to deal with.