Jake had a few places he wanted to stop by before heading back to Earth. He first went to a few of the factions that had congratulated him on his Leaderboard placement. He did this primarily to be polite and stuff, but this entire tour was also done for one other reason: politics. Well, and optics… but it all fell under the same umbrella of political bullshit.
Before he had gone to visit anyone else, he made his way back to the Order of the Malefic Viper and said hello to Viridia. He even met Draskil there, who seemed a bit annoyed at having failed to place in the top 250, but he was still nice enough to give Jake a congratulations for his achievement. The Malefic Dragonkin had done pretty okay in his own right, but he simply wasn’t a crafter at all, making him pretty darn screwed when it came to some of the Challenge Dungeons, and while his party was alright, they had only reached floor seventy-five and not even done the event boss there.
Anyway, while meeting these two was nice, the one he had come to the Order compound to meet wasn’t Viridia or Draskil, but a certain snake that he found sitting in a chair on a terrace overlooking the vastness of space spreading out beyond the ring that was Nevermore City. It was a sealed-off area, and Jake passed a barrier as he made his way there, ensuring no one could see or hear their following conversation.
As Jake approached the terrace, he had already seen the ice bucket with bottles in it, making him smile. Jake walked onto the terrace, the god sitting in the lawn-chair not even turning to look at Jake as he raised a bottle. “Take a seat and grab a cold one.”
Jake didn’t need to be told twice as he took a bottle, popped off the cap, and sat down. Taking a big swig, he felt the sweet beer run down as throat as he breathed out, satisfied. “Some good stuff. Where’s it from? Doesn’t taste like any of Valdemar’s; he tends to prefer making ale, I noticed.”
“It’s from my personal collection and quite a good lager. Good enough for when there’s cause for celebration,” Villy answered as he turned and looked at Jake. “So, how does it feel to be the top performer of the All-Time Leaderboards?”
“Eh, not really any different than usual,” Jake shrugged. “I just went from being the best to more people knowing I am the best. The title is nice, though.”
“Titles are nice, and they certainly know now you are quite an outlier. Moreso than before,” the Viper smiled as he kept peering out into space. “You know, I’m just gonna be honest with you… I didn’t think you would actually take the top spot. I had hoped for the top ten and maybe the top spot on the Era Leaderboards, but both you and Ell’Hakan did better than anyone estimated. If you hadn’t been here, he would have had all the attention on him for sure.”
“A bit hurt you didn’t think I’d do it,” Jake grinned. “Though I will say it wasn’t easy, and I did get kind of lucky with the Challenge Dungeons. I could straight-up cheese the hell out of one and did pretty damn well in nearly all the others.”
“Luck is such a fickle word. You may think you got lucky, but you need the skills to create that luck for yourself. It’s impossible to design any scenario where some will not have advantages, and your Bloodline can create advantages in many situations, making it incredibly hard to restrict unless you want to make the challenges themselves overly restricted,” the Viper explained as he finished his first bottle and took out another from the ice bucket.“I guess Ell’Hakan also had his advantages,” Jake muttered before smiling. “Oh well, who cares? I did it, and that’s all that matters.”
“True, true,” Villy nodded, taking another swig before looking a bit more serious. “Good job in there. You did pretty damn well.”
“Glad to impress,” Jake smiled, also quickly finishing off his first bottle before taking another.
“After this, you will have even more eyes on you than before. Being my Chosen and a Bloodline Patriarch with an incredibly potent Bloodline that may or may not include your abilities as a Harbinger of Primeval Origins already makes you a person of interest. Now you have added on an extreme level of talent in combat, too, not to speak of the Records attained from topping the Leaderboards,” the Viper said, still looking pretty serious.
“Before, you were just a young talent they hoped to maybe make use of for your unique abilities… but now that has changed, at least somewhat. To all the divine factions, you were just a mortal who would die off in a relatively short amount of time, and all they really needed from you before this happened was for you to spread your Bloodline and maybe use your abilities related to Primeval Origins. Even if you never helped a specific faction with any of these things, they knew that the amount of help you could offer was limited by your lifespan. However, now… now you have introduced another factor they need to consider with some level of seriousness: the possibility of you becoming a god.”
Jake looked confused at Villy as the snake god explained, as he tilted his head. “Becoming a god was always the plan and definitely a possibility.”
Shaking his head, the Viper chuckled. “It’s the plan for most young geniuses, but words, hopes, and intentions are cheap. I am sure every single individual in that little party today fully intends to become a god, but statistically, it would be impressive if even a few of you attained immortality. That’s why it was never really something the factions bothered to consider, as the chances were so low. This is no longer the case. Even if your chance is still incredibly low in their eyes, it’s now high enough to consider seriously.”
“Why am I feeling offended by that notion…” Jake muttered.
“In their defense, they are acting on incomplete information. They are not fully aware of your Bloodline, though they do have a better idea now. At least Valdemar does, having seen your little fight in the Colosseum of Mortals,” Villy explained. “But we both know what happened in that arena is far from everything, and at this point, I’m just looking forward to what more surprises you are hiding.”
“Speaking of incomplete information… a certain orange bastard approached me during the get-together,” Jake said as he quickly explained what had happened with Ell’Hakan inside the conference hall. Due to the barrier made by the Wyrmgod, not even the Viper had been allowed to look inside, meaning their little encounter was a surprise to him.
After Jake was done talking, the Viper just shook his head. “I had not expected them to take such a direct approach. But yes, you are definitely right that they no longer view you as a target to kill but still one to separate from me. And in many ways, their approach is correct. You are gathering so much attention these days, and I’m getting so many benefits with you as my Chosen. In nearly all ways, that’s good, but should you choose to abandon me as your Patron, Yip of Yore would be able to turn all my gains against me, turning your exceptionalism into a demerit for me.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Damn, too bad that’s not even an option,” Jake said with a smile, now already on his third beer. “Say, if I wasn’t bound by my weird Path and could bail at any time, would you be concerned?”
“Concerned about you abandoning me, or concerned about the effects of you abandoning me? The distinction is important,” Villy asked, clarifyingly.
“Bit of both, I guess?”
“I wouldn’t really be concerned about you abandoning me, but the effects if my Chosen did abandon me would be annoying for sure,” the Viper explained. “While I don’t have your instincts, I get the feeling you aren’t the type to jump ship just because there are rumors the boat is taking in water. You’re more the type to shoot an arrow at whatever bastard tried damaging the hull.”
Jake smiled, as he did still wonder: “Ell’Hakan and Yip of Yore are still clearly confident, though. I get the feeling those two aren’t the types of people to act with this much confidence if they don’t have a reason. Exactly how strong is Yip of Yore, actually? Thus far, I kind of got the impression he is a high-tier god who can jump to be close to the top-tier using his weird storytelling skills.”
“Hm, I believe I told you he killed off an entire Pantheon shortly after ascending to godhood, right?” the Viper asked.
“Yeah,” Jake nodded. He did remember the Viper briefly mentioning that and the notoriety it gained him as the top god of the last era.
“Well, I didn’t include that this particular Pantheon included a Godking and a Godqueen. He slaughtered them both easily, and when others tried to hunt him down for revenge, he killed all those, too, including one surpassing the realm of Godking. He is… well, before you were around, he was known as the biggest genius to ever appear in the multiverse, and as of this moment, he is a god no one can say with confidence they would be capable of killing without him at least being able to escape. All of this is to say that even without all his tricks, he would be considered a pinnacle god, and with them, I can understand why he would have the confidence to aim for the very top. Especially so when his target is me, a Primordial who hadn’t exactly been doing much for the last many eras. In many ways, he is a counter to someone like me, as much of my reputation is based on stories of old, and that’s very much his domain,” the Viper gave a lengthy answer, seemingly fine with sharing quite a lot of information.
Jake frowned a bit at the long answer as he did have one question. “If he appeared right here, right now, would you be able to kill him?”
“That isn’t a question worth considering,” the Viper shook his head. “I wouldn’t even try.”
“Would you be able to at least fight and beat him if he tried to kill you?”
“Now, isn’t that the question of the era?” the Viper just smiled as he motioned for Jake to take another beer. “I will not answer, though. While it may sound silly to you, speaking things into existence and the concept of jinxing can begin to seem very real when you get to my level.”
Jake was silent for a moment as he sighed. “Alright, alright. Anyway, was me staying silent good or bad during Yip’s Chosen’s speech?”
“I don’t think it matters overly much,” Villy shrugged. “He would have found a way to get his message out no matter what, and in some ways, it’s good he gave you an official apology like that. It proves he was the original aggressor and the one who initiated an antagonistic relationship between you and him. That he is the one chasing you and not the other way around. It also helps further establish they are no longer interested in simply killing you. Ah, but do note that should a situation presents itself where they could kill you without the backlash, they would definitely take it.”
“Well, I would take the opportunity to kill him too if I got the chance,” Jake shrugged.
“And I’m sure he is also well aware of that and will ensure to never put himself in such a position… unless he wants to, that is. Because that is the one good excuse he can have to fight and kill you: that he was merely defending himself from the mad Chosen of the Malefic Viper. I’m sure he would spin some story as long as it has the fundamental truth that you attacked first behind it, likely even putting the blame on me entirely. Should he win, that is. If you kill him, who cares?” the Viper briefly explained.
Jake just nodded as he emptied out his current bottle and got another. “To change the topic, you said there would be more interest in me now from major factions… how exactly will that materialize? Will I get bothered more than before?”
“Surprisingly so, no. They will likely leave you alone a lot more. I’m sure you kind of even noticed it today. While the young talents of different factions may have invited you to visit or wished to form positive relations, they will do so in a calmer and more casual tone from now on, and many of them did it out of personal interest to try and forge relations to the top of their generation.”
“That’s… good?” Jake said, a bit surprised. He had fully expected to be bothered more than before. That was kind of the norm he had gotten used to. Stand out more equals more attention, equals more people coming up to bother him and trying to make him join their factions and stuff.
“I would say it is. What you mainly accomplished was to prove that they are not really in a rush to get you. Even if you don’t become a god, many of the factions now have high confidence you will at least reach A-grade, giving you a significantly increased lifespan and thus more time for them to, at the very least, borrow you for a few decades. Should you become a god, they also want to ensure they formed a good relationship with you before ascension, even if they did fail to recruit you. If you are the next Yip of Yore, that would definitely be in their best interest,” the Viper explained before sighing. “Though… Jake, I am truly sorry. I know the implications of this are disappointing.”
“What?” Jake asked, confused.
“They won’t stop, but there will be less now…”
“Yeah, not taking that bai-“
“Your beloved honeypots! Woe is you to no longer be chased by the young maidens, hoping to ensnare the illustrious Chosen Harbinger of Primeval Origins. It’s truly a disaster,” the Viper said, looking at Jake with extreme pity. “But don’t worry, I am sure some will still try and shoot their shot, even if it’s not heavily suggested by their factions.”
“You know? I think I’ll survive,” Jake said in a deadpan tone.
“Stay strong, my Chosen. Keep up that façade,” Villy gave him a pat on the back.
“Oh, would you look at the time! I have an appointment I must attend!” Jake said, smiling at the Viper. “Gotta help that Cerulean Demon do a big ritual with some Heart Fragment of the Cerulean Devil or something.”
“Hm? That sounds fun; tell me more,” the Viper suddenly seemed interested, and Jake gladly shared the details he knew.
“Yep, definitely fun, and I would go for it,” Villy nodded. “Even if you have to spend some of your unique energy, I still think it would be worth it. Not often you get a possibility like this, and making friends with demons is always nice. They are very reliable when they owe you. Oh yeah, and the levels and Records would also be nice.”
“Knew you would be on board… but what if it goes wrong? Pretty sure that Cerulean Demon will be fucked if the ritual fails, or worse, it backfires on him,” Jake voiced his concern.
“Oh, yeah, if that happens, you need a backup plan,” the Viper said, looking deep in thought for a second. “Alright, two things. First of all, have them sign a waiver. Secondly, have those movement skills ready, and should things go south, just run the fuck away and act like nothing ever happened.”
Jake stared at the god for a while. “Good idea with the waiver.”
“Yep,” the snake god grinned. “Ah, but before you head there, stop by the Valhal compound and stay there for a little bit, yeah? And don’t hide it when you go there; let all know you went to visit them. And do so after going to a few other factions. Gotta at least keep people guessing if you are considering your options.”
“More politics?” Jake sighed. “Oh well. Cya around, good talk.”
“See you,” the Viper said, as he followed up with a message sent through something Jake had quite frankly missed… their divine connection. “And good to have my very own personal livestream – with direct communication - back.”