The Primal Hunter 13, page 61
It ended up taking a few more days of Jake suffering through doing fuck-all before he finally got word that Sylphie and Vesperia had returned. To keep up appearances, they would first stop by Miranda before going over to Jake’s place. Sylphie offered to just sneak them over there, but considering Sylphie’s interpretation of the word stealth, it was determined that this method was better.
Jake was sitting by the pond, looking at the eels swimming around, when he felt the two of them enter the valley. He barely had time to turn and look at them before a green ball of feathers flew over and nearly crashed into him.
“Ree!” Sylphie screeched, stopping right in front of Jake yet still kicking up a lot of dust and disturbing the surface of the pond, which caused the poor, startled eels to dive deeper.
“Good to see you too,” Jake said, smiling as he reached out and gave her some scratches. The bird quickly got comfortable sitting in his lap.
“What is the current state of your body and soul?” Vesperia asked, getting straight to the point while walking over with hurried steps, clearly trying to keep her usual calm and collected persona up. Spoiler: she wasn’t doing a very good job at that.
Jake shook his head and sighed. “Body is mostly fine; it’s the soul that’s the problem.”
“Ree?”
“The worst period of weakness should be over within the week, I hope, while the rest will take a lot longer,” Jake explained. “But, hey, in a week, I shouldn’t be useless anymore, just less useful than before my… unfortunate accident.”
“Is there truly nothing to be done?” Vesperia asked. “The Endless Empire has many methods to help recover more quickly, even from severe soul damage.”
“I don’t doubt the resources or knowledge of the Endless Empire, but the—”
Jake stopped himself. He’d been about to say that the Malefic Viper had told him he should just wait, but sharing that he had spoken to the Viper at all was kind of precarious. Thus, he made a quick save.
“—healer called Eron told me that natural recovery is the best, and I would lean toward trusting his judgement.”
“I am aware the man has a Bloodline and is quite competent in his own right, but he is still only C-grade,” Vesperia insisted.
“Look, if you have something in mind, I’m not going to outright reject it, but seeing as we’re cut off from the rest of the multiverse during this system event, we don’t have anyone besides C-grades available to do anything,” Jake said, shaking his head. “And of all the C-grade healers I’ve ever met, I would trust Eron’s assessment the most. Doubt he became the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord for nothing.”
Vesperia looked uncertain for a few moments before just nodding. “Alright… but if you aren’t fully healed by the time the system event en—”
“I bloody well expect to be,” Jake interrupted, the notion sending such a shiver down his spine that he didn’t even want her to fully vocalize it. Alright, he didn’t expect to fix Palate, but his soul should at least be good by that time if he fully relaxed, leaving him with only the damaged skill to address.
“But if you’re not, allow me to send a message back and ask for ideas,” Vesperia insisted, and Jake eventually just agreed to keep the peace.
“Ree?” Sylphie, who had really snuggled herself into Jake’s lap, asked.
“Right, there was also that…” Jake sighed. “Miranda is pretty damn insistent someone should stick around and waste their time here with me doing fuck-all just because I fucked up. Something I don’t feel good about requesting at all…”
Maybe he could argue with Miranda that it really wasn’t needed, so he could avoi—
“It would be best for me to remain by your side,” Vesperia said instantly, even raising a hand. “There are no more planets that need my immediate attention, and as a True Royal, it was never expected of me to take the frontlines in the first place. My only true connection to this planet is also only Sire, so it would logically make sense that I choose to remain close to you and your home. Plus, before leaving, I promised the other True Royals I would stick mostly with you. Finally, I do need to focus on my internal Hive and fully rebuilding my Queens’s Guards, so I did, in truth, plan on staying on Earth in the first place.”
Sylphie looked at Vesperia, who had just gotten done rattling off all the reasons for staying she could muster. “Ree.”
“I don’t believe that is necessary,” Vesperia argued against Sylphie’s argument.
“Ree.”
“Hm…”
“Ree.”
“An acceptable compromise,” Vesperia said with a nod, turning to Jake. “The two of us will stay here until the weakness lingering in your body lessens. Once there is only the long-term damage left to deal with, I will remain on my lonesome. At that time, should an emergency arise, you should be fully capable of defending yourself, correct?”
“Right.” Jake nodded, not a massive fan of not even being included in the discussion, but oh well.
“Then that’s settled,” Vesperia said in a satisfied tone.
“Say… wasn’t the Fallen King with you two?” Jake asked, changing the topic once bodyguard duties were established.
“He chose to temporarily stay behind and will return to Earth at his own pace,” Vesperia said. “From the looks of it, whatever happened to you spilled over and affected him significantly, too, and it appeared he had some soul damage of his own to heal, though it was far less than what you are dealing with.”
“I… see,” Jake said with a sigh, feeling really shitty that his bad decision-making had dealt collateral damage to the Unique Lifeform. He had always fully supported the King’s intentions to sever their link, but before, he hadn’t really seen it as anything with urgency. Now, he hoped the Fallen King would figure out a method sooner rather than later so this wouldn’t happen again… because Jake was definitely going to mess up again sometime in the future.
Despite how much he’d fucked up this situation, Jake wouldn’t stop doing risky shit. Risks and rewards would always be intertwined due to how Records and the system worked, and as Villy had said, Jake shouldn’t stop experimenting and taking risks just because of one setback. He should just have at least one extra step of asking himself “Is this a really moronic thing to do?” before moving forward.
“Worrying over the Unique Lifeform isn’t necessary,” Vesperia said, trying to comfort Jake. “He shall easily make his way back when he so desires, and even if he was temporarily weakened, there was nothing on that planet even capable of posing a danger.”
Jake waved her off. “I wasn’t worried about that.” He knew the King was strong and even had his trump card if things got too hairy.
The three of them spoke a bit more as the hawk and True Royal got comfortable.
With Sylphie and Vesperia now also there at the lodge, Jake felt like chilling in his hot tub or just reading books all the time would be rude, especially since he hadn’t spent that much time with them recently—and had never actually spent that much time around Vesperia, period.
Sylphie also wasn’t the best at doing nothing, and Jake feared that her finding ways to entertain herself would lead to something Miranda would complain about, so he needed some means to keep them occupied, at least until Sylphie left. Vesperia could easily keep herself busy working on Hive Queen stuff and her internal world. This left him with something hugely impactful to consider, with potentially the safety of Haven itself at risk:
What good card games are there for three people? Oh, and it needs to be bird-friendly…
It was only natural for a beta test to have some problems in the initial stages. However, this time, the test had actually gone above and beyond expectations, enough so to be labeled a full-on success. The beta tester had been left with severe issues, but the inventors of the teleporter would take no legal or moral responsibility for these, as they were solely due to the tester’s own actions.
Considering that and how the teleporter had clearly worked the first time around, Arnold was soon ready for his second test subject. After much deliberation over who would be best to send, they landed on someone who would have potentially been even better than Jake to send in the first place. Assuming one was talking about going to the red planets and helping them defeat their Prima Guardians, that is.
A man who had a political mind, allowing him to expertly handle the native population, and naturally also the power to handle the Prima on his lonesome. Moreover, it was someone with an even more effective and reliable method of returning to Earth should anything go wrong. With the right prep work, that is.
“A good view to capture in this moment in time,” the Sword Saint said as he finished painting the landscape in front of him.
“To seal a snapshot of the concept of time within a painting, allowing you to bypass the usual restrictions placed upon travel through space… It’s an interesting application,” Arnold commented from behind.
“It’s not perfect,” Miyamoto said, shaking his head. “Space still contorts time, which is why I selected a planet not too far away. I am far from confident in traveling across an entire galaxy, at least not without significant assistance.”
“More than the circle?” Arnold inquired further.
“A lot more than a magic circle,” he said, shaking his head, having already prepared the circle as he started painting.
All of this was done to allow the Sword Saint to use his painting to return to Earth in case of an emergency. Rather than call it teleportation, the Sword Saint instead captured himself and the world around him in a specific moment in time, and through the painting, he could return there. Of course, Miyamoto couldn’t actually turn back time, only his physical location. This was by far his best skill as a painter—a profession he did not use actively as much as he certainly should.
Not to say he didn’t constantly use it while practicing, as it even helped his swordsmanship. The Path he walked was as much about simply swinging a sword as it was about visualizing the world, the concepts he controlled, and the future he envisioned for himself. Painting his thoughts and ideas allowed him to not only make them tangible but entrench them in his mind, as painting something required being able to truly imagine it.
“Ultimately, the probability of you needing the painting in the first place isn’t high,” Arnold pointed out. “The Prima Vessel should still exist on the planet even if they prove hostile, and I’m certain you could use that to return, even if it takes threatening the native population with annihilation should they refuse to assist you.”
Miyamoto shook his head. “I hope to avoid needless violence.”
“Most people do, but their refusal to assist you could easily be classified as a need,” the scientist said, the Sword Saint only able to nod in agreement.
“Certainly so. Now, let us proceed. I do wonder just how well this teleporter of yours will work.”
They headed to the teleportation circle, and after going over a few things, Miyamoto took his place in the center of the circle.
As it came to life, Arnold looked down at his tablet. “Ah, minor note. The last tester said the process may feel a bit… rough.”
“It shouldn’t be any problem,” the Sword Saint said, dismissing the notion… only to regret it a few minutes later as he was reminded of why he had never been a big fan of rollercoasters before the system arrived.
Chapter 68
Not a Good Start
Being alone and useless had been quite a miserable experience, but the return of Sylphie and Vesperia had at least added something interesting to Jake’s everyday life. They naturally didn’t have much to do around the lodge either, and they had to keep things quiet and not make a mess, forcing them to stay inside most of the time. Poor Sylphie had a hard time with this, as she couldn’t even fly around and have fun.
Vesperia was a lot calmer and seemed like the sort who could easily sit in meditation for a few centuries without complaint. Sylphie was really the exact opposite of Vesperia despite them being kind of siblings, which was weird to think about when he remembered that Sylphie was the older of the two… a fact he made sure everyone knew about.
Jake had to wrack his mind a lot—which wasn’t a pleasant experience—to find a way to keep Sylphie entertained, which did kind of help keep him occupied mentally. He had a few things in the lodge for entertainment, such as playing cards and a few board games he wasn’t sure when he’d acquired.
Playing cards with three people was always hard, and poker with that few sucked, so he couldn’t really find anything fun there. As he went through the different board games, he found some of the good old ones there, such as chess, checkers, and a few dice games, but also some more complicated ones that he seriously didn’t want to try and teach Sylphie in the week or so she would spend there.
Sylphie did turn out to be pretty good at some of the simpler games, and honestly, there was something precious about playing with a giant amazonian wasp and a small hawk who moved her pieces with a talon, screeching in victory when she beat Jake and Vesperia by rolling the special die Arnold had created to assure complete randomness with every roll.
Did Vesperia and Jake let Sylphie win? Of course not—fuck that. They were all way too competitive to let someone else win on purpose.
Anyway, Sylphie was good at dice games and enjoyed them a lot, especially because Vesperia wasn’t a fan. Jake and the hawk also enjoyed teasing the eels, who were very scared of the green bird. Jake did have to remind Sylphie not to peck any of them, and eventually, he had to drag her off when a brave eel tried to bite the talon she was poking the surface of the water with.
Vesperia, on the other hand, turned out to be a big fan of chess. Chess was also one of the few games where Jake didn’t really have any advantages due to his Bloodline. His intuition didn’t seem to do much, and since there was no danger, just play, most of his senses remained on low alert.
Jake himself had never been a massive chess fan or super good at it, but he did at least know the rules and had played a bit in the past. Vesperia knew about the game, though not in its typical form, and she offered to show Jake these versions later.
Yes, versions. Plural. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a game like chess was also known in the wider universe, nor that there were numerous iterations, pretty much all of them far more complex than the Earth version.
The two of them ended up mostly playing basic chess, though. Jake was still in his heavy recovery phase at this time, and playing mega-chess was bound to induce a headache. Plus, ultimately, all of this was just an excuse for the three of them to relax and bond. At least, that was one of the excuses Jake used for why he was constantly losing. They were just playing for fun, right?
Either way, despite playing games and messing about, most of their time was spent talking or chilling. Vesperia shared plenty of information about the Endless Empire and some of the other innate knowledge she had. She had a lot of exciting stories and legends from her faction, which both Sylphie and Jake enjoyed listening to.
Sylphie also shared some of her own adventures, though she truthfully hadn’t experienced much Jake or Vesperia weren’t aware of. She did have some unique stories from Nevermore, but other than that, it was mostly about times she spent way too long chasing down small critters only to let them go because she was too strong and cool to hurt them.
Overall, Jake had six good days with the two of them, which included a lot of bonding. He still made sure to consume some Serene Water during this time to help him keep a cool head and for its effect from continued consumption to stay active. He still wasn’t sure how much it helped, but at least it made him feel better.
By the seventh day, Jake was feeling a lot better. He had gradually improved ever since he returned to Earth and was healed by Eron, but on that day, it was like a switch flipped, and Jake felt power return to his body.
“You are looking a lot better,” Vesperia pointed out when she saw Jake walk out onto the porch after his daily nap—because sleeping was truly the best way to recover.
“I’m also feeling a lot better,” Jake said, smiling as he cracked his head. “Not back to full for sure, and my resources are still fucked, but I feel like I could at least take on a Prima Guardian or two.”
“Recovery is still your priority, and you should stay here on Earth until you are fully healed,” Vesperia said in a tone that was a mix of scolding and concern.
“I know, I know,” Jake said with a sigh. “And I will stay. It just feels good to not be entirely useless anymore. Now I can actually defend myself if necessary without doing something that could easily lead to even worse long-term injuries.”
“Ree?” Sylphie, who had taken her spot on top of his head three seconds after he stepped onto the porch, asked.
“If you want to,” Jake answered. “I can take care of myself now if you want to go have fun elsewhere.”
“Ree…” Sylphie screeched, sounding a bit guilty.
“It’s fine. Go be the little feathered hero I know you can be.” Jake smiled, reached up, and lifted her off his head for a good hug and head pat.
Sylphie snuggled for a bit before raising her head with determination. “Ree!”
“You go get ’em.” Jake shook his head and laughed, letting Sylphie take off with a triumphant screech as she prepared to conquer—eh, save—even more unfortunate planets of the galaxy.
As he watched her fly away, Vesperia went over to the porch and sat down on the steps in front of him while also seeing her off. She sat there and threw glances at Jake, who knew what she was getting at, until he placed a hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair.
“Were you shy or something?” Jake asked jokingly, seeing as Vesperia hadn’t done this for all the time Sylphie had been there, but the second she was gone…
