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He concentrated and willed for Scarlett to be allowed to go anywhere. Nothing seemed to happen, and Jake feared that he couldn’t actually use this ability without a profession allowing it or a lot of practice. Yet after a few seconds, Scarlett spoke up.

”I… I think it worked?” she said, a bit unsure and nervous.

”And you are not just saying that because I want it to work and for me to feel better?” Jake asked skeptically.

”I would never do… I… no… I do feel a bit different. It is weird, and I can’t quite explain it, but I feel more… free? Unburdened?” Scarlett said, still as nervous as before.

”Have you tried using a teleporter before?” Jake then asked her.

”I have,” she nodded. ”But only ones within the Mangrove when Old Grumpy was experimenting. I cannot use the teleporters the humans set up to travel outside of my domain.”

”Out of curiosity, what stops you? You being C-grade or the system restrictions?”

”I do not know; it just simply doesn’t allow me to travel through,” Scarlett shook her head. A moment passed before her eyes lit up. ”Oh! You mean to say that maybe it would work now?”

”That is the hope,” Jake smirked. ”Willing to give it a shot? If not, and you are hit with some kind of backlash, you should be able to instantly teleport back again. Though it is a bit risky, and we could maybe just go to the outskirts of the Mangrove.”

”I trust the Chosen,” Scarlett smiled. ”And I am certain the system would not allow me to teleport if it would simply result in my demise.”

Jake was still a bit apprehensive, but Scarlett had clearly made up her mind. Seeing her determination, he could only agree, and they walked to the teleporter together. With several C-grade snakes watching curiously, the two of them went into the teleportation chamber.

He saw how nervous she was, making him reach out and hold her hand – with gloves on, of course - as he smiled comfortingly at her. ”Are you ready?”

Her otherwise ghostly white face flushed red as she did a small nod. They activated the teleporter, and Jake still held onto the hand as they appeared at the Fort. An entire snake girl was attached to the hand too, and she looked perplexed for a moment before looking around her.

Jake, still holding her hand, led her outside as they appeared not far from the giant metal dome, with a great outlook over the city that had sprung up at the Fort. And, honestly, it really was a city at this point. Jake had no idea how many people lived there – despite owning the land – but he knew it had to be a lot. It was turning into a real metropolis.

Scarlett seemed to barely register that he still held her hand as her head whipped from side to side and her reptilian eyes darted around to take in everything. Jake smiled and felt happy for her.

Turning his head, he also looked towards a certain spot in mid-air and gave a nod. An invisible drone that had been floating there stopped observing them and moved on, and Jake also felt the attention of dozens of other similar attentions leaving him. Arnold sure had some protection set up in the Fort from the looks of it.

”What do you say?” Jake asked.

”It is… large. So many humans in one place, yet all of them are so weak. The weak are protected by the strong. Hunting others is disallowed, too, right? Doesn’t that mean most who live here are creators and not fighters?” she asked curiously.

”It is mostly creators, but remember they are not to be underestimated. Within that metal dome is one of the most dangerous humans on Earth, and he is a pure creator,” Jake explained as he pointed out Arnold’s mad scientist lair.

”A strong construction, the metal looks nearly as resilient as my scales,” she said, impressed. Not realizing that it said more about her damn scales than a giant dome of metal. The worst part was that Jake also estimated it to be the truth, if not an understatement to praise Arnold.

”Just don’t begin to go around destroying stuff to test that out,” Jake joked.

”I would never!” Scarlett said with much indignation as she shook her head and tried to raise her hands, but her movement made her aware she was still holding onto Jake’s hand, making her quiet down and look at the ground.

Jake just shook his head and softly let go of her hand. ”Let’s head back to Haven, okay?”

She stared at this hand with disappointment for a moment before nodding. ”If that is what the Chosen wants.”

Will really have to work on that attitude before we get to the Order, Jake thought but didn’t say much as he headed out of the Fort with Scarlett. The two of them flew, and Jake had to admit that even with him using wings and Scarlett just flying with regular energy manipulation, she was still far faster than him. He didn’t doubt that she could destroy pretty much any human settlement on Earth if she so desired.

Once they made their way back to Haven, Jake led Scarlett toward the lodge. Miranda and the others were still stuck in the office discussing stuff, so he would have to leave her alone for a bit with his banana tree-that-wasn’t-a-tree.

”Can you wait here for a while?” Jake asked her once they made it to the lodge.

Scarlett looked disappointed again but still looked curiously around, prompting Jake to explain a bit about where they were.

”This is my lodge and pretty much my home on Earth. It’s where I first started to live after I returned from the Tutorial, and it has a lot of sentimental value,” Jake explained.

Scarlett’s eyes opened wide as she seemed to look at the lodge with far different eyes. She closely studied everything but soon noted something. ”Someone dared break the Chosen’s table!?”

Jake cringed a bit and scratched his head. ”An… accident happened. Anyway, see you in a bit!”

With a jump, Jake headed toward the sky to gather even more beast friends. Sylphie and family were all up there, and while Sandy was probably nowhere close, he had a strong feeling they could get to him pretty damn fast. To make sure his sandworm friend wasn’t too slow, he took out the weird egg-that-wasn’t-an-egg and infused some energy into it during his ascent. Once he felt like Sandy had noticed, he stopped and stored the egg away again.

Finally, he contacted a certain someone to set up a meeting. Jake reached out mentally as the divine connection descended.

”Well, well, well, I guess a congratulation is in order, revered World Leader of Earth,” Villy joked first thing. ”I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am from seeing you move up in the world and become a proper politician.”

”Fuck off,” Jake joked back. ”I guess I should also say I am proud of you for holding back your curiosity and not contacting me right after my most recent vision into your controversial past.”

”No need to give me credit; I just had more important things to do. I was actually doing alchemy, you know? Duskleaf is over the moon,” Villy said, clearly grinning on the other side.

”Funny, because in this vision, you were also doing alchemy and being rather shit at it. Couldn’t even make a health potion,” Jake mocked the poor Primordial.

”Hey, my failures pathed the way to greatness,” Villy took it in strides as they finally got down to business. ”So, another one of these World Congresses is over with. Anything worth sharing?”

”Well, we got this upcoming final trial thing…”

Jake began to explain the second vote in detail, pretty much just reading what the system messages said. The Prima Guardian would appear in five years, but as they both interpreted it, then they only really had to fight the Prima within ten. Five or ten years wasn’t a lot of time, but it also wasn’t a little. He did wonder about one thing, though…

”Do you think this Prima Guardian will be B-grade?” Jake asked curiously.

”If it is, your entire planet is doomed, and you may as well bail on it now,” Villy mocked him back. ”Even with Nevermore, reaching B-grade or a level where you can hunt B-grades within five or even ten years is utterly unfeasible. The time you can spend in Nevermore is still limited, and even if you did choose to just rush levels, you would be hit hard by diminishing returns. If you did somehow manage to make it to a level of power where you could fight B-grades in time, it would be with a shitty foundation and sorely lacking Records for a C-grade. So, no, at most, this Prima Guardian will be in the later stages of C-grade. I have never heard of any B-grade in any of these initiation events appearing within a decade.”

Jake took it all in and nodded in understanding, but he did bite onto one thing: ”Are the diminishing returns really that bad? Isn’t it only really a thing if you hunt a lot of the same kind of enemy or if the fights get too easy? I haven’t noticed it otherwise, I don’t think.”

”It is bad, yes. So far, you have not really had many issues with it, sure, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. For the Tutorial, it is by design not a problem, and after returning to Earth, you have had a natural and balanced approach. If you had decided to go dungeon hunting in rapid succession after you cleared that one below your city, or maybe went in to explore the forest right away, you would have gained some more levels, yes, but soon you would find the levels just stopped coming all-together or it would get to the point where you could kill a thousand beasts higher level than you and still not level up. It happens to many who try to rush their levels and not focus on other things. In fact, it happens to everyone to some degree as it kicks in after a singular kill granting experience. You can alleviate this issue with qualitative upgrades along the way, like skill upgrades, but it can only do so much. The best thing to do is simply wait and focus on other pursuits. Even beasts have to do this, hence why they rarely hunt but instead consume natural treasures to slowly progress or work on improving other qualitative aspects of themselves. Ah, but I would note that there are windows of sorts. At the start of any grade is one such window where you can do a shitload of hunting without running into any noteworthy issues,” Villy explained as the great god of exposition he was.

”Huh. I assume that last part is why a lot of the Nevermore stuff is at early C-grade only?” Jake asked.

”Exactly,” Villy confirmed. ”It is a great chance to get some solid levels under your belt for all of you Earthlings. Shit, it may even be expected by the system that you will go to Nevermore and gain levels to face this Prima Guardian thing.”

”Aight. Two more things,” Jake added. ”First, do you think this event is part of Ell’Hakan and Yip’s plan?”

”When?” Villy asked a bit teasingly.

”When what?”

”When do you ask if it became a part of their plan? If you mean before the World Congress, then no. No one knew what event would take place. If you ask about right now, then yes, it will certainly be factored into their schemings. That is the hallmark of any good plan: adaptability. You do not expect everything to go flawlessly, but adapt and reconfigure the plan to still reach an acceptable outcome,” Villy explained. ”Now, what was your second question?”

”Eh, could you help contact that Karroch god for me so I can find the whale he blessed? I want to talk to it about potentially being in the council,” Jake asked.

”You want me to reach out to some weak unaffiliated god and ask him for a favor? To be the one who approaches him first, laying down my pride?” Villy asked in disdain.

”Or send someone else?” Jake scratched his head. “Or a letter?”

”A possibility,” Villy said teasingly. ”But I must actually hand it to this Karroch. Out of all the gods not close to me, he is probably the one who knows most about our relationship just from the fact that he was in charge of your Tutorial. His plan of trying to help you to get in my good graces is quite well thought out.”

”Is it working?” Jake teased back.

”A little. I tend to not be a fan of beastmasters, if I am perfectly honest. He was very unpopular before due to having made quite a few enemies, especially the Brimstone Hegemon, who I happened to kill. He should be able to find other Pantheons who want him, but I guess I can reach out with an olive branch for my dear Chosen and offer him a job. From what I saw, he at least seemed like one of the less shitty beastmasters around,” he graciously said.

”Thank you, oh my ever-benevolent Patron,” Jake answered with much reverence.

”Yeah, fuck you, and see you at the Order soon!” Villy finished as the connection was cut promptly.

Jake just smirked as he kept flying until he finally reached far enough up for C-grades to live.

He could get Sylphie and family on the way down once he had gathered Sandy, as he had a strong feeling making them wait for him wasn’t gonna work out well. Sylphie was not known to be the most patient of birds.

However, it appeared the choice was not his to make as he felt the green bird approach from afar, likely dragging her parents along based on her slower speed. Jake had stopped just at the C-grade cloud layer and sat himself down on a platform of mana in mid-air as he stared out into the clouds. He saw movement in the distance but didn’t bother with beasts unless they decided to mess with him first.

Minutes passed as Sylphie grew closer. She had been quite a bit away and wasn’t in a rush, seemingly even taking breaks – or having fights – along the way. He also got the feeling that Sandy was fast on their way, quite a lot faster than the hawks could possibly travel.

Smiling a bit to himself, Jake decided to meditate a bit as he waited for the beasts to arrive. Hopefully, they would get along.