The room was silent after Kazi Alukai’s revelation. The Prime stared at Arthur intently, waiting to see how he’d react to the news. Three days and the Origin Hunt would begin in full. Arthur should have probably been a lot more worried than he currently felt. Had the safety and comfort of the cottage lulled him into a false sense of security? There’d been a billion credit bounty on his head for almost fifteen days now, but besides moving houses—something he would’ve had to do considering the state the bloodbeasts had left his old one in—nothing had really changed for him.

  Except now it will.

  In seventy-two hours, he’d become the most hunted human Earth had ever seen. His life would be engulfed in chaos. He’d be forced to move from place to place, away from populated areas where fighting would risk civilian casualties. Arthur didn’t care. Let the bastards come. He was an Originator, the first of his species, the biblical Adam from which a new race would come forth. Arthur would live up to that title and one day, the Perfect Homunculi would become a species as revered as the elder dragons within the vast multiverse.

  Arthur could feel his aura roiling turbulently, the different facets of it coming to the fore. The dragon's dignity, the Shadow Panther's arrogant indifference, the Hydra's territorial rage, the Rat King's corrupting influence, the Water-claw Kingfisher's ardent desire for freedom; every core he'd ever consumed was present in his aura, some of them domineering, others so subtle you could hardly notice them.

  And tying it all together was his humanity.

  "That's it. That look in your eye." Kazi Alukai grinned. "I like it. Show those aliens what it means to mess with Earth. I was a little worried when I first saw you, seeing how injured you were. It must have been a mighty foe indeed to leave you in such a state."

  Kazi Alukai's words immediately pulled Arthur from his thoughts. Injured? A mighty foe? It took him a second to realise what the Prime was talking about. From the old man's perspective, it must have looked like he'd been hurt, and badly at that, with over two-thirds of his health missing. Arthur didn't feel the need to clear up the misunderstanding. If Kazi Alukai had a good impression of him thinking he'd been injured in some epic battle instead of simple alchemy, then who was he to clarify things?

  "I got careless," Arthur instead said. Technically, he wasn't lying. "I was too excited with trying my new abilities and let things get out of hand."

  Kazi Alukai laughed loudly, slapping the table. "Don't I know it? The number of times I've bitten off more than I could chew would fill entire volumes. There was that one time I tried to fight my Tutorial supervisor. I can feel the phantom pain of that beating even now."

  Arthur chuckled along with the powerful Prime, and they began to trade stories of their biggest failures. Arthur was in the middle of describing his battle with the [Lesser] Hydra when Kazi Alukai suddenly cursed.

  "My sincerest apologies Mr Ward. Mother Earth doesn't seem to be in a patient mood today. She's insisting I tell you why I came here and get away before I'm tempted to join you in your crusade against alien invaders."

  "Why? Are you not allowed to join the hunt or something?"

  "It's a little more complicated than that, but in the short form, yes. Helping an Originator survive their hunt goes against the spirit of the game and will hinder more than help you. It will give the Feytons leeway to send stronger fighters against you the second a Prime steps in, especially if it's one as powerful as myself."

  No one would ever accuse Kazi of the sin of being humble.

  Arthur pulled his hair back and tried to stop it covering his face. His refinement had made him a beautiful specimen and gifted him a mane of silky, luscious hair, but it was getting annoying constantly adjusting it. He'd have to cut it soon or start tying it up. From what Kazi had said, it looked like Iris had taken significant risks helping him out so much, balancing the fine line of what was and wasn't allowed during an Origin Hunt. Would she have warned me about the house's defences being taken down? Who am I kidding, he chided himself. She probably knew Kazi was going to warn me sometime last week.

  That was the problem with dating a seer. A woman's intuition was scary enough without being enhanced by ether and Iris took that sentiment and dialled it up to eleven.

  "I've not thanked for your warning yet, have I," Arthur realised. "Thank you for taking that risk and I hope they unban you from the System store soon."

  Kazi Alukai waved his hand dismissively. "Think nothing of it. As the strongest Prime, it is my job to help the children of Earth, especially against foreign invaders. I'm sure the ban won't be much of an issue either. I can just get my subjects to buy me whatever I need." Kazi's eyes suddenly unfocused for a second, the tell-tale signs someone was reading a System notification. He mumbled a curse.

  "Well, whatever the System Admins are, I can't accuse them of being idiots. Anyone who helps me purchase things will also be banned, though only for six months. And here I was thinking I'd gotten one over on the bastards."

  Arthur didn't say anything. He could apologise for the troubles Kazi was going through, but felt like it would cheapen the moment. It wasn't his fault either. Kazi Alukai was a grown man who'd consciously decided to go against the System, knowing full well there would be consequences. He was grateful for the Prime's sacrifice, but he didn't have anything to apologise for.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "So, will you tell me why the planet sent you now?"

  Kazi Alukai glared at him. "So impatient," he grumbled, "I was getting to that. You've completed one world quest so far, right? Exterminating the Vampire Territory Lord if I'm not wrong. Well, Earth was very happy with your work and has another quest lined up for you. Two really, but she's not sure about the second one yet."

  Arthur found himself sitting up straighter. He wasn't the most filial person by any stretch of the imagination but this was a direct request from Earth they were talking about here, the very planet he'd been born and raised on for the last two decades. And if she was personally asking for his help, he'd at least make sure he was paying attention. The sweet rewards world quests handed out certainly helped things along. That didn't mean he'd throw caution to the wind, though.

  "I'm not against working for Earth, but why me specifically? If it's strength you're after, I'm sure you could handle anything I can easily enough."

  Kazi Alukai sighed. "Once again, everything boils down to the fact that I'm Prime. I am a god on Earth, I have access to vast reserves of ether I could never hope to use, but I am shackled by chains of equal weight. I cannot do this job because the rules enforced on Primes—rules that even I cannot break—prevent me from doing so. My counterparts have far more freedom than me, what with the strength they've been given being so much lower than mine."

  During the early days of the System, Arthur had often wondered why the planet hadn't selected him as a Prime candidate—there were hardly any better people suited for the job—but now he was realising how lucky he was. No amount of power was worth giving up so much freedom.

  "The job then. What exactly does Mother Earth want me to do?"

  "I thought you'd never ask.," Kazi Alukai smiled. "It's a job you're uniquely suited for. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this job only exists because of you."

  "Remember your fight against Shade."

  Arthur nodded. It was one he'd never forget.

  "It was the first time you used unstructured magic if I'm not wrong. I'm talking about true unstructured magic here, not just manipulating ether without your skill's help."

  "Yeah, nothing I've done since has felt the same," Arthur replied. "It was like I was getting help from something, like the universe itself lent me aid and strength."

  "You're not entirely wrong," Kazi said. "Unstructured magic falls under many different forms, but the one you cast on that day is called communion. I'm not an expert on the subject, so I know little else. But I digress. The important part isn't what you did, it's what happened afterwards.

  What happened afterwards? I woke up in the bunker and gained the Purify skill shard. General Bradley wanted me to do a job, but I never got around to it. Is it about that? What am I missing?

  When the answer hit him, he couldn't help but sigh. It was such a small thing, so minor he hadn't even considered it a problem. At least until now.

  "It's my blood, isn't it? The fact that I bled all over the place."

  Kazi Alukai nodded solemnly. "You hit the nail on the head. The blood you bled on that day is the only one of its kind that exists in the entire multiverse, far more valuable, in fact, than the liquid that flows through your veins right now. It is the blood of an Originator before they became a unique existence, the origin point, so to speak. The seven hundred millilitres of blood they recovered that day, is the the greatest chance anyone will ever have to create an artificial Originator."

  "So who has my blood then?"

  "The US sold it to the Farthing Mercantile Corporation, who in turn sold it to an arachene—they're humanoid spider folk—by the name Akrashen. I'm sure they're all cursing themselves right now. He used 200ml of it to create his first epic-grade elixir and was promptly murdered and robbed the second news spread of a new Originator in town. That happened two more times and the blood finally found itself in the hands of Fell humans. A group of their weaker members then fled to Earth with your blood in tow, which is ironically the safest place they could be right now, and they've currently set up a camp in Scotland. That's the short but bloody tale of your blood's journey back to Earth." Kazi Alukai chuckled at his terrible joke.

  Arthur had to admit the story was filled with a little more violence than he'd expected. He honed in on one particular point Kazi had mentioned. "What's a Fell human? Are they a variant of our species?"

  The Prime looked at him in surprise. "I was sure Iris would have told you herself. I'm guessing you know about our ongoing war with the Fallen realm, right?"

  Arthur nodded.

  "Well, you should know that it's not going too well for us. Fell is a modifier given to anyone who spent too long fighting against the Fallen realm. You know the famous saying. Gaze too long into the abyss and the abyss gazes back at you. They're individuals who succumbed to corruption, though not enough that they have to be put down, at least according to the most recent laws passed four hundred years ago."

  "I don't get it then. If Fell beings are allowed to live by System law, where exactly do I come in? Do I need to kill the Fell aliens just because they stole from someone with political power,"

  "You're missing the key point, Arthur. They want to create an Originator and the most important ingredient for that is sapient life, the younger the better, since their souls are the most malleable."

  Arthur frowned. "They're going after children, aren't they?"

  "You got it in one. Thirty-seven children have gone missing so far, which is bad enough, but their experimentation risks opening an unregulated gateway into the fallen realm. Mother Earth wants you to go and handle the problem. She's left the how of that up to your discretion, which means that she trusts you more than half her Primes."

  There was a sudden flash of light on Kazi Alukai's right hand and the next moment, he was holding a tiny vial containing a green fluid. He passed it over to Arthur.

  "This is the reward for the job which Earth is giving before you even complete it. Honestly, she trusts you more than me and I'm her first Prime, It's a wonder why she didn't try to give you my job."

  Arthur took the vial and used Homunculi's Eye on it. Earth's been spying on me, hasn't she? Honestly, the reward was perfect.

  "Oh, and one last thing before I go," Kazi said, standing up from the table. "It's the first complete sentence Earth has ever formed, something I didn't even know was possible until the late tier 1 stage and it was meant for you."

  Now that got Arthur's attention. Earth had actually spoken.

  "It's a shame she spouted some useless information though. She told me to tell you so here I am. Earth says her World Core is two kilometres across so it wouldn't work out for you." Kazi Alukai sighed. "I don't know why she felt the need to tell you that but she was very insistent, like issuing a Prime quest levels of insistent. Hopefully, you understood what she meant better than me."

  Unfortunately, Arthur did, and he didn't know if he should laugh or cry. Please don't tell me Earth thinks I'm going to eat her World Core.

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