The Primal Hunter Chapter 241: The Morality of Domination

Jake knew his class was considered good just based on the stats it gave and the – in his opinion – not very restrictive downsides it had. Yet he hadn’t expected it to grant him a legendary-rarity skill right at level 120, much less one that would give him such mixed feelings.

The description was incredibly long… and hot damn. There was a lot packed in there. This skill appeared to have little to no relation to his arcane-affinity as far as he could tell but was clearly entirely related to the “Avaricious” part of his class.

He had to read it a few times to get it… and he really hoped he misunderstood something. Jake had seen many skills – especially those related to Villy – with some weird-ass descriptions, many of them obviously yelling “I am evil!” but this one took the cake.

Jake barely knew where to start… so he decided just to share the entire damn description with Villy to get a reaction.

Villy answered, far more casually than Jake expected.

“I guess… but… it’s kind of fucked up, isn’t it?” Jake asked. The entire skill just rubbed him the wrong from here to the moon. It was fucked up, right? Or did he have some skewed perception of things? He didn’t… did he?

“You know what I mean. Isn’t this essentially just forcing someone into slavery?” Jake asked.

Villy said, his tone still far too casual for Jake to feel comfortable.

“I think there is quite a big difference between killing someone and forcing them into servitude and manipulating their minds to serve you till the day they die.”

Villy said, and Jake could practically hear his voice dripping with venom before he continued.

Jake frowned as he listened to the Viper speak. He knew he and Villy had different views on many things, and this was clearly one of them. Perhaps it was because the Malefic Viper was exactly that: a viper, but Jake believed things were a bit more nuanced.

“For me personally, I would tell anyone who came to me and told me to become a slave to fuck off and gladly fight them to the death and die rather than agree. But that is me and the current me at that. It is inherent to human nature to try and stay alive no matter the circumstances, even if it means becoming a slave. The sheer desire to stay alive and the hope of one day escaping a bad situation is incredibly human. Sometimes all people have is hope, so they choose to hold unto that – because once you’re dead, all hope dies with you. There is also the whole family aspect to it and how some chose to become slaves to protect those they love. Oh, and finally, let’s not ignore that for some, slavery is all they know. It is their norm. They cannot even imagine the concept of freedom, so to expect them to desire the unknown is unrealistic,” Jake answered.

Villy said, and Jake had already predicted the rant coming.

The Malefic Viper stopped his rant, and Jake heard the undertone of anger in disgust, especially in the middle parts. Throughout it all, Jake frowned as he had to consider many things he had never even thought of before. Was having pets in the old world kind of fucked up? Jake would say no… but having them now would be if they were sapient.

He was damn sure that Villy had a history with slavery. As a beast, the double standard of viewing tamers and slavers as different clearly irked him, and Jake could see growing up in that kind of environment had affected him.

Jake had already come to terms with that he was technically a mass-murdering machine. He knew that many of those he killed were intelligent beings with sapient thought, but he had killed them anyway, only for his own selfish goal of getting stronger. He didn’t delude himself into thinking what he was doing was somehow moral; it just is what it is. The way the world functioned like that. Jake was a hunter, so he would hunt.

A part of him hated the thought of ever enslaving anything or anyone or forcing them to do his will. Jake was a firm believer in not doing unto others what he didn’t want them to do to him… which was why he was fine fighting and killing. He would be totally fine with a strong foe fighting and killing him in a fight, as that was just how things worked…. but he didn’t see any reason for needless cruelty.

Fighting foes far weaker than yourself was just pointless. Likewise, torture was a waste of time that leads to nothing good happening. It was why Jake had hated the Minotaur Mindchief so much. If the Minotaur had had just decided that it would kill all humans and went on some righteous crusade, Jake would call it a moron, but he would at least understand it partially. But torturing people? Fuck that noise.

And what was worse torture than turning someone into a slave? To Jake, it would be the worst kind of existence he could imagine, which was why the concept was so abhorrent in his mind. Jake truly would rather die than be a slave and would rather kill than enslave others. Temporary prisoner? Maybe, if the situation called for it, but the Domination skill was permanent. It was a one-way ticket to – as the Viper said – turn another living being into a possession.

“Yeah, I am not a fan of slavery," Jake answered incredibly bravely. "I guess you dabbled?” he followed up, already knowing the answer.

the Malefic Viper said.

“Why not?” Jake asked. Well, Villy likely wouldn’t have it, and the blessing likel-

the Viper explained.

“That’s good to know, I guess,” Jake answered. “Does all this mean there is no way to properly have animal companions or something like that? You know, without making them slaves or forcing them to serve you, but still helping them progress with you?”

“Not sure if that sucks or not, but I guess it doesn’t truly matter,” Jake finally said. “I don’t like this whole domination business. If I could release people again and just use the skill to bring the trolls out of the dungeon, that would be one thing, but this is just too fucked up. So fuck that.”

Villy finished off with saying.

“Yeah, I also prefer the non-slavery form of employment myself. Thanks for the talk, as always, Villy. I have a feeling this topic will come up again. I guess slavery just isn’t my thing, and honestly a bit of a dickish thing to do. Glad you grew out of that behavior,” Jake said snarkily, bidding his goodbyes.

The presence of the Viper faded, and while Jake felt like while he could still send a message, there was no need to force it. One didn’t always need to have the last word. Also, he seriously hoped that the last part was a joke… but he feared it wasn’t. He would cross that bridge when the time came.

Jake shook his head, as many thoughts still tumbled around. It had been quite the conversation. Jake had heard another quite foreign perspective to his own, but it hadn’t really changed his mind, just expanded his thoughts a bit. Maybe it was just him being stubborn and had the culture of Earth too deeply ingrained in his personality, but he didn’t like slavery as a concept, and he was too damn stubborn to ever do so. He could see that to others; it maybe wasn’t that big a deal. The multiverse was big, and many different people existed. He was sure that he could find plenty of humans on Earth who thought it would be perfectly normal and moral to bind a beast to themselves with what was essentially a slave contract. Jake just wasn’t one of those people.

It did suck a bit that the first legendary skill he had been offered by either his class or profession was a dud, but he didn’t regret skipping it. It wasn’t him. Instead, he picked the Mark of the Avaricious Hunter as that one was far more aligned with who he was.

You have chosen to evolve Mark of the Ambitious Hunter to Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter.

Accept?

Y/N

Jake naturally picked yes and felt the knowledge flood into his head for a few moments.

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