Within the largest tree of the multiverse, Artemis, Nature’s Attendant and the avatar of Yggdrasil, remained even after Dina had been teleported away.

The Primordial seemed to be in thought for a moment before turning to Artemis. “Either you have made significant progress in a very short amount of time, or the aura of the Viper’s Chosen has even affected you despite the briefness of your encounter.”

Artemis didn’t even hesitate to agree. “Undoubtedly, albeit the effect is nothing compared to what Nature Attendant’s granddaughter experienced.”

“Even so, this proves it even works on gods,” Yggdrasil continued. “Tell me, were you aware of the change taking place?”

“No,” Artemis shook her head. “Only after I deeply inspected myself did I notice anything.”

“I see,” Yggdrasil nodded. “Any changes to your divine realm?”

“None,” Artemis once more shook her head. “I do not think there are any tangible changes in any form. It’s more like a shift in perspective. It’s not that much different to how when I feel the aura of the Mother Tree, the auras of others just seem insignificant in comparison, even if they are more powerful than myself.”

“Are you saying my aura is insignificant compared to the Viper’s Chosen?” Yggdrasil asked in an amused, almost joking tone.

“That is…” Artemis said, taking the question entirely serious. “In some aspects, yes. There is a sense of… superiority within his aura. One that naturally has to exist above any other, suppressing others not out of any desire or choice, but simply because it’s expressing the rightful way of the world.”

“His aura matched that of Valdemar’s in pure quality,” Nature’s Attendant chimed in as he frowned a bit. “No… saying it matched Valdemar’s isn’t entirely accurate. It simply clashed with Valdemar’s, not allowing it to gain any dominion where not allowed.”

“And that which was not allowed to be imposed upon included Artemis,” Yggdrasil said with a smile. “I am beginning to understand your interest in him.”

“Does that mean-“

“You have my permission, but wait,” the Primordial interrupted Artemis. “Wait till he matures. Grows into something more sustainable than he is now. While attention is good, even the most rigorous of plants will wither if given too much.”

“If he perishes, his Bloodline will disappear with him,” Nature’s Attendant added in a serious tone.

Yggdrasil just smiled. “If that happens, perhaps it’s simply nature correcting itself. That, or he will be able to overcome even the natural balance. Either way… I look forward to seeing what he grows into. Ah, but feel free to continue planting the seeds for a budding future; it would be a shame for someone else to reap what we failed to sow.”

With these words, the avatar Yggdrasil faded away, leaving Artemis and Nature’s Attendant behind as the two of them didn’t wait before they left the Mother Tree, both with quite some food for thought.

In the multiverse, countless Paths existed. The vast majority did have significant overlap, though, falling into either the camp of crafting or fighting. Extrapolated a bit to include monsters, this meant either being in charge of creating and rearing the next generation, leading their kin, or fighting. In fact, of all Paths in the multiverse, one thing was a near-constant:

Fighting and killing.

Even those who focused on creation tended to leave a mountain of corpses in their wake. It was simply how the multiverse worked. To battle was the most simplistic form of displaying superiority over others. No matter how good of a crafter you were, what did it matter if others could simply rob you of your creations or kill you outright?

Yet, some Paths did exist that didn’t revolve around fighting. Jacob was one example of this. He was purely in the “creation” department. He helped guide people to improve their Paths and was a leader and spiritual guide of sorts. One could almost say he was a crafter of other people.

But… on very, very rare occasions, there were those with Paths that had nothing to do with either creation or even fighting. Those who didn’t particularly fit into any box, but were so specialized in one extremely fringe direction.

One such example was the giant worm that had just fallen on Jake’s lawn, ripping up the soil and making a real mess of things. Sandy had a Path that didn’t require them to craft anything nor to ever fight. Sandy was specialized in doing one thing, and one thing only:

Eating.

And getting away with eating stuff that belonged to those who specialized in fighting.

This had resulted in Sandy being an utterly lopsided existence that, quite frankly, was borderline useless in battle. All the big worm could do was ram people or try and eat them, and based on all Jake knew, Sandy could only really eat those a lot weaker. The purpose of eating them also wasn’t to kill them but to use them as “resources” within the worm’s internal world.

Besides eating, all of Sandy’s other abilities had gone into the art of escape and durability. While this kind of Path was rarely one that worked out well in the multiverse due to the lack of self-defense… well, Sandy seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves when Jake used a quick Identify as he, Meira, and Irin walked outside the talk to the worm that was wiggling on the grass.

[Juvenile Cosmic Genesis Worm – lvl 242]

“Hey Jake!” the worm yelled telepathically the moment Jake walked outside. “Oh! Succubus and the elf are also here! Or should I call her a high elf now? Speaking of, why is it even called a high elf? Did she even get taller? Oh, wait, I ate this thing called a Highmountain-something, and that one was from a high mountain, so that name made sense… oh, I know, maybe high elves originally come from big mountains? Hey, high elf, that isn’t actually that high; why are you called a high elf?”

Meira just stared with a confused expression for a moment before muttering. “I… don’t know exactly why we’re called high elves… but it’s probably to signify it’s a higher race of sorts compared to usual elves? While the stats aren’t different compared to regular elves, we do have different racial skills.”

“I guess that can make sense, too,” Sandy readily accepted the answer that was frankly way more serious than Sandy’s question deserved. “Anyway! Jake! I heard you’re back, and you are now an even bigger deal than before because you did some stuff on a Leaderboard!”

“I am back indeed, and I did do stuff on a Leaderboard,” Jake smiled, honestly happy to see Sandy again. The big worm was always interesting to be around, even if it did feel a bit weird talking to the giant mound of wiggling flesh on his lawn.

“That’s great! Speaking of great, am I the only one who’s starving?” Sandy said as Jake felt the expectant attention of the cosmic worm on him.However, before he could even say anything, Irin spoke up.

“I do believe we could all do with a snack, and while I’m not sure if Jake has anything you find appealing, I hope my offering can at least help please the Chosen of the Lord Protector.”

With these words, she waved her hand as a bunch of lockboxes appeared, making Jake throw her a look.

“Items given to me by the top brass should I encounter the Chosen of the Lord Protector,” she quickly clarified with a telepathic message as she smiled at him. Jake definitely did notice how she very heavily implied all this stuff was from her alone…

“Oh! That does smell good… just a second, I’m on a bit of a diet and have to watch what I eat, so I’ll just have my dietitian take a look at things,” Sandy said happily as the worm wiggled a bit and floated into the air as they opened their mouth.

Space distorted as a man wearing an expensive-looking suit appeared.

“Wh… where am I!? What happened, wh-“

“Oops, wrong guy!” Sandy said as they sucked the man back in before spitting out another suit-wearing man, this one far more put together.

“Does Lord Sandy require my services?” he asked the second he oriented himself.

“Yep! That stuff over there!” Sandy said, the man somehow knowing where Sandy mentally pointed.

Turning around, the man spotted Jake and the others before his eyes opened wide as he bowed. “I greet the Chosen of the Malefic One, as well as the Chosen of the Grand Elder.”

“Hey there, don’t mind us and attend to your matters,” Jake quickly said, Meira nodding in agreement. With their approval, and while dealing with the pressure of being in the presence of three Chosen, the man went over to the offering and began to go through them with a clipboard. While that was interesting in its own right, Jake was more interested in what had happened before.

“Who was that first guy?” Jake asked, confused as he turned to look at Sandy.

“Oh, that was just Tom.”

“And who is Tom?”

“A guy I ate.”

“Why did you eat Tom?”

“A better question is: why wouldn’t I eat Tom?”

Jake just looked at Sandy as he sighed. “You know what? Fair enough. Why do you need a dietitian anyway?”

“Eh, something about eating more quality over quantity and stuff like that. Basically about me not wasting time digesting stuff that isn’t worth digesting,” Sandy said.

“I see,” Jake nodded, that making a lot of sense to him. It was probably like how Jake shouldn’t waste his time hunting weaker prey. He could totally see Sandy only benefitting from certain kinds of natural treasures by now as they got stronger. There was definitely also a Records aspect to it.

No matter the case, Jake was sure the Lord Protector had this handled. The Boundless Hydra was very good at eating stuff himself, so Jake felt confident that if anyone was qualified to give Sandy advice on the Path of devouring, it was him.

With the dietitian hard at work, Jake changed the subject a bit. “What are your plans regarding this Prima Guardian system event, by the way? Are you heading back to Earth with the rest of us?”

”Maybe?” Sandy responded. ”Not sure I should. The rules about the Prima thing said that beasts who consumed unique system-given stuff in the early days aren’t allowed to fight against the big boss, only alongside it, and, well, I ate a lot of system-given stuff back then.”

“I… hadn’t really thought of that,” Jake muttered. “Then again, can you even fight? Say, what if you just help doing stuff that isn’t directly related to fighting, like helping people travel around faster or something? I doubt the system would force you to fight for the Prima Guardian, so indirect help may be allowed.”

“Based on what I know of these system event bosses, I believe Jake’s assessment is correct,” Irin chimed in. “Historically, in cases like these, the system-empowered entities won’t be controlled or forced to do anything, but they may be punished if they choose to go against the event boss. It’s also equally possible this Prima Guardian will have a unique ability supressing anyone who consumed these system-provided items, making it near-impossible for them to fight against the boss.”

“Hm, if the succubus who brings me tasty snacks is right, I guess I should return. Maybe I can even find some good stuff to eat in the ninety-third universe. I have heard people talking about how new universes tend to have a lot of tasty stuff in their infancy…” Sandy seemingly agreed after thinking a bit.

“Actually, can you even go? What about the people you ate? Will they be able to go to the ninety-third universe with you?” Jake suddenly had a thought.

“Good question that I already thought about all on my own! They totally can; I just can’t let them out. Like, I already tried it once for funsies, kind of thinking that the person would go boom or something, but nope, they just won’t come out no matter what I do. Ah, but don’t worry, Tom can come out; he is from our universe,” Sandy gladly explained.

“… good to know?” Jake muttered. “Did you eat Tom on Earth?”

“No? What a silly question; there’s no way Tom would be from Earth!” Sandy said, wiggling in laughter.

Jake really wanted to ask more about Tom but stopped himself as he sighed. “In that case, will you return with me when I head back? I plan on going… actually, probably just later today. I don’t think I have a lot I have to do at the Order; I mainly came by to say hi to these two.”

He said the last part while motioning to Irin and Meira. Alright, he had not come specifically to see these two, but the people he knew in the Order. Seeing as everyone else was away, he only really had these two he wanted to check in on.

“You’re leaving already?” Irin said in a downtrodden tone, with Meira not looking happy at the news either.

“Not like I won’t come by once in a while,” Jake smiled, shaking his head. “Things here in the Order are a lot more stable than places such as Earth. I feel like it’s better I’m there. Also, I am more than a little curious to see how things have developed over the last three or so years. Finally… there are a few places I’ve been meaning to check out. Maybe even some places you can help me get to, Sandy.”

“Sure, as long as I can eat everything there while you deal with all the things not wanting me to eat everything there,” the gluttonous worm agreed. “It’ll be like in the old days!”

“Hopefully, with less stress,” Jake smiled. While his adventure with Sandy had been fun, the circumstances in which they had happened hadn’t been. He could definitely do without another invasion.

Shaking off the thought, the four of them kept speaking for a while before they moved things inside, which was when Jake saw just how much Sandy had improved their spatial abilities.

The giant worm, around a hundred meters long in total, rapidly shrank down at an incredible speed. In a mere moment, Sandy went from a giant worm to a small grub no larger than a guinea pig. Sandy proceeded to jump on Jake’s shoulder, catching a ride as they all went inside to continue the conversation that Sandy had so rudely interrupted when they decided to drop in.

Now, they had just added another person to share their adventures over the last few years. Adventures Sandy gladly shared all the details about, though, for some reason, it was always framed around what was eaten rather than the enemies or the grand vistas Sandy saw while flying around with S-grades and gods alike.

Their talks continued for the rest of the day as they all got caught up, but soon, it was time. Jake had a planet to attend to, and much of the doubt he had about leaving Meira alone had been dispelled. He knew how dependent on him she had seemed, but now, she truly had grown into her own person and had a status of her own. It genuinely made him happy, and he looked forward to what she would one day become.

As for Irin… well, she made it no secret that she planned on sticking as close to Jake as long as possible, no matter the cost. Jake wasn’t blind to the fact that he had also entirely altered her Path and future, and in retrospect, he should probably have cut her off a long time ago if he didn’t plan on allowing her to stick with him going forward.

Not that Jake would have cut her off or planned to not allow her to stay around, and he tended not to be a fan of dwelling on the past. In fact, doing so was pretty darn antithetical to his Path.

Jake headed off to the teleportation circle with a shrunk Sandy on his shoulder - after they ate the dietitian and the approved food - and as they said their goodbyes, Jake saw the disappointment on both the women's faces as they had probably hoped he would stick around a bit longer.

He would definitely return even before the Prima Guardian to check in on things, but for now, he had quite a few places he wanted to visit once back on Earth… including a mountain with a certain wyvern he very much wanted payback on. Who knows, maybe it was even time to take a step for mankind and do a little moon trip…