Chương 43: The Goddess of the Hunt

What awaited Zeke's party as they transported is a small cabin. The structure is located on top of a mountain and, directly opposite to the cabin's front is a thick wall of trees that seem to be the entrance to another forest.

The door to the cabin opened up, revealing a woman with a dark complexion wearing a white tank top. Her bottoms is a loose camouflage track pants while her feet are bare. Her eyes look the same as a predator's and her hair is a darker shade of black.

She smiled immediately at the group which just came and began with the words:

"Took you long enough. Come inside." Yaeger said, not even surprised by the number of people that tagged along with Zeke. The reason for this is simple. The interval that happens in between switching dimensions is actually quite long. While the group felt like it was only a second, what passed was actually a whole day already.

This gave the goddess Yaeger enough time to prepare for everyone that came.

"Uhm, who is this lady?" Sylph asked.

"Oh… and here I thought that I was already properly introduced." Yaeger said, grinning at Zeke who is the recipient of the reward. She then placed her right hand on her chest as she stated:

"I am Yaeger, the goddess of the hunt."

"Is this your idea of a joke?" Sylph replied, being a huge fan of the goddess. After all, Yaeger is the patroness of the Wood Scouts. But because nobody has ever seen her – the image portrayed by the elves is completely different from what is currently in front of them.

Yaeger didn't want to explain herself any further and just proceeded inside her house. From her perspective, there is nothing for her to prove to a group of mortals.

"Just come inside once you're ready." She said, leaving the door open.

"Hey, who is she?" Sylph asked Zeke again.

"It's as she said. Believe it or not, this is the realm of the Goddess of the Hunt and, I suggest you all follow my lead because I don't want any trouble." Zeke told them, thinking of the three major deities who might call him back if they treat the goddess poorly.

It's not that he's scared of them of course. He just doesn't want the hassle of talking with them again.

"Things are flowing perfectly as it is." He thought to himself.

While they stood there and talked among themselves, the smell of finely cooked meat immediately crept outside the open cabin door. This made some members of the group drool and while also leaving Keith's stomach grumbling.

"Mommy, I'm hungry."

At this, the group entered Yaeger's house. The elves thought that it would be something similar to the Windsprite manor which widened as one enters. However, their expectations failed them as the cabin still looked like a cabin from the inside.

"I got food prepared for you. Make yourselves at home." Yaeger said, making the group drop all their belongings at an area pointed by the goddess.

Aside from Zeke, nobody else has accepted that their host is really the goddess of the hunt but, this doubt on their minds didn't last long.

As they sat on the dining table, the food served to them is something which they have never seen before.

"Dig in." Yaeger said, presenting multiple dishes to the group. They paid their respect and started going through the various delicacies in front of them. Then, Sylph noticed something as she held on to one of the dishes.

"Is this…?"

"A dragonling? Yup. Killed it this morning, the meat is hard to cook though, you need to boil it inside a volcano before it becomes edible." Yaeger said.

"B-but, those are thought to be divine, nobody has ever fought with them."

"Missy, the only reason why you mortals call it as 'divine' is because you can't reach the level where you can kill it off. That hurt your ancestors' pride so much that they just labeled it as such, making it as an excuse for not being able to kill one." Yaeger said.

"So are these…" One of the Windspirte servant said.

"Phoenix eggs? Snatched them last week. They taste best if you scramble them."

Everything that Yaeger said made no sense to the elves. The food tasted heavenly of course but, taking in the fact that all of it is made from mythical and legendary beasts is just too much.

"Does that mean that you're really Yaeger." Allesiah asked.

As the members of the group began losing their marbles, Zeke just enjoyed the food. He didn't have any decent meal as he dealt with the last mission. He didn't care what the ingredients are, he just cared that the food tasted good.

"That's up to you to believe kid." Yaeger said.

"Anyway, I've prepared rooms for you to sleep in. If you want to take a bath, there's a nearby spring across the thick group of trees." She continued.

At this, the group dispersed. The male servant proceeded to sleeping while, the four female elves went to take a bath together with Keith. Yaeger sat at the balcony of the cabin, with Zeke coming out to talk with her.

"Do you mind?" Zeke asked.

"No. Not at all." Yaeger replied, closing her eyes as she felt the cool evening breeze touch her skin.

"So why did you summon me here? I'm guessing it's more than just taking in a couple of mortals and giving us a tour of your domain." Zeke asked. The question was actually on the top of Zeke's head the entire time but, he didn't want to ask it while everyone was there.

"You must be the type who takes initiative in a bunch of things." Yaeger said, opening her eyes and looking at the mortal who is chosen by the major deities.

"I was wondering when you'd ask that." She continued.

The goddess then proceeded to telling Zeke the details of her request. Beginning with the fact that, she felt that a suitable human has finally been summoned for the quest she's been saving up.

"You see, that place is actually filled with monsters that exist on Mythos. However, most of them are evolved forms of the original monsters meaning, even if they have a low rank, they are more powerful than a normal monster with the same rank."

"Evolution?" Zeke asked again, confirming what he heard. He had to make sure because, as far as his job class goes, his conjured monsters are also capable of this.

"Yup. You see, when a monster hits a specific rank, it gets an option to evolve. This places the monster back at [F] Rank however, their overall stats become much stronger."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having ranks in the first place?" Zeke asked.

"That depends. You see, it's only in Elysium that monsters do not get evolutions. This is mainly because, areas populated by monsters are controlled by the elves – removing the normal law which is Survival of the Fittest."

The goddess then proceeded to telling Zeke how other continents have creatures which evolved. Adding to this is a system devised by the inhabitants of the continent in order to determine the real strength of the monsters.

"Apart from their rank, the other continents also placed a class on monsters." Yaeger said, using a spell and summoning a virtual image of a slime on her palm.

"This would be a common ranked monster." She said, referring to the slime.

"This is what its evolution might look like. It depends. Usually there are at least two choices on what a monster will evolve to." She continued, changing the image of the slime and giving it a mouth and a pair of eyes.

"So you're telling me that, every monster I will encounter beyond your cabin is an evolved species?" Zeke clarified.

"Yup. Correct again."

At this, Zeke thought of his conjured summons and their current rank. With the latest update, he should be able to make them evolve. However, he still needs to view the details of the [Job Class Update] before he goes through with this.

"So what does those monsters have to do with my mission?" Zeke asked, already having a bad feeling on the direction of their conversation.

"You silly. What do you do with monsters? Of course you hunt them down!" Yaeger said, laughing after the words came out of her mouth.

"Care to be a little more specific?" Zeke asked.

"Okay. You see, the monsters here spawn through the magic crystals within the forest. Meaning, even if you kill them all off, they'd just come right back up. There are five crystals within the forest, each summoning their own set of monsters."

Zeke listened intently, not butting in before every detail has been laid out.

"After a certain number of monsters have been created, the crystals will proceed to creating stronger monsters. And you…" Yaeger said, pointing at Zeke.

"…will kill them for me. Bring their bodies here afterwards, I've been dying to cook those monsters for a while now." Yaeger finished.

"If I may, why don't you just do it yourself? I'm sure that your title as the goddess of the hunt is not a mere decoration." Zeke said.

"Of course I could! But I want to try something else. I want to see how they taste like if the monsters are not killed by my own hands." She continued and immediately proceeded to adding even more details.

"You'd only get four of them at first. One on every edge of the forest. North. South. East. And West. After defeating all of them, the fifth one will appear. That thing would be dealt with by me, it'll be impossible for you mortals to defeat it after all."

As soon as Yaeger finished speaking, Zeke began cooking up the plans inside his head. Accepting the demands of the goddess with another notification coming out.

[A Special Chain Quest has been added.]

[A Favor from the Goddess of the Hunt.]

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