The solid wooden doors of the ss hall clicked shut behind , finally cutting off the chaotic noise of the morning feast and that dude’s shrill screaming.
I adjusted the shotgun strap over my shoulder and walked down the central dirt path, fully intending to skip straight into the woods and just buy my groceries from the System Shop, but my feet slowed to a halt.
I spotted the dwarven manager standing right at the bottom of the shrine’s wooden steps with that sa sleazy smile from yesterday and his hands clasped behind his back, while up on the veranda, Mitsuki stood with her arms tightly crossed over her robes, radiating pure, unamused exhaustion.
I couldn’t help but let out a sigh before taking a detour toward them.
"Good morning, Manager," I called out casually, making sure my footsteps were just loud enough to be heard.
The dwarf jumped before spinning around with his beady eyes going wide, and the second he saw , he instantly plastered on his nervous custor-service smile.
"Oh! Good morning, sir... Nico," the manager stamred, frantically waving his hands. "I was just... making sure Miss Mitsuki’s preparations for tonight’s ritual are coming along fine."
"How incredibly nice of you," I replied, innocently tilting my head. "I was actually just heading out for a little hunting trip. Garek’s orders. Oh, that reminds ."
I paused, widening my eyes into a look of fabricated urgency.
"Garek is looking for you. He has sothing urgent to discuss."
"Oh, I see..." the dwarf swallowed hard. "I will be there as soon as I can. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."
But I didn’t move a single muscle. I just stood there, maintaining direct, unblinking eye contact with the creep.
"But it is very urgent, sir," I pressed, letting my voice drop into a deadpan warning.
We stared at each other for a few excruciating seconds until the manager finally folded under the pressure.
"O-Of course!" he squeaked. "Can’t be helped then! I will see him right away."
The dwarf abruptly turned around and began aggressively speed-walking toward the living quarters under my gaze.
The mont he disappeared behind the building, both Mitsuki and I sighed at the exact sa ti.
We both paused, looking at each other, before a mutual chuckle finally broke the tension.
"So," I started, walking up to the base of the steps. "Is Lady Amaterasu anti-breakfast?"
"I am fasting for the day to prepare for the ritual," Mitsuki answered, her stiff posture finally relaxing.
"Huh," I nodded slowly, turning around to face the forest, and the mont I did, I spun right back around.
"Do you happen to have a map of the forest?" I asked. "As I said, I’m heading out to secure two days’ worth of rations. And I’d like to actually know what kind of magic beasts I might encounter out there... and which ones I should focus on."
Mitsuki furrowed her brow, her brown eyes narrowing in genuine confusion. "Garek didn’t handle that?"
"Nope," I grinned, resting a hand on the shotgun sling. "He was a little too busy physically holding back the ugly guy. You know the one? I dumped my entire bowl of porridge on his head, so..."
A bright, genuine chuckle escaped the priestess’s lips as her shoulders dropped, and the lingering stress of the manager’s visit entirely vanished.
"Yeah, I know the one," Mitsuki smiled, shaking her head. "And honestly? I am not entirely surprised. Wait a minute, I’ll bring you a map."
She turned around and gracefully disappeared into the shrine, and less than a minute later, she re-erged through the sliding doors, holding a tightly rolled sheet of thick paper.
"There you go," She walked down the steps, handed the map and instructed with her tone shifting right back into the competent head priestess. "If you want to catch the herds migrating out of the Outsider territory, head South or Southwest. Focus on Iron-Hide Boars or Mystic-Horned Stags. They travel in packs and provide the most at per kill."
She paused, her brown eyes locking onto mine with dead-serious intensity.
"But whatever you do, do not go West," she warned, pointing a slender finger toward the dense tree line. "The Nexus is there."
[Yeah... I’m definitely heading straight there.]
But of course I couldn’t tell her that.
I just gave her a polite nod, tucking the rolled-up map into my jacket pocket before turning around and walking right out of the basin.
The mont the dense tree line swallowed and the mining camp completely vanished from sight, I stopped and pulled up the interface.
I had exactly one hundred and thirty-two mouths to feed. Tracking, killing, and hauling that much at as a solo hunter was as impractical as challenging Nom-Nom to an eating contest.
I just opened the System Shop.
Navigating to the consumables tab, I selected three Iron-Hide Boars and three Mystic-Horned Stags, tapping the purchase button and watching my credit balance dip slightly as their massive carcasses dropped directly into my inventory.
[Grocery shopping complete...] I smiled, waving away the glowing blue screens.
With Garek’s chore effortlessly handled in under a minute, I shifted my focus to the real reason I had happily accepted a solo mission into the deadliest woods on the continent.
I adjusted the shotgun strap over my shoulder, completely ignoring the safe directions Mitsuki pointed out, and started walking straight West.
I pushed deeper into the trees, leaving the beaten paths far behind.
The farther West I walked, the more the natural sounds of the forest just died out. No birds chirped or leaves rustled. A suffocating silence dropped over the canopy, and the temperature plumted right along with it.
Mitsuki’s warning echoed in my head. She was genuinely trying to keep safe, but she didn’t have the full picture. She didn’t know about the whole Entropy deal.
Those guys worshipped an Eldritch God.
And the Outsiders were a literal curse spawned into this world by an Eldritch God too.
If those two gods happened to be the exact sa guy, then this entire zone wouldn’t just be a natural hazard. It would be the ultimate, impenetrable base of operations for those cultists.
And if they were operating out of here, the Hollow Cinder Mine would make the perfect little corporate front.
[I really hope I don’t find what I’m looking for...] I thought, gripping the shotgun a little tighter.
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