The bustle in the rear didn't draw Artemis's attention at all. Perhaps she'd long since grown used to her familia's antics—perhaps, as the goddess of the hunt, she simply never stopped scanning her surroundings, even before they had truly stepped into the Great Tree Sea.
From her taut posture and crisp bearing, Duncan couldn't tell which it was. But one thing was clear: "Huntress" wasn't an empty title. The aura she carried—so similar in texture to Zeus's—was unmistakably that of a combat-type deity. She likely wasn't Zeus's match… though, knowing Zeus's personality, Duncan suspected Zeus would still lose to Artemis in practice.
Once the group merged into a single party, they didn't enter from the direction Duncan knew best. Instead, they detoured to the established "safer route." Their objective was the Elsoas Ruins, and the commission wasn't time-locked to a single path. This wasn't like when Chaldo had thrown Duncan and Bell into the worst possible zone. Different goals meant different entry points.
The safer route was longer, but it followed a river: water supply was less of a concern, and because adventurers periodically came through to clear monsters, the path remained comparatively secure.
Of course, there were always adventurers like Duncan—who entered from off-route, aiming for unfrequented areas to farm monsters for money. The Great Tree Sea wasn't like the Dungeon. It had multiple entrances. There wasn't one single "main gate" (at least, not on the surface). Whether you ran into disaster because of that… well, you picked the road, you ate the consequences.
"So you haven't walked this route?" Artemis frowned.
She had come seeking a guide—only to discover the "guide" was a wild-route veteran who'd never once taken the standard line. Even for someone as composed as Artemis, the situation was hard to take seriously.
Duncan's ears burned. It felt like being caught cheating on an exam.
"My elders trained us in the Tree Sea by… dropping us wherever the monsters were thickest," he admitted quickly, afraid she might simply discard him. "This route was never part of their consideration. But even if I can't guide by landmarks, I can still serve as the vanguard."
"Don't panic." Artemis's voice softened. "A contract is a contract—I won't go back on it. But the Tree Sea is vast. Without a guide, it's difficult to locate a precise destination…"
She turned her head. "Letsa. What's the commission deadline?"
"Fifty days," Letsa replied honestly. "We already wasted a week in town, and even then we couldn't find anyone suitable. If we go back now, we'll lose more time, burn supplies, and then have to restock again…"
"And our familia funds are nearly gone," added a black-haired woman holding their banner—Lia, if Duncan remembered correctly. "At this price point, it's hard to hire someone willing to go that deep."
A sigh rippled through the ranks. Someone muttered, half-joking, half-bitter: "Money really can choke a hero to death."
Adventuring could be lucrative, but it was equally expensive. Duncan's "Pear Blossom" spear alone—if it broke again—would cost him more than half a year of grinding to replace. One weapon's price could fund an ordinary city family for over a decade. Higher-grade armaments were in a different universe entirely—like using pure gold cleavers to cook.
Duncan didn't have to pay for purchases, but maintenance and repair were on him. It was one reason he chased decisive, efficient kills. Every unnecessary clash shortened a weapon's life.
"I understand," Artemis said at last, exhaling as if accepting an unpleasant reality. "Then we won't waste time searching for a guide any longer. Final checks—then we move."
Relief was immediate. It sounded cold, but adventurers still had to live. Outside Orario—the world's richest hunting ground—a search-focused familia's income dropped off a cliff. And Artemis had a habit of helping people everywhere she went. Even if their goddess didn't indulge herself, the familia's food, gear, medicine, and logistics all cost money. Even mid-tier Orario familias sometimes found themselves stretched thin.
Only production-focused familias avoided that particular pressure—especially Hephaestus's elite smithing faction, where "money pours in" wasn't a metaphor but a daily report.
With Artemis's approval, the group checked supplies once more. Then, at last, they stepped into the Great Tree Sea.
Near the entrance, the trees had been cleared so aggressively that it barely felt like entering a forest at all.
Long ago, someone had proposed cutting the Tree Sea down entirely—"clear it, conquer it." Plenty of people had agreed. At first, it worked: fire and manpower carved out a wide outer zone.
Then the Tree Sea answered.
A monster tide surged from the deep, including creatures on par with first-class adventurers. The entire coalition was wiped out in moments, as if the forest itself had decided to retaliate.
Only when Orario was forced to send reinforcements—and Zeus and Hera's factions dispatched multiple first-class adventurers—did the tide finally stop spilling outward.
After that, no one ever suggested the idea again.
The Tree Sea was too vast. Too many things could be sleeping inside it. Like the Dungeon, it had to be approached the hard way: step by step, search by search, survival by survival.
They pressed deeper. The signs of human work faded. The cut path narrowed, then vanished, replaced by boundless dense woodland.
The familiar sensation returned to Duncan at once—predatory presences watching from everywhere.
Not "home," obviously. He wasn't enough of a masochist to call this place home.
"Alert," Artemis ordered, unclasping the bow from her back. "Standard formation. Letsa—back to your original position."
The goddess of the hunt in a deep forest was a predator entering her natural domain. Her familia moved with practiced efficiency, slipping into roles as if it were rehearsal.
It looked less like an adventuring party and more like a hunting pack—only the prey had changed from beasts to monsters.
A faint twang.
Artemis loosed an arrow into the trees.
There was no visible target—only, a heartbeat later, a strangled whimper from the undergrowth. Her accuracy was terrifying. Even a Level 3 adventurer couldn't reliably replicate that kind of "shoot-by-instinct" precision.
The moment her arrow flew, three members surged out to finish the work: one with a spear, one with a sword-and-shield, and one with daggers.
If it was a monster, they extracted the magic stone.
If it was a beast, they recovered the body for storage.
Supplies would only grow scarcer the deeper they went. The veterans in Artemis's ranks handled it like routine—because, to them, it was.
....
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it