"Hey, sweetheart, why don't you and I have a drink together?"

Urgh, it's another one...

Olivia snidely thought as she leaned her side on the counter of a bar, it's general knowledge for people to go to the Vurn if they ever needed information, it's the sanctuary of the travelers, and for the locals after a long tiring job.

Sometimes the Shaker, the man or the lady who served the drink, could give the information, or from random travelers, and if someone was lucky enough, they might give it for free.

This was one thing that rarely occurred though, the price might just a treat for a drink or meal, or even accompany them to drink... sometimes played a game or something..,

But when their hands started to become grabby and eventually demanded perverted things... it's a problem...

"Sure..."

Despite her irritation, Olivia knew very well how to handle the situation, it's not her first time hunting information.

"First, tell me about Old Woodlands, then I might consider..."

The man was rather bulky with dark yellowish hair and braided beard, his eyes were big and wide, didn't stop checking out her womanly part since the beginning.

"Eh, Old Woodlands?"

He startled a bit before revealing a difficult expression, this reaction was enough for Olivia to know he had nothing to offer.

"Go, flirt with someone else."

She turned her face away from him and took a sip of the brewed Elk wine, her action was confident and smooth, the man knew he had lost his chance, dejectedly left her alone.

"I have said it before Olivia, it's been a year since the last news about Old Woodland, no one stepped their foot into that place for quite a while..."

The man behind the counter was a middle-aged man with a slender frame, his hair was spiky upward, his name was Hammer, Hammer Nail...

What the hell his parents thought when giving him that name?

"Hammer, give me a clue, direct to a person, anything, I can't return empty-handed..."

Olivia bit on the edge of her glass, looking depressed...

"Hmm..."

Hammer wiped a plate with a plain cloth, his half-circle eyes lost in thought.

"Why don't you go ask Baba?"

Baba was a fortune teller in Eldorado Town, but she liked to give an odd reading such as 'You'll be rich when you work hard' and 'You'll find love when you seek it'.

The locals knew she's a fraud, but sadly, the travelers don't... or a certain naive cat girl.

"What does going to Baba have anything to do with Old Woodlands?"

Olivia gathered her forehead, sometimes there was a limit of stupidity when one gave advice... perhaps Hammer needed to stop wiping those plates and got some fresh air or something...

"Hehe, here, let me tell you a secret..."

Hammer cooly slanted his lips, behaved like he just spilled some earth-shattering untold secret.

"Baba is not just a fortune teller... but she runs the largest information channels all over Fantasia... if there is a person to know the latest update of something, that would be her."

Really?

Olivia had lived long enough around here but she never heard such a thing...

"But the price was expensive, I think the cheapest information was about 10 Golds..."

Cheapest information? How does one classify a piece of information?

Also, 10 Golds were indeed a little too much... her saving were 13 Golds with several pieces of silvers and coppers... of course that without adding up the income from Caeth group's yesterday hunt, which usually 12 Silver and 50 copper for her share...

Should she go to ask her? Or maybe she should discuss this first with Caeth? Such a large sum of money... Caeth would probably mad if she spent it without him knowing...

"I'll think about it... for now, I am going to wander the town for a while... searching about the information a little bit..."

"Alright, if you ever change your mind... go to Baba's place and said to her, 'A little bird needs to know something'... she will give you the access to her other business."

Olivia nodded and finished up her drink, a moment later, she drifted from one place to one place... asking around about the Old Woodlands.

"Look it's the cookie sister!"

A loud commotion came from her front as Olivia arrived at a small bridge, there was a flock of children swarmed her at the moment.

"Hey, hey, calm down..."

She lifted the corner of her lips and crouched on the ground, one girl hugged her from behind, some grabbing her knees while the others poking her cheek.

"Cookie sister, have you brought another cookie?"

The one who said was a small boy with a little chubby cheek, Olivia extended her hand and caressed the boy's head, her face slightly saddened.

"I am sorry, I have not returned home yet, how about in the afternoon?"

"Hooray, you promise?"

"Un, it's a pinky swear!"

The children hugged her one by one, then they left with playful temperament, Olivia looked at their departure with somewhat envy in her eyes.

She never had that... her childhood only filled with training and more training, Olivia barely interacted with other kids...

It was due to her mommy... she had a frail constitution... and died when she conceived her.

Her daddy wished not for Olivia to have the same constitution with her mommy, thus he had been training her with hunting since she was 5.

It was cruel and harsh, strict and discipline, many times she wanted to play with others but her daddy would forbid it for the sake of training.

She hated it, truly wished to run away... but she understood her daddy... knew why he had done what he did...

Only when her daddy deemed that she's a capable hunter, that she finally had her freedom... to go wherever she could...

Yet in the end... she still returned from time to time to her home, met with her daddy... took care of him...

Because she didn't want him to feel lonely, just like what she felt all of these years...

"Daddy, I am home..."

Olivia opened the door to her house, the location was at the plain field, a little something over fifty timber tree (one timber tree is 24 meter) from the Eldorado Town.

She lifted the bow and the arrows from her back, put them on the wooden wall beside a fireplace in the living room, she knocked on her father's room but heard no response.

"Daddy?"

Olivia grabbed a handle and pushed it open, her daddy room consisted of one bed, one desk, and a huge shelf, there were lots of book about monster and race, some also about the geography of several lands in Moonlight continent.

She walked toward the desk and noticed a piece of paper, Olivia sighed as she knew what this means, she grabbed the paper and read it.

"Olivia, I am going with my party to Sand Burrow, assuming will return a week later, don't forget to lock the house and turn off the fire before you sleep, love, your daddy."

"Sand Burrow?"

Olivia checked on the books that loitered on the top of the desk, luckily her daddy was a bit messy, dislike to put back the book he had once read...

Sand Burrow was a desert area, in order to get there, one must walk toward the east from the Eldorado Town, entering a passage called The Twin Foot of Gigantes, although this place had no monsters, it replaced with a bunch of bandits that ready to ambush, so it's not really a safe area.

Afterward entered a cave on the southwest, also had no monster, just mindful the steps because of the path had many chasms, there were already many accidents that people got unlucky and fell into it.

Once they got out of the cave, one would arrive at George Town, famous for their iron and steel, the majority of occupancy was a miner.

The monster around the town was a beginner rank, consisted of Yellow Punny, Lazy Coyote, and Bidle; Yellow Punny was a jelly-like monster, same like Red Punny on the plain field around here, one hunted them to make a jam for their bread.

Her father brought one before, she didn't like it, it tasted like honey but gross version and very sweet, her tooth ached eating it.

Lazy Coyote was an adult-size canine who was very thin and had a miserable appearance, it stood with both legs and most of the times found sleeping, only awake when it was hungry but somehow very lazy to even sought a prey, she didn't know how that kind of monster actually still existed.

Bidle was a big red ant, lived in the hole within the surface of the nearby hill, not an aggressive monster and dislike eating meat, preferred sucking on the flowers around the area.

From George Town, they must travel to the Leviathan sea, rumored there was a legendary monster living in the sea but no one had ever seen it...

Then after crossing the sea, they finally arrived at Sand Burrow, a small island with nothing but sand and tropical plants... but it did have an Advanced rank monster, the Manticore... a bug type monster with very rigid skin, resembling steel in general, had a sharp and long spear-like tail that could tear off any armor easily, had two pincers akin to the cone crab, and could spurt poison from its mouth.

Olivia slightly felt worried, this because it was her daddy's first time hunted the monster, just like her, he was an archer, she didn't know whether the arrows could penetrate the monster's skin.

But she decided to believe her father's strength, he always came back no matter how bad his injury was...

Hmm... she will be alone for a week...

Olivia held the paper close to her lips while her cheek slightly blushed, thinking about inviting Caeth to her home.

Before they had become what they were today, she had known Caeth before, saw him multiple times in the town, there was no special impression she got from him, Caeth was the regular kind of guy anyone could find everywhere.

Then she saved him from an orc several months ago or saving Jewel and Nyantaa to be precise, those two the one who fought the orc while Caeth stood quite far from the distance.

She didn't know why a hunter at Caeth's caliber would risk hunting in an intermediate Rank area, his skill certainly wasn't ready yet.

He asked her to join their party despite Jewel's disagreement, Olivia agreed due to her also needed one but didn't have the courage to ask other hunter parties.

A party meant more efficient tasks; it could increase the killing count, faster salvaging the monster, a backup when needed, and mostly, an accompany to chat with.

Of course, Olivia didn't care about the last part, a party to her was nothing more than a tool to get the job done and faster.

And she was proven so wrong...

Her daddy went hunting a fire-lizard like a monster in Volcanic Rim, but he hadn't returned despite it's been a month, his longest time mostly just two weeks.

She was panic, began to lose hope, at that night, she went to the Vurn to drink her sorrow away, Caeth was also happened to be there...

He attentively listened to her, cheered her up, made some jokes that she didn't understand but laughed nonetheless... he told her not to lose hope and faith to her father...

They eventually got drunk, and it ended up with both of them booked a room in a Cottage, having an intimate relationship.

She was drunk but still could remember his touch and caress, his gentle thrust at every moment, his lips that sweetly enveloped hers, it was the night she could never forget...

"Should I cook something for him?"

Olivia went to the kitchen and opened a cool box, it was a shelf that embedded with a couple of ice rune, very handy to sustain meat, of course, it's not last forever, it could only hold about a week and the rune must be replaced later.

Most humans incapable of magic, we resorted to a lot of things such as a rune, an item produced by alchemy, containing special attributes like fire, ice, or thunder, which could be used both for utility and battle.

She took out a book of recipes after seeing what ingredient she currently had, flipped it open to find something delicious for Caeth...

Olivia didn't care about Jewel or the noisy cat, all she wanted was just for Caeth to be happy...

Caeth had promised her that he would dump Jewel when the time was right, and they would finally become a true couple, she didn't have the patient to introduce him to her daddy...

At this moment, she yawned and began to look sleepy... eventually laid her head on the dining table, closing her eyes and finally drifting to her sleep, dreaming a small family living peacefully, she and Caeth, along with a couple of children.