Both Kone and Jin needed to be awoken the next morning, having spent half the night telling stories of adventures past. With Jin to talk to, Kone wasn't the least bit lonely, and the two had already made plans to spend more time together once they were finished with whatever Cain had planned for today.
Cain's plan for the day was a simple one, he only wanted to go to the next city and see how the situation was there, and ask if anything needed to be done with the Merchant Hunters that they had been arranging.
From what he heard on the farm, the system was working well, but working well for the hunters and working well for the people that they were serving weren't always going to be the same thing, so it was best to ask them both.
The city they were going to be visiting was Guarded by a friend, Prana, a plant-type Demon. It was supposed to be one of the most stable of the smaller cities in the region, making it the best place to start, with a group that wasn't really used to how brutal and cruel the world could be.
Jessica was extra lively this morning, having spent the night in the temple with the other Bunny Clerics, and she was already done breakfast by the time the others got downstairs to eat.
"That sleeping arrangement is amazing. I don't know how we didn't think of that earlier. Everyone who needs privacy can use the rooms, while the rest of the group sleeps in the cuddle room. Being together like that increases the rate of both Mana and Divine energy regeneration, and I could actually feel the power building up in me overnight.
If I slept there every night, I bet I could catch up to everyone else's level in only a few weeks. I don't know if it would stop there, but for sure I could catch up to them." Jessica rambled by way of greeting.
Cain laughed and patted her head. "I told you that you would like it here. We have some places to go, and the quest wants everyone to come along, so you might miss a few days' sleep but we will come back every few days to check on the Farm and grab more supplies."
"A few days a week is better than zero days a week. Have you tried the strawberries, the Clerics all love them?" Jessica giggled.
"They are best served in small doses." Cain agreed, giving the Bunny a wink. Of course, the Bunny God would approve of aphrodisiac fruit, it was almost perfectly designed for her followers.
A few locals came to say hello while they ate, but the one of most interest was a group that had an order of fruit juices to go to Prana.
"Why don't you travel with us? I know you usually travel on foot, so you can hunt along the way, and that's fine by us. Though I might create a few mounts for the group, just for convenience." Cain suggested.
Mythic Awakened hunters past their second advancement were faster than most creatures that people used for mounts, so they preferred to walk, but in the right situation, having a few beasts of burden along was actually a hunting tactic.
"Can you call some of the large Elk with the water attribute? The local Panthers love the smell of them, and we often use a piece of their meat for bait. You could use them as mounts and we can hunt everything that comes for them." One of the group members suggested with a big smile on her pale Wrath Demon face.
"That's not a bad idea. a small herd of Elk moving along the road would attract a lot of predators. I know of a weaker version as well. I can summon us some stronger mounts, and then surround them with weaker versions that would be more vulnerable to attack, so they don't scare away the beasts." Cain agreed.
"I knew there was a reason everyone followed you. That's a genius idea." The hunters answered with a smile, thinking of all the likely gains they would make today with live bait.
The area they were walking through was pretty heavily hunted, so some days they wouldn't see anything at all, despite the overnight arrivals. Anything they could do to get a large animal for meat would help buffer their income from the trade goods that they carried.
Unlike Pirates, or regular merchants, the Hunters weren't too worried about death, so the worries about losing trade goods if someone was killed in an attack were minimal. They loaded up their inventory to travel between cities, letting them move easily and without hindrance when it was time to go after a Mythic Beast.
"If everyone is ready, we can head out right away," Cain said, standing up from the table.
The hunters joined him without hesitation, and Jin grabbed Jessica, who was looking longingly at the temple.
"It will only be a couple of days and you can come back to relax. We just need to work on the quest with the Guild Master for a little while. Plus, there should be people in the city who are in need of a priestess, right? You can't all hide in one spot forever." The Dragonkin knew just the right weak spots to target to get the Bunny moving, and that was the end of her objections.
First up, Cain called a group of eight Elk, which all arrived at Mythic Quality, then he looked down at Luna, who was wrapped around his arm.
"Now, call for the same thing that I did. They should be Greater Golem quality summons. You can have them surround this group, or wander through the woods near us, just as long as they don't get too far away. Those ones will be the bait to try to attract Mythic Beasts for the Hunters, while these ones are our mounts for the day.
They're herbivores, so they won't scare anything that we come across, and they will help hide our scents as well."
Luna focused a little and summoned a dozen level 116 Elk with [Summon Greater Golem].
"You're right, they do smell tasty. Can you eat summons?" Luna asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately no. If you kill them they disappear, and if you cut chunks off them they will vanish after only a few minutes, so they won't work for food." Cain explained.
"That's depressing, but if you have these as a summon, that means you have seen the real thing, so they must be something that you can find and eat." The Lamia realized, getting excited about the prospect of new flavors of meat for dinner.
"They don't taste as good as you might hope. But the beasts that we are going to try to lure with them do. Just wait, when we get there tonight, we will have a proper feast. Even our resident Bunny won't be disappointed. The city Guardian is a Druid-type demon, and she has some great spells for creating food.
That's why they made her guardian in the first place, they were starving and she could not only defend the city but create enough food for them to get by without too many problems. She should have some fine snacks and salads suitable for a Bunny." The leader of the Hunter team assured them.
Getting out of town took a bit of effort, since they were all popular people, and leaving during the after-breakfast rush meant running into almost everyone they knew. But after that, their herd of Elk made good time down the road.
They weren't particularly quiet, and Luna let hers frolic in the trees, making even more noise and spreading their scent for anything around to notice.
It wasn't paying off though, and even by the time they stopped for lunch, they still hadn't seen a single hostile creature.
"Maybe the early morning hunters already cleared everything near the road? There isn't any sort of set route or schedule, so you never really know." The team leader said hopefully.
"I won't be mad if there aren't any fights on the journey. But, I do understand that this is how you make a living. You can take another route if we're not helping?" Jessica told him with a sigh.
"No, we also need to get to the city and drop off these potion materials and some other items. The hunting is just a side deal to make a few extra gold coins. Don't feel bad on our behalf." The team's cleric told her, giving Jessica a hug.
After a full day and night, Jessica was starting to get used to the fact that the people here were very physical. The residents of Long Fang Valley always wanted to pat bunny heads for luck, but the people of the Southern Continent were a hugging culture. It wasn't just the Bunnies either. Nobody was exempt, even Cain got random hugs from people who came to say hello to him.
Jessica was intrigued by cultural differences since her arrival, and this was a notable one that she thought deserved more study. Of all the forms of greeting, hugs were far from the most efficient, and they were affectionate, but not too much, so the reason for their choice wasn't entirely clear to the Bunny Cleric yet.
The hugs actually served a double purpose on this Continent. They greeted people in a friendly way, but they also gave both parties a chance to discretely pass messages, speak privately, or check for hidden weapons on the other person. Hugs were simply the most versatile greeting of them all, and the ever-practical Southerners had adopted them as an all-purpose greeting in dozens of different styles for different levels of interaction that Jessica would soon begin to learn.
