Recollection

The Great God of Hunting.

This identity was an enigma to Ryder.

Except this current identity, Ryder had experience of having three other identities in the three dimensions that he had travelled into.

Of those three, his first identity was nothing special but in just three months with the help of the system and because it was a world with a fairly easy way to acquire a world fragment, Ryder managed to reach level 100 or the level of a tier-1 human.

The level where his full power could only be described as inhuman.

His second identity too was roughly the same, the only difference being that the stats he acquired after conquering the first world was sealed to 5% and therefore he had to give his all to acquire the world fragment.

It was only in the third world that things began taking a difficult turn. First the identity he had was someone who was sort of a rival to the main character and then his luck landed him in a drastic disadvantage.

Fortunately he managed to make a strong woman who had an (S-) skill his subordinate and after she reached level 60, he used communion to replicate her skill and kept that replica for his own use.

'Complete Weapon Mastery(S-)' was that replica.

So in the end although he did not acquire the world fragment, he did acquire a capable subordinate… his first subordinate and an (S-) skill.

Up till then, Ryder thought that it was only a coincidence that the difficulty of acquiring the world fragment kept rising with each world but now he did not know what to think.

Right now he was in an identity that made it practically impossible for him to even have a friendly relationship with the main character.

For him to conquer a dimension it was important to acquire the world fragment of that world and for that to happen he had to somehow have a close relation with the main character.

Slowly make the main character trust you as a friend and then when it is least expected… make the main character either your 'subordinate' or 'slave' by using the The Almighty Ruler skill on them.

Chance of this happening is close to impossible in Ryder's current role because of the simple logic that if the final villain of the story became a close friend of the main character then what happened with Bell will repeat itself and a new person will become the main character.

So it was hopeless to even try, and what Ryder expected to achieve by staying here despite this was to find the source of 'the thing' that was absorbing Bell's HP and to level up Bell to level 60 so that he could replicate her (S-) skill.

But there was one more thing that greatly intrigued Ryder. 

Just who exactly was this Great God of Hunting?

Judging from the first title that he had it was easy to guess that he was someone who, just like Ryder, was someone who belonged to a different dimension and yet the soul of this world did not get rid of him but instead made him a part of its story.

And then there was the stats that he possessed which was 60% of Ryder's total stats, which was not normal from any point of view.

After all, it was the peak of tier-0! 

The point where the influence of the soul of the world stops affecting you and with just a small push you become a tier-1 human. 

A transcendent!

A God-like being with powers equal to the soul of the world itself.

All-in-all Ryder was filled with curiosity to know more about the person who his current identity belonged to.

And right now Hestia asked a question about that same identity.

*********

'Did she notice something unusual?'

This was the first thought that crossed Ryder's mind.

He thought that maybe Hestia noticed something suspicious about him and was asking this question because of that.

But looking at her expression she did not seem to have such intentions and he did not mean to insult her but Ryder did not think that she was even capable of having such thoughts of caution.

'So she actually doesn't know anything about the Great God of Hunting?'

'Interesting;'

Ryder thought about how to react to Hestia's question.

"I… I don't know;"

"I don't remember anything about upper world;"

He eventually decided to answer truthfully, albeit not the whole truth, with a somewhat gloomy expression and from his expression he showed that it was a sad reality that he had long since accepted.

Although it might seem silly, Ryder had full confidence that it was the best excuse he could've made.

Instead of lying about something that he had no idea of and getting caught later on, it was a much better option because….

Hestia looked at Ryder's gloomy expression with a blank look for a while not understanding what Ryder meant but when it finally registered in her mind, she could not help herself from appearing surprised.

"Wh..what do you mean?"

She asked maybe wanting to confirm what Ryder meant by what he said a moment ago.

"I have no memories of upper world, I forgot about everything the moment I descended to lower-"

"?"

Ryder's speech was cut short as he felt a sudden sense of suffocation. It was only a moment later that he realised that his face was literally being squeezed between two pillows?...no they were breasts!

He did not realise how but he was currently being hugged by Hestia in a manner that despite the height difference between them, Ryder's head was being pressed against her breasts.

Now Ryder was not expecting this sort of reaction, it was just too intense and he did not even understand why was there a need for a hug?

Although he did not really have anything to complain about this situation and in fact even liked it somewhat but unfortunately…. he was not in the situation to enjoy this hug!

He was barely able to breathe because of how tight she was holding him and although if he really wanted to he could forcefully free himself but Hestia might suffer some minor injury so he did not really want to do it.

Ryder barely managed to mumble some words and brought Hestia's attention to Ryder's plight.

She quickly let Ryder go and took a few steps back in embarrassment while Ryder did not say anything and just focused on huffing and puffing to bring his breath under control.

After that a long awkward silence ensued as neither one of them spoke anything.

Ryder wanted to break this awkward silence but he did not know what would be the right way, Hestia was clearly embarrassed about what she did right now so questioning about it would not be appropriate.

Just then Ryder felt a presence outside the room they were in.

"Bell must've returned!"

Ryder ran out towards the exit of the room without even looking at Hestia.

"Let's go to the dungeon;"

Ryder said after opening the door to a surprised Bell.

Ryder decided that it would be better to leave Hestia alone for a while and he just desperately wanted to get out of that awkward situation.

What Ryder did not know was that he would come to regret this decision of his to ignore this weird behaviour of Hestia in the coming future.

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Author's note: you can read advanced chapters on my patreon.

Link- p@treon.com/Hellblase

It will help me a lot, and in addition I will be able to release chapters more frequently.