Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 109: Elena, the Young Chef!

Once the team reached the area where the animals were grazing, they stopped in their tracks. They were surprised to see a huge wooden fence—one that looked incredibly polished, organised, and structurally firm. It was the kind of craftsmanship they expected from humans, not from the mindless monsters.

"Any idea about how to grab one of these and bring them over to slaughter?" Luke asked, his belly letting out a faint, funny roar as he stared at the plump, slow-moving creatures.

"I have an idea," John said, his eyes glowing with a faint light. He walked toward a section of the fence. "I’ll use my stealth over part of the fence to hide its presence. Once they are drawn toward the fake hole in the cage, it’s Luke’s job to knock one out. If that fails, then simply kill it using your weapons. We need to be quick. And don’t get hurt in the process!"

John waited for his friends to climb the massive wooden fence and take their positions along its sturdy top rail. Despite the huge size of the blue-furred animals—each one easily the size of a small truck—they proved to be the stark opposite of the Fog Seekers. The moment they spotted the humans ascending their enclosure, the herd began to stir, let out low, vibrating hums of distress. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

’Ok, Sandbox!’ John muttered, focusing on part of the fence, where his friends were.

Seeing the cattle preparing to bolt from the area, John instantly shielded his friends’ presence using his ability. However, the distortion field had an unintended side effect; by masking his friends, he accidentally made the part of the fence they were sitting on vanish from the cattle’s perception.

Noticing the sudden gap in their wooden cage, several of the beasts instantly changed direction and began charging directly toward the wooden perimeter.

"Be ready!" John warned, his voice sharp over the thunder of heavy hooves. "Hang tight to the fence and make sure not to fall from the impact!"

"Dammit! Will this wooden thing hold?!" Luke shouted in distress, but it was too late to even think about this possibility!

Watching these animals charge was like watching a fleet of tanks bearing down on them. The ground shook with bone-deep tremors. Yet, the fence proved its worth; it was incredibly strong and sturdy, managing to absorb the massive shock of the impact without budging an inch or splintering.

"Come to me—breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Hahaha!"

The first to launch an attack wasn’t Luke, but Elena. She shouted in a manic way that made the others give her a concerned side glance. The hunger had clearly taken over her mind.

"Aim at the one she attacked!" John commanded, his sword already raised, ready to join the fray if needed. He didn’t want to hunt more than one of these behemoths. One behemoth was more than enough to sustain their needs for an entire week, even with the presence of foodies like Elena and Luke in their group.

The targeted beast tried to veer away, receiving the sledgehammers’ attack from Elena, which obviously scared it, but Cissel was half a beat faster. She became a blur, flashing forward and striking with both daggers.

Her intervention was timely, and she landed precise hits over the most crucial parts, severing the tendons in the beast’s rear legs and cutting off its path of escape.

Next, it was Elena’s turn. The girl showed exactly how much she had craved meat after days of living on nothing but blue fruits. She didn’t just strike once; she launched a relentless barrage of attacks, her movements fueled by a desperate, bottomless hunger.

The blue-furred cattle eventually collapsed to the ground, moaning in a deep, melodic pain, before Ricky and Luke moved in to mercifully end its life.

Once the kill was confirmed, the team flared their presence to scare the rest of the herd away to a distance. Then, they stood in front of a significant problem.

"How are we supposed to move it outside?!" Luke asked, wiping sweat from his brow. He tried to lift one of the behemoth’s thick legs, but the prize was far too heavy for him to even budge. It was like trying to lift a boulder made of muscle.

"Let’s just eat here then," Elena suggested with a shrug, as if the idea of dining inside a livestock cage didn’t bother her at all. "I’ll just need you boys to cut it into manageable pieces after I’m done prepping the initial cuts..."

Just as everyone started looking at Cissel’s daggers—since they were the closest thing they had to kitchen knives—Elena reached into her necklace storage device and began producing an array of professional-grade, different-sized meat cleavers and chef’s knives.

"I’m seriously curious... What else do you have in there?!" Luke exclaimed. He leaned over, trying to get a better look at the necklace Elena was wearing.

Elena caught the movement and instinctively spun around, giving him her back to protect her privacy. "That’s rude, Luke! Give a girl some space!"

The simple gesture ended in a moment of intense embarrassment for the tall youngster. Elena was wearing a loose, off-shoulder red dress for this morning—one of many she seemingly kept in her infinite wardrobe and exchanged now and then at night. As she turned, the fabric shifted, leaving Luke staring at the ground and stammering an apology that wouldn’t come out.

For the rest of the afternoon, Luke kept his distance, busy trying to find a way to apologise properly without making it weirder. As for the rest of the group, they soon realised that skinning and preparing a beast this size would take hours of back-breaking work. And they couldn’t wait, they were hungry!

"I’ll prepare this part first," Elena said after half an hour. Even her excitement couldn’t mask the fact that she was growing hungrier by the second. "I’ll start cooking this large piece first, using my special seasonings, then I’ll come back to properly butchering the rest of the Blue Cattle."

She had named the species on the spot, and everyone accepted it without question. She expertly carved a massive cut from one of the hind legs and carried it outside the fence. Using two active cores, she started a fire. Soon, she had a large metallic cooking pot and several flat stones from the riverbank arranged into a makeshift camp kitchen.

"She is really someone fond of eating..."

Seeing the sheer level of preparation—the jars of spices, the specialised oils, the focused technique—everyone, even Luke, felt a sense of immense surprise. Cissel stood by John’s side, watching Elena work. She noted how slim and fit Elena looked despite her apparent obsession with food.

"How come after all this eating, she still looks like that?" Cissel whispered, a hint of genuine wonder and envy in her voice.