Tonkotsu's figure appeared at the Wyverian girl's left; he cleared his throat lightly, startling the tense Wyverian girl, who subconsciously was about to slam a shield bash over.
"Still not putting it away, meow!"
The Wyverian girl's body went rigid; after reacting, she quickly put her weapons away.
Suddenly, a vast shadow shrouded her; Logan stood up, folded his wings, and came before her.
"Roar~~ roar!"
"What Boss Fire Wyvern means is—" Tonkotsu subconsciously began to translate.
"I don't need any reward. The Prophet said this was my mission. Although I don't know why it was me, I have now completed it. So if possible, could you let me leave?"
Before Tonkotsu's translation had even started, the Wyverian girl quickly replied.
Only after she finished did she realize what she had said.
"You—"
"I actually understand Boss Fire Wyvern's roars?"
Interrupted again, Tonkotsu showed no extra emotion; instead, he and the Wyverian girl who looked over stared wide-eyed at each other.
Mm, Tonkotsu's eyes were a bit bigger—after all, he is a cat of the Lynian race.
"So, I really understood it?"
The Wyverian girl pointed at herself in disbelief.
Tonkotsu silently nodded.
That's right—Logan's roar had been asking what reward the Wyverian girl wanted.
"H-how could this be? I can't understand the roars of other monsters either—so why can I suddenly understand his now?"
The Wyverian girl couldn't understand it. She was only a combat member, not some scholar; her mind was not equipped to complete such thinking under pressure and reach the correct conclusion.
Tonkotsu took a deep breath. Although he hadn't expected that the Wyverian girl who had stayed on the Ancient Tree for a year would have such an ability, it didn't really change anything. He turned his head and conveyed the Wyverian girl's answer to Logan.
Logan looked at the Wyverian girl in slight surprise, then asked in a low voice another question of his own.
"That gemstone—I dug it out in a very hidden cave, located at the boundary between the depths and the outer edge of the Ancient Forest. The gemstone was buried right beneath this eggshell at the time."
As she spoke, the Wyverian girl took out from her small pouch a piece of eggshell she had carried away back then.
Logan slowly lowered his head and sniffed lightly.
That familiar scent from years ago instantly stirred the memory buried deep within—the memory of just having hatched, still gnawing on mushrooms inside the cave.
He hadn't expected that this gemstone had actually been dug out from his "birthplace." No wonder it had felt so familiar.
He just didn't know whether this thing had crossed over together with him, or whether it had been left there by the wyvern father or mother who had left the egg in the nest.
But it didn't matter anymore!
After taking a deep look at the Wyverian girl, who gazed at him expectantly, he let out a low roar and retreated into the depths of the nest, biting into another Mosswine to start tasting it.
"Phew~ thank you for your generosity. If there's ever a chance…"
The Wyverian girl let out a sigh of relief. Logan had agreed to her request to leave and had even kept the reward for her—she could make one reasonable request of him in the future.
Seeing the group of cats once again gathering beside Logan to report and await his orders, the Wyverian girl tactfully left the nest under Tonkotsu's watchful gaze.
Feeling the sunlight filtering down through the leaves, the Wyverian girl suddenly recalled a previous thought of hers.
"Maybe I could go back and ask… this request shouldn't be too much, right?"
...
After resting for a day and easing the fatigue from a long flight that spanned two major regions of the New World, the returning wyverns finally began to grow active.
Basically every day, one could see the Flame Rathalos bringing along the Scorching Heat Rathian to carry out constant strength checks within their group, making many Fire Wyvern couples miserable; that look of petty triumph really was obnoxious.
Perhaps because she had successfully elevated her ecological niche, Aki—just like Logan back when he completed his metamorphosis—felt an obvious sense of discomfort brought on by the differences between a subspecies and the base species when facing ordinary Fire Wyverns.
Only, Logan back then could hold himself in check. Although he could not be intimate with Aki, at other times he acted more or less the same as usual.
But when it came to Aki, it was a bit different. She would always, inadvertently, reveal her disdain for ordinary Fire Wyverns; she would even drive away the Rathians that used to follow behind her and often go out hunting together, whenever she failed to keep herself under control.
As for this, Logan had no real solution. After all, this step would come sooner or later. Just like the Azure Rathalos–Pink Rathian couple once did, it could only be erased through a long period of coexisting with ordinary Fire Wyverns and living together.
No matter what, Aki had still metamorphosed from an ordinary Rathian, so her rate of adaptation would not be too slow.
Logan, meanwhile, was studying ways to raise that so-called [Natural Affinity].
Twenty-nine percent—no need to guess, it was definitely what he had accumulated from so many years of going on dispatches.
It was just that, over these years, he had gone on no small number of dispatches, even including one mission concerning an Elder Dragon, and yet it still amounted to only this much affinity.
There was also the fact that, as his strength grew, the frequency of dispatches became lower and lower.
Not to mention anything else—before breaking through to become an Elder Dragon, he could at least go once a year; but ever since breaking through to become an Elder Dragon, in this past year or so, there simply had not been that feeling of nature's call.
To tell the truth, Logan could understand. What was called a dispatch was both a way to stabilize the ecological environment and a trial from nature for those who went on dispatches, a kind of tempering.
For a true top-of-the-world combat power like an Elder Dragon, the aftershocks caused by taking action would inflict more damage on the ecological chain of that region than those sub–Elder Dragon monsters that required dispatch treatment.
Therefore, unless necessary, an Elder Dragon's dispatch would often only target another Elder Dragon.
But since raising Natural Affinity could not be done through dispatches, were there any other methods?
It was no wonder Logan took it so seriously. Although this thing called Terastallization was a bit ugly, its boost to strength was solidly formidable; using it as a trump card could not be better.
After all, since it was a trump card, whenever you used it, it would definitely be during a life-or-death, high-intensity battle—being ugly was better than being dead.
Therefore, this feeling of having a treasure trove but nowhere to get started truly made the dragon unhappy.
"Ptoo~"
Biting off a slightly overgrown scale, Logan spat casually, folded his wings, and walked along the Ancient Tree trunk path that had been carefully cleaned by the cats. As if taking a stroll, he habitually marked his territory while thinking.
Very soon, the road he passed along was left with many charred claw marks of varying depth.
That bitten-off scale was quickly collected by the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warrior who had been silently following around Logan, riding a Jagras.
"Meow! So hot, meow!"
A pitiful meow instantly drew the attention of the nearby cats.
Then they saw that large silver-white scale fall back to the ground as the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warrior loosened his grip; the grass buds near the scale turned yellow from the high temperature in an instant.
The reprimand that had already reached the lips was swallowed back again. The captain of this squad had originally wanted to say that they were all cats capable of using combustible sweat glands, with heat resistance so strong—how could they be unable to hold even a single scale?
Yet the scale's behavior showed that, taken bare-handed, it indeed could not be held.
[Poke, poke~]
Another cat jumped down from the Jagras and, very cautiously, stretched out its little paw to poke the scale. As a wave of heat dissipated, the scale soon held only a faint residual warmth.
"It should be energy remaining in the Fire Wyvern boss's scale. Now that the energy has dispersed, it's not that hot anymore, meow."
Saying this, the cat carefully gripped the edge of the scale and picked it up.
"Wow, so perfect, meow~"
The folded striations on the scale were clearly visible; the scale's edge was rounded yet sharp. In the sunlight, faint energy circuits flickered in and out of sight.
There was no need to make a comparison—this scale was definitely the most perfect one since Logan's return.
"Cough, cough, confiscated, meow!"
At that moment, a pink paw reached out, snatching the scale away. Under the disbelieving gaze of the cat warrior, its captain carefully stuffed the scale into the armor at his chest.
Confiscation was, of course, mandatory—but before completing the patrol of the territory with the Fire Wyvern boss, anyone in the squad could keep it for safekeeping; there was no need to hand it over immediately.
So, this guard captain's behavior was truly despicable!!
"Despicable, meow! You're abusing your power for personal gain, meow! I'm going to report this to Brother Tonkotsu, meow!!"
The cat whose scale had been taken away stomped its feet in fury, but seeing its captain's shameless expression, all it could do was keep on stomping.
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