"So that explains it. That actually makes sense... Like hell it does!!!"
How could a New World Glavenus understand the language of Old World humans?! Let alone understand that the word "Glavenus" refers to itself? Without ever living in human society or having any understanding of human civilization and culture, how could it possibly grasp the meaning of the word "Glavenus"?!
What is going on?
Does the Elder Dragon Crossing phenomenon happen to New World Elder Dragons too? Old Elder Dragons travel from the Old World to the New World, so do young Elder Dragons travel from the New World to the Old World?
In other words, Boss Glavenus thinks he is a Glavenus, but he isn't actually a Glavenus, but rather an unclassifiable Elder Dragon species—was my initial guess actually correct??!!
Why was Boss Glavenus able to change into this completely un-Glavenus-like form in such a short amount of time?
Why is Boss Glavenus so intelligent, to the point of transcending the bloodlust of ordinary monsters and being willing to accept the loyalty of the Lynians?
Because Boss Glavenus is an Elder Dragon! It's just that he doesn't consider himself an Elder Dragon right now; he thinks he's a Glavenus. He doesn't have a sufficient understanding of his true species yet!
This current appearance might not even be Boss Glavenus's final form. He might continue to grow and change in the future.
The Commander's expression—time seemed to warp around him. He felt as though he had seen through the truth of the matter and personally witnessed the evolutionary path of a brand-new Elder Dragon species.
Mimicry? Or something else entirely?
Regardless of what kind of Elder Dragon Boss Glavenus actually was, the Commander could already imagine the scholars screaming in excitement when they learned of this.
In this way, although the Research Commission still hadn't uncovered the secret of the Elder Dragon Crossing, they had at least gained something.
The Commander wanted to keep asking questions, but Asterion had no intention of cooperating. The "Glavenus Guard" drove the Commander back to his companions, leaving behind a message to leave quickly before ignoring them completely.
"...That is about the gist of it. Our mission for this outing has been successfully completed," the Commander said with a smile. "I didn't expect the monster commotion to be caused simply by the return of Boss Glavenus and the Grimalkynes holding their Great Gluttony Festival. How interesting."
"If only the monsters of the Old World could be as friendly as Boss Glavenus," Caly couldn't help but sigh.
"Impossible," the Huntsman shook his head and said. "It is precisely because it is special and rare that it is an Elder Dragon... Besides, that Glavenus boss is hardly friendly. Have you forgotten the mountain of bones piled up below?"
"Well, at least Boss Glavenus is friendly enough to us... Dot? Let's go," the group said as they began walking down the mountain. After a few steps, the Commander realized his partner hadn't followed and turned back to shout.
It was hard to imagine that a strong Palico, rippling with muscle from head to toe, could show such a dejected expression. Dot remained frozen in place, looking as if his very soul had left his body.
"Dot?! Are you okay?!"
The sudden change in their partner made the hunters nervous. They quickly ran back and surrounded Dot, expressing their concern.
"I... I lost, meow..." Even his partners' concern couldn't cheer Dot up. He hung his head in depression. "I've lost Grammeow's honor, meow..."
"No, no, no, Grammeow's honor is still intact," the Commander waved his hands repeatedly. "You're the one who didn't win the championship, not Grammeow. If anything, it just means you haven't learned enough yet."
"...Thank you, Commander, meow." Dot looked up at his partner with a resentful glare and spoke weakly, "I really feel comforted, meow."
Hahahahahaha!
Bursting into laughter, the Commander used a burst of strength to scoop his partner up from the ground and place him onto his shoulder.
"What are you doing, meow! Put me down, meow! I am a proper Hunter, meow!!"
Blushing slightly—well, even muscles couldn't hide the blush—Dot struggled with all his might. He was a powerful and proud Hunter, after all!
"I refuse!" Amidst the suppressed laughter of the others, the Commander deliberately kept a straight face and shook his head. "I was just joking earlier. There's no need to be so depressed. Even the best chef can't make a good dish without ingredients. No, not even Grammeow could do it."
"Grammeow could do it, meow! Put me down first, meow!!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Against the Rajang-like strength of the Commander, Dot's struggles were futile.
The group continued walking down the mountain, joking with each other. Their laughter didn't feel out of place; at least, amidst the celebrating Grimalkynes, it didn't feel out of place at all.
These black-and-white balls of fur were eating and drinking heartily, occasionally rushing past the hunters' feet at high speeds, forcing them to be careful not to step on the little Grimalkynes.
"Can we come back to participate in the Great Gluttony Festival next year, meow?" Standing at the edge of the celebration, Dot asked the Grimalkynes.
Even in the midst of the tribe-wide celebration, there were still loyal Grimalkynes on patrol duty. Leading them was none other than the chieftain, Sparky.
"You want to come again, meow?" Sparky paused for a moment, then spoke with some hesitation, "Meow doesn't know either, meow... Hmm, if Boss Glavenus agrees, it should be fine, right meow?"
"Thank you, meow," Dot said sincerely.
"You're welcome, meow. I ate the food you made, meow. It was delicious, meow." Sparky grinned, no longer bearing the imposing aura of someone pointing a spear at a hunter. "But what Boss Glavenus loves to eat is different from us, meow."
"I know that now, meow," Dot sighed. "Next year! I will definitely prove that Grammeow's cooking is the best in the world, meow!!"
"Wrong, meow! Scallion's cooking is the best, meow!!" Sparky retorted loudly.
"Who is Scallion, meow?" Dot asked curiously.
"My wife, meow!!"
Sparky put his hands on his hips, his face full of pride.
Dot: "..."
Don't say such cruel things to a single cat, meow!!
[Guild Report 34]
...After three years of construction, the forward operating base, Astera, has been initially established. However, various facilities required for daily life and production are still lacking. There is also a shortage of various materials, and manpower is severely insufficient. The construction of the base still requires a large amount of stone, requesting Guild support...
...The ship construction is nearing completion. The Research Commission will use the ship to travel to the forest area observed before landing, with the hope of discovering an overland route to the Wildspire Waste in the future... The new ship will also return to the Old World to submit a concentrated batch of survey reports...
[Guild Report 39]
...Large numbers of monsters in the southern Wildspire Waste have been killed by an unknown monster. To investigate the cause of the anomaly... Grimalkynes... Great Gluttony Festival...
Current confirmed intelligence: A Lynian tribe unique to the New World, the Grimalkynes (suspected to be ancestors of the Felynes), have formed a unique symbiotic relationship with a monster. The monster is responsible for protecting the safety of the Grimalkynes, while the Grimalkynes are responsible for cooking food for the monster.
Confirmed by the Commander, this monster is the strange Glavenus mentioned in [Guild Report 7] and [Guild Report 21]. However, this investigation revealed that it possesses a brand-new appearance. Specifically, it has silver-grey scales as smooth and bright as mirrors covering its entire body, and a pair of extremely small wings on its back, which do not possess the ability to fly...
...However, its attack methods remain similar to a Glavenus, utilizing its tail blade to attack other monsters. Yet, the material constituting its tail blade is no longer ore, but scales as sharp as blades... The above records are merely speculation. Considering the reasons for the hunt, the feelings of the local Lynians, and actual combat capabilities, hunters cannot capture this monster, and thus cannot conduct detailed research to ascertain its changes.
It possesses an extremely high degree of intelligence and a considerable degree of self-awareness. It can even provide accurate and clear responses when the Commander attempts to communicate with it, completely transcending the understanding of ordinary monsters, which, even if intelligent, only use that intelligence for predation or combat...
In summary, after careful and rigorous discussion, the three scholars of the base have formulated two directions of speculation:
First: Even though its appearance is completely different from a normal Glavenus, this monster is essentially still a Glavenus.
The so-called "Deviant" monsters are individuals of the original species that have evolved due to natural selection or hunting pressure. They possess appearances distinct from the original species, and their attack methods and elemental attributes may differ from the original, with no way to revert to the original form.
Unlike Subspecies, Deviants are extremely rare and cannot breed into a new population. Therefore, according to the scholars' speculation, this monster should belong to the Deviants of the Glavenus species. Furthermore, its uniqueness lies not in evolving unique organs or attack attributes, but in a physical atavism. Perhaps it could be called an Atavistic Species?
Countless years ago, the ancestors of the Glavenus might have possessed wings. Now, this manifests in this special Glavenus in the form of atavism. This would explain its abnormally small wings—the atavism was not thorough enough, so they cannot function normally.
This speculation is supported by the Anjanath, a fellow Brute Wyvern. The Anjanath's wings have long since degenerated, but the degeneration is incomplete; when they are enraged, they will spread their wings again, though they cannot use them to fly.
The difference between the Anjanath and the ordinary Glavenus might be that the ordinary Glavenus has completely lost its wings, and even when enraged, it will no longer spread them.
In addition, there is strong evidence for this speculation: the monster's roar is no different from that of a normal Glavenus. Detailed scholar analysis reports are attached to this letter.
Second: This monster is not a Glavenus. It only looked like a Glavenus, attacked like a Glavenus, and had attributes like a Glavenus before. The reason for the various changes now is simply that it has grown up and no longer needs the disguise.
In this speculation, this monster should be classified as an Elder Dragon, because we cannot classify it otherwise—but if we classify it as an Elder Dragon, it lacks the special ability to be called a "natural disaster," which normal Elder Dragons should possess.
It is too weak. Is there really such a weak Elder Dragon?
But compared to other monsters, this one is entirely out of place. Not only does it possess a high degree of intelligence, but it can also act against its own instincts, understand our language, and knows how to subdue Lynians to serve it. In the past, it even learned swordsmanship from hunters.
This speculation was proposed by the Commander, but the scholars do not agree with it much. Regardless of how its appearance changes, its attack methods and movements remain indistinguishable from a Glavenus. The specific argumentation process is attached to this letter.
It is worth mentioning that this monster has indeed demonstrated amazing wisdom. However, why it can understand our language and the language of the local Grimalkynes and respond to them remains an unsolved mystery requiring further investigation and research.
Given the distance between the New World and the Old World and the difficulty of communicating with the Guild, for the sake of convenience, the three scholars of the base have preliminarily named this monster.
Considering its current appearance, scales, and intellectual characteristics, after careful discussion, the scholars have tentatively identified this monster as a Glavenus Deviant exhibiting atavistic traits. Its name is——Sageblade Glavenus.
In the Wildspire Waste, everyone had their own things to be busy with.
When he was bored, Asterion had indeed been curious about how the hunters would view him, and had fantasized about how they would discuss him in their secret meetings—but he really didn't expect the hunters' efficiency to be so high. As soon as the festival was over, they went back, held a meeting, discussed it, and gave him a new name.
It wasn't surprising, really. For the hunters of the Research Commission, this was one of the few moments where they could reclaim the meaning of their voyage across the sea.
Ahem. Surveying, mining, building the base, building ships—given the total number of people in the Research Commission, please highlight the hunters' work priority among the above items.
That's right, it's mining.
Second only to mining is the construction of the base. These two tasks take up nearly ninety-five percent of the Research Commission's energy. The remaining five percent has to be split between hunting monsters to fill their bellies and other such things.
For the hunters, this reality was somewhat too cruel—they were the Research Commission! Although they had discovered the New World, where was the "Research" part of the Commission now?!
They were practically the Mining Commission!
It was precisely because of this that Asterion's renaming was decided so quickly.
Asterion could not feel the hunters' joy. He only knew that the Wildspire Waste seemed to be facing a disaster.
A locust plague.
It was like rain, but what fell from the sky were not clear raindrops, but densely packed locusts—each one fully ten centimeters long, falling with loud buzzing and the sound of beating wings.
It was simply a nightmare scenario. The abundant bio-energy of the New World gave these locusts larger bodies and stronger reproductive capabilities than those of the Old World. Given a chance, they could rapidly multiply their forces even in relatively desolate areas like the Wildspire Waste, where the leyline energy was blocked.
When these densely packed little things swept over, covering the sky and the earth, even Asterion couldn't help but flee at the sight of them—not because he was afraid the locusts would eat him, but simply because he was afraid they would drill into his ears or into the holes on the surface of his body.
If that happened, even with the Grimalkynes' help, they wouldn't be able to dig them out. Just thinking about it made his dragon scalp tingle.
————
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