"It would be great if we could capture it," the Wyverian scholar couldn't help but say. "That way, we could study its wing structure in detail."
This was a common research method scholars used for monsters. For those monsters whose numbers increased abnormally, or those that threatened the safety of the Kingdom's villages and the ecological balance, the Guild would issue Slay quests to hunters—the kind where the target is killed.
But under normal circumstances, if it was purely for the scholars' academic needs, the Guild would issue Capture quests to the hunters. They would heavily tranquilize the monster and bring it back, allowing scholars to observe its structure or take blood and tissue samples. Once the research was complete, the monster would be released back into the wild.
"Don't even think about it." The person speaking wasn't even Bent, but one of the hunters responsible for protecting them. He spoke with a stern expression. "Boss Glavenus is different from other monsters. If you make a move on him, even the Grimalkynes won't forgive us."
"Besides, I don't want to fight Boss Glavenus," another hunter sitting by the campfire added. "Scholar Lan Xi, you came to the New World with the Second Fleet, right? Boss Glavenus is incredibly smart. Don't confuse him with those monsters from the Old World."
"Sorry, sorry, I was just saying." Seeing the hunters protest so directly, the Wyverian scholar named Lan Xi hurriedly apologized. "Please rest assured, I won't do anything reckless."
"That's good." The hunters seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Theoretically speaking, hunters could refuse quests issued by the Guild. However, this was the New World Research Commission. If a scholar could persuade the Commander to issue a direct order, the hunters of Astera would have to obey and attempt to capture Boss Glavenus.
—However, having heard many stories from the members of the First Fleet, they didn't think the Commander would ever give such an order.
"Actually, even if you wanted to capture him, you couldn't do it, right?" Bent smoothed things over from the side. "There is currently no precedent for successfully capturing an Elder Dragon. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."
"That's true." A hunter nodded, then spoke with sudden enthusiasm. "I heard what you guys were saying earlier. Are we giving Boss Glavenus a name again?"
"He has to have a name, right?" Scholar Lan Xi smiled, not feeling awkward about the tense atmosphere from a moment ago. "If Boss Glavenus really is an Elder Dragon undergoing developmental stages, naming his growth process is quite interesting."
"Glavenus, Wisdom-Edge... what should he be called next?" A hunter nearby rubbed his chin and said, "Boss Glavenus makes a particularly sharp sound when he takes off, but he flies very slowly and can't fly far... How about the Slow-Roar Wyvern?"
"That sounds terrible!"
"If you can't name things, then don't! You idiot!"
"That doesn't match Boss Glavenus's cool style at all!"
The scholars didn't even need to reject it; the other hunters were already criticizing the name.
"You can't name him based on his flight speed," Bent said with a wry smile. "You must have seen it, right? The clumsy way Boss Glavenus looks when he flies is completely different from his usual agility and speed when attacking."
"He is trying to learn how to fly," Lan Xi said with certainty. "Just like a young eagle leaping from the nest to attempt flight after its feathers are full, Boss Glavenus is not yet familiar with his own wings."
"That is normal," Bent nodded. "It has been over ten years since we first discovered Boss Glavenus. For such a long time, Boss Glavenus has been hunting on the ground. Now that he has suddenly grown wings and started flying, he must be very unaccustomed to it."
"Exactly," Lan Xi agreed. "And you've all seen how Boss Glavenus teaches his swordsmanship to his mate and child, right? When we first observed him, his wings would affect his movement when he turned to swing his tail blade, but now that doesn't happen anymore."
"Huh? I think that did happen." A hunter laughed somewhat awkwardly. "I was mainly watching the trajectory of Boss Glavenus's tail blade. As expected of the legendary monster swordsmanship."
"He learned it from the Huntsman in the beginning," another hunter nudged his shoulder and teased. "After this mission is over, why don't you go ask the Huntsman for some pointers too?"
"I will, I will." The hunter mumbled a few words. "Cough, let's not talk about me. Scholar Lan Xi, please continue."
"Alright." Lan Xi showed a kindly smile and continued, "According to my speculation, once Boss Glavenus becomes familiar with his wings, his flight speed should become much faster. Therefore, the naming convention should focus on his method of flight."
"First, unlike common Flying Wyverns, he doesn't rely on wing membranes and muscle movement to generate lift and thrust combined with air currents," Bent summarized point by point. "Second, he isn't like the Nightshade Paolumu found in the Wildspire Waste, which first inhales a large amount of air to float like a rising balloon, then flaps its wings to propel itself through the air."
"Instead, the tips of Boss Glavenus's wings spout pale blue and bright yellow flames. He doesn't need to flap his wings when taking off; he can even fly vertically from the ground to the top of the giant tree. It's truly marvelous," Lan Xi said, getting excited as he spoke. "I really want to know how Boss Glavenus does it. Can simple flame projection really achieve such a degree of lift?"
"That's a question for the technical staff in Astera, isn't it?" a hunter quipped. "They'll definitely be inspired. Maybe they can make us fly into the sky like that too."
"And then crash down like Boss Glavenus?" The hunter next to him shook his head repeatedly. "Spare me. I haven't lived long enough yet. If you search to the east right now, you can still see many large craters smashed out by Boss Glavenus falling from the sky. My bones can't handle that kind of devastation."
The Fanged Beast species (referring to humans/hunters) really underestimated themselves sometimes.
"I can't wait to send this survey report back to base," Lan Xi said with a smile. "We'll need the help of some professionals."
"Then let's head out," the hunter captain said, standing up. "I don't know about anyone else, but the Admiral will definitely be very happy."
"After all, Boss Glavenus is an old friend of his."
The team of scholars and hunters stationed there began their return to Astera; they would bring back the latest observational results regarding Asterion.
Meanwhile, Asterion finally waited until the Bazelgeuse brothers came home. According to the old Shakalaka, this restless brother basically never stayed in the canopy of the giant tree for long.
Driven by a thirst for battle and an inability to endure loneliness, the Bazelgeuse brother was always flying out and about—wherever there was a fight, there he was.
When other monsters were fighting each other over food and territory, struggling for a chance to survive, the Bazelgeuse brother would descend from the sky and join the battlefield, giving both sides a fierce surprise.
If he could beat them, he'd take them both on; if he couldn't, he relied on his thick hide and explosive scales to bomb everything and flee the battlefield. He was essentially a chaotic nuisance—a total "dung-stirrer."
During the two years Asterion was in seclusion evolving, the Bazelgeuse brother had already made a name for himself in the surrounding area.
Monsters obviously didn't have convenient media like the internet to spread information, but centered around Asterion's territory, almost all the monsters occupying the high ecological niches nearby had realized the same thing: do not easily engage in combat with other monsters.
Even if a fight did break out with another monster, it had to be ended as quickly as possible. Either kill the opponent or run away. Otherwise, it wouldn't take long for a baffling, disgusting thing to join the battlefield. In the end, they would gain nothing and lose stamina for no reason.
Disgusting!
"Roar!" (Boss! You're finally awake!)
As soon as the returning Bazelgeuse saw Asterion sitting on the canopy layer, he immediately let out a cheer of joy.
Logically, he should have called him "Big Brother," but dragons didn't have the concept of siblings in their mindset. Whatever Asterion taught, they repeated, but they didn't completely understand why they said it.
In the Bazelgeuse's eyes, everyone was now pack hunting, just like when he was back in the Elder's Recess—bombing together, eating together.
It was just that now, the pack wasn't made up of his own kind, but a powerful strange dragon and a weak mysterious dragon... The latter could be ignored; as long as the former was strong enough, that was all that mattered.
Asterion was the pack leader in the Bazelgeuse's eyes. Following the leader meant there would be meat to eat. The combined strength of two dragons could kill some dragons they originally couldn't defeat at all—for example, that Teostra... The Bazelgeuse had never eaten such delicious food before, full of energy.
So, seeing Asterion out of the nest again, the Bazelgeuse found it hard not to be excited—the pack leader was out, which meant there would be good meat to eat again.
"Roar!" (Long time no see—did you find an Elder Dragon?)
Asterion roared in response to the Bazelgeuse brother, as the Bazelgeuse's reaction to seeing him was a bit too agitated.
For a dragon, a lifeform that could easily live for centuries as long as it didn't die in natural conflicts, two years was truly too short. Often, simply closing their eyes for a nap and waking up meant two years had passed, and their minds were well-adapted to this rhythm of life.
Therefore, the only reason that could make the Bazelgeuse brother this excited was probably the task Asterion had assigned to him before his slumbering evolution.
Find an Elder Dragon.
"Roar!" (Yes! Boss! Let's go quickly!)
The Bazelgeuse brother's voice was full of eagerness and appetite. Drinking Asterion's blood when they first swore brotherhood had made him a bit smarter, but it seemed not that much smarter.
He just wanted to eat that flesh and blood full of energy again. And Asterion... naturally felt the same.
They left immediately.
As the King of the Glavenus tribe, Asterion didn't need to answer to any Palico when he went out. He took off directly from the canopy layer. After enjoying the surprised gaze of the Bazelgeuse brother for a short distance, Asterion fell out of the sky.
Without wing membranes, he couldn't even glide alongside the Bazelgeuse brother.
They headed roughly west. The direction the Bazelgeuse brother pointed to was far, very far—a distance that could be considered "far" even for a Bazelgeuse, whose flight style possessed exceptional cruising range.
Asterion could only run, occasionally using jet-boosted takeoffs to accelerate and chase from the ground... Regardless, this travel speed was still much faster than relying solely on running like before. At least he didn't have to detour when encountering cliffs and precipices.
The two dragons thus entered the depths of the Ancient Forest, far exceeding the boundaries defined by the game maps of his past life. They didn't clear a path through everything along the way; instead, they moved on before the territory's apex monster could arrive—of course, if they were unlucky enough to run straight into the territory owner's face, a fight was naturally unavoidable.
They couldn't just bypass the local apex and leave. Monsters didn't understand the concept of "just passing through." If you didn't hit the local dragons hard, they would just think you were easy pickings—a piece of tasty meat.
Those that could be dealt with quickly were killed on the spot with the Bazelgeuse brother's coordination and eaten. Those too strong to be taken down quickly were beaten up before the duo continued on their way. Local strong dragons usually chose not to pursue after taking a beating.
The brothers' target was solely the Elder Dragon. Before killing the Elder Dragon mentioned by the Bazelgeuse, Asterion didn't intend to waste stamina and life energy on these ordinary monsters.
They saw quite a few powerful monsters along the way. They even encountered several Espinas, Flying Wyverns with combat power comparable to Elder Dragons. The biodiversity of the Ancient Forest impressed Asterion deeply.
Asterion even saw a patch of stone ruins half-buried in the soil along the way. Massive trees had pierced through the walls and stone crevices, growing wildly. He could only barely make out a few carved stone pillars that hadn't been completely eroded by wind and rain.
Standing on these ruins, Asterion didn't know how deep they were buried in the mud. He could only tell that an unknown amount of time ago, the New World also had its own civilization... Perhaps a human kingdom?
It could also have been a Wyverian or Lynian kingdom. After all, First Wyverians lived in every corner of the New World, and these First Wyverians could even converse directly with hunters.
Whatever.
He didn't know how much time had passed. Even Asterion felt a bit tired from the journey when, finally, the Bazelgeuse brother descended from the sky.
"Roar!" (It's here! Like you said, an environment completely different from the surroundings!)
The Bazelgeuse brother flapped his wings excitedly.
As Asterion's appointed bloodhound, Asterion hadn't known how to describe to the Bazelgeuse brother how to find an Elder Dragon back then. After all, the Bazelgeuse didn't share his basic understanding of this world and the dragons in it.
In the end, Asterion could only tell the Bazelgeuse brother to look for places where the environment was distinctly different from the surroundings—except for a few specific ones, most Elder Dragons would inevitably affect the surrounding environment just by being active.
Wind and rain, lightning and thunder, drought and flames... In an environment like the Ancient Forest, if a condition other than forest and humid climate appeared, it basically meant an Elder Dragon was present.
It wasn't precise and was prone to errors, but for the Bazelgeuse brother, it was a clear enough clue. He just needed to fly in the sky and look around.
At this very moment, what appeared before the two brothers was—an emerald green bamboo forest.
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