Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 330 Review
Yukumo Hot Spring Bath, which is also the meeting place of the Yukumo Village Hunter's Guild, has an atmosphere just like the village itself, always gentle and tranquil.

But today, it's become as bustling as a vegetable market, much like the rugged atmosphere of Lockhart.

The source of today's change in atmosphere is the two heroic squads that have just returned to the village.

"Is this the hunter who repelled the natural disaster? His aura alone is incredibly powerful!"

"That's a high-ranking hunter, isn't it normal for him to have a powerful aura?"

"It's hard to imagine how they fought against natural disasters, even though they only have two hands and two feet..."

As soon as Lin Lin and his group stepped into the meeting place, they became the focus of everyone's attention, and the number of people gathering to watch continued to increase over time.

Some of them were hunters themselves, but most were actually curious villagers and traveling merchants.

However, Lin Lin only glanced around twice before quickly losing the energy to pay attention to his surroundings.

"Welcome back, hunters! On behalf of the Yukumo Village Hunter's Guild branch, I thank you for everything you've done!"

Sasayuki was the first to step forward and bowed slightly to the group.

Rickres immediately stepped forward, his face beaming like a blooming chrysanthemum, his smugness evident, yet he still feigned humility:

"No, no, it's what we should do!"

Rachel sighed and rubbed her forehead, but didn't interrupt him. They'd known each other for years, and she knew his temperament well. From accepting the commission to settling the payment, what he loved most was the admiring and respectful look in other people's eyes during the settlement, and he made no attempt to hide it.

Well, this battle with Lanlong was indeed very dangerous, so let this guy show off a bit...

While Sasayuki exchanged pleasantries with Rickres and Rachel, Kotohana greeted Lin Lin and his group.

Compared to Sasayuki's formality, Konohana seemed much more casual. She first looked Lin Lin up and down, and seeing that Lin Lin looked complete and without missing any parts, she couldn't help but give Lin Lin a thumbs up.

"Not bad! You actually came back unscathed. As expected of the genius hunter of our Yukumo Village!"

Lin Lin: ...

Although it sounds like you're praising me, why do you seem so surprised that I'm not seriously injured or near death?
"What genius hunter? I was just lucky, it was pure luck."

"What? You have to believe in yourself! I have an unwavering belief that you will become a high-ranking hunter from our Yukumo Village!"

"Hmm... then I'll take your good wishes!"

Lin Lin nodded, then changed the subject: "I heard from Brave that this victory over Lanlong will be recorded in our resumes?"

"That's right. The guild leader has already told me about the things I need to pay attention to beforehand. However, since it involves 'Gu Long,' we can't reveal too much information. Please follow me!"

Konoha glanced discreetly at Sasayuki, who was still patiently playing the straight man for Rickles, and thought to herself, "Truly worthy of being a senior."

"Then you guys go ahead with your work, I'll head back to the farm first and prepare a welcome dinner for you."

Iwata, being very perceptive, took the initiative to say goodbye. He was just a one-star hunter; ancient dragons and such were irrelevant to him.

Under the watchful eyes of a large crowd, Lin Lin and his two companions strode forward and followed Cihua into a quiet room.

In a quiet room.

The four sat down, and Lin Lin glanced back at the direction they had come from before, then spoke:

"I think I just saw a red contract on the notice board. That must be an emergency request, right? After Lanlong left, the village should have been peaceful for at least a short time. Why are there monsters that urgently need to be hunted again?"

"Huh? Did I forget to take that request down?"

Cihua was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled dryly, "Ahaha, it's nothing, it's nothing. That request should have been cancelled. I've been too busy with other things these past few days and forgot about it for a moment."

Yoko looked at her strangely, "Could it be the request I posted?"

Lin Lin: "?"

A request from Ye Zi? What kind of request?
"Red bean paste is too mushy! This is my mistake! I'll take it down right away!"

With her hands clasped together and a sincere expression, Ye Zi shook her head helplessly.

"Really... Oh well, it's not a big deal anyway."

Noticing Lin Lin's puzzled look, Ye Zi simply smiled and offered no explanation.

Bref hadn't noticed the receipt before, but driven by curiosity, he went back outside to take another look.

A moment later, he pushed the door open again and looked at Lin Lin with a strange expression.

Lin Lin: "?"

Breve pulled out a chair and sat down. "It's an urgent request to hunt a Deviljho."

"I thought that after Yezi ran back, she would come to me directly to prepare to rescue people. It turns out that she also came to the meeting place to issue a rescue mission in the middle of the journey."

Ye Zi feigned composure, "It's just an extra layer of insurance. After all, with our strength, we don't have much of a chance of winning if we face the Deviljho head-on."

Upon hearing this, Lin Lin was slightly moved. He looked at Ye Zi and found that although the other party seemed calm, his face was slightly red and his earlobes were bright red.

Hmm, Yoko looks so cute like this...

"Ahem, well, shall we review the whole incident?"

Cihua coughed lightly.

"Huh? Didn't I already tell you that when I came back last time?"

Brave was surprised. "Does the guild not believe my statement?"

"No, no, it's just that your account is bound to have omissions. The guild needs to understand the whole story as comprehensively as possible to gather more information so that we can find solutions if similar incidents happen again in the future." Lin Lin pulled his wandering thoughts back. "I see. Then I'll go first?"

Ci Hua nodded, and paper and pen were already laid out in front of her. She gestured for Lin Lin to proceed.

"Well, it all started that not-so-distant morning. At that time, Da Kong's flight training had already yielded some results, and in order to enable it to survive in the wild, I thought about teaching it hunting skills..."

Before Lin Lin could finish his first sentence, Ci Hua interrupted him with a frown:
"Wait a minute, who is Oozora...?"

"Oh, it's a male fire dragon cub, hatched from a dragon egg I picked up. I named it Da Kong."

"Rathalos?"

"Yes, Rathalos."

With two swift strokes, the flower sketched the image of a red owl on the paper. "Is this it?"

"It's not the red Fukumo Rabbit, it's that male Rathalos and the female Rathalos that are a pair!"

Ci Hua picked up her brush again and quickly sketched a somewhat familiar doll shape, which she then showed to Lin Lin.

"It's not a Rathalos doll, it's a real monster, Rathalos! Leorius!"

Cihua pouted, forcibly suppressing the urge to laugh, and put down the drawing paper. "I understand, please continue."

“I wanted to teach Sky to hunt on its own, so I planned to take it to hunt raw meat in the wild. During those days, I often went to the wild, thinking that the number of small animals in other directions had become much smaller, and only the north was relatively easy to find prey. So Date and I took Jump and Sky north... But I didn’t expect that the fact that the animals around us had become smaller was actually a result of the appearance of Deviljho.”

"Jump Jump, who is it again?"

"Jump Jump is a yellow Velocidrome, and also my hunting partner, which I brought back from Lokrak."

Cihua pursed her lips, pondering whether she should ask a doctor to treat this genius hunter's brain.

She turned to look at Yoko and Brave, "Um...don't you two have anything to say?"

Ye Zi was confused. "Hasn't Brother Lin Lin finished speaking yet?"

"Then there's Rathalos, and Velocidrome..."

Is there a problem?

This flower glanced at Yoko, then at Brave, and noticed that they both seemed to take it all for granted. Suddenly, she felt that something was amiss.

If it's just one person, it can be said to be wishful thinking, but if it's three people, is it that the one who is wrong about common sense is actually themselves?
Actually, monsters are capable of fighting alongside hunters and will even mistake the first animal they see after hatching for their mother.

"Um...please continue?"

"We traveled north for about... well, fifty or sixty kilometers? I don't remember the exact distance, but we hunted a big wild boar for lunch, and not long after, we were attacked by a red-crowned bird. After fighting for a while, the red-crowned bird started imitating the call of a Deviljho, probably trying to scare us away. In the end, it actually attracted the Deviljho."

Lin Lin's mouth was a little dry from talking, so Ye Zi picked up the teapot on the table and poured him a cup of tea.

Lin Lin took the bottle, took a sip, said thank you, and then continued his story:
"The Red Bird was bitten and swallowed by the Deviljho on the spot. Then it set its sights on Jump. I remembered that I had discussed with Mia from the Scribe Team before. We suspected that an ancient dragon lived on Spirit Peak. If anyone could stop that Deviljho, it would probably be that ancient dragon. So I took Jump and fled there, and then asked Da Kong to fly back with the Dates to report the news."

This flower blinked. Upon hearing Mia's name, she recalled the reason why Mia had prevented the Hunter's Guild from issuing a subjugation request for the blue bear beast that lived next to the village.

What? That's the research objective of the "Friendship Project"? The Friendship Project is a research project that explores which monsters humans can coexist peacefully with, or even help each other, blah blah blah...

Although the blue bear beast had never harmed anyone and seemed to have rarely even frightened the villagers, she never considered that plan a serious research project.

But considering what Lin Lin had just said, and the matter-of-fact expressions on his two teammates' faces, could it be that this plan actually has some merit? Could they even tame a monster like a fire dragon?
Cihua decided to continue listening.

"What happened next, if those two researchers from the Dragon Academy return to the village, you should be able to compare it with their experience. Lanlong killed the Deviljho with two powerful water cannon shots, and then shot down their airship with another shot. I happened to see it and ran up to Lingfeng to rescue people."

"This part does indeed match the statements of those two researchers."

"I'll skip the part about rescuing them and go straight to what happened when Lanlong discovered them while escorting them down the mountain. Next..."

As Lin Lin recalled the events, he recounted the events in as much detail as possible, including Ye Zi's crucial moment of descending from the sky on a grand scale, the mysterious appearance of the Bond Stone, and finally, his fight alongside Jin Leigong. However, he failed to notice that Cihua's expression as she recorded the events was becoming increasingly strange and strained.

Lin Lin had no intention of hiding the matter concerning the Sky and the Bond Stone. This was different from his ability to listen to the thoughts of monsters; it was not a unique ability of his own. He also didn't need to worry that the guild would simply wave his hand and assign him to the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau or some other non-combat department.

After all, he also wanted to take this opportunity to see if he could make contact with other riders and resolve his many doubts. In his view, even though the riders lived in seclusion, surely the guild couldn't be completely unaware of their existence?
As for Lanlong's decision to retreat after sensing the forbidden aura, Lin Lin thought for a moment but did not directly state his judgment. Instead, he simply recounted the scene at the time.

"The dark clouds suddenly dispersed, and then a solar eclipse appeared. At the moment the eclipse appeared, Lanlong ignored us and turned away from Lingfeng. We don't know where it went."

"eclipse?"

Konoha bit her lower lip and glanced at Yoko and Breve, "Did you guys see the solar eclipse too?"

Bref shook his head blankly. He looked at Yoko, only to find that Yoko was also frowning slightly and shaking her head gently.

"All I saw was the clouds disperse and the sun appear. At the time, I thought Lanlong had been scared and had withdrawn his power on his own..."

Finally! It's not just me who seems to have a misunderstanding of common sense anymore!
Ci Hua turned her head and looked at Lin Lin again:

"As far as I know, no solar eclipse has been observed in the past year. If a solar eclipse had really occurred, there's no reason why Lingfeng would be able to observe it while Jieyun Village wouldn't?"

Lin Lin frowned deeply. He had seen the solar eclipse clearly and distinctly, but Ye Zi and the others were there. If there were really an unusual celestial phenomenon, how could they not have seen it? Could it really have just been his own hallucination?

Lin Lin gently rubbed his temples with his fingers, quickly dismissing the conjecture.

His ability to sense thoughts had never failed him. At that moment, he clearly sensed fear from Lanlong. The only thing that could make Lanlong fearful was a forbidden-level monster. And among the forbidden monsters, the only one that could be associated with the solar eclipse was the Ancestral Dragon, known as the "Ancestor of All Dragons."

But why was I the only one who saw the solar eclipse?

At that moment, he recalled a few words he had once seen about Black Dragon equipment. It was said that hunters who wore Black Dragon equipment often had nightmares, seeing their arms wrapped around themselves as the claws of a Black Dragon...

What if that wasn't just an exaggerated description in the game?

(End of this chapter)