Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 425 Explosive Fist and Explosive Hammer

Seeing Tiao Tiao's excited expression, Lin Lin smiled and nodded in response.

Well, it's just that Sophia isn't here. Otherwise, if she had witnessed Jumpy molting, her excitement would probably have been no less than Jumpy's.

But...

Lin Lin's gaze swept over Jumpy's body, which had clearly grown larger. It had just finished the battle and had already molted. It seemed that his previous guess was probably correct; battles could indeed promote the growth and evolution of the Black Devouring Dragon.

In that case, we'll need to find more opponents for Jumpy...

After a moment of excitement, Jumpy reverted to its berserk dragon form, retracted the antennae that had been raised on its head, and ran lightly to Lin Lin's side, nuzzling him with its head before turning to the corpse of the armored dragon.

Lin Lin shook his head and chuckled. Although he didn't shout it out loud, the meaning behind his actions was quite obvious. Even without listening to his inner thoughts, he knew that this guy was trying to curry favor with him.

"Well done. Why don't you do the work again and take this guy's body back?"

Jumping froze, then turned her head away nonchalantly, pretending she hadn't heard anything.

Oh my, this lava is so incredibly molten...

"Pfft..."

Ye Zi couldn't help but laugh out loud. Although Tiao Tiao was now so big, his mind seemed to be no different from that of a child. This Armored Dragon was at least twenty meters long and its body was as heavy as a mountain, while Tiao Tiao was only about sixteen meters long and its weight was hard to say whether it was even half that of the Armored Dragon. How could Tiao Tiao possibly carry it back...

Lin Lin stopped teasing Tiao Tiao and put away his weapon before pulling out his skinning knife. "Alright, I was just kidding. Let's hurry up and skin the materials."

Extracting materials is a delicate task. Jumping is fine to participate in the battle, but at this time he can only stand by and watch. He was quickly sent aside by Lin Lin to cool off.

The Armored Dragon's body was enormous, like a small mountain, and its carapace had a unique layered structure, which made it quite difficult to extract. Lin Lin, Ye Zi, and Ye Zi worked together for half a day and only managed to extract some of the most important materials.

While Lin Lin and the others were busy collecting materials, Nia Lu was not idle either.

It had only recently begun its hunting cat training and hadn't even completed some of the basic training. Rushing into extracting materials might backfire, so it didn't get involved in that. Instead, it carefully collected the dandruff... cough, the shed scales that Jump had scattered all over the place. After all, these were quite high-quality materials, and they might be useful for crafting some weapons and armor.

After finishing these tasks, Nia noticed that Lin Lin and the others were still busy. Then, seeing the exposed mineral crystal clusters all around, she felt a little itchy in her hands. So, she picked up her pickaxe and began to dig for coal with all her might. For a while, the clanging and banging of the hammer and the friction of the blade cutting the material rose and fell.

……

Thanks to thorough preparation and the powerful combat ability of Jumper, the Armored Dragon, although one of the most difficult five-star monsters to deal with, did not last much longer than the Shadow Spider after the battle officially began. It was directly suppressed to death by a combo, and many of its disgusting tricks were not even used before it died.

Although the battle was very short, the subsequent processing took a lot of time. Looking at the mountain of materials and ores piled up on the cart from where they had come, Lin Lin's lips twitched involuntarily.

It seems like we still need Jump Jump to pull this car?
Oh well, there's no rush anyway. Pushing it along is fine. Besides that yellow Velociraptor King from before, there don't seem to be any other large monsters on the way back to the village.

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Lin couldn't bear to put the burden on Tiao Tiao, so he chose to push the cart slowly forward.

But halfway through their journey, as they passed through a narrow cave, Nia's ears twitched slightly, and she turned to look at Yoko:

"Boss, I think I heard something weird, meow?"

"Strange noise? What is it?"

Nia scratched her ear, her tone somewhat uncertain:
"I'm not sure either, but it sounds a bit like the sound of a barrel explosion, meow..."

"An explosion? Could it be that other hunters are hunting?"

Ye Zi found it strange. They had been staying in Naguli Village for the past few days and hadn't heard of any other hunters coming here.
Lin Lin let go of the stroller and was about to sit down to rest and recover his strength when he heard Ye Zi and Nia Lu's conversation. He lowered his eyes and seemed to be deep in thought.

Noticing Lin Lin's unusual expression, Yezao asked curiously:
"Boss, what's wrong, meow?"

Lin Lin rubbed his head:
"In volcanic areas, there are many things that can explode, and they may not necessarily be hunters."

"Do you remember what I said on the way here? When we were hunting the Ghost Frog, Sophia and I discovered something by that lava river. The slime that lives in symbiosis with the Broken Dragon is very prone to exploding."

Yoko's expression showed some worry:

"Should we go over and take a look? It's not too far from the village. If it really is a Shattered Dragon, it might threaten the safety of the villagers, right?"

Lin Lin glanced at the cart piled high with materials, then looked in the direction the sound came from, silently calculating for a moment:

"Indeed, we should go and take a look."

"However, this is just a preliminary reconnaissance. If we really want to hunt the Brachydios, we still need to make some special preparations."

"You guys wait here for a moment. Jump and I will go scout ahead. After all, flying in the air is more agile. If it really is a Shattered Dragon, as long as we don't land, it can't threaten us."

After quickly agreeing on an action plan, Lin Lin didn't waste any more words and climbed onto Tiao Tiao's back.

Ride on!

set off!

……

The terrain of underground volcanoes is quite complex, with various tunnels leading in all directions. If you are walking on the ground, it is very easy to get lost without a map. However, if you are flying, this problem is basically not a problem.

Sitting on Jump Jump's back, Lin Lin quickly followed the direction Nia Lu pointed out and found the source of the explosion.

To Lin Lin's surprise, it wasn't the Shattered Dragon he had previously found traces of, but a Beast Dragon monster with a super square jaw, somewhat resembling Yao Ming. This guy was practically a moving minecart in a volcano, with a thick and heavy body, almost the same width from head to tail. Its back was covered with dark golden carapace covered with prismatic protrusions. Like their New World relative, the Bone Hammer Dragon, this monster liked to curl up into a ball and roll around, and these prismatic protrusions provided tire-like traction during the roll, preventing them from drifting when speeding.

The explosion that Niaru heard was not the slime explosion that Lin Lin thought it was, but rather a dark red stone that was thrown out of the body of the Explosive Hammer Dragon as it rolled.

The rocks were flung out and landed on the ground. The high temperature of the volcanic ground seemed to affect these rocks in turn, causing the dark red light on them to gradually brighten. After only a few seconds, they exploded with a "boom".

Lin Lin rubbed his chin. He remembered that these explosive rocks had a unique name, "gunpowder rocks." It was said that the cannonballs of the giant dragon cannon in Dongdoruma used this ingredient, but he didn't know if it was true or not.

"Roar?"

Jumpy remained suspended in the air, letting out a low, questioning growl.

Is that the guy? Should we rush down and take him down?

"Tsk... a Uroth..."

Logically speaking, the Uragaan is not as aggressive as the Brachydios. As long as you don't provoke it and keep your distance, it won't specifically rush up to cause trouble for you, so there's no need to hunt it down.

But this thing has a very unique characteristic: it eats minerals.

Moreover, unlike the Rock Dragon and Armored Dragon, which eat ore from a young age, this creature seems to have eaten grass when it was young and only changed its diet as it grew up. More importantly, it doesn't have much ability to digest ore itself. It mainly relies on a special type of bacteria in its body to break down ore to obtain energy. This results in its weak digestive ability, requiring it to eat a large amount of ore every day to meet its energy needs.

This creature's presence means it will compete with the villagers for ore, and in Lin Lin's memory, the Uragaan is extremely protective of food. If it discovers the villagers mining, it will most likely become enraged and attack...

"Forget it, let's leave the decision of how to handle it to Sophia when we get back. We're just here to see what it is."

Lin Lin couldn't decide whether to kill or spare the guy, so he simply stopped thinking about it and went back to leave the problem to others to worry about.

He patted Jumpy, preparing to call it a day and head home, when suddenly a roar different from that of the Hammer Dragon came from the underground cave.

Lin Lin: "Huh?! That voice..."

He quickly looked closely, only to find that the rolling Tyrannosaurus Rex had suddenly stopped and was looking ahead warily.

Opposite it, in the darkness of the cave, muffled footsteps slowly rose, and a beast-dragon monster covered in cyan armor slowly walked out, its dark red eyes fixed on the giant beast in front of it.

The newly appeared Brute Dragon's carapace had an obsidian-like sheen, and its head was very peculiar, resembling a "pompadour" hairstyle. Unlike most Brute Dragon monsters, its two forepaws were not abnormally short and atrophied; these creature's forepaws were quite well-developed, and the tips were covered with a shell like a boxer's gloves.

Unlike its ultramarine body, its "airplane head" and "boxing gloves" are covered with a slime mold-like substance, making it appear greenish-yellow—in fact, it is indeed slime mold.

Sofia's favorite—the Shattered Dragon—has arrived!

"It really happened..."

Lin Lin rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. If this meant they had to kill both targets during the hunt, wouldn't it? He'd wanted to find some opponents for Jumpy to level up, but these two weren't so easy to deal with…

"Roar--"

The Brute Dragon looked at the Brachydios slowly walking towards it and seemed a little agitated. It slammed its heavy chin hammer into the ground twice and then let out a warning roar at the Brachydios.

See that ridiculously big chin of mine? Let me tell you, I'm not someone to mess with, so stay away!

The shattered dragon's reaction was very simple: it roared back without any hesitation.

Get lost! This is my territory. You dare to race here? You're asking for trouble!

The two dragons roared at each other twice, spewing insults at each other, successfully provoking the other.

The world of monsters is that simple. When you meet, you shout first. If you can drive them away, you can. If you can't, then you start fighting. Let's see who's the best. After exchanging polite insults, the two beast-dragon monsters have warmed up and are ready to start their fight.

The Brute Rathalos raised its chin and slammed it down, as if it were stretching its muscles, while the Brachydios used its mouth to gnaw on its two front claws, performing a "hand-eating" act.

Of course, the wrathful dragon's "hand-eating" is not just for cuteness; it uses its saliva, rich in nutrients needed by slime mold in its mouth, to nourish the slime mold on its hands, making them active and ready for battle.

Soon, both sides were ready for battle. The Uroth took the initiative and charged towards the Brachydios. Its heavy body caused the ground to shake with every step, and its momentum was astonishing.

Compared to the 20-meter-long Hammerdragon, the Brachydios appears much smaller, about the size of the current Jumper, estimated to be around 16 or 17 meters long. Moreover, due to its size, the Hammerdragon is much heavier than the Brachydios. If placed in a ring, it would be like a heavyweight sumo wrestler fighting a lightweight boxing champion. By all accounts, the Hammerdragon has a much greater chance of winning.

The Brute Dragon itself thought so too.

It stomps forward repeatedly, swinging its chin back and forth like a hammer; if it hits the Broken Dragon, it will surely inflict severe damage.

However, the Broken Dragon clearly knew this as well. It moved nimbly, narrowly missing the giant swing several times, but it was never touched in the slightest.

The heavy jaw is both a weapon and a burden. After swinging it several times, the intense physical exertion forced the Ulva to slow down and catch its breath.

Such panting was the very flaw that the Broken Dragon had been waiting for.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, it quickly moved forward and punched the side of the Ulva. Before the Ulva could retaliate, it moved nimbly to the side and came to the side of the Ulva.

Unfortunately, the Brachydios was still recovering from its shock and its body was sluggish, making it difficult to react. The Brachydios's heavy punches rained down on it, from its head to its side and then to its thighs, a series of powerful blows.

The Brute Dragon, confident in its thick hide, could withstand the pain of the Brachydios's punches, and after enduring several blows, it swung its body again and rammed into the Brachydios with a powerful shoulder strike.

"boom!"

(As shown in the picture, it seems that every time Master Shatter appears, he has to smash something.)
(End of this chapter)