Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 432 Where leaves dance in the air, fire burns eternally (Mist)
A dragon, carrying three people, two cats, and a bunch of props specially prepared for the capture, was so big that it was difficult to load even a cart. But for Jumpy, it didn't cause any problems at all. It easily soared into the sky and flew towards the direction where it had last encountered the Shattered Dragon.

The intense heat rushed towards us, but after being blocked by the heat-resistant protective stone, only the pungent smell of sulfur remained. The calmly flowing magma gathered into a lake in front of us, and golden-red bubbles kept rising and bursting. The splashing fire rain fell on the rock wall and quickly solidified into charred crystals.

Wow...how spectacular...

Sofia couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, "This is completely different from when the lava blocked it! Is this the true face of a volcano?"

Yoko tilted her head slightly, looked at Sophia behind her, and gave her a reminder:
"Remember to have another cold drink before you go down, it's much hotter here than in the village."

"Yes, yes! I know!"

Sofia nodded repeatedly, "The scenery inside this volcano is spectacular, but it's also incredibly hot. I really don't know how the people living here would survive without cold drinks."

Ye Zi found it a bit strange. "It's probably just that we haven't adapted to the environment here, which is why we need cold drinks. Look at the Earth Dragon Clan, they've lived here for so many years, and they basically don't need cold drinks, right?"

"That's because they are earth dragons, and their body structure is different from ours. They are naturally more heat-resistant. I wasn't talking about them."

Sofia corrected her.

"Not them? So other humans live in the volcanic area too?"

Nia Lu swayed her body, trying to shake off the volcanic ash that had gotten on her, and asked curiously upon hearing this.

"Yes, Naguri Village isn't the only human settlement in the volcanic area. Further south in the South Eld region, there's a human kingdom. If I remember correctly, it's called the 'Land of Fire'."

(This is a personal interpretation; Capcom has never stated the exact location of the Land of Fire, so this can only be speculated.)
"The Land of Fire?"

Lin Lin was focused on calibrating the direction and acting as Tiao Tiao's navigator when he heard Sophia's words and was slightly taken aback.

He seemed to vaguely recognize the name.

Where did you hear that...?

Oh, right!
He remembered a joke he'd heard before: that Lanlong could destroy a country, and so could Yangelong, meaning they were equal in strength. The country Lanlong destroyed was Yuemin Capital, Ai Cao's former homeland, and the country that faced annihilation because of Yangelong was, I think, called the Land of Fire.

—Of course, the country ultimately avoided the crisis of destruction, because after most of its defense forces were destroyed, the princess of the Land of Fire, who had nowhere else to turn, issued a request to the Hunter's Guild. Only the invincible King of Boil-Resistance intervened and resolved the crisis for the Land of Fire... Hmm, I can't quite remember which game it was from, but it should have been King of Boil-Resistance who did it.

I don't know if the Land of Fire has a Konoha Village, but I think it probably doesn't, otherwise the game's protagonist wouldn't need to take action.

"I saw it in a book. It seems to be a small country, not comparable to large kingdoms like the Western Shured Kingdom or the Eastern Shured Republic."

Seeing that the others seemed interested in the Land of Fire, Sophia paused before continuing, recounting all the relevant information she knew:
"Lin Lin, do you still remember the red-armored beast we hunted that time?"

Lin Lin nodded. "Hmm?"

"I heard from the blacksmith brother before that the armor of the Crimson Armor Beast was designed by the craftsmen of the Land of Fire. I heard that in their country, the armor of the Crimson Armor Beast is used as formal attire for coming-of-age ceremonies."

"I see, this sounds like a really interesting place!"

Ye Zi's eyes sparkled. Luckily, she had chosen to travel with Brother Lin Lin. Otherwise, she would never have learned about such strange and wonderful stories if she had stayed in the village.

"Oh, we've arrived. This is the place where the Brachydios and the Uroth fought over territory last time."

With the hops carrying them, the group moved quickly, and in just a few words, they arrived at their destination.

After briefly looking around and finding no trace of the Shattered Dragon, Lin Lin waved his hand, and the tumbler descended slowly, making a smooth landing.

"Is that... the remains of a Blastdragon?"

Sofia's first attention was drawn to a small mine not far ahead, which was about twenty meters long and six or seven meters high.

Lin Lin glanced at it and said, "Yes, that's right. After these past few days, it's pretty much back to square one."

The original Boulder Dragon had a huge body that was over 20 meters long. The entire dragon was almost as thick as a heavy tank. However, after it died in the battle with the Brachydios, the Brachydios used a series of explosions to shatter its remaining body and gnawed into its flesh in order to replenish its energy.

After the Broken Dragon left, small predators that roamed the surrounding area visited the site one after another, followed by scavenging creatures that plundered the body's flesh and blood, leaving only the inedible ore shells piled on the ground. Under the high temperature of the volcano, they slowly melted and forged, perhaps forming a new ore mining site in the future, or perhaps being swallowed by a monster like the Armored Dragon that can devour minerals.

It's a bit of a shame, though. The materials from the Urothus should be able to make armor that's just as good as the Armored Dragon armor. He remembered that both sets of equipment had defensive properties and defense enhancements.

Shaking his head, Lin Lin stopped paying attention to the ores and instead focused on searching for traces.

"I hit it with a paintball back then, but so many days have passed, it's probably worn out by now. Let's all look for it together and see if we can find any trace of it."

"Leave it to me, Meow!"

"I will work hard!"

The most active in searching for traces were not the hunters, but Nialu and Sophia.

Niaru knew she had the most acute senses and was the best at searching for traces in the team, so she naturally wanted to perform well and prove herself worthy of being called the Cat Hunter. As for Sophia... well, those who know, know.

Soon, they made a discovery.

"Meow! There's unexploded slime on the rock face here!"

Nia looked excited and pointed to a corner of pebbles that were emitting a glowing green light. "The marks look very fresh, meow. It must have passed through here in the last two days, meow!"

Sofia was not discouraged at all by being beaten to it. She grabbed her notebook and came over, wanting to carefully record the shape of the slime mold.

"It really is still nearby..."

Lin Lin walked over, and under Sophia's horrified gaze, he reached out and scraped off a small piece of slime mold, examining it closely.

"Hey! Watch out, it might explode!"

Yoko reached out and pressed Sophia's shoulder, shook her head at her, and then scraped off a small piece of slime mold herself.

Niaru: ? "I want to try it too, meow!"

"What are you trying to do? Be careful you don't get blown up and become bald!"

Yeza grabbed her and pinned Nia down in an instant, explaining to the bewildered human and cat:

"The boss and the others have fungal beads embedded in their armor, which can suppress the activity of explosive slime mold. They're testing the actual effect, meow!"

"How was the result, meow?"

Dates was speechless: "Can't you see for yourself, meow?"

Lin Lin rubbed the slime mold in his hand and found that no matter how he stimulated it, it did not transform into the critical state of yellow-orange. He nodded in satisfaction.

But that wasn't all. He then tested the slime mold on his torso, legs, and helmet, and after confirming that it worked consistently without any issues, he finally threw it to the ground.

After landing, the slime mold that had been subjected to considerable stimulation quickly turned from green to yellow, and then exploded with a bang. However, due to the small amount, the explosion was very weak.

Fortunately, the effect was indeed quite good, so it wasn't in vain that he paid the price of being disliked by Jump Jump...

The blacksmith had mentioned before that the Mycology Beads had side effects, but he didn't know the specifics. However, after Lin Lin, wearing the Transformed Ice Shark set with the beads inlaid, swung around in front of Jumpy a couple of times, he understood.

Jumpy sniffed, then buried his head in his armpits and growled in a muffled voice, indicating that the leader smelled terrible, like that stinky red bowling ball.

The effectiveness of these mycological beads comes from a special type of bacteria extracted from the Red Armor Beast. This bacteria can inhibit the activity of slime molds, but in return, its metabolic products release an indescribable odor that is difficult for humans to detect. However, for some monsters with a keen sense of smell, it is as conspicuous as a septic tank suddenly appearing in a park full of birdsong and fragrant flowers.

Suddenly, a muffled rumble of collapsing rock came from afar, and the ground beneath our feet, the ceiling above us, and the entire space seemed to tremble. Debris fell into the lava, instantly turning into wisps of smoke.

"That is……"

Ye Zi turned her head and met Lin Lin's gaze.

"That's right, that sound... it's from the explosion caused by the Shattered Dragon!"

"let's go!"

……

In a cave not far from Lin Lin and the others, the dragon they were looking for, carrying a lifeless lava beast in its mouth, slowly walked into a rather simple dragon's nest.

Inside the dragon's nest, three dragon eggs of different sizes lay quietly together. Upon closer inspection, one of them was shaking constantly, as the new life inside struggled to break free of the eggshell and enter this new world.

As for the other two dragon eggs, one had a broken shell and the baby dragon had already emerged from it, while the other was almost half the size of the other two. This was a dragon egg that had not been successfully fertilized and was destined to be a dead egg that would never hatch.

The shattered dragon glanced at the swaying dragon egg, then looked around and slowly landed on the ground not far away.

There, a small, charred corpse lay motionless.

That was the first little dragon to hatch, but now it's a corpse.

Clearly, it couldn't withstand the slime mold carried by its mother and was blown up.

The dragon stared at the charred corpse, remaining motionless for a long time. After a while, the shaking dragon egg emitted a slight "crack" sound, and cracks appeared on the shell.

However, this action seemed to have exhausted the little life inside. After creating a crack, the dragon egg fell silent, as if it realized that it was not strong enough and needed to regroup and adjust its state before trying to "break through" again.

The shattered dragon released the lava beast's corpse from its mouth, looked down at the motionless dragon egg, pondered for a moment, and then gently nudged it with its mouth.

However, it didn't notice that because it had just been carrying the lava beast, a few strands of saliva had dripped from the corner of its mouth. As it moved, the saliva fell onto the eggshell, adding a very faint, luminous green hue. This luminous green then slowly seeped into the interior of the dragon egg through the cracks in the eggshell.

"Roar!!!"

A furious roar suddenly came from the surroundings, causing the Broken Dragon to look up abruptly.

It recognized the roar.

It has been hunting these small lava beasts frequently lately, but there is a leader among them who is over 25 meters long. Every time it sees the lava beast hunting, it tries to rush up and attack it. However, the lava beast always thinks about going back to its nest to feed its cubs and does not get too entangled with it. After the hunt is over, it returns to its nest.

It didn't expect that guy to be so persistent, this time actually following it all the way to the vicinity of the nest.

It glanced at the charred corpse again. Since the object it needed to bring back food was dead, there was no need to suppress its temper. It responded with a roar.

It's in a bad mood right now, and this sharp-nosed fellow has come to its doorstep, making it a perfect punching bag for venting its anger.

The leader of the lava beasts is naturally the Flame Dragon.

This is a sea dragon-like monster that inhabits volcanic areas. It can use its powerful beak to burrow into the earth's crust and swim freely in the magma. It can also collect magma in its body and spray it out in the form of a high-heat ray similar to that of an armored dragon. It can be said to be a predator at the top of the ecosystem in volcanic areas. The Fire Country that Lin Lin and others mentioned earlier was almost destroyed by this guy.

As the juvenile form of the Flamegoth, although the Lava Beast's combat strength is extremely weak, being only a small predator similar to the Jaggi, their existence has caused considerable trouble for many hunters who went to the volcano to mine for minerals and protective stones. More importantly, they have a strong sense of territory, but are also very united with their own kind. After the Lava Beast was preyed on by the Brachydios several times, the Flamegoth finally couldn't stand it anymore and came knocking on their door.

Both roared, and following the sound, the two dragons quickly clashed. Upon meeting, without any show of defiance, one beast dragon and the other sea dragon charged directly at each other.

The two monsters, who had a long-standing feud, started fighting without saying a word.

Relying on its ability to swim freely in underground magma, the Flame Dragon leaped into the air, dodging the powerful punch from the Shattered Dragon, and then burrowed underground.

Feeling the slight tremor beneath his feet, Shattered Dragon warily scanned his surroundings, wondering where his opponent would emerge from.

"Oh!"

The next moment, enveloped in scorching magma, the Flame Dragon launched a sneak attack from behind. Its slender body, like a python, coiled around the Broken Dragon, intending to strangle it to death.

(End of this chapter)