Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 455 Lin Lin and the Qilin

The Qilin felt that the Black Erosion Dragon in front of it was extremely similar to the Heavenly Returning Dragon it had just fought, both using that ominous black aura as a means of attack, which it found extremely disgusting.

But the Qilin is still an ancient dragon after all, and its intelligence is much stronger than those large monsters that only know how to follow their instincts. It knows how to assess the situation and weigh the pros and cons.

Clearly, with such a huge threat as the Mad Dragon Transformed into the Golden Lion right in front of them, and the Black Devouring Dragon showing no hostility towards it, it would be quite unwise to attack it at this moment and provoke two powerful enemies at the same time.

Instead of attempting to summon lightning for a harmless attack, it created some distance and observed the situation from the edge of the battlefield.

With Ye Zi and Tiao Tiao joining the battle, the pressure on Lin Lin suddenly eased, and he became more and more at ease in both offense and defense. He even had some energy left to keep an eye on Qilin's movements.

When Lin Lin discovered that Qilin had indeed become hostile towards Tiaotiao as expected, he couldn't help but feel a little tense. However, he then "heard" Qilin's rational analysis and judgment of the battle situation, and his tense breath relaxed.

Thankfully, Gu Long's brain still works quite well. Unlike some unknown vice-captain of the Night Raid Team in the Ootengu, who made brain-dead mistakes—seeing the enemy fighting with someone of unknown allegiance, his first reaction was to fire a burst of bullets at Ultraman who was fighting with a monster. If it weren't for Ultraman, he would have directly provoked two powerful enemies at the same time. Obviously, Qilin is not that stupid.

After Qilin chose to remain on the sidelines, the situation on the field became very clear.

Lin Lin, who could withstand the Golden Lion's relentless onslaught head-on, was even more agile than the Golden Lion. Ye Zi, whose every step left a bloody mark on the Golden Lion, and Tiao Tiao, whose strength was growing daily and who, after activating his Berserker Transformation, could even subtly overpower the Golden Lion in terms of power, were all individually capable of contending with the Golden Lion. And now, these three were launching a combined attack on the Golden Lion...

On the other hand, the Golden Lion's side was outnumbered and outgunned. They hadn't even gotten their hands on the Kirin Horn yet, and they couldn't activate their Qi Transformation or Qi Hardening abilities. They could only rely on physical techniques to fight head-on, and they were also suffering from the Mad Dragon Disease, which was causing their stamina to deplete very quickly...

Even the Golden Lion, which strikes fear into the hearts of countless hunters, could only barely manage to fend off the combined attack of two people and a dragon under such a stark contrast in strength. His wounds were increasing every moment, and blood was constantly flowing out.

Even so, the golden lion showed no intention of retreating or running away. Instead, it swung its fists even more wildly, completely disregarding life and death. After being infected with the Mad Dragon Disease, the golden lion had long been tormented to the point of madness. It was only its obsession with completing the coming-of-age ceremony that kept it somewhat conscious. Perhaps the moment the Doritos grew hooves and ran away, this guy had already gone completely insane.

However, Lin Lin's side, which had gained the upper hand, was not going to engage in a life-or-death battle with the crazed golden lion. After ensuring that the golden lion would not escape the encirclement, they slowed down their attacks and paid more attention to their own defense.

Several attacks either missed, were blocked solidly by the shield, or were interrupted by Jump's powerful attacks. Golden Lion charged left and right in the encirclement, but failed to break through the encirclement or inflict any effective damage on Lin Lin's side.

Having contracted the Mad Dragon Disease, the Golden Lion already had a debuff that caused his stamina to deplete rapidly. At this moment, his continuous bursts of attacks were ineffective and instead exacerbated his stamina depletion, leaving him panting heavily.

Seizing the opportunity, Lin Lin's side launched a fierce attack in turn. Lin Lin used an aerial super attack to crack open the head of the Golden Lion. Jumpy followed up by extending its wing claws, grabbing it in the palm of its claws, and forcefully slamming it to the ground. Meanwhile, Yoko launched another attack, Dragon Slayer, accurately inserting the tip of her Insect Glaive into the crack on the Golden Lion's skull.

"laugh--"

When Ye Zi spun around a few times and used the momentum to pull out the insect club, what came out along with the dark purple blood was also a mixture of thick purple and white fluid—the brain matter that had been pickled after the Mad Dragon Virus had penetrated deep into the brain.

"Bam—"

The golden lion's corpse crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Lin Lin grimaced, stretching his shoulders, and turned his head to look left and right.
"Should this be the end? Don't tell me the steel dragon from the jungle has come over too."

Ye Zi also breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes involuntarily glancing at the Qilin beside them, which was watching them warily, while she responded to Lin Lin's words:
"How could that be? Wasn't that steel dragon being watched by Senior Rickres and the others? It couldn't have sneaked over here without anyone noticing."

Jump Jump paid no attention to the conversation between the two, nor to the Qilin that had not launched an attack. He simply brought his nose close to the corpse of the golden lion and sniffed it back and forth, with thick saliva unconsciously dripping from the corner of his mouth.

After fierce battles with the Mad Dragon transformed into a Heavy Beetle, the Heavenly Returning Dragon, and the Mad Dragon transformed into a Golden Lion, it had also consumed a lot of its stamina. If it hadn't been spared any serious injuries, its condition would probably have been comparable to that of the Qilin. Now, Jump Jump urgently needs to replenish its energy and recover its stamina.

In Jumpy's eyes, the corpse of the golden lion before it was even more tempting than its favorite rare roast meat. It had a gut feeling that eating the corpse of this monster, which was soaked in the Mad Dragon virus, would be of great benefit to it.

If it weren't for the previous Heavenly Returning Dragon completing its transformation first and getting scales that inhibited its evolution during the battle, Jump Jump felt it would definitely have been able to complete the most important transformation of its life once it finished digesting the Golden Lion's flesh.

Noticing Tiao Tiao's hungry look, Lin Lin quickly called for a stop:

"Wait a minute, let me gather some materials first!"

That being said, there's really not much material to collect. The two horns on its head, the fangs in its mouth, the hard claws on its hands, and the black hairs that were chopped up by concentrated fire attacks, leaving only a few intact strands, all of which, given the size of the Golden Lion, would be less than half the size of the Heavy Beetle material if packed together.

Throughout Lin Lin's entire process of collecting materials, Qilin stood quietly at a distance and observed.

At first, it thought that the process of cutting off parts of a defeated opponent with a knife was just a human being doing it to vent his anger or show off his victory. But after looking closely at the golden weapon on Lin Lin's back and the almost identical golden armor on Ye Zi's body, it seemed to realize something.

The Great Boar King rolls in the mud, covering himself with a thick layer of mud to enhance his defense; the Shadow Spider hunts poisonous birds and wears their skins to protect its weaknesses; the armor worn by these two humans is clearly a similar protective measure. These golden weapons and armor may have come from a golden monster.

Having realized this, when it looked at Lin Lin's actions of harvesting materials, a look of sudden understanding appeared in its eyes.

It seems that the human species uses the bodies of other monsters to make weapons and armor.

For the gentle and averse-to-killing Qilin, this method might seem cruel at first glance, but when he thought about how the person whose body had been stripped was the Golden Lion who had just given him a severe beating, and how Lin Lin had helped him in every way, all that remained in Qilin's heart was a sense of exhilaration.

"Phew—it's all done!"

Lin Lin stretched. "Brother Lin Lin, I remember reading in the book that the heart of the golden lion is a particularly precious material. Aren't we going to extract it?"

"Let's leave it for Jumpy as a snack. What can be used to make weapons and armor is the heart of the Furious Golden Lion. This Golden Lion hasn't even completed its coming-of-age ceremony, so it's probably not very useful."

"Coming-of-age ceremony?"

Ye Zi's doubts reminded Lin Lin that, it seemed that until he witnessed the territorial struggle between the Qilin and the Golden Lion on Azure Star in the Ice Plains, the ecology of the Golden Lion had always been a mystery.

"Well, let's talk about that later."

Lin Lin looked up at the Qilin that was keeping a distance from them, and unconsciously licked his lips.

To be honest, he had long coveted the Qilin. Ever since before he transmigrated, he had been thinking about it while playing games. It was strong, intelligent, and small in size. If he brought it into a town or village, it would be less conspicuous than a Bobo. It was simply a divine innate mount.

However, the Qilin is an ancient dragon after all. Not to mention that the Qilin is the most elusive of the ancient dragons, with few observation reports, just considering its genuine ancient dragon-level combat power, it could kill you with a single bolt of lightning. What makes an ordinary human worthy of being its mount?

Therefore, after transmigrating, Lin Lin only fantasized about it occasionally and never put the idea into action.

But now, with such a great opportunity before him, Lin Lin felt that if he didn't give it a try, he would be letting himself and the Golden Lion down after fighting for so long.

Putting aside the question of whether or not to ride a mount, it wouldn't hurt to at least get to know each other better, right?
However, the Qilin kept its distance from them. Lin Lin could tell at a glance that the Qilin was mainly wary of Jump, especially after they killed the Golden Lion, the wariness became even stronger.

Lin Lin quietly tugged at Ye Zi:
“I noticed that Date and Nia didn’t come with you. Why don’t you take Jumpy and go find them to meet up?”

"Brother Lin Lin, aren't you coming with us?"

Lin Lin gently shook his head.

Ye Zi glanced at Lin Lin, then her gaze fell on the Qilin not far away, and a look of understanding appeared on her face:

"Alright then, Lin Lin, be careful."

"Don't worry, don't you know my abilities? It has no hostility towards me."

Ye Zi nodded, her gaze sweeping over the bloodstains on the Qilin's body. She reached into her tool bag, took out some potions, and handed them to Lin Lin. Then, carrying a small bag of Golden Lion materials, she climbed onto Tiao Tiao's back.

With Lin Lin's instructions, Jumpy only growled softly, indicating that Lin Lin should be careful and call for help through the Bond Stone if there was any danger. Then, it flapped its wings, grabbed the Golden Lion's corpse, and flew into the sky. Under Ye Zi's command, it went to find the two Elfs who had stayed behind.

For a moment, under the cover of thunderclouds, only two unicorns, one large and one small, gazed at each other atop the primeval forest.

After Tiaotiao left, the Qilin was visibly much more relaxed. It stared at Lin Lin and let out a low cry to express its gratitude. If Lin Lin hadn't rushed out and smashed the shield on the Golden Lion, it probably wouldn't be alive today.

Seeing that the Qilin was standing there without moving, Lin Lin slowly walked towards it.

Qilin noticed Lin Lin's movements, its body tensed subconsciously, and it instinctively took a step back. After suffering a severe injury, it had become quite sensitive to everything around it. If the person approaching it was not Lin Lin, it felt that the other party was unlikely to be hostile to it. Qilin might have already struck it with a bolt of lightning.

Lin Lin paused slightly, stood there for a moment, then reached into his prop bag and took out a bottle of recovery potion. He unscrewed the cap so that Qilin could clearly see him drink two mouthfuls of the potion. Then he squatted down, stretched out his arm, and slowly moved towards Qilin in a gesture like feeding a small animal.

Perhaps it was because Lin Lin's half-squatting posture greatly reduced his perceived threat that the Qilin did not back down this time. Its gaze lingered between the bottle of green liquid and Lin Lin's mouth for a moment, then it flicked its tail and finally stepped forward, walking towards Lin Lin.

The man and the dragon finally stopped, maintaining a distance where the Qilin could reach Lin Lin's outstretched arm. Lin Lin held up the bottle of recovery medicine, while the Qilin leaned forward and sniffed the bottle carefully.

It has a bitter medicinal smell, like the kind of herbs that can speed up the body's recovery when ingested, but there's something else mixed in with it.

Qilin couldn't help but shift its gaze from the bottle to Lin Lin's face, while Lin Lin, in order not to provoke Qilin, had already taken off his helmet, revealing his handsome face.

Seeing the Qilin cautiously probing like a wounded little animal, Lin Lin slowly brought the medicine bottle to his face, took another small sip, and whispered:
"This is a healing potion. Look, I drank it, and it's not poisonous."

Faced with the medicine that Lin Lin offered again, Qilin finally stopped hesitating, put its mouth to the bottle opening, and stuck out its tongue to lick the liquid inside.

A gentle smile involuntarily appeared on Lin Lin's face, but he did not make any other moves immediately. Instead, he waited quietly for Qilin to drink the entire half-bottle of recovery medicine before slowly straightening up. He reached into his prop bag and took out a small pinch of life powder, showing it to Qilin.

What strange and wonderful gadgets have humans created this time?
After drinking the recovery medicine, Qilin could clearly feel that the pain in its body had lessened. It also completely let down its last bit of wariness towards Lin Lin and subconsciously opened its mouth to lick him, but Lin Lin quickly reached out and pressed its head down.

"Wait a minute, this is for external use only, it cannot be taken orally!"

(End of this chapter)