Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 475 The storm is rising
The elder did not make a decision immediately, his fingers unconsciously tapping his knee as he fell into thought.

This operation against the Steel Dragon already has three high-ranking hunters as the main force. Now he just wants to add a layer of protection. Hela acts recklessly. Although she has a strong combat instinct, she is not suitable to be the last line of defense.

Graham and Rhodes are both quite composed, but Rhodes is better at one-on-one combat and can't be relied on for teamwork. As for Graham, although he occasionally has a moment of madness, he's reliable most of the time. In these turbulent times, we can't ask for more...

The elder nodded slightly, preparing to finalize Graham's name, but a hurried footstep interrupted him.

Turning around, another thin, small, and withered old dragon-man dressed in a purple robe strode in.

This is the director of the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau. When the Mad Dragon Virus Research Institute was established, a considerable number of personnel were drawn from his team, which has led to a slight shortage of manpower in the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau now.

Under the watchful eye of the Grand Elder, the Director of the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau, with a tense old face, took out a large sheet of rolled-up letter from his sleeve, strode forward, and handed it to the Grand Elder's desk.

As the Grand Elder picked up the letter and unfolded it to read it carefully, the Director of the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau finally spoke up, explaining the situation to the guild leader beside him:

"The latest news from the Minagard branch is that a large number of pterosaurs have been observed gathering unusually, raising suspicions that an ancient dragon may be present."

Here we go again?! Again?!
First, the Sky-Returning Dragon stirred up trouble in the Barbare territory, then the Steel Dragon threatened the residents of Jiangbo Village, and just now we received news that a creature suspected to be an Elder Dragon had appeared in Moga Village. As a result, Minagard is now facing a new Elder Dragon threat!
What's wrong with this world?! Why are the ancient dragon threats, which used to only appear once every few years or even decades, suddenly erupting all at once?
The guild leader looked very displeased, as did the elder who had just finished reading the letter.
"Can you confirm the target's identity?"

The head of the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau shook his head slightly. "There are too many Pteranodons to get close with the observation balloons. However, after receiving the news, the Minagard Guild branch has sent high-ranking hunters to investigate. It is estimated that we will be able to get accurate information in about half a month."

The Grand Elder rubbed his temples and sighed wearily.
"So, does the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau have any speculations? What about its route of travel and threat assessment?"

The director of the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau seemed to have already prepared his answer to the question posed by the Grand Elder, and without any hesitation, he replied directly:
"Based on past experience, the creatures that can attract large numbers of pterosaurs are mainly super-large ancient dragons such as Lao-Shan Lung, Feng-Shan Lung, and Hao-Shan Lung."

"However, both the Peak Dragon and the Hao Mountain Dragon are super-large ancient dragons with specialized body structures adapted specifically to the sand sea environment, and there is no sand sea environment around the Minagard region that can accommodate them."

"The subspecies of Laoshanlong, Rock Mountain Dragon (also called Canglaoshanlong), has invariably appeared around volcanic areas in past observation records. There are no volcanic areas near the Minagard region, so the probability of it being Rock Mountain Dragon is not high."

"After ruling out other options, unless a new, unknown, colossal monster has appeared, we can only conclude that it is an Lao-Shan Lung."

"only……"

"But what?"

The guild leader was genuinely getting anxious. The situation was urgent, so why was he still keeping him in suspense?

"However, within our observation bureau, there are actually quite a few scholars who believe that it should be a completely new ancient dragon."

The Elder Dragon Observation Bureau was established specifically to deal with various Elder Dragons, and the one with the most dealings with them and the most extensive information is naturally the Lao-Shan Lung, which has been in people's sight for a very, very long time.

"Based on past records and research on Lao-Shan Dragon, it can be basically determined that Lao-Shan Dragon was a super-large ancient dragon that would travel along a fixed route every few decades. However, it has only been less than ten years since the last observation record of Lao-Shan Dragon."

The director of the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau adjusted his round glasses and concluded:
"Either it's a completely unknown ancient dragon, or it's an Lao-Shan Lung that has changed its migration cycle for unknown reasons."

"Based on the location observed at the time, and considering the speed at which the Laoshan Dragon traveled in the past, it would have passed through the 'fortress' in about two months. If it had not been able to successfully intercept the enemy at the 'fortress', it would have breached the walls of Minagard in another week."

The Grand Elder took a deep breath. It really was one wave after another, giving them no time to catch their breath…

Well, those three high-ranking hunters we were just picking and choosing are now useless. They all have to be sent to Minagard to organize the defense of the 'Fortress'.

Even so, the Grand Elder still felt it was far from enough. Fighting a super-large Elder Dragon was completely different from a normal hunt, and it was impossible to accomplish it with just one or two small teams.

For creatures like the Mine Dragon and the Old Mountain Dragon, mobile warfare can be carried out using sand ships as units. However, for the Old Mountain Dragon, the only option is to gather a large amount of manpower and resources and rely on the "fortresses" built up over many years to fight a positional war.

As is well known, the cost and casualties of prolonged positional warfare far exceed those of short-duration mobile warfare.

"Let's send those three high-ranking hunters to Minagard first to begin preliminary intelligence gathering and combat preparations."

Although Minagard is not as large as East Dorma, it is still a huge city comparable to Lokrak. Naturally, there are quite a few active hunters in such a place. In terms of grassroots hunters, there may even be more than in East Dorma. Only high-end combat forces such as high-ranking hunters are much less numerous.

Therefore, the Grand Elder only mobilized all available high-ranking hunters to put out the fire, instead of directly and extensively mobilizing and organizing the lower-ranking hunters of Dongdoruma.

only……

In Minagard, the entire city's high-ranking hunters combined wouldn't exceed five. Even with three more sent from here, the Grand Elder still felt it wasn't safe enough. He kept thinking, trying to find any other usable combat forces he had overlooked.

Then, his gaze inadvertently swept over the report submitted by Julius, and then lingered for a moment on the names of Lin Lin and Ye Zi.

Ah, I almost forgot about these two youngsters. They were able to inflict heavy damage on Gu Long in a direct battle. It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration for me to promote them directly to the Seven Stars.

"Okay, send another message to the troupe and ask Lin Lin and Ye Zi to come to the Grand Elder Hall."

The guild leader opened his mouth, but then swallowed his words and nodded silently.

He had read the report and knew very well why the Grand Elder had called them back at this time. He had initially thought that these two young people had just gone through a difficult battle and were injured and needed to recuperate, but considering the changes in the situation across the continent, he ultimately suppressed his soft heart.

The elder finally breathed a sigh of relief, waved his hand to signal the two people in front of him to go about their business, and then closed his eyes and leaned back on the bench, continuing to ponder.

Once Lin Lin and Ye Zi return and complete their advancement, should they be sent to Minagard to participate in the massive Elder Dragon defense battle? Or should they be sent to Moga Village to investigate the true nature of the unknown Elder Dragon? Speaking of which, the other two members of the hunting party with these two children are currently in Moga Village. The intelligence from Moga Village on my desk was partly their contribution…

The elder pondered for a moment, then reached out and picked up Julius's mission report again, flipping through it once more.

This time, however, his gaze was not focused on Lin Lin and the others' combat performance, but rather on a name that was specially marked.

"Jump Jump, after successfully defeating the Heavenly Returning Dragon, immediately undergoes a metamorphosis and becomes a new Heavenly Returning Dragon."

"After sending Lin Lin back to the Isana, it flew away and never appeared again. Based on the statements of Ye Zi and Nia Lu, it is speculated that it may have gone to search for the location of other Black Erosion Dragons."

Below, Sophia also included ecological information she had gathered from her interactions with Jumpy over the past few months, suggesting that the scales of the Sky-Returning Dragon might have the ability to suppress the molting of other Black-Eater Dragons, thus providing the basis for their speculation.

"A new Heavenly Dragon..."

"Phew—thankfully Lin Lin is here. We don't need to make new enemies. Killing one only to have another pop up. It's really terrifying..."

"I just don't know where it flew off to. Let's ask Lin Lin when he gets back..."

When Jump stayed overnight at the Grand Elder's Palace before, the Grand Elder had a lot of contact with it when it was still the Black Eclipse Dragon. He knew that this guy was quite intelligent and had consciously restrained the ability to release scale powder. In addition, with Julius's report, he believed that Jump could control itself and was not worried that it would spread the virus everywhere like the previous Heavenly Returning Dragon.

The main reason for wanting to know Jumpy's whereabouts was that if an ancient dragon could be used as an aid in the defense, the crisis in Minagard should be easily resolved.

……

Lin Lin and Ye Zi, who were far away in the ocean, could not possibly know about the conversation that took place in the Grand Hall.

After three days of flight, the airship is finally approaching its destination, and the outline of Jiangbo Village can already be seen in the distance.

Perhaps for the blacksmith who was always busy with his orders, the three-day flight was quite tedious, but for this young couple who had just confirmed their relationship, the three days were just the right time for them to spend together.

However, since they are both hunters, and had spent a long time together before confirming their relationship, they were naturally not as lovey-dovey and clingy as teenagers in big cities.

Their daily routines remained largely unchanged, except they spent significantly more time together. Aside from the occasional eye contact and a quick bite, they continued with their usual routines: sharpening weapons and carving knives, maintaining armor, organizing their item boxes, occasionally browsing the books on the shelves, feeding their Kinsects bait, and feeding their Wirebugs Magatama Honey...

They were just ordinary and boring daily routines, but their mindset and the distance between them had changed. With each other's company, these seemingly mundane things seemed to take on a new kind of fun.

"We're almost there. Jiangbo Village is just ahead."

Lin Lin pushed open the door and peeked into the room, only to find Ye Zi seemingly rummaging through something. Hearing the door open, she straightened up.

"Huh? Brother Lin Lin, what did you just say?"

"I said we were almost there, the airship had already started landing."

"Huh? So fast? That's great!"

Ye Zi's face showed obvious joy, which made Lin Lin feel a little strange.

Why are you so happy?

But then Ye Zi pulled out the insect box from under her wrist armor and showed Lin Lin the flying insect inside, which resembled a magatama.
"I've been away from home for too long, and the honey I brought with me is running out. Brother Lin Lin, is it about the same for you?"

"Jiangbo Village has a pretty good shipping industry, and I'm planning to go back to Yanhuo Village. Let's go together!"

After Ye Zi's reminder, Lin Lin belatedly realized, "Oh right, he and Ye Zi left Yanhuo Village together. Ye Zi's Jade Grass Honey is almost gone, so his should be about the same..."

Damn it, I've been so engrossed in eating these past few days that I didn't even notice my precious little bug was about to run out of food!
That won't do. The Wirebugs helped him so much in the battle; they're even more important than the Insect Glaive's father. He can't let them go hungry!
"Great! I was just thinking of going back to Jieyun Village to take a look!"

Lin Lin readily agreed, but after a pause, his gaze returned to the Isana beneath his feet.

The extermination of the Heavenly Dragon has ended, and the brigade leader's initial goal in organizing "Our Brigade" has been achieved. Not only did they find the truth, but they also obtained another dragon scale as a souvenir.

Logically speaking, this journey should have come to an end, and everyone should part ways amicably. There would be no problem for him and Yezi to leave the team and go back to visit their families.

However, no one has mentioned this matter in the past few days. The members of the group seem to be getting along as before, just like they did at the beginning.

Emotionally, everyone has taken care of and shown concern for each other during this time, and they have long since integrated themselves into this group, so naturally they are reluctant to separate.

Rationally speaking, the Tianhuilong incident has come to an end, but there are still the Rust Steel Dragon and Giant Trident Dragon incidents to come. Lin Lin also knows that the story of the Phantom Troupe is not over yet, so he can't just leave like this.

Although Lin Lin didn't speak, Ye Zi vaguely sensed what he was thinking. She took light steps, walked to Lin Lin's side, and held his large hand.

"What are you thinking? We're just going home to visit our families, it's just a temporary vacation, it's not like we're leaving the tour group."

"Besides, even if we leave, does that mean we're no longer friends with everyone in the guild? Does that mean our friendship no longer exists?"

(End of this chapter)