Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 508 Xialong Comes to the Door
Watching Oozora leave with Brev and Shion, Yoko turned to look at Lin Lin:
"Brother Lin Lin, do you have any ideas? Where should we start our investigation?"

Lin Lin's gaze swept over the carcass of the drooping dragon not far away, his fingers gently pressing between his brows:

"Hildeosaurus are all social animals. Let's find this guy's group first, and then observe whether there are any abnormalities in the ildeosaurus's diet."

As he spoke, he sighed softly. If he had known that an ecological survey was to be conducted, he would have brought Sophia along as well, so that would have been a perfect match for her expertise.

In contrast, he is a hunter. He is good at fighting and tracking monster tracks, but it is really too difficult for him to keep an eye on monsters—especially these small monsters that are just raw meat in his eyes—and look for anything unusual in their daily lives. He doesn't care about the daily ecology of these raw meats, so how could he distinguish what they eat normally and what they eat abnormally?

Or should we send another message to the Sky now and ask it to bring Sophia here?
Ye Zi narrowed her eyes slightly, a look of suspicion on her face. She had a feeling that Lin Lin's expression just now was that he was thinking about another woman.
Although Lin Lin didn't know what Ye Zi was thinking, he could sense that her expression was different. So he thought about it carefully and felt that he had guessed what the girl was thinking.

Is it because her two teammates behaved more reservedly after she met them, and she planned to take advantage of this time alone to get intimate?

In that case, it doesn't seem very convenient to call Sophia over...

Let's try looking for her first. If we really can't find anything, then it's not too late to call her over.

Niaru was completely baffled by the cryptic exchange between the two hunters. She simply pondered Lin Lin's words and found them quite reasonable, so she stepped forward voluntarily:
"Leave the trace search to meow! We'll find the lamellar dinosaur's habitat soon, meow!"

……

As it turns out, even if Sophia didn't come, Lin Linyezi wouldn't have much time to herself.

The Water Forest is a hunting ground, a wild and fierce natural habitat, not a tranquil street in a bustling city where you can stroll around at will, where accidents can happen at any time.

Originally, Nia was to lead the way, following the trail of the drooping dragon herd, while Lin Lin and Ye Zi followed behind at a distance, with Xiao Bai accompanying them and A Fu observing the surroundings from above. This should have been a very safe arrangement, with both sides able to look out for each other at any time. However, as they walked, a white mist began to rise from the forest.

The fog wasn't thick; fog is a perfectly normal phenomenon in a high-humidity area like the Waterless Forest. However, Nia, who was leading the way, instinctively sensed something was wrong.

Normally, fog is more likely to form when the temperature difference between day and night is greatest, such as early morning or dusk. However, it is very unusual for fog to form now, just past noon, when the fog should be at its thinnest.

Niaru was unsure whether the strange fog was related to the anomaly that had occurred in the Waterless Forest region. Although she did not smell any special odor similar to the Ferocious Extract from the fog and felt that the possibility of a connection was slim, Niaru still became more vigilant.

This is an essential quality of a qualified hunting cat. If the senior date palm were here, he would definitely do the same!

Nia Lu drew her Shadow Spider Cat Sword and looked around warily. In just a short while, the surrounding fog had become increasingly thick. When she looked back, she could no longer see the path she had come from, nor could she see Lin Lin and Ye Zi.

Only the murky, yellowish river flowed ceaselessly in the distance, the lush vegetation swayed gently in the breeze, and on the muddy ground, there were cat paw prints that stretched from the depths of the mist all the way to our feet.

Nia felt a little uneasy. She wondered if the leaders had noticed anything unusual. If some monster was after her, she wasn't sure if she could hold out until they came to rescue her...

"Wow..."

A series of splashing sounds reached Nia's ears, causing her to turn around abruptly and point her cat sword in the direction from which the sound came.

Strangely, even though it could clearly hear that the sound was caused by some kind of large monster wading through the water, and that it wasn't far away, Niaru had widened her eyes to the maximum, but still couldn't see the huge figure that should have appeared.

What's going on? Did I see a ghost in broad daylight? Are there really ghosts in this world?

No, no, maybe I misheard?
"Hula-"

Nia's ears twitched slightly. This time, not only did her ears hear the faint sound of the wind, but even the hair on her body swayed slightly with the airflow.

There's no mistake, this is definitely the airflow created by a large monster moving! It's all too familiar with this feeling!

Nia Lu suddenly turned around and looked to her side. The invisible, ghost-like figure was right next to her!
Nia felt as if her heart was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, making her so nervous she could hardly breathe. She let out a loud meow and was about to swing her cat sword forward to stab.

Even though it couldn't see the other party, the senses transmitted through its ears and body hair clearly told it that the unseen monster was in that location!
But just as its cat sword was thrust out, it was seized by an equally invisible force, breaking free from its control and flying to Nia's head, swinging wildly.

Niaru: !!!

My weapon has come to life?
No, no, it's that invisible monster that stole my weapon, meow!

Nia Lu immediately realized that this was an opponent she had no chance against. Only her boss and the others could deal with this guy. She didn't even care about the cat sword that had been stolen from her. She immediately put down on all fours and ran wildly, trying to find Lin Lin and the others who were following behind her.

"Sigh, this guy still loves playing pranks..."

A familiar sigh rang out not far away. Nia Lu was overjoyed and looked up to see Lin Lin and Ye Zi pushing aside the lush branches above their heads and appearing in front of her.

"call--"

Another gust of wind blew, and Nia Lu had only run a few steps before she had to stop, because the unseen giant monster had already squeezed in front of her, and at the same time, it finally revealed its true form.

It was a monster that looked like a large purple chameleon, somewhat ugly-cute, appearing harmless and threatening, a far cry from the ferocious, vengeful ghost Nialu had imagined. However, what surprised Nialu even more was Lin Lin's attitude.

Why do I look like I know this guy so well, meow!

Looking at the ancient dragon in front of him, who had lowered its head and was staring at him intently with intelligent eyes, Lin Lin sighed, took off his helmet, and revealed his handsome face.

The one who just played a prank on Nialu was undoubtedly the ancient dragon, the Chameleon, who is most skilled at stealth and poison.

Moreover, it was the same one that Lin Lin, Ye Zi, and Bref encountered when they came to the Waterless Forest to hunt the Mudfish Dragon.

At that time, Lin Lin took out the ancient secret medicine that Shan Caiye had given him and gave it to him. The two formed a friendship because of this. They even spied on the scene of the Thunder Wolf Dragon and the Bubble Fox Dragon fighting together. When they parted, Lin Lin took off the flower necklace woven from the Zhi Fu grass that he got from Yan Huo Village and gave it to him.

Xialong stared at Lin Lin with one eye, while the other eye rolled around, sizing up Yezi, Niaru, and Xiaobai who was with them.

When it heard Lin Lin's voice just now, it felt inexplicably familiar. After looking at it for a while, it realized that its sense of familiarity was not wrong. This was the friend who had roasted flying beetles for it!
It was because the other person could understand his thoughts that Xia Long felt he was special, which made him put aside his pride and dignity as an ancient dragon and look at Lin Lin with new respect, thus forming a friendship between them. After this meeting, Xia Long felt that the other person had become even more special.

Because it understood the sentence the other person was muttering, which was that the other person was complaining that it still liked to play pranks, something that had never happened before.

When they last met, their communication was limited to Lin Lin knowing what it was thinking, while Xia Long could only guess its meaning through Lin Lin's body language. What has happened to the other party since they last met?

"Well... it's a long story, but to sum it up, it should be thanks to this stone?"

Lin Lin raised the Bond Stone on his wrist, which was shimmering with a bright blue light, and showed it to Xialong.

So Xialong fixed its eyes on the stone. Although it couldn't understand why, it could feel a strange connection between itself and the human in front of it. But because it had never experienced it before, it couldn't explain the specific feeling.

Is this connection caused by this stone? What an amazing thing! Why have I never seen anything like it all these years?

Xialong's eyes darted around. If it could also get its hands on one of these stones, would it be able to communicate with other creatures through it?
After careful consideration, it abandoned the idea because it was completely unnecessary.

What's the point of communicating with those stupid monsters? All they think about all day is eating, sleeping, mating, and fighting for territory. Their lives are utterly meaningless.

Humans, like El and Meralu, are quite clever, but the Chameleon itself rarely encounters them. After all, as an Elder Dragon, even though it lives a relatively peaceful life and rarely spreads large-scale poisonous fog, it doesn't completely avoid it. The local orcs will do their best to avoid its range to avoid being poisoned, and hunters would never be foolish enough to provoke an Elder Dragon.

Lin Lin couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Xia Long had given up the idea. Otherwise, if the other party had really taken a liking to the Bond Stone and wanted to take it to play with, he really wouldn't know what to do. Well, Lin Lin had no doubt that with Xia Long's personality, which was somewhat similar to Zi Yuan's, he was absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

Xialong dismissed the thought that had just crossed his mind, looked at Lin Lin again, and let out a low growl.

It was very curious: where had the other person gone and what had happened during this time? How come he seemed to have become so much stronger?
In its perception, even though Lin Lin's size hadn't changed much, he was emanating a faint sense of threat, something it used to only sense from more troublesome monsters.

"I've been through quite a lot, but I'll go into those details later. Before that, I'd like to ask you something."

Lin Lin looked up at Xia Long, who looked completely bewildered and didn't seem to know what he wanted to ask:

"You've always lived in the Waterless Forest area, haven't you? Have you noticed any unusual changes here recently?"

Previously, we hadn't considered the Xialong, which lives in the Waterless Forest, and thought that Sophia might be more suitable for this ecological survey. Now that we've encountered her, it's clear that the local dragon knows the situation better!
After a moment's thought, Xialong let out another low growl.

An unusual change? There really is one! Lately, many monsters I've encountered have become dumber and more boring than before, and of course, they've also become more ferocious, with cool black aura emanating from their bodies.

Lin Lin snapped his fingers. Sure enough, how could the local dragon, Xia Long, not know the situation? Perhaps they could get more useful clues from him!
Ye Zi couldn't understand what Xia Long's roar meant, so she turned her attention to Lin Lin. Lin Lin didn't mind the trouble and repeated Xia Long's meaning verbatim so that Ye Zi could join the discussion—maybe she could find some blind spots that she hadn't noticed?

So Ye Zi asked a question that Lin Lin had never actually considered:

Have you experienced similar changes yourself?

Xialong glanced at Yezi, who had raised the question, with disdain. It was a noble ancient dragon, an existence independent of the normal ecosystem. How could it be affected by such a thing?

"That thing? What is it?"

Lin Lin's eyes lit up, and he immediately pressed for more information.

Xialong didn't quite understand why Lin Lin cared so much about this matter. In its view, the appearance of the ferocious monster was just a trivial change. Not only did it pose no threat to itself, but it also provided it with a lot of amusement.

However, since Lin Lin wanted to ask, there was no need for it to hide anything, and it let out another low growl.

Some time before the monster in the submerged forest exhibited its ferocious transformation, it was wandering around looking for fun when it unexpectedly noticed a plant it had never seen before. The plant was a strange, luminous blue color and was mostly distributed near the estuary. More importantly, it sensed an aura from the plant that was similar to that of the ferocious monster.

After a long period of observation, it was almost certain that those ferocious monsters either ate the plant directly or ate the herbivores that ate it.

(PS: I carefully went through the setting book and suddenly found this, so the oxygen algae mentioned earlier wasn't entirely original. But this raises a new question: if diving suits have oxygen algae to increase diving time, then hunters without diving suits are just relying on their iron lungs to hold their breath... Ape-dragon species, that's really disgusting...)
(End of this chapter)