Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 548 This hunter is incredibly cunning.
The tedious wait is often the most agonizing, but for Zack, curled up in the cracks of the rocks, the torment was several times worse.

Because of the narrowness of the passage, Zach had to crawl to fit completely inside. However, after maintaining this position for a while, his whole body became stiff, sore, and extremely uncomfortable.

However, that's not all. The existence of three entrances—two rock crevices on the south and north sides of the cave and a skylight above—ensures that the cave can be ventilated at any time, expelling the polluted air, without creating too strong a wind, thus maintaining the temperature and humidity of the nest.

As a result, Zak, who was lying in the crevice of the rock, smelled all the polluted air.

The stench emanating from the prey's flesh and bones, the pungent, fishy smell of dragon dung, and the indescribable sour stench of fermented blood and fat... Zack was almost overwhelmed by the waves of stench, but in order to avoid attracting the monster's attention, he had to desperately try not to make any noise.

Finally, when Rathalos disappeared from sight again, Zack hurriedly squeezed out of the gap, ignoring his stiff body, and quickly retreated along the route he had previously observed.

It wasn't until he plunged into the bushes at the foot of the mountain, smelling the fresh scent of grass and trees and the aroma of earth, that Zack took a deep breath and felt himself come back to life.

He didn't know just how smelly the infamous Red Armor Beast and Peach Fur Beast really were, but no matter how he thought about it, the smell he had just experienced must have been just as bad, right?
After catching his breath, Zack straightened up again. Instead of approaching the fire dragon's lair rashly as before, he started walking around the small hill, observing the surrounding terrain and planning his route in his mind, while occasionally looking up at the sky to observe the movements of the fire dragon couple.

There's still plenty of time. Let's observe the couple's movements carefully over the next few days and see if we can catch them when neither of the dragons is in their lair.

……

Two days later.

Zach was getting restless.

After observing for two days, he discovered that the couple guarded their nest very carefully. When one dragon went out to forage, the other would always stay in the nest to guard it, giving him no chance to steal the eggs.

As for the night, although he had considered taking advantage of the two fire dragons being asleep, he had to give up the idea after he was almost discovered while trying to observe them closely at night.

With the mission's deadline fast approaching, Zack had to admit that, barring unforeseen circumstances, simply waiting wouldn't provide an opportunity to succeed; he had to actively create one.

However, he wasn't even a formal hunter, so his combat power was practically nonexistent compared to the fire dragon couple. To succeed, he had to avoid a direct confrontation with them. figuring out how to create that opportunity proved quite difficult for him.

Fortunately, before setting off, because of what Bref had said, he was unsure of the specifics of the test. Therefore, he prepared almost all the tools that could be used during the hunt. After a period of repeated deliberation and thought, he finally began his mission.

Early that morning, the male Rathalos flew out of its nest as usual to begin its daily hunt for food.

Based on the experience of the past two days, this time period is when it enjoys itself. The male Rathalos will fly for about half an hour to a much farther hunting ground, where it will finish eating. Then it will turn to a closer hunting ground, which is the area where Zack saw it that day, and bring the fresh prey it caught back to the nest for the female Rathalos to enjoy.

The time it takes for a male Rathalos to leave its den and return with its prey is largely dependent on its luck. If it's lucky, it won't take long to hunt and can return in about an hour. But if it's unlucky and doesn't find any prey, the time can be extended to about two hours.

Zach didn't want to gamble, so he gave himself only one hour to carry out the operation.

The male Rathalos is rated five stars in danger, while the female Rathalos is rated four stars. So if Zak had to face one, he would definitely choose the slightly weaker female Rathalos – even though the slightly weaker one could still burn him to ashes with a single fireball, with thorough preparation, there might still be a chance to fight it off.

"Hey! It's starting! It's starting! That kid's finally making his move!"

Ziyuan was excited and quickly reached out to shake Lin Lin and Yezi awake.

Ever since that kid bravely charged up a couple of days ago, only to slink back down in a short while, she's been waiting here, getting bored to the point of madness. To make matters worse, the two cats have taken a lot of the sunflower seeds from her pocket, not even enough for her to eat to pass the time.

On the other side, Manjushri nodded and praised:

"Good, you know to plan before you act, at least you're not as reckless as you were at the beginning."

Bref flicked the scabbard of his katana lightly with his finger, his gaze fixed on the cave above, and shook his head helplessly.
"Didn't this kid consider that not all fire dragons guard their nests so tightly? If he can't get a chance to attack this nest, he should just move on to another one... Sigh, never mind, let's follow him."

Inside the cave, in the fire dragon's lair.

The female fire dragon twitched her nose slightly, catching a faint, strange scent.

It had smelled this scent the night before last, but when it peeked out, the scent quickly dissipated.

This instantly alerted it. It stopped curling up in its nest, stood up, and peered around, its nose twitching as it tried to find the source of the smell.

This time, however, the smell did not fade quickly; instead, it became even stronger.

Finally, the female Rathalos's gaze swept over the cracks in the rock walls surrounding the nest, and she keenly noticed something being thrown out from there.

Just as it was about to roar and intimidate, thick smoke filled the cave, completely blocking out the already poor light. Even though it had widened its eyes, all it could see was a thick, pale pink smoke.

Never having seen such an unusual phenomenon before, the female Rathalos was extremely anxious. She scratched the ground restlessly with her claws and tried to listen carefully, but she could feel rustling sounds coming from all directions.

The female Rathalos was on high alert. She glanced down at the dragon nest at her feet and the dragon eggs, which were extremely blurry due to the smoke, then lowered her body and let out a menacing roar.

Whatever you are, get out of here!

The female Rathian thought the smoky scene would continue for a while and was prepared to face a ferocious monster that would pounce out of the smoke. But to its surprise, the cave's decent ventilation quickly dissipated the smoke, revealing the familiar rock walls once again.

Everything seemed unchanged, as if the smoke from before was a trivial natural phenomenon, like a mountain breeze or morning mist. The female Rathalos, however, did not lower her guard. Instead, she continued to sniff around the nest, trying to find the source of the scent she had just detected.

However, the pale pink smoke contained something else, emitting a faint fragrance that the female Rathalos found somewhat familiar. This scent almost completely masked the original stench in the cave, and for some reason, the more carefully the female Rathalos sniffed, the more intoxicated she felt by the scent. She became lightheaded, and the solid ground beneath her feet seemed to turn into cotton.

The female Rathalos gradually became like someone who was drunk, and her steps began to sway and stagger.

"Ha—woo—"

With a big yawn, the female Rathalos shook her head, trying to shake off the drowsiness that kept creeping into her mind, and continued patrolling the cave with her unsteady steps.

It doesn't plan to go back to its den for a nap until it has completely ruled out the danger of the strange phenomenon it just witnessed.

"Gulu..."

The female Rathalos's belly made a muffled sound. Feeling a little dizzy, the female Rathalos looked down and then realized what was happening.

Oh, I'm hungry. I'll just have to wait a little longer; my husband will be home soon...

Just then, the female Rathalos patrolled to the dining table. She glanced down to see if there were any leftovers from yesterday that could fill her stomach.

Then it saw a piece of raw meat with bone that was slightly bluish in color. It looked like it was from the ribs. The meat was plump and tender, unlike the white bones around it that were covered with dark red blood streaks.

Huh? Is this the meat we didn't finish yesterday?

The female Rathalos was somewhat dazed, but the fresh scent of herbs and trees continued to enter her body through her breath, making her head feel heavy and unable to think clearly.

The hunger pangs in her stomach kept coming, and the female Rathalos couldn't care less about anything else. With meat right in front of her, how could she not eat it?

"Gudu..."

After swallowing a piece of raw meat, the female Rathalos felt her eyelids become as heavy as lead, and a deep sleepiness spread over her, making her unable to resist at all. She collapsed to the ground with a thud, snoring loudly.

"Susu..."

Zack had been hiding in the crevice, listening intently to the sounds inside the cave. When he heard the "thump," he quickly peeked in to investigate. When he saw the emerald green figure sprawled on the ground without any regard for appearance, he couldn't contain his joy and punched the air.

Become!

Knowing that time was of the essence and that it wouldn't be too late to open the champagne after the mission was completed, Zack immediately squeezed into the cave and rubbed his hands together as he headed toward the dragon's nest.

Which one should I choose? Which one should I choose...?

"Snoring——"

A heavy breathing came from behind him. Zack shuddered and hurriedly turned around. He found that the female Rathalos was still sleeping in an extremely unseemly position, only twitching its claws slightly. He breathed a slight sigh of relief.

I'm not going to choose anymore, this is it!
Since the mission only requires a dragon egg, the size doesn't matter. Taking the smallest one will reduce the weight and make evacuation easier, so this is the one!

Zack scooped up the dragon egg and, with all his might, turned and ran towards the crevice passage.

Ten meters, seven meters, four meters, one meter... and they're in!

As he squeezed into the passage carrying the dragon egg, Zack's heart, which had been pounding in his throat, finally settled back into his stomach.

Zack breathed a huge sigh of relief, and a smile involuntarily crept onto his lips.

Great, now all we need to do is take the dragon egg back to the camp!
Zack thought he had already overcome the most difficult step and that the rest of the process would be easy. However, after exiting the passage, he was troubled by just how to get down the mountain.

He could easily leap down the steps several meters high and roll off the ground to dissipate the impact, making the descent effortless. But when he held a fragile dragon egg in his arms, he suddenly realized that if he dared to jump, the dragon egg would dare to shatter in front of him.

He could only hold the dragon egg with one hand and grab onto the vines clinging to the cliff with the other, slowly descending little by little. Even so, he still almost lost his grip on the dragon egg several times, nearly letting the round and difficult-to-hold treasure fall.

When they finally reached the foot of the mountain, Zach was almost soaked in sweat, not only from the exhaustion of holding the egg with complete concentration, but also from nervousness.

The descent took far longer than he had anticipated. If the Rathalos had been lucky today, it should have been heading back to its lair by now!
If the enemy returns to their lair and finds her unconscious and the missing dragon egg, they will surely search the surrounding area extensively. If they find her then, we can only pray that our brothers can save us in time!
Just as Zach stepped into the dense forest at the foot of the mountain, a fiery red figure swept across the sky, leading its prey straight into the den.

Half a minute later, two angry roars echoed from within the dragon's nest, the intense anger and killing intent causing the surrounding forest birds to scatter in all directions.

Zack: !!!
His instinct was to grab the dragon egg and run, thinking that he would be safe once he got back to the camp. But when he caught a glimpse of the fiery red and emerald green in the sky through the dense foliage, he gave up the idea.

No matter how fast you run, can you ever run as fast as someone flies?

The way back to camp from here involves crossing a wide riverbed. There are no trees to block the view, and you can see everything from there. If we happen to be spotted there, all our efforts will be in vain.
So, in a flash, Zack decided to play it safe. He took the dragon egg to the grassy spot where he had been resting for the past two days, first applying the juice of the dye fruit to eliminate the smell and prevent the female fire dragon from following the scent of the egg, and then covering it with a thick layer of fallen leaves. He then found a tree nearby, climbed it, and kept an eye on the movements of the two fire dragons in the sky. If anything seemed amiss, he could simply run away and come back to take the egg with him.

He had already decided to hide until those two guys stopped searching frantically, then he would take the dragon egg and leave, taking a cautious approach!
(End of this chapter)