Chosen Evolution: I can load the protagonist template

Chapter 684 Flame Hakimi

After being enhanced by the Crystal of Light, the Grand Master's wildness and senses were further amplified. He sensed something unusual simply through intuition and smell.

He had been to the Great Anthill Wasteland many times and was quite familiar with its ecological environment and species distribution, but this smell was one he had never smelled before.

As an excellent hunter, although the Grand Master may not have the keen sense of smell of a dog, he has a very accurate understanding and judgment of the footprints of most known species.

The Grand Master, resembling the Hulk, was almost completely naked except for a pair of hunter underwear that had reached its limit of elasticity. He carried the Crystal of Light as he approached the area covered by the blue guideflies.

Judging from the size of the footprint and its location, one could initially conclude that it was a "four-legged creature" or a "large dragon beast," but it was clearly not a footprint belonging to any dragon beast in his memory.

Because his senses were also enhanced, the Grand Master detected the natural aura of a superior race in the footprints.

It wasn't intentionally left behind; it was just a simple remnant, yet that was enough to intimidate ordinary wild animals.

Just like when wild dogs smell tiger urine, they will tuck their tails between their legs and run away in panic, and may even be so frightened that they urinate along the way.

Cheng Tian also curiously went over, but the moment his hand touched the footprints covered by blue guide insects, a new prompt popped up in front of his eyes.

Your main quest, "The Walking Calamity," has made significant progress; the current progress is 15%.

Please try searching for more footprints of unknown species.

Touching footprints is a very typical Monster Hunter World design element; in layman's terms, it's a unique way of displaying the progress bar for triggering a quest.

The subsequent related quests will only be triggered once the corresponding monster's footprints have accumulated to 100%.

Cheng Tian had been wandering around the Ancient Tree Forest, mainly stealing eggs, but he had still managed to explore the entire area. However, he still couldn't trigger the follow-up to the main quest.

At the time, Cheng Tian thought he might not have done enough quests and hadn't raised his star level to the point where he could directly accept quests related to the Ancient Dragon. Little did he know, the Ancient Dragon wasn't even in the Ancient Forest!
Following the sassy bird to the Wildspire Wasteland actually helped to officially start the main storyline, so I guess you could say good deeds are rewarded~
Now that the main quest has been triggered, these footprints are almost certainly from an ancient dragon.

Based on the depth of the footprints and the physiological structure of the four legs, combined with the fact that there was only one set of footprints and the environmental characteristics of the Great Anthill Wasteland, Cheng already had a pretty good idea of ​​which ancient dragon the footprints belonged to.

"Commander, you should send the sassy bird back first. I'll track this trail."

Cheng Tian stood up and said this.

"...It's a walking natural disaster, isn't it?"

After a moment of silence, the commander suddenly spoke.

It's not the result of any deliberation, but a judgment based purely on intuition and experience.

"Yes, the chances are very high."

Cheng Tian replied, stating that it was merely a guess.

Under normal circumstances, the Grand Master would undoubtedly take the lead and directly track down the suspected ancient dragon's footprints. But now he has a more important mission: to ensure the stability of the Crystal of Light for as long as possible.

Once you come into close contact with an Elder Dragon, there's no doubt that a fight will break out, and the likelihood of that fight causing a crystal upheaval will skyrocket.

Returning to the point, since the Crystal of Light has the characteristic of spacetime coordinates, it means that this thing must never be brought back to the Star Base, otherwise wouldn't that be like inviting a wolf into the house?

But just letting it drag on like this isn't a solution; we have to find a way to resolve it. "Sigh~ I have an idea~"

Just as the commander was worrying about what to do, a light bulb suddenly appeared above Cheng Tian's head.

And so on and so forth—

Listening to the description from Cheng, the idea king, the commander's eyes, which had already been magnified considerably, widened even further.

To be fair, although it also contains very difficult-to-handle and unpredictable dangers, Cheng Tian's idea is equivalent to risk transfer, basically transferring the danger that humans might have to bear to the monster.

While the impact on the ecosystem will inevitably be significant, the Crystal of Light, which has already been triggered by the savage, is fundamentally a ticking time bomb. Rather than trying to delay the detonation at an unknown time, it would be better to decide on the appropriate time and place to detonate it proactively!

And so, the group that came together split into two groups.

One group, led by Merlin, transported the succubi and Palicoes back to Starry Sky Outpost with the help of the herbivorous dragons.

Another group, led by Cheng Tian and the Grand Master, continued to trace Gu Long's footsteps.

Just like the previous operations, everyone acted swiftly and decisively, without any delay. Among the many dungeons, the hunters' quest efficiency was clearly among the top tier.

It must be said that guide worms are indeed amazing. They can perform fuzzy tracking with just a set of footprints, and the size of their clusters in the jar can roughly indicate which direction the scent trace is stronger.

As the main quest progressed, the various traces left on the ground and rocks made Cheng Tian increasingly certain that he was tracking a specific target.

Finally, Cheng Tian and his group arrived at the iconic scene of the Great Ant Mound Wasteland—

A desert region with dramatic undulations, dotted with numerous jagged rocks resembling ant nests and riddled with holes, filled with shifting sand dunes.

However, it was not an illusion; just wandering around the perimeter of the desert, one could feel a sudden increase in temperature, as if one were near a campfire. Clearly, there was an extraordinary source of heat in this desert.

Cheng Tian tilted his head back and drank the entire bottle of white, transparent beverage in one gulp.

The cool sensation flowed down my mouth and throat into my stomach, and then spread rapidly throughout my body, instantly dispelling the heat caused by the weather and clothing.

You consumed a "cold drink".

[For the next 10 minutes, you will be able to ignore the scorching heat and will not experience rapid energy loss due to overheating.]

The Wilderness of the Anthill also has a Hunter's Guild campsite, where supply boxes contain special cold drinks to combat the heat. Cheng Tian and his group made a detour during their pursuit and grabbed some supplies.

The coolness from the cold drink seemed to clear the vision a little, and even the Tai Chi True Eye on Cheng Tian's forehead slowly began to glow.

Through the distorted air caused by the high temperature, Cheng Tian could see a dragon-beast unit with a thick mane and a rather elegant demeanor lying on the highest point in the center of the desert. Its two forelimbs were crossed, and its head was raised, looking around lazily like a sphinx.

It was one of the walking natural disasters that got kicked out by its wife because of its own breath—

Ancient dragon, Teostra.

But Cheng Tian noticed something else immediately... that was, a fragment of the Sun God Gem was embedded on the top of the Flame King Dragon's head!

(End of this chapter)