Monster Hunt: Notes from a Hunter

Its once bright yellow scales had turned grey, with large patches ulcerated and falling off, revealing the dark red muscle and even bone beneath.

Its once nimble steps now seemed stiff and awkward, the pupils of its eyes had vanished, the entire eyeball replaced by a lifeless, pale white, like a rotting corpse.

Perhaps drawn by the scent of the living, the Great Jagras, now indistinguishable from a legendary zombie, stumbled towards her.

Such behavior defied the Great Jagras's nature; they should be averse to fighting alone, even against a mere Vespoid, they would move in packs.

A flash of fire.

The small Great Jagras charging towards Feng Ying was cleaved in two, the blazing flames erupting from the blade ignited its corpse, the severed remains twitching incessantly in the fire until reduced to charred embers.

The firelight illuminated Feng Ying's pupils through the visor of her mask.

She couldn't fathom the Great Jagras's thoughts, but she sincerely believed that being reduced to ashes in the flames was a release for it.

She felt a surge of anger.

Flicking off the charred filth from the blade, Feng Ying sheathed her sword, her face grim, and quickened her pace. Having had a sufficient rest before entering the island, she felt she could easily go without sleep for two or three days and nights.

In this spore-ridden hellscape of mycelium, probably few people could sleep anyway.

On this mist-shrouded island, the changes of day and night seemed blurred.

During the day, sunlight was dimmed by the obstruction of the mist, while at night, the mushrooms and mycelium scattered everywhere emitted a hazy glow, making it less difficult to see.

Walking from day into deep night, she traversed the forest area and arrived at the center of what was originally the Coral Highlands, the fissure leading to the underground area not far off.

Suddenly, she stopped.

Through the hazy spore mist, she could vaguely see a huge black shadow looming ahead, seemingly some kind of colossal beast in slumber.

Out of caution, Feng Ying raised her sword and shield, lowered her body, and slowly approached with light steps.

Reaching close, by the faint light emanating from the mycelium and mushrooms, she was finally able to see clearly.

It was a skeleton over twenty meters long. The bones were surrounded by layers upon layers of mycelium, some of the fungi even growing to the size of small trees.

A few pitiful pieces of scale, their original color unrecognizable, clung to the dull yellow bones. The soft tissue beneath the scales had long since disappeared, transformed into nutrients for the growth and propagation of the fungi.

To be honest, if the Vaal Hazak wasn't emaciated with hardly any meat on its bones, and the rotting flesh clinging to it wasn't so unpalatable, plus the Rotten Vale was its home turf, familiar and easy to escape...

It might have been devoured clean by that Furious Deviljho long ago.

Could that invincible "Wrathful Gluttonous Tyrant" that chased Elder Dragons into panicked flight be the same individual as the dilapidated, withered skeleton before her?

Feng Ying couldn't say for sure, but she was more inclined to believe it was.

The reason was simple: the soft tissues of the corpse had long since rotted away, but the hard bones were still relatively intact.

From the size of the bones, it could be judged that the Deviljho's body length during its lifetime was close to twenty-five meters, approaching the growth limit of the Deviljho species, that is, the so-called "Large Gold Crown" individual.

And the Furious Deviljho that rampaged in the Guiding Lands, hunting and devouring countless large monsters, was also a giant beast of astonishing size.

The Deviljho species is already rare, and the probability of two Large Gold Crown individuals appearing on the same island can only be said to be pitifully small.

Judging from this perspective, the owner of this skeleton should be the Furious Deviljho that was as strong as a mountain of muscle, relying on its own ridiculously powerful immunity to ignore the erosion of the Effluvium to a certain extent.

As for how it ultimately died, no one could say.

Feng Ying took one last look at the large mouth, now only bones and teeth, and dismissed the question from her mind. She wasn't a scholar and didn't have the leisure to get to the bottom of it.

Even though she had done her best to take protective measures – the Effluvium Resistance Charm and filtering mask had never been taken off for a moment – after half a day, she was beginning to feel noticeably uncomfortable.

Red and swollen skin, itching in the lungs, difficulty breathing, even coughing up blood.

These were all symptoms of fungal infection. As time went on, these symptoms would rapidly worsen, and she didn't have much time left.

Bypassing the Deviljho skeleton, Feng Ying continued forward and soon arrived at the fissure leading to the underground area.

Like a volcano spewing ash, large plumes of spore mist mixed with Effluvium billowed out from the fissure, nearly ten meters wide, scattering with the wind in all directions.

Clearly, the Effluvium region underground was the source of the spore mist and Effluvium that enveloped the island. No wonder the hunters responsible for the investigation had retreated halfway; with such a high concentration of spores, anyone who went in would be courting death.

Feng Ying unwound the coil of Dragonveil Cloth from around her neck, circle by circle.

She had already abandoned the investigation plan to enter from here and reach the core area underground. As the seal of the Dragonveil Cloth was released, the aura unique to the "Forbidden One" spread like a beacon lit in the night, radiating in all directions.

Sensing the agitation of the Dragonvein, Feng Ying simply further released the restrictions and directly activated Awakened state.

The circlet-like faceplate "clang"ed open, covering her eyes which had transformed into golden vertical pupils.

Suddenly, Feng Ying's movements froze.

She had only intended to activate Awakening for a moment to announce her arrival to some guy hiding underground, but she hadn't expected some unexpected change to occur at this moment.

Silver-blue energy flowed along the ground, pouring into her body like a stream. The pain and discomfort originally caused by the fungal infection instantly vanished, and the fungi that had already taken root and grown in her body lost their activity under the radiation of this energy.

"This is... Earth Vein energy?" Looking at the Dragonvein Armor, shimmering with energetic light, seemingly cheering, Feng Ying had some understanding.

There was still some Earth Vein energy remaining in the Guiding Lands? It wasn't surprising; the Guiding Lands was originally a miniature new continent created by Fatalis.

After its death, this residual energy had nowhere to go.

If the ecology of the Guiding Lands was still stable, this Earth Vein energy might have entered a cycle, creating prosperity, but the balance of the Guiding Lands had long been disrupted.

The residual Earth Vein energy and the nutrients continuously decomposed and produced by the Effluvium provided the best "affluent" environment for the frenzied propagation of spore mycelium, and thus there was a trend of spreading outside the island... Wait?

The speed of fungal propagation is very fast. As long as the environment is suitable, two or three years are enough for mycelium and spores to spread throughout the island. Logically, the spread should have happened long ago.

But those spores only now began to appear in small quantities outside the Guiding Lands...

"Have you been restraining them all along?" Feng Ying muttered to herself.

Suddenly, she noticed that the spores and Effluvium spewing out of the fissure seemed to be controlled by some force, and the concentration and quantity were rapidly decreasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Faintly, she could even hear the strange cries coming from underground.

The worries and unease that had been lingering in her mind for many days were swept away. Feng Ying shook her head with some amusement, deactivated the Dragonvein Awakening, and re-wrapped the Dragonveil Cloth, sealing that ominous aura.

Then, without further hesitation, she flipped over and jumped into the fissure, falling towards the bottomless underground area.