Monster Hunt: Notes from a Hunter

Carrying a huge package, Mushroom landed in the desolate mountains of the Dragon Crystal area.

It was very close to its hometown; setting off with a kite, it would take at most a day and night to arrive.

While that might still sound far away, compared to the past ten years or so of gazing from thousands upon thousands of miles away, this was the closest it had been to home.

I wonder if Uncle Moss and everyone in the tribe are doing well, and has that little one who was still drinking milk when I left the tribe grown up?

Once this mission is over, I'll go back and take a look.

Shaking its head and casting aside these tender thoughts, Mushroom focused its attention on the task at hand.

Following the principles of covert operations, it first confirmed the safety of the surrounding area, including the air, and then silently slipped into the nearest cave.

The Dragon Crystal area has a complex terrain, with various caves, grottos, and underground spaces interconnected.

If one is familiar with the routes, it is even possible to traverse the entire Dragon Crystal area without coming to the surface.

Mushroom planned to do just that.

This would minimize the risk of exposure, since the package it was carrying didn't contain ordinary items.

The Ancient Dragons' ability to sense auras is very acute, and if it were discovered early, the plan would be completely ruined.

Making numerous twists and turns, and occasionally taking out a map to confirm the route, it could clearly feel the terrain descending and the temperature inside the cave gradually rising as time passed.

This meant that it was getting closer and closer to the lava zone where Teostra and Lunastra resided.

Inside the bottles were various gooey fungal samples, as well as pieces of rotten flesh and scale fragments taken from Vaal Hazak.

These were the materials they planned to use to ignite the fury of Teostra and Lunastra.

The Dragon Crystal area lacks the nutrients and soil for widespread fungal propagation, but like the Guiding Lands, it is filled with dense leyline energy.

There's no telling what strange mutations these fungi might undergo, and if they were to spread and proliferate along the Coral Highlands and the Ancient Forest, the New World's ecosystem would be finished.

To avoid such a terrible event from happening, Aibo put the fungal samples into bottles and boiled them in hot water for a while to deactivate them.

This would reduce the aura attached to the samples, but also eliminate the risk of the fungi erupting in the Dragon Crystal area.

Mushroom was very grateful to have someone as meticulous as Aibo to fill in any gaps for Windshear; otherwise, with Windshear's personality, she might have just grabbed handfuls of fungi and thrown them around like mud.

After carefully checking each glass bottle to make sure the seals were intact, Mushroom was about to put the samples and the package away when it suddenly stopped.

It twitched its nose and its long, pointed ears flickered twice.

Something was coming.

Mushroom quickly packed up the package, chewed the sausage in its mouth into small pieces and swallowed it, lowered its body, hid in the shadows, and placed its paw on the hilt of the Plunderblade, ready to launch a surprise attack at any moment.

But soon, it lowered its weapon.

Through sound and smell, it had confirmed that what was approaching the crevice where it was hiding was not a dangerous monster, but a few patrolling Gajalaka.

Mushroom kicked a pebble at its feet, deliberately making some noise to attract the attention of the Gajalaka, and then walked out of the crevice.

"Gah ya!"

"Woo ba ka ya!"

Seeing Mushroom emerge from the crevice, the Gajalaka waved the weapons in their hands, looking fierce and agitated.

There are no Lynian tribes living in the Dragon Crystal area, so to these patrolling Gajalaka, Mushroom was an unfamiliar intruder.

If it hadn't raised its paw to show that it had no hostility, they might have already attacked.

"I am not an enemy," Mushroom said in the language of the New World beastmen.

Although there are differences between the languages of the Lynians and the Gajalaka, simple communication is still possible.

The Gajalaka did not relax their vigilance because of Mushroom's statement, glaring at it and adamantly trying to drive it away.

Dealing with these few Gajalaka would be no problem for Mushroom, but the Gajalaka tribes in the Dragon Crystal area were not to be trifled with.

"Good thing I came prepared," Mushroom muttered, taking out a crude pendant made of beast fangs and stone beads.

This was lent to it by Windshear; although it couldn't command the Gajalaka like Felyne Fury's mask and bone whistle, it was still proof of friendship personally given by the King of the Gajalaka.

Seeing the necklace, the Gajalaka were visibly stunned, and subconsciously lowered their weapons.

The leader took a closer look to confirm the authenticity of the necklace, and then their attitude immediately changed, all hostility vanishing.

"Gah gah ya~!"

The Gajalaka danced around Mushroom, performing a welcoming dance.

One Gajalaka grabbed its arm, and the others wanted to help it carry the package, enthusiastically inviting it to visit the tribe's camp.

Mushroom had a bit of a headache.

The Gajalaka's attitude towards friends and strangers was completely extreme; if it were normal, it might have gone with the Gajalaka to sit for a while, but it really didn't have the time now.

After laboriously explaining its identity and origin, the Gajalaka conferred with each other.

The leader puffed out its chest and put its hands on its hips.

"Kaba wooga!" We'll help too!

Mushroom subconsciously wanted to refuse, but then it thought that these Gajalaka could really provide a lot of help for this mission.

According to the plan, it had to scatter the glass bottles containing the fungal samples and Vaal Hazak's body tissues around the nests of Teostra and Lunastra.

If it were alone, it could only place them one by one, opening them one by one, and it would be easy to attract Teostra and Lunastra in the process.

But with these Gajalaka as helpers, multiple samples could be placed at the same time.

Then everyone could scatter and run away to hide, so the probability of being chased all the way after being discovered would be greatly reduced.

After making a decision, Mushroom unfolded the map, pointed out several locations to the Gajalaka, and distributed the samples to them.

Since there were many locations and samples, the Gajalaka said that they would find more companions to help.

"Smash the bottles together when the sun rises tomorrow, meow, remember to throw them far away and don't let the stuff inside get on you, meow, you'll be hunted down, meow," Mushroom repeatedly reminded.

"Kaba ba!" Understood!

The Gajalaka carefully left with a pile of glass bottles and jars.

Mushroom itself took the last glass bottle and lurked down at the location closest to Teostra's nest, spending a peaceful night.

As the sun rose and the agreed time arrived, it forcefully threw out the bottle containing Vaal Hazak's rotten flesh, and after confirming that the bottle had shattered on the ground, it turned and ran.

Almost at the same moment, more than a dozen Gajalaka who had been found to help threw out the glass bottles containing the samples at multiple locations within a radius of a dozen kilometers.

The aura belonging to Vaal Hazak gradually spread out.

A moment later, roars of rage erupted from the scorching valley where lava flowed.

Two figures, one crimson and one azure, flew into the air, spewing dragonfire, burning everywhere, and after searching for a long time, they flew aggressively towards the distant north.

With the intelligence of Teostra and Lunastra, they could naturally realize that something was amiss.

But it's like finding a lot of excrement in your home for no reason, and being left with a note that says "Respectfully presented by so-and-so"; even if you know that person may not be the culprit, it's not so easy to suppress this anger.

Not to mention the volatile "Emperor" and "Empress."

They were going to burn that guy's hometown to ashes!