Back to the Wild

"The workmanship on this cart isn't very good."

Li Le offered his assessment as he looked at the shafts of sunlight shining through the gaps in the bottom of the cart.

"Among homemade carts from wild cat tribes, this is already very good, meow."

Kaluo explained.

"But it feels like there's still plenty of room for improvement..."

Snap!

The hoisting rope broke, and the cart fell from midair.

Thump~

It landed in the sand with a dull thud.

A small wooden wheel flew off, wobbled this way and that, then toppled onto its side beside Li Le's feet.

"Well, at least the cart was in one piece a moment ago..."

Bang!

The little wooden door burst open, and a dozen or so Melynx came racing out.

The black cat leading them, who wore an eyepatch over one eye, saw the collapsed cart and slumped his shoulders helplessly.

"Arthur, meow..."

Sanhua tried to console him, but Arthur raised a paw to stop him.

"No need to comfort me. Hurry over to the water source and find the Melynx tribe led by Undying Xiao Qiao, meow. They take rescue team jobs too, though every cat there is out of their mind. Here's a map. It's not very far. Hopefully this won't delay your hunting trip."

Li Le hadn't expected Arthur to be so loyal. His own tribe's cart had fallen apart, yet he was still thinking of his clients.

"Arthur! That bug is... is trying to put the axle back together, meow!"

A Melynx called out a warning.

Sisi glanced around at the gazes gathering on her, paid them little mind, and continued sticking the parts back together.

The Melynx's eyes grew wider and wider. Repairing the rescue cart would normally have taken the tribe two days or longer, yet the insect before them restored it to its original condition in mere minutes.

The Melynx called out and crowded closer.

They discovered that even the gaps left by the poorly finished timber had all been glued shut with insect silk.

"Waist drums! Horns! Suonas, meow!"

At Arthur's call, the Melynx ran back into camp.

"What are they doing?"

Li Le asked Kaluo quietly.

"It should be the Melynx tribe's highest form of thanks, meow."

Kaluo answered while stretching his paws to warm up.

Moments later, several instruments struck up a lively tune, and the Melynx twisted and danced around Sisi.

"So you know quite a lot about Melynx tribes too, Kaluo... huh?"

Li Le turned his head and found Kaluo gone.

Then he spotted a conspicuous white figure among the dancing black cats.

Once the dance ended, Sanhua took out a scroll and laid it on a stone pedestal in the sand.

Arthur dipped his paw in red dye and stamped his pawprint on it.

Li Le and Lan Rui pressed their handprints onto it afterward.

With that, the rescue contract entrusting their lives to the team was sealed.

A dozen minutes later, the Melynx rescue team loaded all their possessions onto the cart and set off, pushing the cat cart.

Arthur soon discovered that this assignment would be especially difficult.

Hunter parties usually traveled on foot, making it easy for the rescue team to follow.

Yet this party with its magical insect traveled on cargo bicycles.

Unless they maintained full speed, they would fall farther and farther behind.

"Keep at it, everyone! We can't give up, meow!"

Arthur called out.

Pfft~

A strand of insect silk stuck to the front of the cat cart, joining the silk holding its body together.

As the cat cart was towed along, it gradually picked up speed.

The cats looked up and saw that Sisi had connected the metal plate she was riding on to the cat cart.

"Rescue team! Watch out for the bumpy stretches!"

Li Le called back a warning, then kept pedaling.

"Thank you, meow!"

Arthur froze for a moment before calling out gratefully.

Beneath the scorching sun, the rolling dunes grew indistinct.

Li Le uncorked his Cool Drink, took a small sip, then hurriedly plugged the bottle again.

Lan Rui drained an entire bottle of Cool Drink, then lowered his head and kept pedaling.

By evening, the party reached the area where Old Geezer had last appeared.

A brief examination of the tracks revealed that he hadn't been active nearby recently.

The party found a cave and set up camp.

Sanhua placed the large chunk of raw meat he was carrying on a platter.

"I brought the raw meat from the cart, meow. Should we light a fire and roast it now?"

"Wait a little longer. Li Le wants to try the [Hunter's Life] effect activated by his Hunter's Leather Armor, so leave it to him."

Lan Rui replied as he unfolded the two-person tent.

"All right, I'll go get him, meow!"

Sanhua ran out of the cave and followed the rope down to the ground.

On a rock formation protruding from the sand, Li Le had propped a wooden board against the railing of the cargo bicycle's bed.

As he wrote and drew with a lump of coal, he kept striking various poses.

"Sisi, when you're foraging out in the desert, if you encounter something with two horns on its head, or something dragging an enormous tail behind it, should you run or fight?"

Sisi looked at the two black silhouettes Li Le pointed to on the board.

Then he used his hands above his head and behind him to mimic a pair of horns and a huge tail in turn.

Sisi thought for a moment, then raised her sickle claws.

Slash! Slash!

Two crossing cuts left an X-shaped mark in the sand.

"Correct. You're still young. If you run into them, don't fight. You have to run. Next question."

Li Le pointed at the clear, cold night sky.

"If the sky suddenly lights up in the middle of the night, the sun and moon appear together, and the ground temperature instantly rises, should you stay and see what's happening, or hide as soon as possible?"

Sisi tilted her head and sank into thought.

"Obviously, stay and watch, meow."

A Melynx listening nearby raised a paw and answered first.

"Don't interfere with Sisi's thinking... speaking of which, why are more and more Melynx gathering here... hey! Sanhua! Why did you sit down too?"

"Ah~ I don't know, meow. I was listening nearby, and the content drew me in without me noticing. Then I sat down."

Coming to his senses, Sanhua stood up and finally remembered why he'd come to find Li Le.

"The raw meat is ready, meow. We're just waiting for you to roast it."

"Got it. Last question for today's lesson... Sisi, if you see a crimson meteor streak across the sky, should you flee or hide?"

This time, Sisi reacted quickly and scratched an X straight into the sand.

"Very good. You must flee..."

Li Le had just raised a hand to praise her when Sisi drew another X beside it.

"Hmm, a double negative, or does it mean something else... oh! I get it. You're answering the second question about Teostra too!"

Li Le excitedly voiced a reasonable guess.

Sisi's response was lukewarm, however. She merely looked up at the night sky, as though expecting something to appear.

Could Sisi already know that she's one of that era's two sci-fi greats...?

Li Le wondered to himself.

He fed her today's portion of Power Nectar as a reward.

Li Le guided Sisi in hoisting the cargo bicycle up the mountainside, then went to the campfire inside the cave.

He secured the Hunter's Helm on his head, completing the armor set, then Li Le closed his eyes and felt it out for a moment.

Some budding perception within him rapidly expanded and spread like a crack suddenly splitting open in a wall.

The contours of the terrain on a map, the paths fish swam through a lake, earthworms wriggling in the soil...

A whole series of related perceptions became extraordinarily sharp.

Looking down at the raw meat, he could make out every detail of its pale pink grain.

Even the flickering campfire seemed to possess a rhythm he could comprehend.

"Until you get used to it, activating it has a powerful impact on your senses. It'll get better with time."

Seeing Li Le staring blankly at the campfire, Lan Rui understood what was happening and offered a reminder.

"It's not a big problem."

Li Le shook his head and scrubbed his face several times, trying to resist through willpower.

"No, you need to go along with the perception the armor activates and actively coordinate with it, not fight it."

Lan Rui offered guidance.

"Go along with the perception..."

Li Le adjusted his mindset and approach, trying again with acceptance.

His mind stopped tensing, and his body gradually relaxed.

"That really does feel much better. You've got plenty of experience."

Li Le praised him.

"I actually learned it all from the hunters stationed in the village when I was little."

"There's another perception inside me... it's very faint."

"I know. Apart from [Hunter's Life], there's an activation geared toward combining in the Hunter's Armor set. According to the report jointly issued by scholars and smiths, its activation was only about eighty percent consolidated, so ordinary hunters have a hard time activating it."

Lan Rui explained.

"Then why not finish the remaining twenty percent... I get it. Activating more abilities means putting more materials into the forging process. For mass-produced standard hunter armor, even a little extra material per piece would send the cost sky-high."

Li Le quickly understood.

"That explanation makes quite a lot of sense."

Lan Rui said in realization.

Clearly, he hadn't considered that question before.

"That's probably why old-style Hunter's Armor never has enough skill points without decorations..."

Li Le muttered.

"Old-style armor? Yours is the latest model."

"Uh... I'm speculating about the future. As forging techniques keep improving and the range of available materials grows, sooner or later, smiths and scholars will develop a forging technique that lets a single piece activate an ability. At the same time, Blademaster armor could be made light enough for ranged hunting weapon users to wear too."

"Let's hope so. Having an affinity for an ability but being unable to activate it effectively-that faint, elusive feeling really is uncomfortable."

Lan Rui was eager for the prospect Li Le described.

"Right, you said ordinary hunters have a hard time activating it. Does that mean some hunters can overcome what's missing and activate it?"

"Yes. For an ability activation geared toward combining, as long as your own combining skills are strong enough, you can make up the shortfall."

"So that's how it works. An affinity for an ability you can train, like combining, can complement the activated ability. Once the two support each other to a certain point, the ability activates."

Li Le suddenly gained a new understanding of wearing old-style armor.

He skewered the raw meat, set it on the BBQ spit, and turned the handle.

Sizzle, sizzle~

The sizzling and aroma filled the cave.

A drop of golden fat formed and slowly slid along the grain on the meat's surface.

The aroma, the flames, the meat...

Li Le's eyes widened, his mind free of distractions.

All his body's perceptions of the outside world focused on these things related to roasting meat.

Sizzle!

A wisp of smoke rose!

A piece of roasted meat with golden fat gleaming on its surface was raised high.

By the time Li Le came back to his senses after cooking the Well-done Steak, the two cats watching had already begun dancing.

The next day, before the scorching sun rose.

The rested party pedaled off early.

Since they had set out early, Old Geezer the Cephalos was most likely within a day's travel radius.

The party didn't pack up and take the camp with them.

"Li Le, why were there explosions during your watch last night?"

Lan Rui asked curiously as he pedaled.

"Huh? Were there? You must have heard wrong."

"It sounded a bit like Gunpowder detonating from being improperly placed inside a Screamer Sac."

Lan Rui had even identified the specific type of explosion. Li Le's gaze darkened.

"All right, I tried combining a Sonic Bomb while keeping watch last night, and it failed."

"Heh, hahaha, just as I thought..."

Lan Rui threw back his head and laughed.

"Wait, how come you're so familiar with that sound?"

Li Le grew puzzled.

"I... happened to hear it before."

"Heard it before? The team bought two portions each of Gunpowder and Screamer Sacs, but when I went to collect them, there was only one left."

Li Le deduced the reason.

"Huh? Really? You must have seen wrong."

Lan Rui began playing dumb.

As the two kept bickering, the speeding three-section pedal-powered cargo cart disappeared into the desert.

At an oasis somewhere.

Several upright, blue-green dorsal fins circled through the sand.

Awooo! Awooo!

The surrounded herd of Apceros raised their heads and kept bellowing warnings.

Bumping and jostling against one another, they formed a line on their own.

They tried to break through in the same direction.

Thud!

The Cephalos King, the largest member of the Cephalos pack.

It leaped out from beneath the sand, darted and slid along the ground, then braced its webbed feet against the ground and stood.

Seeing their path blocked, the Apceros at the front of the line immediately turned.

The orderly line fell into disarray.

At that moment, the Cephalos swimming over leaped out one after another.

The Cephalos pack knew full well that hunting down all of them was unrealistic.

So they targeted only the smaller young and females, biting and blocking them.

An elderly Cephalos with a tattered dorsal fin and a slight limp in its feet.

Seeing an Apceros that seemed to have lost its way, it immediately charged over.

The hard clumps of sand it spat struck the young Apceros in the side, knocking it over onto the ground.

The elderly Cephalos swung its head down and clamped its jaws precisely around the neck.

Thud!

A sturdy adult Cephalos swung its neck and rammed into it.

The elderly Cephalos actively met the collision with its side, forcing the other's head back.

Then it shifted its webbed feet sideways and swung its body to build up force.

It wanted to retaliate with an Iron Mountain Lean.

Unfortunately, halfway through building up force, one leg could no longer support it, and it listed sideways, losing its balance.

The adult Cephalos swung its head into it again, knocking it straight over onto the ground.

The young Apceros flung from its jaws let out a plaintive cry, then was carried off in the other's jaws.

Panting, the elderly Cephalos had intended to rest a little before getting back up.

Until it saw the Cephalos King's vestigial round eyes glance sideways at it.

Thud! Thud!

The elderly Cephalos forced itself back up, leaped into the sand, and continued joining the hunt.

At dusk.

On the bloodstained sand, the Cephalos pack's hunt came to an end.

Panting heavily, the elderly Cephalos tilted its head and gnawed on a monster skeleton with a little pink flesh still clinging to it.

After eating, it left the pack and swam for a long time.

It arrived at the foot of a mountain.

On a dead branch jutting out from the cliff, a dirty, worn section of a pajama leg fluttered in the wind.

"Long time no see, Old Geezer!"

A familiar voice came from above.()