Return

Following the sound, Old Geezer raised his neck out of the sand again.

On a platform halfway up the mountain, a hunter holding the Bone Rod horizontally in one hand was looking down at him.

"Hmm? This isn't quite what I imagined. Why can't I sense any fear at all..."

Li Le had thought that, returning as a hunter and suddenly making a dazzling entrance,

even if he didn't give Old Geezer a tremendous shock, he would at least make him wary.

Tap, tap...

The sound of insect feet came.

A brilliant flash of gold appeared beside Li Le.

Poof!

Old Geezer abruptly plunged his head down, twisting his body beneath the sand along with it.

"Haha, so you're just old and slow to react."

Old Geezer no longer cared what Li Le was saying. His raised dorsal fin swayed violently from side to side, and after sliding to build up his initial speed, he fled in a straight line beneath the sand at full speed.

"Sisi! Throw my secret-recipe paintball!"

Li Le tossed the basketball-sized secret-recipe paintball high into the air, then crouched down on the spot.

Splat!

A strand of insect silk stuck to it, and a scythe claw rose and swung.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind howled.

As the secret-recipe paintball whirled at high speed, it left a circular afterimage.

Seemingly unable to withstand the tremendous force of the swinging, the ball stretched into an oval, and its shell began to crumble.

The pungent smell of paintberries spilled out, spreading thickly on the wind.

"Who still dares say the paintballs I combine aren't up to standard? Could an ordinary paintball stand up to being thrown like this?"

The item he had painstakingly combined using a large quantity of materials was proving useful, leaving Li Le quite pleased.

The spread of that intense smell made Old Geezer the Cephalos change his swimming course from a straight line into a pattern.

With his extensive experience confronting hunters,

he actually didn't care much about items like paintballs.

His own sliding speed beneath the sand was faster than hunters pursuing on foot.

Even if the smell marked his trail, as long as he focused on escaping, shaking off pursuit wasn't difficult.

But with that insect present, Old Geezer didn't want to take any risks.

Whoosh!

A hum cut through the air.

It let the keen-eared Old Geezer pinpoint the incoming paintball's position in advance.

Besides, when a Cephalos submerged beneath the sand, the exposed area of its back and dorsal fin wasn't very large to begin with.

Just as Old Geezer felt completely confident that he could easily dodge it by twisting his body,

the howling of the approaching ball abruptly alerted him that something was wrong.

Boom!

The sand exploded.

Sand and pink dust rose into the air together.

The paintball shattered, and a square chunk of metal ore flew out, tumbling a long way across the sand.

"What a shame, Sisi. The ore counterweight missed, but the secret-recipe paintball has already covered the area. Time to attack! Hah!"

Li Le planted his bone Insect Glaive at the cliff's edge halfway up the mountain, vaulted himself up, and flipped down.

Seeing the sunken pink crater beside him, Old Geezer was even less willing to linger.

To his ears, the tapping of insect feet against the sand's surface sounded like a death knell.

Away from the mountain lay rolling sand dunes.

Just as Old Geezer thought the situation was turning in his favor,

whoosh!

A camouflage net the same color as the sand was lifted, and amid drifting wisps of sand, a hunter came running with his arms pumping.

Lan Rui reached for the hilt of his Iron Katana, looking for an angle to intercept with a downward slash.

But Old Geezer the Cephalos had no intention of getting tangled up with him. He twisted his body and decisively changed direction.

"No desire to fight at all..."

Lan Rui was somewhat surprised.

After all, none of his weapons or armor incorporated materials from any powerful monsters.

Even an herbivorous Apceros would be hard to intimidate with them.

"I'll have to use a sonic bomb..."

As he ran closer at full speed, he took the sonic bomb bearing the Guild supply marking off his shoulder strap.

Lan Rui pressed its mechanical switch, swung his arm, and threw it forward.

Bang!

The sonic bomb shattered, sending a piercing sound wave spreading outward in a ring.

The Cephalos's exceptionally keen hearing became a serious burden at that moment.

Thump!

Under the intense stimulation, Old Geezer tumbled out of the sand and landed on his side.

Lan Rui reached the area behind his kicking foot, raised his sword, and slashed hard.

Splat!

Blood and fragments of scales splashed up together.

The misty energy called Spirit flowed into the blade through the recoil of the strike.

"Well done, Lan Rui!"

With that, Li Le vaulted into the air, rapidly swinging his Bone Rod as he leaped forward.

He aimed at the head and swung down.

Crunch!

After landing a precise hit, Li Le used the staff as support and leaped up again.

In midair, he saw one of Old Geezer's feet braced on the sand, showing signs that he was about to rise.

Li Le stopped performing acrobatics. Gripping the staff tightly in both hands, he turned his body sideways and twisted.

He drove the sharpest bladed end of the Bone Rod downward with all his strength.

Squelch! Thud!

Scales and flesh were pierced, and a dry sound of colliding bone rang out.

The hardness of Old Geezer the Cephalos's skull far exceeded Li Le's expectations.

Powerful recoil traveled through his arms into his body, and his inverted body in midair began tipping sideways, losing its balance.

That powerful recoil alone gave Li Le a profound understanding of the difference between training and actual combat.

No, I can't hold my posture. I'd better find a suitable direction to fall backward.

According to Sara's instruction, choosing how to fall while airborne was actually an effective evasive method for an Insect Glaive user.

It was just rather embarrassing, of course.

Li Le turned his head and looked around, searching for a suitable place to land.

A golden streak flashed out from behind, reflected against the sand.

Sisi, couldn't you go a little slower...

No, with such an outstanding performance from you, I can't embarrass myself too much either...

"Hah!"

Ignoring the recoil, Li Le forcibly straightened his tilting body.

Having stood up on one foot, Old Geezer sensed that the downward pressure was continuing.

Realizing that the hunter before him had no intention of backing off, he raised his head and rammed upward.

Squelch!

The Bone Rod's blade pulled free, and blood spurted out.

Li Le flipped over and touched down, with the disk-shaped mouth full of tiny sharp teeth right before his eyes.

No wonder he chose to ram upward just now. Was he controlling the distance...

Li Le twisted back, performing an evasive slash into a backward flip to open up the distance.

The successive painful blows had made Old Geezer vicious as well, and his planted foot suddenly pushed off with all its strength.

"Everyone, get ready! Target: Insect Glaive hunter Li Le, meow!"

On a distant dune, the one-eyed Arthur lowered his spyglass and raised a paw to give the order.

Pushed by dozens of Melynx, the cat cart accelerated down the slope, approaching at top speed.

At that moment, instead of bracing for impact, Li Le swung his Bone Rod behind him and shouted, "Extract Essence!"

Slap! Slap!

Two blobs of yellow insect silk plastered themselves over the puncture wound atop the head and the slash wound on the foot respectively.

Red and white extracts flowed into the silk balls.

Rrrip!

Sisi gave a sharp backward tug. As the two silk balls pulled free of the wounds, they also threw Old Geezer's forward charge slightly off balance.

Slap! Slap!

The two silk balls swung through half a circle and struck the Insect Nesting Band on Li Le's outstretched rear arm with precision.

As the two colors of essence flowed into him, the aura Li Le gave off changed abruptly.

Old Geezer realized his predicament was bad, but he had no room left to retreat.

He could only change his charge into a bite at the last moment.

Whoosh!

A half-turn of the body drove the forward swing.

With the Bone Rod guiding the Kinsect, its humming, rounded end struck Old Geezer's head first.

Several sharp teeth flew out of his mouth. After his head was knocked sideways, Old Geezer straightened it and tried to bite forward again.

Li Le landed after completing the half-circle slash, then twisted to accelerate, switching to the bladed end.

He leaped up, spun a full circle, and swept hard across.

"Tornado Slash!"

Squelch!

The blade sank sideways into the head, and blood sprayed out!

Beside the foot, Lan Rui unleashed a Spirit Blade, leaving a cut over the leg joint deep enough to expose bone.

Old Geezer the Cephalos swayed several times, then toppled onto his side.

"Stop! Rescue canceled, meow!"

Arthur called out, and the cat cart immediately slowed.

"Everyone, get your carving tools out, meow! We'll get some Cephalos materials and meat in a bit!"

At the new order, the Felynes all took out their weapons.

Clearly, they had already judged the outcome of this battle.

Awoo... awoo...

After several heavy blows, Old Geezer the Cephalos let out a few mournful cries and soon stopped moving entirely.

"Sanhua, the liver should be around here, right?"

Lan Rui crouched beside Old Geezer's belly and drew the hunter's knife from his lower back.

"That's right, meow."

Flipping through a book, Sanhua quickly confirmed it.

Lan Rui held it down with one hand and stabbed hard with the other, then cut sideways.

Beside him, Li Le and Sisi watched the material-carving process.

Blood and flesh soon covered the ground, and Lan Rui was about to stick half his body inside.

Li Le moved closer to help, using both hands to hold open the cut hide.

Before long, Lan Rui, covered in blood, pulled a white lump of flesh from the Cephalos's belly.

Sanhua immediately brought the Ice Crystal cooler over beside him.

As the lid closed, Lan Rui lay back on the sand as though breathing a sigh of relief.

"Ahem... congratulations to the team on successfully completing the hunt, meow! This area has no Guild support, and the target was a Cephalos, so there definitely won't be any organization responsible for transporting the monster's corpse. May I ask how your team plans to handle it?"

Arthur approached and asked.

"Please help us pick out the usable materials. You can handle everything else yourselves."

At Lan Rui's words, the Melynx cheered, then got to work with tremendous enthusiasm.

Clearly, even after the materials suitable for processing were removed, this elderly Cephalos's corpse still held considerable value for the tribe.

"I didn't expect you to be so fierce on your first real hunt."

Lan Rui praised him.

"Huh? Isn't that how other hunters perform their first time?"

Li Le was somewhat surprised.

"Of course not. There are all sorts of absurd performances..."

As Lan Rui spoke, he seemed to sink into some unbearable memory.

"I think the biggest difference from what I expected was when a full-strength blow landed."

As Li Le spoke, he opened his hand, revealing a bloody split across his palm from the impact.

"I know that feeling. You put all your strength into a heavy blow, thinking you can cleave right through the monster's scales, flesh, and bones, only for the attack to send a violent shock back through your body, strong enough to split your flesh."

"Exactly. That's just how it feels."

"You just need to get used to it. Later on..."

Lan Rui was about to say something, only to realize that the light of dusk was already shining on his face.

Before long, three cargo carts sped over the dunes beneath the setting sun, propelled by human pedaling.

At the evening camp, the little monster-identification class Li Le held for Sisi was packed again.

Li Le was at a loss for words, but the lively Melynx promised not to interrupt or cause trouble again, so he allowed them to join in.

At Arthur's earnest request, the team headed to the Melynx camp the next day.

Using materials they provided, Sisi helped build another pedal-powered flatbed cart for cats.

The Melynxs offered stamps bearing paw prints as thanks.

Although Li Le had no idea what they were for, he could hardly refuse such generosity and accepted them.

Three days later, at the counter in the Hunter's Guild headquarters.

Two hunters covered in sand and dirt, looking little better than wild men, handed over the Cephalos livers.

The receptionist stamped their contract as completed and warmly handed over two money pouches.

With that, Li Le's first hunting trip as a hunter came to a successful close.

Creak~ creak~...

The familiar sound of pedaling came from the street.

The Felynes feeding insect bait into the insect cages twitched their ears.

They all ran outside the Kinsect Research Institute.

"Sigh... probably nothing to do with me."

Li Le glanced back at Sisi in the cart.

"Li Le and Sisi are back from their hunt, meow!"

"Everyone, come quick, meow!"

The Felynes waved their paws and called out.

"Oh... looking at it this way, I'm actually pretty popular too."

He took off his hunter armor, already coated in a crust of mud and sand.

Li Le had a quick wash in the house he had built beside the institute.

In his office, Sara was delighted to hear that Li Le had returned safely.

He had wanted to see him as soon as possible and hear his thoughts on his first hunt.

But after touching his swollen eye socket, he sat back down.

"Director, it's lunchtime, so I brought you some roast meat while I was at it."

Li Le set the large platter on the desk.

"Hmm... Director, why are you wearing goggles?"

"It's been rather windy and sandy in the city lately, so they're for protection. I'm glad you and Sisi made it back safely."

"You were right to worry. The wilderness really is dangerous."

Li Le voiced his impression.

"How did it feel having a rescue team?"

"Pretty good. The cats were all quite lively."

"But I checked the Guild's Felyne rescue team dispatch records. None have gone to that desert recently..."

Sara trailed off.

"Uh... all right, we hired a Melynx rescue team."

"Sigh, that's not something you should skimp on."

"But the Melynxs worked really hard too."

"Since you both came back safely, let's put that aside for now. I have some good news for you. Have you heard of Val Habar?"

Sara stood up and asked, bracing his hands on the desk.

"Is that the gathering hub built in the desert?"

Li Le asked tentatively.

"That's right. I just finished talking with their people yesterday. They've agreed to let Insect Glaives and kinsects into the local workshop."

"No wonder you have another bruise around your eye, Director..."

"Uh, you noticed...? Never mind that. But they need the Kinsect Research Institute to station someone there for technical support. It's an entirely new hunting region the Guild is preparing to expand its exploration into. This is the perfect chance to promote the Insect Glaive and make a name for ourselves."

"So..."

Li Le had a rough idea of what Sara wanted to say.

"I'll be leaving soon, so I intend to promote you to acting director."

"Mm... huh? You're going there yourself, Director?"

"Of course. Who did you think was going?"

"At your age, I thought you'd recommend me or Holo."

Li Le spoke frankly.

"I did consider you both, but Val Habar is far too dangerous. Even inside a base held by the Guild, safety is by no means guaranteed."