Seltas

With local Melynx guiding them, their journey through the mountains of the unexplored region went smoothly.

Two days later, the mountain forest grew sparse and withered, and the terrain gradually dipped.

At the center of a disc-shaped depression in the rock, a huge circular pit leading underground came into view.

The old Melynx explained that this was the entrance to the Underground Cave.

But the caves were not tribal territory, and since he knew little about their interior, he could not go inside to continue guiding them.

Li Le understood.

He also had his doubts about whether their target Seltas had entered the caves.

Rather than hurry inside, he found a secluded spot on the mountainside and began setting up camp.

"I wonder if this Jagras meat tastes any good. Better chop some firewood first..."

Just as Li Le was about to leave, several pieces of firewood landed on the ground.

Three Melynx stood awkwardly nearby.

Meow, meow! Meow, meow!

After one spoke, the other two immediately began meowing.

"Why are you looking at me, Kaluo?"

"Translate for me, meow."

Kaluo spoke eagerly.

"Spade Tip Two and Three say the tribal elder agreed to let them follow the team, provided, of course, that the team is willing to take them in."

Spade Tip Two and Three were the names Li Le had given the three Melynx.

As for why they wanted to follow them, Sisi's ability to craft figurines, the little classes, and meals they could eat their fill of might all have been reasons.

"I agree, meow!"

Kaluo raised a paw to vote.

"I agree too... so Sisi's vote doesn't matter."

With that, Li Le spread his arms, and Spade Tip Two and Three raced over excitedly and pounced into them.

After lunch, Li Le explored the area around the cave entrance under the guidance of the Three Spade Meowsters.

A smear of thick green fluid on a rock wall caught his attention.

He leaned close and sniffed it, finding the smell very familiar.

He wiped a little onto his index finger, put it in his mouth, and sucked gently.

"Urgh... sure enough, it's monster fluid unique to insects. Pretty fresh, too... looks like our target Seltas really didn't enter the Underground Cave."

Having confirmed the trace, Li Le immediately began searching the surroundings.

Before nightfall, he finally found it on a flat gray rock face.

"Secret-recipe Paintball coming up, meow~"

Holding a Paintball in both paws, Kaluo gave a quiet reminder.

"Wait. This Seltas is badly hurt. Let me observe it first."

Crouching low, Li Le raised his monocular after speaking.

"Its abdomen is slightly deformed from compression, with symmetrical puncture wounds on either side. That's why the fluid keeps seeping out. The monster that attacked Seltas probably has some kind of pincer-like organ to inflict wounds like these."

"But the Melynx tribe didn't notice anything, meow."

"There are plenty of possibilities. The monster might be good at hiding its tracks, for instance, or cause relatively little ecological disturbance. Or it might have a very specific target and only came to pursue the Seltas..."

At that thought, Li Le suddenly froze.

"Could it be a Seltas Queen...? That would mean the Seltas's wounds were pinched into it by a Seltas Queen's crescent tail."

"Is a Seltas Queen an insect monster too, meow?"

"Yes. It's also the Seltas's mate. But because the gap in their size and strength is so great, it can control and dominate the Seltas completely."

"Uh... what an amazing relationship between mates, meow."

As Kaluo spoke, he opened the notebook slung across his body and began taking careful notes.

"We'll have to be more careful from here on, or both of us and the Three Spade Meowsters will be in danger."

"Okay, meow! ...By the Guild's quest threat ratings, roughly how many stars would a Seltas Queen be?"

"Probably five stars."

"Ah... a monster on the same threat level as a Rathalos, meow?"

Shocked, Kaluo immediately grasped what that meant.

Squish~

A glob of dark green fluid welled from a puncture wound in the side of its abdomen and dripped down the rock wall.

The pain seemed to make the Seltas uncomfortable.

Its four legs crawled upward along the wall, moving it another short distance.

Splat!

A ball of golden insect silk stuck to its abdominal wound, then jerked backward.

As it drew out and retrieved a glob of yellow extract, it also pulled the Seltas off the wall.

Bzzzz!

Its transparent wings beat rapidly with a buzz.

The Seltas flipped upright in midair.

Its body immediately curled like a shrimp, the pointed horn atop its head swinging down to aim precisely toward the source of the silk.

Li Le was a little surprised by how quickly it had adopted a combat stance.

"Seltas! You..."

Li Le wanted to deliver a battle declaration to boost morale.

But then he thought about how this was not the one that had shown itself while attacking the food shipment.

There did not seem to be anything righteous he could say.

"Anyway, prepare to die! Sisi! Throw the secret-recipe Paintball—"

Just as Li Le was about to attack, the Seltas's downward-pointing horn suddenly lifted.

A pair of yellow compound eyes turned to stare at Li Le.

"Wait, it's dropped its combat stance."

The rapidly whirling secret-recipe Paintball immediately slowed.

"Kaluo!"

"Here, meow!"

"Although we weren't the ones who discovered the Seltas, we can still earn a reward by observing it to deepen our understanding and submitting a report to improve the ecological information on it."

"I understand, meow! I'll take careful notes right away!"

As Kaluo spoke, his paws began diligently writing and sketching.

Bzzzz~

The Seltas swayed, constantly testing its way closer.

"Don't be nervous, Sisi. It won't hurt you. Once we finish observing it, we'll hunt it..."

In the midst of his enthusiastic explanation, Li Le noticed Sisi slowly raising a scythe claw, its tip pointing ahead.

Li Le tilted his head to look. The target the Seltas's head faced did not seem to be Sisi.

So he took a step sideways.

Bzzzz~

The Seltas immediately shifted sideways after him.

"Hey, buddy, the source of those fragrant pheromones is here. Right here."

Li Le pointed at Sisi to guide it.

But the Seltas remained unmoved and slowly flew up to him.

Raising his hand to sniff his gauntlet, Li Le discovered to his surprise that the fragrance on him was even stronger than around Sisi.

Right. To conceal its presence, Sisi has generally been suppressing its fragrance lately, except when hunting.

Meanwhile, being beside it every day has left a whole lot clinging to me.

"Uh..."

Just as Li Le worked out the cause, the Seltas suddenly lay down at his feet.

Fluid spilling from its abdomen soon covered the ground.

"That Seltas Queen actually treated you like this."

Speaking with some indignation, Li Le gently stroked its dark green horn.

The Seltas moved its legs and edged a little closer.

"Li Le, the contents of this observation report... are a little strange, meow."

"Huh? You recorded all of this too?"

"Yes. An observation report is supposed to record things truthfully, meow."

"All right, but don't write any wild conclusions. It's because of the pheromones in Sisi's fragrance. It has nothing to do with me."

Li Le emphasized that point.

"Understood, meow."

The human and cat here understood the circumstances.

The Three Spade Meowsters, watching from farther away from the rock wall with their cart, were dumbfounded.

Although Melynx hated humans, when the two encountered each other in the wild, humans would at most drive them away.

Monsters were different. They really would launch all kinds of lethal attacks.

When they went berserk, they would even destroy an entire tribe.

Even after fighting a hunter team to the brink of death, a monster would never submit.

Yet the Seltas ahead was actually prostrate at Li Le's feet. It was simply inconceivable.

The Three Spade Meowsters exchanged looks and nodded in mutual agreement.

They seemed to feel that joining the team had been a very wise choice.

Snap~

Closing the notebook and stuffing it into his shoulder bag, Kaluo cheered, "Recording complete, meow!"

"Then next..."

He looked at the Seltas lying on its side, crystalline bubbles constantly floating from its mouthparts.

Li Le felt a little lost.

Yes, the Seltas had simply fallen asleep.

The puncture wounds in its abdomen were healing rapidly.

A sleeping monster not only stayed facing one direction, but was also at its most physically relaxed.

Finding a vital spot and delivering a fully charged heavy blow at such a time could inflict terrifying damage.

Some hunter teams took advantage of this, deliberately using weapons or ammunition with sleep effects to put monsters to sleep.

What made this Seltas different was this.

It had fallen asleep on its own because it felt sufficiently safe.

"Should I just kill and hunt it like this, then give it to the Drunken Gourmet to taste...? Still, judging by the Seltas Queen's attitude toward it, that would be a kind of release."

While Li Le wrestled with the decision, Sisi began observing it again.

Its legs pattered as it circled the sleeping Seltas several times.

It alternated between tilting its head to inspect the transparent wings and gently hooking with a scythe claw to examine the Seltas's somewhat similar claw structure.

Once Sisi stopped, the Three Spade Meowsters pushed their cart over and began circling it to look as well.

"Stop going around it..."

Holding his forehead, Li Le could not help feeling a headache coming on.

Until he noticed the Insect Nesting Band on his arm.

"I'll leave your fate for you to decide."

Early the next morning, sunlight spilled into the mountain forest, bathing it in gold.

The Seltas had enjoyed the most peaceful sleep of its life.

It was as though an angel belonging solely to insects had wrapped around its entire body, lovingly watching over it all along.

But when it braced its legs to rise, it discovered that a mesh of insect silk had bound its body firmly to the ground.

"You're awake. Have something to eat first, meow."

With that, Kaluo placed a piece of Jagras meat beside the Seltas's mouthparts.

The Seltas spat out a small amount of yellow-green corrosive solution.

With a faint sizzling sound, the surface of the meat dissolved and softened.

Then it used its jaws to pinch off the tender portions and began eating.

Nearby, Li Le emerged onto the bank after bathing in a river fed by a waterfall.

After putting on his armor, he came with Sisi to where the Seltas was restrained.

"If you want to become a companion, the first thing you must do is stop being hostile toward people."

After telling it this, Li Le took down his Bone Rod.

"Sisi, release the silk net. If the Seltas attacks or tries to escape..."

Li Le made a diagonal chopping gesture with the edge of his hand.

Rrrip!

Sisi pulled hard on the thread extending from the center of the silk net.

The pointed, conical pieces of mineral ore embedded in the rock immediately came loose and pulled free.

Bzzzz!

With room to move, the Seltas swiftly beat its wings and took flight.

After several quick sideways darts, he faced Li Le, who was slowly approaching.

The Seltas neither attacked nor fled, merely hovering in midair in some confusion.

Buzz, buzz!

With a quick dive, the Seltas passed over Li Le, reached Sisi's side, and promptly landed.

"My judgment was right, wasn't it? The scent was the problem."

Clinging to Old Bones' back, Sisi barely reacted to this.

She raised her scythe claw, about to retrieve the insect net.

Yet this small movement made the Seltas shudder in fright.

His wings buzzed, and he retreated a considerable distance in an instant.

Sisi turned to look in confusion, and the Seltas hurried close again.

"Uh... it feels like this individual is frightened all the time, meow. He doesn't seem very wild."

Kaluo offered his assessment.

"If he were too wild, he'd probably already be in two pieces. Besides, this might have a lot to do with the psychological trauma the Seltas Queen inflicted on him."

Steering Old Bones around behind the Seltas, Sisi stared at his rapidly beating wings for a while.

Then she stopped paying attention to him and began trying out new modifications instead.

Replicating the lightweight structure of those insect wings was far too difficult, with practically no chance of success.

But Li Le did not stop her. After all, this was simply Sisi's nature.

Besides, although the Ahtal-Ka's enormous Ahtal-Neset in the desert ruins looked extremely crude,

it must have taken countless failures to assemble.

Rather than restricting and hindering her, Li Le felt he ought to encourage and nurture Sisi's interests through constant experimentation.

Seeing that Sisi was no longer paying attention to him,

the Seltas slowly flew backward, still facing her.

To think an insect could display respect and fear.

Kaluo hurriedly opened his book and wrote down his observations.

Buzz, buzz~ tap~

When the Seltas reached Li Le's side, he chose to land there.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Li Le swung his Bone Rod through the air twice and continued his tests.

The Seltas tilted his body to one side and looked over, showing no reaction.

Li Le found this very strange.

Because the impression the Seltas gave him was not that he was deliberately ignoring him.

Instead, he seemed to regard him as an entirely ordinary presence and had landed beside him quite naturally.

"Me, hunter, Li Le."

Li Le took a step back and raised his insect glaive.

The Seltas thought for a moment, then quickly flew off, scooped up the unfinished Jagras meat from earlier with his scythe claws, and swiftly brought it before Li Le.

When Li Le did not move for a long time, a glob of tenderizing fluid welled out of his mouthparts and fell onto the meat's surface.

"The Seltas is sharing his food with you, and even helping soften it, meow!"

Kaluo's eyes went wide as he rapidly took notes.

Looking at the meat giving off wisps of green smoke, Li Le rubbed his chin and thought for a moment.

He raised his staff and pointed it at Sisi.

The Seltas immediately tensed, his wingbeats noticeably accelerating.

His scythe claws kept pushing downward, as though trying to press the insect glaive down.

Li Le lowered his glaive and pointed at himself, and the Seltas soon relaxed.

"I get it. He's treating me as an insect. Only, in this swarm's hierarchy, Sisi is the powerful queen, while I've become a male insect brother he feels very close to."

This Seltas's absurd understanding left Li Le utterly speechless.

But once a monster had settled on something, correcting it would be difficult.

"What do we do, meow?"

"Hmph~ no rush. Sooner or later, I'll prove it to this Seltas."

Li Le smiled confidently and stood with his arms folded.

"Then did the Seltas pass the test, meow?"

"Of course. His understanding might be a little strange, but at least his lack of hostility is real."

"Oh! Such an interesting individual. If I keep observing him... maybe I could become a scholar Felyne, meow!"

Looking at the ecological report that already filled nearly half his notebook, Kaluo was thoroughly excited.

"This special individual doesn't have a name yet. Why don't you give him one, meow?"

"Hmm... let's call him Bug Brother."

"Bug Brother~ what a friendly name, meow..."

Bang!

A tremendous crash came from the distant mountain forest.

Kaluo's pen trembled, sending his writing askew.

Li Le looked at Bug Brother's trembling body and immediately guessed the source of the sound.