Return

At night, on the grasslands of the Ancestral Steppe, a campfire flickered.

Inside the tent, Li Le was writing an ecological report.

Kaluo pushed aside the tent flap with a paw and said worriedly, "Li Le, something's not right with Sisi, meow."

"Old Bones took so long to assemble, only to be destroyed so easily. Anyone would have trouble accepting that right away."

Li Le sighed as he spoke.

"Ah... when hunting Jagras, Old Bones wouldn't take any damage even if it got attacked... that blasted Seltas Queen was too destructive, meow."

Kaluo clenched his paws indignantly.

"There's nothing blasted about it. In the wild, it always comes down to who hits harder... I'll go check on Sisi. The report's almost done anyway. See if I missed anything and fill it in for me."

"Leave it to me, meow!"

"Remember, no randomly adding emoticons."

"Uh... all right, meow."

Kaluo's ears drooped in disappointment.

Under the moonlight.

The dull yellow grass rolled in waves with the wind.

Whoosh! Whoosh!...

The sound of thrusts piercing the air rang out continuously.

Li Le approached to take a look.

He found that Sisi really was acting strangely. Not only were there no parts nearby to assemble and stick together, Sisi was even practicing thrusts with those sickle claws.

A while later, Sisi stopped.

Those compound eyes turned toward the sickle claws on either side, examining them repeatedly.

Then Sisi lowered that head to look at those legs, seemingly inspecting this body.

So Sisi realized this body was stronger and more useful in battle than the miniature Ahtal-Neset...

Li Le immediately understood the reason behind Sisi's unusual behavior.

Sisi was indeed no weakling, but against large monsters, having an Ahtal-Neset clearly offered a greater advantage.

At the same time, its protection would keep Sisi's actual body safer.

This was also one of the main reasons Ahtal-Ka was so powerful.

My training approach wasn't actually wrong. The problem was that the current miniature Ahtal-Neset was still too rudimentary, which caused Sisi to lose confidence.

Returning to camp, he picked up a bundle of firewood branches.

Then he hefted a chunk of iron ore out of a cargo crate.

Li Le came before Sisi, who stopped practicing.

"Sisi, a lot of things can't be mastered in a short time. They take steady accumulation. Take this branch in my hand, for example..."

Snap!

As he spoke, Li Le broke it.

"It snapped easily, right? But what about this whole bundle?... Don't you try it! I'm the one explaining right now."

Sisi, who had been eager to give it a go, promptly backed away.

"Hah!"

Crack!

Under Li Le's forceful bending, the small bundle of branches snapped.

"How did I break that too... anyway, the more branches you add, the harder they are to break, right?"

Sisi's compound eyes blinked slowly, seemingly in thought.

"Now look at this chunk of iron ore. Urgh!..."

This time, Li Le strained until his face turned red, but the disk-shaped chunk of iron ore did not budge.

He dropped the ore, and Sisi's gaze followed it.

Li Le took out a bone joint coated in sticky silk to draw Sisi's attention back.

"The Ahtal-Neset works the same way. If it's not strong enough, think of every way you can to expand it. Add materials strong enough to make it bigger and tougher. Like... a Dah'ren Mohran that can shake mountains."

Li Le crouched down and extended both hands above his head in a cone shape.

"No matter how hard a Seltas Queen charges, it can't possibly shake a Dah'ren Mohran... the stench is the same. If the Ahtal-Neset is large enough, it won't even reach you."

After taking a moment to absorb that, Sisi drew a circle around that body with a sickle claw.

"Exactly. You're still small right now, and you can't yet build and control an Ahtal-Neset that large. But you'll grow. The effort you're putting in now is preparation for the future."

Sisi's compound eyes shone, and a jet of silk suspended the bone joint in the air.

The broken branches and disk of iron ore were soon stuck together.

"Phew... looks like planning out ability development isn't enough. Building confidence matters too."

Li Le let out a long breath. Just as he was about to return to camp, he spotted Bug Brother on a tree trunk beside the river.

Why does Bug Brother seem a little down too... the death of that Seltas must have affected him.

Li Le approached.

Bzz, bzz...

Still resting against the trunk, Bug Brother fluttered his wings twice, as if in greeting.

"Don't be discouraged, Bug Brother. As long as I'm here, that sort of tragic end will never happen to you."

Bug Brother took off from the tree and turned to face Li Le.

"But you have to work hard too. While improving your strength, try to stay away from Seltas Queens and those natural enemies."

His wings buzzed fiercely, as though agreeing with Li Le.

Early the next morning, the team loaded their camp onto the cart and prepared to set off.

Looking at the firewood stuck together and the disk-shaped iron ore that had been broken into four pieces and glued back together with silk, Kaluo couldn't help scratching his head.

"Whatever, meow. As long as Sisi's back to normal."

Not long after the pedal cart set off, a shout came from behind.

"Hello! Could you give me a ride?"

Li Le stopped and looked back. It was Disi, carrying an enormous load of luggage.

"No problem. Three of Spades, meow! Make a seat for Disi!"

On the cargo bed, the Three of Spades worked together to shift the crates.

Before long, they had cleared a seat with a backrest.

"I'm carrying a bit much, and it's a little dirty too. Sorry for the trouble."

Thump. Thump...

Disi unloaded the luggage from his back onto the cart.

Among it, a bundle of dark green Seltas limbs stood out.

"Huh? How did you know my name was Disi?"

"Brother, as a rookie hunter who could use a charge blade right off the bat, you're pretty famous in Val Habar."

"Actually, you're even more famous at the base, Li Le. And your Kinsect..."

As Disi spoke, he turned to look at Sisi.

As man and insect met each other's gaze, both seemed to sense something rather unusual.

"And your Ahtal-Ka Kinsect has an even sharper presence than when I saw it from a distance... cough, cough..."

Disi suddenly covered his mouth and started coughing.

"Get on and have a rest."

"No, I'd like to pedal with you."

"Doesn't your body need rest?"

"Actually... I've wanted to try a pedal cargo cart for ages."

"All right, then."

During their conversation, he learned what had happened.

Yesterday, the Seltas Queen had rammed down all the surrounding trees to vent its anger before leaving.

All that remained of the Seltas he had hunted to the brink of death was a pile of severed limbs.

Since the hunt was for equipment development, and he wasn't sure whether those counted as acceptable materials, he had gathered them all to bring back.

"By the way, Li Le, did you go to the Ancestral Steppe to complete a request too?"

"Yes, my request... ah!"

Li Le cried out and took out the request scroll.

"Uh... you forgot your request?"

Disi asked incredulously.

"I was going to complete the subquest, but handing in five Bnahabra was so easy that I overlooked it."

Li Le got off and went to the cart carrying Sisi.

"Sisi, are you hungry?"

Sisi tilted that head in confusion. There had been a hunt and a meal right before they set out.

"I think you must be hungry. Come on, get down. Let's go hunting."

Under Li Le's guidance, Sisi got off the cart in bewilderment.

A sprawling swarm of insects flew over from the edge of the plains.

Before long, a large net bag full of insects was piled on top of the cargo crates.

"If you ever need insect materials, come find me."

"Uh... all right."

Disi sounded rather stunned.

"By the way, your request will count as completed, right?"

"It should. The newly opened ingredient transport route won't suffer any more attacks, and I have the Seltas limbs as proof. It's just a question of how much material I've brought back. If it isn't enough for the Guild to develop equipment, I'll probably have to hunt another one. I remember Sophia seemed to have another similar request..."

"That one's about to become invalid."

"Invalid?"

Requests generally had only two outcomes: completion or failure.

This was the first time Disi had heard of a request becoming invalid.

"This is the report I'm submitting... and that's the hunting target."

Li Le handed over a document and pointed ahead, where Bug Brother was flying into the wind.

"Ecological report on Bug Brother, a special Seltas individual and the Ahtal-Ka's Kinsect partner..."

As Disi leafed through it, his eyes widened involuntarily.

"I've seen Bug Brother help the team, but even if you submit a report, the Guild will only ask a specialist scholar to assess and verify Bug Brother's case."

"Heh, exactly."

As he spoke, Li Le grinned and pointed at himself.

"Hmm... you're absolutely confident your report will pass the assessment?"

"No, I'm Val Habar's foremost insect scholar."

"Certifying your own report? I see!"

Disi understood.

"Of course, Bug Brother still can't just enter the base. Otherwise, hunters who don't know about him will definitely fire on him with ballistae."

"That's for the best. Otherwise, the branch's hunters might get the wrong idea and think all Seltas can be approached like Bug Brother."

Having just fought a Seltas, Disi clearly understood that, aside from insect experts like Li Le, these monsters were not suited for contact with other people.

Trying to tame one was even more of a pipe dream.

"Speaking of which, with so much to carry, why didn't you hunt with a team?"

"That friendly fellow Aiden... the top rookie everyone talks about, he was willing to team up with me. But my health isn't great, so I felt it was better not to drag him down."

Disi sighed.

"Hmm..."

Li Le was somewhat speechless.

"What about you?"

"I'm still not very proficient with the insect glaive, and I'm worried about getting in other people's way too."

"Ah, it really is tough for rookie hunters like us."

Disi sighed with feeling.

"Hmm... Disi, if continuing as a hunter made your illness worse one day, would you still keep going?"

"Oh! I've really never thought about that."

Disi looked surprised.

"Everyone in the caravan treats me well. Now that the ingredient transport route is clear, the client, Meowscular Chef, will probably join us as the caravan's cook. It feels a little irresponsible to suddenly quit... besides, I really want to know what kind of monster that pure white scale the captain carries came from."

"Then don't think about it for now! And it's best not to let that affect your decision!"

"Uh... you seem pretty worked up."

Disi sounded surprised.

"Some journeys end with beautiful scenery, but whether it's worth braving the dangers to get there is something best decided for yourself. I just don't want to influence your choice."

"The end of the journey... sounds like it'll be a very evocative place. I'll make my own decision!"

Hearing Disi say that, Li Le relaxed a little.

Yet when he thought of Sisi and Bug Brother, worry couldn't help welling up again.

Before long, an outbreak of the Frenzy Virus would sweep through the ecosystem.

Not only would humans have to fight with all their strength, but the monsters would too.

As for how to avoid it, Li Le still had few ideas.

At noon, Li Le got Bug Brother settled in.

Then he pedaled back to Val Habar.

On the bustling trade street, Sophia saw that the two people and one bug she had been worrying about had actually all returned safely.

She immediately waved and called out happily.

A Seltas Queen sighting report.

A Nerscylla trace investigation report.

Submission of the quests [Soldiers of the Underground Kingdom] and [Seltas Assault!].

Faced with several quest reports to process, Sophia immediately got busy.

"Li Le, coming back safely from an unexplored area after completing a subquest is already quite impressive."

Sophia stamped them with the Guild's flying wyvern seal and offered him some encouragement.

"Mm, I think so too."

Li Le nodded in agreement.

Once everything had been processed, Li Le handed over another report.

"Hm! Didn't you just complete this quest? Why are you applying to cancel it already? As long as the quest objective hasn't actually been achieved, the subquest won't affect..."

Thinking Li Le had misunderstood the contract certification, Sophia was about to explain.

Then a report titled [Special Seltas Individual: Kinsect Bug Brother] was handed to her.

The corner of Sophia's eye twitched, and her expression grew stiffer as she read.

Then she abruptly looked up at the sky.

"Right, this is only a report. You certainly wouldn't bring Bug Brother back, but to certify the report... uh! The certified Kinsect and the insect scholar are both you!"

"Damn it, why didn't you submit this first? There I was, happy that you'd completed the subquest and returned safely."

Sophia spoke in displeasure.

"If I submitted the cancellation request first, could I still submit the subquest normally?"

Li Le helplessly spread his hands.

"Huh? That would make the procedure a bit troublesome..."

Realizing this, Sophia finished speaking, then asked quietly, "Can I see Bug Brother?"

"The Sandworm sets sail before dawn. Just come to the docks."

"Hehe, make sure you wait for me... oh, right!"

Sophia opened her sewing box and took out an Ahtal-Ka plushie.

"It's so finely made."

Li Le praised it.

Compared with the other cute, chibi-style dolls in her box,

this doll leaned more toward realism, and it clearly had taken quite a bit of effort.

"If Sisi accidentally damages it, just bring it to me for repairs."

"Sisi won't. Once the Ahtal-Neset is built, this can go right in the cockpit as a hanging decoration."

Li Le lifted the doll and admired it closely.

"Ahtal-Neset... cockpit... what are those?"

"You can think of it as a land version of the Sandworm."

"A large land vehicle... wouldn't that need a lot of materials? It doesn't sound realistic."

As Sophia spoke, she looked toward the enormous gathering hall sandship at the end of the trade street.

Clearly, the materials required on that scale were far beyond what Li Le could supply.

"There are actually quite a lot buried in the red-earth ruins in the mountain forest, too. It's just that Sisi can't use them yet, so we can only look elsewhere for some lightweight material fragments that have already been processed."

"Wait! You said the Sandworm was setting sail before dawn. Don't tell me you're going to..."

Thinking of a possibility, Sophia hurriedly warned him, "Salvaging while passing through like that is too dangerous."

"It's not like Dah'ren Mohran keeps watch over the desert every day. Besides, with Bug Brother helping this time, our early-warning range will be wider too."

"You've thought it all through... then why go before dawn?"

"Bug Brother finds the daytime too hot."()