Traveling together

The sticky insect-silk basket was quietly finished.

Li Le loaded up his materials and roasted insects, ready to set out.

Before the passage entrance, the gathered insects still occasionally clattered their shells and buzzed their wings.

The light streaming through the entrance at the other end showed that the sandstorm had passed.

Li Le took out the half-length spear shaft and held it as a club for protection.

The insects remained listless and half-dead, showing no sign of any aggressive **.

He advanced while dodging them, and soon strong sunlight fell across his face.

Li Le squinted and raised a hand to shield his eyes.

After adjusting for a moment, he surveyed the surroundings outside the ruins.

After the sandstorm, the dunes around the ruins had risen considerably.

Only the edges and corners of large components such as the Dragonator head, waterwheel, and steel beams remained exposed.

"After a sandstorm, monster populations should temporarily fall into disarray as they migrate and flee, until new territories take shape."

"In other words, everything I knew about monster distribution is completely useless now. Any monster could turn up in any area."

Thinking that monsters on the level of Glavenus and Diablos might appear nearby, Li Le felt he would have to be more cautious from now on.

"As for Ahtal-Ka..."

At that thought, Li Le's previously clear train of thought became tangled.

If he really met other people, should he tell them about this place?

If he did, given how seriously the Hunter's Guild took unknown monsters...

They would definitely assign a team of hunters to investigate.

Once they learned even a little about Ahtal-Ka's powerful traits, they would surely eliminate this threat early.

Then the juvenile Ahtal-Ka would be killed, its corpse dissected for ecological research...

Li Le considered himself someone who valued loyalty.

Even if yesterday might have been sheer coincidence, the other party really had supported and protected him during his hardest moment.

He could not accept turning around and selling out his benefactor.

But if he chose not to speak, he had no idea how many hunters would die to Ahtal-Ka once it grew up.

After all, this was no game, and being carted would not always save someone.

"If only there were a way to satisfy both sides... I'm already outside the ruins. Why is the fragrance still so strong?"

Li Le raised his arm and sniffed his armpit.

Realizing something was wrong, he immediately turned around.

Inside the entrance passage, Ahtal-Ka was holding an entire sheet of woven insect silk open with two sickle claws, showing it to him.

Extraordinary learning ability, extraordinary intelligence...

Maybe if I raised it from childhood, I could eliminate the threat.

No, even that Old Geezer Cephalos could kill me. How the hell am I supposed to raise anything?

Li Le promptly shook his head lightly, rejecting the idea.

Ahtal-Ka seemed to misunderstand Li Le, thinking its woven net was still poor, and lowered its head somewhat dejectedly.

Li Le quickly waved his hands.

"It's not that your net is bad. How should I put this..."

Just as he struggled to find a way to communicate, the sight of Ahtal-Ka in the passage's shadows suddenly brought an inexplicable ache to his heart.

Perhaps it was the painful trials it would suffer in the future that turned Ahtal-Ka into a terrifying monster...

Li Le did not know why, but courage suddenly came to him.

"Do you want to experience a different life as a monster? If you do, come out of the ruins! I'll take you! Leave everything to me!"

As he shouted, he beckoned and backed across the sunlit sand.

Ahtal-Ka froze for a moment, then moved forward on four somewhat stiff insect legs.

But it still stopped at the boundary between light and shadow at the entrance, unable to cross.

Facing the ruins, Li Le backed farther and farther away.

The things above the scorching sand soon grew distorted.

The ancient palace and Ahtal-Ka seemed to merge into one within the blur.

When Li Le disappeared entirely from view, Ahtal-Ka sank weakly down inside the passage.

"Come here, quick!"

Li Le's sudden shout reached the passage, echoing over and over.

Ahtal-Ka's compound eyes lit up, as though it had sensed some kind of calling.

"Help!"

"Save me!"

It noticed the cries growing closer, along with the urgency they contained.

As Ahtal-Ka looked at the boundary between light and shadow at the entrance, some restraint within its consciousness shattered.

Tap~

Its insect legs stepped forward, and Ahtal-Ka crossed the boundary into the sunlight.

Its golden shell shone with an iridescent glow beneath the light.

At that moment, Li Le was running at full speed across the dunes outside the ruins.

Behind him, an upright blue-green dorsal fin sliced through the sand, swimming in curves as it gave chase.

Cephalos has keen hearing. I shouldn't have shouted...

But who could have expected this Old Geezer to lie in wait the moment the sandstorm ended?*

Li Le looked at the half-length spear shaft in his hand, thinking that if it pounced and bit him, leaving him unable to escape...

Even if he died, he would give this Old Geezer several hard blows to the head.

Boom!

The sand burst open, and Old Geezer Cephalos leaped out like a fish.

After landing, it twisted and slid, blocking Li Le's path with its body sideways.

Li Le dug his feet in to brake, then quickly turned and ran to the side.

Cephalos pushed itself up with its webbed claws, tilting and turning its head to aim in Li Le's direction.

"Giving me the side-eye? Looking down on me that much... Oh, right. You only have one eye left."

Although its way of targeting him looked rather unreliable, the older specimen's combat experience was undeniable.

It rarely made unnecessary, ineffective moves.

After confirming Li Le's running trajectory...

Old Geezer Cephalos inhaled, gathered strength, and whipped its head in one fluid motion, spitting a hard lump of sand from its mouth.

Li Le knew it was experienced, but he had never expected it to lead its shot.

He could only dive bodily out of the way.

Splat!

His head and face slammed heavily into the sand.

Bang!

Something exploded above him, and several hard fragments struck his back.

The insect-silk basket blocked most of them, but a few sand fragments pierced his pajamas and embedded themselves in his flesh.

It hurts so much...

Li Le felt that his pajamas were soaked in blood, but he had no time to think much about it.

The sound of Cephalos's claws treading on sand was drawing ever closer.

Pushing himself up, Li Le tried to circle sideways, making it harder for Cephalos to target him.

But before he had run two steps, his pace slowed.

Seeing Li Le staring beside it, Old Geezer Cephalos could not help growing curious too.

With only one eye remaining, it had to twist its neck far back to inspect the situation.

When it discovered an insect that did not even reach its knees, Cephalos grew puzzled.

In the world of monsters, unless some symbiotic relationship existed, species of vastly different sizes generally did not deliberately approach each other.

This insect's appearance was particularly abrupt.

Yet the juvenile Ahtal-Ka showed no fear or hesitation before the much larger Cephalos.

Shing!

A sickle claw rose and fell, tracing a white arc.

Old Geezer Cephalos noticed nothing amiss. Its two clawed feet braced against the ground, as though it intended to send Ahtal-Ka flying with a tail swipe.

Spurt!

As the force reached the muscles near its knee joint, the scales along the outside of its leg suddenly peeled outward in patches.

Blood sprayed profusely from a thin, threadlike cut.

Cephalos's lower body buckled, dragging its backward-turned head down with it.

"Take my club!"

Swinging with both hands, Li Le struck its head hard from the side.

Clang!

A crisp ringing sound rang out.

The dent, fractured bone, and spraying blood he had imagined did not materialize.

Cephalos's head did not even sway from the blow.

Instead, the impact left Li Le's hands tingling and numb.

Did my club just bounce... Whatever. I'll vent a little first.

"So you like hunting me down! Hunting me down! ..."

Clang! Clang! ...

With no technique whatsoever, Li Le battered its head with his club.

His emotional output reached its peak at that moment.

Old Geezer Cephalos had abundant combat experience. After just one strike, it knew this insect was far from ordinary.

Enduring the pain, it pushed off with both legs, leaped like a fish, and dove into the sand.

Li Le wanted badly to finish it off right there, but he had no way to stop it and could only watch the upright dorsal fin recede.

"We're really strong together. We drove that Old Geezer off without even trying."

Li Le nodded in praise.

Ahtal-Ka held its sickle claws toward the direction Cephalos had fled, clearly pleased with the victory as well.

"Uh... Since you came out of the ruins, does that mean you intend to travel with me?"

Li Le pointed toward the distant ruins.

Ahtal-Ka tilted its head, taking a moment to understand, then raised one sickle claw and rapidly pulled in its silk, winding and tightening it.

Before long, the silk net bag at the other end was dragged over.

Li Le saw that the bag contained small, heavily rusted metal components.

"You brought all your luggage... Then I suppose that's a yes."

He had not expected the Ahtal-Neset components Ahtal-Ka treasured to be miniature versions at this stage too. No wonder its territorial instincts were so weak.

In its eyes, these little parts were what it most needed to protect right now.

"What an impressive collection. The bag's weaving is a bit lacking, though. The mesh openings are all different sizes. No wonder you wanted to learn my weaving technique."

Li Le gave it a thumbs-up in praise.

Ahtal-Ka's purple compound eyes flickered, seemingly very much in agreement.

Then, working with both sickle claws, it began rummaging through the bag.

Clunk~

It took out a bolt covered in reddish-brown rust and dropped it onto the sand.

Ahtal-Ka backed away, stabbed a sickle claw into the sand, and drew a circle around the bolt.

"Is this for me? ...Thank you."

Li Le crouched down, tore off the cleanest section of the tarpaulin, and wrapped it up.

As his excitement faded, the pain from the wounds on his back grew stronger.

He took off the insect-silk basket and removed his pajama top.

Li Le took out a bundle of medicinal leaves and stuffed some into his mouth, chewing vigorously.

He quickly rubbed some between his hands, then pressed his palms directly onto the wounds once they were covered in green herbal juice.

This was how he had treated scrapes and other external injuries while traveling through the wild before.

The difference was that this time, his injuries were rather severe.

"Oh! Ah! Hiss! ..."

After a series of agonized cries, Li Le finally finished applying the medicine, his head covered in sweat.

"If only I had some blue mushrooms. Maybe I could try combining a few potions..."

Li Le held his pajamas open in front of him; they were nearly reduced to strips of rags.

Clearly, this garment could no longer withstand this world's wilderness wear and tear, and he could not keep wearing it normally.

"I'll alter it into a shawl."

Having thought it over, Li Le got to work.

Without any tools, he essentially shaped it by tearing.

He tore out the lining on both sides and tied the sleeves together with insect silk, producing a shawl.

Yet this crude, simple alteration left Ahtal-Ka staring in repeated astonishment.

The other party seemed extremely interested in these combinations and transformations.

All I have left now is a pair of pajama bottoms with no legs and a pair of cotton underpants coming apart at the seams. If I can't find more clothes within five days, I'll most likely end up bare-assed...

With Ahtal-Ka accompanying him, Li Le felt he no longer had to worry about food.

Clothing, however, had become a new problem.

Wait, now that I've confirmed the location of the ruins where Ahtal-Ka was intercepted, could it be possible...

A possibility occurred to Li Le, and he immediately took out his map and unfolded it.

If he remembered correctly, the Hunter's Guild had decided to hunt Ahtal-Ka because there had been reports of another colossal mechanical monster near the mountain fortress newly built to repel Lao-Shan Lung.

That was the Ahtal-Neset that Ahtal-Ka had pieced together.

Judging by that, the ruins shouldn't be too far from the mountain fortress.

And the only advantageous terrain for intercepting and stopping Lao-Shan Lung was a gap formed between two tall mountains.

Li Le searched the map and soon spotted lines resembling a gap between two mountains in its northernmost corner.

"Finally, we've got a direction. Come on, let's go!"

Li Le rose and set off as he spoke.

Ahtal-Ka, who was weaving a new net bag, promptly followed.

As the man and insect headed away from the ancient ruins, their figures gradually blurred.

Two days later, in the evening, the setting sun cast its slanting rays.

A tricolor cat in leather armor stood upright on its hind paws, holding up a small axe.

It was chopping at a log half-buried in the sand before it.

"Heave, meow! Heave, meow! I'm a hardworking Palico!..."

The rhythmic singing carried through the surroundings.

"Uh-huh~"

A strange humming sound came from the distance.

"What was that sound, meow?"

The Palico's ears twitched, and it turned to look in puzzlement.

A filthy wild man in clothes that barely covered him was approaching with a strange smile.

"Uh~ This person's so strange, meow!"

Just as the Palico grew wary, a delicate fragrance drifted into its nose.

A wild man, a pleasant fragrance.

The counterintuitive combination of those two elements made the Felyne even more nervous.

"Stay calm! Don't run! You're a Palico companion, right? Hahaha!"

The wild man sounded incredibly excited the moment he spoke, as though he had discovered treasure.

"Uh... yes, meow. What can I do for you?"

"Nothing! I mean you no harm! I'm just so happy to see you!"

With that, the wild man rushed forward in great strides and stopped in front of the Palico.

After they looked at each other for a moment, a feline paw was lifted.

Li Le looked at the pink paw pads, gently touched them, then rubbed them twice.

His excited expression immediately relaxed, as though something he had long looked forward to had finally come true just then.

The Palico was a little bewildered, but seeing that the wild man really meant no harm, it retracted its sharp claws into its paw.

"My name's Li Le. Behind me is my Kinsect, named Ahtal-Ka."

"My name's Sanhua Miao. I'm gathering firewood for the camp... Your Kinsect is so big and so pretty."

The Palico was somewhat astonished.

"I just like bigger Kinsects."

"But you're not a hunter, so why do you have a Kinsect with you, meow?"

Sanhua tilted its head in thought.

"None of that's important. You mentioned a camp, so there should be a hunter with you, right?"

"Yes, meow. I'm gathering Tropical Strawberries with my partner, but unfortunately, it hasn't been going very well."

Sanhua sounded a little dejected.

"Why's that?"

Li Le was puzzled.