Camp

"Ah, all I can say is that our luck hasn't been very good, meow. First, we went deep into the unnamed desert but couldn't gather enough Tropical Strawberries to turn in. Then we spotted a massive sandstorm and had to retreat to the outskirts for now. It'll probably take another two days for the monsters returning from their migration to settle down."

Sanhua lowered his head and sighed. Clearly, this quest hadn't gone smoothly.

"So even a gathering quest means staying out in the wild for this long..."

"Yes, meow. It's been eight days since we set out."

"But Tropical Strawberries aren't that hard to gather."

Li Le glanced back at his silk basket. Ever since the threat of Old Geezer the Cephalos had disappeared, and he had eaten his fill of roasted bugs, his stock of Juicy Giant Strawberries had surged to eight.

"It's strange, meow. We came to a non-hunting area precisely so we could gather them and turn them in sooner, but there are pitifully few Tropical Strawberries here. It's almost like..."

As Sanhua spoke, a vague suspicion formed in his mind.

"Like someone picked them all ahead of you?"

Li Le asked tentatively.

"Exactly, meow! ...Can you read minds?"

"No, nothing like that. Could I have a look at your camp?"

"Of course, meow. But we need to chop some firewood first, or we won't have anything to burn tonight."

"Leave that to me."

Li Le turned toward Ahtal-Ka and called, "Silk!"

Then he raised a hand to his side, as though waiting for something to land in his palm.

Splat~

A lump of yellow silk smacked him in the face.

"Are you... Li Le, are you all right, meow?"

Sanhua asked nervously.

"Mmph... Just a little coordination mishap. Nothing serious."

Li Le peeled the sticky wad of silk off his face and wound it around the log.

"There. Now we can bring the whole thing back to camp."

"Thank you so much, meow!"

Sanhua froze for a moment before expressing his gratitude.

That night, the full moon hung high.

Under Sanhua's guidance, the human and insect arrived before a dull yellow earthen peak.

"Lan Rui, I'm back, meow! And I brought visitors!"

Sanhua looked up and called.

A young man wearing a leather helm poked his head over the cliff halfway up the peak.

"Wait there!"

Soon, two vines were tossed down from above.

Sanhua gave one a hard tug to make sure it was secured, then handed it to Li Le.

"After you, meow."

Li Le took hold and climbed up.

As he neared the edge, a hand with a callused palm reached down from above.

A human. A friendly human...

Li Le hadn't expected merely seeing another person to stir him so much.

"Careful. Hold tight."

After giving that warning, Lan Rui stepped back and pulled.

Li Le felt his entire body being lifted, and then his feet landed on the ledge.

"Rest for a bit. Sanhua still needs my help."

"All right."

Lan Rui hauled on the other vine, slowly raising Sanhua along with the log tied to it.

Li Le surveyed the camp.

It was a cave halfway up the mountain. At this height, ordinary monsters that couldn't fly would have trouble reaching it.

Torches fixed to the cave walls lit the interior.

A simple triangular tent stood in the middle.

A cooking pot, a roasting rack, thick books, potion bottles encased in metal mesh...

All sorts of miscellaneous items lay scattered casually across the ground.

In a corner between the rocks near the tent, a long, sheathed blade stood propped at an angle.

Was that an Iron Katana?

It seemed Lan Rui wasn't just a hunter, but a Long Sword user, too.

"Have a seat. I need to split some firewood first."

Holding the log, Lan Rui glanced toward several round stones surrounding a pile of ashes.

Those were clearly the camp's stools.

Li Le had barely sat down when Sanhua came over and asked curiously, "Li Le, why didn't your Kinsect, Ahtal-Ka, fly into camp, meow?"

"Ahtal-Ka can't fly, and she usually prefers staying out in the wild. It makes finding food easier, too."

"But what if Ahtal-Ka runs into a monster when you aren't there, meow?"

Worry showed on Sanhua's face.

"It's fine. Whether I'm there or not doesn't make much difference."

"I see, meow... Huh?"

Sanhua vaguely felt something wasn't right.

"Oh, Sanhua, do you know what this is?"

Li Le took a lump of red, jelly-like material out of his basket.

Sanhua leaned closer and sniffed it, then pinched off a small piece with his paw and tasted it.

"Hehe, you've asked the right cat, meow! ...But shouldn't you know what it is, meow?"

Sanhua scratched his head.

"I should?"

Li Le was puzzled.

He could generally identify materials like Paintberries, Sap Plants, and Huskberries by their properties or appearance.

But this red jelly-like material rang no bells whatsoever.

The reason he cared was that Ahtal-Ka was extremely fond of sucking it up.

So much so that he had to stand by her side whenever they gathered it in the wild.

"It's what you get when a certain tree sap congeals. After scholars discovered it, they theorized that it could increase strength, meow. Unfortunately, the human body can't absorb it effectively like Might Seeds, so it didn't receive much attention until the Insect Glaive became a Guild-designated hunting weapon and Kinsect breeding took off..."

"You mean this is Power Nectar for raising Kinsects!"

"See? I told you that you knew, meow!"

"Thanks. No wonder she likes it so much..."

Li Le felt that everything made sense now.

Clatter~

A pile of firewood hit the ground, and Sanhua struck a flame to light it.

The two humans and the cat gathered around the campfire.

The chill of the desert night was soon driven away.

"My name's Lan Rui. I'm a one-star hunter, and my hometown is Bherna Village."

After introducing himself, the young man set a grill over the campfire and placed three tin cans on it.

"Li Le. I'm a gatherer, currently raising a Kinsect."

"Traveling alone in the wild with so few supplies. Impressive."

Lan Rui rubbed his chin as he praised him.

I didn't want to push things this far, either...

"I hear your hometown, Bherna Village, has a pretty thriving airship industry."

"Those are just rumors. It's only just getting started, and the prospects aren't very clear yet. You could call it a big gamble by the Wycademy and the village. Hopefully, it'll make the village more prosperous."

After hearing Lan Rui's answer, Li Le began working things out in his head.

With the airship industry only just getting started, they naturally couldn't build a large airship like the Soaratorium.

In other words, the discovery and slaying of Valstrax should still be a long way off.

"Have you ever been to Yukumo Village?"

"No, but I've seen the Yukumo Wood they produce."

"Nothing else comes to mind... like the Sacred Pinnacle?"

"Never heard of it, meow. Are there monsters around there?"

Sanhua asked curiously.

"That's not it. It's better if you haven't heard of it."

"They should be ready, meow."

Sanhua put on a pair of extremely thick paw mitts and took the three tins off the grill.

Lan Rui drew the hunting knife at the back of his waist, sliced open the lids, and removed them.

A fragrant aroma rose from the tins, revealing pale pink chunks of meat that looked like luncheon meat.

If Li Le wasn't mistaken, these were probably rations.

"We haven't hunted for food in days because we've been gathering nearby. We don't have much to offer, so please forgive us."

Lan Rui sighed.

The gathering trip over the past few days seemed to have nearly exhausted him.

Li Le scooped up a spoonful, but before he could put it in his mouth...

The sound of empty tins hitting the ground came from both sides. The human and cat patted their bellies in unison. They had already finished.

"You still have gathering to do. You should eat mine."

Li Le offered them his rations.

Never mind a hunter running around in weapons and armor-even he, with his rapidly growing appetite, couldn't possibly get full on this little food.

"Thanks for understanding. Tomorrow, I'll try hunting an Apceros first."

Lan Rui accepted the rations and cut horizontally through the middle with his hunting knife.

After giving half to Sanhua, he swallowed the rest in one bite.

"Try hunting one... meaning you might not succeed?"

Li Le asked in some surprise.

Apceros were classified as small monsters, after all. As he understood it, a one-star hunter should have been able to hunt them easily.

"Apceros are rarely alone, meow, and there are only two of us in our team. All we can do is try our best."

Sanhua wiped his mouth.

"So a real hunter's life is much more dangerous than I imagined... I've seen a herd of Apceros in this desert. Would trying to hunt those be easier?"

Li Le offered a suggestion.

"In theory, yes. But that Apceros herd is too far from camp. A round trip could take two days, so we can only target the Apceros active nearby for food."

Lan Rui explained.

"I see. Then would hunting something like a Cephalos be even harder?"

"Yes. Not only do you need to prepare Sonic Bombs in advance, but an experienced hunter also has to assign the team's roles and plan its deployment."

"So it wasn't that I was too weak. Monsters really are extremely difficult to deal with."

At that thought, Li Le felt considerably relieved.

"You encountered a Cephalos on the way?"

Lan Rui's expression changed. The mention of encountering a monster immediately piqued his interest.

"More than encountered it. We clashed several times, I'd say. It wasn't until I met my Kinsect and we joined forces that we drove it off. Though I haven't seen it in a long time, I have a feeling Old Geezer hasn't gone far."

Lan Rui and Sanhua huddled together and looked Li Le up and down.

Only after confirming that he wasn't missing any limbs or carrying any serious injuries did they let out long breaths.

"You fought off a Cephalos dressed in something this... extremely lightweight?"

Lan Rui asked incredulously.

"Of course not. I still had my pajama shorts back then."

"All right..."

Lan Rui was somewhat speechless.

"What does Old Geezer mean, meow?"

"It's the nickname I gave that elderly Cephalos."

"An elderly individual that actively pursues humans... Does this Cephalos have old injuries, by any chance?"

Lan Rui asked tentatively.

"Yes. When I first saw it, its back already had lots of healed slash wounds, and one eye was blind. By now, it should also have another cut on the outside of its right leg."

Lan Rui and Sanhua exchanged a glance and nodded.

"A Cephalos with clear hostility toward humans. That's enough to write up a sighting report."

With that confirmation, Sanhua opened the book slung across his waist and began writing and sketching.

Seeing Li Le's confusion, Lan Rui explained.

"Monsters that pose a clear threat like this can be recorded in sighting reports. Once we return to a village or town, we submit them to the local Guild branch. The Guild evaluates the threat level and gives a corresponding reward."

"Then they draw up a hunting contract and post it for hunters?"

"Not usually. Mainly because this desert isn't a Guild-designated hunting zone, and no sandship or freight routes pass through here. At most, they'll update the markings when they redraw the map."

Hearing this, Li Le immediately felt disappointed.

He had thought that once he submitted the report, the Guild would recruit hunters to come kill Old Geezer.

But thinking it over, he could understand. The creature did show clear hostility toward humans.

But it was only a Cephalos, and there was no human activity here at all.

"Of course, if a client is willing to provide funding, establishing a contract isn't impossible."

"For example...?"

"For example, if a wealthy merchant with a taste for fine food is willing to pay handsomely to sample Cephalos liver, the Guild would be quite happy to issue a hunting contract. Once the hunt succeeds, the hunter gets Cephalos materials and payment, the wealthy gourmet gets the Cephalos liver they've dreamed of, and the Guild takes a cut while eliminating a threat in the process."

"So all three parties benefit. No wonder there are so many bizarre clients with unreasonable demands."

Li Le understood.

"Some clients really do go too far... But this isn't a designated hunting zone, so there's no Guild support whatsoever. If there really were a contract, participation would probably be restricted to two-star hunters."

"So you came here to gather tropical strawberries because there's no one around?"

"That's right. Unfortunately, the results have fallen far short of our expectations. Sanhua and I have even started wondering whether some unknown monster that eats nothing but tropical strawberries has appeared here."

The mention of tropical strawberries brought a dejected look to Lan Rui's face.

"How many do you need to gather to fulfill your contract?"

"At least twenty, but we've only found fifteen so far, and tomorrow we have to go hunting for food... What's this?"

Seeing Li Le open his bag, Lan Rui and Sanhua froze, rooted to the spot.

"To thank you for your hospitality, I'll give you five. We can eat the three extra ones. But I'd also like to ask a favor: take Ahtal-Ka and me along when you head back."

Li Le felt that traveling with hunters would not only give him someone to watch his back.

It would also make the route much more direct, while allowing him to learn more.

"Eat them, meow..."

Sanhua gazed at the bright red tropical strawberries and couldn't help swallowing.

When it came to these precious fruits, all Sanhua ever thought about was how to store and preserve them, doing everything possible to keep them intact.

Eating and enjoying them had never entered into consideration.

"Thank you so much. Sanhua and I will do everything we can to escort you back... I won't eat mine. We can keep it as a replacement in case any get bruised on the way."

Lan Rui regained composure and gave that assurance.

"I won't eat mine either, meow!"

Sanhua clenched both paws tightly, tears of excitement spilling from the corners of the mouth.

Seeing both the human and the cat choose not to eat theirs, Li Le felt a little embarrassed about digging in himself.

"Then let's keep them all as replacements for the delivery."

"I also gathered some Kinsect feed for raising them, meow. There's power, speed, and stamina feed. If you need it, please take it all."

Before Li Le could speak, Sanhua opened a backpack.

Several sealed bags of Kinsect feed were taken out.

"Then I'll gladly accept. By the way, does the base you're returning to have a place specifically for raising Kinsects?"

"Dondorma has always been at the forefront of hunting-related research and development. There should be institutions specializing in raising Kinsects."

Lan Rui told him.

"Dondorma... the center of the world. You set out from there?"

"Yes... Didn't you?"

Lan Rui was a little surprised.