Chapter 304: Sightings.
After modifying his hind legs into a tail, Jié Jié once again observed the fragile structure to reinforce it, which didn’t take him much time.
Having understood the essence of the ruin city, he began pouring his heart and soul back into rebuilding his own ruin city.
Jié Jié wasn’t sure if this was a good thing, but he was very clear that this effort couldn’t be brought back to the New Continent.
Though observing hunters and human society was interesting, the New Continent was the starting point of his journey, and he also felt it was home.
In his plan, he had come to the Original Continent with the small ship returning from its voyage. If the Guild intended to form a second expedition, he would return to the New Continent with them.
He would have to go back eventually. With an ocean separating the two continents, the current “ruin city” was ultimately just a toy he couldn’t bring home.
Should he deepen his feelings for this toy?
Of course! Because it’s a toy! And after mastering it, he could create more toys like it!
Even if he couldn’t bring it back to the New Continent, he could still make it there using bones and stones.
Moreover, ores could be heated and smelted, and since he could heat things, how convenient was that?
Furthermore, when he obtained a form that allowed quick travel between the old and new continents, reducing the distance, there wouldn’t be any need for feelings of separation.
Just as the ruin city was the Queen Mantis’ home, this ruin city could be his house on the Old Continent!
Jié Jié’s ideas were getting juicier by the minute.
More! More experience needed!
He entered his ruin city again, operating it with renewed vigor.
The ruin city didn’t need pity; it could be improved further!
Even if the ruin city fell, he could transform into another form to fix it up!
With reinforcement and modifications complete, the ruin city drove out of the destroyed fortress.
As Jié Jié drove it a certain distance, feeling quite accomplished, he jumped out of the cockpit and transformed into a Fire Dragon.
He confirmed the nearest ruined fortress under the sky, then transformed back into the Queen Mantis and re-entered the cockpit.
Not enough parts? Go search for them!
Improving the ruin city could keep him occupied until the departure of the second expedition.
Old Mountain Dragons? We’ll deal with them if we meet one!
…
A standard four-person hunter squad slid down a hill, stopping beside the tracks left by the ruin city, crouching down to examine them.
“Footprints like these are completely different from those of the Old Mountain Dragon.”
The captain muttered, gesturing for the gunner companion to take impressions of various parts of the footprints.
“Hold on, why are the left and right footprints not symmetrical? Does it even have toes?”
The female hunter frowned while examining the right footprint ahead.
“And these scattered pieces—metal, stone blocks, bones.”
They’re irregular, without any pattern, headache-inducing.
“The stone blocks have a brick-like structure, the metal is clearly man-made, probably taken from abandoned fortresses. Let’s move forward.”
The captain stood up, glancing back at the sky behind him. A mobile flying airship equipped with a massive probing mirror was slowly moving forward.
That was the Ancient Dragon Observation Ship from Dongduoluma, serving as backup for the investigative team.
Let’s gather some more data before submitting it; the Ancient Dragon Observation Ship hasn’t issued any special instructions yet.
The investigation team arrived at each set of footprints, meticulously recording the distances between them, their professionalism evident in every action.
But the more professional they were, the more confused they became.
They had never seen tracks like these before.
And all of this started after spotting the silhouette of a black giant dragon.
After arriving at the scene, the Ancient Dragon Observation Ship descended to investigate, confirming that one of the combatants in the battlefield was the Old Mountain Dragon.
Although they hadn’t directly witnessed the fight, the traces left by the Old Mountain Dragon were easily identified. Judging by the direction of movement, this Old Mountain Dragon was undoubtedly heading towards the fortress.
Two ultra-large monsters fighting over territory, with one being an unknown monster, prompted the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau to immediately issue a strict lockdown order for the fortress.
But despite the month-long lockdown, from the hunters’ arrival at the fortress to now, not only had they not suffered any attacks from large monsters, they hadn’t even seen a single scale from one.
First, they conducted investigations around the fortress as a base, discovering nothing, except for many hunters encountering the specially commissioned individual Male Fire Dragon.
Result: Missed shots, couldn’t catch up, couldn’t find the nest.
But this didn’t mean the lockdown was over. The next step involved the Ancient Dragon Observation Ship returning briefly to serve as an aerial base, with monster hunters assisting in further investigations.
What the Ancient Dragon Observation Ship discovered first were the destroyed ruins and the giant footprints.
The primary goal was to track the giant footprints, as they clearly belonged to an ultra-large monster.
Monster hunters were deployed via parachute to conduct investigations, with the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau providing support and a mobile base from the air.
After collecting numerous traces, the hunters climbed the mountain peak, ascending along ropes lowered by the observation ship.
“Judging from the tracks, bipedal locomotion with a tail, not the Old Mountain Dragon, lighter than the Old Mountain Dragon.”
On the flying airship, hunters and scholars gathered around the table discussing.
And on the table lay all the records of the currently discovered traces.
“No discovery of new monsters, the footprints deliberately passed through abandoned fortresses, most of the dropped items were collected from the fortresses. What’s the purpose? It can’t possibly be food, right?”
Monster bones could be explained as food, but bricks and smelted metals? How do you explain those?
“Could it be that this monster has poor digestion and needs these high-quality hard objects to aid digestion in its stomach?”
The gunner raised her hand, proposing her idea.
“Not very likely, none of these dropped items showed any organic reactions.”
Just then, a passing scholar placed a test bottle on the table. The solution inside showed no reaction consistent with the hypothesis.
If it had been in the monster’s mouth or stomach, digestive fluids and saliva should have caused chemical reactions.
But none of the collected man-made objects reacted.
“So what’s the reason for deliberately collecting man-made objects?”
Another hunter in the team scratched his head, unable to think of an answer, so he asked again.
“What we can confirm is that it possesses considerable intelligence. The footprints pass through several abandoned fortresses, but there have been no reports of attacks on operational fortresses.”
The scholar shook his head, only able to share known information to stimulate collective brainstorming.
“Its objective is clear. Every time it passes through an abandoned fortress, the average depth of the footprints increases, the materials taken from the fortress becoming part of its weight.”
“It’s growing larger, and we’re getting closer to it.”
The footprints were becoming fresher, with no detours, making them easy to identify and track.
Next, it seemed they just needed to wait.
Before the final judgment had even settled, the observer using the probe mirror rang the bell, his face filled with shock.
A construct body entirely different from flesh-and-blood life appeared in the probe mirror of the observation ship.
“What the heck is that thing?”
Chapter 305…
