Chapter 98: The Innocent Weasel.
“Meow?!”
The fur-covered, voluptuous Ailu Cat stared in surprise at the three circumambulating rabbits tossed before her, then glanced at the Smoky Snow Weasel standing on his hind legs with hands on hips.
After a brief moment of shock, she silently gave him a thumbs-up, picked up the three rabbits, and walked into the cave.
“Meow?”
Inside the cave, apart from the working Investigator, there was also the Team Leader’s Ailu Cat companion, who would become the chef of the future Starlight Base.
He had not yet lost an eye in battle, and the great sword on his back was still intact.
“Meow~”
Pointing at Jié Jié to indicate that he had caught the rabbits, the three circumambulating rabbits were handed over to Shān Máo.
Upon receiving the rabbits, Shān Máo’s gaze instantly sharpened, his claws protruding, gleaming coldly in the firelight.
This glint smoothly cut through the rabbit’s fur, moving in and out within its body. In an instant, the rabbits were processed and thrown into the earthen pot.
Jié Jié shivered down his spine as he watched, for as a Smoky Snow Weasel now, his physiology wasn’t much different from the rabbits.
Shān Máo threw away the discarded remains and washed his hands by the river in the mountain stream.
While observing him, Jié Jié also noticed the Dragon People Tribe hunter and the Commander walking out. Judging from their attire, they seemed to be going to investigate the surroundings?
He darted out, directly following the two, leaping onto the Commander’s body and landing on his shoulder after a few jumps.
“Hmm?”
The Commander clearly froze, and Jié Jié could feel his brief stiffness.
The Dragon Person Hunter watching this scene slightly raised an eyebrow.
“You see, it seems like it likes you quite a bit?”
“Hmph hphm, are you planning to come along with us to explore?”
Ignoring the teasing of his dragon companion, the Commander turned his head to ask Jié Jié. The usually steady and experienced him seemed somewhat awkward and uneasy at this moment.
Not understanding, but Jié Jié nodded anyway, thus joining the investigation.
“Judging from the forest environment here, there will be no shortage of timber.”
That was the Commander’s first sentence upon entering the forest.
Gathering plants, observing ecology, studying traces on the ground.
What they did was rather simple, and their conversation was incomprehensible to Jié Jié, making him feel a bit bored.
He simply burrowed into one of the compartments of the saddlebag around the Commander’s waist, sticking out half his body to observe.
“Look at these bugs, they always cling to the things we want to collect—plants, footprints—they seem to share our focus.”
The Commander crouched down, staring at the large footprint in front of him and the green Guide Insects gathered on it.
Jié Jié took a look—it was just the footprint left behind when he was in his Spiny Dragon form, nothing extraordinary.
“Hmm, and then?”
The Dragon Person Hunter seemed somewhat distracted.
“But there are more of them than us, and they are better at finding plants or traces. If we can make use of them, they can facilitate our actions.”
The Commander paused, looking at the hunter holding the Bug Control Stick and chuckled.
“What do you think, insect training expert?”
Bug Control Sticks are often used in conjunction with Hunter Insects, and hunters using them generally have greater knowledge of insects than ordinary people.
“I don’t deserve that title; I mostly use it as a cane.”
The Dragon Person shook the long stick in his hand, without any Hunter Insects dancing alongside him.
The Commander knew this, which is why he laughed.
He scooped some Guide Insects and dirt into a container with a small knife, intending to take it back for study with the ecological researcher, another Dragon People Tribe scholar.
“What’s this?”
As their Exploration Range increased, they discovered a group of Thief Dragons.
And the Thief Dragons also spotted them, growling as they approached, initiating an encirclement.
“Trouble, they’re similar to Dog Dragons, those small predators.”
The Commander gripped his peeling knife.
“Not a big deal.”
The Dragon Person Hunter stood in front of the Commander, swinging the Bug Control Stick to form a protective circle.
Realizing that the two weren’t easy targets, the Thief Dragons quickly fled after leaving a few corpses behind.
They squatted next to the corpses, examining these monsters unseen on the Old Continent.
“Highly aggressive small Fang Dragon Type predator groups, we need to bring this back so everyone knows to be cautious when traveling.”
The Commander bent down, picking up the most intact and clean corpse and slinging it over his shoulder. Following the Spiny Dragon footprints on the ground, he continued forward.
“The Spiny Dragon tracks end here, did it fly away?”
That was the trouble with Flying Dragons—once airborne, the ground traces disappeared, and finding them again required significant manpower.
Just as the two were about to randomly choose a direction to investigate, the Guide Insects on the ground began to dance, pointing them in a direction.
They followed the Guide Insects, while not forgetting to mark the surrounding trees to avoid getting lost.
As night gradually fell, they had no intention of returning—the exploration was scheduled to last two days.
The Guide Insects finally stopped at a new set of monster tracks.
“Two claw marks, but definitely not a Spiny Dragon. Judging from the tail drag marks behind the claws, it should be a Slaying Dragon.”
“At last, we’ve encountered a relatively familiar monster.”
But the expressions on their faces didn’t relax, because compared to the unfamiliar small Fang Dragon packs, the Slaying Dragon posed a much greater threat.
With a hard shell covering its entire body and a tail sharp as a blade that could be wielded like an arm, the Slaying Dragon was an extremely powerful monster on land.
Its flexible and powerful attacks were difficult to guard against, making it even more dangerous in battle than a Fire Dragon. A single misstep could result in being cleaved in two.
If regular monsters were common people, then the Slaying Dragon would be akin to a heavily armored Great Sword wielder.
And right ahead, what came into their view was the corpse of the heavily armored Great Sword wielder.
Jié Jié, who had been daydreaming all along, snapped back to reality, noticing the traces before him.
Oh, it was his doing.
“It was done by the Spiny Dragon, probably not too long ago.”
The tracks on the ground told the two the answer outright, but what they cared more about was the calculation process, intending to reverse-engineer the solution.
Of this Slaying Dragon, only the head remained relatively intact; the rest of the meat, along with the shell, had been cleaned off, exposing the skeleton and internal organs.
The traces on the ground were chaotic, but it was certain that the Slaying Dragon had struggled.
“The fatal wound is here—the Slaying Dragon’s throat was pierced straight through, even the bones were displaced.”
The Dragon Person Tribe hunter used his stick to lift the broken opening at the Slaying Dragon’s throat, carefully observing and drawing a conclusion.
“Was it the horn?”
“Horn, judging from the pressure marks behind, it was directly thrown backward, killed instantly without a chance to escape.”
“One decisive blow to the whole body—this is the master of the Tree Sea, isn’t it? But the Spiny Dragon tracks are interrupted again, as if it flew away after finishing feeding.”
Seeing the two discussing his own achievements, Jié Jié innocently scratched his head.
