Logan couldn't quite figure out why the Chameleos was in such a mood, nor did he bother to. The Shagaru Magala was dead, the task was complete—that was all that mattered.
Once he returned to the Ancient Forest, who knew if he would even run into the Chameleos again?
At that thought, Logan suddenly remembered something!
He landed on a coral platform and looked at the Chameleos that had followed him. With a low growl, he demanded the Fire Wyvern identity scale.
That was his proof for claiming the reward—he couldn't forget it!
"Gwaa!!"
Who would have thought—the moment it heard him, the Chameleos widened its shifty eyes in disbelief, utterly stunned.
As if it had never expected Logan to actually remember!
Seeing its reaction, Logan immediately realized what was going on. This guy had planned to weasel out of paying up!
If he hadn't brought it up, he might really have been cheated!
And since this creature could turn invisible, even if he went to the Research Commission to confront them, if the Chameleos refused to show itself, it would become a real problem.
At that thought, Logan's eyes turned cold. He spread his wings, a threatening growl rumbling in his throat.
"Gwaa, gwaa!"
But the Chameleos wasn't having it at all. Instead, it squawked back righteously, as if to say: We just fought side by side, slaughtering together—and you still have the nerve to ask me for that?!
How could he tolerate that?
Logan gave his wings a sweep, lifting slightly into the air, sparks flickering from the corners of his jaws.
"Gwaa!" (You're actually serious!!)
The Chameleos' eyes bulged wide. It hadn't expected Logan to lose patience so quickly. So much for the bond they had built these past two days—it was all for nothing!
It was an Elder Dragon, after all! Even a 'member' of the Research Commission. Yet Logan was giving it no face at all.
So, with a flash of anger, the Chameleos decided to get mad right back.
At last, it reluctantly pulled out the identity scale, dropped it on the ground as if in defiance, then turned its body away from Logan, putting on the look of, I'm mad at you.
A gust of wind swept by, carrying the sound of Logan cutting through the air. The Chameleos turned its head back in disbelief.
"Gwaa?" ("What—wait, you're just leaving? We're companions, we're partners! At least say something before you go!)
It flapped its little wings in a hurry, rushing after him. The Shagaru Magala was dead, yes—but who knew what other strange things in the Coral Highlands might be able to pierce its camouflage? For its own safety, it was still better to stick close to Logan.
That night, on one of the highest peaks of the Coral Highlands, Logan drove away the Wingdrakes there, then settled down beneath the moonlight to rest.
At this moment, the entire Coral Highlands was shrouded in thick mist. From this height, one could only see a roiling sea of fog, the scenery below completely obscured.
Logan believed that after a full night under this dense fog, the Coral Highlands would be "cleansed" to a great degree—enough to minimize the influence of the Frenzy Virus.
As for total eradication? That was utterly impossible.
The Frenzy Virus was something that coexisted with every non-Elder Dragon creature in the Monster Hunter world.
It would forever lie dormant within monsters' bodies. As long as monsters continued to live, the Frenzy Virus could never be wiped out.
This calamity in the New World might one day return. Perhaps, at some point in the future, when a monster carrying the Frenzy Virus died, under the right conditions, a new Gore Magala would crawl from its corpse.
Then the cycle would begin anew—spreading the virus, death, rebirth.
An endless cycle without end.
Looking up at the bright moon, Logan reflected that this world differed from his previous life: for more than half the year the moon remained full, flooding the land with light. At night, as long as one stayed away from shadowed places, there was scarcely any need for extra illumination.
His gaze returned to the panel that had been open for a long while. Counting the ten percent progress he had scraped from the last encounter with the Chaotic Gore Magala, he now had just enough for the next trait.
As for why there was such a large gap between the two hunts, Logan saw two reasons. First, the Chaotic Gore Magala was not as harmful as the Shagaru Magala; even the ecological damage it caused to the Coral Highlands was not as severe. Second, the output had been different: last time against the Chaotic Gore Magala, Logan had merely spat a mouthful of flame, and it was Nergigante that did the main work of the kill. If the Chaotic Gore Magala had not been successfully slain then, he probably would not even have gotten that ten percent.
This time, he had first joined up with Chameleos to drive the Shagaru Magala back and force it fully into the open; afterward, as part of the Elder Dragons' strike team, he dealt no small amount of damage—one of the primary attackers.
Add it all together, and the progress bar had leapt forward in one go.
He had been in the Coral Highlands a little over a month and had already unlocked two traits. This trip truly had not been in vain.
Only, this new trait left him somewhat at a loss, as though he had obtained it—but not completely obtained it.
[Ancient Activation: The special energy hidden in the deepest strata of the genes begins to activate, producing an unprecedented, powerful mutation. The stat with the highest value will be enhanced.]
A very strange description.
After opening the panel and reading the new trait, Logan even braced himself for bodily mutation and a sudden surge of strength.
But after waiting half the day, nothing happened. It felt as though he had gotten a fake trait, which left him completely puzzled.
And what exactly did "the stat with the highest value" mean?
In this world, the trait extraction from the panel had been practically scientifically refined, and without a specific analysis to reveal his stats, who knew what the highest statistic was?
He studied it for quite a while and still found no sign of where he had grown stronger. In the end he tinkered until late into the night, then gave up, dropping down beside a coral outcrop and slowly closing his eyes.
On a coral terrace two tiers below Logan, Chameleos fixed its gaze on the iron shackle around its claw, prying at it carefully with tongue and talon. With no interference from the clatter of Logan's constant experiments, it finally found the shackle's weak point. Tonight, it would definitely pick it open.
Time slipped by.
As he slept, Logan did not know that within the blood pulsing to the strong beat of his heart, a newly formed droplet—under some wondrous power—had begun to slowly intertwine with, and merge into, the life energy within his body.
Gradually, the droplet's color grew deeper. When it passed through his Flame Sac, the life energy contained in the blood actually converted into fire-aspected energy and was stored by the sac.
If someone could precisely extract that droplet of blood from Logan's body and study it, they would discover that its composition was identical to Elder Dragon Blood—the blood found in nearly all Elder Dragons.
And that single droplet was only the beginning. As time passed and old blood was replaced by new, the blood in his veins would ultimately be completely transformed into that precious Elder Dragon Blood.
When he awoke the next morning, the white mist that had blanketed the entire Coral Highlands had already dispersed. All the Frenzied monsters wandering across the plateau had perished silently within it, and the faint, lingering call of nature that had stirred in his heart had vanished completely. This assignment was, at last, thoroughly completed.
Spreading his wings, Logan took to the skies. Fixing his bearings, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from the string, vanishing into the gusting wind.
He had been away from home many days, and his heart could no longer suppress its excitement. He longed to return sooner, to see once more that emerald figure shimmering with golden light.
Chameleos stirred as the cold wind brushed its body. It blearily opened its eyes, let out a long yawn, and—still cloaked in invisibility—dragged itself lazily upward, beating its small wings until it reached the highest coral platform.
"Gwaa?!" (Where are you going today, wyvern?)
Finding the platform empty, Chameleos looked around in haste, then caught sight of the distant figure already flying far away.
At once it was wide awake. Croaking anxiously, it rushed to chase after him.
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