When the resource-collecting cats learned that they needed to gather a large amount of that kind of thread Spice had brought back within a short time, several cats all turned their eyes toward Spice.
Needless to say, Logan also understood that the acquisition of this thread had quite a lot to do with this cat.
"Um, this thread is from a new friend of mine. I can go and talk with it, only if possible… could we give my friend some compensation, meow?"
Spice spoke a bit timidly. Although he wasn't sure whether his new friend could provide any more thread, he would do his utmost to communicate with it. And if there was compensation, that would be even better.
Spice's request was very reasonable. Only, when he heard that the 'friend' which produced this kind of thread seemed to like large chunks of metal or big pieces of regular-shaped wood, Logan was left a bit dumbfounded.
According to Spice's description, his friend should be a large monster. Originally, Logan thought it would need some kind of food or such, but never expected it would be these things.
What kind of bizarre hobby was this?
At that thought, the name of a monster vaguely surfaced in Logan's mind. If there really were a monster that liked chunks of metal and large timber, it could only be that one!
But… was there an Ahtal-Ka in the New World?
The thought was rather frightening. After all, that was at the very least Elder Dragon-class, and at the upper limit a super monster with its full power unsealed.
Aside from being unable to fly and lacking ultra-long-range attack methods, it basically had no real shortcomings.
If it truly was an Ahtal-Ka, then Logan's original plan—to resort to force should Spice's negotiations fail—was naturally abandoned.
What a joke. Even if Logan, relying on his ability to fly, didn't fear Ahtal-Ka, that thing absolutely had the power to tear apart the Ancient Tree from top to bottom. In terms of destructive capability to terrain, Ahtal-Ka was by no means inferior to any colossal Elder Dragon.
After questioning Spice and the other cats about the creature's appearance, Logan's last bit of hope completely died away. Once he confirmed that the owner of the thread was indeed an Ahtal-Ka, even the look in his eyes toward Spice changed.
He never would have thought that this cat could actually become friends with an Ahtal-Ka. Could it be that even a monster whose rationality far outweighed its emotions couldn't resist the charm of a cat?
Abandoning the idea of seizing it by force, Logan immediately gave the order to first provide the resource-collecting team with those large, processed components meant for building the cable car, and let the cats attempt to trade with the Ahtal-Ka for enough thread.
Priorities had to be set. The construction of the cable car could be delayed for now—but the issue with the Fire Wyvern eggs had to be resolved first.
With Logan's command received, three full teams—each with four cats and two Jagras—mobilized together. Led by two Rathians carrying a batch of timber, they all headed for the area where the Ahtal-Ka had previously been.
At the hunters' camp, when the Admiral and Falcon saw such a massive formation being organized by the Fire Wyverns, they immediately sought out Logan, expressing their wish to accompany them.
Seeing the two of them so full of excitement, Logan thought for a moment, then decided that with the Admiral along, perhaps the cats going to negotiate would have better protection, so he agreed to their request.
However, it would not be free!
The Admiral had to provide the corresponding investigation quest rewards in order to go along.
To this, the Admiral had no complaints whatsoever. On the contrary, he felt that Logan's businesslike attitude all the more demonstrated His respect for the Research Commission's rules. After all, this counted as hitching a ride on the Grimalkynes' transport, so he truly had to thank Logan!
...
In the western region of the Ancient Forest, within the basin of ancient ruins—
With a sound of shifting earth, the Ahtal-Ka struggled to pull itself out from the great fissure, dragging along the silken threads it had anchored in the forest outside the basin.
Its golden armor, once gleaming, was now caked in thick mud; broken twigs and weeds clung to it all over, giving the Ahtal-Ka a rather pitiful appearance.
Dropping the massive stone pillar tied to its forelimbs with white silk, the Ahtal-Ka twitched its forelimbs, and a tightly bound cocoon was dragged out from the forest along one of those interwoven threads.
With a sharp tug from its forelimbs, a fairly well-preserved Aptonoth carcass fell heavily to the ground.
After casually tearing away the broken cocoon shell, it didn't even bother cleaning itself before devouring the carcass in big, eager bites.
There was no helping it—digging underground in this forest environment was truly difficult. The strong adhesiveness of the soil aside, the dense web of plant roots, the hard boulders blocking the way, and the piles of strange minerals were all major obstacles to the Ahtal-Ka's excavation efforts.
And yet this was the only ancient ruin it had managed to find so far—giving up simply wasn't an option.
Moreover, judging from the terrain here, its walking fortress couldn't be buried beneath the sand like its mother's had been. It could only be built atop this basin, which posed an enormous challenge to the Ahtal-Ka's engineering abilities.
After eating its fill, the Ahtal-Ka hung lazily on the silk web it had woven, gazing down at the mound of dirt-covered, half-broken materials below, and suddenly began to miss that little creature it had met some time ago.
At least with that little one's help, it could easily make decisions—rather than being so indecisive, unable to throw anything away.
After all these days of digging, its walking fortress's progress was still zero!!
Clearly, this Ahtal-Ka not only had a touch of obsessive-compulsive tendencies but also a serious case of indecisiveness.
Lying weakly on the web, the Ahtal-Ka even entertained the thought of going to look for that little creature. But the forest was vast, and it wasn't the kind of monster adept at tracking, so that idea was quickly abandoned.
All it could do was, during the idle moments after a day's hard digging, hope that the little one might suddenly show up again.
Just as it was about to take a nap to digest its meal, the Ahtal-Ka suddenly heard a burst of wyvern roars. Irritated, it lifted its head—only to see two slightly different Rathians flying toward it.
Their target was clear, and they even seemed to be descending straight in its direction.
"Very good—food storage, plus two."
Ahtal-Ka were exceedingly rare, and most lived in the Wildspire Waste, so monsters in other regions of the New World rarely encountered one in their entire lives.
Moreover, when an Ahtal-Ka was not deploying its walking fortress, its appearance as a Carapaceon species was highly deceptive. And since this basin happened to be one of the area's water sources, from time to time some foolish creatures would try to drive the Ahtal-Ka away to seize control of the water.
Unsurprisingly, all those monsters ended up skewered by that rusted Dragonator, becoming part of Ahtal-Ka's food reserves.
Although Ahtal-Ka couldn't fly, it could manipulate its silk threads to make its walking fortress "fly." Therefore, within a certain range, whether its enemies could fly or not made no difference to it.
The Dragonator was already restless, the silk threads on Ahtal-Ka's tail fully prepared—once those two Rathians landed, it could deliver a fatal strike.
Just then, a crisp and familiar voice came from the large basket the two Rathians were carrying.
"Meow!! Long time no see, I'm back again, meow!!"
It was that little one!!
The Ahtal-Ka, which had been rather drowsy, suddenly perked up. It immediately stood upon its woven web, its compound eyes reflecting the large basket—and the Grimalkyne standing on the basket's edge, waving a paw at it.
Though still somewhat wary, the Ahtal-Ka's hostility, never very strong to begin with, subsided.
Coldly watching as the two Rathians carrying the basket descended to the opposite side of the fissure—and seeing that they showed no intent to attack—the Dragonator hidden in the shadows slowly lowered itself.
Riding a Jagras, Spice leapt across the fissure, landing before the Ahtal-Ka with an excited expression. Seeing the Ahtal-Ka covered from head to toe in grime, he meowed in disbelief, "Did you get buried in the dirt or something, meow? Why are you all muddy, meow?"
The Ahtal-Ka scratched its head, not quite understanding what Spice meant, though it could sense the goodwill behind the words.
Before Spice could say anything more, the Ahtal-Ka waved its forelimbs, and a silk-wrapped bundle swung toward them. As the Ahtal-Ka tore it open, a pile of small, rusted metal contraptions fell to the ground before Spice with a series of crisp clattering sounds.
Among this pile of metal were gear parts and irregular metal chunks, but their only common trait was their small size—all pieces that the Ahtal-Ka found unworthy, yet had been metals previously collected by the cats.
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