However, based on the stick-figure drawings, after Tonkotsu translated this report, it clearly stated that when the hunter squad withdrew, only two Elder Dragons were fighting Nakarkos. From this alone, it could be seen that there was probably no small problem with this Nakarkos.
Either it was far too young, or it had only arrived in the New World a few years ago.
Thinking back to his previous life, the Nakarkos back then had been an Elder Dragon capable of competing with Amatsu for a top-three place among the Disaster-level Elder Dragons. But as all sorts of data were released, Nakarkos successfully replaced Gaismagorm, becoming the Disaster-level Elder Dragon with the highest upper and lower limits.
In all of its data, there was one term that was mentioned frequently: "Dragon Graveyard."
As a pure environmental-type Elder Dragon, its strength was closely tied to the Dragon Graveyard; in this respect, it was very similar to a necromancer. Without a sufficient number of powerful bones, it had nothing to work with, and its strength would plummet.
Gaismagorm at least possessed vitality that counted as very strong even among disaster-level beings. Even in a pure, blank state without Qurio, it could still tank over a dozen blows from the latest model of the Dragonator and then still be lively afterward, with more than enough fighting strength.
But what about Nakarkos?
Without the Dragon Graveyard, its biggest competitors were actually large Leviathan-type creatures!
Thinking on the bright side, that meant they were just Lagiacrus.
Yet looking at it from the negative side, monsters of the Royal Ludroth type, whose ecological niche was comparable to that of Great Jagras, were likewise large Leviathan-type creatures.
When even its rivals did not even reach the level of Elder Dragons, that really was somewhat disgraceful.
And now, what Logan was somewhat curious about was why the ones facing Nakarkos were Lunastra and Kirin, while he, who was the closest, had not been summoned by the will of nature this time.
Logan mulled over this question for a long time without figuring it out, until a few days later, when the Admiral came to bid him farewell. The Admiral was planning to personally make a trip to the western part of the Ancient Tree area to observe at close range the battle between the Elder Dragons and the condition of Nakarkos, and in passing he casually said, "I haven't been here for more than a year, and the number of monsters in the forest has increased again."
A bolt of lightning seemed to flash through Logan's mind.
All the tangled threads were straightened out in an instant!
The reason lay right here!
The number of monsters in the Ancient Forest had increased!
Just as when Blackveil Vaal Hazak once came to the Ancient Forest to spread spores and carried out a biological cleansing, so long as Xeno'jiiva's cocoon remains, the life energy needed for the New World's growth will remain insufficient.
Since the Everstream cannot supply that much life energy to every region of the New World, for forest environments like the Ancient Forest, the energy they require has to rely on self-production and self-consumption.
According to the original trajectory of the world, without Logan's existence, Blackveil Vaal Hazak would once again descend in the future, during the era of the Fifth Fleet. Only, by then Xeno'jiiva would already be dead, and its vast amount of life energy accumulated over many years would have been reabsorbed by the Everstream. Therefore, Blackveil Vaal Hazak's appearance that time would merely be to promote the ecological cycle, rather than to carry out an ecological cleansing.
But as things stand now, Logan is a proper Lord of the Ancient Tree; the entire Ancient Tree region has become a tropical forest region thanks to him, and he has already perfectly integrated into this new kind of ecological environment.
If, at this point, they still wanted to use Blackveil Vaal Hazak to carry out a cleansing operation, would Logan obediently leave?
What is more, if you count up the entire forest as it is now, the largest monster population is the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group. Both emotionally and rationally, Logan would not just stand by and do nothing.
Therefore, through the battle between Nakarkos and Lunastra and Kirin, the monsters in that region would be provoked into migrating, and, through a chain reaction, chaos would be stirred up across the entire Ancient Forest.
In this way, not only could Nakarkos's growth be suppressed, the situation could also be kept under control and held at an appropriate level. Once the forest had been repaid with the blood of living creatures, Logan—and even Aki and Mother Chameleos and her child—would then be summoned to encircle and hunt down Nakarkos, leaving all of Nakarkos's life energy in the New World.
For the will of nature of the New World, would such a result not be the maximization of benefits?
Aside from being far too cold-blooded and causing the deaths of a large number of ordinary monsters, a plan like this brought almost nothing but positive gains for the New World.
Having figured this out, Logan became even more conflicted.
As an Elder Dragon, the New World's growth was closely linked to him; not to mention that the slowly progressing yet steadily rising Nature Affinity on his status screen was also clearly telling him that his interests and those of nature were one and the same.
But as the ruler of the Ancient Tree, to just watch as the Ancient Tree was very likely to be drawn into this chaos also felt somewhat hard to bear.
In the end, after thinking it over again and again, he issued an order to intensify group hunts and then quietly began waiting for events to unfold.
Beside him, Aki, who had sharply sensed that Logan's mood was somewhat low, slowly walked over, stretched her head forward, and gently rubbed the golden scales on her neck against Logan's silver scales. Her gaze toward him was firm and gentle, and a rumbling sound came from her throat.
Just like when Logan was young and had just gone through the consecutive pursuits of Jagras and Anjanath, when he was nervously on edge and unable to sleep well in his old nest in the Wildspire Waste, Aki had used this kind of rumbling to prove that she was still by his side and had never left!
...
On the western side of the Ancient Tree region, the Admiral halted his steps and helplessly looked toward the silver-white figure spreading its wings and soaring high in the sky.
He had not expected that Little Loren, after spotting him, would actually follow along.
But this trip of his was to investigate Elder Dragon tracks, and even he could not guarantee that he would return unharmed.
Although he knew full well that this was a choice Little Loren had made on his own, and that the Admiral could completely pretend not to have seen it, even if something happened, Logan would not think anything of it.
But after all, this was the child of an old friend he had watched grow up—how could he possibly ignore it if something really happened?
Yet on the way, the Admiral had tried to communicate with Little Loren, but he simply would not listen!
"Brat—whether human or monster, they're all troublesome!"
With a slight sigh, and seeing Little Loren toss a freshly killed Aptonoth in front of him, the Admiral began skillfully skinning and dressing it.
Since things had come to this, they might as well eat something first!
This temporary team of one man and one dragon was ultimately formed under the Admiral's compromise.
After circling around, and after Little Loren defeated two ordinary Seregios in a one-against-two, the Admiral finally left the Ancient Tree region.
The temperature in the air plummeted, and in the gusts of wind carrying the fragrance of grass, trees, and earth, there was also a trace of blood.
According to the route map drawn by the hunter squad, the Admiral saw for the first time what a forest looked like when it had completely fallen into chaos and even triggered ecological stress.
The fights between monsters were no longer one-on-one, but carried out by entire groups—sometimes over a dozen, sometimes only a few—launching large-scale battles across the various environments of the forest.
Of course, for the Admiral, this kind of brawl among ordinary monsters would basically not pose great danger as long as he did not get too deeply involved. But all of that was meaningless in the presence of a proud Elder Dragon hatchling!
Along the way, Little Loren showed no fear at all. Whenever something blocked the path—regardless of what ecological niche the monster belonged to—he directly released the Pressure of a top-tier ecological niche to forcefully drive them away, and if he encountered one with a hard head, he would charge in without hesitation to start a fight. This made the situation in the already chaotic region grow even more intense, even affecting the Admiral several times and causing him to fight multiple battles that held no real purpose.
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