Monster Hunter: This Dragon's Built Different-Chapter 431: The Trapped Research Commission

Chapter 431: Chapter 431: The Trapped Research Commission

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

The good news was that Zorah Magdaros had indeed given up on entering the Everstream.

The bad news was that, for unknown reasons, within the Rotten Vale near the Everstream entrance where the Research Commission was stationed, the concentration of effluvium suddenly increased by an enormous margin. Visibility from any light source dropped to less than one meter. In an environment as dim and profound as the Rotten Vale, such density was no different from being blinded.

What made it worse was that this was effluvium—not ordinary fog.

Even hunters equipped with Miasma Jewels were unable to remain in effluvium of this level for long, while hunters without miasma jewels could not go very far at all before suffering effluvium erosion. Had they not been rescued in time, they would likely have died within the effluvium.

If even hunters wearing protective gear fared this badly, it went without saying that Fire Wyverns—larger in size and far more prone to being entangled by effluvium—were in an even worse situation.

When one reckless Fire Wyvern attempted to force its way out by relying on speed, it had not flown very far before the effluvium completely overwhelmed its consciousness. A massive amount of vitality was drained away, and in an instant it changed from a robust flying wyvern into a skin-and-bones husk.

Even more terrifying was that, despite this, the Fire Wyvern still stared ahead with eyes that had already turned completely gray-white, staggering as it flew toward the depths of the effluvium, until it finally vanished into the thick fog.

It had to be said that, in any world, creatures that were either excessively large or excessively small were the most frightening of all.

Within effluvium of this kind, even hunters of Darren’s level had no good solutions. Disasters of this magnitude could only be addressed in one of two ways: either rely on technology to devise a corresponding countermeasure, or find the source and attempt to resolve the problem at its origin.

But at present, neither of these methods was something that could be achieved under the existing conditions.

Just as everyone was at their wits’ end, watching their stored food supplies continue to dwindle, and with even the already short-tempered Radiant Fire Wyvern on the verge of losing patience, little Loren stepped forward.

He commanded the Radiant Crystal Butterfly to draw with all its strength the life energy from the living energy within the earth-vein energy. With sufficient reserve energy ensured, flames ignited across his whole body, and he charged into the effluvium without hesitation.

Relying on his powerful memory, he forced his way through tunnel after tunnel in near-blind flight.

The life energy within his body continued to be rapidly consumed, in order to maintain enough calamity flame across the surface of his body to block the ever-present effluvium’s assault.

As one Radiant Crystal Butterfly after another fell, exhausted and powerless, and after crossing a massive pool of sulfuric acid, little Loren finally sensed faint rising air currents. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

This meant that he had finally made it out of the very bottom layer!

Without any hesitation, he decisively climbed upward along the airflow. After flying for a full three minutes—during which he did not know how many times he had forcibly smashed through land corals—he once again saw sunlight.

After the figure wreathed in calamity flame broke through the yellow effluvium that was close to turning black and flew up into the clouds, little Loren, who had been holding in a breath the whole time, suddenly took several deep breaths.

Because this effluvium had been strengthened by the Vaal Hazak’s life energy, it had extremely high heat resistance, causing little Loren’s life energy consumption rate to increase drastically. In order to reduce the loss of life energy, therefore, while flying he would often choose to hold his breath for a while, minimizing his breathing frequency as much as possible, thereby reducing the loss from using life energy to convert into fire-attributed energy after inhaling effluvium to offset the effluvium’s side effects.

The pervasive stench in his nasal cavity took quite a while to dissipate.

At this time, little Loren lowered his head and took a look. The effluvium concentration in this region had already risen up to the Coral Highlands above, turning the entire area completely into an ocean of effluvium. Any creature unable to adapt to an effluvium environment would be drowned within it.

Even he, who possessed Elder Dragon bloodline, and whose vitality and combat power far surpassed those of ordinary creatures, could not stay too long in such an environment.

Unless he could possess the kind of strength his old father had.

Thinking of this, little Loren’s eyes lit up!

The position he was in now was on the side of the Coral Highlands closer to the volcanic region.

Compared with the original plan—going to the mobile research base to seek help, letting the scholars find a way to support the Research Commission that was trapped at the Everstream entrance—it would be better to go directly to the Elder’s Recess to find Logan!

Having made his decision, little Loren began to sense the flow of the earth-vein. Very quickly, he successfully locked onto a location among the volcanoes where the life energy was the most abundant.

After identifying the direction, he beat his wings hard and swiftly flew toward that direction.

...

The Elder’s Recess.

Faint electric arcs wandered around his body. Logan carefully controlled the intensity of the arcs, afraid that with a single excess of force, he would damage this attribute energy that he had only just managed to configure.

These days, as more and more information was fed back by the Radiant Crystal Butterfly, his understanding of converting Terastal energy into ordinary attribute energy had grown ever deeper.

It was just that—perhaps due to an issue of affinity—among the various attribute energies, Logan currently had some grasp only of fire, thunder, and dragon attributes. As for water and ice, he had no clue at all.

Of course, this was also related to the fact that there were no monsters of those two attributes in the Elder’s Recess.

Even so, Logan always felt that he might truly be unable to convert those two attributes. After all, the affinity was simply far too poor!

"Finished with today’s practice? Want to eat something?"

At one corner of the crystal platform, the Admiral, who was roasting a wingdrake, watched Logan fly down from the sky and waved at him as he called out.

However, he then discovered that Logan had no intention whatsoever of coming over to take a few bites, and could only sigh.

The current Logan, like some Elder Dragons, no longer needed to replenish energy through conventional eating after the organs within his body had become highly energy-based.

Simply absorbing the purified life energy transported by the Radiant Crystal Butterfly was enough to meet his daily needs—let alone the fact that he could also absorb life energy on his own.

As for food now, perhaps only Mosswine could still stir a bit of appetite in him, and the wingdrake roasted by the Admiral was clearly not part of Logan’s current diet.

Lying atop the enormous Aki crystal figure, Logan, as always, calmed his mind and began to sense the state of the earth-veins.

Just as before, the pheromones released by the Xeno’jiiva cocoon were still being transmitted in all directions through the Everstream. Yet, likewise because of the extremely high concentration of life energy in the Elder’s Recess, it was still impossible to locate the other party by tracking life energy.

As for Zorah Magdaros, it was unknown whether it was dead or not. The abundance of life energy within the earth-veins had indeed seen a certain increase three days ago, and over these three days, there had been no sign of it declining.

But this degree of increase was far from comparable to the life energy released after the death of an Elder Dragon.

Could it be that it was still barely hanging on?

Logan thought to himself.

Suddenly, a very familiar dragon roar came from the distance, and a familiar surge of life energy brazenly barged into the Elder’s Recess. Such reckless, headlong behavior was simply like lighting a lamp in the darkness of night—more than enough to draw the gaze of all manner of malicious creatures lurking in the dark.

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