"This ball smells so strong," Li Fan said helplessly as he picked up the Poké Ball, then marked the one containing the Arzuros.
Poké Balls were not exclusive to any particular monster. Once captured, they would gradually adapt to entering and exiting any Poké Ball. When the environment was unstable or they wished to rest, monsters might even voluntarily enter a Poké Ball. Li Fan's concern was that if this smelly ball got mixed up with others, and he later put Puff inside, Puff might run away because of it.
Beep beep! The handheld device chimed. Upon checking, it was a reward for completing the three-star monster illustration book. The two intermediate Poké Balls received daily had been upgraded to advanced Poké Balls. The Excitement Ball and the Friendship Ball were unlocked.
The Excitement Ball's effect was to showcase one's strong combat prowess before a monster; after heavily damaging the monster and earning its recognition, the capture success rate would greatly increase. The Friendship Ball's effect was to perform friendly gestures and offer assistance before a monster; after sufficient closeness was established, the capture success rate would greatly increase.
Looking at it this way, the Excitement Ball relied on one's own strength to subdue a monster, while the Friendship Ball relied on emotional connection to make the monster want to follow. Both of these balls... seemed useless at the moment, Li Fan judged in his heart after reading their descriptions.
The Excitement Ball sounded good, but its condition was "showcasing one's strong combat prowess, heavily damaging the monster, and earning its recognition." The four-star monsters he was about to attempt to capture next were all quite strong. Li Fan felt that relying solely on himself to subdue them was too idealistic. As for the Friendship Ball, the Malfestio was the most docile among the five-star monsters. However, before capturing it, Li Fan not only had no intention of offering help but also no intention of getting close. Therefore, the two newly unlocked Poké Balls did not have much practical use at present.
He checked the monster illustration book. The next tier of Poké Balls to be unlocked was called the Silver Crown Ball. It required capturing seven four-star monsters to complete the illustration book. With Puff present, he could afford to capture one less even at five stars, so he only needed to capture six more four-star monsters. Six four-star monsters... Why was this monster illustration book like those low-quality mobile games, where the difficulty of advancement increased drastically at certain tiers?
After finishing reading the unread messages on his handheld device, the team quickly headed to the dense forest to find the location where Puff and the Daimyo Hermitaur were fighting. Soon, they found Puff. At this moment, Puff's four claws were digging deeply into the ground, watching the movements on the forest floor. A section of the ground suddenly bulged, and the earth and stones churned and cracked, the fissures pointing directly at Puff's location. The Daimyo Hermitaur's underground movement speed, though not as fast as on the beach, still gave off a terrifying aura with the approaching ground cracks.
"Puff! Run!" Li Fan felt there was no need to confront it head-on at this moment. However, Puff remained unmoved, its four claws pressing down even harder, digging in deeper. Something was wrong. Puff usually only dug its claws into the ground selectively when sliding at high speed to adjust its sliding posture. For example, if Puff needed to make a sharp turn, it would anchor its two front claws into the ground and use its sliding hindquarters to complete the turn. With all four claws dug into the ground, its entire body was fixed, and it couldn't move at all... Wait, he remembered that move!
"Run!" Seeing Li Fan, who was running at the forefront, suddenly turn back, Eudora and Dilu looked bewildered.
"What's wrong, meow?" Dilu leaped onto Li Fan's back.
"Do you remember that deep groove on the rocky mountain by the forest lake?" Li Fan asked.
"I remember, a straight gully from top to bottom, meow. I could fit sideways into it," Dilu recalled vividly.
"What does that have to do with running away?" Eudora, who was following them, asked confusedly.
"That groove was left by Puff when it used its Cut Ray," Li Fan explained.
"It looks powerful, but I still don't understand why we need to run," Eudora remained puzzled.
"Cut Ray is an advanced version of Water Jet. It greatly enhances penetration, but its drawback is that due to the strong force of the water jet, Puff must anchor itself to the ground with all four claws during its release. Otherwise, if its body slides, it won't be able to hit the target accurately. Even with its entire body fixed, its head might still sway due to the uncontrollable impact," Li Fan explained.
"So, if Puff doesn't execute this Cut Ray well... everything around it will be affected?" Eudora realized the seriousness of the situation.
"It can't even control the move itself, meow. It feels like Puff is fighting with all its might," Dilu exclaimed.
"Perhaps the pain inflicted by the Zinogre and Instructor Yintie was too deep for Puff," Li Fan speculated.
After the team took cover and lay prone in the distance, three binoculars emerged from the bushes. The trembling cracks on the ground continued to extend, approaching. When they were less than ten meters away from Puff, a white stream of water, only as thick as a finger, was sprayed from Puff's mouth!
*Chiiiga!* The soil where the four claws were embedded simultaneously cracked. Puff's entire body slowly shifted backward, leaving a trail of deep claw marks. The only difference between this scene and what Eudora and Dilu had imagined was that Puff's fox head was not facing the direction of the approaching Daimyo Hermitaur but was bent downwards towards the ground.
"Li Fan, is this a misfire?" Eudora asked. For breath attacks from a monster's mouth, the first thing to do to hit the target was to face the monster.
"No, this is a method I taught Puff to reduce the impact. I didn't expect it to be applied in actual combat so quickly," Li Fan said with great satisfaction.
*Boom!* A giant horn emerged from the ground. Puff's trembling fox head swayed slightly, and at this moment, from bottom to top, following the now uncontrollable impact, it was raised high.
*Puff!* In just a fleeting moment, the Cut Ray sliced through the center of the single-horned skull, leaving a semicircular water stain, and then shot straight into the sky. The Daimyo Hermitaur, with most of its body exposed from the ground, suddenly froze, as if entering a state of stillness. Puff straightened its head, its chest heaving, letting out heavy breaths.
*Click!* A crisp sound came from the petrified-looking Daimyo Hermitaur. The single-horned skull split into two halves, crashing to the ground, revealing a terrifying straight-line crack on its shell.
*Boom!* The Daimyo Hermitaur's body collapsed to the ground, and gray fluid began to spread outwards.
"It... it killed it, meow," Dilu said in disbelief, holding up its binoculars.
Three hours later, a flare exploded in the sky above the dense forest. After about an hour, a male investigator from the branch arrived alone by boat on the beach. After a brief discussion, the capture of the Arzuros was confirmed. After stamping the contract, he also offered a thoughtful suggestion. He stated that the materials from the Arzuros were of little value and would need to be transported to nearby villages and towns, suggesting it be killed and buried on the spot.
Li Fan indicated that the team would consider it, and also inquired about information regarding the Daimyo Hermitaur. The young investigator said he had been tracking the Daimyo Hermitaur for some time. Since the dense forest was already a high-risk hunting area, and this Daimyo Hermitaur posed no threat to the outpost or the local ecosystem, no specific hunting contract had been issued. Furthermore, even if a client submitted a hunting request to the Guild, the branch might not approve it due to considerations for local ecological balance.
Hearing this, Li Fan felt a bit dejected, thinking, "Could it be that not only can this Daimyo Hermitaur not be transported back, but it might also be considered poaching?" The young male investigator continued to explain. Poaching was considered by the Guild only if hunters caused severe ecological imbalance by excessively hunting a single monster. Generally, when obtaining local information at the Guild, any species that could not be hunted locally would be notified on the bulletin board or by the receptionist. In the case of Li Fan's team, they encountered the Hermitaur and hunted it incidentally. They only needed to pay a certain amount of money or materials at the Guild branch to transport the monster's carcass away.
After clarifying the situation, Li Fan also called for a Guild transportation service to send the Daimyo Hermitaur's carcass to the outpost. The team, meanwhile, returned to camp, packed up, and prepared to travel to Port Aura overnight. In fact, if they hadn't transported the Daimyo Hermitaur's carcass, they wouldn't have had to pay any extra fees. Unfortunately, Port Aura didn't even have a blacksmith, so it had no processing capabilities at all.
Two days later, the Daimyo Hermitaur's carcass arrived at the port and was hoisted into the ship's hold. Li Fan did the math. After paying for the transportation to the port, the Guild branch's commission, and the ship's transport and storage fees, the reward for defeating the Arzuros was reduced to only 600z. However, thinking about the weapons and armor made from the Hermitaur's materials, Li Fan's mood immediately brightened.
Eight days later, in the afternoon, after twenty-two days, the team finally returned to Kara Village. The Daimyo Hermitaur's carcass was hoisted onto the shore, quickly attracting a crowd of villagers. Soon, the village chief Bazel, the head of the village merchant guild, and the blacksmith arrived to observe. While they had seen three-star monsters before, the Daimyo Hermitaur was an extremely rare existence in the region around Kara Village.
"I heard that there are black pearls the size of a head on the back of the Daimyo Hermitaur, meow," an Erupe cat with yellow spots said excitedly.
"Heh heh, if it were as big as Big Orange's head, I wouldn't have to work anymore, meow," a brown Erupe cat said with a smile.
"Joking about appearances is impolite, meow," the yellow-spotted Erupe cat said, its eyes blinking rapidly. The brown Erupe cat sensed something was wrong and slowly turned its head. Upon seeing Big Orange right behind it, it ran away as if for its life.
"It's so nostalgic, this scene of returning with a monster's carcass," Big Orange said lazily, rubbing its eyes.
"Hmm? The wound on this Hermitaur's back... it's strange," Yintie said with a puzzled expression.
"Although this single-horned skull has been cut in half, it's no problem to make four Jawblade Type 1s," the blacksmith was already planning the cutting and crafting.
"Who brought this Hermitaur back?" Bazel asked the captain on deck. He generally knew the whereabouts of the village's resident hunters. He didn't recall any team venturing out to hunt a Daimyo Hermitaur.
"Them." Looking in the direction the captain pointed, the team walking ashore from the pontoon came into view. Bazel blinked and exclaimed, "The growth speed of this team is truly beyond expectation."
The dismantling of the Daimyo Hermitaur's materials continued at the blacksmith's shop until late at night. The crab meat was bought by the cat barbecue stall and the merchant guild. The legendary giant black pearl was not found on this specimen. The materials such as the Hermitaur's shell, claws, and great bone were all acquired by the blacksmith after negotiation. The price was that the blacksmith would craft one Great Sword, one Longsword, one set of armor, and one set of Felyne armor using the Hermitaur's materials, free of charge. Based on Li Fan's understanding of weapon manufacturing, as long as the blacksmith cut the materials properly, they would definitely make a profit.
Returning to the forest cabin, construction workers were currently expanding the research institute. Bear Kuku was sent to the depths of the forest during the day and only returned nearby at night to guard. Only Tai Mei leaped out of the fence to greet them. Li Fan put down his heavy pack and was about to hug Tai Mei when he suddenly saw a plume of dust rising in the distance. A stout wild boar was galloping towards them. Li Fan's hand instinctively went to his back, reaching for the hilt of his sword, but he quickly realized something was wrong.
"It's Qingtian, meow!" Dilu said excitedly.
"This... this is Qingtian?" Li Fan asked in disbelief. Before he left, Qingtian seemed to be only up to his knees. In just over twenty days, how had it suddenly grown to above his waist?
"Yes, meow," Dilu said, dropping its pack and running over quickly. As it got closer, it leaped. *Splat!* Dilu was sent flying through the air by Qingtian.
"Uh... Qingtian has grown, meow. I can't jump up anymore..." Dilu said with emotion as it got up from the mud.
The day after resting, Li Fan and Eudora went to the Guild early.
"Thank you, the Hermitaur was delicious. What can I help you with?" Shireen asked cheerfully.
"Show me all the four-star quests," Li Fan said seriously.