Island nest,
A sneaky coquetz peeks out at the entrance to its nest. Although it has the aura of an ancient dragon, the egg-stealing coquetz is not intimidated by it. It carefully makes its way through the winding cavern and enters the inner hall. The sun shines through the huge opening at the top, illuminating a pile of junk metal and a huge stone oven decorated with cat ears.The bird sniffed everywhere and keenly found a fence made of wooden planks and debris, where there were a dozen eggs of herbivorous dragons. The bird was satisfied and grabbed an egg and quickly knocked out a small hole with its beak shell and pecked at it. On top of its head, a monster nearly 30 meters long with a long crystalline gun tail approached silently. Then open the wings and glide down, until this time, the SAO bird found something wrong, quickly drop the dragon egg to run.
"Bang! Huihui pressed the bird to the ground with her front PAWS, a creature that looked a lot like a land bird, so she had a special idea about its muscular thighs, well, I mean in the sense of food. "Poof!" The spear like tail tip of the crystal pierced the bird's neck, quickly cut its main artery, the stink dragon's blood into the corner of the cave in a canal, soon filled with a canal of dark red blood.
Skilled with the wing-tip jet ignited the fire, the thick ichthyosaurus oil slowly melted into transparent and hot oil juice in the stone tank, gradually bubbling up fine bubbles, and here the bird's two long legs have been cut off by the wing knife, wrapped in a layer of tuna meat crumbs and rock skin dried fruit egg, "hiss ~" the rich smell of fried meat permeates the cave, Frying is a new way of cooking at Huihui Institute, although there is no substitute for toad legs here, but I feel that the long legs of the SAO bird should be very tasty.
When the dragon legs turned a bright golden yellow, Huihui took them out and placed them on the stone platform used for grilling. She then prepared a serving of "Fat Dragon Happy Water" and a portion of "Fried Fish Meatballs," and stuffed them all into a wooden barrel. Based on her memory of similar food names, she named them "Fat Dragon Family Bucket." After preparing nearly four barrels, Huihui strung them together with a vine and hung them on her back, resembling an intertwined ammunition chain, or rather, a food supply bag.
After restoring the trap at the cave entrance, Huihui climbed out from the top of the cave. Her amber eyes gazed upon the desolate land across the sea as she spread her wings. A surge of azure flames erupted. Wrapped in vines around her legs, or rather her hind claws, were two rusty iron spears, while her forelimbs held an iron anchor. The added weight made her run for a while before she could take off. In contrast to her sluggishness on the ground, she was unexpectedly agile and swift in the sky.
"A-Qiu!" Bai Feng sneezed, which was rare for a robust hunter. "Aibo! You don't seem quite right." "Maybe I'm just too tired lately," the young huntress said with a wry smile while holding the Dragon Hunting Bow II (RANK7 Azure Comet Material, Attack 160, Blast 140, Critical 15, Poison, Blast Coating, Power Coating, Impact Coating). "It has indeed been... quite busy." Although they had driven away the female elder dragon, that didn't mean the male dragons would instantly return to their original spot.
They also needed to feed and store fuel for their return journey, which inevitably led to conflicts with the local overlords. It's important to note that these frustrated male dragons were in an extremely aggressive state, resulting in chaos where almost all areas were filled with rampaging monsters. Hunters were overwhelmed with the situation, forcing them to temporarily halt their scheduled investigation tasks at the Coral Plateau.
"Team Leader of the Fifth Division, you should take a day off. The last Tianhui Dragon just left, so this is a good opportunity to rest for a while. Everyone has been pushing through tough times, and I've noticed that," the Commander said. Indeed, compared to the hunters in the game who could run with heavy weapons weighing dozens or even hundreds of kilograms and only needed to catch their breath to recuperate, real-world hunters could get tired. (In reality, stamina does decrease in the game, but... just eating some rations instantly restores it...) It's not as simple as eating grilled meat and suddenly feeling revitalized.
"Recently, the Fourth Division has repaired a ship, and some new hunters have arrived. Although their equipment and skills aren't on par with the elite of the Fifth Division, they can still handle some investigation tasks." These new hunters are theoretically part of the Fifth Division's roster, but in reality, they are quite inexperienced compared to Bai Feng and her team. However, they are seasoned hunters, as pure novices would not be sent to the New World to get themselves killed—they are still engaged in battles with Wild Boar Kings and Velociprey. As for Velociprey... Huihui thinks their thighs taste really good when roasted.
Meanwhile, on the wasteland, a non-hunter hunter was on the prowl. "May the Moon Goddess Meinfeni bless me~" The catgirl, with her pale white hair tangled into a messy bunch, clasped her hands together in silent prayer. Then, she picked up the broken blade beside her and stood up. As a natural hunter, the Moon Cat (Moon Guardian Catgirl) was no stranger to hunting, but... "Flash: Snow, Moon, Flower!" The blade glimmered like a flash, transforming into countless slashes that descended like a blizzard. These slashes intertwined to form a five-petaled flower of blades, ultimately converging into a crescent moon arc strike. This secret-level drawing technique landed on the herbivorous dragon that was quietly munching on thorny plants…
"..." The herbivorous dragon lifted its head, turning to look at the catgirl in confusion. It had a deep gash on its back shell, which would be nearly fatal if it had appeared on a human. However, for the thick-skinned herbivorous dragon, it took about half a minute to even register the pain, making the resulting injury seem rather comical. "...It's still no good..."
The katana used for slashing and the tachi used by hunters to slay dragons are not weapons of the same category. To be precise, while the sharpness and durability of the blade as well as the catgirl's skills are top-notch, the weapon is simply too short and narrow. The herbivorous dragon's skin is astonishingly thick, and there aren't many ether particles around to allow her to unleash a light arc blade. It's important to note that hunters who wield slicing axes need to charge for a while to generate a cutting effect.
Sensing the pain, the herbivorous dragon's instincts kicked in, causing it to bolt. Speed and its hard skull were its survival skills. However, it had barely run fifty meters when a loud explosion echoed in the sky. "Roar~" The herbivorous dragon collapsed, an iron spear nearly turning its organs into mush. Huihui descended, perched atop a large rock, and tilted her head to look at the catgirl.
"I..." The catgirl glanced at her katana, which had broken to a length just short of her ribcage and could not be repaired. She then looked at the azure dragon, whose scales were nearly two centimeters thick, and realized that such a creature wasn't one her weapon could penetrate. "Roar~" Huihui let out a slightly draconic shriek, slicing a large chunk of rib meat from the herbivorous dragon's body before taking flight, leaving nearly two tons of fresh meat on the ground.
"Phew~ I'm saved!" The catgirl breathed a sigh of relief, then cut a large piece of dragon meat from the carcass, preparing to find a place to start a fire and roast it.
This cursed place is filled with strange and bizarre creatures, devoid of towns or roads, a complete wilderness. There are also some terrifyingly large beasts, like the massive flying dragon with gigantic horns that shattered her blade, and the green fire dragon that chased her for nearly an entire day. Not to mention the seemingly harmless paralysis frogs that ended up leaving her paralyzed for an entire afternoon, almost turning her into another animal's meal. It's truly a land fraught with danger!
The catgirl was rather accepting of the fact that she hadn't been eaten by a dragon. After all, she weighed less than fifty kilograms in total, even while donning armor. What animal would be interested in a prey that was hard enough to break their teeth on and had barely any meat, just a bunch of tiny bones? (Huihui raises her paw: "I would! Drizzle some oil over it, deep-fry the bones until they're crispy, and it tastes just like crunchy cookies—this is why the guiding rabbit group went extinct.") "What on earth is this place?!"
After circling over the wasteland for several weeks, Huihui finally spotted a group of active hunters. They consisted of a tachi user, a slicing axe wielder, and two crossbowmen. It seemed they were hunting a male fire dragon that had broken free from the ancient forest due to a monster riot. One was setting up paralysis traps, while the other was using large chunks of tuna as bait. The remaining two crossbow hunters were lying in ambush. To prevent the fire dragon from using its agility to toy with them, they needed to strike its wings immediately to eliminate its ability to fly over long distances.
"Did you hear something?"
"Sound? No."
"I feel like there's some strange noise in the sky." The hunter setting the trap looked up at the sky, seeming to see nothing unusual. It must be said that Huihui, with her high reflective dark blue pattern, almost blended in with the sky thanks to her natural camouflage, especially given her significant altitude. There was little hope that the hunters' eyesight would allow them to spot her.
Given that she was carrying supplies and the spoils from her recent hunt, Huihui obviously couldn't perform a supersonic dive attack. However, she had more than one means of attack at her disposal. After holding onto the iron anchor for a while, which had become quite tiring, Huihui let go. The anchor accelerated downward under the influence of gravity, accompanied by a terrifying screeching sound. "Get out of the way!" "Boom!" The enormous impact startled the male fire dragon, which was still casually searching for food, and it quickly recognized the hunter group almost right in front of it. "This is bad…"
Now they had spotted Huihui, who was diving at a relatively low speed, along with the fierce and enraged male fire dragon. They were caught between the two dragons... "Bang!" The lead tachi hunter seized one of his companions, pulling out a smoke bomb from his backpack and smashing it to the ground. The swirling smoke concealed their figures, allowing them to retreat from the battlefield in time (using a homeward jade). However, the crossbow hunter who was standing too far away had no choice but to pull out a cloaking cloak and gamble with fate...
In the end, the four of them were sent back to camp by the cat carriage. The three who had escaped with the smoke bomb had just reached the camp entrance when they were suddenly blasted by a jet of flames. Luckily, it was far enough away that they were only blown off and crashed against a rock pillar. The abandoned crossbow hunter, using the cloak, managed to evade the male fire dragon's attack but couldn't escape Huihui's strike. A tail spear came crashing down, rendering him unconscious on impact, his abdomen nearly obliterated by the vicious crystalline tail spear. Thanks to the desperate efforts of his ally, the Ailurocat, they managed to drag him back to camp with the help of the smoke bomb.
The three new hunters looked at their unconscious companion, exchanging worried glances. They were also heavily injured, and even though they had used healing potions, they knew they couldn't continue hunting. The terrifying azure dragon was still circling above the camp. If it weren't for the fact that the camp was set up inside a cave—so narrow that the hunters had to crouch to move forward—they would have been flattened along with the camp. However, this didn't mean they could return to the base riding on a pterosaur.
They held out in the camp until deep into the night, only calling for a pterosaur to transport themselves and their injured companion back to the base after the azure dragon had left. The hunters learned again that the azure dragon, which had not attacked them before, was now a hostile target. However, they had no means to fight it and could only passively choose to defend and drive it away. After all, Huihui was simply seeking revenge and had no intention of fighting to the death. There was still plenty of time, and the world was vast—if one attempt failed, they could always wait for the next.
"So, does that mean we need to build larger airships to truly drive it away?"
"But we don't have suitable materials for those kinds of airships right now." Although the hunter guild had previously constructed high-speed airships capable of reaching the stratosphere to investigate the ecology of the Sky Dragon, that didn't mean that the hunters in the New World could complete such a massive project with scraps. Moreover, the airship used by the Sky Dragon had been shot down, and many technologies had been lost for various reasons. Only recently had a small portion of them been restored, which is why they were able to discover that the Celestial Dragon, once thought to be extinct, was still alive.
The main food source for the Celestial Dragon consists of large fish and ichthyosaurs. In the past, when maritime and aviation technology were underdeveloped, there were almost no sightings of these creatures by the hunter guild. It's important to note that the real world is not as small as it appears in games. Both the hunter guild and the inhabitants of the two kingdoms, along with their villages, were not densely packed. Therefore, spotting the Celestial Dragon's hunts while traversing the vast ocean was nearly impossible purely by luck—let alone the fact that the hunter guild had no long-range ship technology at that time, making it impossible even to enter the Celestial Dragon's hunting territory.
"We need to find a way to contact the Third Expedition Team. They haven't sent any information back from their investigation in the center of the island for quite some time."
"The Third Expedition Team's airship, right? Indeed, if they were attacked by the azure dragon..." In reality, at that moment, the Third Expedition Team had already been taken down by the Wind Drifting Dragon and was stuck in the coral terrace, unable to move.