The peculiar "tempered" state of the New World was strange. One might say the gap was not so high, yet compared to their base species, tempered individuals held statistical advantages across the board, completely suppressing their original forms.
Even so, calling it "high" wasn't quite right. Unlike other special enhancements, the tempered state did not grant a monster outright greater combat power to climb a higher ecological niche.
This was why, even with the combined advantage of being tempered and having advanced over 40% in her transformation, Aki was still slightly weaker than the tempered Azure Rathalos—at least when elemental affinity was not taken into account.
The sun gradually sank, and night began to fall.
Under the moonlight, the figures of Logan and Aki appeared.
The patrolling cats had long since withdrawn from the nest, leaving their Fire Wyvern boss a more private space.
After more than a month apart, the young pair surely had many private matters to attend to—this, the cats understood perfectly.
That was also why, even though Logan had returned, the leader of the Fire Wyverns Grimalkyne had not come to disturb him with reports of what had happened in the Ancient Tree, or about the cats' latest developments.
It was a matter of tact—knowing better than to intrude upon the reunion of the two mates.
The moonlight was beautiful, and under it Aki's form looked even more radiant.
Her brilliant green-gold scales shimmered and gleamed in the silver glow.
Logan lowered his head.
No words were needed—in each other's eyes, they already understood everything that needed to be said.
Logan spread his wings and struck first. Catching Aki off guard, he forcefully pressed her down beneath him.
Aki's pupils widened slightly in disbelief.
Yet rather than retreat, it awakened the wildness buried deep inside her.
She fought back with all her strength, lifting her head to clamp down on Logan's neck, biting hard in retaliation as she tried to seize back the initiative in this battle.
Amid the grinding of scales and teeth, Logan too felt the sharp sting. His attacks no longer held back—he unleashed himself completely.
There was not the slightest trace of mercy simply because the other was a mate.
The two Fire Wyverns, their beastly instincts fully unleashed, were utterly absorbed in their own world, their energy spilling out uncontrollably.
As the fire element energy poured forth, the temperature within the nest began to rise, the confined space turning stiflingly hot!
Chameleos, half-asleep, cracked open its eyes in a daze. Even with its usually carefree nature and the deepest of slumbers, the commotion of their clash had forcibly woken it.
A moment later, its gaze followed the sound, tracking into the heart of the nest.
At once, the Elder Dragon was fully awake.
"Wait—no way! I'm still here, gwaa!"
Chameleos stared in disbelief, roused to witness such an intense scene.
It wasn't that it thought there was anything wrong with Logan and Aki.
As a dragon that had already laid two broods of eggs in its lifetime, Chameleos could understand.
But the noise made it impossible to fall back asleep.
It could only stare helplessly at Logan and Aki.
What Chameleos did not realize, however, was that sometimes monsters were not the same!
What's more, Logan and Aki had only just broken through that barrier in their relationship this year. After being apart for so long, how could it possibly be anything but a clash?
And so, on this restless night, Chameleos's expression shifted—from calm, to shock, and finally to utter incomprehension.
In the end, it could only press its forelimbs against its ears and turn its back on Logan and Aki.
By the next morning, Chameleos stood at the mouth of the nest, watching the sunrise spill across the horizon. With lingering dread, it shook its head.
It hadn't slept a wink the entire night!
The Chameleos could not make sense of what had happened last night. In its view, there was nothing wrong with the act of reproduction itself—but that many times in a single night?
Stopping and starting, again and again… wasn't that exhausting?
Back when it and its mate had been together, they would grudgingly fight once every several days at most.
Across decades, they had only ever laid two clutches of eggs in total—and even that counted as high efficiency among Elder Dragons.
Especially since the last time it had successfully conceived, its mate had been so overjoyed that he rushed overnight back to a small newly formed ecosystem on an island beside the New World, continuing to fill the necessary roles there. Who knew how many decades it would be before the next breeding season came around?
It was precisely this difference in outlook that left the Chameleos unable to understand Logan and Aki's behavior. Its weak sense of kinship and family bonds made fighting for reproduction something it regarded as reluctant at best—something dispensable.
Among Elder Dragons, except for the normal reproductive modes requiring male and female mating, and a few rare exceptions like the Wind Serpent Ibushi and the Thunder Serpent Narwa, the process of bearing offspring was extraordinarily troublesome.
Even before the pregnancy stage, the male had to inject both his seed and his life energy into the female through 'combat'.
During pregnancy, the female needed to constantly stir her own life energy to harmonize it with the energy previously infused by her mate, then channel it into the embryo.
Through all this, she had to carefully regulate the output of life energy, ensuring there were no violent fluctuations. Too much energy could damage the fragile, developing embryo within.
During this entire period, whether male or female, both remained in a state of extreme mental tension.
The Chameleos was fortunate. Once the eggs were laid successfully, the process was essentially complete. After that, the female Chameleos only needed to wait until the eggshells were hardened enough, then bury them all in the soil, covering them with leaves, rotting plants, and other such things. After that, she could walk away, carefree.
Even so, out of a clutch, only one or two offspring might successfully hatch.
But for a pair like the Flame Dragons, things were far more difficult. Their eggs required precise conditions—temperature, and a strong concentration of life energy in the environment.
This forced Flame Dragons couples to reproduce only in ley lines rich in life energy, in volcanic or magma regions.
And after the eggs were laid, they needed constant, meticulous care, lest a volcanic eruption or tremor accidentally send them tumbling into lava.
The Chameleos cast a lingering, uneasy glance at the sleeping Logan and Aki in the nest. It was convinced—staying here to rest last night had been an enormous mistake!
It would have been far better to find some random hidden corner in the lower levels of the Ancient Tree and rest there for a night, rather than endure this torment.
"No, I have to go, gwaa!"
Remembering how, even at dawn today, Logan and Aki had still looked unsatisfied, the Chameleos shuddered all over. With a beat of its wings, it swiftly departed from the Ancient Tree, flying westward.
The main thing was that their battle last night had reminded the Chameleos of something—
It still had a clutch of eggs that had yet to hatch.
It had been nearly three years. The rotting plants piled atop the eggs had surely had all their nutrients drained away, and the nest it had built for its future offspring might already be unusable.
The Chameleos, with a rare flicker of motherly instinct, decided to return and take a look. If the hatchlings had already emerged, it would simply leave. If they had not yet hatched, it would pile on some fresh plants, tidy the nest, and then depart.
Yes—it did possess a trace of maternal love, though only a little.
Noon.
Dragging his sore, weary body out of the nest, Logan gazed at the Fire Wyverns that occasionally flew past the Ancient Tree. Listening to the report from the leader of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes, he gained some understanding of how things had developed in the Ancient Tree during his absence.
Overall, nothing major had gone wrong. The strength of the Fire Wyvern group in the Ancient Tree continued to rise steadily. Thanks to their growing skill in small-group hunting, the monsters dwelling in the deeper regions of the Ancient Tree had already adapted to the new way the Fire Wyverns now lived.
The Fire Wyverns still obeyed Logan's orders. Every day they patrolled the northern regions of the Ancient Tree, and upon their return, they would eat the Fire Wyvern Felyne meals made with Nulberry, a formula developed by Egg Roll, to help prevent possible infection by the Frenzy Virus.
No negative situations had arisen during Logan's prolonged absence.
According to the Grimalkyne leader, it seemed that the powerful tempered Fire Wyverns could faintly sense the vital signs of their leader, Logan—able to perceive, in a general way, whether he was alive.
It was precisely because of this peculiar connection that the tempered Fire Wyverns had taken it upon themselves to restrain and organize the rest of the group, maintaining the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern pack's remarkable cohesion.
In addition, the pair of Azure and Pink Fire Wyverns that had gone to the Research Base to be treated for Frenzy Virus had still not returned. But according to the Felynes traveling back and forth between the two places, the Research Commission seemed to have achieved a certain breakthrough in studying the Frenzy Virus. Based on Nulberry and several other substances, combined with the mysterious alchemy of the Wyverians, they had managed to produce some theoretically viable medicines.
At present, the Pink Rathian was serving as a test subject, undergoing trials with those new medicines.
Aside from the Azure Rathalos, who sometimes grew irritable from being confined in a place with so few of its kind, their relationship with the Research Commission overall had been quite good.
And then came the new achievement of the cats.
At this point, the leader of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes looked especially pleased.
"Meow! By using the cultivation methods given to us by the Research Commission, we planted various herbs and plants on the Ancient Tree itself, meow. With fertilizer, we quickly built up a huge stockpile. After continuous trade with them during this time, we finally reached a new agreement, meow!"
Saying this, the Grimalkyne leader pointed to the top of the cliff beside the Ancient Tree.
"We're going to build a great big windmill there! By harnessing the powerful winds at the cliff's height, we'll improve our transport channels in the tree, meow! At that time, we Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes will be able to fully serve all the Fire Wyvern lords, meow!"
"Not only that, meow, but we'll also be able to transport water from the lower levels of the Ancient Tree upward, so that every Fire Wyvern lord can have a reservoir of their own, meow!"
Watching the Grimalkyne leader, whose body had once been somewhat stooped, unconsciously straighten as he spoke, Logan saw a light flash again and again in those aged pupils—a light filled with longing for the future!
Perhaps even the Grimalkyne leader himself had never imagined that the choice he once made—to submit for the sake of his tribe's survival, even preparing to serve as emergency food if needed—would lead to their clan developing to this scale.
Now, the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes were also among the rightful masters of the Ancient Tree!
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