As things turned out, just as Mother Chameleos had expected, not long after the Tempered Chameleos flew off, it found some mushrooms and bugs in the resource-rich forest. These had once counted as pretty decent food for it, but now, whenever it swallowed them, it could not help but think of the nutritious meals of Mother Chameleos and her child.
Whenever it thought of that lavish combination of ingredients, the casually foraged food in its mouth immediately tasted rather bland.
So it steeled itself, immediately turned around, skirted around the back mountain of Astera, and planned to slip into Astera to have a look. Since they could put together such meals, there ought to be quite a lot of supplies in storage, right?
However, after circling around once, it was blocked head-on halfway by the young Chameleos; it did not even manage to get as far as the stronghold's gateway.
Looking at this young-adult Chameleos that kept shifting its body color and resembled it eight-tenths over, if it had been any other time, it would definitely have given this clear-eyed little fellow a bit of a lesson.
However, the moment it thought of Mother Chameleos as she was now, and that paralyzing toxin it still could not figure out, the Tempered Chameleos very sensibly backed down, pulled the same trick again by turning away, and tried to sneak in from another direction.
At first, everything went smoothly, but then Mother Chameleos suddenly stuck her head out of the grass beside it and let out a croak.
As expected, the Tempered Chameleos once again turned into a paralyzed Chameleos and was forcibly kicked out of the stronghold's back gate by Mother Chameleos.
After three or four such attempts, the Tempered Chameleos finally understood this mother and child's resolve. In the end, once night fell, it dejectedly plunged into the forest and started wreaking havoc on the small creatures there.
...
Time passed; the years flew by.
In the blink of an eye, five years had gone by.
At Astera's meeting platform, all of the high-ranking members had, for once, all gathered today.
The Commander looked at the Wyverian hunter leaning against the railing and gazing into the distance, looked at the crystal-clear Radiant Crystal Butterfly perched on his Insect Glaive, then let his gaze sweep once around the room and opened the meeting.
There was not much on the agenda, but it was enough that everyone present had to treat it seriously.
First, the Elder Dragon for the next Elder Crossing had already been confirmed. It was the most unusual Elder Dragon to have been observed since the Hunter's Guild began monitoring Elder Crossings.
An enormous Elder Dragon that bears the epithet of the Moving Volcano and can even exist as a small-scale ecological environment all on its own—Zorah Magdaros!!
Unlike regular Elder Dragons such as Kushala Daora, according to ancient records, when faced with the migration of such a supermassive Elder Dragon, ninety percent of the time the only way humans can respond is to try to force it to change course, rather than drive it back!
An Elder Dragon that can cause terrifying disasters just by moving is, without a doubt, an even greater threat to humans.
However, the upside is that with a body this huge, it is absolutely impossible for it to vanish without a trace deep in the New World like the Elder Dragons of past Elder Crossings, making it hard for the Research Commission to keep tracking it.
This also means that this will be the best opportunity for the Research Commission to uncover the secret of the Elder Crossing.
Thus, after multiple discussions among the upper echelons of the Hunter's Guild, they decided to join forces with the Wycademy and form an all-hunter combat fleet—the Fifth Fleet. Within it, the absolute elites jointly recognized by the Dundorma Hunter's Guild, the Kingdom, and the Wycademy—the hunters and compilers named the Recommendation Group—would lead this combat fleet.
It could be said that this was the largest and most powerful reinforcement of manpower to date.
From this, it could be seen just how much resolve the Hunter's Guild had regarding the secret of this Elder Crossing!
After this order was handed down, the one with the biggest headache was the Fourth Fleet's Fleet Master, who was currently serving as Provisions Manager.
For the Astera of today, an all-hunter Fifth Fleet would undoubtedly create an enormous logistical burden.
After years of hard work from the Fourth Fleet, they had finally paid off Ahtal-Ka's debt over at the Ancient Ruins Basin. As for the Ancient Tree's side, although there was still some deficit, it no longer formed too great a burden.
They had been grinding away for so many years, running the Fourth Fleet on a work mode where the women were used as men, the men were used as machines, and the machines worked without rest all year round. Things had finally started to ease up, and they could relax a little.
But now...
The Commander looked at the frowning Fourth Fleet Master. He opened his mouth, but reason made him swallow back down the words stuck in his throat.
Forget it, we'll just have to let the Fourth Fleet suffer a bit more.
There was no helping it. The people of the First Fleet were either old or injured; the vast majority had either died somewhere in the New World or already retired due to their injuries and returned to the Old World on the liaison ships. Of those who remained, apart from the Admiral, the Huntsman, and the Wyverian hunter who were still active on the front lines, the others could only make decisions, work on designs, and so on.
As for the Second Fleet, because of the research base of Blazefire Village over in the Ancient Tree area, their manpower had been split into two parts, each responsible for the forging and mechanical maintenance work at one of the two locations, leaving them likewise severely understaffed.
The Third Fleet… forget it, not much to say—they were all scholars. As long as they did not drag down the logistics, that was already good enough; nothing more could reasonably be expected of them.
And so, only the Fourth Fleet remained!
Their people were all in their prime, all of them logistics experts—excellent workhorses. They would just have to suffer a bit more.
"I understand. Leave the logistics to us."
Seeing the Commander open his mouth several times without speaking, the Fourth Fleet Master accepted her fate.
With a pa sound, she closed the heavy notebook in her hands that recorded various logistical data, rubbed her slightly aching temples, and began thinking about how she should explain this to the members of the Fourth Fleet.
Seeing that there were no further objections, the Commander raised the second matter.
"Regarding the decision for the Mobile Research Base to cross the Great Ravine and advance deep into the New World!"
At these words, the Third Fleet Master, who had been shrinking her neck to fend off the cold wind, immediately perked up.
She had been submitting this request ever since the Mobile Research Base was completed. She had even dragged along the Field Master, who had been focusing on surveying the Great Ravine over the past few years.
But afterward, the incident with the Qurio occurred, and the Commander kept using unclear circumstances and the incomplete cleanup of the Qurio as excuses, never approving the request.
Until yesterday, when the Commander finally relented.
This matter had already been circulating within the Research Commission for quite some time. The main issue was a shortage of hunters—an entire scholar team from the Third Fleet crossing the Great Ravine would definitely require a certain number of hunters for protection, which was indeed a difficult task for a Commission lacking manpower.
But now, thanks to the Radiant Crystal Butterflies, more than a dozen unique Kinsect-using Palicoes had appeared among the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes of the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern Tribe over in the Ancient Tree area. After several rounds of negotiations, most of them registered as Palicoes in Astera, enjoying hunter treatment and easing the shortage of hunters.
Only because of this did the Commander finally give his approval.
Once this resolution was proposed, all high-ranking members except the Analytics Director agreed.
Seeing that these siblings were about to start arguing on the meeting platform again, the Admiral—who had not spoken a single word the entire time—decisively spoke up and settled the matter.
"I understand."
If it had been the Commander speaking, the Analytics Director might still not have compromised.
But there was nothing he could do about the Admiral.
Even though the Commander currently handled all matters big and small within the stronghold, in terms of prestige, the Admiral was still the true highest authority in Astera.
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