"What the hell? This is still my country? Where the hell did they dump me this time?!"
Staring at the lush jungle in front of him and sniffing the scent in the air in confusion, the eight-meter-long Odogaron had an almost human look of bewilderment on its face.
Don't tell me I got isekai'd again.
Taryn, in his Odogaron form, couldn't help baring his teeth in frustration. He was seriously out of options.
If that really was the case, then this should be Taryn's second time crossing over.
There was nothing much to say about his first life on Earth. He had been pulling an all-nighter playing Monster Hunter Wilds co-op and getting tortured half to death by the game's dogshit optimization. Then, right after another crash to desktop, Taryn finally snapped.
He had been about to queue up for a round of Teamfight Tactics to clear his head, but after one dizzy spell and a blink, he woke up in the Rotten Vale from the Monster Hunter world, with a system that gave him the ability to transform into an Odogaron.
The system was called the Hunting Evolution System. By hunting continuously, he could earn huge amounts of evolution points, then use them to draw power and abilities from the Monster Hunter setting until he eventually became the Lord of All Dragons.
After enduring endless hardship, Taryn finally relied on his extraordinary perseverance, unmatched willpower, world-shaking intelligence, unbreakable spirit, and his tiny, totally insignificant system cheat to do one thing in the Rotten Vale:
Run like hell.
He couldn't help it. Having a system sounded awesome on paper. It made it seem like survival should get way easier. But the Rotten Vale was a hellhole no human being was meant to live in.
Located directly beneath the Coral Highlands, the Rotten Vale sounded pretty pleasant at first glance, with its year-round temperature of twenty-two degrees Celsius. But because of the Coral Highlands above it, there was almost no natural rainfall at all. The only water came from seepage through the rock layers.
The entire Rotten Vale was divided into upper, middle, and lower layers. Only the upper layer could see the faint yellow-brown sunlight filtering weakly through the effluvium. The middle and lower layers relied entirely on acid pools and the glow of plants and animals for light.
The humidity stayed above ninety-five percent all year long, but all that moisture came from rotting corpses. The only reason Taryn had survived there at all was because he could turn into an Odogaron[1]. A normal human would have dropped dead in less than a week.
Although the beginner package had given him the complete Odogaron ecology package, complete with the Rotten Vale tough-guy reputation that species had, it had started from the juvenile stage. Back then, he had been under three meters long.
And with no real combat experience, he had even gotten beaten around like a son by a Great Girros.
Thankfully, Taryn could switch back and forth between human and wyvern forms. That was how, once the Hunter's Guild launched its research into the New World, he managed to escape that living hell and spend a long stretch of time at Astera under a human identity. He had even hunted a mid-tier monster on his own, something roughly on the level of a Great Jagras.
With that solo hunting record under his belt, the Guild eventually sent Taryn back to the Rotten Vale for an investigation. This was back when only the Second Fleet had arrived, before the Sapphire Star's legend had even begun to take shape.
Not long after arriving in the Rotten Vale, Taryn found traces of a Great Girros.
Thrilled at the sight of prey, he immediately transformed into an Odogaron, ready to put on a perfect little performance of "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, don't bully a young dragon because he's poor."
And then the sky went dark.
The legendary elder dragon known as the Ancestor descended.
Without a word, it raised a hand and hurled an Eclipse Black Hole at him.
Fuck you, Mira[2].
It was the "legend among legends" of the Monster Hunter world, a being said to bring eclipse wherever it appeared, taking all life equally beneath scarlet lightning.
It was called the First Ancestor, the White King, the progenitor of all dragons, an entity that appeared alongside eclipses, the Fatalis. And Mira was simply short for its scientific name.
What was Taryn supposed to say? He had barely made it out of the tutorial zone and already run into something like that.
It was like learning boxing for two days, only for Mike Tyson to walk up grinning and say, "I'm the referee. Your opponent is Goku."
What the hell was there to fight?
You win, all right?
And when he opened his eyes again, what he saw was the lush primeval jungle now spread before him.
The environmental difference was so huge that Taryn had no idea where he was.
Thinking that, he quickly opened his system panel.
Name: Taryn
Weapon: Odogaron Battle Axe
Rarity: Lv. 5
Description: A pair of bone dual blades made from Odogaron materials. The twin blades, hungry for prey, gleamed with a frenzied and sinister beauty.
Armor: Odogaron Set
Rarity: Lv. 6
Equipment Effects:
[Odogaron's Secret - 5]: Strengthens the stunning power of draw attacks, slightly increases attack power, and after sharpening, keeps the weapon's sharpness from dropping for a period of time.
[Bleeding Resistance - 3]: Your wounds are less likely to tear open and bleed.
[Critical Eye - 5]: Makes it easier to spot an enemy's weak points.
[Speed Sharpening - 3]: Reduces the time required to sharpen a weapon.
[Constitution - 1]: Lowers stamina consumption for actions with fixed stamina costs, such as evasion.
[Quick Sheathe - 1]: Increases the speed at which you put away your weapon.
Decorations:
[Recovery Jewel - 3]: Wounds recover at four times the normal speed.
[Vitality Jewel - 2]: Grants a moderate increase in extra vitality.
[Speed Eating Jewel - 3]: Greatly increases eating efficiency.
Learned Traits:
[Odogaron Ecology]: Initial trait. Lets him fight and train using the Odogaron ecological template.
[Great Jagras Intimidation]: Increases intimidation toward lesser lifeforms.
So even though he had crossed into another world again, at least he hadn't lost any of his gear or traits.
That thought made Taryn breathe a small sigh of relief.
As for why a hunter capable of soloing mid-tier monsters had a full set of Odogaron gear, something many High Rank hunters and even some Master Rank hunters might never get their hands on, despite Odogaron being a regional apex...
Well, obviously. Taryn could turn into an Odogaron himself. All he had to do was secretly transform when nobody was around and strip materials off his own body.
Unfortunately, even if he had plenty of materials, the quality still wasn't up to standard. An adult Odogaron was about thirteen meters long. Taryn, at eight meters, was only in the adolescent stage.
At this age, the materials he harvested from himself could only make a weapon up to Level 5 quality. The armor could reach Level 6, but only because he had such a large supply of materials.
Thinking of that, Taryn felt a little regretful. If he had known he was going to get thrown somewhere else, he would have forged a lot more equipment first.
He had learned a thing or two at the Guild base about how gear was processed, but honestly speaking, he had zero hands-on experience himself.
And just as he was still thinking that over, he suddenly sensed something.
Taryn immediately turned a pair of scarlet vertical pupils toward the shadows at one side of the jungle.
Even though his human form was physically reliable too, when it came to real combat, Taryn still preferred the fully unleashed Odogaron form.
Odogaron's native eyesight was fairly limited because of the Rotten Vale environment.
But the enhancements from his human ecology meant his Odogaron form no longer had to worry about those visual shortcomings. Instead, he could continue enjoying its exceptional dynamic vision.
And beneath that powerful eyesight, Taryn quickly made out what was charging toward him.
A pack of wolves.
They were robust black wolves, their bodies covered in dark gray fur, each one about the size of a calf.
And the leader, which was much larger than the others, had two heads.
At the sight, Taryn felt no fear.
He felt hungry.
Odogaron was a monster born entirely for battle. Before the Iceborne expansion came out, it had always been the top dog among the Fanged Wyverns in Monster Hunter: World.
Forget ordinary apex predators from other regions. Even when facing elder dragons, incarnations of natural disaster, it still dared to pounce up and stomp on their backs just to test itself against them.
And to fuel a body whose veins seemed practically filled with biological stimulants, Odogaron's daily energy expenditure and metabolism far exceeded that of ordinary monsters. Aside from the breeding season during heat, its life was almost an endless cycle of fighting, hunting, and resting.
He had maintained this transformed state since arriving in the Rotten Vale, and now that he had come to this new land, Taryn had remained transformed out of sheer caution, constantly using Odogaron's powerful senses to track every shift in the surrounding environment.
And now that he had found a pack of harmless wild wolves, the hunger in his belly surged again.
Without another word, Taryn sprang forward. His huge body erupted with terrifying destructive force, turning in an instant into a crimson blur that ripped through the air.
The lead black wolf was still fleeing in panic when, before it could even react, it suddenly felt itself lifted off the ground. With a choked whine, it had its neck snapped cleanly by Taryn's jaws.
One wolf's blood wasn't nearly enough to fill him up.
So while biting down, Taryn's claws and tail never stopped moving.
Odogaron's signature folded composite claws slashed out through the air, ripping open the bellies of two giant wolves, one on each side.
Their stinking organs spilled onto the ground, and in the same motion, Taryn twisted his body and whipped his thick tail through the pack, smashing several wolves to death along with a sapling as thick as a bowl.
Once the rest of the pack noticed Taryn's presence, they let out panicked howls, only to circle around him and flee in terror.
That made Taryn blink in surprise.
Trait: [Great Jagras Intimidation].
Thanks to that trait, his killing intent and bloodshed could heavily terrify lesser creatures beneath him on the food chain.
But in Taryn's experience, that kind of intimidation usually made prey freeze in place, too terrified to move, afraid of drawing his attention. Unless he attacked first, they almost never ran.
But now he had only hunted a few wolves, and the rest had already bolted?
Which meant they had probably been chased here too. Hunted.
Even while that thought ran through his mind, Taryn never paused. He immediately lowered his head and tore into the carcasses, chewing greedily.
As the slightly sweet, bloody liquid slid into his stomach, his hunger gradually faded, replaced by a deep sense of comfort spreading through his body.
Back when he was in human form, Taryn had never been able to stomach eating raw meat and drinking blood. But after turning into an Odogaron, his senses had changed as well, allowing him to taste flavors humans could never appreciate.
At the very least, the bloody taste that humans found unbearable was no longer some revolting stench to dragonized Taryn. It had become a unique delicacy.
These days, he didn't even blanch meat before stewing it.
And all for one reason.
That pure, authentic blood flavor.
The Rotten Vale was a brutal environment. Fresh corpses attracted other predators very easily, which was exactly why Odogaron's eating speed and digestion speed were both so fast.
Combined with the bonus from [Speed Eating Jewel - 3], it only took a few minutes for Taryn to clearly feel his stamina recover to about seventy or eighty percent.
There was a limit to how many decoration jewels could be slotted in, with a maximum of five different sets. And swapping any jewel out came with roughly a one-day cooldown.
Before now, compared to offensive ability, Taryn had very obviously favored survival-oriented jewels.
Especially Speed Eating. The ability to eat fast and recover fast, combined with Odogaron's already absurd nutrient absorption, let Taryn sustain high-intensity continuous combat in just about any harsh environment.
And right around the time his physical strength had mostly recovered, a string of rustling sounds came from the distant bushes.
Right. The thing that had scared the wolves into fleeing had arrived.
Following Taryn's gaze, a group of large jungle cats burst into view. There were around a dozen of them, each roughly four meters long on average, with stone-like armored plating covering their faces.
The leader was much larger than the others, at least six meters long with the tail included. Several-meter-long blue-green whiskers extended from the corners of her eyes, and similar markings spread across her body like patterns. Metallic stone armor plated her limbs and lower jaw.
After spotting Taryn, the jungle cats also came to a stop about ten meters away, staring at him with tense, heavy caution. Their feral eyes were full of wariness and hostility.
And when they noticed that the prey under Taryn's claws belonged to them, their eyes immediately turned vicious.
These feline beasts clearly possessed a fair amount of hunting intelligence. Even after realizing Taryn had taken their prey, they didn't launch a direct attack right away. Instead, they cautiously spread into a semicircle, preparing to surround him.
Especially that giant six-meter female leopard. Taryn could even sense a trace of humanlike tension and solemnity in her eyes.
And in truth, that was exactly how it was.
Nidalee remembered clearly every dangerous and troublesome beast in the nearby hunting grounds.
Right now, this pack of wolves from the neighboring territory had invaded her land. Following the law of the wilds, she had led her own beasts into battle against them and used force to show those wolves exactly who ruled this stretch of wilderness.
She had already been on the verge of victory. They were moments away from feasting.
And now this freak had shown up out of nowhere.
As she stared at Taryn's massive, hideous frame, at the dark-red musculature that looked almost skinned alive, and at the jagged, mottled keratinous spikes clinging to that flesh...
Even without sensing any elemental aura from him, just the sheer size of his body and those scimitar-like claws...
Nidalee could feel her heart pounding uncontrollably, a chill born of pure animal instinct racing up her spine.
That thing was built purely for battle. Its dark-red hide looked like dried blood scabs, reflecting a cold, brutal sheen beneath the fractured jungle light.
Its long, thick tail swung behind it. Nearby, a sapling as thick as a bowl had clearly just been snapped apart by it. And those claws were natural weapons. Just looking at them was enough to imagine the savagery with which they could tear flesh apart.
But Nidalee knew she could not retreat. If she lost this hunting ground, many of her brothers and sisters in the tribe would lose the resources they depended on to survive.
With that thought, guided by the instinct born into all felines, Nidalee let out a low growl - not to declare war, but to tell the intruder that this was her hunting ground.
"Ha!!!"
[1] https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Odogaron
[2] Fatalis Aka Miraboreasu