Logan naturally couldn't be more clear about what was going through the little one's mind.
Don't be fooled by how timid it looked right now; once Aki came back later and it started tattling, it would do so without the slightest hesitation.
However, Logan was also happy to see it like this.
The little one's intelligence was too high, and it had no siblings, and was also destined not to be able to play together with other Fire Wyvern hatchlings. Thus, in its childhood, aside from its parents, it was destined to be lonely.
In the world of Monster Hunter, living creatures were far too pure, so pure that they were practically like a basin of clear water. Any stain that fell into it during their childhood would make that water turn murky.
Therefore, whether it was under the influence of the Fire Wyvern view of family, or because of Logan's own way of thinking, both led him to make such a choice that did not conform to monster behavior.
As for the future, when the little one was five years old, had the ability to hunt independently, and left the nest, then Logan would no longer need to worry too much about it.
After all, it would only be leaving Logan's nest, not leaving the Ancient Tree.
When Logan was five, he had already been able to work together with Aki to secure a good nest site on the Ancient Tree. As Logan's offspring, born as an Elder Dragon hatchling, with such a high starting point, if it could not secure a foothold on the Ancient Tree, that would really be a bit too much.
Moreover, by that time whether the little one itself would still be willing to live on the Ancient Tree would be another matter. At the very least, in terms of an Elder Dragon hatchling's capabilities, a five-year-old Elder Dragon hatchling would be more than enough to survive on its own in this harsh world.
Paying no mind to the little one curled up in the nest and clutching its own little tail, Logan's gaze gradually grew sharp.
This time, the information Boss Nature had given him was much clearer than in the past. Of course, it did not directly give a specific target, but rather a region.
Wildspire Waste!
The sense of crisis was almost zero, but for it to prompt Logan, who was already an Elder Dragon, to take the field, either this time the target was another Elder Dragon, or something had occurred in that region that was enough to cause an ecological collapse.
Relying solely on ordinary monsters or on the Research Commission's side, they could no longer handle it; an Elder Dragon needed to intervene to carry out a "great cleansing."
Just like what Mother Chameleos had done back then in the northern part of the Ancient Forest and on the Coral Highlands.
Logan did find it a bit strange that, for this kind of large-scale cleansing, Mother Chameleos wasn't the one being sent.
After all, for this type of area-wide cleansing aimed at regional lifeforms, Elder Dragons like Chameleos and Blackveil Vaal Hazak were the most suitable, whereas ones like Logan, Teostra, and Kushala Daora were better at creating ecological-level disasters.
And don't think that creating disasters runs counter to nature's will. All sorts of natural calamities are part of the natural cycle; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many Elder Dragons that symbolize natural disasters.
Logan turned the matter over in his mind again and again but still couldn't think of a reason for sending him. In the end, he called over the Grimalkyne sage, and only after asking about the intel from the Wildspire Waste did he form a tentative guess in his heart.
"Lately, Astera has been constantly cleaning up monsters in the Waste that are infected by Qurio, meow!"
Now Logan understood. The life energy of the New World was far too abundant. Even here on the Ancient Tree, Qurio could mutate into Radiant Crystal Butterflies. In that case, over in the Wildspire Waste, it was entirely possible that those Qurio had become even more tenacious, to the point that they could survive even without Symbiosis, and even expand their parasitic range—so it was also possible that they had come to threaten the regional ecosystem.
As for sending Logan to resolve the issue, one possibility was the existence of Radiant Crystal Butterflies. Another possibility was that the Elder Dragon previously dispatched to handle it had just been going through the motions, which had led to the Qurio running rampant. With no other choice, Boss Nature had once again picked him, this excellent, hardworking employee dragon who had always carried out his duties diligently.
At that thought, the figure of Mother Chameleos surfaced in Logan's mind almost instantly.
After all, among the Elder Dragons Logan knew, only Mother Chameleos would behave like that, and on top of that, She was very close to the Wildspire Waste. So there was a very high chance that Boss Nature's first choice had been Her.
However, the matter had not yet been investigated, and no conclusions could be drawn lightly. Although Logan already had his suspicions, he still planned to make a trip himself to see what was really going on. Besides, he also wanted to see, as his new Symbiosis group, what it would be like when Radiant Crystal Butterflies faced off against the original-form Qurio.
Mother Chameleos, who had been blamed for no reason at all, was at that very moment lying in Her own nest, painstakingly trying to crack, with Her foreclaws, an incredibly troublesome metal lock. The level of technical complexity inside this lock was far beyond Her understanding. Mother Chameleos strongly suspected that, during those ten years that guy had spent back in the Old World, he had spent all of them learning lock-making techniques!!
Suddenly, a strange chill swept over Her, piercing through Her scales and reaching straight into Her heart.
This sudden shiver made Mother Chameleos, who was in the middle of delicate work, give a jolt. With a click, the lock that had just been slightly pried open snapped shut again.
"Gwa!!"
Mother Chameleos's enraged, mortified cry rang out inside the cave!
...
Inside the nest at the top of the Ancient Tree, near noon, Aki finally came back after venting herself. Before Logan could explain anything, the little one, who had been cowering timidly in the nest, suddenly perked up. It spread its small wings, let out a series of caws, and charged toward Aki. Its immature cries carried nothing but grievance.
The little one curled up beneath Aki, pitifully calling while turning its head to look at Logan, as if it were tearfully reporting that it had once again been oppressed by its heartless father, and also as if it were trying to stir up Aki's maternal instincts—actively triggering her "a mother becomes fierce for her child" skill, so she would harshly punish that heartless father.
But as the little one kept crying, it suddenly felt that something was wrong.
Based on past experience, its mother should already be roaring as she charged at its father, immediately putting on a scene of domestic violence.
Yet today, no matter how it cried, Aki didn't react at all. Instead, she slowly walked to Logan's side, affectionately rubbed her head against his neck, then extended her tongue to lick the scales on Logan's neck, letting out a series of low growls from her throat.
This sight left the little one completely dumbfounded. Its intelligence was not inferior to a human infant's, but it still couldn't understand what it was seeing.
As for Aki, she was simply doing something she had done many times before.
When she returned, she had originally planned to play along with the little one and act out a scene. But the moment she saw the sharpness in Logan's eyes and the large number of Radiant Crystal Butterflies gathered around him, her long years of tacit understanding instantly told her what Logan was about to do.
The little one still couldn't be separated from its parents right now, so Aki couldn't go out with Logan. She could only use this kind of gesture to reassure Logan so he could leave with peace of mind.
Just like a wife reminding her husband, who is heading out to work, to be careful on the road, Aki and Logan closed their eyes and pressed their necks together, staying close and lingering for a long while. Only when the little one's stomach growled did they finally separate.
At this moment, Logan spread his wings and released his Pressure. With a dragon roar, the Fire Wyverns patrolling the territory outside the nest responded one after another.
Amid these rising and falling, resounding dragon roars, the little one watched the father who lived with it day and night—this father who seemed like an old retiree who did nothing but bully it—suddenly become so imposing in an instant. For a moment, it was stunned.
It wasn't until it saw Logan's back vanish at the nest's entrance amid a blast of wind that it snapped out of it.
Since the day it was born, this was the first time Logan had released his Pressure in front of it. It was also the first time the little one had seen Logan's side as the "Fire Wyvern King"!
Hearing the dragon roars outside the nest gradually die down as Logan left, the little one, swept up by the emotion of the moment, took a deep breath and let out an immature but crisp dragon roar!
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