[Bonus chapter]
Back home, Bai Chen released everyone from their balls.
Zinogre, Brasarios, and the others shrank down; the room easily fit them all.
Nergigante hopped onto Bai Chen's shoulder.
He looked at the group and murmured:
│ "Hard to believe I already have six partners now."
Basarios instantly began searching for food — ever since getting Ultra Devour, he seemed permanently hungry.
Zinogre quietly went to a corner to do physical training, his diligence pleasing Bai Chen.
Indeedee glanced at the sky outside — nearly dinner time — and slipped into the kitchen to cook.
Tinkatuff headed out toward the smithy to greet the Second Division Chief.
Little Cosmog followed her, bored with staying indoors.
While they went about their tasks, Bai Chen took out the candidate list Elder Yoomlana had given him earlier.
He needed to choose ten people out of 131 candidates.
The booklet contained names from every field of the Forest Village — hunters, breeders, youngsters with talent — complete with age, height, body structure, backgrounds, examination scores, and even portraits.
Some were the village's best beast breeders.
Some were the strongest hunters.
Some were twenty-year-old "children" who looked only six or seven by human standards.
All carefully selected talents.
│ "How am I supposed to pick just ten…?"
Becoming a knight had requirements — but those requirements were entirely determined by Bai Chen's mood.
If he was willing, and if the candidate truly desired coexistence with monsters, he could train almost anyone into a knight.
│ "Breeder women will earn monster trust fastest.
│ Hunter men will have the strongest combat improvement.
│ And children represent the tribe's future."
He flipped through page after page, impressed.
│ "Yoomlana might not match the male elders in combat power,
│ But her administrative ability is absolutely monstrous."
Still, after reading the entire roster…
He had no idea how to choose.
So he used telekinesis to float the roster into the kitchen.
Indeedee blinked as it drifted toward her.
│ "Fuu?"
"I'm giving them your ability later," Bai Chen said.
│ "So you pick."
Indeedee didn't overthink it.
She flipped through the list with psychic power…
and immediately selected ten of the fiercest-looking men in the entire village.
Bai Chen took back the list and nodded.
│ "Very reasonable.
│ This suits your personal taste perfectly."
He removed those ten profiles.
Then from the rest, he selected five Wyverian teenagers — roughly equivalent to human 14–15-year-olds.
In the Pokémon world, kids began their journey at ten.
He could replicate that here.
Giving these youths monster eggs would let them grow alongside their partners from childhood.
He finalized the fifteen candidates.
Next, he drafted a training plan.
He could give them skills immediately —
However, giving power too easily would absolutely raise suspicion.
Better to create trials.
Only those who passed the final test would earn the ability to bond with monsters.
He spent over two hours writing multiple pages of requirements.
When done, he looked over the plans and nodded.
│ "A knight's body and combat capability cannot be weak.
│ Fighting alongside monsters isn't enough —
│ They must survive being targeted themselves."
This wasn't the Pokémon world.
Here, monsters would absolutely target the rider.
Thus, the basic requirement:
Every candidate must complete a solo hunt.
At least a 2★ monster.
Wyverians, though fertility-weak, possessed strong combat potential and natural body reinforcement abilities — they were not inferior to humans at all.
Satisfied, Bai Chen put away the documents and resumed practicing controlling three objects at once with psychic force.
The next morning
Little Cosmog teleported him to the Forest Village.
Instead of appearing inside the council hall, Bai Chen arrived at the foot of the Great Ancient Tree.
Inside the hall, Elder Yoomlana was already waiting.
"Elder Bai Chen, this is the mission ledger we compiled last night."
She handed him a thick task register.
There were 23 missions:
14 missions of ★1–3
6 missions of ★4
3 missions of ★5
High-rank missions were not included — as Bai Chen had already told her, he would only accept simpler requests at this stage.
Looking through them, he recognized tasks to:
retrieve monster materials for village upgrades
remove local threats
acquire monster eggs
and several assignments using Monster Balls for captures
He pulled out the three capture quests.
Targets: Barroth, Great Jagras, Kulu-Ya-Ku.
He shook his head.
│ "These are too weak.
│ Not worth my time."
Capturing them would at best give him a few hundred skill proficiency points — not enough.
│ "If we're capturing…
│ let's catch something stronger.
│ Interested in Rathian? Nargacuga?"
Yoomlana froze.
Interested?
Of course, she was.
But taming monsters like that was not easy.
"If possible, I would love to have such powerful partners, but…"
"If you want it, it's simple," Bai Chen interrupted.
│ "Modify the missions."
"…Elder Bai Chen, do you have a way to make strong monsters obey?"
"Of course."
Capturing with Monster Balls already reduced aggression.
Combined with Indeedee's Emotion Sense and Emotion Transmission, plus her Hypnosis, the taming success rate could reach over 95%.
Yoomlana looked into his eyes — serious, confident.
She nodded.
The missions changed to:
Capture Nargacuga
Capture Rathian
Capture Rathalos
Rathalos was Bai Chen's request — more challenge, more skill proficiency.
She still worried.
Capturing a king of the skies was no simple feat.
But then she thought of Nergigante.
Bai Chen had tamed an Elder Dragon.
Compared to that, Rathalos seemed almost reasonable.
Bai Chen handed her the candidate list, training plans, and final exam requirements.
│ "They must complete everything on here.
│ Only then can they become knights."
Yoomlana scanned the documents and nodded solemnly.
"I understand. I will ensure they complete every requirement within one month."
Bai Chen bowed slightly.
│ "Then I'll leave it to you.
│ I'll return to grant them their skills after they pass."
Little Cosmog teleported him away.
Back in Outpost, Bai Chen sent Indeedee to the Gathering Hub.
Her task?
Accept every large-monster hunt available.
No hesitation.
After receiving the quest packets and supplies, Bai Chen teleported straight to Ancient Forest Camp 3.
│ "Well then…
│ Time to get busy."
Later — at Astera's West Gate
Hunters guarding the gate saw Felynes dragging a freshly hunted monster back toward the outpost.
Three hunters accompanied the transport team.
They opened the gate.
One whispered:
"It's been peaceful lately…
But two months ago, this place was pure chaos."
Another shuddered.
"All because of one man.
The entire Logistics Division nearly collapsed."
"Well, we upgraded everything since then—
more carts, more haulers—"
"…Wait. Isn't that Ila?"
White-haired Ira was heading toward the gate with a clipboard.
"Why is she down here? Isn't she stationed at the airship?"
"Maybe to register that captured monster?"
"No, that wasn't her quest…"
Before they could figure it out—
A Pukei-Pukei suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Both gate guards froze.
"…Did that monster just appear out of nowhere?"
"I-I saw it too—teleported!?"
Then they noticed the floating purple-blue puffball above it.
"Little Cosmog…
That's Bai Chen's new partner, right?"
"Yeah. I fed him potatoes last night…"
Ila calmly took the quest slip from Nebula, completely unfazed.
"This is the receipt. Please pass it to Sir Bai."
"Mo-gu~"
Poof.
Cosmog vanished instantly.
The Felynes unloading the cargo were stunned.
"…That ability is incredible, nya…"
But that was only the beginning.
Within five minutes, Cosmog reappeared with a subspecies of the Anjanath, the Fulgur Anjanath— scorched and clearly captured.
Ira processed it with the same serene expression.
"Receipt. Please pass it to Sir Bai."
"Mo-gu~"
Poof.
Seven or eight minutes later—
Cosmog returned with another brute wyvern — Anjanath, paralyzed and charred by Zinogre's lightning.
Then, less than thirty seconds later—
A fully captured Nightshade Paolumu appeared.
Each teleport delivery was faster than the Felynes could unload the last.
They simply stared.
Their whiskers trembled.
Their paws froze mid-air.
Their brains collectively produced one statement:
"…What the hell is happening, nya…?"
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