"Oho! Just moving around a bit makes my whole skeleton pop and crack! Haha!" Shaking his slightly aching arms, the Admiral lamented with exaggerated drama.
He strode over to a corner of the deck and plonked down right next to Karl, turning his head to look at the young man, his rough, massive hands resting casually on his knees.
"What's wrong? Took a hit to your pride?"
It was hard to say whether it was intentional or accidental, but the Admiral's words were a bit too blunt.
Ever since he climbed onto the airship, Karl had remained in this silent, reclusive state. He didn't join the others' discussions. Aside from offering brief responses when comrades greeted him or asked about his injuries, he spent the rest of his time hiding here alone, leaning against a cannon barrel with a furrowed brow, looking deeply solemn as if lost in thought.
"No," Karl said, shaking his head slightly.
Stubbornness was just like that—his answer was crisp, firm, and without a shred of hesitation. Unfortunately, the Admiral was, at times, a completely oblivious and unpredictable guy who rarely listened to others. Acting as if he hadn't heard Karl's reply at all, this lion of a man carried on talking to himself.
"You definitely took a hit," the Admiral said, scratching the stubble on his chin. "Your gloomy personality is completely different from your grandfather's... Caly was a famous optimist back in the Research Commission. He was so lively it was almost terrifying, like nothing in the world could ever bring him down."
"No matter how massive the setback, as long as you had a drink with Caly, you'd bounce right back. There wasn't a soul in the entire Commission that man couldn't strike up a conversation with, haha!"
"I already said no," Karl replied expressionlessly, equally ignoring the Admiral's nostalgic trip down memory lane.
"...And though it might sound harsh coming from me, the truth is that as a hunter, Caly's talent couldn't hold a candle to yours right now."
The Admiral's words were a bit too real, or rather, too hurtful—thankfully, Caly wasn't around to hear them.
"To say nothing of weapon techniques and swordsmanship, his terrible Long Sword stances... Hahaha! To this day, whenever the Huntsman gets drunk and recalls teaching Caly back then, he still gets a headache."
"His actual combat capabilities were even worse. He couldn't even hunt a Great Jagras in the Ancient Forest by himself."
"...That has nothing to do with what happened today, does it?" Driven by the need to defend his grandfather's image, Karl felt compelled to speak up.
Even as someone who was usually steady and calm, he couldn't help but feel profoundly speechless right now. He had finally realized that the Admiral simply didn't listen to reason. Facing an elder who was entirely immersed in his own world, Karl decided to shut his mouth, say nothing more, and offer no further explanations.
"...But do you know? Even though Caly wasn't powerful and ended up battered and covered in dirt every time he went on a quest, he was still one of the most proactive people when it came to accepting quests in the entire Research Commission. He even had the courage to volunteer to join me in attempting to contact the Glavenus tribe—and back then, the Glavenus tribe wasn't our ally yet."
The smile gradually faded from his face as the Admiral sighed with mixed emotions:
"I think he had probably already recognized his limits back then. He had prepared himself mentally to return to the Old World... yet he was unwilling to just give up and go back like that. So he took on quests like a madman, wanting to see as much of this magical land as possible in his remaining time, so he wouldn't leave any regrets in his life here in the New World."
Hearing this, Karl's cold, rigid expression finally softened a fraction. He cast his gaze downward and suddenly chimed in, "Grandpa always deeply regretted leaving the New World... Sometimes, he would just stare blankly at nautical charts in his study."
"When he found out I was specially invited to join the Fifth Fleet, he was so happy he couldn't sleep a wink the whole night. The next day, before dawn, he ran out to invite the entire street of neighbors to our house for a barbecue to celebrate."
Though it sounded like he was complaining, Karl's gaze was exceptionally tender. For him, this was a rare and precious memory.
"Hahahahahahahaha!" The Admiral threw his head back and let out a hearty burst of laughter upon hearing this. "That's it! That is exactly something Caly would do! Back then, that guy would knock on everyone's door just to let us know he caught a big fish! Hahaha!"
The Admiral's booming laughter caught the attention of many hunters nearby, who cast curious glances over. Even Karl couldn't help but tweak the corner of his lips upward... Did his grandfather really do things like that back in the day?
He sounded like someone with a personality a lot like Aiden's.
"You feel completely powerless, don't you?"
The Admiral's topic skipped so drastically that the slight smile Karl had just formed from remembering his grandfather instantly froze on his face. He was stunned for a moment, unable to even process what the Admiral was talking about.
"Nergigante's frenzied way of fighting without any regard for its own injuries, and how the Blue Star Dragon always acts entirely on his own whims yet constantly triggers disasters that force us to passively bear the brunt... When facing them head-on, that sense of powerlessness where you can barely summon the courage to swing your blade—the reason you're acting like this is because you're wrestling with yourself over these things, feeling lost and plagued by anxiety, right?"
Resting his thick arm on Karl's shoulder, the Admiral dropped his playful tone and spoke with absolute seriousness. "Don't be so quick to deny it. I understand—these exact thoughts that trouble you used to trouble me as well. It's just that back then, the one that made me feel this crushing powerlessness wasn't a young Blue Star Dragon, but Zorah Magdaros."
The Admiral's gaze drifted over the ship's gunwale toward the distant waste whose terrain had already been irrevocably altered, as if his vision were piercing through time and space to return to fifty years ago.
"Since you've never seen Zorah Magdaros with your own eyes, you could never imagine that level of pure pressure. A massive build larger than a mountain, a colossal power where a single casual collision is enough to shatter mountain ranges, and even when standing in the deep ocean, its back and head still loom above the surface of the sea."
"The Research Commission fifty years ago didn't have the convenient Scoutflies you have now, nor did we have high-precision Slingers, let alone highly mobile airships. Even the weapons and gear we used were incredibly rudimentary... Back then, we could only stand far off on the coastline, gazing up at Zorah Magdaros's departing silhouette. Forget investigating it—we couldn't even get close."
Karl listened quietly as the Admiral recounted the tales of days gone by.
"Confronting a monster of that caliber compared to hunting ordinary monsters is like night and day. At least when hunting normal monsters, you can see a glimmer of hope for victory, and you can even race against your friends. But making an enemy of a creature like that is like trying to fight nature itself. It fills you with a despairing sense of helplessness."
"You hold your weapon, only to realize you don't even know where to apply force, nor can you find any direction on which body part to attack... Tell me, Karl, how is a person supposed to defeat the very air in front of them?"
Karl didn't speak, maintaining his silence, but his focused gaze let the Admiral know his words were sinking into the young hunter's mind.
Karl was indeed feeling lost. He had always taken immense pride in his swordsmanship and hunting skills, even being designated by the Guild as the strongest hunter of the Fifth Fleet—the elite of the elite. Yet, after witnessing the raw power of those truly mighty monsters, he realized his own weakness.
It wasn't that his belief in the meaning of a hunter's existence was shaken; rather, he didn't know how hard he had to strive to protect what he wanted to protect under the heels of such overwhelming beasts.
"Just like the Blue Star Dragon," the Admiral said, pulling back his gaze and looking down at the deck, his tone calm. "To him, devouring Zorah Magdaros was nothing more than a routine meal. In essence, it's no different from us eating barbecue on the beach."
"From start to finish, he didn't even pay attention to us, nor did he care about the Bazelgeuse leader, and he had no deliberate intention to destroy the ocean or the Wildspire Waste. Yet even so, the mere shockwaves of energy and geological shifts released after he finished eating could easily demolish the cities we spent countless drops of blood and sweat to build."
At this point, the Admiral uncharacteristically showed a troubled expression. He ran his massive, fan-like hand through his spiky hair and said:
"It makes you feel utterly powerless, don't you? It might even make our efforts seem laughable. In front of monsters that truly stand at the pinnacle of nature—beings so strong they transcend common sense—we can't even withstand their daily bodily functions... Something like this would probably be unbelievable to many people back in the Old World."
"We are not the masters of this world, nor do we have the right to dictate whether a creature gets to live or die. The masters of this world have always been the Elder Dragons, or rather, the existences that loom far above even the Elder Dragons."
Not sounding at all like he was comforting or coddling a junior, the Admiral right now seemed to be laying all his cards on the table with a successor—a warrior already prepared for battle. Without any warm, gentle words or attempts to sugarcoat the facts, he laid the brutal ecological reality completely bare before Karl.
"...Those don't sound like words an Admiral should say," Karl murmured after a moment of silence. "Then what should we do? I don't want to give up on the investigation."
"Haha, who knows?" Laughing suddenly, the Admiral showed an unexpectedly carefree attitude. He shrugged and clapped Karl hard on the back, saying, "Isn't that exactly the reason the Research Commission exists? At least we understand Elder Dragons better than we did fifty years ago, and we understand the existences above Elder Dragons better too. They are right there, and they won't disappear or manifest just because we choose to investigate them or not."
Without any grand, righteous platitudes or touching words of guidance, the Admiral stood up. Looking down at Karl, he flashed a wildly savage grin and extended his right hand.
"I'm still exploring that question myself, and maybe there won't be an answer until the day I die. But that's also what makes this continent so impossible to let go of. If you happen to find the answer someday in the future, could you let me know?"
Staring at the rough palm extended in front of him, Karl took a deep breath, then firmly grasped it.
No further words were needed.
"...Alright."
In less than half a day, Asterion had already traveled from the southernmost tip of the New World to the highest point of elevation in the north—the Elder's Recess!
Arriving at the highest peak of the world! Oh wow, isn't that a Kushala Daora? Scram!
This place held extraordinary significance. Back then, it was precisely in the Elder's Recess that Asterion had risked his life to prey upon a Xeno'jiiva, which provided him with the foundation for his metamorphosis. He absolutely loved this place. The lifeforms living here each had their own unique talents, and most importantly, the nutrients were incredibly rich and the energy was remarkably abundant.
However, Asterion hadn't returned to the Elder's Recess after all this time just to reminisce; he was here to do something big.
Jie jie jie... No dragon stands at the top from the very beginning. But this unbearable vacuum of the heavenly throne is about to end. From this day forth, I shall stand above the heavens!
An Elder Dragon like Safi'jiiva is not a Forbidden Species, even though its body similarly possesses a perpetual motion engine of near-infinite energy, meaning it doesn't need to constantly seek out Earth Vein energy to survive like it did during its Xeno'jiiva stage. However, it still manipulates Earth Vein energy to construct a comfortable environment for itself.
When Safi'jiivas are injured, they can forcefully absorb Earth Vein energy to accelerate their metabolism, allowing the wounded areas to heal rapidly, shed old skin, and regain their rock-solid defense.
Until the Earth Vein energy in their immediate area is completely drained, a Safi'jiiva remains an undefeatable existence.
This ability was enhanced to an even greater degree within Asterion. After becoming a Forbidden Species, he suddenly discovered that his perception and control over Earth Vein energy had expanded several times over.
If before he could only drain the Earth Vein energy from a single corner of the Ancient Forest, the current Asterion had bypassed the stage of draining the entire Ancient Forest altogether, reaching the point where he could drain a sizable fraction of the New World.
His previous plan—to allow his Nether-attribute energy to gradually diffuse across the entire New World via the Earth Vein corridors, slowly staining the continent with his own colors—now had to be changed, simply because that method was far too slow.
With his power further elevated, Asterion was unwilling to wait around. He wanted to seize the entire New World in a much more direct fashion!
A Forbidden Species! A Forbidden Species has to act like one! If you can't live as willfully as you please, what's the point of being a Forbidden Species?!
Infinite energy! Pour it in!! Let me see your true potential!!
The Elder's Recess was the central hub of the entire New World's Earth Vein network. Boundless Nether-attribute energy poured downward from Asterion's body as if it cost nothing and required no stamina, surging into the entire Earth Vein network. It even transformed the mountain ranges of blue-and-white energy crystals into an eerie, glowing deep-blue.
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