Even though the Grimalkynes of the Glavenus Tribe existed as a collective—often concentrating their strength to accomplish great things as a tribe—each individual Grimalkyne still had their own private... well, private cat-property.
Even within the Glavenus Tribe, a cat who liked to steal would have their paws swatted.
"Ahem, actually, there's no need to think of the Melynx as all bad. Vanilla's description is a bit of an exaggeration," Bitou interrupted with a couple of coughs. "Most of the time, Melynx are just naturally fond of pranks. In the eyes of many ordinary people and hunters, they're like naughty, troublemaking children. There's no unforgivable malice involved, so people usually don't take them too seriously."
"Ah! I know about this!" Eryn said with a smile. "I read it in a book. Melynx simply enjoy the sensation of stealing. Once they succeed, they lose interest and just toss the items into a trash heap. So, if you're out in the field and find your things stolen by a Melynx, don't get angry. Just follow the footprints to the nearest junk pile, and you'll usually find your stuff there."
Karl turned his head to look at Eryn, a rare expression of shock appearing on his face, as if he had witnessed something impossible.
"Hey! Partner! What's with that look?" Eryn's cheeks puffed out instantly. "My grades were very good! Don't look down on me!"
"Sorry. I won't do it again."
"Don't actually apologize right here!!"
"Hahahahahaha!"
Their exchange immediately drew a round of laughter from the group.
"In any case, even if you can find it, it's still not a good habit, meow," Kankan remarked with a look of disdain. "Trash heaps are really smelly, right?"
"Well, I certainly can't argue with that," Sophia laughed, rubbing Kankan's head. Kankan didn't seem offended at all. "But even so, there are Melynx who are honest and hardworking, willing to rely on their own efforts to earn Zenny. Not all Melynx are born to be annoying thief-cats."
"......At least I've never seen one, meow." Vanilla didn't argue further, but muttered a response before looking down and viciously tearing into the roasted meat in his hands—as if he were tearing into a certain Melynx.
The situation was obvious: Vanilla had likely had something very important stolen by a Melynx, which was why he got so angry whenever they were mentioned.
"Well... regardless, they're still better than Gajalaka, meow," Kankan said, thinking for a moment as if to comfort his distant cousin. "Compared to the Gajalaka, the Melynx on your side who only steal things seem positively amiable, meow."
"Gajalaka?" Bitou asked curiously. "There are Gajalaka in the New World too?"
"Of course there are, meow! Ah, I think that's the name you humans gave them when you first arrived in the New World, right, meow?" Kankan said, sounding a bit uncertain. "Anyway, they're super dangerous, meow! They use all sorts of strange gadgets and poison weapons, meow! They always pop up to cause trouble when you're hunting. Little Boss almost got hurt because of them, meow!!"
As he spoke, Kankan threw "cat-punches" at the air, looking incredibly frustrated, as if he wished a Gajalaka were right in front of him so he could vent his anger.
"Well... that's true enough." Bitou gave a dry laugh. He hadn't expected that even in the New World, he couldn't escape the pursuit of that particular Lynian tribe. It was quite a headache.
The night grew deeper. With several barrels of cold, refreshing beer finished, the conversation among the group around Mirrorblade became increasingly uninhibited. This was even truer out on the distant beach, which was filled with unrestrained laughter. The recruits of the 5th Fleet circled around the veteran hunters with curious faces, listening to stories of the early days when Astera was first established.
It was like entering an entirely new world; any story picked up at random was enough to fuel the imagination. Fueled by the alcohol, Karl and Bitou also shared stories of their past adventures and dangerous hunts in the Old World.
Kankan, a cat who always loved the limelight, naturally couldn't pass up such a golden opportunity. He stood atop one of Mirrorblade's short horns, gesturing wildly as he bragged about the uniqueness of their squad and the brutal hunts they had survived—especially the experiences where the "Little Boss" (Asterion) had shown his divine might.
To be honest, the boasting made Mirrorblade a little embarrassed, and he could only close his eyes and pretend to be asleep.
For young men like Karl and Bitou, everything shared tonight was just casual talk—a way to relax and foster bonds. They couldn't truly understand why a powerful monster like Mirrorblade was so obsessed and curious about every trivial detail of the Old World—especially the kingdom systems established by humans, the bustling scenes of the cities, and the mundane, day-to-day lives of ordinary people.
He was particularly fixated on the "ordinary human" part. Mirrorblade pressed for details on everything from what they did in the morning to what they ate for lunch and what they did at night. Under his questioning, Bitou had to rack his brain to come up with numerous examples of commoner life before he was finally let go.
It wasn't surprising that they couldn't understand. Objectively speaking, the humans selected by the Guild to come to the New World were elites—one in a hundred, at least. There were no mediocre, "ordinary" humans here... and that was precisely what Mirrorblade was most curious about.
He desperately wanted to gain a deeper understanding of humans—this race that was both familiar and strange—because of their complexity. More accurately, Mirrorblade wanted to understand the composition of human society, their culture, habits, and thoughts.
It was a fact that was quite frustrating and helpless for a dragon to face: the more he communicated with these 5th Fleet recruits, and the more he heard them describe everything about humanity, the more Mirrorblade discovered that the things his old father had told him were very likely all true.
And that just made him more annoyed.
"Everyone! Quiet down, please listen to me!!"
Just as the atmosphere of the welcome banquet reached its peak, a thick, powerful voice pierced through the waves and the clamor. With the help of the Admiral's powerful arms, the Commander stepped onto the top of a stack of three or five empty wine barrels so that everyone could see him.
Tonight, the Commander also seemed to have drunk a bit too much. His weathered, dark face glowed with a healthy dark-red hue under the reflection of the roaring bonfires. Holding a glass in one hand, his shout caused the beach to gradually fall silent. Everyone looked at him, curious about what important matter he had to announce.
"No one knows how long the phenomenon of the Elder Crossing has existed in this world. No one knows why those Elder Dragons suddenly leave the territories where they have lived for so long to travel in the same direction in such unison—so much so that kingdoms, cities, and towns along the way are destroyed, leaving us with heavy losses. And no one knows why the Elder Crossing, which used to occur once every ten years, suddenly and strangely vanished."
Looking around, the Commander's voice was low and full of power. He made eye contact with everyone, causing those he looked at to unconsciously sit up straighter.
"To thoroughly investigate the secrets hidden behind the Elder Crossing, more than fifty years ago, the Kingdom and the Guild jointly established the Research Commission. Back then, there weren't so many fleets; there was only us of the 1st Fleet. But we didn't discover the secret of the Elder Crossing—instead, we discovered an entirely New World."
"That's already great! Commander! That's the New World!! Your names will be in the history books forever!!"
A young 5th Fleet hunter couldn't help but raise his hand and shout, his words drawing a chorus of agreement.
"Thank you, but honestly, what we have done is far from enough." The smile on the Commander's face lasted only a moment before he returned to his solemn, serious expression. He continued, "When we first arrived on this continent, we quickly discovered that with our strength at the time, we couldn't even begin to explore the New World. Unfamiliar terrain, an alien environment, a lack of food and supplies... even when our weapons broke, we lacked the materials to repair them. Simply surviving was a constant threat."
"It was from that moment that the Research Commission was forced to change direction. We no longer made discovering the secret of the Elder Crossing our top priority. Instead, we focused on taking root in this land of hidden dangers, building a base that could protect us as our most important task."
At this point, the Commander suddenly turned his gaze toward a long table piled with food on the beach below.
"Tech Chief?" the Commander shouted. "Old friend, do you remember how many stones you've dug up?"
"Wahaha! I forgot about that long ago!" After so many years, the Tech Chief's body had grown more hunched, turning him into a withered Wyverian old man, but he still wore his mining lamp hat. He let out a hearty laugh. "I only know I dug stones in the Wildspire Waste for a full fifty years! I've gone through over a thousand pickaxes!"
His words immediately caused a wave of incredible whispers among the 5th Fleet recruits. It wasn't surprising—in a human's short life, no matter how trivial the task, persisting for fifty years is enough to be astonishing.
Moreover, mining to build such a massive base was anything but trivial. Thus, it inspired even more awe.
"Yes, fifty years... even for the long-lived Wyverians, how many fifty-year periods are there in a lifetime?" the Commander lamented with a hint of world-weariness. "Not to mention humans like us. It could be said that every stone that makes up Astera today was dug out, cut, transported, and laid by us, bit by bit, until it finally formed the Astera you see today."
"But what I want to tell you all is that in these long fifty years, we didn't just build a base for everyone to rest. Even under such difficult conditions, we continued our investigations of the Wildspire Waste and the Ancient Forest. We have achieved things never done before—establishing contact with large monsters, and even with the legendary Elder Dragons, on an unprecedented scale!"
Perhaps considering that Mirrorblade was now a member of Astera, the Commander used the term "large dragons" rather than "large monsters."
"Through actual communication, we have confirmed a hypothesis that previously only existed among scholars: that those large dragons at the top of the ecological niche possess intelligence no different from us humans, and are even wiser than many."
"We have established an unbreakable alliance with the native Lynian tribes of the New World. We have fought side-by-side, repelling Elder Dragons like Velkhana that can easily alter the environment. In our explorations, we have discovered various unique endemic lifeforms, gaining a deeper understanding of both the Wildspire Waste and the Ancient Forest."
"The technicians and smiths of the 2nd Fleet created the Airship that can soar through the skies, diversifying our means of responding to large dragon attacks. It was they who standardized the workshop's technology, creating uniform equipment so that no hunter taking a quest would ever have to worry about weapon repairs or replacements again."
"The scholars of the 3rd Fleet allowed us to better cope with the surrounding environment, finding and summarizing the rules of the New World so that the knowledge we explored could help more people."
"The ships of the 4th Fleet brought us many rare resources, so that Astera no longer has to worry about food and other supplies, and even provided us with several heavy weapons capable of harming Elder Dragons."
The Commander took a deep breath.
"I say all this not to boast of our achievements, but to tell you that from the day we stepped onto this continent, we began to prepare. Countless people have worked hard for this day, some even giving their lives—until today, until your arrival! The arrival of the 5th Fleet!"
"As elite talents gathered by the Guild from all fields, you possess the martial power and intellect that ordinary hunters can only look up to. Fifty years of accumulation by the entire Research Commission will bloom through you! You are the White Winds of the investigation! You are the Stars of Hope who will reveal the truth and bring this investigation to a close!!"
"Everyone! Raise your glasses!!"
The Commander shouted at the top of his lungs.
"WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD!!!"
"OHHHHH!!!"
The hunters' cheers echoed through the sky, and the atmosphere of the celebration reached its absolute peak at that moment. The Commander's words indeed made the 5th Fleet hunters feel a heavy weight of expectation—a pressure carrying the efforts and hopes of those who came before them. But this pressure would never crush them; instead, it filled them with even more motivation.
No one slept that night. The bonfires burned until dawn, and people celebrated until the next day's sun rose again. When those who couldn't hold their liquor woke up groggily on the sand, they found everyone lying scattered across the ground, holding onto one another.
For the 5th Fleet's life of exploration in the New World, there could be no better opening than this.
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