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MHD Chapter 127: When Strength Becomes Distance
🕑 Added 2025-08-16 01:04:54 +0000 UTCThe next day, at first light.
Logan had just finished eating the leftover Mosswine from the day before when Aki called for him, urging him toward the leyline Vein Tributary.
Then, to Logan’s astonishment, Aki—still carrying wounds that had not fully healed—flew straight down to the passageway of the tributary, braving the intense heat and stopping there.
Before, she had always halted at the upper entrance of this cavern, unable to bear the heat inside, let alone the temperature near the tributary’s passage itself.
Logan didn’t quite understand what had gotten into her, but when persuasion failed, he set aside his doubts, flew to his usual spot within the tributary, and began absorbing his daily dose of energy.
Aki opened her eyes, gazing at Logan standing on the small lone platform in the middle of the magma. She could feel her scales heating in the scorching air, her body prickling with a sharp, needling pain.
Her half-healed, scabbed wounds throbbed with renewed agony.
But she kept thinking about the helplessness she’d felt in yesterday’s battle—how, ever since that encounter with the Deviljho, she had not only failed to remain the steadfast partner Logan could always rely on, but had even fallen behind in his pace of growth.
That sense of loss struck her like a revelation.
How long had it been since she’d truly pushed herself to improve?
She had been content to enjoy Logan’s care, his protection—knowing full well the great benefits of coming down here, yet never making the effort because of her discomfort.
Yesterday was the first time she had seen Logan fight in that form.
She had heard he was strong, but she hadn’t expected that level of strength.
Three tempered Seregios, crushed in such a short time, without the slightest pressure—it had been absolute domination.
And facing him in that form, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she didn’t deserve him, as if there was now a vast ecological gulf between them.
The thought left her deeply unsettled.
The bond between a Fire Wyvern pair was pure and precious. In the harsh natural world, where battles were frequent and often left marks that diminished outward beauty, mates never despised each other for it.
Yet, seeing Logan in that form, she’d felt a kind of self-reproach so deep it even sparked thoughts of leaving. That wasn’t normal.
Aki had never met a Silver Rathalos, but she had seen a pair of Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian in the territory—loners by nature—along with their hatchlings.
That couple had only laid their eggs after migrating here, and the clutch had hatched just a few months ago.
Out of the batch, three young emerged—yet only one was a Pink Rathian hatchling. The other two were just ordinary Fire Wyverns.
If it hadn’t been for the kindness of the cats, who promptly fed the two Fire Wyvern hatchlings, those young ones might very well have starved to death.
Aki had felt this kind of ecological gap before—on the Azure Rathalos—but back then, because of the difference in strength, the feeling had been far less intense.
So, in her mind, the reason she wanted to avoid Logan in that form had to be because she was simply too weak. Her lack of strength was the cause.
If she could match his power, that feeling would vanish.
That was why, afraid of losing him, Aki had dragged Logan here early in the morning despite her wounds not yet having healed. For the first time, she ventured deep into the cave, going all the way to the magma channel, and—just like Logan—she endured the pain, letting herself be bathed in the scorching life energy.
In a way, Aki’s thinking wasn’t wrong.
The only difference was that Aki possessed the potential to molt into a Gold Rathian—something almost no other wyvern could achieve. For most, even in a life-energy-rich place like the Leyline Vein Tributary, the best they could do was grow a little stronger and push their limits slightly higher.
And that was exactly what was happening—Aki’s natural talent was already high, and in a place overflowing with life energy, her growth rate accelerated drastically. On top of that, enduring such a harsh environment for long periods could also draw out her latent potential.
Logan didn’t think too much of it. Since Aki had made this choice, the least he could do was respect and support it. In any case, spending long stretches in a place saturated with life energy could only be beneficial.
He was also pleasantly surprised—yesterday’s life energy intake had not only raised his daily absorption limit, but had also pushed his already rapidly growing body to a breakthrough.
It was an unexpected blessing.
In this world, monsters could possess immensely powerful bodies without doing anything at all. With the strange life energy and the brutal survival rules of nature, training for monsters was both a luxury and often yielded little for the effort.
After their growth period, they mostly relied on life energy and constant battle to passively strengthen their bodies.
Under this system, Elder Dragons—born with the ability to absorb and store vast amounts of life energy—naturally possessed physiques and vitality far beyond ordinary monsters.
That special mass of life energy had raised Logan’s limit.
Suppressing his excitement, he settled down to continue absorbing.
...
In the Wildspire Waste, at the Research Commission’s hunter camp—
Thanks to their growing rapport with the Grimalkynes of the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern clan, the Commission had set up a camp not far from the wyverns’ nesting grounds. From here, a Fire Wyvern investigation squad was stationed permanently.
In addition to studying the Fire Wyverns and keeping constant contact with the Grimalkynes, they also handled stockpiling trade goods and updating information in real time.
Because the Commission had temporarily suspended forest exploration, manpower was plentiful here, and a senior officer from the First Fleet was always on rotation at this camp.
And today happened to be the Admiral’s turn on rotation.
“What!? You’ve spotted Nergigante?”
After the information on that unknown Elder Dragon had been sent back to the Old World, it was confirmed as a previously unrecorded Elder Dragon. A new file was created for it, and it was named Nergigante. Due to its extreme danger, the investigation into Nergigante was currently open to the Admiral alone.
“Yes, meow. The Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes said they saw Nergigante in the Wasteland, meow,” replied a Felyne stationed at the camp as an interpreter, speaking with absolute certainty.
With the Felyne’s confirmation, the Admiral immediately picked up the already-written sighting report, determined the coordinates, slung his freshly unstrapped weapon onto his back, and set off at once.
Originally, he had planned to look for Tonkotsu, whom he hadn’t seen in a while, and maybe try his luck with that aloof Fire Wyvern friend of his to see if he could gather any useful information.
But he hadn’t expected that, right after arriving for his rotation, he’d be hit with such unexpected news.
Ever since that battle, Nergigante had become the Admiral’s lifelong pursuit. And given its attack on the Teostra during the Elder Crossing, the Research Commission and the Old World Guild both believed the incident might hold valuable clues about the Elder Crossing itself.
So the Admiral didn’t even pause to rest—he called over a wingdrake, looped a rope around its harness, and took off, heading straight for the coordinates in the sighting report.
Yes, even with the existence of slingers and grappling hooks, the Admiral still used a rope—his reasoning being that those tools just weren’t as convenient as tossing a rope.
In truth, the only people in the Commission who shared that opinion were him and the Huntsman.
Logan had no idea that the information he’d passed on through the cats had gone straight to the Admiral. Even if he had known, he would have simply breathed a sigh of relief.
Sometimes, he truly had no desire to deal with someone as overwhelmingly enthusiastic as the Admiral—whether tracking Nergigante was dangerous or not.
That much was certain. But now, having fought it once before and no longer going in blind, the Admiral—an experienced, top-tier hunter—wouldn’t recklessly charge in.
What’s more, as a melee-oriented Elder Dragon without any distinctive elemental signs, Nergigante would be almost impossible to track down in the vast Wasteland by the Admiral alone.
So, by the time he arrived, the most he would find were the corpses of the three Seregios and the spines left behind from Nergigante’s brief clash with Logan.
...
Dundorma, Old World – Archivist Division Records Room
“According to the report from the New World Elder Dragon Research Commission, they’ve observed multiple Seregios sightings in the New World. Based on our comparison of certain gathered materials, these match closely with the Guild’s previous recorded observations of Seregios."
"The scholars speculate that Seregios may be native to the New World and that, for unknown reasons, a small number migrated here, leading to those earlier sightings. This would also explain why, after that single recorded observation, there have been no further reports of Seregios.”
The Wyverian scholar set down his notebook. Beside him, the archivist carefully transcribed every word before placing the record onto a new shelf—one reserved exclusively for ecological data from the New World.
“How accurate is this conclusion?”
“About seventy percent, perhaps higher. The dissenting opinions stem from the fact that our Seregios sightings here predate those from the New World by a wide margin. Coupled with incomplete exploration data, that leaves us at roughly seventy percent certainty.”
The short, white-bearded Wyverian scholar nodded. Seventy percent was already high—if the New World could send back a Seregios specimen, this conclusion could almost certainly be sealed as fact.
