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MHD Chapter 107: Life Energy and Lava
🕑 Added 2025-08-11 02:57:56 +0000 UTCFleeing at a disadvantage—that was the normal instinct among monsters. Only in cases like that Rathian, when one couldn’t win a fight yet co
Fleeing at a disadvantage—that was the normal instinct among monsters. Only in cases like that Rathian, when one couldn’t win a fight yet couldn’t escape either, would a desperate last stand be chosen.
When the Seregios fled, Logan had no intention of giving chase. With flesh that tough and unyielding, killing it would bring no benefit—only a pointless waste of his own strength.
Right now, what piqued Logan’s curiosity was why Aki had chosen to help that Rathian in the first place.
With that question in mind, he swooped down onto a rocky ledge—only to see Aki licking the Rathian’s wounds. And that Rathian, instead of resisting, seemed completely at ease, even letting out a soft, almost pitiful whimper.
Seeing this, Logan’s temper flared instantly.
“Wait—who the hell is she? And why does she get Aki to lick her wounds?”
He was about to shout, intending to get both of those Rathians’ attention.
But then, the Rathian suddenly lifted her head toward him. The next instant, she flapped her wings in a panic, turned, and flew off toward a low hill in the distance.
Logan tilted his head, eyes narrowing as he watched her retreating back, replaying the moment she’d turned to look at him. Something about her was familiar.
“Hold on! Isn’t that my sister-in-law?”
The distant figure of the Rathian overlapped in his mind with the one he’d seen back in the Ancient Tree—the image of his sister-in-law.
“Wait… what happened to her?”
In his memory, she had gleaming emerald-green scales, a pale grey-white underbelly, sharp lines to her frame, and neatly aligned scales.
But now, her green scales carried the ashen tint unique to the Wildspire Waste. The surface was rough, marred with scars; her spines had lost their sharp, polished edges; her muscles were less full; and now, after the beating from the Seregios, she looked utterly miserable.
The difference was like that between Cinderella and a princess.
Logan couldn’t quite make sense of it.
By his understanding, judging from the poise she had once shown, she should have been more than qualified to become the “main mate” of one of the Rathalos living atop the Ancient Tree. Yet when he hadn’t seen her again there, he’d assumed she’d chosen not to settle with a Rathalos from that area, instead finding a promising mate elsewhere in the forest and staying there.
He had never expected to find her here, in the Wildspire Waste. It was… odd.
While Logan was still trying to figure it out, Aki called out to him, then led the way in the direction the Rathian had gone.
Before long, the small hill came into view. At its base yawned the entrance to a massive limestone cave.
Following behind Aki, he flew low into the cave. A wave of sweltering heat rushed to meet him.
Descending deeper, a hidden underground stream appeared ahead. Several large fish, each about 1 to 2 m long, darted into crevices in the rock the moment they sensed movement above the water.
That struck Logan as strange.
This was an underground cave, with a broad subterranean current running through it—so why was the temperature inside hotter than outside?
He was just about to ask when he saw Aki start her descent, taking a familiar turn down a side passage. She even looked back and called to him to follow.
Though puzzled, Logan trusted Aki completely. Without a moment’s hesitation, he landed, folded his wings, and followed behind her.
After only a short winding path, the space before him suddenly opened up. Swarms of Glowflies served as a natural light source, illuminating an entire clearing.
On the ground lay several carcass-strewn bones of Kestodons, along with patches of hardened oil stains.
In the center of the clearing stood a large nest—surprisingly clean, without the usual scattered bones or debris one might expect.
Scanning the area, Logan’s gaze soon found his sister-in-law in a corner, tending to her own wounds. The moment she noticed Aki and Logan enter, she let out a soft, pitiful cry toward Aki, then turned her back and pretended to be an ostrich.
Aki didn’t spare her so much as a glance. She stepped slowly into the nest, took a deep breath, and lay there for a moment as if steeped in memories, before rising to explain to Logan.
This, it turned out, was where Aki and his sister-in-law had been born. She and her siblings had endured the hardest days of their lives here.
Later, after they all went their separate ways, only the sister-in-law had chosen to remain. The rest of the Fire Wyverns had dispersed, each searching for a new nest.
While the resources here were relatively abundant, the predators were just as formidable. Back then, the sister-in-law could only rely on her advantage in flight, hunting toward the direction of Aki’s nest.
That, Logan now realized, was why he and Aki had run into her during that hunt deep in the Wildspire Waste.
With that, he understood why Aki’s mood seemed a little heavy.
Still, Aki hadn’t brought him here just to reminisce about an old nest.
She called once toward her sister-in-law, not bothering to acknowledge her continued pretense, then slowly took to the air. Once Logan followed, she led him deeper into the limestone cave.
As they went deeper, the path began to grow more intricate.
Yet Logan’s sense of spatial orientation told him they were steadily moving downward, and with every step, the air grew hotter.
Finally, Aki let out a breath of flame, blasting apart a section of the wall. A rush of hot wind burst through, carrying a stench of sulfur.
Aki flew out first, with Logan right behind her.
It was a vast cavern, its ceiling hung with sharp stalactites.
The air here was saturated with life energy. Following Aki’s gaze, Logan spotted a passageway at the far end of the cavern. A red glow spilled from within, painting the walls of the passage, and the strong sulfur reek came from that direction.
Logan looked at Aki in surprise. Meeting her confirming gaze, he felt a surge of excitement and quickly flew toward it.
Even from the mouth of the passage, he could see an entire flowing river of molten rock radiating searing heat.
This place was connected to a tributary of the Everstream!
The enhanced life-sense he had regained after killing the Yian Garuga now came into full play—the immense vitality he felt was coming from the earth vein itself.
Without conscious thought, his Charred Body activated. With a shell far surpassing even that of a Rathalos—let alone an Azure Rathalos—in fire resistance, Logan could press forward against the blistering heat, stepping slowly into the passage. With each step, cracks split open in the ground beneath him, revealing deep red magma below.
The truth became clear—the floor of the passage was actually a layer of magma only lightly solidified at the surface. As it cracked, wisps of white steam rose into the air.
Aki watched as Logan’s figure disappeared deeper into the passage, then beat her wings and flew back to the route they had descended from.
A Rathian’s shell couldn’t withstand such intense heat; the temperature here already made her deeply uncomfortable. Still, she forced herself to remain at the mouth of the passage, waiting quietly.
After circling once above the molten river, Logan finally found a spot where he could barely land.
Planting his feet on it, he felt the heat seeping through his soles. Slowly spreading his wings, he closed his eyes, savoring the immense vitality swirling around him.
Drawing in the life energy from the air of his own accord, he felt as if every single cell in his body was rejoicing.
With such an abundance of life energy, simply staying here long enough could make even an ordinary monster grow immensely powerful—perhaps even reach the Tempered state.
Of course, the prerequisite was being able to withstand the searing heat of this magma, which carried far greater temperatures than ordinary lava thanks to the life energy infused within it.
And this… was merely a tributary of the Great Ravine’s magma channels.
That thought made Logan’s mind wander to the most dangerous place in the New World—the Elder’s Recess.
Elder Dragons met their end in the Rotten Vale. Their life energy, carried through the Vale’s unique environment, entered the starting point of the New World’s ley lines. But before it could flow outward, the Xeno’jiiva cocoon in the Elder’s Recess intercepted it, hoarding most of that life energy and forming the Elder’s Recess as it was known.
If even this tributary brimmed with such vitality, then what kind of sight would the Elder’s Recess—where vast amounts of life energy converged—present?
Logan’s heart burned with anticipation, though he knew his own limits.
With his current strength, stepping into the Elder’s Recess would mean only entering its lowest tier—and with the slightest misstep, he’d become a meal for another monster. Rather than rush headlong into the Elder’s Recess to die, it was better to quietly hone his power here.
Besides, he was only eleven years old, soon to turn twelve—about to enter a major growth stage.
In this world, the odds of breaking through one’s life tier to reach a higher ecological niche were slim, and the higher the niche, the harder the breakthrough.
Often, even risking everything for that leap would end in nothing.
It was always a shift in life’s tier—not just a simple evolution or upgrade.
The longer one lived in this world, the more one could grasp the wonder of life energy. Even a common Fire Wyvern, if placed in another world, would likely be an unmatched powerhouse.
His traits did give Logan ample opportunities, but whether he could truly seize them during a life-tier leap—that depended on him alone.
Any pride from being a transmigrator, any superiority born from having a “cheat,” had long been worn away by these years of living here. Having glimpsed the heights, Logan now had only one thought—to charge ever higher!
As his Flash Fire trait kept absorbing the flames from the ley lines, mixing with the constant influx of life energy, he once again entered that half-silver, half-red pseudo-Silver Rathalos state.
Only this time, unlike when he forced himself into it by sheer flame absorption, the countdown timer for his Sunlight trait on the phantom panel had stretched from five minutes to ten.
Meanwhile, in some corner of his body beyond his senses, the Wyvern Gem—urged on by the heat and the ceaseless ebb and flow of life energy—was melting even as it swelled in size.
Its progress was far faster than usual.
On the panel, after half a year of stagnation, the evolution bar finally stirred—jumping from 29 straight to 30.
With just that single jump, Logan suddenly felt his body’s toughness increase slightly.
When he moved his wings, his joints gave off a sharp crackle, and an almost intoxicating sense of comfort spread through his body.
The duration of his pseudo-Sunlight trait had been extended by a full thirty seconds.
Before long, ten minutes had passed, and Logan gradually withdrew from the state. His body had reached saturation in absorbing life energy, and he opened his eyes.
The fullness of energy within him gave Logan the illusion that he could squander it without restraint. But for today, his body’s absorption had already peaked. Staying here any longer would yield diminishing returns—and besides, he’d already been out for quite some time, and his stomach had started growling long ago.
Without hesitation, he rose and flew out from the ley line’s tributary, returning to the cavern—only to find Aki sprawled at the high passage entrance, panting heavily to cool herself.
The moment she saw Logan emerge, she let out an impatient cry and turned away, taking off first.
Indeed, thanks to his Flame Body, the heat here was nothing to Logan, but for Aki—and likely even for an ordinary Fire Wyvern—it was nearly unbearable.
At the very least, it would take an Azure Rathalos or a Tempered Rathalos to remain here for any length of time.
