"This bug—"
Ancient Wyverian youth, while vexed at his own carelessness and still with lingering fear, looked at butterfly-like bug that was slowly swaying its wings, facing them.
Only to see, beneath its slightly swaying wings, dots of ice-blue crystals, like scale powder, fell from its wings. Those crystals falling onto Terastal sprout did not show anything unusual, but some powder crystals drifting outside Terastal sprout directly burned one faint wisp of white smoke on soil.
"What exactly is this thing!"
Just as ancient Wyverian youth was warily watching bug, its wing crystals once again solidified, and it silently beat wings and flew up again. With fifteen-centimeter wingspan, bug—with its proboscis curved and folded—even possessed one kind of dreamlike beauty.
"What are you going to do, meow!"
Cat raised small knife, and toward bug that was slowly flying toward them, emitted "hiss-hah, hiss-hah" threatening sound from throat.
Although it had failed to complete training of cat follower and was not even counted as Palico, and its aptitude was so poor it could not even use sweat-gland fire-control ability unique to Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern tribe cats, at least it had received certain combat education as Grimalkyne, so dealing with this bug should not be problem.
At this moment, after cat revealed hostility, that bug suddenly accelerated. In one flickering blue light, it very easily dodged small knife cat was waving, and under cat's unbelievable gaze, instantly appeared at its neck.
Curled proboscis popped out again, and like mosquito biting, immediately pierced into skin under cat's neck.
"Muskmelon!"
Ancient Wyverian youth cried out in alarm. Seeing cat's eyes suddenly widen, he ignored pain in his palm that had not yet faded. With sleeve sweeping out, he directly slapped toward bug on cat's neck.
But this strike actually hit empty air. The bug flapped both wings once, easily dodging attack of ancient Wyverian youth, and after drawing one arc in air, it wobbled and once again landed back on just-now Terastal sprout.
Ancient Wyverian youth, unable to continue attacking, hurriedly checked cat's condition.
Who would have thought that cat's front paws and tips of its ears suddenly ignited flames.
"I… I can use fire now, meow?"
Cat incredulously pinched its own paw pad. The flames burning fiercely on it at this moment caused it no harm; instead they were warm and very comfortable.
"How do you feel?" Ancient Wyverian youth withdrew palm and cautiously asked.
"I feel very good, meow. I have never felt this good before, meow." Cat focused its mind, and its sweat glands no longer secreted flammable sweat. It carefully felt for a moment and thought that its whole meow was at this moment clear and refreshed, and its body seemed to be much better than usual.
"But this bug seems very tired, meow."
Hearing this, ancient Wyverian youth finally moved gaze away from cat and looked at bug that had flown back onto Terastal sprout.
Only to see that although this bug had returned to appearance of folding wings and sucking sap like at beginning, its sucking movements were much slower, and from that listless and dispirited appearance, it seemed to have overconsumed itself somewhat.
Linking together cat suddenly being able to use flames with this bug's appearance after biting cat, ancient Wyverian youth rapidly connected these two matters in his mind and instantly reached one conclusion.
"This bug is actually transmitting energy! And it is energy of same origin as that of Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern tribe Grimalkynes!"
"Research! Must research!!"
...
When the Ancient Wyverian youth and the cat came out from the passage, both looked extremely cautious.
There was nothing they could do. After all, at this moment there was a silver butterfly about the size of a palm hanging on the cat's head.
That's right. Just as the Ancient Wyverian youth was starting to think about how he should take this unknown insect away, perhaps because it had eaten its fill and wanted to find a comfortable place to rest, or perhaps because it was attracted by that similar energy inside the cat's body, right when the Ancient Wyverian youth was at his wits' end, unable to think of a way to deal with that high-temperature scale powder without hurting the insect, the insect actually swayed as it flew onto the cat's head, and, just like an ornament, lay down on its head like that.
"Waa!! What is this, meow!! Why does it have to land on my head, meow!!"
The cat was startled, but it did not dare to move at all.
For the moment it could not figure it out, but then it discovered that after the insect simply lay on its head, it did not show any extra behavior and did not make any aggressive movements. After a round of discussion, the cat just carried this butterfly-like insect on its head and stiffly walked out like that.
"Muskmelon, your new accessory looks so nice, meow!"
"Not nice at all, meow~"
"Is it alive, meow? What a gentle butterfly!"
"Not gentle at all, meow~"
Along the way, there were many cats familiar with Muskmelon. Whenever they saw the butterfly on top of its head, they would all give it a compliment, whether sincerely or kindly. They all took this butterfly to be a new head ornament Muskmelon had come up with.
After all, it was the younger sister of that Ahtal-Ka special liaison officer, Spice. With such an outstanding older brother as a reference, it was very normal for the younger sister to have some special skills that were a bit different.
Only Muskmelon was on the verge of tears, replying over and over with a slightly tearful voice and a bitter expression, trying to let the other cats know its present misery.
But it was obvious that everyone only thought it was just being modest, or that it was a bit shy, that's all.
...
Back in the Blazefire Village alchemy hut, after the Ancient Wyverian youth told the Ancient Wyverian prophet about what had happened before as well as his own conjectures, the Ancient Wyverian prophet's wrinkle-filled eye sockets suddenly opened wide, and his eyes shone as he looked at Muskmelon—sitting upright and stiff on the chair, neck rigid, not daring to move—and the insect on its head.
"You all wait a bit, I will go prepare some things!"
Saying this, the Ancient Wyverian prophet immediately stood up, walked nimbly into the inner room, and very soon came back carrying a large cage.
Perhaps because it had fallen asleep, the process of using heat-insulated tweezers to take the insect from Muskmelon's head and put it into the cage went very smoothly. After finishing all this and seeing Muskmelon, who had turned into a puddle of cat and collapsed limply on the chair, the Ancient Wyverian prophet showed a kind smile.
Cute cats—even for the Ancient Wyverian prophet, who was already very old and had long since looked lightly on many things—could still move him.
"Prophet, should we go to Boss Fire Wyvern's place once? After all, the energy inside this insect's body—"
"Yes!" Without thinking too much, the Ancient Wyverian prophet answered.
If it were only an ordinary new species appearing, such a small matter naturally did not need to be reported to Logan. But this insect was obviously related to Logan's power to a certain extent, and it could even let a "talentless" cat like Muskmelon successfully use flames. This was a major matter that could affect the entire group, so even without carrying out any research, they still had to report this kind of matter to Logan.
Even if they had other thoughts in their hearts, they still had to inform Logan and let Logan make the decision.
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