But this was not the end. For Nergigante, the existence of food was far less important than energy.
After confirming that the juvenile Nergigante had not grown deformed and required no external intervention, Nergigante flicked out a spike and delivered it to the juvenile Nergigante's mouth.
Driven by instinct, the juvenile Nergigante—having only just grown teeth—bit down on that white spike without hesitation, grinding its teeth while simultaneously drawing in the softened fluid that contained a massive amount of energy.
The energy stored within its body was rapidly depleted. The sense of fullness gained from consuming Nakarkos had lasted only a single day before disappearing, but for Nergigante, this was already more than enough to leave it extremely satisfied.
And the Nergigante that was usually exceedingly frugal with its energy showed no stinginess at all at this moment. Using softened spike cells as a medium, it continuously fed the juvenile Nergigante.
Upon obtaining this softened fluid—something unique to Nergigante that had just completed "reproduction"—the juvenile Nergigante's body began to expand nonstop, like a balloon being inflated.
Its edges and angles gradually became distinct, its wings grew powerful, and the regeneration shell developed at high speed, the folds on it rapidly being stretched flat as the bones grew.
In just three days, the juvenile Nergigante's body length forcibly increased from the original 1 meter to 13 meters.
At this moment, inside the Everstream cavern, the juvenile Nergigante—its skeletal structure now fully grown out—was eyeing the adult Nergigante intently, a pair of clear eyes filled with greed.
The adult Nergigante was very satisfied with the juvenile Nergigante's current gaze. This kind of greed and brutality—pure, sincere, and like that of a hazy, ignorant child—was precisely the innate nature possessed by Nergigante.
Almost every normally born Nergigante faces its very first opponent as its own "mother."
Without any warning, the adult Nergigante leaped forward and pounced in front of the completely unprepared juvenile Nergigante, smashing it straight into the wall with a single slap.
Then, without losing momentum, it charged explosively toward the juvenile Nergigante that had not yet managed to get back up. Showing no restraint at all despite the other being the child it had painstakingly nurtured, those heavy slaps came one after another, striking it repeatedly.
Amid torn flesh and ruptured skin, the juvenile Nergigante began to attempt resistance—only to be met with even more violent attacks.
As the juvenile Nergigante's white spikes broke and regenerated, regenerated and then broke again, it was forcibly made—through this kind of attack—to learn to mobilize the life energy within its body, rapidly strengthening the spikes so that they swiftly changed from white to black. After their hardness was greatly increased, this novel "education" finally came to an end.
Watching the juvenile Nergigante lie prostrate beside the magma, silently drawing in "meager" life energy to recover its strength, the adult Nergigante turned around in satisfaction and walked toward the outside of the cavern.
"Roar! Roar!" (You have already learned to use energy to strengthen your spikes—you are already a qualified Elder Dragon!)
As the adult Nergigante's roar echoed within the cavern, what the juvenile Nergigante saw was the adult Nergigante's back as it spread its wings and left without the slightest hesitation.
The adult Nergigante's only tiny bit of familial affection ended completely like this; from then on, whether the juvenile Nergigante lived or died would have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
It also had to return to the Elder's Recess, and begin preparing for the next hunt and the next reproduction!
...
On the Ancient Tree, Darren—having returned here once again—immediately registered the status of an Ancient Tree hunter, and then, through the staff, found the Ancient Wyverian girl of the Ancient Tree who was staying in the shrine compiling the "Divine Chronicle."
Hunters were not saints without desires. In less than two months since their arrival, after the Elder Crossing issue was "resolved," aside from a small number of hunters who planned to return to the Old World after the Zorah Magdaros investigation plan ended, the hunters—including Darren—had already prepared themselves to stay in the New World for several years.
This was a land that had not yet been developed, and that possessed ancient ruins as well as the Ancient Tree, this existence of a unique civilization. Expanding territory might not be the main theme, but making humanity stronger—more competitive in this cruel world—was what everyone pursued.
And Darren naturally could not avoid being mundane; greater power and stronger equipment were all things he pursued.
After chatting with the Ancient Wyverian girl inside the shrine for more than half an hour, Darren walked out carrying several sheets of special mission parchment.
Because only Darren was allowed to enter alone, Mia—who had been waiting outside the shrine—finished the fruit in her hand in two or three bites, jogged up, and took the parchment from Darren's hands, looking through them one by one.
"Slay the Rajang causing trouble at the edge of the Ancient Tree, drive off the groups of Lagiacrus lurking in the waters, slay the groups of Radiant Fire Wyvern that are wantonly destroying the ecology!!"
These three missions corresponded respectively to materials such as scales, claws, spikes, and so on, that Logan had shed when he had just undergone his molt into an Elder Dragon.
Rajang was easy enough to talk about. Mia, who understood her companion's strength very well, was quite certain that this task would not be difficult for him.
However, the Lagiacrus groups and the Radiant Fire Wyvern groups were somewhat troublesome.
Even the strongest hunters understood that during a hunt, it was best to avoid fighting one against many.
This was also why, many times, the difficulty of hunting a Rathalos would suddenly increase—because that Rathalos was very likely a family man. Facing both Rathalos and Rathian at the same time was enough to give the vast majority of hunters a severe headache.
Of course, given Darren's strength, Rathalos and Rathian were not enough to trouble him. What he truly did not want to face were Gold Rathian and Silver Rathalos.
"How about we first go to the Guild and ask about the situation with this Lagiacrus group and the Radiant Fire Wyvern group? I always feel that there's something off about these two missions. Handling them alone might be a bit strenuous," Mia suggested as she put away the parchment.
Darren had no objections to this.
Inside the Gathering Hub, the Grimalkyne responsible for reception carefully looked through the parchment Mia handed over. Not recognizing Darren, it sized him up with some surprise.
These three missions were all matters that were currently giving the Ancient Tree a headache.
There was no need to elaborate on Rajang. Those two Rajang had been running amok along the boundary of the Ancient Tree region for quite some time already. If not for their concern over the presence of the Boss Fire Wyvern, they would probably have attempted to push deeper in long ago.
As for the Lagiacrus group, it happened to be positioned at the intersection of the Radiant Fire Wyvern and Seregios territories. At present, the situation there had formed a three-way standoff.
In the past, because Nakarkos had not yet been dealt with, the presence of Lagiacrus could fill the gap left by Seregios, becoming another line of defense.
Now that Nakarkos was dead, the continued presence of these Lagiacrus had become an unstable factor hindering the recovery of the Ancient Tree region, and they naturally needed to be driven off. The troublesome part was that once the Radiant Fire Wyvern groups organized a collective attack on the Lagiacrus group, it would draw in the Seregios group as well, ultimately evolving into a three-sided melee.
Without Logan and his mate, as well as the Flame Wyvern pair, stepping in, the Radiant Fire Wyvern group simply had no way to fight one against two. That was how this mission came to exist.
As for the final mission to slay the Radiant Fire Wyvern group—
Strictly speaking, this group of Fire Wyverns could not truly be called Radiant Fire Wyverns. They were Fire Wyverns left behind from the time in the Wildspire Waste, and because they had also undergone a period of Symbiosis, they merely possessed some Radiant Fire Wyvern traits.
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