Chapter Eighty-Nine: Meeting with the Third Corps

Because of the terrain, the farther one ventured toward the edge of the Coral Plateau and the sheer cliffs beside the canyon, the more perilous the road became.

“Holy hell, is this thing even safe?” Su Yi stood at the plateau’s edge, where reaching the next terrace required crossing a long cable span.

This man-made bridge stretched a rope from the rim of one plateau to the next, a distance no land-bound beast could ever leap.

Farther out, one could even see the airship that had crashed against the canyon wall.

No wonder the Third Fleet had been able to endure here for twenty years. Unless it could fly, no monster could ever reach them.

What was more, game was scarce here, and wyvern-like monsters such as Legiana and Paolumu had no reason to make this place their hunting ground.

“Aibo, I think you’d better go back into your ball for now.” Su Yi edged closer to the precipice, glanced down into the boundless abyss shrouded in miasma, and swallowed hard.

The furious look on Nargacuga’s face when it had once fallen from the plateau still remained vivid in his memory. At this height, the corpses of monster hunters that had been dashed to death could have circled the Coral Plateau two and a half times.

Mao also leaned out to peer down from the edge. Pebbles at their feet were kicked over and fell away, yet the miasma below, like the realm of the dead, did not even stir a ripple.

Mao swallowed and said, “O-okay, meow…”

After returning Mao to the ball, Su Yi took a deep breath, hooked his grappling line onto the cable, then sprinted and leaped.

Wheee—!

The grappling line scraped along the cable with a sharp, shrill whine as Su Yi hung suspended in the air, sliding rapidly toward the platform opposite.

The wind lashed at his face. Su Yi’s heart hammered, every muscle in his body tensed, and with only a single trembling glance down into the bottomless valley of miasma, he immediately tore his eyes away.

In the distance, at the lookout by the Third Fleet airship, a hunter peered through binoculars and exclaimed in alarm, “What’s that? A hunter? Where did he come from?”

Thud!

Su Yi had never felt the solid earth beneath his feet to be so reassuring.

Once across the chasm, he released Mao again, and not long after, several people came down from the distant airship.

Su Yi patted the capture ball at his waist and murmured, “It’s time to start meeting the Investigation Team in earnest.”

“It’s the Field Master, meow!” Mao waved a paw in greeting toward the newcomers, and the one leading them was indeed the Field Master.

The Field Master stepped forward, clapped Su Yi on the shoulder, and studied him closely.

“You rascal! It’s a relief you weren’t hurt. You were gone so long I was starting to worry. How did it go?” the Field Master asked with a sigh of relief and a smile.

Su Yi answered a little sheepishly, “Haha, nothing serious. I just had a date before I came.”

Thinking that the Field Master had genuinely been worried about his safety while he himself had been back in the world of monsters for a leisurely stretch of time, Su Yi felt somewhat embarrassed.

“A date?” The Field Master blinked. There weren’t any other humans on the Coral Plateau, were there?

And when she thought of how some people used suggestive words to describe monsters and encounters with monsters, her expression became rather strange.

The Field Master: You’d better really mean a date.

Su Yi: What else?

He failed to notice the fleeting oddity in the Field Master’s face and continued, “Actually, there’s no need to worry too much about me. My partner and I are still pretty reliable.”

The Field Master straightened, then asked seriously, “So, you really captured that Nargacuga?”

The two hunters behind her stared in disbelief. This young hunter, armed so lightly and looking so plain, had actually captured a Nargacuga?

Su Yi scratched his head and said with some distress, “I did capture it, but Nargacuga’s temperament is a bit explosive. For now, it’s better not to let her out.”

The Field Master: You’ve even given it a name?! And you still say you’re not in love with monsters?!

“Incredible. You really did capture a monster.” The Field Master marveled. Using a monster’s power to fight monsters—indeed, that seemed far more efficient than the average hunter’s method.

To bring down powerful monsters, hunters usually had to make lengthy preparations, spend a great deal of time tracking them, and then battle them in prolonged, grueling combat.

Yet this young man, who could scarcely be called a proper hunter, had somehow gained the ability to tame monsters, turning himself into an entire hunting squad by his own hand.

“Let’s go inside the base first and talk. I’ll take you to meet the leader of the Third Fleet. She’s very interested in you,” the Field Master said.

...

The Third Fleet’s great airship, struck by a Legiana’s attack, had crashed at an angle beside the canyon, its nose driven downward.

Inside the airship, the complicated facilities had been adapted to suit the tilted structure.

The moment Su Yi stepped aboard, he caught a faint scent of incense and looked around with curiosity.

Many elderly scholars of the Wyverian race were seated at their stations, either conducting research or making notes.

Most of the desks had small incense burners upon them, each sending up a curling thread of smoke, apparently inspired by the fleet leader’s fondness for incense.

“A very strong atmosphere of research,” Su Yi said.

Rows of bookshelves packed with books, worktables covered in all manner of instruments and laboratory glassware—the Wyverian researchers paid no attention to Su Yi and his group, remaining immersed in their work.

Though isolated in a corner of the plateau, their academic zeal had not been extinguished in the least.

“For them, this place is paradise. And honestly, so is it for me,” the Field Master said with a laugh.

Ascending the wooden stairs and angling upward, one could see moonlight pouring through a skylight, shining upon the Third Fleet banner hanging above.

Beneath that banner sat a beautiful Wyverian woman, elegant among the surrounding books, one hand holding a small metal incense burner as she quietly watched the approaching group.

“Commander, this is the amazing young man I told you about,” the Field Master introduced with a smile.

“Oh? So it’s you? You look quite young.”

“I am the commander of the Third Fleet of the New World Research Commission. Welcome to our research base,” the elegant Wyverian woman said softly.

Su Yi looked at the woman before him.

Wyverians were similar to humans, but there were many differences as well.

Their long lifespans had already been mentioned, and in appearance, their noses were more prominent, their ears long and pointed like the elves of Western fantasy, their hands had only four fingers, and their feet resembled the claws of some beast.

The commander before him had black hair pinned up at the back of her head with a hairpin, and three red markings on her left forehead.

She wore a long robe that had grown somewhat faded and worn from her research work, yet this did nothing to diminish her beauty.

“Hello. My name is Su Yi. I’m a traveler, an adventurer, and a monster trainer.”

“This is my partner, Mao. She’s an Felyne from the Seliana outpost. We met by chance and have been exploring this continent together ever since,” Su Yi introduced.

“Meow!” Mao raised a paw.

The Wyverian commander nodded and said, “I’ve heard about your situation from the Field Master. I hadn’t expected that this New World would have guests beyond us.”

“More than your origins, I’m actually more curious about the method the Field Master mentioned—that you can put monsters into small balls, and your ability to tame them. May I see it for myself?”

The Wyverian commander leaned forward slightly, a look of great interest spreading across her face.