If this were in some other place, upholding the notion that any anomaly was most likely related to an Elder Dragon, the Admiral might have already begun an investigation. But this was, after all, the Ancient Tree—it was Logan's territory, and this anomaly might very well have something to do with Logan.
The uncertain Admiral planned to wait until he met Logan and then take a look.
Meanwhile, Logan was inside his new nest listening to the so-called year-end report.
Lying in his soft nest, Logan constantly felt his upper and lower eyelids fighting each other. Aki beside him had already closed her eyes and fallen asleep in broad daylight.
As for the cats' so-called total income this year, total expenses, how many new members the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader had recruited, and which other Grimalkynes from the forest's tribes wanted to join…
To be honest, Logan did not care much about this information.
The Ancient Tree had already passed its initial stage; the cats' development was proceeding in an orderly manner, and it did not require much concern from him at all.
But as their spiritual leader, he still needed to satisfy the cats' desire to express themselves—letting out a low growl from time to time, giving appropriate encouragement and praise amid their excited expressions, and simply conveying his attitude.
And in fact, he did not remember the specific content of what the cats were saying.
"This month seven pairs of Master Fire Wyverns accepted eleven related missions at the mission-taking counter—far fewer than last month, meow. But the main reason isn't on our side; it's that there are fewer missions from the Research Commission, meow, which has forced some Master Fire Wyverns to lower their prices to accept missions, meow. So I think we should—"
"Roar?"
He had originally planned to carry out an internal brainstorm out of boredom, thinking about what his next step should be for techniques he had not yet fully developed. But this one report from the cat instantly put him on alert.
His questioning sound and the act of raising his head directly cut off what the cat was about to say next.
"Wait, I remember that at the mission-taking counter, shouldn't we be the ones issuing missions to the Research Commission? How did it turn into the Research Commission issuing missions over there for our wyverns to accept?"
Logan knew about the matter of the mission counter too; on the day he returned, the cats' report had already mentioned this thing.
It was said to be completely controlled by the Grimalkynes, modeled after the mission-taking counter established over at Astera, and it was still in its fledgling stage with not many missions.
But the cats had not said that the missions here were issued by the Research Commission, while the ones accepting the missions were the Fire Wyverns.
Logan had thought this mission office was the same as the mission bulletin board at the Grimalkynes' station in Astera—used to issue missions to those Hunters or scholars of the Research Commission.
After all, during the last crisis with the Fire Wyvern group's Fire Wyvern eggs, it had been by issuing corresponding missions that they had gotten the Research Commission's scholars to take part.
Back then, they had even paid a considerable expense for it.
Now that the transport routes between the two sides had been completely opened up, and the Research Commission even had a new research base over here, setting up such a mission office was, in Logan's view, actually still a pretty good choice.
He had not expected that the purpose of this mission office would actually be the opposite of what he had imagined.
In fact, ever since Wildspire Waste, there had already been initial contact between the Fire Wyvern group and the Research Commission, and Logan knew that the two sides were carrying out cooperation to a certain extent.
But that kind of cooperation was in fact relatively independent for both sides; it could even be said that the initiative lay with the Fire Wyverns. Even after they returned to the Ancient Tree later on, the contact between the two sides had, in accordance with Logan's original plan, gone through the Grimalkynes as intermediaries, with both sides choosing each other before any contact took place.
He had not expected that now the Grimalkynes would actually tell him that the Fire Wyverns, just like Hunters, were obtaining payment by accepting missions; this indeed went beyond his original expectations.
Of course, what he found most intolerable was that the Fire Wyvern group had actually started engaging in internal competition!
Memories of his last hellish work schedule exploded in his mind.
To compete upward in strength, that was fine!
But to compete downward in terms of rewards through internal competition, that was not acceptable!
Such a mode of interaction was very dangerous; what Logan wanted was to cooperate with Astera while both sides remained independent groups.
It was obvious that if such a mode of interaction was allowed to continue, the final result would very likely make the Fire Wyvern group, and even the entire Ancient Tree, become a part of Astera.
Therefore, on this question, Logan pulled himself together and held a discussion with the cats—of course, in reality he only discussed it with the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader and the Grimalkyne sage.
After all, on the Ancient Tree now, the Ancient Tree's Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes were precisely such a large tribe formed by absorbing other Grimalkyne groups.
After discussing for half a day, the conclusion reached was that the current situation was indeed only a budding sign, but the true cause of this budding sign was not the Fire Wyverns' internal competition, but the logistics-restriction rules Logan had established.
These Fire Wyverns' ultimate goal was still to enhance their own strength, not to enjoy life.
Aside from innate talent, the speed of improvement with ample logistics supplies and without logistics was truly different. But Logan's rules limited their channels for obtaining logistics supplies, and thus this loophole appeared—obtaining payment through accepting missions and then exchanging it for supplies.
Solving this internal competition was actually very simple—Logan only needed to give a single order to resolve it.
But the difficulty lay in the fact that their logistics supplies were indeed limited. If this problem was not resolved, then similar internal-competition issues would continue to exist.
"If only we could also have the ability to manufacture or even develop corresponding medicines, meow~"
The Grimalkyne sage sighed.
But how could the development of medicine be so simple? The Grimalkyne sage could handle basic concoctions, but subsequent research into medicines specifically suited to Fire Wyverns required a vast accumulation of knowledge—something the Grimalkynes, who had only just stepped out of the primitive era and into the town era, could not accomplish.
For a moment, silence fell inside the nest. Tonkotsu, who was dutifully acting as a guard beside them, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but then, remembering that there was still no news of the Wyverian girl, closed it again in uncertainty.
Amid such silence, today's report came to an end. Logan told the cats to leave for now, had them issue the restriction order regarding the mission office, and decided to think carefully on his own to see if there was any way to solve this problem.
After all, he could not just cut everything off with one stroke and directly forbid the Fire Wyvern group from contacting the Research Commission, right?
If they were to encounter something like the Fire Wyvern eggs incident again in the future, how could he still have the nerve to ask the Research Commission for help?
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