In the Ancient Tree region, with Logan having acted as a second sun here almost every day over these past years and relying on the wondrous life energy, it had finally regained its once lush appearance.
Only, compared to before, there was a tiny, subtle difference.
Namely, the climate environment of the Ancient Tree region had actually turned into a tropical rainforest climate!
As massive amounts of vegetation grew wildly, it attracted many herbivorous creatures to live here. All kinds of herbivorous creatures, relying on the abundant water and wood resources here, as well as the almost constant temperature throughout the four seasons, obtained plentiful opportunities to reproduce.
All kinds of species became abundant, and the biological capacity of the entire region also increased greatly.
Originally already fiercely competitive, the Ancient Tree region had, over these past few years, once again seen large numbers of large monsters pour in. Even the Zinogre packs on the cliffs, the Astalos that liked to act alone, the Yian Kut-Ku packs deep in the forest, and even Lagiacrus followed the inland river into this region.
It could be said that within the Ancient Tree region, there had never been a time more chaotic and dangerous than now.
At one point, even the transport route from the Ancient Tree to Astera was cut off. The most extreme incident was that even when Flame Rathalos personally took action to clear the route, it still suffered no light injuries—a rare species of Nargacuga that could become invisible under the moonlight, Lucent Nargacuga, had almost taught it a very thorough lesson.
If it were not for Flame Rathalos being able to fly and forcibly dragging things out until daybreak, it probably would have suffered far more than just this bit of injury.
In the end, it was Logan, taking Aki with him, who put on an Elder Dragon-level husband-and-wife two-on-one against Lucent Nargacuga. With an absolutely overwhelming stance, they drove this rare species out of the transport route, and only after also intimidating the many monsters that wanted to occupy the nearby territory did they finally restore the already tottering transport route.
...
"It worked, I finally did it!"
A voice that sounded almost deranged rang out from within the alchemy workshop of Blazefire Village, as the ancient Wyverian prophet scooped a crystalline triangular scale out of the enormous alchemy cauldron.
Unlike those alchemical accessories sold to hunters, this triangular scale had been made using the crystalline branches that had appeared over the years in the hollow inner passages of the Ancient Tree as the basic medium, then combined with Wyverian alchemy and, through countless experiments, produced as a finished product.
Feeling the flow of the energy circuits within this triangular scale, the energy filled inside it was not only gentle and stable, but its energy capacity was also far stronger than those conventional alchemical accessories. If converted into the grading model used by the Research Commission, the rarity of this new alchemical accessory would be at least above 11.
Most importantly, because the basic alchemical materials for this new accessory also included materials from the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group, not only could hunters use it, it could even be applied to the Fire Wyverns themselves—it was just unknown what effect it would have.
Moreover, inlaying was still a problem.
It was just that the first step in everything was the hardest. Now that they had taken the first step, the follow-up also had a direction.
"D-D-Did you write it down?"
The ancient Wyverian prophet's voice was somewhat trembling. What a historic moment this was~ If this Wyverian youth, who was serving as his assistant, failed to write it down, he would jump up and break his knees with a knock even if it killed him.
"I wrote it down, teacher!"
The ancient Wyverian youth also had a face full of excitement. What excited him was not only that he could have his name recorded in the history books in the future, but also the reward from inside the Ancient Tree. It would be enough for him to exchange for another scale shed by Logan and, at the same time, buy a whole new house!
A house even closer to the top of the Ancient Tree!
Although the ancient Wyverian tribe had only integrated into the Ancient Tree for a few years, under the strong religious atmosphere here, apart from a few elderly ancient Wyverians who could still restrain themselves, none of the young ancient Wyverians failed to go with the flow, all being assimilated by the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes.
Especially the Wyverian girl who could sense Logan's emotions and understand Logan's voice—she had long since gotten mixed up together with the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes, and lately seemed to be discussing, in imitation of the documents about shrines unearthed in ancient ruins, plans to build a shrine on the Ancient Tree for worshiping Logan.
In fact, even the scholars lingering at the research base on the Ancient Tree had provided some help in this regard.
After all, for the Old World, many villages had had the custom of building shrines to worship Elder Dragons since ancient times, and in some remote places they even worshiped rare species that did not even count as Elder Dragons.
As for the development on the Ancient Tree over these years, Logan was still quite satisfied. And as the degree of mutation among the Fire Wyverns on the tree had begun to slow over these past few years, he also lifted the breeding ban.
It was just that the Fire Wyvern group could no longer lay 4–8 eggs at a time as they had in the past; now, at most, they could only lay 3 at a time.
The hatching rate was still quite good; basically every egg could successfully hatch a hatchling.
But the mothers were suffering!
Perhaps due to atavism in the bloodline, the mothers had to expend an enormous amount of energy when nurturing these eggs, and after laying them the period of weakness was exaggeratedly long. It even made some Rathian that could be considered of advanced age no longer dare to bear offspring, fearing that they would not hold on and would die.
And Aki had finally brought good news—Logan sensed within Aki a pulse of new life energy.
It was just that the little thing was very mischievous. After gestating for nearly a full year, there was still no sign at all of being born. Every day, aside from draining most of the life energy Aki passively absorbed, there was actually no other movement.
If Aki were not currently ranked second within the Symbiosis energy pyramid of the Fire Wyvern group—above her was Logan's downward infusion, below her was the energy feedback from the Fire Wyvern group—then with the passive life energy absorption rate being not much different from that of ordinary Elder Dragons, fully able to bear this small life's needs, Logan would probably have already been planning how to get rid of it.
In the end, the uneasy Logan even specifically ran to Astera and found Mother Chameleos, who had begun a period of seclusion, to ask her for advice.
When he learned that Mother Chameleos had taken a full three years to gestate her two good-for-nothing sons before successfully carrying them to term, and that among the three eggs she laid only two were live eggs—the remaining dead egg was eaten by her as a nutritional meal—Logan finally felt much more at ease.
Elder Dragons, well, having a longer gestation and hatching period was understandable. Even ordinary gold and silver Fire Wyverns needed to build nests in places rich in life energy like Elder Dragons before beginning to bear offspring.
Thus Aki's situation also counted as normal.
From then on, Logan changed that lazy appearance he had developed after becoming an Elder Dragon, and every day, inseparable from Aki, took her out hunting and patrolling, almost never letting her leave his sight. When sleeping together, he would also lick Aki's scales from time to time.
This rare appearance was just like back when they had first settled into the Ancient Tree, during every "mating" season, Aki's attitude toward Logan.
At first it was fine; Aki even quite enjoyed it. But as time went on, this irritable little female wyvern could not stand this clinging behavior anymore and forcibly pushed Logan out of the nest, telling him to go do something on his own and stop bothering her!
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