As the degree of civilization over on the Ancient Tree side grew higher and higher, under the subtle influence of time, the Research Commission gradually began to automatically classify the Ancient Tree region as part of the Ancient Tree's sphere of influence.
In addition, over these past years they were either paying off debts or on the way to paying off debts, which resulted in the Research Commission, aside from routine maintenance of the transport routes between the Ancient Tree and the Ancient Ruins Basin, not continuing to expand investigations into other regions—let alone hunting monsters.
After the debts were finally paid off, in order to stabilize the ecology, the Research Commission's hunting requirements were standardized again: hunters needed a hunting permit to hunt, and the ecological environment of the Ancient Forest in these past years had, on the whole, been tending toward stability.
This led to a large portion of hunters: those with slightly better day-to-day gear wore Jagras armor sets; those worse off could only wear ore armor sets or certain endemic-life armor sets. Their routine combat capability could be said to have dropped drastically.
The materials left in storage were even unable to handle the routine upkeep of their original sets.
The chaos in the Ancient Forest had already been going on for some time. The Research Commission had carried out some preliminary investigations as well, but Logan's attitude on the Ancient Tree side was one of letting it run its course. In the end he even left for a period of time. The Research Commission—having already suffered losses to Qurio in the Wildspire Waste—when faced with such a perfect opportunity, could only restrain the thoughts in their hearts and quietly wait for Logan's opinion.
Now! It was time!
Since the Dragon of Order had issued such an order, what did their Research Commission still have to worry about?
What's more, for the Commander, this also solved a problem that had been giving him a headache all along.
The Fifth Fleet was coming, but in order to prevent ecological stress responses, this Fifth Fleet hunter corps would not bring their own equipment. Although it was said that the Kingdom side would sponsor Defender armor sets for members of the recommended group, the other hunters would have only the most basic leather armor set as protection, and they didn't even have weapons.
This, in turn, meant Astera had to prepare a batch of weapons and equipment that were presentable—at the very least, at the level of Jagras materials. Yet, in the warehouse, there were quite a lot of Fire Wyvern scales, but there weren't many that were enough to be used to forge equipment.
Now Logan's order truly had solved his urgent, pressing need.
"Right—then what about the Fire Wyverns that live in the Ancient Tree region?"
The Commander suddenly asked. The hunter delivering the message froze for a moment, then immediately understood what the Commander meant. Thinking of Tonkotsu's conversation with the person in charge of the Ancient Tree base, he opened his mouth and replied, "Aside from the Fire Wyverns settled on the Ancient Tree, the other Fire Wyverns have nothing to do with the Ancient Tree at all!!"
As soon as those words came out, the Commander was finally at ease.
Among the hunters still left in the New World, most had once possessed armor on the level of a Fire Wyvern set.
In those years, the Fire Wyverns followed Logan in migrating, and all kinds of battles made Fire Wyvern sets widely popular within the Research Commission. But after the Ancient Tree's civilization stabilized, based on the human worldview, they always felt that the other Fire Wyverns living in the Ancient Tree region were related by blood to the Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns. In order to prevent the relationship between the two sides from developing problems over such a matter, even when they went elsewhere to hunt Fire Wyverns, a burden would arise in their hearts.
As a result, when Research Commission hunters faced Fire Wyverns, most of the time they only drove them off rather than hunting them.
And because the Fire Wyvern sets had, for many years, not received excellent core materials for maintenance, they ended up being sealed away.
The fingers of the Commander's hand gripping the parchment unknowingly began to turn pale from using too much force.
After taking several deep breaths, his gaze became firm again.
"Order! Unseal all applications from every department regarding monster hunts in the Ancient Forest. Aside from investigation missions that affect diplomatic relations, hunters' hunting targets, under compliance with the guidelines, have no upper limit! As for the hunting quantity…"
The Commander had originally hesitated a bit over this question, but then he thought: with only so few hunters, even if a hunter squad went all-out, and had extremely good luck, hunting one large monster in a day, for the Ancient Forest at its current stage, would be nothing more than a drop in the ocean.
"The hunting quantity has no upper limit!"
After the order was issued, whether it was Astera or the Ancient Tree task management office, in an extremely short time they listed on the board all kinds of tasks in great variety and quantity.
Hunters who originally still had to fight over tasks could now fully settle down and choose slowly.
All kinds of high-level armor sets that had been sealed away for a long time were once again worn on their bodies.
Wingdrakes, one after another, accompanied by whistling, carried hunters flying toward the depths of the forest. These humanoid monsters finally bared their fangs once again, for themselves—and for the Ancient Forest—launching hunt after hunt anew!!
The blood-soaked slaughter in the Ancient Forest stained the land red. Large amounts of vegetation and endemic life absorbed nutrients and began to grow wildly, and saturated biological carrying capacity started to show gaps.
It was at this moment that a hunter—exhausted to the point that his lips were cracked, with his Wingdrake also covered head to toe in fine wounds—staggered into the Ancient Tree research base and brought back a shocking piece of news.
The Third Fleet's mobile research base, while just passing through the Great Ravine corridor and before it had gone deep into the region filled with all kinds of land coral, was attacked by a Flying Wyvern that the Third Fleet Master had named Legiana. The mobile research base made an emergency forced landing on a cliff.
Although there were escort hunters and some defensive installations present, and they were temporarily in a safe state, the various logistical supplies likely would not last very long.
This request for aid poured a bucket of cold water over the feverish Research Commission.
The Admiral sent people to deliver a message to Astera while heading to Blazefire Village to seek assistance.
However, when the cats and the Wyverians heard that the forced-landing site was inside the Great Ravine, they immediately shook their heads and said that the difficulty of providing support was far too high—even the Grimalkyne resource-gathering teams could not reach that far.
What's more, the Ancient Forest was now extremely chaotic, with all kinds of Flying Wyverns unusually active, greatly increasing the danger level. After repeated discussions, in the end the Admiral could only steel himself and go look for Logan.
"Supporting the mobile research base?"
After all these years, Logan had thought that the matter of the Third Fleet would no longer occur. After all, according to the original course of events, the Third Fleet should have modified hot-air balloon airships not long after arriving in the New World to pursue Kushala Daora.
And now, this mobile research base had only been gradually completed after the arrival of the Fourth Fleet. Unexpectedly, after all the twists and turns, it still happened. The fortunate thing was that, thanks to sufficient preparation, it had changed from a crash into a forced landing, and the ship not only had escort hunters but also ballistae and the like. Its safety had been greatly increased—this could be considered one of the changes.
As for providing support, it seemed doable. After all, the supplies would be carried by the Research Commission's hunters, and the Fire Wyverns would only handle transport and escort. Besides, the Ancient Forest was still in such chaos right now.
After a round of negotiations, the Admiral walked out of Logan's nest with a somewhat ashen face. Looking at the blazing sun in the sky, he only felt a chill run through his entire body.
Thinking of the terms he had just agreed to, the Admiral made a major decision!
He would go into the Great Ravine as part of the first batch of support personnel—and for the next several years, he did not plan to come back at all!!
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