Zack didn't wander around like a traveler in a new land.
Instead, he went back to the base to continue his story missions.
Following the Investigator Leader's advice, Zack first went to the Smithy and had a chat with the leader of the Second Fleet.
Using the materials he had gathered, he upgraded his greatsword.
"But how did the Second Fleet leader become a blacksmith?"
"Where are my hunter buddies? Where's the Mohawk guy from before? And how come my bun-head teammate never comes hunting with me? Haven't I triggered the right story events yet?"
Looking at the new mission called 'Kulu-Ya-Ku Disturbance', Zack scratched his head.
So far, the only one with him was his Palico, which he had named 123.
He hadn't seen the familiar Mohawk hunter from the ship since then.
And his handler, who didn't even have a name and was just called 'Partner', always stayed in the canteen or at the camp while he went out on missions. Was she really his partner?
As before, Zack ate a meal and set off. Looking at the bun-head handler in the camp, Zack felt a little strange.
But he didn't think too much about it.
After all, this was just the beginning of the game.
Maybe he would meet his teammates as the story progressed.
That must be it!
The more Zack thought about it, the more sense it made.
Just like in Dark Souls, you only meet Onion Knight and Solaire after beating one or two bosses.
Monster Hunter: World must be the same. It lets players get used to the game controls first, and then the hunters from the Starbase will come to help when you face a boss.
Thinking this, Zack smiled and nodded in understanding.
That must be it, no doubt about it!
After eating his meal, he entered the Ancient Forest and followed the green Scoutflies.
Soon, Zack found the target of the mission.
Unlike the Jagras from before, the Kulu-Ya-Ku in front of him looked much more fierce.
The mission required him to kill three male Kulu-Ya-Ku and five female Kulu-Ya-Ku.
The male Kulu-Ya-Ku looked bigger, while the female Kulu-Ya-Ku were smaller.
Instead of immediately going after the biggest Kulu-Ya-Ku, Zack found a few smaller ones.
He needed to test them first.
They weren't much different from the Jagras, and he took them down easily.
Looking at the Kulu-Ya-Ku corpses on the ground, Zack's confidence grew. He turned to face the real target of the mission.
"Is this armor the Kulu-Ya-Ku's hardest point? I got deflected!"
Because he had killed a few herbivores on the way to warm up, combined with the earlier fight with the small Kulu-Ya-Ku, the sharpness of his greatsword had dropped from green to yellow.
On top of that, the attack hit the Kulu-Ya-Ku's hard part, causing a deflection.
The in-game character froze briefly, and the weapon's durability dropped a lot.
The next moment, the Kulu-Ya-Ku rammed into Zack, knocking the character to the ground.
He lost a small amount of health.
But after seeing the health drop, Zack suddenly felt confident.
"Is that it? Is that all?"
He wasn't afraid of that attack power!
Seeing that the character only lost a little health, Zack made the character get up and fight the Kulu-Ya-Ku head-on.
Dodge? No way!
Charge up a sword attack. Whoever runs is a coward!
In no time, the Kulu-Ya-Ku fell to the greatsword.
Continuing the Kulu-Ya-Ku mission, Zack thought that these monsters were a bit stronger than the Jagras.
But only a little stronger, not even close to being a real challenge.
Charge up one attack, then two normal strikes, and they died.
Soon, Zack had killed several Kulu-Ya-Ku and completed the mission objective.
But this time, instead of getting a prompt to return to the Starbase, he entered a cutscene.
The Great Jagras that had attacked him earlier in the story suddenly jumped out and swallowed the Kulu-Ya-Ku.
'New task: Hunt the Great Jagras'
As the cutscene ended, Zack received a new mission.
"The Great Jagras? Is this the boss fight?" Zack was excited.
The Jagras and Kulu-Ya-Ku from before were easy to beat.
It was fun, but he wanted a challenge.
"Too bad the demo doesn't let you match with teammates. It would be fun to team up and fight the boss."
Zack sighed with regret.
Then, following the Investigation Team Leader's instructions, he began searching for the Great Jagras.
Unlike regular games, he had to collect information about the monster on the ground,
such as footprints or leftovers.
After meeting certain progress requirements, the green Scoutflies would lead the hunter to the monster.
Zack found this interesting, giving him a sense of hunting without being tedious.
Following the green Scoutflies, Zack circled through the Ancient Forest a couple of times and then saw the Great Jagras.
It was lying there, as if it were resting.
It looked like a giant lizard.
The food pouch or belly that it had swallowed earlier was swollen, like a toad's puffed-up throat.
It looked kind of gross.
"This should be the first boss in the game. I wonder what its fighting power is like."
"But considering it was swallowed by an Anjanath in the earlier cutscene, it's probably weak."
Zack thought to himself from a distance.
But he wouldn't know for sure until he fought it.
With that in mind, Zack controlled the in-game hunter and prepared to move forward.
But he was surprised by what happened next. As the hunter walked over, the Great Jagras, who had been resting on the ground, noticed something and got up, roaring and staring at Zack.
Usually, when facing the Kulu-Ya-Ku and Jagras, they would either charge at him as soon as they saw him, or ignore him if he didn't attack.
But the Great Jagras was different.
It didn't attack or ignore him, but was being wary.
Intelligence!
That was what Zack sensed.
"Is this Nebula Games' so-called AI system? It feels pretty good!"
Watching the monster's actions, Zack couldn't help but be amazed.
Compared to before, Zack felt that this monster's AI was different from the smaller monsters.
But after all, it was a boss, and the first boss he would face in the game.
After sighing, Zack still rushed forward to test the waters.
He would see if the game was as easy as he thought, or a bit challenging.
(End of The Chapter)
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