#657Chapter 657 Are you a serious dragon rider?AI Model: gemini-2.5-flash
Chapter 657: Is Your Dragon Knight Legitimate?
[Detecting your first entry into a 'Monster Hunter' + 'Soul Sacrifice' related instance—]
['Game Expert' is active—]
[You have successfully loaded the enhanced protagonist template—"Monster Rider / Nameless"—from the 'Monster Hunter Stories' world blueprint.]
[Monster Rider: An enhanced protagonist template, with its blueprint based on the self-created protagonist known as the "Rider Hero" from 'Monster Hunter Stories'. While other Monster Hunter titles share the same worldview but follow different developmental branches, their setting background and monster encyclopedia are shared. However, compared to Hunters who focus on hunting monsters and maintaining ecological balance, Riders advocate for establishing bonds with monsters and living together. The ideological divergence between the two has led to significant conflicts in the past.
When you choose to load the "Monster Rider" template—
You will simultaneously gain the template-exclusive armament "Kinship Stone".
You will simultaneously gain the template-exclusive skills 'Human Felyne MAX', 'Rite of Succession', 'Weapon Master', and 'Beast Tamer'.
Loading and unloading this character template each have a 60-minute cooldown.]
[Additional comment: This is the charm of a Dragon Knight!]
After entering the instance, Cheng Tian's "random death" loaded this "Monster Rider" template, which is theoretically of the same origin as Monster Hunter but has taken a completely different developmental path.
In the New World, Hunters are ubiquitous, but there are no beings here that can be called Riders.
Where Riders gather, pure Hunters can still be found, but where Hunters gather, Riders are nowhere to be seen.
To some extent, the ideological conflict between Monster Riders and Monster Hunters is even more intense than that between the Redemption and Sacrifice factions of Soul Sacrifice.
It even led to a "Great Purge" incident where the Hunter community attempted to eradicate the Rider community.
The reason given was that they feared the Riders would collude with monsters to wipe out the Hunters, so they acted first.
But the result was a mutual loss for both sides.
Hunters generally have higher individual combat power and extensive experience in hunting large monsters, while Riders have relatively lower personal combat power but can compensate for some of this deficiency due to the existence of their Kinship Monsters.
Therefore, Cheng Tian's current template loading, which brings a special identity, is quite sensitive in the Hunter-dominated Astera, especially for the older generation.
Without any surprise, the news that the famous Cheng was actually a Monster Rider had already reached the high-level tables of Astera before the Fifth Fleet members, inevitably causing a considerable stir and discussion.
Moreover, when this matter is applied to Cheng Tian and the Crimson Deviljho, the whole situation appears even more delicate.
Because Cheng Tian's "free-range" behavior has objectively affected Astera's hunting operations, continuously causing considerable trouble for many Hunters, which was precisely the key concern Hunters had about Riders in the first place.
In their perception, Riders could only bond with and tame monsters like Jagras, Kulu-Ya-Ku, or Rathalos—creatures that, while threatening, were within manageable limits and far from reaching a strategic threat level.
However, Cheng Tian, who successfully contracted a Deviljho, shattered their preconceived notions with a single punch.
Logically, they told themselves that even the famous Cheng absolutely could not tame an Elder Dragon!
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
But for some who understood related secrets, such as the information about the "Ten Dragon Knights," Riders capable of taming Elder Dragons had indeed existed.
Once this Rider identity was exposed, Astera, which had initially been very welcoming of Cheng Tian's arrival, immediately made urgent adjustments to its strategy—
To urgently recall a certain individual capable of holding the fort!
Given the current situation where Cheng Tian's intentions as a Rider were unknown, Astera's high command needed to prioritize stability, using every possible method to keep Cheng calm and prevent more uncontrollable events from occurring.
Following one transport cart after another, driven by docile Aptonoths and loaded with various Old World supplies, the newly arrived Fifth Fleet members were also about to reach Astera with the main force.
However, many people's gazes involuntarily lingered on Cheng Tian, and on the Crimson Deviljho beneath Cheng Tian, which was trying to balance itself like a water bottle on its head.
At this point, this group finally completely believed that the Crimson Deviljho, this monster, was indeed this man's mount and pet!
Especially the Hunters responsible for the reception; many of them had been troubled by the Crimson Deviljho in one way or another, either losing their prey or their equipment, or even watching helplessly as their painstakingly captured monster was swallowed whole right in front of them... Yet, the idea of "holding Cheng Tian responsible" was quickly dismissed after a moment's thought.
They couldn't even defeat his pet; how could they now go to the owner to demand an explanation?
Hunters are hunters; while they target other prey, they are also inevitably targeted by others as prey. This is ecological balance.
Instead of trying to save face, it was more practical to simply admit their weakness and train harder.
There was indeed some distance from the landing point to the official Astera, and given the active biodiversity of the New World, the journey should not have been peaceful.
However, due to the presence of the Crimson Deviljho, this land-policing monster, which actively released its aura as an apex predator, the monsters that had been lurking nearby, attracted by the caravan's noises, all tucked their tails and fled.
Through the tracks left on the ground by the fleeing creatures, combined with the swaggering Crimson Deviljho, many Fifth Fleet Hunters, whose courage had grown, felt a ripple in their hearts.
As elites selected from the Old World Hunter community by the Hunter's Guild, they had taken down at least eight to ten large monsters. Hunting monsters had become their instinct. Yet, the fact that Cheng Tian rode on a monster's back, and could even deter and drive away wild monsters, completely overturned the education and reality they had always accepted... How to put it, they seemed to be a little envious?
Thus, a seed of thought, named "Maybe being a Monster Rider isn't so bad?", had quietly been planted in their minds.
The new generation is always more receptive to
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