Closing his eyes, Asterion quietly sensed the changes brought about by this Odogaron—it wasn't enough.
Instinct told him that simply eating an Odogaron like this wasn't enough. The evolutionary trait information currently absorbed was still insufficient because this Odogaron was too weak. It wasn't a Tempered Monster, and its purity was severely lacking.
Powerful monsters often possessed superior bloodlines compared to their weaker kin, along with clearer and more profound evolutionary traits.
If Asterion wanted to acquire a special organ or specific trait from an Elder Dragon for evolution, eating just one would likely be enough, because the very existence of a monster at the Elder Dragon level signified power.
They were born at the finish line; ordinary monsters weren't even qualified to brush against them.
But if the trait Asterion wanted existed in a common wyvern, he would have to eat many of them. Just like how he had eaten many Paolumu back then to evolve his air-sac carapace—unless the ordinary monster he consumed was powerful enough to shorten this process.
One Odogaron like this was far from enough. Asterion continued his search within the Rotten Vale.
He hadn't felt the sensation of sunlight on his body for many days. He was beginning to doubt whether he could still adapt to the brilliant sunshine and high temperatures of the Wildspire Waste if he were to head outside now.
No wonder the Odogaron living here year-round had degraded eyesight. Although they hadn't completely lost their eyes like the Khezu, their eyes were covered by a layer of fully grown nictitating membranes that couldn't open, equivalent to congenital cataracts, allowing them to only faintly perceive changes in light.
The real New World was far more vast than in the game. Even though Asterion had become the apex ruler of a region in the Wildspire Waste, the territory he actually occupied was just a part of the flower field marsh area. Now that he had strategically shifted to the underground areas, he rarely went to the flower field marsh anymore.
With Asterion's stamina and speed, running day and night, it had taken him several months just to travel from the southern part of the Wildspire Waste to the entrance of the Rotten Vale in the north. Now that he was inside the Rotten Vale, it was pitch black and boundlessly huge.
At first, he would mark his path with his tailblade to avoid losing his way back. However, after so many days in this complex, three-dimensional cavern world, Asterion suddenly realized that his marks were everywhere.
He couldn't tell them apart. He absolutely couldn't tell them apart.
In the end, Asterion simply gave up on marking the path. He had mentally prepared himself: if he really couldn't find the way back to the surface, he would just open his mouth and start chewing through the rock overhead. Sooner or later, he'd gnaw out a path.
Uh, one could only say that a dumb wyvern has a dumb wyvern's methods.
Initially, Asterion was a bit worried about what would happen if he prematurely encountered that Kushala Daora nearing the end of its lifespan. However, after being active in this corner of the Rotten Vale for a while, he had completely lost that worry—who the hell knew where that old Kushala Daora had run off to?!
He couldn't find a single trace of its activity, let alone run into it.
Asterion even discovered a portion of a Dalamadur skeleton, half-exposed from the stone wall of a cavern. Headless and tailless, only a section was visible; the other half of the bones were buried in the rock, the two seemingly fused into one.
The size of the spread ribs could even accommodate a large wyvern of Asterion's size dancing on top of them, which truly made Asterion incredibly envious—a monster of that size! If he could have the physique of a Dalamadur, could he split the New World with a single slash?
A Glavenus as massive as a mountain dragon... that would be interesting.
More than one Dalamadur had died here. Asterion didn't know which specific Dalamadur this carcass belonged to, but it was definitely ancient; otherwise, it wouldn't have fused with the rock.
Needless to say, Asterion naturally tried taking a few bites of the Dalamadur bones to see if he could find any useful evolutionary information. Unfortunately, he absorbed nothing. These bones were no different from stones, completely devoid of nutrition.
It felt a bit like he was on vacation. Asterion had already hunted three Odogarons. These stubborn apex predators were relatively easy to find. After all, like honey badgers, Odogarons would never choose to flee or avoid a fight before actually clashing.
But to be honest, within Asterion's current range of activity, he couldn't find any more Odogarons. The number of predators a region could support was limited, unless he searched further away, but further away...
Stepping through the rotten meat slurry, Asterion saw a patch of yellow-green crystals on the wall near the top of the cave—like the mark left by a paintbrush wiping across paper, going from thick to thin, heavy to light. It was so familiar.
Indeed familiar, because when Asterion's own tailblade scraped against a stone wall, it left the same kind of mark, just without those yellow-green crystals.
And Asterion knew exactly what monster left these traces. Aside from the Glavenus subspecies, the Acidic Glavenus, that lived in the Rotten Vale, who else could it be?
He stopped. Right across from Asterion, a similarly huge wyvern stood quietly in the darkness. Its orange-red eyes shone exceptionally bright in the dim light, staring right at Asterion.
A familiar face. It was the face Asterion often saw in his reflection by the water: a pair of short, thick, curved horns, a massive maw full of sharp teeth, and symmetrical spines running from its skull to the radiator shell on its back—but compared to the radiator shell on Asterion's back, which grew wildly like flames, this guy's radiator shell looked much more docile, lying flat forward against its back.
It looked a full size thinner than Asterion. The carapace on its body wasn't the brownish-red of a normal Glavenus, but a yellow-green that better matched the Rotten Vale.
But the most distinctive feature was its tailblade. It was more slender, and also longer.
Acidic Glavenus.
Although it was strange to say, from Asterion's perspective—no, it should be said that by Glavenus aesthetic standards, this Acidic Glavenus opposite him was a very beautiful female.
A beauty among Glavenus.
Shaking his head, Asterion drove this thought from his mind, because the Acidic Glavenus across from him had already assumed an aggressive stance. She curved her body, angling her long tailblade from behind to the front.
Interesting.
Asterion suddenly wanted to laugh. Although he always called himself the Long Sword among dragons, that was only because Glavenus had a tail-bite spinning move that resembled an Iai slash. In reality, the Glavenus was a monster modeled after the Great Sword. Aside from that tail-bite spin, every other move was a wide, heavy slash.
But the guy in front of him was different.
The Acidic Glavenus was a subspecies designed with the Long Sword image in mind. So, truthfully speaking, the Acidic Glavenus was the real Long Sword among dragons.
Having lost the pyro sac, it could no longer spit molten fireballs to attack.
Compared to biting enemies with its mouth, it preferred to use its tailblade to slash at them.
In a sense, a Glavenus like Asterion who disliked breathing fire or attacking with his mouth wasn't rare; nature had already produced kin evolving in that direction.
Didn't that make things interesting?
Unable to suppress his excitement, he curved his body and similarly angled his tailblade from behind to the front. Asterion glanced slightly; his tailblade was nearly twice as thick as that of the Acidic Glavenus opposite him. The difference between a Great Sword and a Long Sword lay precisely here.
The Long Sword Wyvern versus the Wyvern who used a Great Sword as a Long Sword—whose swordsmanship was superior?
A tacit understanding. Neither Asterion nor the opposing Acidic Glavenus let out a roar to greet each other.
Clang!!
There was only the sound of tailblades clashing. The sound of tailblades swung at the same time colliding—this was their best greeting.
The Acidic Glavenus's sword speed was very fast. After the initial clash, she turned sideways and slashed upwards along Asterion's tailblade. Asterion, naturally, wouldn't sit and wait for death. The time he spent following the Huntsman to cultivate and learn the essence of Hunter swordsmanship wasn't in vain.
With a nimble Foresight Slash, he dodged the tailblade hacking toward his body. Closely following this brief opening, Asterion swept a horizontal slash at the Acidic Glavenus, whose back was exposed due to swinging that extremely long blade while turning.
But this Acidic Glavenus had plenty of combat experience. The moment Asterion dodged her slash, the entire wyvern performed a side roll on the ground, directly dodging Asterion's counter-slash following the Foresight Slash.
Good lord. Asterion was genuinely impressed.
Meeting for the first time, in their first exchange, neither wyvern gained an advantage. Both were cautiously probing.
For Asterion, this kind of battle was much more interesting.
Always using his tailblade to hack at guys who still used teeth and claws for primitive attacks really didn't get him fired up. That feeling was like driving a tank against a Polish cavalry charge; the two sides weren't on the same level.
Clang!!
The two tailblades clashed together once more, only to separate on contact— Clang!!
This massive cavern was instantly filled with sounds like iron being forged. A match for his strength filled Asterion with drive. The swordsmanship he learned from the Huntsman was being constantly applied in this battle.
The battle with the Acidic Glavenus was like two swordsmen crossing blades. It wasn't a contest of size or brute strength like fighting other monsters, but a contest of swordsmanship!!
This was a brand-new experience Asterion had never felt despite all his battles. This fight was completely different from sparring with the Huntsman, because the Huntsman was, after all, just a human. Whether it was his strength, his size, or the size of the weapon he used, he was far smaller than Asterion, and his combat objectives were entirely different.
The Huntsman couldn't tank a slash from Asterion and then counterattack, but the Acidic Glavenus could.
Clang!!
Another ferocious vertical cleave. In a rush, the Acidic Glavenus swept her tailblade across the ground to charge up, slashing upward to block Asterion's blade.
But it was too heavy.
Asterion had never entertained the idea of streamlining his tailblade. Even if the tailblade he used now was just randomly forged and would be discarded once evolution was complete, the Iron Ore and Machalite Ore Asterion used were real—and heavy.
This weight was simply incomparable to the Acidic Glavenus's more slender tailblade. It wasn't an illusion; a notch had appeared on the Acidic Glavenus's tailblade!
On the other hand, Asterion... honestly, given the thickness and weight of his tailblade, calling it a bladed hammer wouldn't be inaccurate.
After the clash, the tailblades separated again—wait, they didn't separate?!
A trace of cunning flashed in the Acidic Glavenus's orange-red eyes. This time, she didn't choose to retreat. Instead, shifting her legs, she turned to the side. Borrowing the force of lifting and parrying Asterion's tailblade, her already-swung tailblade followed the momentum and slashed back down!
This slash was faster and swifter than any previous strike!
This guy hadn't been using her full strength earlier. Instead, after adapting to Asterion's attack rhythm and strength, she picked an opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
Truly worthy of being the smartest among the Brute Wyverns, even knowing how to use such deceptive tactics.
Without a doubt, the sudden explosive slash from the Acidic Glavenus landed viciously on Asterion's side— BOOM!!!
The air-sac carapace that was struck exploded instantly. This sudden explosion even startled the Acidic Glavenus, and the shockwave generated by the blast directly knocked away her swinging tailblade, preventing any concrete damage.
"ROAR!!" (Didn't expect that, did you?!)
This was the first roar since the battle began, but Asterion's roar wasn't to mock or show off. His voice was loud, and in the enclosed terrain of the cave, the roar mixed with echoes to become exceptionally deafening, enough to affect the enemy's state of mind.
The very instant he roared, Asterion twisted his body and launched a thrust!
The massive, sharp tailblade was like a long dragon thrusting straight for the Acidic Glavenus's abdomen. She realized Asterion's attack and hurriedly reared up her upper body to dodge— Schlick!
But it was still a bit too late. The sharp tailblade directly sliced open the area above the Acidic Glavenus's foreclaw. If she had dodged any slower, this strike might have slit her throat.
Dumbfounded.
The Acidic Glavenus was completely dumbfounded.
Wait, this kin—why did his body explode?!!
She could clearly feel that the slash she had plotted for so long didn't have the sensation of cutting into flesh at all. Aside from the initial feedback of breaking the carapace, it was immediately followed by the force of the explosion pushing back.
Carapaces explode?
Why am I having such a dream?
—Why doesn't mine explode??
With the Acidic Glavenus's level of intelligence, she was capable of pondering such questions.
And then she became even more confused.
BOOM!!
Just as the Acidic Glavenus quickly retreated a few steps, hesitating on whether to flee, suddenly, the carapace on Asterion's body exploded once again.
This time, let alone the Acidic Glavenus, even Asterion was bewildered— Wait, who hit me??
There's no wyvern here?!
Why did my armor explode?!
For a moment, both wyverns became tense. Asterion quickly retreated two steps, then swung his tailblade through the empty air around him, trying to find the invisible enemy existing in his vicinity.
Whoosh, whoosh—he was swinging so hard it made the wind howl.
————
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