Monster Hunter: This Dragon's Built Different

Chapter 506 506: Twenty Years, The Final Chapter!

After several consecutive days of deliberation, in the end it was Darren's younger faction that garnered more support. Especially after the contents of the meetings spread, none of the young hunters of the Fifth Fleet shrank back; one after another, they stepped forward to support Darren.

There is no wall under heaven that does not let the wind through. The mobilization of five hundred personnel—especially for a long-distance voyage back to the Old World—required provisions, supplies, and logistical support from the Ancient Tree.

Thus, the matter spread to the Ancient Tree as well.

The Second Fleet Master, who had long since returned from the Hoarfrost Reach to the New World and had begun researching upgrade techniques for the Sunblaze Dragon armor set, heard the news in his workshop at the Ancient Tree. That night, he sat alone in silence inside the workshop.

The next day, sets upon sets of weapons, armor, and original blueprints exclusive to him were packed into crates and sent to Blazefire Village. Among them were even equipment sets for the Palicoes, along with subsequent upgrade concepts.

Using these prized, bottom-of-the-chest blueprints, the Second Fleet Master exchanged for a large quantity of Radiant Fire Wyvern materials, as well as the latest Terastal materials from Logan and his wife.

That very day, the forge blazed with roaring flames. The unbroken clang of metal striking metal did not cease for even a moment.

The diminutive alchemist granny, assisted by several cats, continuously refined alchemical inscriptions according to the Second Fleet Master's requirements—so busy that she did not even have time to eat.

Within the nest, Logan quietly listened to Tonkotsu's report. The events that had taken place at Astera had already been mostly uncovered, and the intentions of the Research Commission's upper echelon had all reached Logan's ears.

He, too, secretly let out a breath of relief.

In any case, the Research Commission had not come to him regarding the matter of the Black Dragon, which meant they had not sought to trouble him.

The territorial struggles between Forbidden beings are described as planet-level battles, and that is no exaggeration.

If Safi'jiiva had not happened to be trapped to death within the Secluded Valley—a place where the Everstream's energy had already been nearly drained, leaving it unable to obtain further energy replenishment—then had Logan wished to defeat it, the Guiding Lands would likely have paid an extremely exaggerated price.

But the Black Dragon was different. That creature did not rely on the Everstream's energy. It was the being in this world most akin to something from beyond, and among the Forbidden, its strength was likewise at the very top.

Logan simply did not have sufficient reason to engage in a full-scale battle with it. The will of nature would likewise not permit them to wage war against one another.

Moreover, this was a trial that belonged to humanity.

Human technology had already developed to a bottleneck. The Black Dragon, too, had occupied ancient Schrade Castle for far too long. It was time to return it and allow human civilization to step into its next stage.

This was a battle that could not be avoided!

"Hu~~"

Two streams of scorching breath burst from his nostrils. After thinking for a moment, a crimson glow lit up within Logan's chest.

Soon, he spat out a pure-white Terastal crystal, and immediately after, two enormous scale-like crystal plates sloughed off.

"Roar~" (Deliver these to the smithy. Consider it a small bit of support from me.)

The original storyline had already been thrown into chaos, and the Research Commission was not that super combat organization from the original game that could fight three Forbidden monsters in a row. They were merely a group of "ecological guardians" who, when facing Safi'jiiva, could only fill the gap with their lives—yet did not retreat in the slightest.

A force of true "monster hunters."

Although Logan could not personally take the field to help them fight the Black Dragon, giving them a hand within that slim margin of possibility was still no problem.

To obtain the friendship of a Forbidden being like him, and thereby receive a certain degree of help within limits, did not violate nature's rules.

Time flew by. As the final batch of supplies arrived, the Research Commission's two ships had long since been fully prepared.

When Darren took from the Second Fleet Master's hands this heavy armor that was almost entirely made of crystal, and felt the vast energy surging from it—an energy he had never felt before—his gaze stretched far toward the direction of the Ancient Tree. Both hands gripped the edge of the armor tightly, as if he could see that crystal colossus's pair of azure, slit pupils.

He… was watching too, wasn't he?

…

The ruins of ancient Schrade Castle.

An exaggerated Calamity Flame, with the posture of burning everything to the ground, reduced those defensive fortifications that had endured for a thousand years to ash.

After the flames, hunters led by Darren—wearing top-tier Radiant Fire Wyvern Terastal armor—burst from cover and launched another attack at the Black Dragon, which had landed for reasons unknown.

Within the bright Terastal energy, behind Darren—who held the Blazing Wing blazing with pure-white flame—there seemed to appear the phantom silhouette of an enormous crystal dragon.

With an unstoppable momentum, he seized this opening his companions had created for him with their own lives, and, with everything he had, swung out this final strike.

"Ahhh!"

…

Spring passed and winter came. In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had gone by.

In the Guiding Lands, countless Radiant Crystal Butterflies danced through the Secluded Valley, while Palicoes wearing Terastal armor patrolled the outer perimeter of the valley with weapons in paw.

From time to time, Radiant Fire Wyverns flew across the sky, ultimately descending upon the cliffs at the edge of the valley.

Over the past half year, everything had proceeded according to Logan's plans.

The elderly Radiant Fire Wyverns followed the Flame Rath pair and successfully settled in the Elder's Recess. Relying on the Radiant Fire Wyvern group's unreasonable pack coordination in battle, as well as their various attributes far surpassing those of ordinary Fire Wyverns, they forcibly carved out a sizeable collective clan within the Elder's Recess.

Moreover, with the Flame Rath pair holding the line, no Elder Dragon was foolish enough to go looking for trouble.

As for those Radiant Fire Wyverns in their prime—the strongest batch from the Fire Wyvern guard unit—they brought part of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader's kin and followed Logan to settle in the Guiding Lands.

This place would become the final home of the strongest Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes and Radiant Fire Wyverns from the Ancient Tree.

On the whole, the ecological saturation at the Ancient Tree had basically been resolved. Aside from young Loren occasionally getting into fights with a young Nergigante, it could be said to be calm and peaceful. All life on the tree performed its respective role, and the march of civilization was steadily advancing.

Until today, when Logan—who had spent more than half a year holed up in his crystal nest as a reclusive dragon—received a piece of news.

There was word from the hunters who had departed at the beginning of the year to participate in the Black Dragon subjugation in the Old World.

Five hundred had set out; when they returned, only a little over a hundred remained.

The losses were enormous—but the outcome was good.

The Black Dragon, the end of civilization, had actually been successfully repelled by the Research Commission's elite force of merely five hundred, before the kingdom's side and the Hunter's Guild main forces had even completed their assembly!

Five hundred hunters had accomplished a battle that required the combined strength of an entire nation.

This was a victory worthy of being recorded in history!

Darren sat inside the cabin, carefully wiping the broken blade resting flat across his thighs. This weapon, the one most compatible with him, had fought until the final moment in that brutal battle. At the cost of shattering itself, it had left an indelible scar upon the head of that jet-black calamity dragon.

"Old friend, wait just a little longer. You'll be repaired very soon!"

Outside the window, the sound of the waves crashed incessantly, yet Darren's heart had long since drifted back to that "homeland" from which he had been away for so long.

…

Twenty years later…

Noah, Governor of the Port of Astera, listened to his assistant's report, his eyes occasionally glancing toward what had once been the trade district of Astera and was now the port's commercial zone. His parents, from whom he had been separated for many years, had finally completed their work in the Old World and chosen to settle in the New World to spend the rest of their lives. Judging by the timing, they should be on this very ship.

At the Ancient Tree, the legendary hunter—recipient of the New World's highest honor, the "Sapphire Star," and the fabled Terastal swordsman Darren—was drinking with the Admiral, whose beard and hair were now completely white and who had long since retired to the second line, celebrating the recent repelling of a Blackveil Vaal Hazak that had attempted to come up for a "vacation."

At the treetop, a majestic ice-blue dragon, its entire body exuding a technological aesthetic, stood atop the palace roof. Listening to the rising and falling roars of dragons, it radiated the light and heat brought forth by its authority.

The former arrogance and youthful sharpness in its eyes had completely faded over these twenty years, leaving behind only steadiness and the calm that came after strength had been fully tempered and contained.

A vibrantly colored Scorching Heat Rathian, bearing Terastal patterns, descended beside Loren. In her eyes was undisguised affection—and possessiveness.

This male Sunblaze Dragon, whom she had reserved since childhood, would be hers for this entire lifetime!

In the Guiding Lands, within Dawnlight Outpost, Mother Chameleos ate mandrakes one after another in despair. Beside her was her rebellious son, already so plump that he no longer resembled a Chameleos.

Instead of properly staying in the New World, that unfilial son had actually come here to freeload off her in her old age!

Decades had passed. Why were Logan's descendants becoming more and more reliable, while her own rebellious son still wanted to sponge off her? Wasn't that far too unfair, gwa!!

Meanwhile, within the Secluded Valley—

Logan lay quietly on the ground. Before him was an extremely, extremely small spatial passage. Inside it, an utterly ordinary stone slab rose and fell gently, as if conveying some kind of message to him.

Logan merely listened in silence, offering no explicit reply. From time to time, he lifted his head and, through the transparent crystal dome above, looked at Aki—whose body was shrouded in an increasingly dense black aura. The scales in his heart were slowly tilting.

The being on the other side of the passage was not in a hurry. For existences like them, who possessed endless lifespans, time was not particularly important.

Thus, after once again extending an invitation without success, it closed the spatial passage before the will of nature could detect it, waiting for the next opportunity to contact Logan.

Ignoring the exaggerated Everstream fluctuations beneath the Secluded Valley, Logan rose and stepped out of the crystal nest.

The changes in Aki were the sincerity shown by another world. And if Aki wished to achieve even greater heights, she would have to journey to that other world.

Still, there was no need to rush this matter. Both he and Aki possessed long spans of time to make their decision.

In the sky, the blazing sun shone just right; everywhere the eye could see was filled with light!!