The following day, the group arrived back at Astera, their arrival heralded by a chorus of cheers rising from the settlement below as the airship came into view. They had fired a green flare, after all, signalling their hunt had been a success. Once the group descended from the airship, the Commander, Admiral, and Field Team Leader were waiting for them for the debrief. Valen knew that it was going to be a long one, and the three hunters took turns to explain exactly what happened. Finding Nergigante, its odd behavior, its apparent death and then the reveal of their unknown Elder. The fight to strip it of its armor, and finally the reveal that it had the same vulnerability as Valstrax and the finish by the Nergigante that they were certain was the one Rapha?lle had supposedly slain.

  The handlers also shared what they could figure out of the body of the Elder during their trip, and confirmed Valen's observation that it had similar workings to Valstrax. They also confirmed that it had been completely stripped bare of Bioenergy and that it couldn’t be used to make equipment.

  That fact worried them, as it was a never-before-seen ability, and thus, the fact that Nergigante was capable of it… They were worried. However, they also knew that it was part of the natural order, and the fact that it was on what was now dubbed as Origin Isle, meant that Nergigante had already been hunting the Elder. Sophie suggested that Nergigante was maybe Nature’s means to take care of Elders that had become an issue. The fact that it had left immediately after devouring the other Elder and only offered a token fight against them seemed to be a point towards her theory.

  They couldn’t overlook the fact that it was clearly a Variant, though. They did notice that it seemed to have grown some sort of metal spikes after bursting out of the ground, and only could suggest ideas as to their origin… But in the end they decided to name it Ruiner Nergigante.

  Lukas suggested they should go slay it, but Valen overruled him, reminding him that it did not fight them in the end, and that it also was here for the same reason they were: to end the threat that the Everwyrm caused to the New World. So it was better to leave it alone.

  Then Sophie had a realization, and she explained to them that the Elder they found might very well have been another from the Tale of the Five. ‘One dragon lifted its gaze to the sky and became the mountains,’ she said, and given the reports of it having an uncanny gaze that seemed to be able to see their very souls, they suspected that it fit the description, and its ability to destroy and supposedly create mountains using the Everstream only reinforced that.

  They ended the meeting on that, and the Handlers started compiling a report on the abilities that they witnessed from the Elder. The report would be sent back to the Old World and a name would be decided for it. They did a separate one on Ruiner Nergigante. In the meantime, a large party was hosted to celebrate the success of the first hunt with the three Named hunters together, as well as the end of the year-long investigation that they did on the earthquakes.

  Valen participated in the festivities, though he did not stay until the end of night and went to sleep early. Nevertheless he vividly remembered the fact that Rapha?lle and Aiden had said that while they would not slay Nergigante, they would follow it to see where it roosted. The Elder had not made an appearance since Rapha?lle had supposedly slain it so they believed it was somewhere other than the current areas they investigated. The Tracker had noted its bearing when it flew away, so they at the very least had a direction to get their search started. They would have to leave the following morning on the Airship if they wanted to have a chance to keep up with it. Valen wished them good luck as he wanted to have a rest first.

  He saw Nikki a few days later, and explained what had happened. She was understandably worried when he explained that they found and fought Nergigante, though she did not seem to be surprised when he explained how it faked death. She had heard the tale from another of the Elders that almost got killed by it.

  When he reached the part about the Everwyrm and its abilities however, she was noticeably interested, doubly so when he said that it seemed to work the same as her by being able to inhale air through its chest. She seemed extremely interested when he described how it created a pure beam of air after it shed its rock armor. He did not miss the gleam in her eyes when she asked for details, the position of its wing fingers, how it braced against the recoil and the way it charged it up.

  ‘You copy?’ he asked, teasing her.

  ‘Yes,’ she answered shamelessly. He was certain that there would be numerous rocks that would be blasted by dragon energy in the future.

  He resumed his tale after, and when he explained how he wounded the Elder by injuring its chest, she winced in sympathy. She was probably the only one that could understand how debilitating of an injury that was. Though she was impressed that it was still able to do as complex of a move as it did afterwards. Then he arrived at the part where the Nergigante arrived…

  She was not really surprised until he explained how it seemed to have drained all the Bioenergy that was contained in the Everwyrm. She immediately was afraid, more so than he expected.

  ‘Eater… Strong. Hungry. Worry future.’

  He petted her to sooth her as best he could.

  ‘I kill if threat,’ he assured her.

  She seemed to be reassured by his words and nodded in response. He finished his tale by explaining how it simply flew away once it was done with the Everwyrm and that Rapha?lle and Aiden were investigating in the direction it flew away to check out its roost. She paused for a moment before asking where they were headed towards. So he unfolded the map and pointed out the rough heading.

  ‘Mixed Island!’ she immediately answered. ‘Bioenergy lots. Strong Monsters. It here,’ she explained, then pointed with a claw where exactly the island was, which interestingly enough was further north than the Elder’s Recess, in the middle of the ocean.

  Though Valen thus asked for clarification about what she meant by “Mixed Island.”

  ‘Not Natural. Shaped. All environments small space. Forest, Desert, Ice, Fire, Decay and Land-Sea. Bioenergy lots, monsters lots. Permanent fight survival, all strong.’

  He nodded, that made sense if there were so many resources in such a small space. He thanked her for the explanation, and would make sure to share the information with Rapha?lle and Aiden once he saw them again. For the moment, he spent the rest of the day with her, simply reveling in the fact that he had no dangers to worry about.

  However, he would not have to stay away from Nikki for long, because soon after he came back to Astera, the Commander had finally decided to ask him if he could reveal her existence to the research team. Valen had agreed, though this had the understandable result of the entire research team collectively asking him if they could see her immediately.

  He had to put his foot down and set conditions in place. Firstly there were to be no more than five researchers allowed to see her at the same time. They were not allowed to bring weapons, as he would take care of their defense, in conjunction with Nikki herself. They would also have to respect her boundaries, not pushing her for answers if she did not decide to elaborate. He, Adem and Ikari would act as translators, though he shared the spare notebook that he had written of the sign language he developed with her for those more determined to learn.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Eventually, he simply departed the following day with a small group of researchers that had brought a lot of paper to take their notes on. They were understandably anxious about the meeting, which he did not fault them for, though he did listen to them speculating during the entire journey about what they would learn. He chuckled at the wildest theories that they had about the whole thing, but did not deign to correct them, he knew they would learn soon enough.

  Once they were all dropped at the meeting place, they settled in to wait, Valen scanning the skies periodically. The scientists were taking notes about the definite signs of Nikki’s presence in the area, with the spots of charred grass from her takeoffs and landings, the depression that had been made on her favorite spot of lounging, the countless footprints, all mixed with the signs of Valen’s and Adem’s frequent visits.

  Surprisingly, it did not take long for Nikki to appear on the horizon, and once he fired up the flare, she was here only a couple of minutes later, leaving the scientists scrambling to start taking notes. The noise of her wings overpowered the scratching of their pens, and once she had landed, she immediately asked him what was up.

  ‘Researchers. Outpost now know. They questions,’ he explained to her.

  ‘I choose answers,’ Sshe immediately answered, setting into place her conditions. The scientists gasped at the definite sign of intelligence from her answer.

  Valen invited them to settle themselves comfortably as it would take a while. They were hesitant for a moment before they complied. And soon enough, the round of questions started, with Adem, Ikari and Valen taking turns to relay the questions and answers from Nikki. There were definitely the obvious ones, about her behavior, what she did on a given day, and how she hunted or what she ate. However there were some interesting questions that she did accept to answer, to his surprise. Mostly those pertaining to the role of some other Elders in the ecosystem.

  She did not go into deep details, but it confirmed some suspicions that the scientist had. Though she did categorically refuse to answer questions about Kushala Daora. Given that Valen suspected that she had a history and grudge with one, it did not surprise him.

  The questions that she refused to answer were more pertaining to ancient history and what happened in old times. First because she did not know most of it herself, and also because some of it required secrets that she was not at liberty to divulge.

  One of them dared to ask if she believed she was the strongest Elder. She immediately answered that she wasn’t, that some of the Elders were huge forces of nature that she had no hope to ever beat. She mentioned Zorah as an example, being so huge that it would take too much effort from her to take down. The giant ones and aquatic ones were most notably the ones she knew could not beat.

  Eventually the round of questions ended, as she still wanted to hunt while it was still day. Valen did promise that they would come back for more questions, though with another group, as he wished to let others have the chance to meet her. Though he agreed that the Chief Ecologist would always have a reserved place for himself.

  They said their goodbyes to her and after she took off, they signaled the airship to come pick them up and went back to Astera.

  Valen fell into a steady routine, where every few days he would pick up a group of scientists so that they could ask Nikki questions. They were able to decide on the days they would meet, which meant Valen did not require to wait for her and fire a flare every time.

  This had the side effect that the knowledge of Nikki's existence and her relation to Valen spread among Astera. There were some hesitant looks from some Hunters, others that teased him about it. However he also caught the looks of a rare few that felt like loathing. They quickly attempted to hide it afterwards, but it was unmistakable. He did take note of those and discretely reported them to the Commander. It felt like an abuse of power, but given that they had just dismantled a poaching operation and with their suspicions that they were moles in their outpost, they preferred being prudent.

  Eventually it was kind of an open secret in Astera what Valen’s relation to Nikki was, and he was certain it also had spread to Seliana as well. However his favorite reaction was none other than from Jake, who teased him a lot for it, but also respected him for it.

  Then Rapha?lle and Aiden came back, along as their Handlers. What they revealed was impressive.

  “It took a few days of navigating, but eventually we found a large island away from the shore,” Rapha?lle narrated. “What we found was crazy. There is a massive island that seems to have all of the different terrains of the New World combined. Each has a dedicated corner and there are a lot, and I mean a lot of Monsters roaming around, including Elders.”

  “Turf Wars are frequent, and while we did not attempt to fight them, we are certain that the monsters there are much stronger than normal as a result…” Lea explained.

  “I did find signs of a land passage to it!” Sophie exclaimed. “It seems to mostly be submerged in water, but I suspect that it is barely below water level at the lowest tides of the year! Which would allow for land bound monsters to cross then.”

  “How the island became that way still remains a mystery but I am certain we will manage to figure it out… We haven’t managed to explore it all!” Aiden said.

  “We have, however, already decided on a name for it… Since we were guided towards it by Nergigante, we agreed to call it The Guiding Lands.”

  Valen nodded, that sounded like a good name for the new area. The rest of the group seemed to agree.

  “Good job, though from what I understood, you only managed to explore part of the environment?” the Admiral asked, to which they nodded. “Then you may go back to it and explore it as much as you can. I will join you and I will also send the Seeker, he has a good sense for spotting large irregularities, so he may figure out how it has been created exactly. Do not forget to give your report to the researchers before you leave! Dismissed!”

  Once the meeting had ended, Valen took the rest of the day off to just chat with Aiden, who explained in more detail what the Guiding Lands looked like. He wanted to join them, but he also knew that he would have to continue doing translations for the scientists with Nikki.

  The next piece of news came when they finally received the response from the Old World regarding the investigation about the Everwyrm, finally letting the Research Commission put a name to the massive Elder: Shara Ishvalda. There was a lot of speculation about that name, but they agreed that it fit.

  Some reports came from Aiden and Rapha?lle, they had apparently encountered an aggressive Rajang and had to slay it. Even the Admiral helped them, and Aiden slipped in a joke about him having to put down a rowdy cousin. Still, the exploration of the Guiding Lands progressed at a normal pace.

  The situation in the New World also calmed down after the death of Shara Ishvalda. While numerous monsters were agitated before, they mostly seemed to have calmed down. There were less and less hunts sent out to put down monsters who were disrupting the ecosystem. All in all, there was not much excitement to be had.

  That changed when the next report came from the Guiding Lands.

  “The Seeker is requesting my presence in particular?” Valen asked.

  “Yes, he said he believes he found the source of whatever it is that makes the region look like that,” the Commander reported. “Also, he is asking if there is a possibility that Nikki could come as a mediator. Apparently it may be due to an Elder, but since we haven’t found any signs of activity, he believes it may be a more passive one.”

  “Hmmm. I will have to see her, but that sounds like something she will accept. I believe she is getting bored of the questions that the scientists are asking, so a bit of change would help her.” He smiled. “You know, it still feels odd that anybody is asking me about her? There has been only Adem and Aki that knew about her for so long…”

  “Good thing that you did, it seems that people are starting to get less wary of her now. As long as she shows she has no hostile intentions, that should be enough to make most people come around.”

  “I know… But I am also hopeful for the future. My hope is that we show that some level of cooperation is possible, at least with Elders. Most of them simply want to live their life, and it is actually a very small proportion of them that attack settlements or disturb the ecosystem.”

  “Keep making those waves and maybe this will be reality one day Valen!” the Commander encouraged. “I suggest you leave as soon as you are able, the Seeker seemed to indicate it was quite urgent. Dismissed!”

  Valen nodded, and headed towards his room so that he could gear up and prepare his supplies to leave. It would be an important trip but there was no way to know what would actually happen… But he still made sure he was as prepared for whatever might come at him.

  Eheheh, we are going to THIS monster for sure.

  By the way, I have created a squad for those that wants to play with me, it is called Sky Knights, and here is the ID, it is invite-only cause else it’ll be public.

  ID: HQ63V4R4