I, Yuhaka, am hungry!

Big White also sighed and said:

"Yes, the closer we get to this time, the more work we have to do, but that's no excuse for being late, meow."

"Well... instead of thinking about these headaches, I'd rather have a drink."

As he spoke, the big-nosed hunter took out a glass flask covered in metal and animal hide from his pocket and said to Big White:

"How about it, buddy? Want a drink?"

Big White stretched out his hand and said to the big-nosed hunter with a slight upturn of his lips:

"Isn't this a given? Why not take advantage of it?"

…………

A short while later, the new talent that Da Bai mentioned arrived at the scene and said:

"I'm so sorry, senior! I'm late!"

Big White, seeing the late rookie patrol hunter, jumped up in a rage and said:

"You bastard! Do you know we've been waiting for you here? Waaah—!"

Before Big White could finish speaking, the big-nosed hunter grabbed Big White by the scruff of his neck, lifted him up, and covered his mouth, saying to the bewildered rookie patrol hunter:

"Oh, I'm sorry, newbie. My partner was rude. Well... let's be a little understanding of him."

The rookie patrol hunter quickly waved his hand and said:

"No, no, no! Senior! This is my fault, I should be the one apologizing—"

Before the rookie patrol hunter could finish speaking, the big-nosed hunter waved his hand and said:

"It's alright, it's alright, let bygones be bygones. More than that, I'd like to know what made you late today? I remember it takes more than ten hours to get here from the Hunter Guild Headquarters to Scylla Town by airship, right? Did something happen there?"

In response to the big-nosed hunter's question, the rookie patrol hunter nodded and said:

"Yes, senior. Recently, there have been sightings of steel dragons near Sin'dorea City, which has temporarily delayed transportation to the guild. That's why I'm a few hours late today."

Upon hearing the rookie patrol hunter's words, the large white Palico being carried crossed its arms and said with a serious expression:

"So, there's actually been a sign of Kushala Daora, meow? Looks like the Hunter's Guild headquarters is under a lot of pressure."

The big-nosed hunter scratched the back of his head, looking a bit of a headache, and said:

"So it's a Steel Dragon. That's a bit of a headache, but it's none of our business right now."

Then the big-nosed hunter asked the rookie patrol hunter:

"Hey newbie, what's your name?"

The rookie patrol hunter blinked and looked at the big-nosed hunter, saying:

“Uh… my name is Nag.”

The big-nosed hunter patted Nag on the shoulder with a happy expression and said:

"Welcome to Scylla Town, Brother Nag. You can call me Big Nose, that's what everyone here calls me. We're heading to the Ancient Forest for our daily work now. Would you like to come along?"

"Hmm, huh?...Eh?"

........................

The Ancient Forest is the largest forest on the continent, home to all sorts of large monsters. The deeper you go, the stronger the monsters become. Ancient civilization ruins also exist deep within the Ancient Forest.

Some hunters have found weapons or artifacts left behind from ancient civilizations in these ancient ruins. After this news spread, it attracted many hunters who were looking for ancient ruins to try their luck.

However, they didn't encounter any luck, but they did run into a lot of monsters, including Elder Dragons.

"Wow... This is the first time I've ever seen someone die like this... It's a really strange way to die."

The patrolling hunter, nicknamed "Big Nose," looked at the Nargacuga's corpse, its lower body sunk into the ground, and scratched the back of his head, somewhat troubled. Nag, standing nearby, looked at Big Nose with a puzzled expression and said:

"What's wrong, Senior Big Nose? Is there anything strange about this Nargacuga corpse?"

The big-nosed hunter looked at the velociraptor's corpse, its back and charred head, and said:

"Well... there are some strange things, like why did this Nargacuga fall into a hole?"

Hearing the big-nosed hunter's words, Nag looked at the lower half of the Nargacuga's corpse that had fallen into the hole with some confusion and said:

"Um...didn't this Nargacuga fall into a pitfall trap?"

Just as Nag said this, a white follower cat, Big White, emerged from the ground beside him, spitting out the dirt from its mouth and saying:

"Ptooey! Big nose, it's not a hunter's pitfall trap, it's a hole dug by a monster. I can see the tunnel below, meow."

Hearing his companion cat's words, the big-nosed hunter nodded and said:

"It really is the work of a monster, but what kind of monster killed this velociraptor here?"

Nag looked at the claw marks and charred black fur on the velociraptor's back with some confusion and said:

"Huh? Wasn't it a flying dragon-type monster like a fire dragon that killed the velociraptor?"

Big White, standing to the side, glanced at Nag and said in denial:

"No, take a closer look, meow. While the claw marks on the Nargacuga's back were indeed made by a fire-type flying wyvern, meow, the claw marks and burnt fur on the Nargacuga's back are not fatal. Also, the claw marks on the Nargacuga's back are not blackened, which proves that the Nargacuga was not poisoned, meow. So the culprit is not a male Rathalos, since only male Rathalos have venom glands on their feet, meow."

The big-nosed hunter half-squatted on the ground and touched the huge footprints left behind, saying:

"Well... the culprit is most likely this female Rathalos living in this area. Ah... I must say, a grumpy woman is terrifying no matter what species she is, but..."

The big-nosed hunter stood up and said to Big White and Nag:

"The culprit that killed the Nargacuga was not the female Rathian."

Hearing the big-nosed hunter's words, Nag looked at the two seniors with some confusion and said:

"Huh? Isn't it a female Rathalos??"

The large white companion cat, ignoring the puzzled Nag beside it, crossed its arms and said to the big-nosed hunter:

"Big Nose, have you discovered anything?"

The big-nosed hunter pointed to the footprints left by Ehaka in his third form on the ground and said:

"These footprints are not from a female Rathian, but from an unknown monster. Of course, the charred marks on the head of the Rathian are also not the work of a female Rathian, since the female Rathian's flames are not that terrifying, capable of turning the head of a Rathian into charcoal."

Big White sniffed the footprints the big-nosed hunter had pointed out, then shook his head and said:

"No, the smell has disappeared, meow, and these footprints look a bit like some kind of monster footprints, but they wouldn't appear in this ancient forest, meow."

The big-nosed hunter scratched the back of his head, looking a bit troubled, and said:

"Well... if that's all there is to it, then I don't have much of a headache. The key questions are: where did the wing blades go from the Nargacuga's corpse? And what about the footprints left by that unknown monster?"

Big White stroked his chin and said:

"If it's a wing blade, it might have been taken by the Meru cats that live in this area, right? If things go worse, it might have been stolen by poachers. But as for how the monster left... it's very likely it flew away, right?"

Nag, somewhat speechless, said:

"What kind of monster can burrow underground, fly, and breathe fire?"

The big-nosed hunter waved his hand and said:

"Well... don't worry about it. After we finish patrolling this area, we'll go back and report the situation to the Hunter's Guild. They'll handle it. We're just here to do observation work."

Hearing the big-nosed hunter's words, Nag didn't say anything more. He was well aware of the duties of a patrol hunter. He was there to find problems, and solving problems was not the job of a patrol hunter. The Hunter Guild would send other hunters to handle that.

................

"Chirp—!"

Yuhaka, who had just sneezed, looked around at her surroundings with a puzzled expression while holding a large fish. Based on her "knowledge" from her memories, she thought someone was thinking about her or secretly cursing her, but what did that have to do with her? However, the large fish in Yuhaka's arms didn't think that way and struggled desperately to escape from the little girl's embrace.

"OДO naughty fish! Disobedient!"

After carrying the big fish back to shore, Yuhaka grabbed its tail and smashed it against a rock like a mace. With a loud "smack!", the big fish lost its dream. Yuhaka then carried the dreamless fish away from his small fishing pond.

Just after Yuhaka left, two cat heads popped out of the bushes and watched Yuhaka's departing figure, saying:

"Hey, Lorota, did you see that? It seems like the other person also likes to eat fish, meow."

Rorota nodded and said to Rokubei:

"Yes, I saw it, meow..."

Although Rorota said that, his attention was on the fishing nets that Yuhaka had set up on the river.

[A dam made of fishing nets? That's the first time I've ever seen anything like it. Let's build one in the pool below the waterfall outside our village after we take it back.]

It's quite normal that Lorota had never seen a fishing net used like this before. Meru Cat doesn't usually interact with humans and isn't very familiar with things in the human world.

However, none of the above is important to Rorota. What is important is that, judging from Yhaka's behavior, Yhaka does not seem to be a creature that acts on instinct. At least based on Yhaka's performance just now, Yhaka should be able to communicate.

Rokubei took out a small notebook and a pencil from next to Rorota, and then wrote a sentence in the notebook.

[They like to eat fish, just like us.]

Lorota broke out in a cold sweat as she watched Rokubei write crookedly in his notebook. Although Lorota didn't object to Rokubei recording anything, what was with making the analogy like ours?!

...Merlu the cat is tracking.........

The two cats, Meru and Mew, who were slowly following Yuhaka, soon arrived near Yuhaka's lair. The two cats peeked out from the bushes and looked in Yuhaka's direction. Then, the two cats saw Yuhaka throw the big fish onto a wooden board that he had found that could be used as a cleaver.

Then, Yuhaka skillfully used his hunter's knife to gently cut open the big fish's belly and carefully took out its internal organs, then threw them into the river. After that, Yuhaka also used the knife to remove the rest of the inedible parts, leaving only the edible parts.

Afterwards, Yuhaka placed the prepared fish aside and then used the prepared grill to grill the fish.

Hidden in the bushes, Rokubei and Rorota watched in astonishment as Yuhaka used a grill to prepare grilled fish. Rorota was particularly surprised by Yuhaka's actions. If Yuhaka could cook, Rorota was even more certain that Yuhaka might be able to communicate. When Yuhaka stunned the fish, Rorota had heard Yuhaka speak—undoubtedly in the language of their Merlin and Elflins. (Zelus: This system has a built-in translator.)

This made Rorota wonder if some Palico or Merlin had taught Yuhaka and the others their language. While Rorota was pondering the problem, Rokubei was drooling as he watched Yuhaka make grilled fish while jotting something down in his notebook with a pencil.

The other person can cook grilled fish, and it smells so good and looks delicious—(crossed out)

"I can't hold back anymore, meow!"

While Rorota was pondering a problem, Rokubei suddenly jumped out of the bushes and headed straight for Yuhaka's grilled fish. But before he could pounce on his target, a dark figure grabbed Rokubei's body with a swish. When Rokubei came to his senses and saw an "OwO?" expression on his face, he knew that something terrible had happened.

Chapter 07 [An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth]

"Oh no! Rokubei-chan!"

Just as Rorota realized what was happening, he discovered that Rokubei had been captured by Yuhaka.

"I forgot that Rokubei, that glutton, is most susceptible to the temptation of food, meow!"