Monster Hunter in League of Legends

Upon hearing Nidalee's question, Tarin raised an eyebrow.

Regarding the relationship between Neeko and Nidalee... it's really hard to say.

Although Neeko is female, because the Misttails can sense the biological characteristics of other beings' souls, they do not have the same stable understanding of gender as humans.

For the Fogtail tribe, liking and loving are not about biological gender, but rather about being passionate about beautiful and sincere souls.

While Nidalee wasn't the first Vastayan Neeko encountered in the story, she was the first Shapeshifter she met.

In the lore of Legends of Mir and League of Legends, after Neeko and Nidalee formed a friendship, Neeko considered taking Nidalee with her to find a way to revive their homeland. However, Nidalee ultimately refused Neeko because she needed to take care of the beasts.

Neeko later left the pack and embarked on a journey alone to other parts of Runeterra.

During this process, due to Mrs. Piltover's development of the Ixtal border forest, Nico was unexpectedly captured, and it was Nidalee who helped rescue her.

However, compared to Neeko's emphasis on spiritual connection, Nidalee, while also harboring some affection, clearly prioritizes the pack. Therefore, Neeko often finds herself in a state of unrequited love.

Thinking it over, Tallinn told him the truth.

Upon hearing Tarin's words, Nidalee's face was filled with bewilderment.

"That sounds so strange..."

"Who knows?" Tarin shrugged. "The future begins to change the moment it's seen. For example, in a normal future, I wouldn't be here. So, keep a calm mind."

Tallinn raised his fist.

Seeing this, Nidalee touched Tarin's hand and then nodded, saying, "Anyway, it's not harmful to the herd, so let's prepare to rest."

"Um."

Tarlin nodded, then led Nidalee back to the room Lupe had prepared.

Back in her room, Nidalee, as always, transformed into a jungle cat and lay on the ground, while Tarin naturally covered his belly with Nidalee's tail.

But about two hours later, noticing something, Tarlin opened his eyes slightly.

In the corner of the field of vision, a sneaky kitten slipped into the house. After confirming that Nidalee was still fast asleep, it looked at Tarin with curious eyes and nimbly flicked its tail.

Seeing this, Tarin glanced at Nidalee beside him, then nodded at the kitten, and stepped out of Nidalee's arms.

During the process, Nidalee noticed something and opened her eyes, startling Neeko who immediately hid in a corner. Tarin gestured to Nidalee not to worry and then left the house.

Nidalee just blinked at this, curious but not too concerned, and simply changed her position to continue sleeping.

After leaving the house, Tarin glanced around and quickly spotted a small cat lurking in the shadows. He then asked, "Are you Neeko?"

Upon hearing this, the kitten curiously wagged its tail, nodded, and then leaped into the air, its body rapidly changing in sync with the fluctuations of the shimmering light.

In just a moment, it transformed from a kitten into a human-like creature.

With long, purple-blue gradient hair that curls up on both sides, and several pink-purple gradient petals growing on top of her head, and vibrant flowers blooming on her head—the Misttail Clan senses and spreads the Shuma energy through the flowers and petals on the top of their heads.

The eyes are a bright yellow-green, with slightly upturned corners, full of vitality, energy, and curiosity.

Its skin is a wonderful combination of human skin color and chameleon skin, with parts of its body shimmering with a faint bluish-green luster under the light, and fine scale patterns on its cheeks and arms.

Wearing a warm yellow bra, her smooth belly was exposed to the air, and hot pants, her long legs also had green stripes. Although she showed off her enviable figure, the enthusiasm and childlike curiosity on her face made Nicole look more like a big kid.

"No doubt about it! I am Neeko!"

Nico nodded excitedly, her little face full of curiosity, her voice slightly slurred.

The main reason for Neeko's lisp is that she rarely spoke before this—for the Misttail people, sensing shoma through the petals on their heads is more efficient, allowing them to immediately understand what the other person wants to express and their specific emotions.

This led to Nico being surprised when she came to the outside world that people there communicated using such an "outdated" and "inefficient" method as speaking, instead of communicating through shoma like she did.

Because she had hardly spoken before, Nico's voice was somewhat slurred whenever she did speak. This also resulted in some inaccurate word choice.

However, Nico was clearly not bothered by this, nor was she ashamed to express it. Just like now, she stared at Tarin with curiosity for a while, appearing quite familiar with him, without any awkwardness of meeting him for the first time. She immediately moved closer to Tarin and sniffed him.

A moment later, a look of surprise appeared on Nico's face as she asked curiously, "You really don't smell at all! How do you do that? You're a male, after all!"

"It's probably because of some racial characteristics." Upon hearing this, Tarin stretched his body a couple of times.

Although the Odogaron gives people the impression of being bloodthirsty and brutal, in reality, outside of combat, due to the unique environment of the Rotten Vale, the Odogaron's ecology is excellent in terms of self-cleaning.

Although the game drops materials such as 'scales', 'upper scales', and 'reverse scales'.

However, because the air in the Rotten Vale is filled with a large amount of harmful gases and has a constant temperature and humidity, the Odogaron actually does not have scales on its body, but rather a very smooth and tough membrane.

The "scales" mentioned in the materials are just the material name in the game. In reality, they are keratinized skin hardening and keratinous spines that have hardened and proliferated in the skin, rather than independent, detachable plate-like structures like scales.

Also constrained by the perilous ecosystem of the Miasma Valley, the Odogaron is very discreet in its normal state, and will hardly emit any scent when in stealth mode, so as not to disturb its prey or attract the attention of other predators.

Thanks to the ecological enhancement of the Odogaron, even in human form, Tarlin has a very slight body odor, and his skin is far smoother, more delicate, and stronger than that of ordinary people.

However... this is only under normal circumstances.

Once in combat mode, the Odogaron's high-speed metabolism kicks in, and the explosive blood energy emanating from its body can cause a dramatic 180-degree change in the atmosphere of Tarin in an instant.

That is, while Tallinn was still thinking about it—

[Task Released: Experience Shuoma]

[Task Introduction: Experience the ecology of Soul Energy - Shuoma.]

[Quest Reward: Dragon Vein Assimilation]

Upon seeing the Dragon Vein Assimilation reward in the quest, a hint of surprise appeared in Tarin's eyes. Tarin knew about Dragon Veins, or more precisely, Dragon-attribute energy.

In the Monster Hunter universe, there are four elemental damage types that people can understand: fire, water, lightning, and ice. Dragon elemental energy, however, is the fifth… or rather, it is the number one elemental damage type.

In the game, different monsters have different attribute absorption abilities, which directly affects the effectiveness of attribute damage. Dragon attribute, in particular, is the most versatile attribute energy under normal circumstances.

However, unlike the other four understandable attributes, the physical and chemical properties of Dragon attribute energy remain unknown in official settings, and it is often described as a power that "distorts life and erodes everything".

Dragon vein infection... Dragon attribute energy infection?

Thinking this, Tarlin felt a surge of heat in his heart.

The biggest problem between Tallinn and the animal population is the lack of connection.

If it were truly possible to infect the dragon veins, enhance dragon-attribute energy, and create a deeper energy connection between oneself and the Kashidaz beast herd…

Tallinn wasn't worried about things getting out of control. Because in the ecological terms Tallinn knew, whether it was the Great Jagras, the Great Paralytic, or even the Shield-Tremorosaurus, they were all social creatures. The Great Jagras's intimidation, in particular, was essentially due to the secretion of threatening pheromones.

In nature, similar communication methods are all too common. With further mastery, one can achieve more efficient silent communication with herds.

Thinking this, Tarin also looked at Neeko, or more precisely, at the big flower on Neeko's head, and said, "Although it may be presumptuous, Neeko, I want to understand more about what Sholma really is."

Hearing Tarlin's question, Nico blinked, then said with a troubled expression:

"Soma is a god or demon... Neeko doesn't know how to tell Tarin! Because Soma is just Soma! Everyone has Soma, it's just... it's just normal, I don't know how to say it out loud."

As she said this, Nico thought for a moment, then nervously leaned towards Tarin and said, "The elders in the tribe say that our Shima senses things through the petals on their heads. Why don't you try touching the petals on Nico's head, Tarin?"

"Petals..." Tarin was somewhat tempted by Neeko's suggestion, but then he noticed the tension on Neeko's face and said, "But Neeko seems... a little nervous?"

"Because it's a very intimate gesture!" Neeko said somewhat uneasily, flicking the lizard tail behind her. "But the Tarlin's Sholma is very gentle... well, she even seemed a little joyful just now, was it because she saw Neeko?"

As she said this, Neeko happily wagged her tail, clearly pleased that others were happy to see her.

This left Tarin somewhat at a loss for how to explain... He couldn't very well say that he was happy because he had triggered a high-value quest, could he?

But Nicole clearly didn't care about these things; the curious lizard girl simply said with great interest:

"Even though he's blue, Tallinn doesn't smell like those sailors and soldiers... um, they stink! He's very clean! And he wants to be friends with Nico! Nico loves making friends! Nico's willing to give it a try!"

Upon hearing that Neeko was willing to let him touch the petals of the Shuma because she didn't have a strange smell and because Shuma was gentle, Tarin's expression turned strange, and he thought to himself, "As expected of Neeko."

In her backstory, Neeko prefers to be around girls. Although it's not explicitly stated in the story, her in-game voice lines express dislike for the scent of certain male heroes.

For example, when encountering Graves, you might complain, "Ugh! Time to take a shower! How disgusting."

Considering that Neeko's first ship after fleeing her destroyed homeland was a Noxian pioneer merchant ship, followed by Harrell Harrel Harrel in Noxus, and then a Noxian outpost...

It can only be said that sailors were mostly male, and freshwater resources on the sea were precious. Seawater could not be used for drinking or washing. In addition, the magical medieval world of Runeterra had not yet reached the point where magic was ubiquitous and anyone could freely cast filtering magic. Therefore, sailors generally had a strong odor.

The same applies to the ports and Noxus outposts—located in the tropical rainforest climate of Ixtal, where people get sticky sweaty after being outdoors for a while.

Ordinary people might not notice it, but when Neeko transforms into someone else's appearance, the game simulates a health bar, and in reality, it also simulates the other person's physical condition...

Suddenly, a sticky, sweaty, and thick grime appeared on their bodies. Not only Neeko, but even Tarlin himself couldn't stand it.

Thinking this, Tarin placed his hand on Neeko's petals of the Shimmer.

Although they looked like flower petals, they were clearly part of Neeko's body. When Tarin's hand landed on them, Neeko instinctively let out a soft "Aww," her body trembling slightly, and she muttered softly:

"Gently, gently...it's itchy, and it feels a bit strange."

Compared to Neeko's first attempt to let someone touch her Shuma to more clearly perceive the existence of Shuma energy, Tarin's expression was obviously more complicated.

Tarin sensed the presence of Shuma... but it was like looking through a layer of glass filled with mist; he could see her, but he couldn't see clearly or touch her.

Insufficient perception.

Thinking this, Tarin began to consider what could enhance his perception.

However, the perception mechanic has been largely abolished in the three next-generation Monster Hunter games – World, Rise of Monsters, and Wilderness.

In the world of Rise of Kingdoms, this system was replaced by the Scoutfly system. In Rise of Kingdoms, it was replaced by the Fukumo Rabbit's automatic marking. In the Wilderness, the Heron Eagle Dragon even automatically navigates the map... all emphasizing system simplification.

However, Tarlin soon found what he needed in the older version.

The Elixir of Insight is an essential item for beginners in the older Monster Hunter games, from Monster Hunter 1 to Monster Hunter XX.