This kind of differential treatment naturally stirred up some discordant voices among the Fifth Fleet's elite, and the loudest of those voices didn't come from the Kingdom hunters who were used to high welfare benefits on the Old World, but rather from those guild hunters who came from small places.
This was somewhat unexpected to the Commander, but thinking about it later, Kingdom hunters had long been accustomed to this kind of large-scale team cooperative hunting; while being hunters, many of them had also once been soldiers, so their obedience truly was much stronger.
And the discordant voices from the guild hunters weren't because there was differential treatment in terms of benefits; the main reason was that these hunters were still very young and hadn't suffered an Elder Dragon's "beating," so they still held the thought of "as long as I can fight an Elder Dragon, even if I die, I'll have no regrets."
The way to eliminate these discordant voices was also very simple: that very night, the Commander gathered those resentful hunters together and invited out Astera's absolute trump card—Mother Chameleos; a single mouthful of medicinal mist carrying several abnormal statuses made those hunters flop down stiffly right there.
Hunters' physiques really are tough— even Elder Dragon-level poison can be endured for a while— but they couldn't withstand Mother Chameleos's mist being medicine!
That medicine passed straight through the immune system without obstruction, producing a kind of "drug overdose"–related reaction, which resulted in the stronger the hunter and the more powerful their immune system, the faster they actually went down.
In a certain sense, the current Mother Chameleos belongs to the kind of existence that is "especially effective against humans"; her harmfulness to humans has already far surpassed her ecological niche, and that's on top of her understanding of humans.
It can be said that as long as Mother Chameleos is given a certain amount of time, even if the Fifth Fleet has already arrived, and there are even over-spec hunters like the "Sapphire Star" among them, she would still have enough confidence to completely wipe out all of Astera.
It's just that… with Mother Chameleos's current deep binding to the Research Commission, the Commander and the others are extremely at ease about this "First Fleet member."
In less than half a minute, more than twenty hunters collapsed in the mist with various abnormal statuses. That scene frightened the Fifth Fleet members a bit; all discordant voices completely vanished on the spot, and they began to obey the arrangements, each going off to start doing their own tasks.
Only Darren began thinking whether there were any materials in the New World that could be used to make a mask sufficient to filter Chameleos's medicinal mist. He even worried that this medicinal mist might be able to seep in through the skin, and he started considering whether he should make a "gas-protective suit" that could cover his entire body.
But just as this idea began to be put into action, their recommended squad was hauled off to head for the Ancient Tree region, so the matter was temporarily buried in his heart, to be picked up again when a suitable time came later.
"Wow!! Th-this is the Ancient Tree? It's completely different from those big trees in the Old World's Ancient Forest!!"
Mia, riding atop a Jagras, straightened up slightly, quickly pulled down the goggles on her head, opened the monocular fixed on the left side, and looked toward the lush Ancient Tree—yet between its branches and shoots were interwoven ice-blue, transparent Terastal shoots.
Patch after patch of Radiant Crystal Butterfly danced around the branches in the sunlight, and Radiant Fire Wyvern and ordinary Fire Wyvern moved in flocks as they weaved through the treetops.
Thick, massive cables connected the various areas on the Ancient Tree, and in some hollow places, defensive fortifications were faintly visible, glinting with a cold sheen.
Given the sheer scale of an Ancient Tree capable of housing thousands of Fire Wyvern and an entire large Grimalkyne village, completing construction on such a scale in just ten-odd years was astonishing.
Of course, the contribution the Research Commission made in all this couldn't be forgotten either.
The Fourth Fleet Master's logistics personnel were genuinely impressive— with a steady stream of supplies being poured in, they forcibly helped the Ancient Tree side build such an outrageous level of infrastructure in this world where the tech tree was a bit skewed.
"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous!" Noah saw these recommended squad hunters tensing up instinctively—some of them even had their hands on their sword hilts—and hurriedly raised his voice to remind them.
"The Radiant Fire Wyvern lords are different from every Fire Wyvern you've seen before. They have higher intelligence, a more united social nature, and a civilization that belongs only to them. We are allies with them, so please don't do anything that could be misunderstood!"
Suddenly, a cold, sharp voice came from the front of the group. The recommended squad looked up, only to see that on a massive tree branch, a Wyverian girl wearing Velkhana armor that looked like a princess dress was watching them.
"Miss Shrine Maiden, I didn't expect it would actually be you coming to receive us." Noah looked at the ancient Wyverian girl, his eyes lighting up. He urged the Jagras forward and greeted her cheerfully.
After nodding to him, the ancient Wyverian girl swept her gaze over the others. After lightly saying, "Follow me," she parted the leaves behind her. A passage formed by interwoven, coiling tree branches—its interior densely grown with Terastal shoots that emitted a blue glow—appeared before them just like that.
"Wow!!"
Mia and Lea, the only two female Compilers present, let out astonished cries in unison. This dreamlike passage struck straight at their girlish hearts.
"These are all Terastal shoots!! Oh my god, do you know how expensive Terastal shoots and the accompanying Radiant Crystal Butterfly Kinsects are in the Old World right now? And there are actually so many here!!"
"I heard that in the Old World there's an Insect Glaive user from the Wycademy who spent most of his life savings just to buy a single Radiant Crystal Butterfly Kinsect, and after that he still had to keep paying high prices to purchase Terastal shoots. Looking at this now, it really is—"
Lea didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was already obvious: she felt that the Ancient Tree side was being a bit too outrageous.
"All external trade of the New World is handled by Astera. Aside from a small number of special items, we do not directly conduct related trade with the Old World."
The ancient Wyverian girl's cold words came from the very front of the group. Even Mia didn't know how to respond to that explanation.
Not only had they been caught speaking ill of someone behind their back, it turned out they had misunderstood them as well. What was most awkward was that they themselves were now also members of Astera; those words turned into bullets and immediately came back to hit them, which was truly uncomfortable.
Fortunately, Noah had good emotional intelligence. With a few lighthearted remarks, he brushed this small episode aside.
"But speaking of which, Miss Shrine Maiden, aren't you busy? You even came personally to receive us." As one of Blazefire Village's high-ranking figures, the ancient Wyverian girl possessed the authority to directly converse with the Sunblaze Dragon and to issue "oracles." For such a busy person to come receive them personally was genuinely unexpected.
"I'm not busy. I also want to see what kind of people my teammates will be in the missions coming up."
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