Logan blinked, a trace of confusion flashing through his pupils.
Given the current state of the New World—with all manner of monsters roaming about—judging purely by optimal hunting probability, the best choice should have been to remain in the New World and pursue those Elder Dragons that were locked in constant conflict due to overlapping habitats.
As for the Hoarfrost Reach, although Logan had only skirted a small section of it while racing Valstrax, he could still sense that there were not many Elder Dragons there.
Aside from a small number such as Kushala Daora and Velkhana—Elder Dragons capable of adapting to, or even preferring, icy environments—there generally would not be many Elder Dragons choosing to live in such a place. After all, even setting aside factors like food and survivability, the concentration of bioenergy in the air had to be taken into account.
The Hoarfrost Reach of the New World lay at the very end of the Everstream, making it the terminal point of leyline energy supply. This was precisely why, when leyline energy was insufficient, even Velkhana would occasionally leave the Hoarfrost Reach and come to the New World.
He could not figure it out—the intent behind this creature's actions.
With no conclusions to be drawn from his thoughts, Logan also lacked the curiosity to follow Nergigante all the way to that chilly place known as the Hoarfrost Reach.
Although he was no longer a cold-averse creature like a Fire Wyvern, the environment of the Hoarfrost Reach still failed to appeal to him.
Reorienting himself, and having lost any interest in leisurely flight, he directly engaged a jet-propelled acceleration. In less than an hour, amid a thunderous roar, he returned to the Ancient Tree.
No sooner had he landed—before he could even tell the cats to bring up today's portion of charcoal-grilled Mosswine—than he saw that Blazefire Village had arrived together with the Administrator of the Ancient Forest Hunters' Guild.
Seeing this, Logan silently let out a sigh.
If it were only the cats from Blazefire Village coming over, it would be nothing—at most it would be about matters that required Logan's guidance, meaning things they could not make up their minds about and needed Logan to decide, as well as intelligence reports from the Ancient Forest and the Wildspire Waste.
But once a Hunters' Guild administrator was added to the mix, that was a completely different matter.
This was coming to ask for "funding"!
Ever since the last time the Research Commission had run up a huge tab of food supplies, these past days the hunters of the Fifth Fleet had still been working hard on investigations and odd jobs to pay off their debts. He had not expected that in such a short time, they would come again.
With the Research Commission being such a money pit, if they did not have the logistical support from the Ancient Tree's side, just how miserable would their days be?
"Roar!" (Say it. What is it this time? How much do you want?)
If it had made its way to Logan, then there was no need to think about it—the resources being requested would definitely be so extensive that they could affect the Ancient Tree's development, and would even consume a great deal of Blazefire Village's manpower and material resources, to the point that the Fire Wyverns' daily lives would also be impacted to a certain extent.
Hearing Logan's exasperated low roar, the Hunters' Guild Administrator—after hearing the Grimalkyne's translation beside him—awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
The amount of resource support sought during this period really had been far too much. If it were not for the fact that this time the matter was of great importance, he would not have come, shamelessly, to request an audience with the Sunblaze Dragon.
As the Administrator explained, Logan's memory was also reopened.
"I didn't expect things to have reached this point already."
The disturbances involving Shara Ishvalda had indeed been ongoing for quite some time. However, Logan had been to the Hoarfrost Reach and knew the distance between it and the New World. Coupled with the fact that he had long stopped paying attention to matters unrelated to Elder Dragons, he had not noticed that Legiana had already begun migrating under the influence of Shara Ishvalda.
The Administrator's request was therefore not difficult to guess—it concerned the establishment of the "Seliana" outpost.
The distance between the Hoarfrost Reach and the New World was nothing to Logan, but for the Research Commission, which possessed only a single mobile research base, the straight-line distance between the two meant three to four days of flight, and that was only possible under stable air currents.
With an ocean directly separating the two sides, combined with the harsh environment there, too few people would mean excessively high risk, and supplies would also be a serious problem.
Thus, rather than throwing a small research team over there, it was better to directly establish a new outpost. That way, safety could be ensured, and at the same time the source of the "mysterious song" could be investigated.
Logan did not spend long considering this request.
He acknowledged that, given the current state of utter poverty on the Astera side, the materials needed to establish the Seliana outpost would basically all have to be supported by the Ancient Tree. Such a massive amount of supplies would certainly affect the development of the Ancient Tree.
But that was not the key point.
Those materials could be squeezed out by letting the Radiant Fire Wyverns endure a bit of hardship, which was not a major issue.
The most critical problem was that the Seliana outpost was too far from the New World—so far that once it became self-sufficient after several years, it would very likely become cut off from the New World side altogether.
This conflicted to a certain extent with Logan's original plans.
And the solution to this matter…
Logan looked at the Blazefire Village chief, whose whiskers had already turned white and who was so drowsy that even standing upright left the entire cat nodding off. A deep roar echoed through the great hall.
...
At Astera, the Commander looked at the reply from the Ancient Tree in his hands and let out a sigh of relief, while also praising the Sunblaze Dragon's magnanimity.
The establishment of the Seliana outpost had originally been an internal matter of the Research Commission. Yet after learning of it, the Sunblaze Dragon not only once again generously extended a loan of ample supplies, but even directly allocated a full one hundred and fifty adult Blazefire Village Grimalkynes to join the plan.
They would also remain at Seliana as logistics cats, supporting the Research Commission's investigative work.
It could be said that with the addition of this batch of Grimalkynes, the logistical issues on the Seliana side were completely resolved. He no longer needed to agonize over how many Fourth Fleet logistics personnel to assign to Seliana, nor did he need to apply to the Old World for additional logistical manpower support.
This greatly reduced his workload!
"This really helps a lot!"
The Fourth Fleet Master took the letter handed over by the Commander and likewise revealed a smile.
Who knew how much the Fourth Fleet had paid to sustain the Fifth Fleet's thousand-plus big eaters, along with all the various material allocations?
Having been here for more than ten years now, over those ten-plus years, everyone in the Fourth Fleet had practically wished they could turn themselves into two people for use. Even a single chunk of iron ore had to be recorded, for fear that small amounts accumulating would affect their debt repayment.
The addition of these one hundred and fifty Grimalkynes in the prime of their lives—all of them belonged to the Fourth Fleet!
Absolutely not a single one would be handed over to the hunters as hunting partners!!
Absolutely not!!
"Prepare the cold-weather gear. Once the supplies from the Ancient Tree arrive, we will depart for the Hoarfrost Reach immediately. Don't let the Recommendation Team squad wait there for too long."
After seeing the Fourth Fleet Master agree, the Commander carefully thought over whether anything had been overlooked. He suddenly recalled the request Darren had raised during the previous meeting and was just about to speak again, when he saw the Fourth Fleet Master—seemingly knowing exactly what he was about to say—leave briskly without even exchanging greetings, not turning her head back.
The Commander opened his mouth, but in the end did not call out to her.
"Forget it. As things stand now, the Fifth Fleet's combat members are already sufficient. There's no need to split off a group for the Fifth Fleet to conduct specialized material gathering. This matter can wait until later, when it can be discussed with the Blazefire Village side."
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