After eating their fill, Maki and Minoto disappeared again.
Altaïr remained preoccupied with the two warnings Senior Maki had given them.
He did not think she had spoken offhand. There had to be a reason behind them, something the two of them did not know.
Uneasy, he pulled the guidebook titled "Guide to Kamura's Endemic Life" from his pack and began reading it carefully by the light of the campfire.
Nymera had given him the illustrated guide on the day they arrived in Kamura Village. He had already read it cover to cover, but now he planned to go through it again with Isis.
"Escuregot, Puppet Spider, Firebeetle... These little things sound pretty powerful, don't they?
"Should we work them into our tactics? Take this Puppet Spider. Throw it at a Monster and it will spray out a mass of silk,
"binding the Monster in place.
"What if I threw one at a Monster, then followed it up with Wyvern's Fire?
"Same with that Paratoad. It says even Large Monsters can't resist its paralyzing toxin, right?"
Unlike dry scholarly texts, this picture book was straightforward and engaging, complete with detailed illustrations. Isis was thoroughly enjoying herself, one inventive idea after another popping into her head.
"Forget the offensive Hunting Helpers. We've never used them before. We'd risk getting caught in their effects ourselves before we managed to use them on a Monster.
"These two, however, are worth keeping an eye out for. If we're lucky enough to find them, we can collect them and carry them with us." Altaïr flipped to two pages in the book.
"Escuregot? Antidobra?"
"Yes. The first releases a healing mist similar to Lifepowder. The second secretes an antidote that neutralizes any poison and grants temporary immunity to toxins, including deadly poison and paralyzing toxins.
"Lanternbugs and Aurortles would be useful too, though I don't know whether either lives in the Jungle.
"Even if we fail to use creatures like these properly, carrying them won't have any negative effects, so they're safe to use."
"Then should we set out early tomorrow and look for some first?"
"There's no need to go out of our way to find them. More important than using Endemic Life is making sure none of it affects us, just as Senior Maki warned.
"Especially Paratoads. If we accidentally touch one, get paralyzed, and then get run over by a Monster's charge..."
"Eep!" Isis shuddered. "Then we'd definitely be better off steering clear of them!"
Altaïr continued turning the pages one by one. "Let's see whether there are any other dangerous creatures."
"Don't you think this little thing called a Stinkmink is rather cute? Senior Minoto seems to keep one too." Isis pressed down on a page depicting a small, fluffy animal with a bushy tail.
Even a towering girl was still a girl. Her height did nothing to diminish her natural fondness for cute things.
"Never mind whether it's cute. Let's find the dangerous ones first..."
As if cramming for an exam, the two huddled over the book until late into the night, marking several particularly dangerous forms of Endemic Life that they absolutely had to avoid on sight.
Among them were the various gas toads, along with Giganha, Bombadgy, and other creatures whose names alone sounded like trouble.
Fortunately, most of them probably would not appear in the Jungle.
—--
The next morning, after checking their equipment and items once more and completing every preparation for the Hunt, Altaïr and Isis left camp.
Two equally energetic Palamutes immediately came bounding over.
Isis had won them over the day before by feeding them most of the pork, and the two Palamutes were noticeably friendlier than at first.
Altaïr vigorously scratched beneath one Palamute's jaw when an idea suddenly came to him.
From his experience with Hibiki, Altaïr knew Palamutes were highly intelligent. They not only understood human language but also had excellent memories.
The mountain forest was completely unfamiliar to the Hunters, but not necessarily to these two Palamutes.
He pulled out the Endemic Life guidebook and opened it to the pages on Escuregots and Antidobras. "Do you know where we can find these?"
The two Palamutes leaned in for a look. One shook its large head, indicating that it did not know, but the other, slightly older Palamute tapped the page on Antidobras with its nose.
Altaïr and Isis exchanged a look, surprise reflected in both their eyes.
Antidobras, which could cure poisoning and even grant Hunters temporary immunity to poison and other status ailments, were exactly the kind of "helper" they wanted most.
Isis hugged the Palamute's large head tightly, then swung herself onto its back. Altaïr mounted the other one.
The two Palamutes howled and carried the young Hunters away from camp.
—--
Not long after they left, Maki and Minoto appeared at the camp's entrance.
Maki scratched her chin. "Pretty clever, getting the Palamutes to guide them."
"Woof..."
The two Palamutes trailing them whined in displeasure, as though complaining that the women had eaten their fill without preparing any food for them, then made them forage for themselves in the middle of the night.
Maki sighed helplessly, grabbed the cheeks of the Palamute behind her, and tugged them a few times. "Stop complaining. When we get back to the village, I'll ask Master Iori to give you extra rations, all right?"
"Come on, let's catch up. Heh, this time, the Espinas isn't the only problem. I'm getting more and more curious to see just how far those two can go."
—--
The Palamutes were incredibly fast. The dense, overgrown Jungle might as well have been flat ground to them; even near-vertical cliffs posed no obstacle while carrying their Hunters.
In just six or seven minutes, the two Palamutes had brought Altaïr and Isis to a stream.
Before the Hunters spotted anything, Isis's Palamute had already pounced and pulled a long, slender creature from a crevice between several large rocks beside the stream.
Only after squinting at it did Altaïr confirm that it was a cobra more than a meter long.
Compared with an ordinary cobra, the fleshy flaps on either side of its neck were exceptionally developed, each nearly the size of a plate and marked with a vicious, ghostlike face, exactly as depicted in the guidebook.
Clearly, this was the Antidobra they were looking for.
Although the guidebook described this species as timid and cowardly, Altaïr still did not dare let his guard down.
There were plenty of snakes in the desert as well, venomous or otherwise, and touching one was almost certain to earn you a bite.
Yet the guidebook's description proved accurate.
Even with the Palamute holding it in its mouth, the creature merely writhed in panic, showing no intention of fighting back.
Ever bold, Isis reached out and grabbed the Antidobra's tail, and the Palamute released its grip at just the right moment.
The Antidobra immediately curled into a ball, trembling violently.
"What a timid little thing." Grinning, Isis stuffed it into the mesh bag she had prepared beforehand. "The book says Antidobras don't produce venom, only antidote, but this one won't even bite. How are we supposed to get it to inject us?"
"Pry open its mouth and jab its fangs into yourself. If it still doesn't secrete any antidote, squeeze its neck until it does." Altaïr's face was utterly impassive.
"Poor thing." Isis reached into the bag and patted the Antidobra's head. "I don't want to squeeze you too hard either, so make sure you inject the antidote properly when the time comes."
The snake inside the bag gave a faint hiss.
"Good snake." Of course, it could not understand human speech, but Isis stubbornly pretended it had.
"Can you find one or two more?" Altaïr asked the Palamute again.
The Palamute sniffed around a few times and shook its head.
"I guess I was being too greedy." Altaïr put away the guidebook. "Let's go. Head for the Espinas's nest. Hopefully, it's still sleeping there."
"I'll give it a Wake-up Slash!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)