Hot.
Searing hot.
The blazing sun mercilessly baked everything below, and the rising heat warped the air near the ground.
If a piece of meat were thrown directly onto the sun-drenched ground, it would probably be cooked in less than a dozen minutes.
This was a barren landscape with barely any green, dominated only by massive, continuous stone pillars, as if something had pushed them out of the earth one by one.
Only in the crevices and shadows of some rocks could one barely see traces of vegetation, which seemed to be struggling to maintain the most basic food chain in this desolate area, preventing this seemingly life-forgotten region from falling too far behind its neighbors.
Of course, for Asterion, the life in this desolate area seemed a little too vigorous.
Meaning: dangerously so.
Boom!
A heavy thudding sound seemed to herald the start of chaos, growing closer and clearer, though the occasional clumsy steps among them betrayed the owner's panic.
This was understandable, though, as behind this lone set of hurried footsteps was a large, mixed chorus of rushing sounds. Just imagining the noise conjured up a comical scene of one person fleeing in front and a crowd chasing behind.
The only difference was that neither the pursuers nor the pursued were human.
Asterion was not surprised by this, or rather, he was quite used to the situation.
This matter had nothing to do with people.
It was about Wyverns.
He cautiously poked his head out from behind a rock at the edge of the stone cave—well, he tried his best to be cautious—but Asterion had already seen what was happening outside.
A long-tailed, bird-like Wyvern, covered in yellow scales, was clutching a giant egg and sprinting across the broken stones of the wasteland. It had a thick, blunt beak and a tuft of brightly colored red and orange feathers on its head.
Chasing the bird Wyvern was a pack of Wyverns moving on all fours, with turtle-like shells on their backs.
The situation was clear: undoubtedly, the fleeing bird Wyvern had stolen the eggs of the shelled Wyverns behind it, and was now being pursued by the angry victims.
It was also apparent that this escaping bird Wyvern was a repeat offender. Despite being the one fleeing, it knew the entire escape route by heart.
Its seemingly panicked steps never became an obstacle to its flight; protruding rocks, undulating slopes, and obstructing pits were all expertly avoided, and occasionally even used to impede its pursuers.
The cunning creature even twisted its body when leaping over a pit, maximizing the chance for its yellow scales to reflect the midday sun backward, successfully dazzling the eyes of any unlucky pursuers behind it.
Skilled.
"Goo-loo-loo-loo... Kaa!!"
The bird Wyvern visibly relaxed upon seeing the stone cave ahead, its fleeing pace quickening slightly, and it let out a loud cry, as if urging something on.
"That is really despicable."
Hearing the urgent call, Asterion couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Bang!!
Just as the two sides—the pursuer and the pursued—passed through this breezy stone cave, Asterion leaped down from the high stone platform. He crouched low, bending and raising his long, enormous tail as much as possible.
"ROAR!!!"
Wyvern's Roar!
At a visible speed, the group of shelled Wyverns instantly fell into a panic. Their instincts urged them to flee, for which they would even abandon the revenge for their stolen eggs.
Under Asterion's satisfied gaze, these wretched creatures rushed in hastily, and then, after a brief period of confusion, rushed away just as hastily.
In no time, all that remained outside the cave was a cloud of stirred-up dust that had yet to settle.
The egg thief was safe, but only temporarily.
With that thought, Asterion turned to look at the little egg thief—from a downward-looking perspective.
Yes, as Wyverns go, the egg thief was even taller than him. But, contrary to Asterion, there was no sign of majesty or power on the bird Wyvern; in fact, it looked rather pitiful and wronged in front of Asterion.
It was hard to imagine an expression of heartache on the narrow, muscle-less, scale-covered face of a Bird Wyvern, but despite its reluctance and strong aversion, the egg thief still tremblingly extended its foreclaws, holding the egg, right up to Asterion's face.
Mmm, its sideways glance kept nervously darting over, as if expecting some kind of miracle to happen.
That was impossible.
Asterion ate quickly.
It was only a Herbivore egg, gone in just a few bites. He ate slowly only to prevent the nutritious egg liquid from being wasted.
It wasn't enough, or rather, for the current Asterion, this type of egg shouldn't even be on his menu. He needed things that were more nutritious or harder—but what could he do when he woke up in this world, opened his eyes, and broke out of his shell with nothing around him?
Yes, Asterion was a transmigrator. He had bought Monster Hunter: Wilds immediately after its release, only to find that his 3080 PC couldn't even load the game. Uh, to be precise, it did load, but everything from the grass to the stones to the sky kept flickering—in short, it was unplayable.
What he found even more unacceptable was discovering someone running Wilds smoothly on a 1080 PC while he was browsing videos. Anyway, after cursing Capcom fiercely, Asterion closed his eyes, then opened them, and found himself already inside an egg.
No longer in the peaceful and safe society where he had lived for over twenty years, but in the world of the game he deeply loved.
And it was the New World.
The New World of an unknown era.
He was no longer a human, but a Wyvern that could even eat raw ore.
The abrupt transition from a familiar, safe environment to this perilous natural world was enough to make a person... a Wyvern despair. What made Asterion even more desperate was that in this brutal world of eat-or-be-eaten, he, as a Wyvern hatchling, had no elders to look after him through his infancy.
When he broke out of his shell and emerged from a dark underground stone cave, all he could see was the desolate desert and countless anthills.
These familiar landmarks, and subsequently seeing his current appearance reflected in the running water by the underground river, made Asterion clearly understand what had happened to him.
He was a Wyvern, a Glavenus, hailed as the Blazing Blade, also known as the Long Sword user among Wyverns.
As the flagship monster of Monster Hunter Generations, the Glavenus enjoyed high popularity among players for both its appearance and its fighting style, often regarded as the coolest Wyvern... or the most Long Sword-like Wyvern.
Asterion was already intimately familiar with all the information regarding the Glavenus and the New World. The problem was that all those were the joys of an adult Glavenus. What did they have to do with a little hatchling whose tail hadn't even hardened yet without a female Wyvern to care for it?
A newborn Glavenus's tail was still soft, and because it hadn't consumed much ore yet, it hadn't secreted and condensed the hard, mineral-rich great blade that gave them their name. Coupled with the pitiful bite force of an infant Glavenus, the only harmless creatures it could bully were Herbivores like the Aptonoth.
He couldn't even spit fire.
For Asterion, this meant he was likely already far behind other Glavenus babies since birth. Without a mother Glavenus to feed him sufficient food to ensure his physical development, and without enough ore to forge his peerless sword, such a disadvantage in the brutal natural world was often fatal, potentially affecting a Wyvern's entire life development.
This was precisely why Asterion had been reduced to colluding with an egg thief like the Kulu-Ya-Ku—a creature other Wyverns attack on sight—becoming part of a duo: a Wyvern has to eat, right?!
Filling his stomach was not shameful.
Uh, well, maybe it was a little shameful.
Whenever his stomach grumbled, Asterion couldn't help but sigh. He looked down at his current body, seeing only small, cute, chicken-foot-like forelimbs and disproportionately robust hind legs.
Of course, there was also his slender blade-tail... though it wasn't a blade-tail yet, Asterion held great expectations for this tail, which accounted for almost half of his body length.
Cool!
"Slurp, gurgle-gurgle, slurp!"
The sounds of poor table manners nearby interrupted Asterion's reminiscence. He turned his head and saw the Kulu-Ya-Ku that had brought him the egg starting its own meal.
There were even three intact eggs piled in the corner of the stone cave, all stolen earlier by the Kulu-Ya-Ku. Now it was eating as well. Asterion squinted, watching it extend its long, specially structured tongue, its surface covered in barbs to prevent the egg liquid from flowing back.
"Slurp!"
The sound grew louder.
This was the Kulu-Ya-Ku, Asterion's Wyvern-brother-for-life. It was through its stolen eggs that Asterion managed to fill his belly during the most difficult days after his hatching—well, forcefully, that is.
Asterion, dizzy from hunger at the time, jumped out when he saw a live creature about his size, instantly scaring the egg-fleeing Kulu-Ya-Ku into dropping the egg and running for its life. That was how Asterion got his first meal in this world.
After that, it was a case of once bitten, twice shy, or so one would think. Oddly enough, perhaps due to its ingrained escape route, the Kulu-Ya-Ku chose to pass through this very path the second and even third time after being robbed of an egg by Asterion.
Mmm, and then the eggs were all robbed.
However, perhaps because Asterion had jumped out and scared away the Herbivores chasing the Kulu-Ya-Ku during its first escape, the clever bird Wyvern seemed to understand something from then on.
Normally, a Kulu-Ya-Ku would steal three to four eggs a day, but from that time on, this one would steal at least seven or eight eggs. The cave, open on two sides and part of its usual escape route, became a base for the two Wyverns. In this way, they arrived at their current arrangement.
If a system works stably and benefits both parties, do not change it, and do not risk doing anything extra... Asterion knew this well.
One point worth mentioning, however, was that it wasn't until the two Wyverns could consistently stand face-to-face that Asterion realized the creature that had instantly dropped the egg and fled during their first meeting was actually taller than him.
An adult Kulu-Ya-Ku can be over nine meters long and three to four meters tall, far larger than a newly hatched cub like him. Yet, in a natural society that uses a comparison of size to judge strength, the larger Kulu-Ya-Ku was the one that fled.
One could only say this was its nature.
At least it was beneficial for Asterion at the time.
"Goo-jee?"
Seeing Asterion suddenly walk up to him, the Kulu-Ya-Ku cocked its bird head strangely.
"ROAR! ROAR ROAR ROAR!"
Asterion kept roaring, the general meaning being:
Good brother! You work hard now, stealing eggs to raise me. When I grow up, you won't have to steal eggs anymore! I'll take them out, and you can eat your eggs openly!
Well, something like that. Asterion wasn't sure if the Kulu-Ya-Ku understood his words, but... he had accepted this brother!!
"Gaa-gaa! Goo-jee-jee!"
Calling out something unknown, the Kulu-Ya-Ku brother did extend its foreclaws, still cupping the remaining egg.
The yolk was gone, only the egg white remained.
"ROAR? ROAR ROAR ROAR ROAR!" (You really know how to eat, don't you?)
Asterion was speechless over his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother's pickiness. This guy only ate the yolk of the stolen eggs and wouldn't even bother with the egg white, acting like some kind of gourmet.
Before meeting Asterion, eggs stripped of their yolk would be tossed aside by the Kulu-Ya-Ku brother, but now they wouldn't go to waste.
Not being picky, Asterion took it and ate it immediately.
Asterion would not let go of any food that could fuel his body. He would even lick up carrying ants passing on the ground—for no other reason than to let his body develop as quickly as possible.
New World eggs—the eggs of New World species—were indeed highly nutritious. The abundant Geomancy Energy allowed the eggs laid by these creatures to sustain higher-level organisms. This was the meaning of the food chain, and the Geomancy Energy circulated and accumulated through this cycle of eating and being eaten.
Asterion felt that his body was growing rapidly compared to the days immediately following his hatching.
The muscles in his hind legs were quickly expanding. To support the Glavenus's massive body during unimaginably high-speed movements, the development of the hind legs was paramount. The carapace on his body was also rapidly turning towards a dull, hard state, at least unlike the semi-transparent scales he had when first born.
In the wild, most young animals grow rapidly after birth, with the period right after hatching being the fastest growth stage.
Looking at his constantly swishing tail, Asterion decided to have an extra meal of dirt today... and if he could find any ore deposits, that would be even better.
He longed for a true hunt.
Not this pathetic kind of hunting, where he lived like a Kulu-Ya-Ku, surviving by stealing eggs, but a true hunt belonging to a carnivorous Brute Wyvern, a hunt befitting the status of a flagship monster.
It was both pride and instinct.
Instinct was calling Asterion—telling him to eat meat!