Bear School Astartes

Unlike the typical Sons of the Emperor in his memory, Lann was not willing to spend extra time on grooming his appearance.

Tidy and clean were enough.

As for eyeshadow, foundation, perfume... during the early days when the gene seed was just implanted, he was indeed subconsciously a bit interested.

But quickly, he managed to control himself and returned to normal.

So after styling his silver-white hair, Lann swiftly made his way to the Workshop District on the second floor of the Star Base.

As soon as he reached the entrance, a wave of heat and the dark red glow of molten iron surged at him.

The main feature of this workshop was a super-large furnace, and a conveyor belt, much like a bar’s circular countertop, was transporting newly forged weapons from the furnace nonstop.

Apart from conveniently allowing hunters to fetch weapons themselves, the main reason was probably to allow the master craftsman seated inside the steel conveyor belt to inspect them, ensuring their quality.

The master craftsman was the leader of the second investigation team, a one-eyed man with a protruding beard, bald head, bulging muscles, dark skin that gleamed with oil.

It was said that the personnel of that team were all skilled craftsmen.

They single-handedly constructed most of the current Star Base architecture.

”Your equipment sank completely to the seabed, and the area was traversed by a Molten Mountain Dragon. Who knows how the currents below were stirred up by that big guy? Trying to retrieve the equipment, I reckon it’s just slightly easier than finding a needle in a haystack.”

The leader of the second team sat on a stool, one hand propping a long-handled sledgehammer on the ground, the other hand resting on his waist.

At this moment, he lifted the hand holding the sledgehammer, with his glove-clad palm indicating a very small gap to describe the ’slightly easier’ he mentioned.

Wende turned around, sighed despondently upon seeing Lann who just arrived.

”Alright, I guess I shouldn’t have had any expectations.”

Wende spoke, and also...

Lann’s mouth slightly opened, his gaze hollow: ”A pseudo-lady voice?! Sissy!!!”

The originally sighing Wende seemed frozen in place, even his breath halted midway.

Beside Wende’s foot was a large orange cat wearing a fully enclosed knight helmet, seemingly twisting its head inside the helmet, then...

”Pfft!”

The sound of a bursting laugh came from inside the fully enclosed helmet.

Wende’s eye twitched as he hit the new helmet of Gaffi with his gauntlet with a ’bang’.

The orange cat immediately fell backward, landing on its rear, and started meowing.

Wende opened his mouth seeming to want to explain, but then reconsidered, opting to grab Gaffi by the scruff and present it to Lann.

”Wende’s throat recovered overnight, meow, finally back to speaking ability, but his vocal cords haven’t fully healed, hence the pseudo-lady voice, meow.”

Even though being lifted up, Gaffi summoned all its strength with its little paw, shakily giving a thumbs-up.

A tall, muscular man with black hair and a buzz cut, opening his mouth in a babyish fake voice... the scene was truly striking.

But the voice could wait, after the initial shock, Lann’s first focus was on Wende’s equipment.

It was a set of armor primarily blue that looked like standard knight’s gear.

The extensive leather covering was made from some sort of monster material, and the steel parts were also different from regular steel.

”The main component is a Sparrow Stone-made Defender’s Set, considered a material-efficient yet fairly well-performing equipment,”

The leader of the second team explained to Lann from behind the conveyor belt.

Only, his single remaining eye constantly fixed on the Demon Hunter’s armor, rather than being drawn to his face.

”His equipment all sank into the sea; now in the base, this is the only set available for him to use.”

”But fortunately, here is the New World, without the Old World’s hunting restrictions. If you want to make other equipment here, you just need to go hunting, acquire materials, and give them to me. Oh, and also pay a crafting fee.”

”Hunting restrictions?”

Lann asked, unclear.

”Oh, I forgot, you’re someone from another world, not familiar with our rules.”

With his heat-resistant glove, the leader of the second team stroked his bristle-like beard, briefly explaining the Old World’s situation to Lann.

Unlike Lann’s imagination, the Old World humans, though frequently troubled by monsters, primarily embraced ecological protection as mainstream.

The Hunter’s Guild, overseeing many hunters, strictly prohibited private hunting, violators would even be pursued by guild enforcers.

The enforcers’ gear was exactly the Defender’s Set now on Wende.

Hunting was prohibited when off-duty, and also when the guild’s natural observers deemed a target monster’s population wouldn’t be affected by the hunters’ actions, hunting was prohibited.

In fact, many tasks on the hunters’ task board were issued by the guild itself, aimed at decreasing or increasing certain species’ populations.

Even after successful hunts, each hunter in the task is only allowed three times to extract materials from a monster’s carcass, the rest must be returned to nature.

This strict maintenance of the natural ecosystem, even called reverence for the ecological chain, quite fascinated Lann.

Because according to the Sword Master’s words, humans in this world should be severely harassed by monsters.

Yet these humans not only didn’t ignite hatred against monsters, but rather seemed to transcend narrow-minded hatred with extraordinary foresight.

Lann’s education enabled him to understand this thinking akin to ’Unity of Heaven and Man, harmony with all things.’

But, if most others from the Magical Middle Ages were swapped here, they’d likely mock the locals as a bunch of pedantic, foolish ’monks.’

Not exterminating monsters, what are they waiting for?

And what astonished Lann more was that this respect for nature wasn’t forcibly executed by the guild’s higher-ups or human states’ top brass.

Rather, it was a common perspective among most citizens of this world.

”Hate and fear monsters, and therefore exterminate them completely? This is a notion proposed by ignorant fools oblivious to the biological chain.”

The leader of the second team sneered, saying thus.

”The biological chain is an incredibly intricate, interconnected system in nature. The consequences of wiping out monsters in one’s living area could trigger chain reactions, which even the most seasoned scholars of the Dragon Calendar Institute cannot fully articulate. Yet even an apprentice knows doing so results in plagues, uncontrolled population growth, and more.”

”The ultimate outcome won’t be better than before.”

”Humans are part of nature, living in nature. Long ago, there had been nations arrogantly believing they’ve transcended nature, harboring thoughts of exterminating monsters, but afterward...”

Later what, the leader of the second team didn’t say, acting cryptic.

Understanding the subtleties, Lann didn’t pursue the matter further.

Instead, he focused on what Wende carried on his back.

It was an equipment resembling a large shield, but like a concealed sword within the shield.

Only the pure iron shield’s nearly fist-thick heft implied this wasn’t something ordinary shield-within-sword hybrid weapons could compare in weight or defensive capability.