Bear School Astartes

”You just said that it’s pretty easy to wake up now?”

Lann stared unblinkingly at the massive gash stretching from the right shoulder to the right chest of the Extinct Dragon, while asking Wende.

Wende raised an eyebrow at this.

”At the very least, it requires a disturbance significant enough to be recognized as an attack by its instincts to wake it up... Have you noticed something?”

Lann didn’t respond to him, instead slowly reaching his hand into the wound of the Extinct Dragon.

Aiden and Wende’s eyes instinctively widened.

They initially wanted to stop Lann, but before they realized it, the Demon Hunter’s hand was already inside.

If they moved him now, it would definitely wake up the Extinct Dragon.

So the two could only stand there with wide eyes, not daring to make a sound, worried about startling Lann and causing him to shake.

Gaffi also became fluffed up with tension at this moment.

From the perspective of the others, Lann was slowly and steadily pulling something out from the Extinct Dragon’s wound.

During this time, the Extinct Dragon made a groaning sound indicating discomfort, but merely twisted its body a bit without being woken.

And when Lann completely extracted the item from the Extinct Dragon’s body, the aura of this ancient dragon visibly diminished.

However, its sleeping posture became... more comfortable and relaxed.

Once Lann was fully focused on retracting his hand from the Extinct Dragon’s wound, everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

”Wow!” Wende whispered furiously, ”A bit of a heads-up before you act might be nice!”

Lann ignored him at this moment, focusing instead on the item in his hand.

It was a magnificent gray gemstone, with a color similar to the spines on the Extinct Dragon’s body.

And entwined around this gemstone... was a fresh, small branch of a tree.

The moment he held this item, Lann realized: the source of the Chaos Magic Power was this small branch!

”Is this gemstone the dragon jade of the Extinct Dragon?”

Lann ignored Wende’s earlier complaint and asked him.

And Wende, adhering to the usual rough nerves of hunters, quickly forgot the previous incident and eagerly observed the object in Lann’s hand.

”This should be... Whoa! You’re really lucky! According to naming conventions, this should be called the ’Extinct Dragon’s Gemstone’!”

No matter how loud the hunters’ voices were, they weren’t considered an ’attack’ to the Extinct Dragon, so Wende was able to loudly express his astonishment.

”An ancient dragon’s dragon jade differs from the calculi of normal monsters. According to scholars, their dragon jade truly possesses the ability to regulate the body’s capabilities and integrate external energies, much like the ’Dragon Crystal’ concept you mentioned earlier.”

”Many powerful pieces of equipment made from ancient dragon materials require an ancient dragon’s gem as the core for energy integration.”

Considering that the Demon Hunter is an ’outsider,’ Wende elaborated a little as an introduction.

But as Wende spoke about these things, Lann’s expression became puzzled instead.

”Wait a minute... Did I just dismantle its gemstone?!”

He looked at the gemstone in his hand, then at the still-sleeping Extinct Dragon.

”Isn’t this thing going to die?”

”Ancient dragons aren’t that easy to kill.” Aiden waved his hand, adding.

”Although it’s indeed a very important and magical organ, even if an ancient dragon loses its gemstone, it only weakens temporarily until it regenerates and returns to normal.”

”Their most powerful and fundamental abilities still rely on their body and vitality; the gemstone is just a precious amplifier.”

”By the way, compared to the Extinct Dragon’s gemstone, what’s with this branch? Does the Extinct Dragon have plant tissue inside its body?”

”No, this isn’t something from within the Extinct Dragon’s body.”

Lann, while detaching the Extinct Dragon’s gemstone from the small branch, spoke with a heavy tone.

”When I discovered it earlier, this branch seemed to be... trying to yank the gemstone out of the Extinct Dragon’s body, like a living creature.”

”So you’re saying... this is an invasive species from your side?”

Wende mused over the small branch, which looked like an oak twig from a biological standpoint.

”If the Extinct Dragon first tussled with this invasive species and through your kind of ’chaos energy,’ realized you and that thing came from the same place, then took its anger out on you—this explanation does make some sense.”

”But I feel there’s something more.” Lann said softly while securing the fresh branch, seemingly just snapped off an oak tree, and gazing at the sleeping Extinct Dragon.

”When it attacked me, no matter how you guys attacked it, it seemed hell-bent on killing me here. That kind of determination...”

”Rather than venting anger, it feels more like... responsibility? A mission? It’s something along those lines.”

Aiden next to them furrowed his brows unconsciously while thinking.

”You’re suggesting that, in some sense, ancient dragons see maintaining nature as their mission? Hmm, although it somewhat deifies nature, there are indeed quite a few scholars at the Dragon Calendar Institute who agree with this viewpoint.”

”Anyway,” Wende concluded decisively.

”Let’s get off the Molten Mountain Dragon first. Although interdimensional creature invasions aren’t very rare, we should still report this to the Commander-in-Chief.”

”By the way, how come the Molten Mountain Dragon had no reaction at all when we were fighting a battle with an ancient dragon on its back?”

”The commotion we made wasn’t even enough to scratch its skin,” Aiden retorted. ”Besides, this is an old Molten Mountain Dragon nearing death; it probably walks around dazed, much less senses the Extinct Dragon.”

The three of them and the cat tidied up the Extinct Dragon’s broken shells, scales, sharp claws, and bone spurs scattered on the ground, along with the precious ores from the Molten Mountain Dragon’s back.

Then they whistled for two Winged Drakes and left the back of the Molten Mountain Dragon.

-----------------

By the time the three of them and the cat returned to the investigation team’s fleet, the Commander-in-Chief and Aibo were already waiting there.

”Great, you’re all safe!”

Aibo shouted joyfully as Gaffi jumped from Wende’s shoulder into her arms.

”If you had been a bit later, the Commander-in-Chief would have gathered the team to go looking for you.”

”No need,” Lann said as he stepped forward, ”We managed to lull the Extinct Dragon to sleep, but we gleaned a matter that needs addressing from it.”

”Where’s the Commander-in-Chief now?”

Seeing how serious the three of them were, Aibo regained her composure as well.

”Uncle Guy came to see him; he also claimed to have urgent information, so they’re probably at the command vehicle now.”

”Uncle Guy?” Lann inquired, puzzled, as he hadn’t heard the name in the Starscene.

Wende waved to signal Lann to follow and explained to him.

”He’s a first-batch group hunter who roams around often, an insect manipulation stick user of the Dragon-man Race. He helped us on our first night here at the Great Ant Mound Wasteland, quite a nice guy.”

And when the three arrived at the Commander-in-Chief’s command vehicle, as soon as they walked in, they heard a low, mid-aged male voice speaking solemnly.

”The advance of the Molten Mountain Dragon must be halted! This is no longer an ordinary ecological survey that may or may not be successful, Jack!”

”This is a mission to prevent the destruction of the New Continent’s ecosystem!”

...

The explosive news left Wende, Aiden, and Lann looking at each other in shock.

Wende’s hand, gripping the curtain fabric, froze in place, unsure whether to release it or hold on.