Over the course of the next few days, I stayed at that pond testing and exploring my abilities and using the gajau as fuel to conduct my experiments. Here's what I've gathered so far: for instance, I can only hold onto so much bioenergy, a limit I learned about after eating a gajau and not instantly absorbing it. For thirty minutes I was waddling around with an inflated tummy, I have never felt so slow and sluggish in my life as I digested the fish the normal way.
After that lesson, I learned that I have two tanks within me, one was the organ that generates my electricity while the other was…metaphysical to hold onto my bioenergy. It wasn't physical in nature but I could feel it coursing through my body instead of in one place. My electric sac would absorb from the tank of bioenergy and convert it into electricity. I would then gain bioenergy by eating monsters. So what happens if I were to get a flame sac? Would it also be in a similar situation I have now? An answer I can find in the future.
And speaking of energy, I've learned how to conduct my electricity. I can now light up my tail like a biological taser. It was fun poking the gajau's and watching them twitch over from the voltage running through them. I will admit though, it took quite a bit of tries where I could do that without killing them. That's how I learned that I had a limit for my bio-tank as this led me to eat the dead gajau's so they weren't being wasted. Regrets were made that day.
Now here's the final thing I want to get into. Assimilation and Evolution. After eating a monster, I can assimilate its attributes and gain them for myself. Easy and intuitive to use, something I've been using this entire time since I got here. Evolution, on the other hand, was a whole other tree by itself. From what I've gathered, I can use my bioenergy to upgrade my body and current abilities that I currently own.
For example, I was able to make my electric sac capable of holding onto more electricity, but I can't form another limb. The bioenergy would respond to my will but when I tried it, it would attempt to do it but disperse instead, incapable of keeping a form. It felt like I had the capabilities to do so, but I didn't have the blueprints and software to make it work if that made any sense. Like, I have the parts, but my power doesn't know how to put it together and how it works. Since I couldn't do some crazy things yet, I've been upgrading my muscles instead and my scales.
In the process, I've gotten bigger and leaner, covered in corded muscles with my old scales shedding off for new and stronger ones to fill in their place. My little sanctuary was littered with my yellow scales with bits of my carapaces here and there as well. The spikes(quills?) on my back, still don't know what they're called, were growing and were starting to turn into those dreadlock-looking style that Great Jagras has, but I was pulling that process back as much as I could. I did not like that look on me, it made me look messy instead of the sleekness I was getting naturally. I kept my body in the shape of a basic jagra, but I did broaden my back and chest. Only a little, I still want to be nimble and not massive yet when I wasn't sturdy enough to take a hit from a hunter.
Speaking of hunters, it's about time for me to head out and find another target to make me stronger. While it would be nice to stay here and just snack on gajau's and mess around with my powers, I'm still weak. While I do have a good way of escaping fights with my gills, sadly, it only works if I'm around a large body of water, so that's very situational but something good to have in my back pocket. To help me on this journey, I've made a list of monsters I want to go for. It's made with the intention of their abilities to ward off large monsters and monsters that I can fight at this time.
The List
- The toads.
There are three types of, frankly wonderful, toads. The
paratoad, it has the ability to stun by releasing a paralyzing gas from within its body. The
sleeptoad, similar to the paratoad, it can release sleeping gas. Finally, the
nitrotoad, what it can do is this: it explodes. I could make some type of joke about that, but just the thought of a suicide bomber toad was enough to make me laugh. Now sadly, I can't access the latter of the two as they reside in the Coral Highlands and the Elder's Recess respectively. Ain't no way in hell am I going to Elder's Recess until I was as strong as an Elder Dragon myself. So what I'm left with is the paratoad.
2. The bugs.
Here's where I had to get picky. There are so many bugs with amazing properties, I have to keep this list short or I will get indecisive and try and go for everything and get pulled in too many directions. So I've narrowed it down to three easy-to-get bugs: the
flashflies, the
wiggly litchi, and the
vigorwasp. A flashfly is a literal living flash grenade, no other explanation is needed. The wiggly litchi has, in-game, the ability to halve stamina consumption for the player, so I'm curious how that would be for me when I eat one. Now, the vigorwasp,
this one has the most potential out of the entire list. It has the ability to create Vitality nectar, the healing potion of Monster Hunter. Yeah, think about that. My survivability in this world will shoot by like…1000% if I eat one! Please don't question the number, I'm not good at math in this scenario.
3. Kestodon and Aptonoth.
I want the skull and horns of the kestodon, both to reinforce my skull by an order of magnitudes and the horns as another weapon for my arsenal. For the aptonoth, I don't really need anything from them, but I want to test a theory I have with my power. What would happen if I were to eat an egg of an aptonoth instead of the monster itself? I know an embryo holds all the DNA information from its parents and how it would mature as it ages, so could I gain all the attributes of the monster? It's a really good question I want to test because I could shortcut my way to power without having to eat scraps or fight my way to it.
With that set, I topped myself with bioenergy with an electrocuted gajau, and I made my way out. Now with how massive the Ancient Forest is, I knew that this could potentially take days or even a week or two to complete, even longer if I cross paths with the predators of this forest, or if the world wanted to punch me in the gut, I stumble upon a party of hunters. I shuddered at the thought, I remembered if I ever got frustrated with a challenging hunt, I would load a mission with a low-rank Great Jagras and bully it to make me happy. I hope that never happens to me.
And so, time passed, hours of exploring and looking around with a keen eye, always on the lookout for danger and keeping, while not constant, a good amount of diligence. The beauty and alien nature of the Ancient Forest still blew me away with the Ancient Tree standing proud among the clouds. I remember being told by my friend that every single tree in the Ancient Forest was connected to the Ancient Tree by its roots, and being here in person? I can believe that.
More time passed, with me eating a bug here and there and not really gaining anything from it. A full day passed, it was night now, with a half-moon hanging in the sky as I took a break to rest. If you're wondering, I can actually use my bioenergy to heal the aches in my muscles and keep going, but I don't want to waste it like that when I can just stop and rest instead and not worry about running low in case of an emergency.
I laid down next to a rotten log that had to be the size of a car and kept a lookout. A couple of minutes passed and I caught movement at the side of my eye, I whipped my head to look and…found a wiggly litchi crawling slowly on the log. Huh, go me. Don't know how I missed it, but hey, there it is. I wasted no time and I practically slurped it into my stomach.
My bioenergy traveled across the entirety of my body, responding to the new material I fed it and acknowledging my desires. It didn't take long and the exhaustion from earlier disappeared, and I knew it worked. I now was passively generating an equivalent of Dash juice, which could also lower stamina consumption by twenty-five percent, but better. A wiggy litchi could lower stamina consumption by fifty percent, and now I had an infinite amount of it. Oh man, I can now run and run and run, and then
keep on running. Awesome! I did a little dance of celebration before calling it a night and finding a tall tree for me to sleep in. One down.
The next couple of days passed in a similar manner, and I had intensive stress testing of my new stamina. Back in our world, a human could sprint for thirty to thirty-five seconds before stopping to rest. I can sprint for twenty minutes. Sick, right? But, I'm pretty sure the humans here could sprint for about five minutes themselves. Just an intrusive thought, but I'm one hundred percent confident they are superhuman. The crazy shit they can do.
Anyway, the second on the list that I found was the flashflies. Hard to not find them when looking for 'em, they are a literal ball of light. Made more apparent with the shade the Ancient Forest gives here. And let me tell you, even though I don't want to, it took a couple of tries. The number of times I got flash-banged had me believing I was seeing heaven at a certain point, or limbo. I'm pretty sure I went blind at one point, if I wasn't able to heal my eyes, I would be blind right now. But I did get it eventually.
I concentrated, closed my eyes, and with a pulse of bioenergy, a powerful blue flash emanated from my glowing carapaces. I blinked a couple of times afterward, as even with my eyes closed it still affected me. I messed with my eyelids, flashed again, and smiled when I wasn't affected by it. There we go.
On the ninth day, I stumbled upon a pack of kestodons. I hid amongst the foliage, keeping a low profile and keeping still as I observed from a distance. It was a group of six, with four adults and two young ones, not babies but not adults quite yet. I…think I can take them on. Trust me when I say this, I would love nothing more than to avoid confrontation but that would be dumb. I know for a fact I will have to fight eventually, there is no circumventing that. It's just when I do, I want my first fight to be under my conditions first and not on another's terms.
I've had to have been on this world in this body for about, or near, two weeks. That's a lot of time, time for me to get comfortable with my new body. Time I used well exploring, testing, and using to hunt and kill gajau's back at my pond. So I know how to use my body as a weapon, but I have something that's greater and more powerful than all of the monsters here: My mind.
So let's use it.
I looked at my surroundings, I took stock of the abilities I have available to me, and a plan formed. A thing about jagras that a lot of Monster Hunter players probably don't think too hard on is the fact that they are
really good climbers. So good in fact, it almost felt like I was walking on land as I climbed the roots and trees and hopped from branch to branch so that I was above them. It took a couple of minutes, minutes spent on not making too much noise, but I did it without them noticing.
Step one: get to the high ground. I leaned forward, the muscles of my body tensing in preparation as I carved grooves in the treebark beneath me and roared as loudly as I could. The kestodons startled and looked up at me. Step two: get their attention. I closed my eyes and sent an extra dose of my bioenergy and activated flash. I was rewarded with roars of pain. Step three: blind them. I covered myself in electricity and pounced onto the largest of the bunch with a warcry bellowing from the bottom of my lungs. Step four: slaughter them.
With how high I was, it would take a second for me to hit the kestodon. A second where I felt the wind buffer me, the butterflies rumbling and flipping around in my stomach as gravity pulled me down, and a foe I was about to fight and kill. A coolness entered my mind, a singular objective driving me forward and giving me clarity for what I was literally falling into.
I crashed into the monster claws first, with my weight and the force of my jump sending us tumbling into the dirt. It hurt, but not by much. It felt like someone pushed me onto a matted floor instead of the cooled dirt of a forest. How durable was I? Something for later. I quickly got to my feet, facing my opponent, who was shaking from the paralyzing effects of my electricity, and I clamped my jaw around its throat. With a sharp twist, I tore it open.
My eyes quickly bounced between the rest of the pack, they were still affected by my flash but I don't know for how much longer. I could take them out one by one, but that may give them an opportunity to attack. I ran at the nearest one, electricity on full blast, and shoulder-tackled it to the ground. I didn't go down to rip its throat out, instead, I kept running at full tilt and did the same thing to the rest in the span of seconds. Seconds that felt too long, and turned around to look at my handy work. Five kestodons were on the ground paralyzed. I didn't waste any time and quickly tore open their throats.
Success. Bloody, but successful.
I took a step back, taking deep and calming breaths as I looked at the corpses at my feet. That. Was. Awesome! Scary, but so exciting and heart-thumping! Whoo, yeah, that was it, baby. In the grand scheme of things, I know that the kestodons are hardly even classified as a threat, but fuck that! I couldn't help the pride oozing through me at my accomplishment. That was like, the perfect ambush. I feel so cool right now.
Now, let's get to eating. I walked to the biggest and most developed of the bunch, its horns were large and magnificent. Perfect for me to assimilate. But there was an issue, it was too big for me to eat in one go like I usually do. I had about sixty percent of bioenergy in the tank, so if I were to eat all of it it would be too much. One leg alone would be enough to top me up and I can't have myself slowed down with a bloated stomach at this point in time. I don't know how much time I have, but I know that other monsters will be attracted to the smell of kestodon corpses so I have to do this quickly. I tilted my head to the side in thought, I could rip off the limbs and tail to make it smaller. The hind legs and tail made up a huge bit of it, and all I wanted from it were its horns. The rest were disposable.
So I got to work hacking off its limbs. The arms were the easiest, but the fat and muscle of its legs were a bitch. In the end, all that was left was its head and torso. I took a breath, unhinged my jaw, and prepared to…eat…it…what's that sound?
It sounded like scribbling. Scribbling on paper to be exact. I hinged my jaw with a loud clack and focused on my ears and looked in the general area from where it was coming from. I didn't see anything, but my hackles were raised. It wasn't until the sunlight broke through the clouds dotting the sky and reflected off of something shiny that I saw it. The first thing I saw was the glasses. Then the person wearing the glasses…
My heart soared as to what the being in front of me was sinking in. I then noticed the long elven ears. Wyverian? I scanned him for any weapons but didn't see anything but a small knife strapped to his waist. In his hands were a book and a pencil that was furiously writing in whatever language was written here. He wasn't wearing anything that looked like armor, so I don't think he was a hunter.
A researcher? The beat of my heart was slowing down at that revelation. Of course, he was, I didn't see any of the famous weapons of Monster Hunter on him. But was he by himself?
That sped my heart back up again.
Would he be by himself? No that wouldn't make sense, this was the New World and these guys were exploring this unknown region and its dangers. But I do remember the characters being eccentric enough that some would go out by themselves instead of with the protection of hunters with them. But were their real-life counterparts similar, or was the game an exaggeration of them? My eyes were drawn to the mutilated corpse of the kestodon at my feet.
I can't eat it with him watching, he'll see me assimilate it and report it back to the Hunter's Guild. I…I…
could kill him and hide his body. But can I do that? Could I kill another thinking being like I did with the monsters just now?
…No. No, I can't do that. I can handle killing monsters, but a person? No way.
It seems like he didn't notice me stopping to look at him, I could run up and taze him then book it with the kestodon in my mouth and then eat it when I was safe. There's an idea, and it does look like he's by himself. I tensed, my feet digging into the dirt and-
"Vera! Where are you?! You know you're not supposed to separate from us!"
The wyverian and I froze. 'Vera' recovered first, he looked up at me and I took a step back. A grimace crossed his face as he as well started to take steps back in a slow manner. He wasn't alone. Fuck. That means hunters were nearby.
Oh god. I have to get out of here.
I snatched an arm in my mouth and ran. I ran and I
kept on running and never looked back. I ran through branches, jumped over roots, hopped into and swam across ravines, climbed trees, and I kept running. When I thought I was far enough, I kept on running. I pushed myself until day turned to night. The fear of hunters tracking me and on my tail keeps me going. I didn't stop until I realized I ran all the way back to my pond.
Only then did I stop.
I dropped to the ground in exhaustion with the arm clattering next to me and I realized I used up the rest of my bioenergy during that run without conscious thought. Okay, I thought I would be prepared for meeting the denizens here, but the fear coursing through me showed otherwise. Can you blame me? The game showed these guys were willing to throw down with a moving
mountain.
And then there's me, a jagras.
Sigh, I got up and my muscles creaked in pain and dived into the pond. The water cooled me down rapidly and set my mind in a pleasant haze. I'll deal with this tomorrow, I need my rest. These were my last thoughts as I drifted to sleep under the pond.
Vera sighed in relief and a little bit of disappointment when the jagras ran off with an arm in its mouth. He came to the Ancient Forest to learn the habits and the nature of the kestodons and to see any differences compared to the ones back in the Old World. He enlisted the help of two A-lister hunters to accompany him on his research, but he separated from them when he found tracks of a pack of kestodons and in his excitement left them behind.
He found the pack just in time for the jagras to announce its presence and was blinded by it. He heard a loud crash, a gurgle, then multiple thumps hitting the ground before he recovered his vision, and it was quite the sight. The alpha of the pack was dead and the rest twitching on the floor and a jagra covered in electricity standing over them. It proceeded to kill them with slashes to their throats or just tearing them open with its fangs.
He quickly pulled his notebook and pencil out and started to jot down his thoughts in the book and hid among the foliage.
I believe I've found a subspecies of the jagras line. It looks similar to its cousins, but there are noticeable differences. It seems to have chitin growing out of its body that gives out a dull blue light which it can use to give a flash of light much like a Flashfly(a defensive measure?) Its tail is wider and longer with dull orange dorsal fins going down the spine of its tail and a tail fin at the end of its tail(It's aquatic? Did the jagras line evolve out of the ocean? But it still has gills, so does it also breathe underwater? Strange). Its back and chest are also broader(More strength to help it swim? But I don't see any webbing between its hands).
It's quite clever, and much more aggressive as is common with subspecies of other monsters, as it garnered the attention of a pack of kestodons and blinded them(a defensive measure that eventually turned into a hunting tool? Or was it always intended to be used like so?). While in that state, it paralyzed them and then tore their throats out.
Vera's attention shot back to the jagras and watched it sniff and circle around the alpha kestodon. His interest rose as instead of eating it, it proceeded to rip off its limbs in a rather gruesome manner.
It's currently wrenching off the limbs of the alpha kestodon, but why? Is it a picky eater? A clack had him looking up from his notebook to see the jagras jaw dislocate and its strange mannerisms made sense.
Of course, it would do that, while it looks different it's still of the jagras line as it also has the ability to dislocate its jaws to devour large prey, and it's ripping off the limbs of the kestodon because it's too big for it to eat all at once. He kept writing in his notebook and when he was content with it, he started sketching the monster in front of him.
"Vera! Where are you?! You know you're not supposed to separate from us!"
He froze and looked up to see the jagras was in a lunging position facing him. His heart sped up and he took a slow and delicate step back. He didn't even hear it move, he was lost in his book and didn't realize it noticed him. While he does have a hunting knife on him, he wasn't a fighter and did not like his odds of fighting the monster after the showing he revealed to him and the aftermath.
It seemed like luck was on his side, the jagras grabbed one of the arms and ran away into the forest. Vera relaxed and leaned against the tree and called out to the pair of hunters trailing after him. "Over here!"
It only took a couple of moments before they reached him. The bigger of the two was covered in anjanath armor and had a
bone greatsword strapped on his back while his female companion was wearing pukei-pukei armor with a
blacksteel crossbow cradled in her hands. Ajax and Mary, veterans of their craft and happily married together. Good people, and good companions for this expedition.
"Come on Vera, you know this, you're supposed to stick with us and-woah. What happened here?" Ajax stopped in the middle of his admonishment and gripped his greatsword while Mary started scanning the area for any monsters when the pack of dead kestodons came into sight.
Vera waved them off and took a sip out of his water bottle. "It's quite alright my friends, the danger has passed."
"You know what happened?" Ajax questioned, his attention shifting back to Vera while Mary kept her head on a swivel. He trusted her to spot any danger before he did and warn him about it.
Vera smiled in excitement. "I've discovered a subspecies of the jagras line! Come now, you can help me decide on a name for it while we head back to Astera!"
He sped off into the treeline, heading in the complete opposite direction and electing a sigh from both of the experienced hunters.
"Come on Vera! I just talked about this!" Ajax yelled after him and ran after him while Mary shook her head at the wyverian researcher. While he was smart, he lacked some common sense. Must've lost some from living over three-hundred years.
Well, at least they got to head home early. She couldn't wait to order an aptonoth steak from Mr. Meowscular and shrimp…and a mug full of mead…and soup…and mashed potatoes…
To those who didn't know her well, it would've been a surprise that behind her cool exterior all she thought about was food. Mary followed after her eccentric friend and her husband with a line of drool leaking out of her mouth.
AN: And so, we have our very first contact. I have to admit, I'm rather impressed with myself for writing this all out in a day while sick and taking a nap in the middle of it. Not bad me.
I hope you guys enjoy being in my character's brain and his thought process, writing his thoughts has been pretty fun. And our first action scene too! I hope you guys like it.
Shoots, I'm heading off to bed.
