There was nothing else on the multi-layered shelves besides the scrolls.
Li Fan surmised that anything of value had likely already been plundered.
Fortunately, these dust-covered scrolls were precisely what he sought to investigate.
Under the light of the bulb, Li Fan unrolled one and found it depicted a great bird in the ink wash style. He commented, "This depicts a Kulu, and it's quite spirited."
What was this? It looked like a design for a ballista...
This must be a record, it read, "The people prayed, but the divine wrath could not be quelled, so humanity departed that land, leaving behind only traces of its former prosperity."
Oh! A maiden in revealing attire, a pity the art style is too abstract.
...
Rustle! Rustle!
Scroll after scroll was unfurled, its contents examined, and then set aside.
Three Moon Iai Slash...
As only a small section of the scroll was revealed, Li Fan's heart leaped upon seeing the characters at the top.
Indeed, the person who could use the Three Moon Iai Slash hailed from this very shrine.
Having confirmed his deduction, Li Fan tied the scroll to his back. Just as he reached the doorway, a sound reached him.
Whoosh! Clack!
The sound of wind pressure... and the grinding of chitinous armor moving.
Li Fan deduced that a large monster was outside.
Please don't be an Almudron, please don't be an Almudron, please don't be an Almudron...
After a barrage of silent pleas, Li Fan cautiously peeked his head out from beside the door to observe.
A quadrupedal behemoth, encased in purple chitin, with a hunched back and a wolf's waist, was ambling slowly in the shrine's courtyard.
Li Fan pressed his forehead to his hand in exasperation.
The Almudron had an enormous appetite and a savage temperament.
It was rated a five-star monster by the Guild, yet it dared to challenge Elder Dragons.
Li Fan didn't even want to encounter it in the game, let alone in reality.
Taking a deep breath, Li Fan crouched and quietly exited the door.
Moving to the rear of a stone lantern, he propelled a Great Wirebug upwards.
Buzz...
The steadily rising Great Wirebug caught the Almudron's attention.
But after a moment of observation, it found nothing but a stone lantern.
With a soft snort, it resumed its wandering.
Whoosh~
Leaning against the stone lantern, Li Fan let out a sigh of relief. Seeing that the creature was no longer looking his way,
He suddenly sprang up, grabbed the Iron Wire of the Great Wirebug's tail, and sprinted back.
Hiss! Hiss!
When the wire tightened to its limit, Li Fan released his grip.
Whoosh! He was propelled diagonally into the air.
"Bye-bye, Fatty."
High in the air, Li Fan didn't forget to wave goodbye to the Almudron.
The Almudron looked up for a moment, showing no particular emotion.
It simply propped itself up on its forelimbs, arched its muscular back, and stretched.
Using the Wirebugs, he hovered alternately in the air, and the little fool quickly came to his aid.
The Almudron, which had been sprawled on the ground, suddenly sprang up and leaped onto the roof of the main hall.
"Increase altitude!"
Seeing this, Li Fan quickly gave the command.
Although he knew that the Almudron, even with its explosive ghost fire, wouldn't reach his current height, Li Fan didn't want to take any chances.
Returning to the camp via aerial drop, Li Fan sat by the river and eagerly opened the scroll.
The art style was still ink wash. The upper portion depicted a person gripping a scabbard in their left hand and a sword hilt in their right, poised in a crouching stance, ready to draw.
It was inscribed with: Inhale, slow, stillness, eternity.
The lower portion showed the sword drawn and slashing horizontally, with ink strokes depicting three rings of qi swirling around the body.
It was inscribed with: Exhale, fast, motion, instant.
Li Fan gazed at the scroll for a long time. He checked the back for any further information, but found none. He felt as though he had found a secret manual, yet not entirely.
Unlike others who couldn't understand it at all, Li Fan could discern from the figure's posture that this was an Iai Slash performed after a special sheathing of the sword.
However, even with a deeper understanding, he couldn't grasp the method by which this Iai Slash was unleashed.
The brief annotations left him utterly bewildered.
The first character for the special sheathing, "inhale," and the first character for the Iai Slash, "exhale"—did this refer to adjusting one's breathing?
Although Li Fan could see that the two sets of annotations corresponded to each other, he could only understand the first two words.
He took off the Shield Crab Great Sword he carried on his back, intending to try it out, but encountered a small problem.
The Shield Crab Great Sword was an unconventional great sword and lacked a folding mechanism for storage. It was usually mounted on the scabbard's strap, so there was no scabbard.
The Zangetsu had a scabbard, but due to its special structure for the Courage style, it removed the Spirit Gauge function, making it unsuitable for practicing the Iai Slash.
Since the Dragonblight gear would be ready soon, Li Fan decided to practice Wirebug skills first.
A week passed quickly. He had mostly mastered the Sakura Spirit Slash and the Wirebug Kick.
However, he was still unable to perform the Water Moon stance, which required the coordination of two Wirebugs.
Every time, Liu Neng and Xie Guangkun's wires would get tangled, and it would take several minutes to untangle them.
This was, after the Iai Slash, the second most difficult move to replicate.
Returning to the village after training, he found that the two sets of red and blue Dragonblight equipment in the handicrafter's workshop were in the final stages of polishing.
Dao Wen first delivered the two completed weapons and the Palico armor set.
"May I be so bold as to ask, are there any abnormalities with your assimilation adaptability?" Dao Wen inquired.
"None," replied Eudora, picking up the Dragonblight Great Sword, its blade shaped like flames, with a relaxed expression.
"It's alright," Li Fan said, gripping the hilt of the Dragonblight Great Sword.
An impulse to cut down everything surged into his mind.
Suppressing it with effort, he sheathed the Dragonblight Great Sword.
"I feel like cutting someone, meow." Dilu, holding a miniature Dragonblight Short Sword, trembled uncontrollably.
"The village has a training ground; you can go there to adapt," Dao Wen suggested.
"I haven't read the latest issue of the Dragon Calendar Institute's journal yet, so I won't be going," Li Fan said, shaking the booklet in his hand.
"Very well, Dilu and I will go and adapt."
After Eudora and Dilu left, Li Fan found a stone bench and wiped the sweat from his brow.
He mused that while the Zinogre armor could at most allow him to climb walls and trees, the Dragonblight armor, once it acted up, could be fatal.
With so many people in the training grounds, Li Fan dared not go easily.
Opening the newly acquired journal, he saw much publicly available information about the Valstrax.
"At an altitude of 6,100 meters, it can visually lock onto aquatic beasts beneath the sea's surface, dive at full speed into the ocean to hunt, and then ascend almost vertically back into the sky... Is this for real?"
The latest observational intelligence from the Dragon Calendar Institute left Li Fan stunned.
If the Valstrax's ultimate attack, Crimson Comet, could lock onto ground targets from an altitude of 6,000 meters, then forget dodging; even giving you five minutes to run wouldn't help.
If you tried to withstand it, not counting the accompanying dragon energy explosion, the sheer impact with the ground would be beyond human endurance.
Li Fan felt a sense of powerlessness regarding the capture of the Valstrax, as if all his preparations would be in vain.
Another hidden danger was also revealed. According to recent tracking data,
The Valstrax's flight altitude was gradually decreasing, as if searching for something. If it continued to descend to an altitude perceptible to ground monsters,
It would trigger a massive monster migration, leading to a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions.
The Dragon Calendar Institute was developing airship launchers to ensure they had sufficient response capabilities before the crisis arrived.
The Monoblos dung used as fuel was extremely scarce, and they were soliciting and purchasing it from the areas around Bherna Village.
Alas, I'm too far away, or I'd definitely have Giant Ape donate more.
On the last page of the journal, it reported the resumption of information sharing between the Dragon Calendar Institute and the Hunter's Guild. It seemed both sides felt that a cold war at this time was inappropriate.
A group of boisterous children chased a Felyne, running past quickly.
The girl at the Rabbit Dumpling stall was energetically hawking her wares.
Li Fan looked at the heartwarming scene before him, a strong sense of disconnect washing over him.
"Li Fan, are those Rabbit Dumplings tasty, meow?" Dilu's voice rang out.
"They're sticky and not tasty at all, especially the matcha flavor... You're back so soon?" Li Fan noticed something was amiss.
"Don't even mention it. We set the training机关蛙 on fire. The training grounds are temporarily closed for repairs," Eudora said helplessly.
"That thing can catch fire?" Li Fan expressed surprise.
"I told you the Dragonblight Great Sword had strong fire properties. The Felyne maintenance staff on site said it was fine, and then the机关蛙 caught fire."
"I also poked it a couple of times, meow."
"It seems even training equipment can't withstand weapons of Dragonblight caliber," Li Fan deduced.
In the afternoon, the team received two sets of Dragonblight armor.
Dao Wen solemnly informed them that the negative effects of the Dragonblight armor were extremely dangerous and that the team should exercise extreme caution when wearing it initially.
After returning to the inn with the two sets of armor, Li Fan didn't rush to try them on. Instead, he began to tally the activated abilities.
According to the game data, the set bonuses provided: Focus +3, Handicraft +3, Dragonblight's True Essence, Continuous Enhancement +2, Enthusiasm +5, Heat Damage Negation.
Comparing this with the ability activation sheet provided by Dao Wen:
Great Focus, Dragonblight's True Essence, Medium Continuous Enhancement, Ultimate Enthusiasm, Heat Damage Negation.
Except for Handicraft, which enhances weapon sharpness, these activated abilities were all confirmed.
The new armor crafting techniques of the New World were truly powerful, activating so many abilities with a single set of equipment.
Speaking of which, would this [Ultimate Enthusiasm] be particularly strong if worn while staying up late? Li Fan mused in his mind.
After an hour of analysis and research,
He believed that although Great Focus, Medium Continuous Enhancement, Heat Damage Negation, and Ultimate Enthusiasm were all greatly enhanced,
Li Fan didn't think they would produce corresponding negative effects.
For example, Focus, a skill that shortens charging time. When he asked Eudora about her wearing experience, she described feeling very calm, as if she were always in a state of alert, her attention able to shift to a single point instantly.
Li Fan believed that this type of enhancement, even if greatly amplified by assimilation, would only be a positive gain.
It was the advantage of being easily assimilated, which Chu Yan was reluctant to mention.
As for Dragonblight's True Essence, it was problematic. Although the game described it as unlocking the maximum level of Enthusiasm,
Li Fan felt that the impulse to cut down everything he felt when he touched the Dragonblight Great Sword was likely from this activated ability.
In the evening, after dinner,
Li Fan bound Eudora, who was wearing the Dragonblight helmet, gauntlets, and boots, with Iron Wire and placed her on the bed.
"Dilu will sleep in your room. Call out if you need anything," Li Fan instructed.
"Please cover me with the blanket, thank you."
"Of course."
Leaving the room, Li Fan deeply felt that Eudora was being extremely harsh on herself to adapt to the Dragonblight armor as quickly as possible.
Not long after, Li Fan arrived at the Kamura Village Guild branch.
As a village that voluntarily defended against the Rampage, the Guild's presence in Kamura Village was somewhat weak, but cooperation between the two remained close.
He placed Eudora's four-star hunter badge on the counter and stated his request. The female attendant produced a booklet of four-star quests.
As for why she didn't examine it closely, perhaps Li Fan's Dragonblight Great Sword on his back inspired great trust.
Unlike the four-star quests in Caravane Village, which were all general contracts from various regions, many of the quests here were local hunting contracts.
The reason for this was likely that with greater ability came greater responsibility, resulting in the Kamura Village branch having an extremely vast jurisdiction.
It even encompassed the distant Frozen Islands and Lava Caverns.
And the larger the jurisdiction, the more hunter teams visited, and the more prosperous the village became.
Kamura Village was clearly in such a virtuous cycle.
Of course, the prerequisite for all this was that the village had the ability to withstand the Rampage, which commanded convincing regional influence.
Recalling Elder Fugen's daily distribution of medals at the village entrance to retain hunter teams, Li Fan couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.
"Excuse me, why has the contract for this Icefang Wyvern, codenamed 'Snow Shadow,' been accepted three times without success?"
Other four-star contracts had rewards fluctuating between 40,000 and 60,000z.
This Icefang Wyvern hunting contract had accumulated to 90,100z, with three previous team hunts ending in failure.
"Snow Shadow... mainly due to the harsh environment of the Frozen Islands, and this Icefang Wyvern has accumulated extensive experience from fighting hunter teams. We generally don't recommend ordinary hunter teams to take on this quest," the female attendant said. At this point, she suddenly changed her tone, "But I think you can definitely do it."
"Why?"
The female attendant leaned to the side and pointed at the Dragonblight Great Sword on Li Fan's back.
"I'm also interested in taking it, but isn't this ten-day time limit a bit too short?" Li Fan commented.
The female attendant leaned in and whispered, "Because it's expected that many teams will fail, the time limit for this contract is variable."
Li Fan initially found this illogical but quickly understood the branch's good intentions.
It was essentially to prevent more under-skilled hunter teams from going to their deaths.
Not only was there a risk to their lives, but each time the Snow Shadow defeated a hunter team, its combat experience would become even richer.
Then, it would start employing a series of tricks like dodging flash bombs with its eyes closed, walking around traps, and targeting the weakest hunter in the team.
However, if a top-tier hunter team took it on, ten days might actually be enough.
Li Fan, not wearing the Dragonblight set, still seemed to have a gap compared to top hunters. However, since he could forge weapons from Dragonblight, the female attendant figured he wasn't far off, and the time limit could naturally be adjusted.
"Alright, I'll take this contract."
"Thank you so much... Actually, it's the Guild's rating that's to blame. If they had rated the Icefang Wyvern as a five-star monster, there wouldn't be so much trouble." The female attendant complained.
"I feel like a 4.5-star tier would be more appropriate," Li Fan said, stroking his chin.