Preparation (2)
｢I like traveling with you.｣
[ZZZ (Yeah?)]
｢I wish Little Baby were here too.｣
[ZZZZ Z ZZZZZ ZZZZZ (Don't worry. I'll bring her back, no matter what.)]
｢Okay!｣
I gently stroked No. 26, who was perched on top of my head, and she in turn caressed my horns softly with her tentacles.
｢...If it weren't for the way you look, you'd almost be cute.｣
"I have detected an unanalyzable physical response from the Main Controller."
｢I think I have a rough idea what that means.｣
"Middle Baby's statement is very interesting. Information sharing is requested."
｢W-why are you asking me about that?｣
After resting long enough for my injuries to heal, I set out from the nest with the kids. It was time to hunt new prey together.
This next target would be tricky to hunt on my own.
This enemy wasn't the type whose own strength was overwhelming, like the Ice Horror, nor one that commanded hordes of minions, like the Glacier Fiend. It was a nuisance in an entirely different sense. Even the Mother of the Sky had grimaced when I brought it up.
I glanced over at her as she bickered with PS-111.
Is that her new transformed look?
Thanks to consuming the Ice Horror's heart, along with the Winter Walker heart I'd brought back for her, she had gained the power of the Wendigo.
The Wendigo of Space Survival looked quite different from its legendary depiction. In this world, a Wendigo was closer to a skeletal black deer walking on two legs.
The Wendigo's power came in two broad categories: temperature manipulation, such as generating cold, and the ability to disrupt the minds of other living beings.
Where the Gryphon specialized in short flight and close-quarters combat, the Wendigo was better suited to combat support and crowd control.
Abilities more useful in group battles than one-on-one fights.
Maybe that was why the Wendigo tended to be beloved by the companions who fought alongside one.
The irony was that it was notoriously unpopular among Wolf players—because the Wendigo's appearance was famously hideous.
That was how it used to be, anyway...
The Mother of the Sky's current appearance had changed considerably. Part of the Wendigo's characteristics had been woven into her form.
The head of a white raptor, the flamboyant mane, the lioness body covered in golden fur—all of it remained, but several new elements had been added. Two black horns now sprouted from her head, and dark wave-like patterns rippled across her body.
Every change stemmed from her privilege.
She looks pretty cool, actually.
She seemed a little awkward about the transformation, but to my eyes it suited her well.
All of it was thanks to her player privilege, the Hunt God's Disguise Husk.
Normally, when a Wolf entered the deification stage, they chose which mythical beast to transform into. By the game's design, that beast became the very essence of the Wolf—once chosen, it could never be changed.
But the Mother of the Sky's privilege, the Hunt God's Disguise Husk, was free of that restriction.
According to her, besides the Gryphon she'd originally chosen, she could transform into one of four additional mythical beasts.
As long as she unlocked the conditions required for each transformation, she could assume an unlocked form once per month. If she transformed into the Wendigo here, for instance, she couldn't change into another beast until a month had passed.
How long a transformation could be maintained varied by beast. The Wendigo could last up to five days.
That was why she was conserving it, choosing not to become the Wendigo just yet.
Apparently some of the unlocked beast's traits carry over even in Gryphon form anyway.
Like the deer horns growing from her head now. She also no longer felt the cold at all, thanks to the Wendigo's cold-immunity trait.
Two more beasts unlocked—only two left to go.
By her account, the materials needed to unlock a new form were about as hard to obtain as the Wendigo's had been. In other words, she'd have to take down an APEX-class monster.
Once No. 26 had grown a bit more, it would be worth looking for monsters that could help her as well.
Come to think of it, she unlocked another beast before the Wendigo too—how did she get that one?
I was mulling over that question when the Mother of the Sky called out to me.
｢Which way are you planning to search first? Wandering around aimlessly will take forever.｣
[ZZZZZ ZZZ ZZZZZZ (I'm thinking of heading north.)]
｢North?｣
Our nest sat in the middle of a forest near the foot of the mountain range. Follow it north far enough and the peaks that made up the range began to rise.
Today's plan was to comb through one of those many mountains.
[ZZZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZ (You saw them from the Twin Peaks, right?)]
"According to the reports received before I lost my relay-terminal function, that is correct."
First thing that morning, I had asked PS-111 whether she'd ever seen the creatures I was hunting.
The Mutant Screamer that had served as the relay terminal still held the information gathered by the lower units. As it happened, one of the creatures I was after had been spotted by her subordinates before.
Spotted from the Twin Peaks, huh.
The target I was after this time was defined by an extremely broad hunting range. If it had been seen at the Twin Peaks, near the forest at the foot of the range, then the entire area around it had to be within the creature's territory.
It only ever nests very high up, so its nest might even be up there.
The Twin Peaks were tall enough to be visible from the Ice Plains. I wouldn't know for sure until I went and checked myself, but there was a decent chance it lived there.
Either way, I have to catch one if I want to save Adhai.
There was one ability that was absolutely essential for fighting Galagons.
Flight.
And not ordinary flight—I needed the kind of power that could sustain high-speed movement and even interstellar travel.
Galagons could all fly, from the moment they hatched as Hatchlings. As Adhai made clear, flight was something they wielded aggressively in combat.
What's more, White Galagons possessed traits useful in aerial combat beyond the 'Super Acceleration' that Green Galagons had.
To stand against creatures like that, I needed powerful flight capabilities of my own.
Skywhales have flight too, but...
Skywhales lived by absorbing formless ambient energy from nature. This planet was home to the Dragon's Nest, where psychic power was heavily concentrated, so I could plausibly encounter one here.
The problem was that they never, ever touched the ground until the day they died. Without flight of my own, even meeting one would be a challenge.
Killing a Galagon would grant me a flight-related trait, but they lived in prides, which complicated things.
That left one final option: the Crystalwing, the very creature I was heading to the Twin Peaks to find now.
[ZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZZZ (Today's goal is to find the Crystalwing's nest.)]
｢So I have to put up with that tedious work here too.｣
The Mother of the Sky shook her head in exasperation. Just then, No. 26 poked my head with a tentacle.
｢Big Baby, what's a Crystalwing?｣
[ZZZZZ ZZZZ ZZZ ZZZZZ (An animal with wings that sparkle.)]
｢Wings?｣
The concept was apparently unfamiliar to her, and she sent out a confused signal.
[Zzzzzz ZZZZ (The things Adhai has)]
I would have loved to unfurl my Glide Membrane to show her, but in Clever Underdog mode, the membrane was unusable. Still, she was a clever girl, and she caught on quickly.
｢Oh! The flappy-flappy thing! Flap flap!｣
[ZZZ (That's right.)]
No. 26 pulled out two of her tentacles and waved them, fluttering in the air.
In truth, Adhai's flying was closer to graceful gliding through the sky. It wasn't quite what No. 26 was depicting, but the message got across, and that was what mattered.
And so we pressed northward, toward the Twin Peaks.
The closer we drew to the mountains, the more the landscape changed. The trees thinned, and the terrain grew treacherous. Massive chunks of ice, tens of meters across, lay wedged haphazardly into the ground, and crevasses of unknowable depth split the earth. It was pure, untamed nature itself. If I were still human, I would never have wanted to come anywhere near this place.
Of course, that doesn't apply to us.
I kicked off the ground hard, my body sailing through the air to clear a crevasse dozens of meters wide.
｢Fun!｣
Every time I leapt, No. 26 squealed with delight on my head. The Mother of the Sky and PS-111, trailing behind me, followed with light bounds of their own.
All of them possessed superb physical abilities, so the punishing terrain posed no obstacle whatsoever.
Once we reached the mountain, cliffs—and slopes so sheer they might as well have been cliffs—greeted us. Again, no problem. Our pace didn't slow by so much as a step.
Whenever hunger gnawed at us along the way, we hunted the wild creatures roaming the mountain. The Snowbanshees that crept cautiously along the cliff faces became our main victims.
｢There's one more over there.｣
"Engaging."
The moment the Mother of the Sky's keen eyes spotted prey, PS-111 would strike it down with the Demolisher mounted on her tail.
"Kik!"
The Snowbanshee, struck by a matter-disintegrating energy round, began to fall from the cliff—then, mid-plummet, its body froze in place as if suspended in midair.
｢Yap!｣
As No. 26 waved her tentacle, the creature shuddered, then split apart with a sound like a balloon popping. Its shattered body divided neatly into four chunks that squished together into little meatballs. Even the blood spraying downward defied the laws of physics, sucked into the morsels of meat.
Impressive.
True to her Sea Demon nature, she wielded her psychic power with remarkable finesse. Even Jason, whom we'd fought just days ago, hadn't shown that level of control.
No. 26 handed each of us, clinging to the cliff face, a chunk of what had once been a Snowbanshee.
｢Big Baby, eat this.｣
[ZZZZ (Thank you)]
Though there was no need, she went ahead and placed the meat directly into my mouth herself.
A springy, chewy texture filled my mouth, the salted meat carrying a faint note of soy sauce. Just as I'd noticed yesterday, Snowbanshee meat tasted like seasoned jerky and dried squid.
It looks like a salamander, but the taste is something else.
Pausing now and then to fill our stomachs, we traveled for a long while before finally reaching the vicinity of the Twin Peaks.
Above us, the sky was choked with gray clouds; ahead stood another peak flanking its twin. And beyond that peak stretched a ridgeline far broader than the Twin Peaks themselves.
Looking down, I saw the black trees blanketing the mountainside below, their branches so heavy with snow that they gleamed white. Past the snow-covered forest, the ice plain ran on without end.
...It's beautiful.
The frozen land spread out beneath the peaks was a spectacle beyond description. I hadn't seen scenery this breathtaking since the day I met the Bubble Amoebas with No. 26.
If I'd never come to this world, I never would have seen something like this in my life.
I wasn't the only one marveling at nature's grand creation. The Mother of the Sky stood beside me, gazing at the view in a daze of her own.
｢Hey, friend. Aren't you cold?｣
"I was designed to operate without impairment at temperatures down to minus 150 degrees Celsius."
｢I don't understand a word of that, but that's amazing!｣
"I am grateful for the Main Controller's praise."
It went without saying that No. 26 and PS-111, whose sensibilities differed so wildly from ours, felt nothing at all.
In any case, we had reached our destination, and together we scoured the area around the peak. It took only a few minutes of searching before we found the trace we were looking for.
｢You were right. There's a Crystalwing nest nearby.｣
She set down the branch she'd been carrying in her beak. It was a branch from one of the trees that made up the forest around the mountain—though it differed from an ordinary branch in one crucial respect: jewel-like granules were embedded in the wood.
A branch they carried back to build the nest.
Those jewel-like granules were the residue of Crystalwing saliva, dried and hardened.
Over time, a Crystalwing's bodily fluids transformed into a substance resembling gemstone. It looked like a jewel, but it wasn't even a mineral.
Frankly, comparing it to actual jewels is an insult.
The creature's fluids were astronomically more valuable. The crystallized secretions emitted a unique electromagnetic field, making them a key material for developing advanced alloys and shipboard computers. If I weren't Amorph, discovering a single nest like this would have earned me enough to buy a warship.
I followed the glittering branches, entertaining such pointless thoughts. The jewel-studded twigs, sparse at first, grew steadily more frequent, and before long a nest of gleaming gems appeared before us.
Galagons lined their nests with gems too, but never in this form. This had to be a Crystalwing's nest.
Good. We found the nest.
I set No. 26 down for a moment and examined the nest alongside the Mother of the Sky.
A corpse lay inside, frozen stiff and mummified. The nest had been vacant for quite some time.
｢How many do you think there are?｣
[ZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZZ (At least two, by my read.)]
｢Two? There's no sign of any eggs.｣
[ZZZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZZZ (This section shows signs of reinforcement. The male built the nest.)]
｢A young couple, then.｣
At least two of them—a male and female pair, newly mated.
After a Crystalwing pair mated, the male built the nest and the female prepared to lay her eggs upon it. Once eggs appeared, the female would tend them while the male ranged out to find food.
As I'd said, this nest bore clear traces of the male's diligent reinforcement. Yet with both male and female absent, the most likely explanation was that they'd gone hunting together.
Food didn't seem that scarce, though.
They'd built a nest—one of them should have stayed behind to guard the home. It was surprising.
Maybe the Galagons have squeezed their range so tight they have no choice.
Galagons and Crystalwings both claimed the apex predator's position in the wild. Because each competed with the other for prey, they attacked on sight.
The Crystalwing, however, was stronger than a Green Galagon but weaker than a White. When the two sides clashed, the pack-hunting Galagons always won.
Crystalwings knew perfectly well they held the weaker hand, so despite their apex status they moved with caution.
The trouble was that this planet held at least two Galagon prides. Their occupied territory had to be twice as large, which meant food was anything but easy for a Crystalwing to come by.
｢Even if they've just gone hunting, it's still a problem. If they left to hunt, there's no telling when they'll come back.｣
[ZZZ ZZZZ (Fair point.)]
Once a Crystalwing set out on a hunt, it didn't return to its nest for a very long time. It roamed abroad for as little as a week, or as long as half a year, in search of prey. If eggs were waiting, that window shrank dramatically, but we had no such luck to count on now.
｢So what do you want to do? Wait it out? Or look for another nest?｣
The Mother of the Sky asked, but I didn't answer right away.
Which option works in my favor?
If Adhai hadn't been abducted, I might have weighed a long stakeout. But the situation didn't allow it—my time was limited.
Then again, finding another nest won't be easy either.
This range held hundreds of peaks, and if I counted every other habitat a Crystalwing might occupy, the search would easily run into the thousands. There was no way to comb through them all one by one.
Now that we've found a nest, only one option remains.
[ZZZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZZ (Let's wait—two days, no more.)]
The Mother of the Sky nodded, signaling that she would defer to my judgment.
If the Crystalwing never showed after the wait, so be it. I'd have to accept the risk and go after a Galagon, or settle for hunting whatever winged creatures I could find.
And so, less than a day after the nest was found, our camp-out was decided.