Not only Lore, but even Mother Zinogre caught wind of this scent.
Unlike the former’s confusion, the latter instantly entered a combat-ready state.
She raised her Dragon Claw to push Lore and Luna down,
quickly scanning the surroundings and finally locking her gaze onto a specific direction.
Mother Zinogre lowered her body as much as possible, crawling toward that direction.
Seeing this, Lore and Luna followed suit, mimicking her movements.
Only when they reached the edge of the bushes, where their figures could still remain hidden, did Mother Zinogre stop.
Through the gaps in the bushes, Lore saw an open clearing ahead.
But it was this single glance that made Lore’s pupils contract.
A proud figure stood tall in the clearing, completely out of place with the dappled green vegetation.
The very first sight that met his eyes was a vibrant scarlet that made Lore’s blood boil.
A massive monster nearly twenty meters long stood right there.
Its entire body was encased in hard, orange-red spiked armor, like an incarnation of fire,
There were many black markings on its shell, a characteristic that represented extreme danger in the natural world,
Several spines grew on the tip of its tail and its back; if pitted against the shells and scales of certain monsters, they could easily pierce right through them,
Moreover, its sharp hind talons possessed venom glands, meaning even a mere scratch might poison a monster.
Without a doubt, that was a Rathalos, hailed by hunters as the King of the Skies!!!
Lore was slightly startled, and then his brow furrowed.
“Isn’t this supposed to be our Zinogre territory?
Why would that Rathalos guy come here?
A territory dispute…
Damn it!”
In Lore’s memory, the Zinogre pack had been engaged in a fierce territorial dispute with the Rath family in recent years.
But due to the interference of the Tyrant Zinogre, the local Zinogre pack had rapidly declined.
By now, that leading Rathalos must have also noticed the dead silence here, thus plundering the resources of their territory.
Right now, a blood-soaked Bullfango lay beneath the talons of that Rathalos.
Clearly, it had already extended its demonic claws to the resources here.
Lore turned his head to look at Mother Zinogre, finding her eyes filled with displeasure and anger as well.
Luna, on the other hand, looked aggrieved and at a loss.
To fight?
Or to leave?
Just as Lore was hesitating,
a dragon roar echoed from the area shaded by the trees.
Its silhouette was extremely similar to the previous Rathalos,
and a monster with an almost identical form to a Rath emerged from the shade of the trees, affectionately nuzzling its forehead against the Rathalos.
But unlike the latter, the newcomer’s entire body was covered in green shells and scales,
and there was a tuft of dark green bristles where its wings connected to its spine, giving it an absolutely safe camouflage in this dense jungle.
And the appearance of this monster made Lore click his tongue in surprise.
“Tsk, a Rathian?
It seems food is so scarce that the couple has to forage together…
Just what on earth happened in this area…”
It was precisely the appearance of the Rathian that made Lore completely abandon the idea of rushing over to fight.
If there were only one Rathalos, Lore and Mother Zinogre might still have been able to drive it away, but if a Rathian were added to the mix, their chances of winning would be slim.
Mother Zinogre thought so too.
Without making a sound, she gently nudged Luna and Lore with her front claw, signaling the two young dragons to be careful and follow quietly behind her.
Only Lore paused for a moment as they quietly departed, then turned back with a fierce glare, looking at the two high-and-mighty figures through the gaps in the leaves,
“Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river!
Do not mock a poor young dragon!”
At the cost of shrinking their territory, the Zinogres retreated from this place.
But Lore engraved this matter in his heart.
One day, he would take back everything he had lost!
After setting the goal of challenging the Raths, some more time passed.
By this time, food within the Zinogre territory had become increasingly scarce.
However, what made Lore feel even more troubled was that Mother Zinogre seemed to be in a poor state over the past few days.
It wasn’t that she had sustained any fatal wounds during hunting,
but rather that food was dwindling, and she always let the two young dragons eat first, while she herself ate very little.
Over time, Mother Zinogre’s body began to look somewhat thin and weak, and her spirit was a bit listless, often sneezing repeatedly inside the cave,
Even though Lore could share a bit of his Leftovers with Mother Zinogre, it was like a drop in the bucket—hardly a long-term solution.
Watching her mother like this, Luna also lay on her shoulder and let out whimpering cries, the mother and daughter looking utterly pitiful.
As a responsible and righteous Zinogre, Lore naturally couldn’t sit by and do nothing!
A transmigrator as unselfish as him was truly hard to find in this day and age.
Of course, this was just his self-proclaimed opinion.
And so, Lore naturally began his very first experience of hunting alone.
At first, when he expressed his intent to Mother Zinogre with a roar, she was quite worried.
But looking at her hind legs, which could barely even support her weight, she could only silently choose to compromise.
As for Luna, she stayed with their mother in the cave to prevent any unexpected sudden attacks from small monsters.
“Hmm…
let me think…
besides foraging for food, I should also bring back some herbs.”
I have to say, the flora and fauna of this world are quite magical; herbs are not only useful to humans, but also have healing effects on other monsters.
Furthermore, relying on the innate instincts of a Zinogre, Lore could easily distinguish between weeds and the herbs he needed.
Strolling through the Zinogre’s territory,
Lore searched for small monsters to hunt while rummaging through the overgrown areas.
Fortunately, Lore’s luck wasn’t too bad, and he finally found a few stalks of emerald-green herbs by a stream.
After cutting the herbs with his molars, Lore tucked them into his shock-furred coat.
At that moment, however, he suddenly remembered something.
Lore’s eyes sharpened, and a giant lightbulb virtually popped up over his head!
He had an idea.
“Hmm…
when I played monster hunter, I remember that mashing Herbs lets you craft Potion, and adding Honey turns it into Mega Potion.
Wouldn’t that boost the medicinal efficacy?”
To test his theory, Lore decided to gather some Honey along his hunting route.
But in this dead silent territory, it was really hard to find this kind of energy-rich food.
This forced Lore to expand his search outward to see if he could find any outside his territory.
After wandering for a while, Lore arrived at an unfamiliar area.
Just then, he caught a whiff of a sweet fragrance.
A Zinogre’s nose really was incredibly sharp.
At that exact moment, however, a beast’s roar echoed in Lore’s ears!