บท 124: One step closer

Alex carefully flew towards the ground while making sure he remained outside nergigante's vision since no matter how blind nergigante was it was bound to notice him when it took to the sky itself. On the ground however Alex could use the shade to hide from the ravenous elder's senses without issue. Thankfully Alex didn't get noticed during his descent and slinked towards the area the scholar was while carefully sticking to whatever shade he could find. He of course made sure to collect any of the spikes he found along the way since it was clear nergigante was a messy dragon as there was a lot.

Nergigante left shortly before Alex got there and made him tense up as it flew directly over him on it's way out of the area. Much like in the game Alex found the scholar traumatized but perfectly intact otherwise. Different from the game however was that the scholar realized almost immediately from Alex's timing that he also saw the elder. Alex didn't lie and admitted openly that he did indeed see it but that he he could tell he was outmatched. The scholar agreed with him since he had a fairly good understanding of the two monsters side by side strength.

Nergigante was bigger , faster , stronger and covered in spears of bone that made attacking it and getting attacked by it an unpleasant event to say the least. The worst part was that since it didn't use an element of it's own but rather brute force for everything it was much more durable than it appeared at first glance. When Alex saw the juratodus slip into the area with the barroths corpse he pounced on it making it clear it wasn't as stealthy as it thought.

Shortly after that Alex killed the huge fish monster by snapping it's neck , the scholar was much more calm after seeing Alex in action. The man knew Alex would keep him safe and so despite seeing Alex's violent side the man was comforted rather than fearful of his presence. Alex had the scholar ride on his back as he gripped the corpse of the barroth that was completely uneaten proving that nergigante killed it for sport rather than food. As any zoologist on earth can tell you every known animal that hunts for sport is extremely dangerous , especially since at the apex of that list is the human race.

Alex flew quickly but carefully to make sure the scholar didn't fall off midway and unceremoniously dropped the barroths corpse and scholar off at the edge of astera before taking off again towards the waste to grab his own kill. Alex was thankful that nothing had touched the corpse in that short amount of time as he gripped it and made the final trip back to astera for the day. The scholars had already started to compare the testimony of the one who saw the whole thing with the wounds on the barroth to paint a picture of nergigante.

When Alex arrived with the body of the juratodus the scholars started questioning him over his own perspective of the mysterious monster since he had also seen it. Alex indulged the people while the foreman had his people disassembling the juratodus. By the time all of the details were recorded there was a nice neat bundle of white meat waiting for Alex. The scholars would likely keep the barroths corpse for a couple days before having it dismantled for parts , at which point the meat would get sent up to the canteen for the head chef's monster menu.

The head chef worked his magic with the juratodus meat that was very fatty and delicate much like high quality tuna. The chef prepared the meat four ways , fried , baked , sushi and alex's personal favorite stewed. That's not to say the other ways didn't also have their positives , just that the stew was rich and creamy with lots of vegetables and seasonings. Alex generated two traits from the meal both of which he found interesting , [Hydrosis T2] and [slick scales]. The first will give him the water element that he really needs in order to grow again , while the second was hard to understand without having it already unlocked but he assumed it had something to do with improving his elemental resistance via his scales.

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