Monster Hunt: Notes from a Hunter

When they first walked into the underground passage, Gordon and the others were still making some jokes like "It's useless to just plug the mouse hole".

But when they really went deep into the huge underground cave, the hunters and even the Elfang hounds all entered a state of silence without saying a word, fully alert.

The last time I came here was nearly two years ago. Fortunately, the terrain in the underground cave is not complicated, so I won't get lost easily.

Their first goal was the cave with the largest space, which was the place where they fought the Ge Mantis the last time they came.

There are a large number of metal devices, relics and ruins from different regions and different periods scattered there. These things are combined under the manipulation of the mantis's silk thread to form a super giant mechanical monster, which is the "Queen's Ruin City".

Gordon's thinking is also very straightforward.

If the mechanical behemoth "Xucheng" is regarded as a set of armor, then the parts collected by the mantis are the parts of the armor.

Like hunters' wrist armor, greaves, helmets and so on.

No matter how sloppy a hunter is, he wouldn't throw away the parts of a set of armor so that he couldn't find them, would he?

The same should be true for Ge Mantis. The huge underground cave is probably the "equipment box" where Ge Mantis stores the parts of the mechanical behemoth.

If you can find some of the missing metal parts in the eastern Doruma arsenal or in the Gioris village, it can be used as direct evidence that the Ge Mantis participated in the attack on the fortress.

At that time, they can freely choose the timing to hunt the Mantis according to the situation.

"Crack."

There were two slight sounds like rolling stones in front of him, and Gordon stopped immediately, and at the same time raised his fist to signal the partners behind him to stay alert.

In order to avoid premature exposure, they lowered the brightness of the oil lamps around their waists so that they could not see anything more than a dozen or twenty meters away, so they had to rely on the Ailu who had night vision capabilities to find their way.

The sound just now was made by the pork chops, which represented a "dangerous situation".

Waiting on the spot for a while, Xianglan ran back lightly, "There is a male praying mantis wandering around the entrance of the corridor ahead, meow, do you want to kill it meow?"

The strength of the males of Ge Mantis is very average, barely reaching the level of a two-star monster. With their strength, they can kill them quickly.

But this is in the opponent's lair, who knows if it will release some warning pheromones before it dies, and it will cause a lot of trouble if it attracts a group of troubles.

Gordon made a "deny" gesture and said softly, "Lead away."

Pandan's fluorescent cat pupils blinked twice, nodded, and ran away.

Waiting in place for a while, there was another sound similar to rolling stones ahead, which meant "the alarm was cleared".

The hunters stepped forward again, cautiously.

They didn't know whether it was pork chop or pandan that lured away the male praying mantis, but they didn't worry too much. With the strength of the two Ailu, it was easy to escape a monster of this level.

A similar situation happened two more times.

Lured by pork chops and pandan in turn, the hunters came to the huge cave at the target location without alarming more male mantises.

They waited for a while at the entrance of the passage leading to this cave, and waited for the cats, cats and dogs with dark vision ability to quickly check the environment in the cave and confirm that there was no danger for the time being, before entering with confidence.

Gordon took off the kerosene lamp on his waist, turned it on, and placed it on the ground. The orange light illuminated a large area.

He said: "Use the oil lamp as a gathering point, disperse the investigation and search, send out a signal if you find something, and gather at the lamp to meet the enemy if there is danger."

"Understood." Hariyata Anshir nodded.

The hunters were about to disperse when they suddenly heard Pandan's meowing, "Occasionally I found meow!"

"?"

Hunters, including pork chops, are full of question marks.

We haven't even started looking yet, you found it?

Xianglan didn't speak, she sniffed around carefully, and then ran towards a certain direction.

The hunters quickly followed.

Soon, they came to a metal object that seemed to weigh at least two or three tons, and it looked like a part of some kind of large machine.

Pig Chop and Anshir looked around the parts for a while, exchanged a few words in a low voice, and quickly reached a consensus.

"What is this?" Gordon asked.

"It looks like a bearing connecting the tip of the dragon gun and the steam propulsion component." Anshir replied.

"Hey!" Gordon was stunned, and looked at Xianglan, "There are so many messes around, how did you find this all of a sudden, aren't you and Hayata mechanical idiots?"

Hayatta: "?"

Don't you too? ! I'll clean you up later

Panlan proudly pointed to the gaps in the metal parts, which were stained with some black grease.

This can't explain anything at all, the grease used to lubricate metal parts will also become dark and sticky after a period of use.

But Panlan was very sure that it wasn't blackened engine oil, or the smell of "black oil".

Pork Chop and Gale also came over and sniffed it carefully.

"How's it going?" Gordon asked Pork Chop.

Pig Chop scratched his ears, "It's indeed meow, Pandan's sense of smell is much sharper than ours meow, I didn't notice any smell from here just now meow."

"Meow~" Xianglan put her hips on her hips and puffed up her belly, "There are some things around that also smell of black oil meow!"

The hunters looked around behind Xianglan, and found something that looked like the base of a cannon, something that looked like a broken city gate. The material was not limited to metal, but everything.

"There's a wide range of hobbies." Anshir said with a hey.

"Sketch and record the shapes of those things." Gordon said to Hayata, who is good at painting.

The quantity is a bit too much, Hayata gritted his teeth, took out the pen and paper, and quickly copied and sketched.

Gordon returned to the part of the dragon gun, inspecting the surface of the part and the traces on the ground.

He quickly came to some conclusions, "It hasn't been long since this thing was brought here, probably one to two days."

"How?" Anshir asked.

"The traces of dragging on the ground are very clear and very new. Also, the scratches on the surface of the parts are shiny new. Although the desert here is relatively dry, the underground caves are somewhat damp.

If the metal parts are left here for a while, these scratches will somewhat darken and rust. "

With that said, Gordon followed the drag marks on the ground and searched for a while, and soon found a huge pit.

That was obviously the hole left by Ge Mantis when it burrowed into the ground and left.

Crouching down, stroking the marks left by the edge of the pit, and looking back at the marks, Gordon's face darkened.

He patted the dust off his hands and stood up, "We're in big trouble."

"Because the mantis has already left?" An Xier asked looking at those traces.

Although he is not as proficient in trace analysis as Gordon, he can be considered proficient.

"It's not that simple, look here." Gordon pointed to the drag marks extending from the pit to the metal bearing, "Look at these, very sharp and deep scratches, right?

There is not such a sharp part on the metal bearing, it should be the tip of the dragon gun. "

Gordon circled the pit, and soon found some deep scratches that went into the pothole.

"Back to the picture in my mind, Ge Mantis has harvested a lot, dragging a lot of 'harvests' back here, among them is the dragon-striking gun connected to the bearing.

It should not be long after that, Ge Mantis left with the dragon gun again. Since the bearing was heavy and in the way, it removed the bearing and took the gun head of the dragon gun alone. "

"Bringing the head of a dragon gun?" Anshir quickly realized, "As a weapon?"

"Well, it should be."

Gordon stared at the chasm, "The worst-case scenario we considered should be right.

The attacker in the East Doruma arsenal should not be Ge Mantis, but another powerful monster, and the black oil was left by that monster.

It destroyed the arsenal, taking gunpowder and many metal items including the original Dragon Shotgun.

There is a high probability that the Pavilion Mantis did not participate in that time. After all, we have searched so many times and found no relevant clues.

Some time after the initial attack, the monster attacked the Gioris village again.

This time the Pavilion Mantis was involved, what role it played in the attack is uncertain, accomplice? Thief? In short, after the attack, it took a large number of spoils and brought them back to the lair.

And then."

Speaking of this, Gordon changed the subject, "Scholars have said that Ge Mantis should have a high IQ and be very good at learning to imitate, otherwise it would be impossible to control such a mechanical giant."

Anshir twitched the corners of his mouth, "It failed to catch up the first time, it may be observing in secret.

The second time it followed the black oil monster's ass, watched the black oil monster destroy the fortress, and tasted the sweetness.

So for the third time, it took the weapon and prepared to grab it by itself? "

"Should, learn bad quickly."