Altaïr picked up the quest form with a helpless sigh and glanced over it.
Hunt Quest: Deep Cave Crab Shadows (★★★★)
Quest Details: Hunt 1 Taikun Zamuza. Location: cave. Time Limit: 7 days. Reward: 7,000z + 3,000z (special subsidy).
Possible Monsters: None discovered yet.
Transport Team Leader: Our people were gathering Iron Ore in a cave in the mountains north of the outpost when they encountered a Taikun Zamuza. Fortunately, everyone ran fast enough to escape, and no one was hurt.
Please help us take it out as soon as possible. Otherwise, none of us will feel safe mining there.
Altaïr looked puzzled. "Hunting a Taikun Zamuza? What does that have to do with the gift?"
"Of course it does!" Francesca snapped her fingers. "Remember the first Taikun Zamuza you fought? You never managed to bring back one of its claws after the Hunt, and Isis has been lamenting the loss ever since!
"This time, we'll give her a giant crab claw as a gift. She'll love it!"
"..."
Still... Isis really might like it.
Seeing Altaïr fall silent, Francesca patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry! I made a point of asking the transport team leader about it for you.
"Apparently, that Taikun Zamuza hasn't returned to the sea in a long time, or something like that. Its body isn't covered in layers of rock; only its two giant claws have rocky armor.
"You always said the thick rocky armor was the most troublesome thing about a Taikun Zamuza, right? This one should be a pushover.
"Now hurry up, take care of it, and come straight back!"
Under Francesca and Nymera's relentless urging, Altaïr quickly finished the rest of his meal, took the quest form to the counter, and completed the paperwork.
The quest did not seem especially difficult, so Altaïr had no intention of asking anyone else to join him. He and Sajji would be enough.
Of course, he would not let his guard down. Even if the target was only a supposedly defective Taikun Zamuza, a Large Monster was still a Large Monster.
High Rank Hunters had lost their lives to low-star Monsters through carelessness before. In fact, such tragedies were far from rare.
Teacher Karin, Master Amos, and Madam Marydan had all reminded him of that countless times.
Whether his opponent was a Taikun Zamuza or even a Bullfango, he would never skimp on his preparations for the Hunt.
He first found Sajji and explained the quest to him.
When Sajji heard that they were making up for Isis's missing birthday gift, he was eager to help.
This quest had to go smoothly, meow!
After thinking it over carefully, he decided to bring the versatile Rathian Model-1 Rocket Launcher and Rakna-Kadaki Model-4 with its One-shot Binder.
The Rathalos Series was too cumbersome for an underground cave, and the same was true of the Yian Kut-Ku Series. Their target lived underground, so what good would flying do?
More importantly, there was no biological engine available this time, which sharply reduced the performance of both the Rathalos Series and the Yian Kut-Ku Series...
Since it would be just him and Altaïr, Sajji needed to fill part of the Gunner role in addition to providing support, so he packed a large number of rockets.
Many of them were Incendiary Rounds loaded with extra fire herb.
Their understanding of Taikun Zamuza was still extremely limited, and they had yet to identify its weak points or elemental vulnerabilities.
Still, according to the scholars' analysis, the fungi that lived in symbiosis with Taikun Zamuza feared fire and high temperatures, so Incendiary Rounds should be able to suppress it to some extent.
As a pure Blademaster, Altaïr's preparations were relatively simple. After repeatedly checking his armor and weapon, as well as the quantities of the various hunting items in his pack, he was nearly ready.
When he saw Sajji hauling out a huge pile of rockets and struggling under their weight, Altaïr took some of them off his paws.
Once their preparations were complete, the fully armed Hunter and Felyne left the outpost and headed north into the mountains.
The hunting grounds between the outpost and the edge of the mountains were already familiar territory to the Hunters.
More than half of their daily Hunting quests took place either there or in the Mangrove Forest across the Great River, so they made quick progress along familiar paths.
According to the map, however, their target was not near the edge of the mountains but deep underground in a far more remote area.
Even the Hunters rarely ventured this far into the mountains. The transport team had some nerve coming all the way out here to mine.
—--
It was late at night by the time Altaïr and Sajji finally reached the area marked on the map, having set out that afternoon.
It was already more than thirty kilometers from Mangrove Outpost in a straight line. With the winding, rugged mountain paths taken into account, the actual distance was at least twice that.
By then, both Altaïr and Sajji looked as though they were constipated.
This far from the outpost... hauling those two giant claws back would be a challenge in itself. They might even have to return for help, perhaps paying Hibiki in crab legs to carry them all the way back...
There was naturally no Hunter camp this deep in the mountains. The advance team did not yet have enough resources to build camps everywhere.
Following the map, however, Altaïr found the temporary camp left behind by the transport team.
It was an inconspicuous little cave. The entrance was so narrow that they had to squeeze through sideways, and the interior was not much roomier. A few more people would have made it feel cramped.
Altaïr was more than satisfied. The cave might have been small, but it was very safe. They would not need to worry about Monster attacks even without posting a night watch.
The transport team had also left behind animal-hide bedding, along with a few tools and cooking utensils. It looked as though they could spend the night in relative comfort.
Sajji went to gather dead branches and dry firewood while Altaïr lit a campfire and prepared dinner.
Normally, when it was just him and Sajji, Altaïr could not be bothered to make anything elaborate. Today, however, was different.
Isis had asked Jara to procure a large supply of high-quality spices from Val Habar. It took no great feat of deduction to realize that Jara must have taken Isis's letter to the Felyne Chef and asked for a custom blend.
Altaïr had brought a small bottle along on this quest...
He set up the cookware, and Sajji drew closer.
"Meow~"
Neither of them was normally particular about food, but after so long away, the chance to taste a flavor from home excited them both.
The ingredients were simple, just two skewers of sausages and a few potatoes.
The advance team's Felyne Chef had made the sausages from meat left over when the Hunters brought back more than they could eat. The Felyne Chef was a decent cook, but conditions on the island were limited. The sausages contained no seasoning but salt, which left them rather bland.
Altaïr cut the sausages into small pieces and fried them slowly in the pot. Once they had rendered some fat, he added the diced potatoes and fried them together.
When the heat was about right, Altaïr took out the small bottle of spices and generously shook nearly half of it into the pot.
The cloud of spice made Sajji sneeze several times in a row.
Ordinarily, there would have been no need to use so much, but today they wanted something with a kick and saw no reason to hold back on the seasoning.
After stirring the mixture a couple of times, Altaïr poured in some water and tossed another two handfuls of firewood onto the campfire, leaving the ingredients to simmer.
A rich, pungent aroma filled the cave...
The man and the Felyne sat around the campfire, staring absently at the iron pot while the flames licked its bottom.
"Boss, meow."
"Hm?" Altaïr tossed a dry branch into the fire and answered absentmindedly.
"It's just the two of us here, so we can say anything, meow. No third pair of ears will hear it, meow."
Sajji gazed at Altaïr through the steam curling from the pot and asked bluntly, "Boss, how do you really feel about Isis, meow? I mean as a woman, meow."
"Oh?" Altaïr was not surprised by the question. Rather than answer directly, he asked, "What about you? How do you feel about Clawdia?"
Sajji turned slightly away. "I'm not telling you, meow..."
"Then I won't tell you either..."
The man and the Felyne let the subject drop, but each had already understood the other's answer.
"The heat's about right. Time to eat." Altaïr took out some dry bread, tore it into pieces, and tossed them into the pot. After stirring twice, he served a bowl to Sajji and another to himself.
"Achoo! Looks like we still used too much spice, meow."
"We did."
(Translated by yourtl.app)