No one made a fuss when Alex landed outside Astera with the corpse of the tobi , instead three people walked over and like usual began to strip the body of parts and piling the meat off to the side which was normal procedure for Alex's hunts. This set up was created specifically since Alex's act of bringing back whole corpses of monsters had become semi popular as a source of extra meat. An added bonus of the entire bodies being brought back was that the hunters also didn't need to hunt so many monsters in order to get weapons and armor created from their parts.
Like always Alex collected the meat from his kill and walked off towards the canteen to get it cooked. 'I'm sure that little brat has suddenly grown much stronger over the last few days , but how?' The foreman thought with narrowed eyes. It was his job to notice the fine details of the objects that passed through the town so he was much more observant than most other people. It was for this reason that the sudden increase in muscle definition that Alex hid under his thick scales failed to allude his sight making him suspicious.
The foreman knew that Alex was trustworthy but he still felt that it would be a good idea to keep the information on Alex up to date in case some other member of the species showed up. The fact that Alex's most recent kills showed a noticeable increase in cruelty made the foreman slightly on edge however. There had been more than a few cases of hunters turning violent and angry over time and one of the first signs of that was usually a markedly high amount of cruelty. Then again those hunters also got more sloppy with their attacks to inflict more suffering but it was clear Alex was extremely efficient instead so it might just be the nature of his hunting style.
Alex didn't know about any of this as he casually strolled up to the canteen with his bundle of meat. The head chef worked his magic and served up what alex could only describe as chicken noodle soup. The only odd thing was that the noodles were the size of an orange and the soup was served in a cauldron the size of a boulder. Alex didn't care about that as he slurped the boiling hot liquid down with gusto.
The trait that he got from the tobi wasn't an elemental one like his [pyrosis] but rather a trait for resisting an element , to be specific {insulated scales]. Alex assumed that once he unlocked it his scales would gain an electrical insulation effect albeit minor. Alex spent the rest of the day in his nest with his tail in the brazier to increase his resistance and tempering traits. The slowness at which these traits increased however showed Alex that using normal methods give reducing returns the longer he goes on.
The next day Alex spent spying on the laventis to try and get a good plan in mind with whatever he could glean. Finally the day came for Alex and Zain to team up against the monster and it was clear Zain really wanted to make a good impression as a hunter since he failed to do so as a person. He was covered in the special armored dive suit while he had a pair of goggles on but no snorkel. It was clear he knew that snorkels would get in the way during the fight and like a pro underwater hunter discarded it.
Even more impressive as far as alex was concerned was that Zain even made sure to have his longsword coated with a special gel that kept the water from weakening it. "Ready to go?" Zain asked when Alex arrived at the dock early in the morning. Alex grinned showing his teeth and wrote on the ground "try to keep up." before leaping into the water and swimming out towards the reef. Zain snorted when he saw this but wasted no time jumping into the water and chasing after Alex from the waters surface.
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