Chapter 4: Razor Sharp Sunglasses

Let it be said that this story is not so sadistic as to throw a high-level monster at Jaune in the very first quest. No, that happens later in this chapter.

For now, Jaune has a perfectly safe time for his first mission outside of Astera. Gathering the various herbs, bugs, and mushrooms that dotted the Ancient Forest, he very quickly filled his backpack with its bounties.

However, Jaune has a dilemma. The moose-dinosaur monster in front of him, a Banbaro, was grazing. Banbaro were nomadic monsters that were passive unless attacked. Though they were not the strongest monster in the biome, or belong there for that matter, Banbaro were still not to be underestimated. Despite his apprehension to go near it, Jaune was safe from the rampage of an angry ninety-foot moose. His problem lies behind the Banbaro, specifically on the pile of brown directly below it.

Dung was a precious commodity in Astera. When refined and concentrated into a tiny ball, it can be flung into the face of a monster to force them away from the area, as long as they were not enraged. The sheer noxious odor they emit, greatly amplified by the refining process, can bring even the strongest of monsters to their knees, sending them fleeing to the nearest water source or erupting volcano, to wash away the stench. Dung Pods are thus an extreme must-have in any hunt, as the possibility of another monster crashing into the hunt and making things harder for everyone is always present.

Dung was worth its weight in gold, and any member who comes across dung piles will typically fill their packs as much as they can with it. Fresh dung, like the pile that the Banbaro just created, was worth even more. In short, they are the bee's knees of hunter tools, and are most definitely not normal knees.

This absolutely did not make it any easier for Jaune. He waited until the Banbaro has finished its meal and moved away. Creeping closer to the biological goldmine, he took out a spare sack, given to him by Serious Handler, and with much hesitation, scooped out as much as he could of it. Such was the size of the monsters of the New World that a thirty-liter sack could not even hold half of their dung.

Sufficiently disgusted and weighed down, Jaune returned to camp to turn in his quest to the Serious Handler.

The Sapphire Star finally arrived to Astera, but to the surprise of everyone, he was being carried on a stretcher, flown by two wingdrakes precariously placed on both ends, with the elite hunter's Felyne partner steering the two pterosaurs carefully.

It was with a somber tone that the Commander announced that any celebration will have to wait until the Sapphire Star woke up, but the news was also tinged with victory when the Admiral announced that they have also discovered the secret of the Elder Crossing, the mysterious phenomenon that the Research Commission had been chasing for the past fifty years.

Jaune listened with rapt attention as the Admiral described the events that took place in the Elder's Recess, of the unknown but titanic monster that emerged from a cocoon in the heart of the region luring in the powerful monsters known as Elder Dragons to the New World, and how the Sapphire Star single-handedly defeated it, failing to escape the crumbling floor, and being rescued by the Admiral.

An expedition was quickly organized, comprised of a large number of hunters and researchers, to the Confluence of Fates. The objective was to bring home the unknown monster to both study it and to harvest it for parts. With the monster being a complete mystery to the Commission and to the Hunters Guild back in the Old World, studying it has become a priority.

Jaune was picked as one of the members of the expedition, which surprised him.

"Me?"

The Commander nodded, but moved on to other names before he could elaborate.

"You've been saying 'me?' a lot lately, haven't you?" sniggered Excitable A-lister. "Don't worry about it, this kind of expedition is the safest and best kind of learning experience you will ever get! No ordinary monster can fight an entire group of hunters at once, and I'm there, one of the best hunters in the Commission!" He said in a tone that did not show arrogance, but quiet confidence in his skill.

"You'll be tagging along as a helping hand," added Serious Handler. "The basics are more or less done at this point. It's just a matter of refining and improving on them. Anything else you will learn, you will learn in the field."

"Huh, becoming a huntsman in my world is typically a few years in combat school, then another four years in a Huntsman Academy," commented Jaune. "I was about to take the exam to combat school before, well…"

Serious Handler gave him a smile. "Well, we do have hunter academies here, back in the Old World. But since Astera is pretty much the only civilization here in the Old World, and is a base meant for fully-fledged hunters, there's not a lot of facilities for learning, if you've noticed."

Jaune nodded. He did notice.

"The Commander said that the seas surrounding the New World are calming down, and the sea route is now open," she added. "Maybe in the future, we can take you to the hunter's academy for a visit."

"Thanks," said Jaune. "I'd like that."

The Sapphire Star woke up the next day, and a party was quickly organized. Never had Jaune seen so much delicious food and alcohol in one place before. Meowscular Chef must have butchered five entire Aptonoths for the feast before them.

Now that Jaune had gotten a better look at him, the best hunter in the Commission looked ridiculously average, someone you might not give a second look while passing by the street. Messy brown hair with brown eyes and wearing the standard leather armor when out of combat, the only distinguishing feature on him were the sunglasses that never left his face.

Yet under his easy smile lies a confidence in his skills that Jaune had only seen in the most elite of huntsmen, and the Excitable A-lister.

The Sapphire Star was exceedingly humble and quiet, not outright dismissing his own feats but quickly giving credit to everyone who had helped him get this far. His Palico partner, an orange and white Felyne, was much the same to his fellow Palicoes.

A hero, Jaune realized, but one who was grounded in reality and not larger than life. Just another person living their lives as best as they can. The Chief Ecologist's words echoed in him again.

The Commander announced that the unknown monster had been named Xeno'jiiva, who was using the bioenergy of the Elder Dragons to grow and incubate. Left alone, it would have drained the energy of the New World faster than it could be restored, leading to a desolate wasteland.

Let us skip right to the part where everyone decided to stay in the New World, with all of its wonders and riches, rather than go back to the civilization of the Old World.

This, for one, made Jaune smile. Astera was beginning to feel like another home, and he would be sad to leave it forever so quickly.

The Excitable A-lister and the Sapphire Star accompanied him on his third gathering quest to the Ancient Forest three days later. After the grueling battle against Xeno'jiiva, the Sapphire Star thought to take things easy for a while before things inevitably go pear-shaped in later chapters. He was wearing a different pair of sunglasses, this time with rounded rims.

In preparation for the expedition to Xeno'jiiva's corpse, the Commission was stockpiling supplies, and Jaune was all too happy to have two elite hunters be alongside him.

Nothing important happened in the second gathering quest, besides Jaune having had his lunch stolen by a dodo-chicken raptor monster called Kulu Ya-Ku. Serious Handler had a good laugh of it.

"You laughed?! Who are you and what have you done to my handler?!" shouted Excitable A-lister.

PUNCH!

"Ouch!" also said Excitable A-lister.

The three hunters split off individually, the Sapphire Star entering the higher areas of the forest while the Excitable A-lister wandered towards the center. Jaune kept to the relatively more peaceful plains to the southwest, where a herd of parasaurolophus-like Aptonoth grazed.

He had just finished tightening his cargo and was about to head to camp when the strong beating of wings heralded the arrival of something powerful.

Quickly diving into a bush, Jaune looked at the monster that just landed.

It was a flying wyvern that looked similar to the Rathalos, except for its bronze scales, of which the scales on its neck, wings, and tail being far larger and more prominent compared to that of its red cousin. Four talons in each foot, two in front and two in back, was currently busy tearing an Aptonoth to pieces. Capping it off was its large horn, a single curved spike that promised a horrifying impalement to anyone caught in it.

A Seregios, remembered Jaune, when he listened to his mentor brag about being the first to spot one in the New World. A nomadic flying wyvern whose scales were razor sharp, can be launched at hunters at high speeds, and cause bleeding. Twenty meters of death and pain, overall.

He hastily scanned his surroundings, looking for anything that might help him should a fight break out. There were numerous vitality plants in the area, their flowers cups full of healing nectar. Thankfully, the flowers contained too little nectar to be of any use to a monster, and it healed them very little. There was a pond on the other size of the plains, but considering Seregios can fly, might just slow him down. Still, it was something to consider. There was also another tree that looked similar to the vine trap he entangled the Pukei-Pukei with, and Jaune made a mental note of where it was located.

Staying in his hiding spot, Jaune was content to let the Seregios feed until it left on its own, but nonetheless checked his pouches for anything he could use aside from his weapons, just in case.

Potions, shock traps, smoke bombs, stones, flash pods, dung po—

Oof!

So focused he was on his person that he failed to notice a fleeing Aptonoth crash into him, sending him to the ground, away from his bush.

Jaune groaned. Picking himself up, he heard growling near him.

The Seregios had seen him, and it was not happy.

Jaune tried to slot a dung pod to his slinger, but a mighty roar forced him to cover his ears, the dung pod dropping to the ground. A mere second later, the Seregios charged at him with a speed that belied its large size. Jaune recovered just in time to dodge to the side and quickly pulled out his sword. The open plains offered no place to his, and the Seregios could easily chase him down Taking a deep breath, he forced down his fear and prepared to defend himself.

His opponent clawed at him. Jaune raised his shield to block the strike, only for the sheer force of it to knock him back, jarring his arm badly.

'This hits way harder than Great Jagras! Okay, no blocking the large monster's strikes with my tiny shield,' he thought as he jumped from another talon swipe.

He struck back with his sword, the weapon biting into the monster's tough hide. It failed to do any significant damage, only a minor cut, but Jaune noted with relief that his weapon did not bounce off as he had feared.

That sudden flash of pain caused the beast to step back in surprise. Sensing a clutch claw opportunity drilled into him from his rodeo with the Great Jagras, Jaune activated the device. The grappling hook flew, attaching itself firmly on the Seregios' wing and dragging Jaune into it.

It was not the face as he had hoped, but nonetheless he stabbed the wing several times before detaching himself. No need to overstay his welcome. The thinner wing membranes proved less resilient compared to the monster's body, and Jaune saw with satisfaction that not only were there several new holes in the monster's wing, but his weapon's poison had also started to seep inside.

He barely dodged the retaliatory slap of the wing the moment he jumped down, but not before slashing with attacks of his own. They were not very effective, but Jaune hoped the Pukei-Pukei's poison took hold.

He backed away, to his back was the vine trap that he saw earlier. He moved towards it, but the Seregios seemed to have caught wind of his plan, because it took off and circled him, putting itself between him and the trap. It hovered between them, staring at him angrily. Jaune could only grip his weapon tighter as he reconsidered his options.

The Seregios didn't give him time to think, quickly swooping down to him, talons outstretched. Jaune ducked, letting the monster fly past him, before slashing its tail as it passed by, opening a huge gash on the tail's underside.

When Jaune saw the monster again, its mouth was drooling purple. It was poisoned. But the Seregios was far from defeated. It was visibly putting more effort on its good wing, and landed before it crashed.

Jaune took the chance to run towards the vine trap, but the moment he turned his back, he heard a rattling sound. The Seregios' razor sharp scales flew past Jaune, but one hit him on the side, cutting through the Pukei-Pukei armor like it was not there.

"AH!"

He stumbled, and the monster lunged horn-first for him. With all the willpower he could muster, he forced his legs to move to the side. He was caught in a glancing blow and fell to the ground hard.

However, his effort bore fruit. Much like the Pukei-Pukei and Great Jagras before it, the Seregios was also now entangled in vines. The vines held true, but the Seregios was stronger than both the other two monsters combined and with its scales, was slowly cutting itself free.

With both hands, Jaune stood up and stabbed his sword deep into the monster's face, injecting more poison into its system. Too wounded to do more, he backed away to heal.

Bleeding badly, he opened a potion and drank the bitter medicine, even as he ran towards the vitality plants for additional healing. His bleeding worsened with every step, but Jaune was too full of adrenaline to notice.

The camp was not far away, but with a monster on his tail, he could not afford to lead it there. He could already see Serious Handler, shouting something he could not hear while slotting in an SOS Flare on her slinger. The others were on their way, he only needed to hold out a little longer.

Slicing open the flower. He let out a sigh as the nectar covered him and healed his wounds.

His reprieve was short, as the moment he turned to look at the monster again, it was free from the trap. Its scales were flared and rattling, making it look bigger than normal.

Its eyes turning red, it let out an ear-splitting roar.

Determined, Jaune slotted a flash pod on his slinger just as the flare flew into the air.

Author's Note:

I need some tips on how to add more character to Jaune. How would you describe him in three words?

Thanks for reading!