Senior Sonia is a woman of many secrets.
This didn't make her any more feminine or give her the appearance of a lynx, but rather endowed her with a striking radiance.
Her gaze, her smile, the confidence and grit flashing from time to time in those slightly wicked purple eyes.
It was as if, every single second, she was emphasizing to Melina:
"I will change your tragedy."
How do you change something that hasn't happened yet? Prevent it from happening? In that case, is a tragedy that never happened even worth saving? Melina suddenly felt a bit irritated and a bit jealous at this. The bad reputation of jealousy had followed her all the way from her past life; she possessed a twisted sense of possessiveness. She felt displeased by the fact that the senior was always looking at [Future Melina].
Completely oblivious, Senior Sonia didn't notice at all that her junior was glaring at her with a gloomy expression.
Instead, she whistled and beckoned to Joan:
"A brilliant hunt, good junior. You must have made quite a bit on this trip, right?"
And just like that, she's calling her "good junior"? With a *pop*, Melina unfurled her parasol, resting the shaft on her left shoulder, spinning it lightly with just her left thumb and forefinger.
A look of frustration hung on young Miss Joan's tender face, and those cute twin tails drooped down in sync with their owner's low spirits, conveying a thoroughly dejected vibe.
"Not much."
She emphasized:
"I knew it."
"Is it because it was only six meters long?" Melina chimed in.
"Mm..." Joan wide-eyed her, then broke into a soft, lovely smile. "Yeah, only six meters long. Just barely an adult, hasn't even built a nest yet." Following the cute smile came another dejected look. "If I'd known, we should have just let it pass instead of fighting it."
"Stepping aside might not have worked either," Melina recalled what she had studied. "Marsh Dragons have a strong sense of property. They regard all the flowers, plants, and ores in their territory as their wealth, and our gathering activities must have already been a huge provocation to her. If there weren't so many of us, she probably would have pounced on us right away."
"Oh, oh... As expected of the elite class. I've never even flipped through a single page of that book recording five thousand dragon species..." Joan gazed at Melina in profound admiration.
To which Melina added in her heart: *That's five thousand six hundred and seventy-two known dragon species, plus a whopping five massive volumes of "Unsolved Dragon Species."*
Hothouse flowers have their perks.
Compared to wild flowers growing by the roadside, they might not be as vibrant, but they understand all kinds of seasons and weather conditions.
Students like Joan belonged to the majority—they might start off reviewing with materials on the [Marsh Dragon], but then, upon encountering over fifty reskinned monsters like the [Sea Marsh Dragon], [Water Marsh Dragon], and [Subspecies Wolf Marsh Dragon], they inevitably break down. While intelligence was indeed crucial, even if you thoroughly memorized the encyclopedias of dragon species, it was hard to react on the spot to things like: a Marsh Dragon with extra wolf ears behind its horns suddenly becoming a threat level 5 subspecies Wolf Marsh Dragon...
"Explain it to me, junior." Sonia put her hands on her hips, cutting a figure like an uneducated ruffian.
It seemed reincarnation couldn't save the fact that she barely managed to graduate from her subjects.
How could knowledge that ought to be returned to the teachers be withheld just because of a mere reincarnation?
One must give back what one borrows!
A promise worth a thousand gold, truly.
Thank you, Senior, the spokesperson for "borrowing and returning."
Melina had no choice but to explain it to her half-illiterate senior.
The Marsh Dragon is a small dragon species with a standard body length of 8.4 meters and a height of 2.4 meters. Their habit is to move stones themselves in the grassland to build a platform about 4 meters high and construct a nest on top. In the process, the Marsh Dragon grows stronger and stronger while beginning to awaken a liking and discernment for various medicinal herbs. They haul massive amounts of herbs into their nests, burn them to pulp, make herbal ash, and roll around in it. At the same time, they enthusiastically collect all sorts of glowing ores—all Four-Colored Dragons love glowing ores.
"...And now you know why Joan and the others are so dissatisfied that this Marsh Dragon was only six meters long?"
"Oh, oh, I get it," Sonia clapped. "It means it just became an adult and hasn't had time to make a nest yet, so even if you hunt it, you don't get any spoils!"
After expending a fair amount of breath, Echo Squad finished stripping the remaining useful materials and used a Magic Factor extractor to harvest the Magic Factors from the Marsh Dragon's carcass.
Magic Factors are consumed in use; using a shield hammer consumes shield hammer Magic Factors, and whatever Armament you use consumes that corresponding type of Magic Factor. Most people's Magic Factors do not regenerate on their own, so they need to be extracted from monsters using an extractor and finally handed over to an alchemist for alchemical conversion.
For example, the Marsh Dragon produced:
Black Dragon, Sharp-Toothed Dragon, Drug Sorting, and Warning—these four types of Magic Factors. The Four-Colored Dragon Magic Factors are used to exchange for Armament Magic Factors, while the dragon species ones are used to exchange for equipment Magic Factors. But Drug Sorting and Warning were truly high-value Magic Factors. Having a high quantity of the latter could even give someone [Spider-Sense] in a gunfight, while having a surplus of the former allowed one to cosplay as an isekai wizard equipped with super-chip assistance—picking the one useful herb out of a million weeds while comforting oneself with, "I'm not hacking, it's just an assist, everyone uses it."
Judging by Joan's expression, however, they probably didn't get any rare drops.
The six-meter-long Marsh Dragon hadn't finished its nest, nor had it accumulated the mineral wealth that other small dragon species would covet and crave.
Those otherwise valuable deep-yellow scales had also turned thoroughly unremarkable.
Because adult Marsh Dragons spent all their time rolling around in their nests, their scales absorbed the power of the herbs, giving those golden-yellow scales a subtle healing power and a sensitive sense of smell for herbs. The Marsh Dragon set was one of the top ten gathering sets, but unfortunately, a freshly-grown adult Marsh Dragon had no nest, so... its scales lacked this property!
The Marsh Dragon's tail could be used to make blade edges as long as metal was cast over it. But... Ray's two-handed axe had destroyed the structural integrity of the tail.
One could say that although Echo Squad's handling was professional, this wave was a massive, bloody loss.
Melina glanced at Sonia.
She suspected whether this was an encounter designed by this rich young lady to make her stay and help out for money:
*Look, even professional hunting troupes frequently take massive losses.*
Very persuasive. Then she immediately found her own thought laughable.
"Move out," issued Joan, the captain of Echo Squad. This loli-figured, tender-faced captain clearly and visibly radiated a bad mood.
The Magic Factors they extracted were only Black Dragon Magic Factors and Sharp-Toothed Dragon Magic Factors, and the quantity was probably just enough for Don Quixote to recharge the shield hammer's [battery]. The one who consumed the most energy earlier was actually Joan: seizing the opportunity, striking fiercely, and retreating with agility. She was like Stephen Curry plunging into a cluster of muscle-bound giants, shaking off defenders with elfin speed to punish opponents from beyond the arc as a big man. But her harvest wasn't enough to recharge her.
This was perhaps why the Academy gave every graduating Explorer a word of warning:
"Violence must be exercised with caution."
It's all money.
If it weren't for a shortage of money, Melina couldn't see why Joan and Ray would suffer such grievances...
Not that kind of grievance.
Senior Sonia might not be the most upright person and might call herself a super Lv Tong, but she wouldn't hit on two lolis at once; she wasn't that much of a scumbag.
By grievances, she meant running into a Hamlet crossbow-bird along the way. Named after the local town, this kind of bird was also the region's finest specialty, with meat that was tender and delicious.
So the grievance was making the two sisters Joan and Ray catch birds? While slightly ambiguous, it didn't come to that.
The real grievance was when Senior Sonia took out her super expensive Brass Series crossbow, equipped with accessories that rookie Explorers had never even heard of—[Crossbow Magazine Capacity: Level 3] and [Rapid Fire Enhancement: Level 2]—fired fifteen shots in a row, missed fourteen, and had the fifteenth one land right beside the crossbow bird, scaring it so badly that it stupidly crashed straight into a tree and—died.
And then the two sisters Joan and Ray still had to cheer for her.
Old man Don Quixote was more straightforward.
He looked at the arrow on the ground, looked at Sonia's crossbow, and finally delivered a single-sentence review:
"Though you're just starting out, I'd say you're already so seasoned you're practically ready to retire."
As for Melina? She closed her eyes.
Looking at it any longer would be an insult to herself.
Then she thought:
*Even a bird-brain like this can become an Explorer; dammit, why can't I? Heaven is truly blind.*
Sonia let out a demonic laugh:
"Heh-hah-hah, did we bag it or not?"
Unable to express her respect for her senior's maxed-out "thick skin," Melina simply picked up her pace and walked ahead.
...
The long walk drained quite a bit of their enthusiasm and stamina.
A short distance before their destination, they found a clean spot to rest their feet, replenish their fluids, and eat some dried meat.
Melina's extraordinary talent manifested itself. While everyone else was panting slightly, she gracefully spun her umbrella, moving at a steady pace like a young girl skipping over puddles; when the others had already started drinking water and breathing heavily, she remained completely unchanged. Surpassing the limits of ordinary Banshees, Melina's terrifying Magic Factor reserves had vastly optimized her physique.
Honestly, thinking back now, she could probably beat that Marsh Dragon to death with her bare hands.
Just like Wu Song beating the tiger.
"You freak," Sonia muttered, then stared in disbelief at Melina's thighs—uh, Joan and Ray were doing it too!
A gaze of disbelief and academic research.
It almost made one think it was sexual harassment.
Melina's leg shape was gorgeous; it wasn't the pale, skinny, and tender kind. Thanks to the exaggerated proportions of her chest, she possessed a slender figure with a slight, pleasing touch of meatiness.
Yet these Explorers weren't paying attention to that; they were studying where this elf-like, bouncing gait came from.
"Tell me, Xiaomei," Sonia asked curiously, "do you happen to have Elven ancestry?"
"I am one hundred percent pure Banshee."
Melina replied.
Sonia kept staring at her before finally letting out a long breath:
"We're almost there. Let's hope no dragon is eyeing that patch of minerals in my memory."
"With Echo Squad here, are you afraid of dragons?"
Melina had quite a bit of faith in Echo Squad's combat prowess now. Even if they encountered rare flying dragons among the Black Dragons, or Yellow Dragons, or Blue Dragons that had climbed ashore and perched in trees, this squad—which still held plenty of cards up its sleeve—would find a way to deal with it. As for how to get them to show their true strength? That would depend on Senior Sonia's wealth...
Sonia's expression turned a bit gloomy:
"Afraid, yeah."
Before Melina could ask, she muttered to herself:
"I'm afraid there might be a Red Dragon roaming around there."