As it turned out the Admiral wasn't expecting them to be ready to depart as soon as he asked if anyone was willing to come with him, though he was surprised by Ava's true form, even though she had to shrink herself down to avoid breaking any of the structures around her. This time around, since they didn't have any Barnos who were ready to go into the Everstream, Sherry sighed as she climbed onto Ava's back and readied herself for the ride, even though she said she'd never do such a thing, and Patches joined her without delay, showing that he was ready for anything. Grogar, on the other hand, unfurled a pair of Rathian wings, a theme he was going with right now, before lifting himself into the air and found that Keiji didn't seem like he had any means to get out of Astera, so he grabbed onto one of his arms and hauled him into the air. It was part of his newfound strength, able to lift heavy things like an entire Rathian by her tail, though once they were ready to go he took off and headed for the Everstream, following Keiji's directions so they could reach their destination without wasting any time.
Sure enough it didn't take them long to reach the Everstream, where he directed them into an opening that was beyond the area that they had fought Zorah Magdaros in, and when Keiji told him that they were at the opening Grogar carefully let go of him and landed, following by Ava landing so her passengers could climb off before reverting to her humanoid form.
"Yeah, that's where we led Zorah Magdaros out to sea," Ava said, as while she didn't doubt what Keiji said, given what they had learned about him from Shepard and the rest of the Commission, it was amazing that they were back here again, after thinking that they wouldn't come back after diverting the Elder Dragon from the New World.
"Indeed, along with Grogar using that interesting ice power and awakening his true power," Keiji stated, where he raised his arm for a moment and beckoned for them to follow him, heading away from the opening and moved deeper into the cavern he had discovered, causing the others to walk behind him for a time.
"That attack is called 'Punishment of the Icy Haze', and yes, I know the name is misleading." Grogar said, though he was pleased to hear that the man was happy with the powers that he had access to, even though he hadn't been expecting to awaken his new power in the fight with the massive dying Elder Dragon, "So, I'm assuming that you like to go exploring and not be tied down in one place?"
"Exactly. I leave the paperwork to Shepard, as he's a fine Commander," Keiji replied, where he seemed happy about that fact, even if Shepard might not like the fact that most of his friends had abandoned him to explore the New World, but he was focused on what they were heading towards and not was behind them, "Anyway, I stumbled on this place while I was chasing down a monster that's been plaguing the New World and the Commission for some time."
"A monster that's... you're referring to Nergigante." Sherry commented, coming to the same conclusion that Grogar and Ava had arrived at as soon as he mentioned that it had been bothering Astera for a while, even though he didn't know the fact that there were two of them, where Grogar nodded his head to her, sharing her thoughts on the matter, "Or, to be more exact, you mean the male Nergigante that's been visiting Astera for the last twenty years, at least according to what Shepard told us some time ago. The one who fought beside us, to save the New World, was a female, as one of Grogar's powers allows him to hear what monsters are saying and lets him figure out the gender of whoever he is talking or fighting at the time."
"Is that so? Well, she's as terrifying as the last one." Keiji said, his tone showing them that he must have been surprised by that information and was processing it, which was understandable given everything he had learned so far, before he took a moment to consider what else he had to share with them, "While I was chasing her, she led me here, to a passage that was likely wretched open by Zorah Magdaros... and to the area we're heading towards, where I'm expecting to find her at some point in the next few hours."
Grogar said nothing to that as they followed Keiji through the passage he had discovered, while they were fighting to save the New World from Zorah Magdaros' fiery death, where he discovered that it was made of some odd hexagonal pillars made out of stone, an odd design for nature to make. They also passed by two interesting areas, the first having a stream of lava and some molten sections in the walls, which a small stream of water connected to it, before coming to an area that had more of the crystals, the only difference between the fragments and these were that what he was seeing were like pillars and spikes of pure crystal. Something in the New World was causing the crystals to grow out like this, which he was interested in and had to assume that they were growing in such a way due to all of the bioenergy that was seeping out of the fallen Elder Dragons, but that still didn't explain how the energy was moving and twisting into the forms that he and his companions were seeing at the moment. Thanks to his new power he understood something, Zorah Magdaros had riled up some sort of force that was connected to the New World, which caused him to divert from his intended grave and attempt to smash his way through the Everstream, making him wonder what in the world they would find when they reached the end of the passage.
When they finally reached the end of the passage, and crawled through the opening they discovered, Grogar quickly came to a stop as he saw what was in front of them, a massive region that was made of stone and seemed to be somewhere near the water, as he could hear the water, before sensing some heat, from a lava source no doubt, and there were more crystals, massive ones off in the distance.
"By the Sapphire Star... this place is amazing." Grogar said, taking a moment to take in what they were seeing right now, all while Ava, Sherry, Keiji, and Patches came to a stop behind him and stared out at the area the Admiral had brought them to, who was looking pleased with himself for discovering this amazing place, before he shifted his sight, "I can see traces of Elder Dragon bioenergy in the air... this must be some sort of recess for the Elders."
"Then that's what we'll call it, the 'Elder's Recess'," Keiji stated, as he had been thinking of what to call this place since he first discovered it, which had failed since he wasn't too good at naming things, and Grogar's words gave him a good idea on what to call this brand new region, all while noticing the smaller crystals were resting around them, "and while I might not have your fancy magical powers, I can tell that this place is sizzling with bioenergy, and that, my friends, means that the monsters here will be tougher than Novacrystals. In fact, this is likely where the other Elder Dragons have run of to, as they wait for their end to come... or whatever they're waiting for... so Grogar, you need to go out there, find the monsters that live here, and study them."
"Trying to figure out why Nergigante comes with the aging Elder Dragons? No need, I'm sure they kill those that are trying to see with the natural order of the world," Grogar replied, as it was something he had considered during the time he spent training with his new power, and it was the only logical conclusion he could make, like the Nergigante species was a force of nature that safeguarded nature and eliminated threats, especially since Zorah Magdaros had been getting ready to blast the New World to hell, "however, if we study the other monsters, and possibly the Elder Dragons as well, we might find out what is drawing everything to the New World and figure out how to stop it from happening again... or whatever we decide to do once we've found out the truth."
"That means we'll head out and study the other monsters," Ava said, because she knew Grogar more than the others did, which Sherry might not approve of since she was supposed to be Grogar's right hand, and understood what he meant, all while making sure not to annoy the Admiral while they were here.
Grogar remained silent for a moment, as he intended on going what Keiji said so they could understand the nature of this place and the monsters that happened to call it home, and once he was sure that the conversation was done he stepped forward for a moment and found that Sherry was working to get a Barnos in here, to set up a new camp. While she did her best to do that, and Keiji stood there with a grin on his face, Grogar headed out to explore the region they had found, as there was a path leading out into the Elder's Recess, where he found one path went down into an area that was closer to the lava area and one in front of him that seemed to be the upper reaches of the region. As he started to explore the area to his right, the upper reaches to be exact, he found that the ground shook a little and a monster came rolling down the path, reminding him of the Radobaan, though instead of bones this one had small pillar shaped 'spikes' on it's back, but he found that he was in the way and unfurled his wings so he could study it from the air. One other thing he discovered was that the monster was capable of loosing small orbs, the size of one's head, that seemed to be landmines and the monster glared up at him for a moment, no doubt thinking it might have had a fight on it's claws and might be disappointed in his actions, before jumping and rolling off again.
He remained in the air for a few moments as he pulled out his book of monsters and sought out one that matched the new one he had discovered, where he found an entry about a lustrous gold or bronze colored beast, which resembled the monster in question, and that the first group that discovered it called it an 'Uragaan'.
With that information in hand he carefully followed the Uragaan down the passage and found that it went to a decent area that might be a nest, for it anyway, but the monster didn't stay long as it continued rolling down the path, heading right to a more molten area that was hotter than the Wildspire Waste. Fortunately it didn't stay long as it curved up a ramp and went up into the area Grogar had seen when he first started to explore this area, meaning it was the other path that was off to the left of where they were setting up their camp, though as the monster continued to roll Grogar paused for a few seconds as he discovered something. There was another beast in this particular area, a blue scaled monster with orange colored stripes that resembled a Great Jagras, in terms of body structure, though it had a larger bottom jaw and, unless he was seeing things, it preferred to eat the crystals that were around it, but it only glanced at the Uragaan before turning to the crystal again. This one wasn't in the tome he was carrying, Grogar was sure of that, causing him to tilt his head as he landed on a larger crystal, across from where the beast was eating, and took out some materials to sketch the monster so the others in Astera could see what he had found, all while kicking around some names for what to call it, since it looked like he was the first one to see a monster like this.
In the end he decided to go with 'Dodogama' and gave it the title of the 'Rock Thief Wyvern', like how the author wrote that Uragaan was the 'Burst Hammer', while noting that it was actually rather docile and might only attack when something or someone threatened it, and he felt that attacking a docile monster was just plain rude.
Once he was done with his notes, which the Researchers would appreciate when he returned to Astera with the news of what they had discovered, he slipped his materials into his pack and departed from the area the Dodogama was in, as he had a feeling there was one more monster he had to find, not counting Nergigante. Based on his estimates, and what he had seen in the other regions, the various monsters that originally inhabited a region split it three ways, sometimes more when one considered that there might be more than three monsters in any place, and since he had found the monsters of the upper and middle areas he knew the last one had to be in the lower part. That meant he was going to have to explore an area filled with lava, so what Grogar did was tap into Zorah Magdaros' power and hoped that the molten nature of that particular power was enough to stave off the heat of a molten area, even though his skin took on a similar shape to what the dying Elder Dragon had possessed. A few moments later he found that he was able to enter the molten area and that his plan had been successful, the power allowed him to enter this area without overheating, though to be on the safe side he decided to keep an eye on his temperature, just to be sure he didn't collapse due to being way too hot for his body, even in it's altered state, to handle.
What he discovered was that there was a collapsed tunnel that lead even deeper into the lava area, before finding some patches of lava and molten material that seemed to have something moving underneath them, a fish monster that looked like the Jyuratodus, only molten in some cases, and by looking at the tome he found that it was a Lavasioth. With that done he knew what the three main monsters of this region were, which he felt that he was going to face off against in the near future, except Dodogama, as he felt that it would be wrong to mess with the docile monster, so he might fight Uragaan and Lavasioth before tracking down Nergigante. As he carefully made his way back to the new camp, so he could report all of his findings to Keiji and Sherry, he paused for a moment and felt Ava land behind him, as she preferred to stay silent and assist him when it was absolutely necessary, because he spotted a Bazelguese fly into the region, which he didn't want to fight against right now. With that thought in mind he made his way back to the camp and found that Keiji and Sherry were still standing around in the area near the opening they had passed through, one getting ready to make a camp for all those who would be coming to this part of the New World while the other just stood around.
"That was quick. I figured you would engage each monster and learn more about them." Keiji commented, likely thinking that Grogar was like all of the other Hunters, that they fought first and ask questions later, though with him it was hard to tell what he was thinking about, as he was different than everyone else in Astera.
"That'll come later, once we have a real camp set up." Grogar replied, where he stretched his arms for a moment, as while he was eager to see what the monsters had to offer him, and what he might learn from them, he knew that having a base of operations was nice and that it would provide them with a place to rest while they were investigating the monsters that called this place home.
Ava and Sherry nodded their heads as they went about getting what they needed for a camp, where he took a seat nearby and compiled his notes on the Elder's Recess, so when he returned to Astera he could pass it along to the others, all while knowing that things were going to get interesting in the very near future.