Monster Hunter World: Monsters and Magic

by Blackdrag-rose

First Mission

"You know, normally I would be surprised by a Hunter and Handler pair getting a mission on their first day in Astera, but after hearing and seeing what you're capable of, I'm not surprised," Johnson commented, as it appeared that he was going to be in charge of assisting the pair for their first couple of missions, or at least that was what Grogar assumed, which he was fine with, given that he only knew how things worked from his readings and had no real experience, before the man glanced at the weapon that was in Grogar's right hand for a few seconds, "Normally this would be when we let Hunters try out the most basic versions of the weapon types we have developed over the years, even if they might be familiar with one so they can see if there's another they might want to try out, though it seems that you have chosen a weapon to use for the foreseeable future. That doesn't mean you can't test out any of the other weapons when you have time, to see if any of them might be a better fit than your staff, but don't feel like you have to do that just because they're there, as you're allowed to use whatever style you want... though we'll stop by your chambers and let you see the area you'll be sleeping in, before sending you out on your first mission."

Grogar nodded his head for a second as he, Sherry, Patches, and the Jagras followed Johnson over to an opening that was near the table that the council was held in, which interested him since he wasn't expecting the doorway to the area they would be sleeping in to be so close to where Commander Shepard resided, but he decided to say nothing about that as he followed Johnson into the room he was leading them to. They pushed a Guild flag out of the way and entered the room that was on the other side of it, where Grogar decided to keep his thoughts to himself as he noticed that he, Sherry, and Patches would be sharing a room with a number of individuals, likely the rest of the Hunters and Handlers of the Fifth Fleet given the bunks that had been set up inside what appeared to be the cargo hold of a ship, one flipped so the bottom of the ship was now the ceiling and the ceiling was the ground, as if it gave them more room to store people. From what he could tell there was a large red chest near one of the bunks, which had to be the one that contained all the weapons that Johnson had told him about earlier, it appeared there was an area for the Palicoes to rest in while they and their Hunters were resting in this room, and there was another Felyne that was standing off to the left, who appeared to be more like a housekeeper and nodded his head towards them as they entered the room. There was only one major flaw with the room that he and Sherry were being given, which wasn't counting the fact that they would be sharing this with the other Hunters and Handlers, rather it was the fact that Sherry would have no privacy, in the off chance she was forced to change again, like he had seen so far.

Sherry even understood that, as she looked around the room with a look of worry in her eyes, which only Grogar noticed since she didn't turn back to look at Johnson, before they relaxed a little and focused on the man that had shown them to their current room, where Grogar hoped that there was a way for them to upgrade to a more private suite so he could get Sherry away from the others, given the hidden nature that would be much harder to hide of they were going to be sharing this space with the other Hunters.

"Once you're done here, we'll head over to the Canteen, where Handlers usually rest while they wait for their Hunters to come over and see what quests they have to offer," Johnson said, though at the same time he leaned against the pillar that was in the middle of the room, which had to be the support pillar for when this structure had been a ship, before he took a moment to glance at the flag door for a few seconds, "In case you weren't aware, Handlers sort through the various leads that the Research Commission has and the ones they deem to be of importance are turned into quests for their Hunters to take on, so the Jagras' that the Commander mentioned will likely be the first thing you'll investigate, before being given something even tougher, once we have a better understanding of what's currently going on in the New World."

"Thanks, I understand the system better now," Grogar replied, even though that was a lie and he suspected Sherry knew that, as he had spent a great deal of time learning everything he could about the Guild and the rules that he would have to stick to, roughly anyway since he was going to do things a different way than the other Hunters, but it seemed to make Johnson happy and that was good enough for him, to which he nodded his head and left the room they were in, as he figured he could come back later if he needed something.

Once they were outside Grogar headed for the Canteen, as it appeared that was where Sherry would arrange for him to accept one of the quests and then head out to see what the problem was, though he wasn't even surprised when she ran forward and got to the area in question long before he did, as she loved food far more than he did. Such a thing also gave him a chance to take his time and understand Astera a little better, the layout of places and where those who had been at the council meeting worked when they weren't talking to the Commander, so he wouldn't be confused in the future, as it usually took people time to get used to a new environment. He was fine with this situation, as his Handler partner would get things ready for the quest he would be undertaking, all while Patches and the Jagras followed him, since there wasn't much for them to do but wait for him to decide when it was time to head out to the Ancient Forest. Of course he also knew he could spend some time at the Canteen, simply resting and seeing what sort of food the people of Astera enjoyed, and in the end he decided to follow Sherry's lead this time, causing him to head for the area that Meowscular Chef watched over at all times.

When they arrived at the Canteen five minutes later, however, he found that Sherry had already ordered a large plate of food and had claimed one of the stone tables for herself, and that wasn't counting all of the books that were in front of her, something that must have been set up once Erica knew they were okay.

"The Chef and his apprentices sure know how to make food quickly," Sherry commented, where Grogar found that she had ordered fish, meat, rice, vegetables, and a few other things, basically a platter of food that she could eat while he went out into the field to see what was up with the Jagras population, without killing any of them anyway, before she beckoned for Grogar to sit, who did so as Patches and their friend sat near them, which was when she glanced at him for a moment as something came to her mind, "So, um, what are you going to call her? The Jagras, I mean, since she seems to like being around you, Patches, and myself... even if it mostly seems to be you she's following."

"I was thinking 'Jaya', since it appears the Jagras and the other monsters don't name themselves," Grogar said, though at the same time the Jagras in question tilted her head for a moment, as if getting used to the idea of having a name like all of them did, before straightening her head and nodded it, or at least that was what it looked like from where he was sitting, to which he turned back towards his partner for a moment, "Patches, Jaya, and I can go investigate what's going on with her pack and the surrounding area, to figure out if something odd is happening, since the Commander is worried about an increase in the number of Jagras that seem to be in the Ancient Forest... even though there's the possibility of there being something else at work in the forest."

"I see. Oh, before I forget, I took a look at some of the other leads the Commission has and I found one that's interesting," Sherry added, which was odd for Grogar since there was no way she could have gotten here and had time to already find something else for him to do, in the span of the few minutes they had been apart from each other after being shown their quarters, but he decided not to say anything as he waited for her to explain what she had found, before he headed into the Ancient Forest, "there's a Kestodon herd somewhere in the Ancient Forest that we might have to deal with, thin their numbers out, so many we could kill two birds with one stone? Investigate the Jagras and see if we can bring down some of the Kestodon at the same time?"

"You sure that's okay? Aren't we supposed to take one quest, head out, and then return to camp once that quest has been dealt with?" Grogar asked, mostly because that was what the rule books said, Hunters generally took one quest at a time so they didn't hog them all and leave nothing for everyone else, so it was rather weird in his mind for Sherry to suggest that he take two quests and tackle them at the same time, even though both sounded like really easy quests that he could resolve in a short period of time.

"I'm sure the Commander will be happy to see we're taking the initiative to deal with the threats to Astera, despite the fact that the latter isn't much of a threat," Sherry replied, showing that she really had no idea what the Commander would do once they returned from the pair of quests she was proposing to him, something Grogar shared since the man was a stranger to him and he would need time to figure him out, before she glanced at the book that all of the Handlers would use to help their Hunters determine which leads they would turn into quests, "So, what do you say?"

"You're a Handler, and you have more experience and knowledge of how things like this work," Grogar said, though right now he guessed he might as well take Sherry's advice on the matter and just tackle two quests at the same time, as he had some ideas about what Jaya's pack was up to and how they might be able to approach the second quest, which was the time that he picked up a leg of meat and gave it to Jaya, who chomped down on it as he focused on Sherry for a few more seconds, "Let's just take a few minutes to rest and ready ourselves before we head out into the field, that way we won't be surprised by any of the monsters that live in the Ancient Forest, like when that Great Jagras attacked us or when we were interrupted by that Anjanath, who seemed to be looking for food."

Sherry paused for a moment, most likely recalling what Grogar had said, before she turned her attention to the food that was near her and began chowing down on it as well, though while he knew that most Hunters would prepared for a quest by eating, and possibly gaining some sort of useful benefit in the process, Grogar decided not to do that, as this seemed like an easy quest. Of course it was two quests at the same time, and both seemed to be rather easy and would be done in no time, so he figured his time would be better spent learning more about the forest and seeing if he could improve on his new ability to speak with monsters, one of his unique abilities in the eyes of the Commander. While Sherry ate the food in front of her, which she had ordered, and shared some of it with Jaya, Grogar noticed that most of the other members of their fleet were still near the main gate of Astera, no doubt having been assigned to unloading the ships and making sure the supplies were delivered to their various destinations, which Erica and Aiden were doing. He knew that Aiden had to be itching to do a quest or two, but for now he and his Handler were stuck down there, to which he focused on what the rest of the Commission were doing and paid less attention to his food, allowing him to think about the New World and all of the monsters that were out there.

When it was time for them to move, or at least when he assumed that it was time to do that, they were joined by Johnson, who informed them that to leave Astera, without endangering everyone else in their base of operations, they would be using the Barnos that had come with the fleets as mounts of sorts. Such a thing reminded them of what happened when they were fleeing from Zorah Magdaros, using their Slingers to latch onto the creatures in question and use them to get away from the massive Elder Dragon that had emerged from under the sea near this massive continent. Of course Grogar found it amusing that they had done something that was similar to what the rest of the Hunters did to get to the various camps they had built in the New World, all without knowing that piece of information, which Sherry also found amusing, based on the look on her face. With that information in hand he walked over to the area that the Barnos were kept in, which just so happened to be near the Canteen as he quickly discovered, and made sure each of them were okay with this sort of thing, only to find that each of them were okay with the current setup and that they would carry their allies into battle, or at least transport them and their supplies to the various camps.

As such Grogar eventually found himself and Sherry calling a pair of the Barnos down so they could use their Slingers to latch onto their clawed feet and lift themselves into the air, while Patches grabbed onto Karen's leg and Jaya, despite her quadrupedal stance, found a way to do the same thing by latching onto part of Grogar's chest armor. In that moment he realized something important, if Jaya continued to join them on quests they were going to need to make a harness for her to use, to make things safer for her since she could fall if something went wrong, and knew that the people in the Smithy would be up for the challenge. He also noticed that Sherry was focused on the parts of the forest that they flew over, no doubt worried that something might happen to her while they were in the Ancient Forest, given the fact that she had been attacked by some of the more aggressive monsters that called this place home, the Great Jagras for example. There was no telling if the Anjanath would be up and about or if they would be able to move through this area without having to be on the lookout for something that wanted them dead, but he was going to keep his eyes and ears open while Patches and Jaya seemed to be thinking the same thing.

He discovered that it didn't take them long to fly out to the first camp they had found, confirming that someone had made it for the commission, though as they landed around it he discovered something interesting as his companions touched the ground, there was a hitching post nearby and the Barnos came to a stop on it, meaning they would be resting while he and the others tackled the quests they were on.

"I didn't think we would be back here, especially so soon after we arrived in the New World," Sherry commented, where she took a moment to look at the rest of the camp and found that someone had come out while they were talking to the Commander and the rest of the council members, before she glanced over to Grogar for a moment, where she found that Patches and Jaya were standing near him, looking like they were ready for anything, "Remember, the first rule of a quest is to complete the objective, which can be taking down some of the monsters in an area, capturing one that the Commission wants to study, collecting whatever you need for the Chef or someone else in Astera, or whatever the requirement of the particular quest is. The second rule is to always check the supply box that is set up in our camps, as the Commission will supply us, and by that I mean you, with a variety of goods that might be helpful for each quest, though that's if we give them some notice before we head out on whatever quest you might pick out. As such I'm sure there's nothing inside the box right now, since we left Astera without telling anyone, but you're free to check it out before you decide to see what's going on with the Jagras pack, just in case I'm wrong in my assumptions."

"Understood, though it also seems like I'll be filling out the map during my explorations," Grogar stated, because when he thought about the maps in his possession it looked like most of it was missing, as in there were pages missing, like some wind had blown them away, or the Commission was lacking in understanding what was in this area, where he was sure it was the former in this case.

"Indeed, and you can use it in case you get lost while you're out there," Sherry said, her tone showing him that she just so happened to agree with what he had said, as it made sense when she thought about it, though she found Johnson off to the side, looking like he might be impatient and was eager to get going, "while you're out there you should make a note of where you find certain items, like material veins or the locations that mushrooms and other food grow in... we can use that information in the future, regardless if we take the quest or if someone else takes it."

Grogar nodded his head, as he understood that part of his duty was to tend to the monsters of the land, in his eyes that meant making sure they were fine and fighting when it was absolutely necessary, while another part was studying the land and marking things down for everyone else, so people knew where to find certain materials and food for the Canteen, to which Sherry remained by the tent. With that done he made a quick check of the box, finding that it actually had a couple of potions for him to take, which he did, before heading over to the path that lead back out into the open area that he and Sherry had quickly walked through earlier that day, finding that all of the Aptonoths were still grazing. Of course he found that Johnson was following him, no doubt to see how he operated while he was in the field and how both of his abilities, as in his magic and his ability to talk with monsters, could benefit the Commission, meaning he might not trust the decision his grandfather made or he was here on the Commander's orders. Either way Grogar focused on his first quest, which he knew was to kill a certain number of Jagras, though that was only on paper and he was going to be investigating the packs that lived in the Ancient Forest, to see what was causing the increase in population, if such a thing was happening, hence why he tapped his staff on the ground and started moving for real.

As he walked along the path he and Sherry took earlier, however, he found that Patches glanced at the Aptonoths for a few seconds before keeping up with him, while Jaya simply looked at them like she wanted to tear into one of them, but since she had a proper feast in Astera there was no reason for her to attack the monsters in question, which was why she was in the middle of tracking down her former pack. Grogar had a feeling that if they could find her pack they could figure out the reason behind why the Commission felt that the Jagras population had grown over a short period of time, though the hard part would be tracking them down and speaking to whoever happened to be leading them, no doubt a Great Jagras, hence why he was looking for tracks as Jaya joined him. Johnson also informed him of something else he could do, gather herbs, mushrooms, and all sorts of things from the areas he would be investigating, just like Sherry had suggested earlier, as they would allow him to make his own potions and other items, once he learned how to do such a thing from someone else in Astera, like Aiden for example. After that they found their way back to the area that they had first encountered the Jagras in, where Grogar held up a hand and beckoned for his companions to stop, as he could hear some sounds ahead of him, like a group was hissing at each other, where he peeked out into the area in question and discovered that luck was on his side, as three Jagras were hanging out in the area in question.

What he discovered, however, was a shock to both him and Jaya, the three Jagras were wounded, as he could see cuts and teeth marks on all of them, as in something had attacked them and whoever was with them, and one of them had fallen to the ground, struggling to even survive with what looked like poison, causing him and Jaya to rush over to where they were resting, with Johnson and Patches right behind them.

"Calm, friends, we mean you no harm." Grogar said, as the two Jagras that could still stand turned and hissed at him, in the sense of telling him to back off, though Jaya hissed at both of them in return, indicating that he could be trusted, causing the pair to glance at each other before backing off, allowing him to approach them and the sickly one, who let out a low hiss as his tongue tasted the air, causing him to let out a sigh, "I'm afraid that there isn't much we can do for the poison, but we might be able to do something about the monster that hurt you... can you tell us what happened?"

The Jagras, confused by the fact that he wanted to speak with them and hear their story, took a few seconds before saying what was on their minds, where Grogar let them pause in their telling so he could translate for Johnson, and the tale just so happened to start in what had to be one of the highest points of the great tree, an area his superior knew well, as it was the home of a Rathalos. He knew it from his studies, a large wyvern that flew through the air and had red scales, though it was one of the few monsters that actually looked like a dragon, but it had sharp claws and it's tail could poison whatever it hit, which could explain the wounds that the Jagras had, though not the teeth marks since a Rathalos had a larger mouth than the monsters he had seen so far. The pair went on to explain that they had gone up there to eat the eggs that were in the nest of the flying wyvern, while it was gone no less, both to provide themselves with food and to eliminate a potential threat in their future, though the Rathalos surprised them and attacked without delay, loosing fireballs at them and even cutting each of them several times before they were able to lose it. Of course they ended up running into two monsters before stopping here, a poisonous bird and a flying shock creature, where Johnson informed Grogar that they had to be a Pukei-Pukei and a Tobi-Kadachi, meaning they must have been annoyed by the Jagras invading their territory and it would explain the small bite marks and the poison.

When Grogar got into why the Jagras only spoke about the three of them, and not the rest of the pack, he learned why the little monster had only talked about them, where he had Patches used the Vigorwasp Station to try and mend their various wounds, though at the same time it only eased the pain of the poisoned one for a short period of time, as it closed it's eyes and stopped moving a few seconds later.

"Johnson, we don't have to worry about the Jagras population, they're struggling to survive thanks to that Anjanath we saw earlier," Grogar said, where he and Patches did whatever they could to help the remaining two Jagras out, while Jaya kept an eye on the surrounding area, just in case more monsters moved through this area, before he sighed as he considered the rest of what he had learned from these two, "in fact, the reports of overpopulation seems to be nature's way of trying to make sure they survive, against the fiercer monsters that live in the Ancient Forest... if we attack them, we'll be taking more lives than is necessary. In fact, with the Anjanath controlling most of the ground, and the Rathalos lashing out at any monster that gets near his nest, I would hazard a guess that the Jagras packs are in danger... at the very least this one is at the moment, while there's no telling where Jaya's pack might be hiding."

"Yeah, it sure seems like we missed something," Johnson replied, referring to the fact that the reports lead them to assume that there was a problem with the Jagras population, when the reality was that several large monsters were responsible for a bunch of deaths and nature was trying to correct the issue, to which he turned his head for a moment, "I guess we should focus on the Kestodon that were driven into the Ancient Forest by Zorah Magdaros' movements, though as soon as we return to Astera we need to tell the Commander about this development."

As it turned out the Kestodon herd that they had learned about was on the southern end of the Ancient Forest, where he found a few hard headed herbivores who seemed to like headbutting things, or maybe each other, where Johnson quickly informed Grogar that the males were bright orange colored and had a larger head while the females were bronze and had no crest. Based on what he was seeing it looked like the herd had wandered in from another region of the New World, as in the Wildspire Waste based on what his superior told him, an area that was overflowing with them, so they needed to cull a number of them to help keep the balance, all while Patches and Jaya kept an eye on the area, only to be surprised by an odd arrival. Sherry, despite knowing that this was still dangerous work, kept the safe camp and came searching for them, though before Grogar could say anything he found a look of worry on her face and glanced in the direction she had come from, causing him to freeze for a moment as he realized what was coming their way, something that caused the others to see what he was looking at. The Anjanath from before was marching down part of the large open path that lead back to where their camp rested, though before they were noticed Grogar took a chance and gathered his magic, letting it wash all over them as he ordered them to stand as still as possible, allowing them to disappear as his Invisibility spell took hold, to which everyone remained silent as they waited for the beast to arrive.

When the Anjanath arrived the Kestodon were trapped between it and a Great Jagras, the latter arriving from another path that lead to this area, and Grogar witnessed the savagery of the New World as the Anjanath tore through the hide of the Great Jagras with it's wicked sharp teeth. It's reason for doing that was very simple, the Great Jagras tried to swallow one of the Kestodon whole, no doubt so it could either have something to eat or that's how it carried a meal to it's pack, and that was why the larger monster attacked it, to the point where it lifted the Great Jagras up into the air and crashed it into the ground, crushing some of the poor Kestodon in the process. The Anjanath was a force of nature, tearing down anything in it's path to be the master of the land, leaving the Rathalos as the master of the air, and it seemed to put on a show for the rest of the Ancient Forest, anything that might be watching, before it decimated the rest of the Kestodon and then quickly closed it's jaws, snapping the neck of the Great Jagras. With the one sided battle done Grogar watched as the Great Jagras was was carried off to wherever the Anjanath made it's nest, leaving an area for the lesser monsters to salvage from, but none of them moved as the monster walked off into the Ancient Forest, allowing it to disappear before Grogar dropped his spell and allowed them to reappear.

Grogar knew that this world was more dangerous than what he was used to, but this was the first time he had seen such a thing, where he assumed that the Great Jagras must have been the same one that attacked Sherry earlier, which had been able to escape before being taking down by the Anjanath later that same day, before he let out a sigh.

"That Anjanath needs to be knocked down a peg, or taken out entirely," Grogar commented, as it was vicious and he had a feeling that the longer it lived the greater the chance of Astera being attacked became, because it had to be growing angry with Johnson and all of the other Commission members that entered the Ancient Forest, though he was pleased to see that Sherry was fine.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to report what we've seen to the Commander," Johnson said, where he looked at the scene in front of all of them, as while he wasn't in tune with the monsters of this world, like Grogar was, even he could see that the Anjanath was a threat to their base and, if nothing was done, might attack them in due time, just like the few they had dealt with in the past, "but it seems that both of your quests have been completed, in a roundabout way anyway, so we had best get going before other monsters show up."

No one said anything as Grogar discovered that the way back to Astera, with the gate lowered, was to return to the camp and use the Barnos to fly over the Ancient Forest, basically moving over the same area twice in a short period of time, but it didn't take them too long to land in the outer reaches of the Tradeyard, allowing them to make their way over to where Commander Shepard operated and made their report.

"It seems your first mission was rather... exciting." Shepard replied, speaking once they were done making their report on the tasks Sherry had picked out, where he knew he was going to have to tell her that only one quest was supposed to be done at a time, even if it worked out rather well on their end, while it was okay to do multiple requests at the same time, before he considered the information, "So, just to recap, the reason we've seen an increase in the local Jagras population is due to them being attacked by all of the other monsters of the Ancient Forest, as nature is trying to make sure they survive the dangers that exist around them? Not to mention the fact that you witnessed the Anjanath causing harm to the other monsters that call the Ancient Forest home?"

"That's correct. We also learned a few things from two other Jagras, but they ran off once they heard the Anjanath moving through the forest," Grogar stated, reminding the Commander about what he had learned from the pair, but even as he said that he knew that they should have known something was up, even though they ignored both of the Jagras once they had been healed, before he sighed, "but that Anjanath is definitely a threat."

"Agreed, and we will deal with it in due time. For now, why don't you two take a break and rest until morning," Shepard said, as he knew that what they had been through was tough for new Hunters, even if Grogar wasn't a normal Hunter, in fact he was more like a Researcher based on what he had learned so far, but he had a feeling that allowing him to do this might give them some new information they didn't have before, to which Grogar and Sherry nodded before leaving, where he turned towards Johnson, "So, how'd he do?"

"Well, he healed two Jagras, helped another pass on without being in pain, and hid as soon as the Anjanath came towards where we were standing," Johnson replied, though he knew the true meaning of the question, given his years of working under his grandfather in the New World, and glanced in the direction of the newcomers, staring at Grogar as he walked up to the Canteen with his team, "I don't know how he'll do as a Hunter, since he doesn't seem like the type to fight if his life depended on it, but his power to speak to monsters... that might be useful in the long run, and his magic seems to be a tad bit stronger than what Erica told us about, so that's a good thing as well."

"Than we'll continue with him as the last Hunter of the Fifth Fleet," Shepard stated, causing his grandson to nod as he said that, though at the same time he considered something as he focused on Grogar for a few more seconds, as there were a few other individuals who would be interested in meeting him at some point, "though things should get interesting when she returns to Astera."

Johnson had an idea of who his grandfather was talking about, as it was either the Third Fleet Master or someone else, but due to the former being far away right now he knew who he was referring to, though he said nothing as they returned to the rest of their work, as there were more reports to go over before the next morning arrived and it would give Grogar some time to rest before they sent him into the field again.

Comments

[Fluffy-Boi]

That power to talk to animals is coming in handy