Rui recalled jokingly thinking that the reason he was urgently summoned was because the town of Hajin was under attack.
Now, after what Helga had told him, it didn’t seem as funny as before.
“I don’t understand.” He replied, shaking his head. “How could this be true? The earthen basilisk had been consuming deer and gazelles voraciously for nearly a month now. If it had been reproducing every time it went on a hunting spree, then the Shaia Plains would noticeably be flooded with many earthen basilisks.”
How could this revelation possibly be true. Rui would absolutely have noticed if there were hundreds of earthen basilisks running around beneath the ground.
“It reproduces by laying eggs.” She stated. “The eggs have a gestation period that is unknown unfortunately. It could be a day, a week or even a month. Furthermore, the earthen basilisk hatchlings don’t immediately turn into full grown adults either. The immediate danger here is not their current destructive potential, but their future destructive potential as well as their extreme elusiveness and migrative capacity.”
Rui understood, nodding. The limitations in his understanding in the field of ecology were starting to show. He had compensated for this gap during the mission with his intelligent deductive and inductive reasoning, but in front of an actual professional in the field, he was no more than a rookie, an inexperienced rookie
“Fortunately, the sightings of the earthen basilisk have been those of the target of your mission, and they were limited to the Shaia Plains.” She said. “This strongly suggests that the migration of the earthen basilisks is extremely limited, if not entirely non-existant.”
This made sense. If the earthen basilisks had already disseminated across the Mantian region, then there would damn well be more than the sighting of just one earthen basilisk in the Shaia Plains.
“Furthermore, sub-terranean travel is not limitless and flawless, there are certain topographies and land structures within and through which sub-terranean travel is utterly impossible. Mountainous and hill regions are an absolute no-go zone for them due to the land composition being saturated with layers of rock, granite and marble and other dense compounds.” She explained. “Still, these are merely silver linings. Even with these caveats, they can spread extremely wide across the Mantian region.”
“So what is the solution? Surely you don’t expect a single or even a handful Martial Apprentices alone to deal with these?” Rui asked.
She snorted. “The danger and risk associated with this operation is far above what we can entrust Apprentices with. Especially Apprentices like yourself who aren’t specialized in hunting, let alone sub-terranean hunting operations.”
She shook her head. “We will be sending multiple squads consisting of a dozen Martial Artists in total, each with sub-terranean environment-oriented Martial Art, led by Martial Squires.”
Rui’s eyes widened at those words. If he was worried about how the Ministry of Ecology and Environment were going to deal with this, he no longer was.
Martial Squires were not to be messed with. He knew the power of an adult earthen basilisk, and he knew the power of a Martial Squire. If dozens of Martial Apprentices specialized in sub-terranean environments led by Martial Squires with similar specializations were to hunt the earthen basilisks, then they stood no chance whatever!
Especially not in direct conflict, but even in general. If he with his singular Seismic Mapping could detect the earthen basilisk, then these sub-terranean specialists would most certainly be able to much, much more than just that!
“Even a single Martial Squire would be enough to annihilate an army of earthen basilisks.” Rui said with a bit of restored confidence.
“Don’t be so certain.” Helga reprimanded. “If an army of earthen basilisks all attacked a MartiaL Squire, then yes, the Martial Squire is almost guaranteed to succeed. But the problem with these creatures isn’t their offensive capability. It’s their survivability and elusiveness as I mentioned earlier. Their high sub-terranean travel allowed them to survive even the extraordinarily dangerous environments of the Beast Domain, despite their extreme weakness.”
” ‘Despite their extreme weakness?’ ” Rui echoed, looking at her with skepticism. The earthen basilisk was not extremely weak, it had come close to killing him multiple times in their fight, and Rui had relied on preparation and some external help to create a scheme meant to take it down. It had given Rui a hell of a fight despite this and was very difficult and tiring to take down.
She simply snorted in the face of his skepticism. “The Beast Domain are the uncolonized lands that exist in outside human civilization, towards the heartland and core of the continent. Part of the reason it is uncolonized is because of how dangerous it is. The power and threat level of the fauna in the Beast Domain is so high that even the earthen basilisk that had given you a lot of trouble is no more than an insect in the Beast Domain, struggling to survive.”
Rui’s eyes widened at those words.
“In fact, one of the reasons it likely migrated was that the Beast Domain was simply too dangerous and risky for it to live in. Predators far beyond anything you have ever tangled with, live and exist within the devastating environments of the Beast Domain. Someone like yourself wouldn’t last more than a few days, if you’re very lucky within that realm.” She ruthless said. “For the earthen basilisks to have survived there for millennia as a species, shows how difficult they are to exterminate. That is why we are going all out and procuring the most suited and qualified Martial Squires and Martial Apprentices.”
She said, before leaning forward. “And that is why we urgently summoned you, we need every ounce of your experience with the basilisk and mission. I did not provide you with all of this information to give you an educational lesson. I’m telling you this so you understand the importance of out demand. You will submit a scrupulously detailed report covering the entirety of your time spent in the Shaia Plains, minute by minute. You will include every scrap and ounce of information you can possibly conjure from your memories, regardless of how relevant and or irrelevant you deem, understood?”
Rui nodded vigorously. If all he had to was write a report, then a report he would write!
