Nymera sprinted all the way into the Guild Hall. If the city streets had not been too crowded for her to ride her Palamute at full speed, she would have charged straight inside on his back.
Ignoring the surprised stares of the Hunters in the tavern, she crossed to the Quest Counter in a few quick strides. She slammed both hands onto the countertop to catch the guild receptionist's attention and stop herself from flipping right over it.
The dark-skinned, red-haired, vivacious guild receptionist jumped in surprise.
"Ma'am? Hello?"
Bracing herself against the counter, Nymera took several deep, ragged breaths before lifting her head and speaking in a hoarse voice. "I'm Nymera, a 5★ Hunter. I have a critical discovery and need to report to the Guild Master immediately."
Even then, she remembered to pull out her Hunter's Notes and show them to the woman.
In any city, even Dundorma, home to the Hunter's Guild headquarters, 5★ Hunters were an elite minority.
A "critical discovery" reported by a Hunter of this rank was generally no small matter.
After briefly confirming Nymera's identity, the guild receptionist immediately nodded. "Understood. Please follow me."
With that, she led Nymera swiftly into the staff-only office area and down the corridor to the meeting room.
The heavy door to the meeting room was tightly shut, and members of the Loc Lac Rangers stood guard outside. Clearly, an important meeting was underway inside.
Nymera even recognized the Ranger on duty. It was Nuri, Altaïr's former captain from his days in the Rangers and a Gunlance user.
Seeing the two women rush up, Nuri looked surprised as well. "Nymera?"
"She has a critical discovery and needs to report to the Guild Master immediately," the guild receptionist said quickly.
Nuri hesitated for a split second, but after noticing Nymera's disheveled hair and her haggard, windblown, sand-caked appearance, he nodded and stepped aside. After rapping his knuckles against the thick, nearly soundproof wooden door, he pushed it open.
Everyone inside fell silent at once and instinctively turned toward the doorway.
Steeling herself, Nymera entered, hurried to the Guild Master's side, and bent down to whisper in the old man's ear, "About sixty kilometers north of Loc Lac, I encountered an unusual Tigrex specimen suspected to be a Grimclaw Tigrex."
The Guild Master looked at her in shock.
He was no Hunter himself and could not personally judge the threat posed by a Grimclaw Tigrex, but he still remembered what Marydan had said in this very meeting room just days before. Anyone there who encountered one alone would have great difficulty escaping.
He was also well aware that the room had held two active 7★ Hunters and one 6★ Hunter at the time.
"It didn't detect you? Or did you spot it early and avoid it?" The mustachioed Guild Master vaguely remembered this Gunner as Altaïr's companion, a 5★ Hunter from Kamura Village.
If her Cohoot had discovered the Grimclaw Tigrex, an early retreat would indeed have been possible.
However, a Cohoot was not human, and given how closely a Grimclaw Tigrex resembled a regular Tigrex, there was a good chance it had mistaken one for the other. He could not be sure its identification was reliable.
"I saw it up close. It spotted us, and I barely escaped thanks to my Palamute partner." Nymera paused, then elaborated, "Its eyes were crimson red, its body was enormous, nearly twenty-five meters long, and its foreclaws were a striking deep azure."
Hearing this, the Guild Master's remaining doubts vanished.
Those characteristics perfectly matched the legendary Grimclaw Tigrex.
"By the way, what were you doing in that area? Were you on a quest?" the mustachioed Guild Master asked.
Nymera wished she could say she had been on a quest, but she did not have the corresponding quest form. She pressed her lips together awkwardly, then admitted the truth.
"Sightseeing."
"..."
The old man did not know whether to laugh or sigh. Three active High Rank Hunters and one former 8★ Hunter, a true Tigrex expert, had set out days ago and still had not sent back any news. Clearly, they had yet to find anything.
This was not their fault. The desert's sandstorms could erase all traces in an extremely short time. Finding a specific Monster in the Dead Sand Sea was a matter of pure luck to begin with.
The Hunters actively searching had found nothing, while this Kamura Hunter had stumbled across it on a sightseeing trip.
She was also lucky to have her Palamute with her; without him, nine times out of ten, she would not have made it back.
"I see. Aisha."
The mustachioed Guild Master called his adjutant over, then said to Nymera, "Give Aisha a detailed account of when and where you encountered the Grimclaw Tigrex, and where you last saw it.
This has been quite an ordeal for you... Aisha, credit her with two 5★ investigation quests.
Normally, confirming the Grimclaw Tigrex's location up close like this should earn you a 6★ investigation quest record, but entering a High Rank quest record for a Low Rank Hunter requires a complicated approval process... Is that acceptable to you?"
Nymera straightened and gave a slight bow to show that she had no objections. She had not been seeking quest records or rewards; this was already a welcome surprise.
Lady Aisha led Nymera out of the meeting room. Just before the heavy door closed, she faintly heard one last sentence.
"The preliminary dissection report on the unknown Small Monster has already been sent by peregrine falcon. Given the distance to Dundorma, we should receive a reply within four to five days..."
The wooden door cut off the sound. Nymera was curious, but did not press for details.
After giving Lady Aisha a detailed account of her encounter with the Grimclaw Tigrex and every other relevant detail, she left on her own.
Standing at the entrance of the Guild Hall, she was filled with mixed emotions.
The panic of being attacked by a terrifying Monster while sightseeing, the relief of a narrow escape, and the joy of unexpectedly receiving quest records and rewards all churned together, leaving her desperate to tell someone everything.
Hibiki, who had been lying at the Guild Hall entrance waiting for her, walked over listlessly and pushed his large head into her arms, nuzzling her.
The day's round trip had covered well over a hundred kilometers, and the desperate chase in particular had nearly run him into the ground.
Nymera stroked Hibiki's large head, her heart aching for him, and decided to spare no expense that day and let him eat his fill.
If not for him, she would have been swallowed by that terrifying Tigrex long ago.
She reached out and scooped up Mochi, who was resting on Hibiki's back. "Go find Isis and the others."
A feast was always better with everyone together, and she could unload her story while they ate. "Grr..." Mochi stared at her in apparent disbelief.
It was only a bird. Rigorous training had taught it to distinguish between Monsters, but asking it to pick specific people out of a crowd was a bit too much.
"So that's still too difficult? You just need to find the tallest girl in the crowd."
"Coo, coo."
"You can't tell men and women apart, either?"
Nymera was beginning to get a headache when Hibiki suddenly pricked up his ears and barked loudly several times in one direction.
Nymera looked up in surprise and, sure enough, spotted those familiar figures on the long stone steps leading to the Guild Hall.
Well, it was mealtime.
Hearing Hibiki's barks, Altaïr and the others, who were just about to head to the tavern for dinner, also noticed Nymera standing at the Guild Hall entrance.
Isis's eyes lit up. Eager to share the day's exciting news, she quickened her pace, but Nymera hurried over as well, and the two clasped hands.
"Nymera! Listen, I hunted a Tigerstripe Zamtrios and got promoted to 5★, and also..."
"You might find this hard to believe! While I was out enjoying the desert scenery, I encountered that Grimclaw Tigrex!"
Both of them, bursting with the urge to talk, spoke at exactly the same moment.
"..." Isis fell silent.
Fine, you win. You go first.
Altaïr closed the distance in a single stride, nudged Isis aside, and grabbed Nymera by the shoulders.
He had thought the matter no longer consumed him the way it once had, but the instant he heard a concrete lead on the creature, his mind could hold nothing else.
"Where is it?!"
Nymera was startled by the almost frenzied look on Altaïr's face.
She knew something of Altaïr's past. In fact, she had experienced something similar herself, having lost both parents in the Rampage and become an orphan.
But she had been too young back then to remember it, and her "enemy" had long since perished in that year's "Rampage Origin" incident. Her hatred had nowhere left to go, so she could not truly empathize with what Altaïr was feeling now.
It suddenly occurred to her that bringing up the Grimclaw Tigrex in front of Altaïr might have been a mistake, despite his earlier claim that he no longer cared as much. As Nymera hesitated over whether to tell him the truth, Isis placed a hand on Altaïr's shoulder.
She leaned close to Altaïr's ear and said in an eerie tone, "This might be a good opportunity. If all three of us, plus two Felynes and a Palamute, attacked together, we could probably give that Grimclaw Tigrex a nice, filling meal?"
"..."
Altaïr's expression shifted. After a brief silence, he released Nymera's shoulders and rubbed his own face hard. "...Sorry. I've calmed down."
"Eh?" Lambert, who had been hanging back and watching the spectacle, looked startled. "Isis is acting completely out of character. She's even being sarcastic."
"So it's true that every team must have at least one brain cell, meow?" Sajji covered his face with his little paws. "When one person's brain cell disappears, it grows in someone else's skull, meow?"
(Translated by yourtl.app)