Monster Hunter: Wild Pointer

Amid the craftsmen's ugly shouts and wails, the crackling, burning corpse fell straight into the crucible.

Although Orlan didn't understand metal smelting, he could guess that the liquid metal undergoing the final refining step would definitely be ruined after being mixed with such a large piece of impurities.

This is a high-purity metal that has gone through multiple rounds of refining and is close to being a finished product. The cost is probably not low. The fall of this giant bee can be a heavy loss.

Amidst sighs and groans, the solar furnace gradually went out. As the temperature dropped, craftsmen wearing protective armor entered the furnace to clean it up.

Aolan looked around, came to the supervisor who had helped him before, and asked quietly, "Mr. Supervisor, does this happen often?

Like a giant bee rushing into a furnace and falling into a crucible?"

The supervisor slapped the scorching railing with both hands, "It happens about once every few days. It doesn't always fall into the crucible, but once it does, the metal is completely ruined!

I'm starting to wonder if those damn bugs are coming here just to mess with us. They're picking on the furnace when it's activated. Can't they just go somewhere else if they're looking for death?!"

At this point, the supervisor suddenly slapped himself. "Damn it! I should have been more careful when pouring ingots today. I thought those giant bees were mostly gone, so I didn't think much about it. How come there are still some left!"

"Uh, sorry."

"Ah! I'm not talking about you guys, we were too careless." The supervisor waved his hands a few times and sighed heavily. "Alas! The heat-resistant metal for this huge pot costs at least hundreds of thousands of yuan. If this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to complete this month's orders, and the penalty for breach of contract will be a huge amount."

"Isn't there some way to extract the impurities?" Orlan asked tentatively.

"It's not easy. If it were just a piece of coke, it would be fine, but there's acid in the blood of the giant bee. Even if the amount is small, it will seriously affect the quality of the finished metal.

These metals are to be sent to the industrial cities in central China to be used in the manufacture of airship boilers. We cannot be careless. If an accident occurs due to poor quality metal, it will ruin the reputation of Chongri Town."

Aolan will not say more on this topic. They are professionals, so as a layman, please don’t give random opinions.

At this time, the craftsmen who entered the solar furnace pulled open the cover at the bottom of the furnace, and then stepped out. Driven by the crane, the boiler hanging in the air began to tilt.

The metal, still in a red-hot, semi-molten state, slowly poured down and fell into the large hole exposed at the bottom of the furnace.

Ao Lang asked curiously, "Where does that hole lead to?"

The heavy-hearted supervisor casually replied, "It goes straight down and ends up in a huge cave."

Aolan was stunned when he heard this. "I saw slag being poured in there before. Wouldn't it pile up in that cave over time?"

"No." The supervisor regained some of his attention and explained in detail: "There are landslides and dumping holes in the cave. The scrap metal will slide down the landslide, out of the dumping hole, and fall into the sand sea.

Whether it is scrap metal or slag, they are very heavy and will slowly sink when they fall into the sea of ​​sand. Sometimes some monsters will come nearby to eat the slag to replenish minerals, which can be regarded as a return to nature.

Moreover, we go down to clean the waste discharge cave every two or three years to remove the remaining slag, and it has never been blocked in decades."

"So that's how it is," Aolan thought thoughtfully.

He had some guesses, but now was not the time to verify them. He would wait until he returned and reported to the professor.

In the cave where the townspeople draw their water, Muti was wandering around aimlessly.

This cave is actually not very big. The several connected caves of different sizes together only occupy a few thousand square meters. It didn't take her long to go around it.

I didn't find any clues. I looked around again carefully, but still didn't find any clues.

There are more than a dozen pools of various sizes in the cave. The water in the pools does not surge up from below, but drips from stalactites hanging on the top of the cave. It is quite clear.

The water droplets fell into the pool, causing ripples. Muti squatted by the pool, staring at the ripples in a daze.

There were footsteps behind my ears.

A woman with a large clay pot on her head came over and stopped when she saw Muti squatting by the pond.

Hearing the noise, Muti turned around and quickly stood up and made way.

The woman smiled at her friendly, then half squatted down and began to fetch water. She was very careful in her movements, with her wide sleeves rolled up high, as if she was afraid of polluting the water source.

When the clay pot was full, the woman stood up and tried to put the pot back on her head, but the pot filled with water was a bit heavy, making her movement a bit difficult. Seeing this, Muti hurried to help.

The woman who had replaced the pottery jar bowed to her, expressed her gratitude, and then slowly left.

“Hmm—”

Looking at the woman fetching water leaving, and then at the clear pools around him, an idea popped into Muti's mind.

Unlike the professor, she couldn't use professional tools like microscopes and special test papers to analyze water quality, but she had a more direct method.

She rummaged through her bag and found a metal cup for drinking water. She wiped it vigorously with a handkerchief. After making sure it was clean, she ran to the pool, scooped up half a cup of water, and poured it into the cup.

She smacked her lips, mentally evaluating it as "very delicious," then wiped the cup again and walked towards the next pool.

She wants to drink all the water in the pools in the cave!

After another round, she drank nearly two liters of water. Her stomach rumbled when she walked. She thought this method was a bit silly, but she really tasted something strange.

She found that the water temperature in the several pools on the south side of the water cave seemed to be a little higher, and there was a metallic taste in the water. Although it was very slight, she could feel it from the root of her tongue if she smacked her lips carefully.

She bit her tongue and marked the locations of these pools on the map.

"This should be considered a clue, right?"

Chapter 97 Focused Clues

The animal pen was stinking. The professor put on a handkerchief over his mask and carefully examined the corpse in front of him.

This is the corpse of a camel. The flesh and blood have been basically eaten away, leaving only completely dehydrated dry bones and fur.

The bee stinger containing paralyzing toxin pierced the neck, and after death, the flesh and blood were eaten up by the bees. The information shown on the corpse was no different from what the beastman described.

The professor stood up and looked at the animal herder. "How often do similar attacks occur? Is there a pattern? Do the bees always devour the flesh?"

The professor tried to infer the size of the bee colony through these questions.

The animal keeper said with a bitter face, "A few months ago, it wasn't so frequent, only once every one or two weeks. Later, there would be a few fewer sheep or camels every week."

The professor nodded. This was not surprising. The giant bee's growth cycle was very short, and the bee colony was developing rapidly. It was normal for it to consume more and more food.

"That's a huge loss. Haven't you thought about stopping the giant bees from attacking livestock?" asked Eric.

"Why haven't you thought about it? Although the giant bee is scary, a few people with pitchforks can still take it out. But wouldn't it be easy to get hurt?

Two months ago, a shepherd was stabbed in the chest and almost died. Since then, we are no longer brave enough to fight those giant bees.

Later, everyone discovered that after the giant bees had eaten their fill of livestock, they were less likely to attack the townspeople. The elders said it was better to let them eat than to hurt people, and that they should just wait until the hunters arrived.

At this point, the beastkeeper smiled, "After you came, those two young hunters have been hunting giant bees everywhere. They are really good at it.

Now we rarely see the giant bees anymore, and the herd is safe. I really have to thank you very much!"

The professor nodded and said a few polite words, but he sighed in his heart.

Although I received thanks, there is no clue?

"By the way, do giant bees eat other things besides the herd?" Eric asked curiously.

"Yes, they sometimes fly quite far to hunt. There used to be a lot of sand dragons and sand fish gathering around here, but we haven't seen any in the last few months. I'm afraid they were all eaten by giant bees."

"Giant bees hunting sand dragons?! That's impossible." Eric muttered.

"Have the sand dragons and sand fish disappeared?" the professor noted. "By the way, where do those giant bees go after they kill livestock and eat the meat?"

The beastman held the whip and thought for a moment, "Fly upwards?"

professor:"."

As if realizing he was talking nonsense, the animal keeper quickly added, "They usually come down from above. After they've eaten their fill, they'll find holes and cracks to crawl into. No one knows where they go."

"Drilling through rock crevices?" The professor's glasses lit up. "Do you know where those crevices are?"

The beast herder scratched his head. "More to the south, there are more cracks there. Last time, I heard someone saw a few giant bees crawling into the furnace waste discharge port."

In the evening, the four people who were investigating separately gathered at their residence and exchanged the information they had gained.

Muti was the first to raise his hand. "The water pool on the south side of the cave is warmer! And for some reason it smells a bit metallic!"

Aolan looked at her in surprise. "I understand the water temperature is high, but how did you notice the metallic taste?"

“I tried it.”

After two seconds of silence, Ao Lang managed to utter, "Don't try anything else next time. You'll get an upset stomach if you do."

"South? Is it still warm?" The professor was quite concerned about the two words Muti mentioned. "From the map, there are indeed more caves on the southern side of the bedrock.

As for the temperature, could it be related to the solar furnace?"

"I know that." Orlan continued, recounting everything that happened and witnessed at the Solar Furnace today.

"I also specifically asked the supervisor about the waste discharge cave. He said the only entrance to the cave is the waste outlet at the bottom of the solar furnace, and the only exit is the discharge port that discharges the waste into the bedrock.

Normally, no one goes down there, so there is no information about the cave on the map."

The professor chuckled softly upon hearing this, "It just so happens that I've also heard about the news that giant bees are entering through the furnace waste discharge port.

Plus, it's a cave that's not on the map, so no wonder we couldn't find it despite searching everywhere."

"Snapped!"

Eric suddenly clapped his hands, startling everyone around the table.

Not noticing his companions' dissatisfied looks, Eric excitedly said, "I told you! The giant beehive must be related to high temperatures!

Although they don't rely directly on the heat of the solar furnace, the slag and scrap metal poured into the cave provide a high temperature. In a closed environment, this temperature can be maintained for a long time! Even the cold desert nights can't affect them!

Perhaps it was the influence of that high temperature that caused a certain giant bee to transform into a queen bee! "

"Um"

After a moment's silence, the professor suddenly looked at Orlan and asked, "You just said that the giant bee rushed straight towards the crucible, right?

And this kind of thing doesn’t just happen once or twice, but almost every once in a while?”

"Well, at least that's what the supervisor said."

"Considering the size of the queen bee and the scale of the swarm, that cave can't be too small," the professor muttered to himself. "The discarded slag from smelting alone might not be enough to raise the temperature in that cave much.

So, are you commanding the giant bees to disrupt the smelting process, forcing a large amount of molten metal in the crucible to be discarded in order to raise the temperature of the waste discharge cavern?"

Orlan looked at the professor in surprise, "You mean, that queen bee consciously sent her minions to die, to 'manufacture' scrap metal, and to transform her living environment?

Can the Queen Bee's IQ reach this level?!"

The professor shook his head. "To say it can clarify the cause and effect is a bit exaggerated, but what if we look at it from a simpler perspective?

When the Solar Furnace is activated, the temperature will rise, and the Queen Bee should be able to sense this, at which point it will send the Giant Bee to the top of the mountain.

The giant bees, attracted by the light and heat, will rush into the crucible themselves, causing the smelting to fail. The waste metal will be poured into the waste drainage cave, bringing precious heat to the bee colony.

The Queen doesn't need to know what the Solar Furnace is, nor does she need to know the smelting process.

All it needs to know is to feel the temperature rise, send its men out, and then there will be a flow of hot metal, and that's all.

It’s like a baby who knows that if he cries, food will be brought to his mouth.”

"I have a question!" Muti suddenly raised his hand, "Isn't it said that the scrap metal and slag poured into the waste discharge cave will slide directly out of the discharge port along the constructed landslide?

How can we use scrap metal and slag to provide heat?"

The professor sighed, "The queen bee and the bee colony must have used some method to prevent the discharge of the metal waste.

Because waste is dumped directly into the sand sea, no one pays attention to this issue. Wait, didn't that beastkeeper say earlier that the sand dragons and sand fish that used to roam near the bedrock have disappeared?

"That's what he said." Eric nodded in confirmation.

"Haha, that's quite interesting." The professor chuckled, "Olang just mentioned that the supervisor mentioned that some monsters are attracted to the area by the discharged slag. They must be referring to the sand fish and sand dragons.

There must be a misunderstanding here. Sand fish and sand dragons do not have the habit of eating metal minerals, but many insects in the desert do, such as the Otsu swallowtail butterfly.

The discharged slag attracted insects, the insects attracted sand fish, and the sand fish attracted sand dragons. But now that the discharge of slag has been stopped by the giant bees, the insects have stopped coming, and the sand fish and sand dragons have naturally dispersed.

"So! The disappearance of sand fish and sand dragons wasn't due to being preyed upon by giant bees, but rather a lack of food!" Eric said excitedly. "That's what I was saying! Sand fish might be able to survive, but there's no way giant bees could possibly prey on sand dragons!"

Muti clenched his fists and said, "So, now we can confirm that the giant bees' nest is in the cave where the waste is discarded, right?"

"Everything that just happened can only be considered speculation."

"."

Seeing that Muti was choked by his words, the professor couldn't help but smile and said, "But when investigating this kind of thing, it's all about making bold guesses and carefully verifying them.

Now that we have a guess, it’s time to verify it.

Muti, Orlan, I'll give you a few hours to rest, recover your strength, and prepare for battle.

I will go to the elders to explain the situation. If we want to enter the hidden waste disposal cave safely, we should make some arrangements.

We are scheduled to depart at midnight to unveil the Queen of the Desert."