112 Conflict of interest

Alex was still very tired since despite being unconscious since his body hadn't actually gotten any rest. 'I can't just head back to astera empty handed however since that would be suspicious' he thought with a sigh. In the end Alex went into the ancient forest and started looking for something easy to hunt. About five minutes into looking he found some tracks that belonged to a kulu ya ku 'perfect' he thought as he began to follow the tracks. Along the way Alex grabbed a few flash beetles that he munched on as a temporary snack until he finished his hunt.

As a bonus to his chosen snack Alex even generated the [photophore wings] trait that he assumed let him create light from his wings. The requirement for the trait was fairly harsh however as it required him to devour two thousand of the bugs he got it from. Alex wasn't surprised that the trait was so valuable since in the game the ability to disorient and blind monsters temporarily was practically broken with how useful it was. If Alex could gain even a small amount of the stunning power that the bug had he would be happy since it would help massively with his future hunts.

When Alex finally found the kulu it was running through the forest with what looked suspiciously like a rathalos egg with the white shell and flame patterns on the sides. 'This thing is either suicidal or stupid.' Alex thought when he verified that it was in fact a rathalos egg that the chicken raptor was making off with. Alex's thoughts were proven true when a rathian showed up and roared at the kulu angrily. Alex carefully positioned himself in the shadows near the kulu when the angry mother appeared so he could catch the egg when the stupid raptor dropped it.

He didn't have to wait long as the first fireball that the rathian launched at the kulu made it lose it's grip on the egg and drop it. Neither of the two monsters noticed that a thin black shadow had caught the egg and retreated into the shadows with it rather than the egg shattering on the ground. Alex retreated from the area quickly so that he could candle the egg to see if it was developed or not before deciding if he should eat it or not.

Alex found a good spot in the forest where he carefully held the egg up with his claw to the sunlight which shone through it letting him see inside. Alex was left slightly sour however when he saw that there was a half formed baby wyvern in the egg already. He was left with quite the dilemma when he saw this since he wasn't willing to kill an unborn infant but at the same time he doubted he could just return the egg to the nest. 'That's if i could even figure out where the nest is to begin with' he thought solemnly.

'I wonder if I could convince the scholars to try and raise the thing like a pet , I could just kill it when it grows up if it becomes a problem after all.' He thought not realizing the sheer headache he was about to cause an entire group of people. With this in mind alex carefully cradled the egg and took off into the air and flew towards astera. There was quite the commotion when Alex presented the egg and his request to the fleet commander after he got back. It was certainly a novel idea as far as the researchers were concerned that definitely deserved a chance to be tested.

While everyone was clear that Alex was an exception due to his sapience no one had ever heard of an attempt to raise a monster in captivity besides the docile ones such as the aptanoths. Saya however blanched in horror when this discussion happened as she was extremely clear that it was possible. she was very conflicted however since if she let this little experiment continue unabated one of the things her tribe considered as exclusively theirs and sacred to boot might get spread to the rest of the world. If she interfered however she may fail her original mission of making sure that her tribe remained secret unless she killed herself afterwards.

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