Reporting in

Alex could tell that this unknown elder didn't have any aggresion towards him but rather a simple curiosity. A quick examination of the dragons body told Alex why it was unknown as it had a massive set of wings compared to it's body and it's legs were long but very lean which meant it likely didn't use them very often. Alex guessed that this elder spent most of it's time flying amongst the clouds which with it's coloration made it pretty much invisible from the ground. The elder also had short thick needle like growths under it's jaw that Alex assumed was a sort of weather tracking mechanism.

From the aura he could feel coming from this elder Alex felt that it was only at high rank similar to nergigante. much like the laventis however Alex didn't feel like hunting this dragon even if he was sure it would possibly have good traits simply because from what he could tell this was a very peaceful elder. To be honest Alex wasn't even surprised to discover a completely new species of elder dragon like this either. He was sure that if you were to take every single monster including the elders from the various games and did the math you'd realize that for a world like this one there should be WAY more creatures than this.

Ecosystems are complicated things with dozens if not hundreds of moving parts keeping them going. And this only applied to a small area rather than an entire world like this one that should have millions of different animal species and plants at minimum. This isn't even a hard to understand concept either as it was common knowledge on earth. So why then would this world be any different in how many different species there were , even more so when monsters can have abilities that would terrify any biologist back on earth.

Alex Slowly lowered his altitude in order to make some distance from this elder but wasn't overly concerned with it because from the size of it's mouth he could tell that he wasn't on it's menu as he was far too big. After studying Alex for a few more moments the elder peacefully veered away to go about it's business , whatever that may be. Once alone alex immediately dived down towards the sea at high speed because even if that was a benign interaction he was in fact snuck up on without his knowledge.

To be fair the elder had a shape that made it produce very little sound when it was flying much like an owl. This didn't make Alex feel any better about it though since if the elder had wanted to it could have gotten a successful sneak attack off on him and he knows very well that that can mean death. 'I need to make sure I remain vigilant when I'm flying from now on' he thought seriously as he shot into the water below smoothly despite his speed.

The harsh salt water definitely worked very well to cleanse the smell of the vale off of Alex as with a little effort on his part and he was no longer smelling like a thousand decomposing bodies. This wasn't hard to understand since water , especially salt water , was the enemy of preservation. Quite a few people were confused and surprised when Alex left the sea and got onto the docks. Everyone knew about the expedition into the coral highlands and had assumed that Alex would return to astera with Zain and the handler. Alex greeted the foreman before heading over towards the area that the commander practically lived in at all times.

"Hmm? Where is the other two?" the man asked confused. 'Pursuing zorah's trail with the aid of the third fleet we reconnected with. I returned on my own after ensuring there was nothing they couldn't handle.' Alex said calmly and the commander nodded. "I see , was there anything of note during your expedition?" the man asked seriously. 'I had an unusual encounter on the way back to astera not more than two hours ago. An unknown elder dragon with white coloration that appears to reside high in the sky semi-permanently.' Alex said honestly.

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