Monster Hunter: I can accept monster quests!

Chapter 29 The Camp Uproar

Outside the camp, Harley and Chen Yan chatted and laughed. Flower Cat sneaked into the camp. It rummaged through the ashes in the stove, but instead of the roasted eggs it had been longing for, it saw a monster that terrified it.

"ah!!!"

The cat's screams echoed through the sky. It stumbled out and hurriedly hid behind Chen Yan. After thinking for a moment, it ran behind Harley before speaking.

Flower Cat, clinging tightly to her thigh, curled up as much as possible with her round body, her eyes fixed on the pitch-black camp.

"Inside the camp, under the stove, I secretly hid some. They're alive, not dead, they've even hatched, and they're eating them, enjoying them immensely!"

Chen Yan picked up the incoherent, frizzy cat and stroked its fur with a kind expression.

"Hey friend, if you keep talking nonsense like that, my whip will lash out at your butt as fast as a horned dragon's tail!"

Hua Miao clung tightly to Chen Yan's arm.

"Yes, yes, it's a ceratopsian! There's a ceratopsian in the furnace ash! I dug one out! Chen Yan, do you even know what a ceratopsian is? It's a ceratopsian with horns on its head, it sounds terrifying, and it just chopped a mudfish ceratopsian with its tail axe!"

Harley chuckled after hearing Chen Yan's translation, and then rubbed the frizzy cat's head.

It feels nice to the touch, so I touched it again.

"Hey, Chen Yan, why is your Palico acting so frivolous, just like you? Was it scared by the sight of the Diablos beating up the Mudskipper?"

"No matter what, there's no way monsters could possibly appear in the camp. The camp's location is so tricky; not even a horned dragon, let alone a dinosaur, could get in..."

She was laughing happily, but when she saw that Chen Yan not only didn't laugh, but instead slowly drew his knife and stood guard at the camp entrance, she stopped laughing.

She took out an armor-piercing crossbow bolt from her bosom, carefully mounted it on her arm crossbow, and was about to take a step when she suddenly stopped. She then took out a small porcelain bottle wrapped in layers of oiled paper from her bosom and handed it to Chen Yan.

"If I don't come out in five seconds, smash the bottle inside. Remember, not a second more, not a second less!"

As soon as he got his hands on the porcelain bottle, Chen Yan, who possessed the sense of smell of a crowned dinosaur, immediately detected a unique scent. He felt a chill run down his spine for no reason, his scalp tingled, and he almost threw the bottle away.

"What kind of monster's excrement is this? It smells like a fire dragon—a Golden Rathalos or the Black Flame King?"

Harley paused in adjusting the crossbow and looked at Chen Yan in surprise.

"I found a Gold Rathian in the Ancient Forest a few years ago. It saved me quite a few times. By the way, how did you know?"

Chen Yan sniffed, holding the small porcelain bottle at a distance, his disgusted expression making Harley roll her eyes.

Even a dog's nose isn't as sharp as yours...

She stayed close to the edge of the campsite, making her footsteps extremely light, almost shuffling in little by little.

Although she still didn't quite believe there would be any ceratopsians in the camp, it was always better to be safe than sorry, just in case some blind ceratopsian dug a hole into their camp...

Harley, fully alert, turned her head slightly to look inside, and what she saw made her freeze in the doorway.

From Chen Yan's perspective, she first rubbed her eyes in disbelief, then showed a surprised expression, unloaded the crossbow bolts, waved to him, and walked confidently into the dark camp.

Chen Yan held the insect cage in one hand and the porcelain bottle in the other, silently counting to three, when he saw Harley come out again.

She went in empty-handed and came out carrying things.

He was holding a small, black horned dinosaur cub in his hand.

She held the baby horned dinosaur by its two hind legs. The little guy didn't struggle in her hands and just munched on the eggshell, crunching away happily.

"Look, look! I told you I wasn't mistaken, you wouldn't believe it! I flipped through the ashes a few times and instead of a roasted egg, I found a horned dragon! It almost scared me to death!"

The cat was excited, but despite its words, it still didn't dare to go forward.

Chen Yan leaned closer and wiped the ashes off the baby horned dragon's head. Actually, it didn't matter whether he wiped them or not, since those two little horns were enough to prove its identity. As the ashes fell, its true appearance was revealed.

This little horned dinosaur was only about half a meter long, and its whole body was covered with black and yellow shells. Chen Yan touched it and got his hand covered in ash. The black part was probably the ash from the furnace. Its original shell color should have been light yellow.

The little guy was petted and wagged its tail in dissatisfaction. The short, thick tail had two small protrusions at the end, and its cute shape was hard to associate with the bone giant axe that had just been used to smash the Mudfish Dragon.

It has a pair of tiny horns on its head, no more than the length and thickness of a finger. The small disc behind its head is still soft and has not yet grown thorns. The tiny eyes under the tiny horns are fixed on the eggshell held by its wing claws.

Despite being held upside down, she didn't cry or fuss, focusing solely on eating. Although her little mouth wasn't big, she ate the eggshell very quickly, finishing half of it in just a few bites, completely oblivious to her predicament.

This is clearly a newly hatched ceratopsian baby.

"Where did it come from?"

Chen Yan asked Harley, Harley asked Chen Yan, and then the two of them, as if by unspoken agreement, turned their gazes to Flower Cat.

Flower Cat took a half step back and stammered an explanation.

"It hatched from that yellowish-brown egg, the one we snatched from the takin's lap."

Chen Yan was puzzled.

"Didn't we grill and eat it last night?"

The cat's ears drooped down, and it gestured a few times towards the bushes beside it.

"What we ate was actually an egg I dug out of the grass..."

"I thought this yellowish-brown egg was big, so I was planning to hide it and eat it myself. I just smeared some mud on it and baked it for you... Actually, the egg I found tasted alright when baked, it was just a little..."

Chen Yan understood, and then flew into a rage. He grabbed the tail of the cat that was trying to escape, ready to give it a cruel divine punishment.

"I was wondering why the egg, which looked perfectly fresh during the day, smelled so rotten when I roasted it at night. I thought eggs from the Big Ant Hill Wasteland always tasted like this!"

Before Chen Yan could finish speaking, the divine punishment that was meant to punish him arrived first. His ear was twisted, and Harley, furious, spun him around with all her might.

"Oh, so that's why you weren't eating the egg! Turns out it was a rotten one! You even said you were growing and needed to eat more nutritious food, which touched me. Well, Chen Yan, just wait till I get my hands on you!"

The horned dinosaur, nestled obediently on the ground, blinked its little eyes intently as it gnawed on the eggshell, watching the spectacle intently.

Hua Miao begged for mercy with "Meow," and Chen Yan begged for mercy with "Boss, Boss." Harley twisted Chen Yan with one hand and Hua Miao with the other, gaining the upper hand against the two, just like a peerless female demon.

After Chen Yan and Hua Miao agreed to several unequal treaties, they finally escaped a calamity.

The three looked at the adorable, bewildered desert tyrant cub and were once again stumped on what to do with it.

Flower Cat's suggestion was always simple and direct; it looked at the baby horned dragon with longing.

"Get the fire going! Get the fire going! We're having roasted horned dinosaurs tonight!"

Harley calmly analyzed the situation.

"Since the horned dragon eggs were stolen by the scaly bird, we can follow its tracks to find where it stole the eggs. However, so much time has passed that some of the traces may be hard to find now."

She suddenly clasped her hands together, having come up with a brilliant idea.

"Why don't we try throwing it at that horned dragon that chopped down the mudfish dragon? Maybe it's its cub!"

Chen Yan squatted down and looked at the adorable baby horned dinosaur.

The moment his eyes met those of the baby horned dinosaur, his underlying logic was triggered; he slowly reached out and slightly pursed his lips.

"Suckling sound~"

The little horned dinosaur swayed over and nestled in his palm.

The first step has been achieved.

Chen Yan broke the eggshell into pieces and held it to the dog's mouth, where it happily ate it with gusto.

Step two is complete.

Chen Yan gently stroked its little head. At first, the little guy resisted by shaking its head, but after realizing it was powerless to resist, it resigned itself to its fate.

Step three achieved.

With the first three steps successfully completed, it was time for Chen Yan to consider the final step.

"Harley, Cat, do you think it's okay to keep it as a pet?"