No-Fly Zone

We're falling!

I'm holding on as tight as I can! You won't fall!

Rathalos! The Rathalos is falling!

The mask is covering my eyes! I can't see anything!

Noir Corne! Noir Cornnnne! L-Look what the R-Ra-Rathalos is charging toward!

T-Toward what?!

We're about to crash!

Hold on... Finally, my mask's back in place!

Ahh! We're going to crash!

Meow! My notes... My tail... All fine. Thank heavens!

Where are we? It's dark here...

Corne...! Noir Corne! Are you still alive?

Mrrow... I can only see half your body there. Noir Corne, don't die...

I'm okay... but could you stop tugging on my leg?

I have a lamp in my equipment bag. Turn it on.

Lamp? What's that? Mew mean this thing?

Yeah, now flip the switch at the bottom.

Mrow! That's bright! But it's not hot at all... How do you do it?

Another thing. My horn... It's stuck in this rock. Could you come help me out?

Your horn's... stuck in the rock...! Meowhahaha!

Hey! Don't laugh!

I'm on meow way.

Climb up from over there. Ahh! Don't climb me! And definitely don't grab that!

Here I am... Is this where you're stuck? Wham!

Oww... My butt.

Where's the Rathalos? Did you see it?

It went inside.

The opening of this cave's too high up. It'd take us too much work to climb up without help. We need to find a way to signal Yato, but we also can't lose track of the Rathalos...

Wait, where are we anyway?

I was going to ask mew!

The Rathalos went down the cave, and the cave only further down... Maybe it's connected to the one closer to the village. Looks like we'll have to head that way to check it out.

Hey, Scholar! Wait up! What's the rush?

Meow! We need to hurry!

There are so meowny mysteries! The laws of nature here aren't all that diffurent from where we're from, but there are all these situations I can't wrap my head around! The Rathalos is acting way too oddly!

Oddly? That new Felyne mentioned something about it being abnormal, too.

I'll explain to mew as we walk!

The Rathalos burrowed itself down here... Purrhaps the cause of its odd behavior can be found here, too!

I swear this on the name of a furmer Royal Pawleontology Scriveners scholar! I will get to the bottom of this!

Noir Corne... come check this out.

I'm coming—Goodness, this stinks... Huh?

Scholar... Are these...

All animal carcasses... all shredded and torn apart by the Rathalos.

Shellbeasts, hornbeasts, fowlbeasts... so many different beasts... Did it kill all these animals for food? Are these... leftovers?

No, a Rathalos's bite can crush even bones. There is no way it would leave behind so many carcasses.

They all look very complete, too. They were killed, but there are no chew marks or signs of them having been eaten...

Come. Let's check out what's up ahead.

Alright.

Mrow! How could this be...?

What did you find?

The carcasses here have all been burnt to a crisp... They were killed and dragged all the way down here, but it still spat fire at them. There's no way it could've eaten any of these.

Is it... angry?

Look here. This, this, and this! Not one of them... It didn't eat even a single one of them!

Purrhaps... the Rathalos can't eat Terran creatures?

Could that explain uh... how it's abnormal?

I don't know... Hunger can change its behavior, but it's hard to say for sure that's the reason...

Why? I don't get it at all!

Based on my observation data, Terran creatures follow the same growth patterns as where we're from. Besides, I ate the same food as you, and there's nothing wrong with me meow!

This is just a guess, but... what if it's not caused by the food, but by the... Originium on its skin?

You mean Rathalos caught Oripathy?

—! Look at that!

What mrow?

Quick! Help me get all these animals out of the way. The dirt, too.

It stinks! Why can't you do it yourself?

Well, you tricked me into holding that fincatching rod for you. This is payback.

Mrow? *Hiss*... I'm mad! Mad, I tell you, mrow!

Wait, cut it out.

...I think I know why there are those traces of Originium on the Rathalos's body now.

Are you talking about the holes we're digging? What could they pawssibly imply?

These are tracks left behind by Originium mining. The area underneath is most likely...

An Originium mine.

If this mine is why the villagers have been going so far to hide this cave from us, then that would explain everything.

Wait! What do you mean? Meow exactly does it explain anything?

Considering Higashi's current situation and its dwindling resources... a private Originium mine that's hidden from the outside world could bring them piles of cash even if all they do is sell crude ore.

But if any outsiders—maybe even greater forces—were to find out about their hidden mine, it could very well get taken over by force. It might even put their lives in danger.

So what you're saying is, Originium is a kind of meowneral that's find in the earth, and the villagers have been digging it up?

That's right.

And you people do that on a regular basis?

Yep.

As I recall, you said Originium can cause an incurable disease called Oripathy, or even a cat-astrophic disaster that tears even the land and the sky apart...

Exactly.

So why could you pawssibly want to dig it up?

Uh... because it's an energy source, I guess?

Energy source? You can burn wood and oil for heat, and you can boil water to purr-pel machines. Can't you people do any of that fur energy?

I can't think of a good reason fur willingly exposing yourselves to something so dangerous!

What did the Doctor say again... We Terrans use Originium through Originium Arts...

Thanks to advancements in Originium engine technology, Originium became widely used as an industrial energy source. And in the past, it was also often used for casting Arts...

I don't know any Arts, though. How I can explain this to you with something else...? Oh, hand me the light.

What are mew doing with it? Mrowah! Don't take it apart! You'll purrt it out!

Here. This is what I'm talking about.

Huh? It's still lit up?

Take a look at this. This is a battery. It's what powers the light bulb up here, and that's how it's lit up.

What does that have to do with Originium?

The battery has Originium in it, too. There's also this... what do you call it... Arts Unit? That's the thing that turns the battery's Originium into electrical currents that light up the bulb.

So it lights up beclawse of Originium?

Not only that, the light bulb, the outer shell, and all the parts inside were mass produced in a factory.

Mass produced?

It's when you make the same thing over and over on a large scale. Take this exploration lamp. A huge factory can make over a thousand of them in a day.

A thousand?! That's so convenient! Could the clothes all the villagers wear pawssibly be made in those factories, too?

That's right. The factory uses machines to build these parts, and what's driving those machines is called an Originium engine.

And they need Originium to function. That's how it is in most places here.

So Terra's technology... and even its civilizations are built on a furndation of Originium.

I guess that's about it?

But our Hunters don't have lamps, or the kind of clothes mew wear. The lamp is convenient, I'll give mew that...

But even without something as dangerous as Originium, we get by just fine.

It should be pawssible to replace it with something else here too, shouldn't it?

Are these Hunters common where you guys are from?

Of course. If we leave the meownsters be, they could pose significant threats to the villagers' safety, and our livelihoods depend on the meowterials you get out of them.

So... are all the hunts these hunters go on safe?

No... Most of the time, there are dangers everywhere. You're more likely to fail a hunt than succeed.

And there's only a very small number of truly skilled hunters. When they are up against truly tricky monsters, meowst hunters end up losing their lives.

Then our Originium's actually not a whole lot different from your monsters.

Mrow? What do you mean?

Both Originium and monsters are unpreventable threats, but they both also give us the opportunity to survive.

Mrrow...

You probably won't see one, but... Catastrophes are actually very common here in Terra. Most folks live in the nomadic cities, and each city can have tens of thousands of residents.

When a Catastrophe is about to strike, the entire city starts moving.

A city with tens of thousands of residents... moving... That sounds moewvelous. How do you move something that big?

Originium. Only the energy hidden in Originium can move a nomadic city. No other energy source comes close.

I can't believe this, mrow...

We all definitely understand that using Originium can cause Catastrophes.

But... when Catastrophe strikes, if you want to survive, even if all you have nearby is a twig or branch floating in a puddle, you're bound to grab it.

It doesn't matter if it has thorns... That's the least of your worries.

Before nomadic cities were invented, before we started using Originium at the scale we do now, many more people died from Catastrophes.

Terra... sounds so scary, mrow.

Those thorns may end up cutting your fingers, but a Catastrophe's not going to end just because of your pain. You have no choice but to hold on... and hold on for dear life.

And it doesn't matter how hard you look. Until you find a smooth tree branch that won't cut you, that's all you can do.

It doesn't matter how difficult it all is. You just have to grit your teeth and live on...

Noir Corne, I can hardly call you smart just for this, but purrhaps you have a point...

Thinking about it now, the difficulties we face aren't all that diffurent.

The materials we need to forge weapons that can take on the fiercest beasts likewise come from fierce beasts, and behind that must be a countless number of sacrifices too...

There are Hunters who never return from their hunts, Commission members who fall while exploring the New World, and plenty of Scriveners who disappeared without a trace while observing dangerous creatures for data...

*sigh*... looks like no matter where mew are, people are fragile, and the world is a cruel place.

But even if all that suffering is inevitable, and you have to pay the price to survive, must innocent lives be sacrificed too?

I've never heard of things like that where I'm from... Things like Originium which makes the innocent suffer.

They don't catch Oripathy because they wanted to, and they won't even get to live without treatment. How could that pawssibly be right?

Of course it's not right.

Mrow! So quick to answer!

Which is why somebody has to step forward and take on the burden of showing everyone else the way forward.

Hello? Is anybody there?

What's that noise?

Did someone just talk?

Stop chatting! Look over here!

I've been stuck in here for three days now. Could you come over and move the stuff blocking this door?!

She's asking us for help... Where are you? We're coming right away!

Whoa, watch out! There's about to be another beast outbreak.

Beast outbreak?

You can more or less figure it out from the name, can't you? It's an outbreak of all the animals in the forest going berserk at once.

I think I hear a familiar noise, too.

I can hear it, too. It's not coming again, is it?

Whenever you see a surge of animals here, you can bet they're all Infected.