Translator: AnubisTL
The sun blazed in the sky, its scorching rays pouring down like molten gold, baking the wilderness until it shimmered with heat.
The ground temperature rose steadily, and the air warped into shimmering waves. Distant mountains blurred into mirages, their outlines indistinct in the heat haze.
Under such conditions, most creatures sought shelter, rarely venturing out.
The dragonkind living in the circular Heavenly Pit were an exception.
For fire-type dragons, this intense heat only heightened their spirits, making them more energetic and active.
More than a month had passed since Garos's last negotiation with the iron dragon maid.
As a young dragon, he was in a growth spurt, and Garos diligently trained to strengthen his body.
During this month, his frame had visibly expanded. His dragon scales now resembled cast iron, and the muscles beneath rippled like steel cables when he exerted himself, ready to unleash formidable power at any moment.
"Rest time's over! Go dig for ore!"
Near the cliff face, Garos coiled his tail and tossed two stones, each striking the heads of the iron dragon brother and the red dragon sister.
The two hatchlings lifted their heads in protest, their voices ringing with righteous indignation. "We've only rested for an hour! Garos, this is abuse! If we worked the same amount of time as Mother's kobold familiars, they'd get two hours of rest!"
The iron dragon maid had familiars.
Among them was a clan of kobolds tasked solely with mining for her.
Hearing this, Garos's tail struck the ground, sending sparks flying. He paced before the two hatchlings.
"Do you know why you can never beat me, why I always pin you down, why I can ravage you, and repeatedly humiliate you?" he asked, lowering his gaze.
The two hatchlings exchanged bewildered glances.
"Because you lack ambition!"
Garos leaned in close, his shadow engulfing them. "As noble true dragons, with dragon blood flowing through your veins, you dare to compare yourselves to kobolds!"
The young dragons shook their heads, their eyes filled with pity and disappointment.
"Wasting your true dragon blood by being inferior to even kobolds... truly pathetic," he sneered, his voice dripping with disdain.
"Bullshit! Kobolds aren't worthy of comparison!" the red dragon sister roared in fury.
"Bullshit! I'm a hundred times stronger than any kobold!"
The iron dragon brother also flew into a rage.
Garos's expression softened slightly, and he grinned. "Empty words are meaningless. Prove it to me. Show me your resolve, your strength and resilience as dragonkind."
"Hmph! Don't underestimate us!"
The two hatchlings snorted coldly, then eagerly descended into the mine shaft they had previously opened. Channeling all their energy, they were determined to make Garos understand that they were no match for kobolds. In their hearts, they vowed to earn his respect.
Provocation—the ultimate weapon against dragonkind.
The proud and self-assured nature of dragonkind made them particularly susceptible to such challenges.
Garos's gaze followed the two hatchlings as they disappeared into the mine.
"If only the iron dragon maid were as easily fooled as these two," he mused.
As dragonkind age and gain experience, they gradually learn to control their instincts. An adult giant dragon like the iron dragon maid possessed far greater intelligence than these hatchlings.
As for the two hatchlings, they were currently as gullible as fools, easily deceived.
Garos couldn't imagine how these two, if they were to survive another year and become young dragons, would fare if they were expelled by their dragon mother and forced to fend for themselves. With their combination of weakness and recklessness, it was hard to see them surviving in this perilous world.
At that moment, a fierce wind suddenly swept through.
Garos looked up at the sky, his vision filled with the figure of the iron dragon maid soaring through the air, her wings spread wide. Her massive body, exuding a torrent of draconic might, cast a deep shadow across the ground with her nearly forty-meter wingspan.
Dust swirled wildly, and small rocks trembled violently.
A dark, amorphous mass was dropped from the iron dragon maid's grasp, crashing to the earth with a deafening roar that shook the ground like an earthquake. The impact cratered the ground, and a dense network of cracks radiated outward, sending a ring of dust billowing outward.
Waving his wings to disperse the dust, Garos focused his gaze.
A great horned bull, weighing dozens of tons, its body a mass of layered muscle, crowned with a pair of massive horns and clad in thick armor, loomed in Garos's sight.
This was a ferocious beast with a creature level of 10 or higher.
And it was precisely the high-quality blood food Garos required.
The iron dragon maid, true to her agreement with Garos, regularly supplied him with such fare.
This was exclusively for him.
As for the two hatchlings, Garos had forced them to mine, but not without rest. They weren't true slaves; after returning to the dragon nest, they were provided with food by the iron dragon maid.
The iron dragon maid was cold-hearted yet valued order. She always did her duty well, never neglecting any of the hatchlings, but she also didn't show them any special favoritism.
After dropping the prey, she returned directly to her lair without lingering.
"Let's eat."
Garos withdrew his gaze, took a deep breath, and began tearing into the great horned bull's carcass.
The creature's hard hide, even after being tempered by Garos's metal-ore-gnawing teeth, couldn't be pierced in a single bite. He had to tear and gnaw several times.
The beef was incredibly fresh, tasting no different from when the bull was alive. It was tough and chewy, with a satisfying resistance.
With every mouthful, Garos felt a warmth spreading through his body as his body absorbed the rich nutrients and energy.
When he had devoured about a third of the great horned bull's flesh, a tingling sensation suddenly arose both inside and outside Garos's body, surging and ebbing like waves.
"This is the feeling."
Garos' eyes lit up.
Even with a dragon's furnace-like stomach, Garos had felt uncomfortably full after eating so much beef. But as a tingling sensation spread through his body, both inside and out, his fullness vanished, replaced by a fierce hunger.
The young dragon took a deep breath, opening his massive dragon's maw to reveal a full set of dragon teeth.
Awoo!
He tore off a large chunk of beef, chewed it casually a few times, and swallowed it whole. The meat in his stomach instantly transformed into a warm energy that flowed through his limbs and organs, concentrating in the areas he had recently exercised:
The scales that had been in direct contact with the earth, the dragon horns that had repeatedly slammed against mountain rocks, the dragon tail that had whipped through stone.
Also included were the muscles that had absorbed the shock, his internal organs, and more.
However,
No visible changes occurred in Garos' body. Only the continuous tingling, electric sensation persisted.
"Evolution isn't a instantaneous event," Garos thought. "It's a gradual process. When I've accumulated enough adaptation and have a sufficient energy supply, I'll undergo a period of rapid progress, evolving in a way that corresponds to my recent adaptations."
Over the past few years, he had been constantly pondering and investigating the essence of his innate talent, developing his own theories and hypotheses.
Every living creature possesses the power of adaptive evolution, but under normal circumstances, it takes millions of years of gradual change.
Garos, however, could shorten this timeframe to virtually nothing.
The key was that his evolutionary talent itself was also growing.
"Perhaps one day I'll be able to complete adaptive evolution in an instant, or even evolve directly in the direction I desire," he mused.
With renewed determination, Garos managed to devour the entire carcass of the great horned bull, a creature many times his own weight.
The tingling sensation throughout his body intensified dramatically.
Striking while the iron was hot, he continued his relentless cycle of crashing against mountains and slamming into the earth under the blinding sunlight, embracing the pain and the joy.
(End of the Chapter)
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