Translator: AnubisTL
Sunrise and sunset marked the passage of six years.
The rainy season in the Sierre Wilderness had ended, and the land had reverted to its usual scorching heat. Sunlight poured down like molten gold, bathing the desolate plains.
Yet even the most intense sunlight couldn't penetrate the dense, swirling steam that perpetually shrouded the steam rift. This forbidden zone remained shunned by most living creatures.
Whoosh!
A giant gale eagle soared across the sky, moving with lightning speed.
With a wingspan of ten meters, its feathers lay tight against its body to minimize air resistance. Wind element energy swirled around it, propelling it forward like a cyan lightning bolt.
As the giant gale eagle passed over the steam rift, it noticed the hissing fissures below. Having already hunted and fed, the sated creature suddenly felt playful.
The giant eagle flapped its wings and dove toward the steam rift.
It weaved recklessly through the air, its cyan feathers slicing through the thick mist, leaving clear vacuum trails in its wake.
The giant gale eagle dove vertically, pulling up sharply just before touching the boiling steam rift, flinging the swirling steam behind it.
It banked sharply, weaving between two colliding steam pillars, the scalding mist condensing into spiraling cloud rings in its wake.
Caught up in the thrill, the giant gale eagle began challenging the steam rift's most dangerous areas.
Here, over a hundred high-pressure steam pillars erupted randomly, a place even the most agile swifts dared not venture.
Folding its wings into a streamlined shape, the wind element coalesced into sharp shockwaves at the tips of its feathers, like scissors slicing through fabric. With dazzling precision, it threaded through every lethal gap in the steam maze, brushing past erupting steam pillars.
Seconds later, just as the giant eagle completed its final barrel roll and prepared to ascend into the clouds,
a terrifying aura suddenly surged from the depths of the rift.
The giant eagle's feathers instantly bristled.
One moment it was reveling in the thrill of speed; the next, its heart felt like it had been seized by an invisible hand.
Something beyond comprehension had awakened.
The steam rift below began to boil, not with a slow, surging eruption, but as if stirred by the breath of a colossal beast. Every steam pillar twisted, burst, and coalesced into a chaotic sea of mist.
Boom—!!!
The steam clouds were violently torn apart as a crimson figure shot skyward with absurd speed.
The giant gale eagle barely caught a glimpse of what it was—only a series of afterimages and a flickering trail behind it, like the tail of a comet.
Instinctively, the giant gale eagle spread its wings and fled at full speed, executing its signature technique: Hurricane Ascent.
This was its most prized escape maneuver.
As it ascended vertically, spiraling wind elements enveloped its body, granting it explosive acceleration. It had once used this technique to escape the clutches of a fully grown dragon.
But this time, a piercing shriek echoed behind it.
Whoosh—!
The crimson shadow overtook it, appearing directly above the giant eagle even as it flew backward.
For the first time, the giant eagle saw its predator in full view.
A dragon! It was a dragon!
Its body was covered in overlapping black dragon scales that hissed like countless blades being drawn as it sliced through the air. Its wings were massive and exaggerated, unlike traditional membranous wings.
Its wing membranes were covered in crimson scales, their distribution uneven and jagged.
Six silver crystalline bones protruded from the wing membranes—at the roots, tips, and edges—radiating outward. From their ends erupted dense, dark-red streams of flame, resembling both raging fire and billowing steam, leaving long, flickering trails in its wake.
Like the destructive tail of a comet tearing through the sky.
Deliberately slowing its pace, the dragon extinguished the flames on its wings and flew parallel to the giant eagle.
This act terrified the giant eagle more than outright pursuit. The dragon seemed to be savoring the hunt.
The giant gale eagle shrieked.
It frantically channeled magical energy, wrapping it around its wings to overload its speed. With agile mid-air maneuvers, it tried to shake off the giant dragon stalking it.
The dragon didn't immediately give chase. Instead, it waited a moment before leisurely flapping its wings.
Boom!
Dark-red flames surged behind its wings.
Its speed instantly surged, closing in on the giant gale eagle. The black scales on its body, heated by friction with the air, glowed almost crimson, like a scarlet meteor streaking across the sky.
The giant eagle sensed the danger closing in from behind.
But its speed had already reached its limit, leaving no room for further improvement.
As the dragon shadow flashed past, the giant eagle's vision suddenly spun violently, its head already severed from its body.
The giant dragon, its claw gripping the eagle's carcass, folded its wings and descended to the ground. Steam still rose from the gaps between its scales, remnants of its supersonic flight, while its wings resembled unsheathed, peerless weapons of destruction.
This dragon was none other than Garos, who had just emerged from his dragon sleep.
"The fiery trails left by my wings resemble a comet streaking across the sky," Garos mused. "I'll call you Heavenly Comet Wings."
Garos flexed his newly formed dragon wings, nodding in satisfaction.
In his previous life, he had played a game called Monster Hunter. Now, reflecting on it, he realized that many characteristics of the dragons in that game could serve as valuable references. His previous naming of the explosive scale and his conceptualization of dragon wings had both been influenced by insights gleaned from that game.
"The only drawback is the excessive energy consumption," Garos thought. "Using magical energy as fuel, each burst of acceleration drains vast amounts of power."
"When I advance to become a martial dragon, the dragon qi formed from the fusion of magical energy and life energy will be far more resilient and potent, perhaps better suited to handle the energy demands."
The dragon sleep and evolution had left Garos ravenously hungry. He devoured the giant gale eagle he had just hunted, then finally had time to examine his transformation.
First, his life grade had jumped from 7 to 9—a level typically only attainable by juvenile gold dragons. Yet Garos was just 14, still two years shy of that stage.
In terms of size, his total length now reached 12 meters, matching that of a juvenile dragon. But length was secondary; Garos was far more robust than a red dragon. Beneath his scales lay powerful, well-developed muscles. If another 12-meter-long juvenile dragon stood beside him, it would look like a mere twig in comparison.
His fully extended dragon wings spanned 26 meters, more than twice his body length.
Garos's appearance had also undergone significant changes.
The most obvious were his new silver crystalline bones and the jet-like propulsion structures at the tips of his dragon wings.
The spines on his face had become denser and more numerous, and his mouth now featured the red dragon's characteristic ferocious fangs. The keratin around his jaws felt as hard as steel, and the bases of his dragon horns were encased in shovel-shaped metallic bones that curved backward in majestic, serpentine arcs, resembling a king's crown.
The traits of both iron and red dragons remained distinctly visible in Garos's form.
In addition to the explosive scales on his back, dense spines had grown along his spine, extending all the way to the tip of his tail.
His tail had become thicker and longer, its scales densely packed yet slightly raised, revealing razor-sharp edges. When lashed against enemies, it would inflict a series of deep, lacerating wounds, resembling the brutal cuts of a thousand cuts punishment.
Beyond these physical manifestations, Garos had also awakened two quasi-spell skills:
Flame Claw—derived from his red dragon bloodline. Harden Body—derived from his iron dragon bloodline.
Under normal circumstances, both iron and red dragons only awaken these quasi-spells during their juvenile stage.
As both iron and red dragons excel in close combat, the two quasi-spells Garos awakened from his bloodline further enhanced his melee capabilities.
However, in terms of ranged combat, Garos, being an exceptional hybrid, possessed three types of dragon breath and explosive scales for bombardment.
For now, this arsenal proved sufficient.
Moreover, all dragons are born sorcerers. As they age, they will inevitably awaken more quasi-spells. The quasi-spells of juvenile dragons are merely the beginning, and Garos wasn't even a juvenile dragon yet.
As for magic that relies on knowledge rather than bloodline, it's usually only adult dragons, whose physical development has slowed, who begin to explore and learn it. Before that stage, the spell-like abilities awakened naturally within dragons and their constantly growing bodies are far more practical.
Garos flicked his tail.
Beneath his dragon scales, he felt a faint sensation like an electric current, but it was so weak and indistinct that it hardly seemed real.
"This aspect of my evolution wasn't successful," he thought. "This time, the evolution focused primarily on my wings."
The lingering hunger hadn't subsided.
His stomach growling, Garos abandoned his self-examination and flapped his wings, soaring into the air to hunt. After a full day of hunting and multiple meals, the gnawing hunger gradually subsided, though he still felt somewhat hungry.
Night had fallen.
The twin moons hung high in the night sky, casting a clear, silvery light.
"I wonder what changes have occurred in Needleleaf Valley, Crescent Moon Valley, and Howling Crag over the past six years," Garos mused. "I should return and assess the situation first."
After devouring his last elephant-sized prey, Garos ceased hunting and flapped his wings, heading toward Needleleaf Valley.
(End of the Chapter)
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