Translator: AnubisTL
Frontierlands, Dragon Valley.
The midday sun shone brightly without being harsh. The red-silver dragon Deborah and Garos continued their riddle game. As time passed, the sun gradually sank westward, and twilight deepened.
"Let's call it a day," Garos said.
Having spent the afternoon relaxing without any training, the red-iron dragon felt restless, as if he had neglected something important.
"Pleasant times always pass too quickly. This afternoon flew by," Deborah said, blinking her eyes. "Garos, will you play riddles with me again?"
Garos nodded. "It's a good way to unwind, but only after we finish our duties."
Just then, accompanied by a dazzling trail of light, the Fairy Dragon Vera swooped in.
"Count me in! Let's all play together!"
She had been eavesdropping on Garos and Deborah's riddles, convinced she could join in.
The Fairy Dragon had always been drawn to games and amusement.
Especially since...
Lately, Garos had been playing riddles with Deborah, leaving Vera to hide nearby, secretly watching and listening with envy, unable to participate.
The fairy dragon couldn't resist any longer and suddenly leaped out.
"You can solve riddles?" Garos asked in surprise.
The fairy dragon's games tended toward nonsensical pranks. A riddle game requiring intelligence? Garos doubted she was up to the task.
"Hmph, don't underestimate me," the fairy dragon retorted, her petite body hovering before Garos. She lifted her chin proudly and declared, "In the fairy wilderness, the unicorn elder praised me, saying I possessed extraordinary, world-shaking wisdom."
"Even the flower pixie obey my commands. They circle around me, singing when I tell them to, and never dare to dance."
So impressive? the red-iron dragon clicked his tongue.
He hadn't realized this little thing, Fairy Dragon Vera, was actually a wilderness tyrant with world-shaking wisdom.
"Wow," the red-silver dragon exclaimed. "Then you must be great at riddles too!"
"Yes, Vera often watches you play riddle games and has become a riddle master," the fairy dragon said without a hint of modesty, her tail swaying slightly.
The red-silver dragon's eyes lit up. "Perfect! Let's play riddles together!"
As dragons of the chaotic good alignment, Deborah and the fairy dragons got along well. Unlike evil dragons like red dragons, iron dragons, and white dragons, the red-silver dragon rarely communicated with them. Garos was the exception.
"Alright, I'll go first," Deborah said.
"Ahem!"
Fairy Dragon Vera puffed out her tiny chest, her wings vibrating rapidly as she hovered in mid-air. She tried to mimic Deborah's melodious tone when posing riddles, even the finest tuft of fur at the tip of her tail twitching rhythmically.
"Listen carefully!"
"It's blue, very, very big, and you can't touch it. It covers your head during the day, but when it gets dark, it... it..."
She paused, scratching her chin with a tiny claw. "Hmm... it sneaks away! Then lots of sparkly little eyes pop out! And there are soft, fluffy things floating on it, like cotton candy. If you take a bite..."
Vera struggled to add depth to her riddle.
"If you take a bite... um... it has no flavor at all! Not even a little bit sweet! It's fake cotton candy!"
Deborah's beautiful silver eyes blinked repeatedly. She tilted her massive dragon head, glancing at Garos and then at Vera, who stood earnestly awaiting praise. A puzzled rumble escaped her throat.
Garos felt the muscles around his jaw tighten.
He barely managed to keep his majestic red-iron dragon face from collapsing, rubbing his brow ridge with a claw. Though dragons lacked eyebrows, the gesture was almost instinctive.
He stared at Vera's confident little face, the phrase "world-shattering wisdom" echoing in his mind.
The red-iron dragon and the red-silver dragon exchanged glances, their expressions blank.
Seeing their lack of reaction, Fairy Dragon Vera assumed her riddle was too difficult.
"Guess, guess! It's the most important thing! Without it, we'd all suffocate!"
She thought her hint was brilliant, shaking her head proudly. "And it's huge, huge, huge! Bigger than a hundred Garoses stacked up! Bigger than a hundred Dragon Valleys!"
She strained her tiny wings to their fullest extent, trying to convey the boundless scale.
"Hehe, you can't guess, can you?"
After a few more seconds of silence from the two dragons, Fairy Dragon Vera grew smug. She flew in circles like a puppy chasing its tail, then somersaulted in the air, her small wings creating a gust of qi.
Garos finally couldn't take it anymore.
He let out a heavy sigh, like the bellows of a furnace, two streams of hot air, carrying sparks, puffing from his nostrils.
"Those 'deceptive cotton candies' and 'glittering little eyes' you mentioned... are you referring to that—"
He raised a claw, pointing to the deep blue sky, now tinged with twilight and dotted with a few emerging stars.
"—the sky?"
The smug expression on Vera's tiny dragon face instantly froze.
She followed Garos's claw upward, gazing at the vast dome above, then looked back down at Garos and Deborah, her small mouth agape as she let out a short, "Gah?"
"Uh... yes... it's the sky, alright..." she mumbled, her confidence completely gone.
"Your riddle," the red-iron dragon rumbled, shaking his massive head, "is like mixing raw meat, a handful of dirt, and a gemstone, then asking someone what kind of dessert it tastes like."
Deborah, however, had a different opinion.
She smiled encouragingly. "What a fascinating analogy! 'Tasteless cotton candy' may sound childish, but it's quite evocative. Vera has the potential to become a master riddler."
To gain more dragon companions for her riddle games, the red-silver dragon spoke against her better judgment.
Across from them, Vera's little ears twitched, her dejection lasting less than three seconds.
Deborah's praise rekindled the tiny flame of pride in her "world-shattering intellect," causing it to burn stubbornly anew.
With a whoosh, she darted to Deborah's massive head and affectionately nuzzled her cool, crimson-silver scales with her own small head. "Exactly! Deborah understands me best. Garos, you're so old-fashioned!"
She stuck her tongue out at Garos.
"Alright, you two play. I need to train now," the red-iron dragon said, his voice rumbling like thunder.
He lumbered toward his training grounds, a reinforced clearing adjacent to Dragon Valley Lake. The earth and stone had been leveled and fortified by warlock shamans, giving it a metallic sheen. At its center stood a black pillar.
This was an alchemy item obtained through a merchant guild, capable of generating triple gravity within a limited area.
Garos first drank a barrel of black oil to heighten his physical arousal, then strode to the center and activated the gravity device.
An invisible weight instantly descended.
The red-iron dragon's massive, muscular frame remained as steadfast as a mountain under the sudden increase in gravity.
His head, armored in thick, metallic scales, tilted slightly upward. Gone was any trace of laziness in his eyes, replaced by unwavering focus.
Immediately afterward, the red-iron dragon executed a sudden and powerful movement.
Its massive head, covered in diamond-shaped metallic scales, snapped violently backward and upward!
The heavy dragon head, tearing through the air with a piercing whistle, carved a forceful arc. The neck muscles, thick as siege rams, instantly tensed and bulged, emitting a grating groan like steel cables straining to their breaking point.
The dragon's massive skull slammed heavily and precisely against the metallic-sheened ground, like a colossal hammer striking its target.
Thud!
The muffled thunderclap reverberated across Dragon Valley, spreading outward in waves.
Garos now exuded an overwhelming sense of dominance.
His colossal, majestic body remained perfectly still, his neck forming a sharp angle with the ground. His body flipped belly-up, supported only by his neck and hind legs. With his dragon arms crossed over his chest and his spine suspended in mid-air, he stood firmly rooted to the earth.
But this was merely a static display.
With a low roar, his massive, heavy body began to writhe and twist around his neck as the pivot.
The thick muscles on either side of his neck surged and bulged like living mountains, their violent undulations straining the double layers of scales to their breaking point.
The air crackled with a low, heart-pounding friction and the creaking groan of bone and muscle straining against gravity, like the taut string of a colossal bow drawn to its limit.
The red-iron dragon's neck seemed to be the focal point of his entire body's power.
Under extreme stress, his steel-like muscles worked furiously, showcasing a primal and pure aesthetic of violence unique to the dragon race.
Sweat—or rather, a scalding mixture of steam and moisture—hissed from the gaps between his neck scales, splattering onto the ground and instantly vaporizing into a small cloud of white mist.
The red-silver dragon and the fairy dragon had completely forgotten their riddle game, their eyes fixed on the red-iron dragon, almost forgetting to breathe.
This red-iron body, radiating raw power and violence, was not only admired by chromatic dragons but also by metallic and planar dragons, all appreciating its primal beauty.
"Wow, that looks so cool! I want to try too!"
Vera approached the edge of the supergravity field and mimicked Garos's technique.
A sharp crack echoed from her neck. She hissed, sucking in a sharp breath, and shot upward like she'd been burned, tilting her head and shrieking, "Ah, it hurts! My head's going to snap off! I'm going to die, I'm going to die!"
(End of the Chapter)
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