Under the Red Dragon

Karon lay sprawled in his lair, languid and relaxed.

He had recently emerged from another brief, month-long slumber, his body having grown to over four meters in length thanks to his Overlimit Growth talent.

This size far exceeded the normal dimensions of chromatic dragon wyrmlings of his age, and there was no denying the vital role of Raven's feeding.

The meager portions that Akxz used to provide on a daily schedule were no longer sufficient for Karon's needs.

His appetite, boosted by his Overlimit Growth talent, was far greater than that of a normal wyrmling, and his digestive abilities were terrifying.

He needed to consume at least twice his own weight in food every day to fuel his growth and daily activities; if he didn't get enough food, his growth would be stunted, and he would have to reduce his activity.

Then he would have to lie around listlessly like some wild beast, conserving energy.

Relying on Raven's handouts wasn't a good long-term solution either; Raven didn't come every day, and sprites weren't dragons' servants, obligated to follow them around constantly.

So, to avoid hindering his growth, he would have to find his own solutions.

Karon had considered learning some magic from Raven; Raven's magic would undoubtedly be extremely useful for hunting.

However, all of the pixie's abilities stemmed from their innate fairy dust, much like dragons relied on their own dragon blood, making them more akin to bloodline sorcerers, and these abilities couldn't be learned.

But during his explorations, Karon discovered that although dragons were naturally powerful magical creatures, they didn't actually possess a magic core.

Or rather, the magic core was the dragon's own dragon blood; perhaps bloodline casters were the same.

From the moment a dragon was born, the dragon blood constantly absorbed and accumulated magic to fuel the dragon's growth; as time passed, every vein in the dragon's body flowed with dragon blood and magic, with the heart serving as a transit point, trigger, and regulator for the magic throughout the body.

While this made a dragon's magic as quick and efficient as a sorcerer's, a dragon's spells needed to be awakened during periods of slumber, and the number of spells awakened wasn't very high.

Some unlucky dragons might only awaken a handful of spells in their entire lives, including seemingly useless spells like item location, which was undoubtedly a huge waste of a dragon's powerful magical abilities.

In the eyes of most dragons, their naturally powerful bodies and sharp claws were strong enough, especially with the even more potent dragon breath.

Dragons naturally grew stronger with age, so why bother torturing themselves when they could just get stronger by sleeping?

Moreover, the restless dragon blood flowing through the veins of chromatic dragons constantly influenced them, making it difficult for them to quiet down and meditate to absorb magic, let alone learn spells.

Karon was different; he had the self-awareness and clear reason of a human, which allowed him to suppress the influence of the dragon blood and quietly study magic knowledge; now, the dragon blood's influence on him was probably only equivalent to the random thoughts that humans often had.

Karon knew that although dragons were powerful creatures, there were many creatures even stronger than dragons, including some legendary species that preyed on dragons.

And even the humans who were considered weak by dragons had many dragon hunters who targeted dragons, taking pride in slaying dragons, with the dragons' treasures as their motivation.

Although as a red dragon and a male, he liked to crush his enemies and conquer his opponents with his bare flesh and strength.

But Karon, who had a soul plagued by a fear of insufficient firepower, felt that he needed to prepare more methods; magic was obviously a form of power.

Moreover, Karon learned from the recently digested inheritance that legendary mages possessed the knowledge and ability to open up demiplanes unique to mages in the void.

Even if the mage died, unless the demiplane's coordinates were exposed, the demiplane would not fall into enemy hands but would instead plummet into the void until the plane was destroyed.

This made Karon very envious; perhaps dragons, as powerful magical creatures, could open up their own demiplanes without even reaching the legendary level.

This would be the dragon's safest treasure vault and dwelling place, equivalent to a stable safe house, and Karon, who lacked a sense of security, immediately decided that he should embark on the path of diligent study.

Karon felt that he should find an opportunity to talk to Akxz and see if Akxz had any knowledge in this area, but the most important thing at the moment was to fill his stomach.

Half of the pond in the canyon was now frozen into a huge sheet of ice, and two white dragons had claimed it as an open-air lair, which the black dragon Rosani envied greatly, circling around the pond every day.

Then he would be chased away by the white dragon brothers unless Rosani accompanied other wyrmlings to drink water.

The scene Karon saw when he crawled out of the cave was a daily occurrence in the canyon. The white dragon brothers were probably about to enter hibernation, so after chasing away the black dragon, they lay sprawled on the ice like lazy huskies.

They only got up when they saw Karon approaching, and Germot, who liked to curse, greeted his idol obsequiously: "You're awake, Karon; you've become even stronger."

Seeing this, the black dragon Rosani also took the opportunity to approach and greet Karon.

Karon nodded, glanced around, and seeing that most of the wyrmlings who hadn't entered hibernation were here, he asked, "I'm going hunting in the forest; do you want to come along?"

He asked the wyrmlings for their opinions because dragon whelps usually only left the nest to explore the safe areas around the dragon's lair during the wyrmling stage, when they had some ability to protect themselves.

Wyrmlings usually stayed in the dragon's nest, sleeping, playing, and frolicking. Although he wanted to take the wyrmlings out to hunt and train the dragon group's teamwork, he still wanted to respect the wishes of the other dragons.

Because the little female dragon Kleinaya and the blue dragon Dos had successively entered hibernation, the black and white dragons couldn't play and could only sleep every day, which had long left them bored.

So they decided to go hunting in the forest with the red dragon; Karon, who was stronger than a wyrmling should be, also gave them a lot of confidence and security.

The green dragon Antajena, who was nestled in a cave on the mountaintop, had always had a curiosity about the forest that was different from other wyrmlings. Hearing the wyrmlings' decision, she also poked her head out and shouted, "Take me with you, Karon; the forest is my home turf, and I'll be able to help."

Karon nodded in agreement and led the dragon group to fly towards the forest outside the canyon. The colors of the scales on the wyrmlings' bodies were too conspicuous and could easily be spotted by prey.

The tall, dense forest could block the prey's view but not the dragons' sharp eyes, making the forest very suitable as a hunting ground for the wyrmlings.

This wasn't the first time Karon had left the dragon's nest. With the help of Raven the guide, he was actually very familiar with the nearby forest.

He decided to only hunt within a few dozen miles of the dragon's nest, an area that was considered very safe.

The overly powerful and ferocious beasts and high-level creatures had either been driven away or killed by the blue dragon Akxz, and if anything dangerous that he couldn't resist happened, he could call for help loudly and quickly get support from the big dragons resting in the dragon's nest.

The wyrmlings spread their wings and flew in the sky, advancing in a triangular formation.

Along the way, there were only the wyrmlings' wails and howls. Obviously, the dragon group was extremely excited about their first hunt and the rare chance to let loose. Karon didn't plan to stop them; he also wanted to howl a few times.

There were an unusually large number of beasts living in the forest, which wasn't suitable for big dragons to hunt, especially in the forest, which had exploded either because of the wyrmlings' cries or because of the dragon's power that hadn't been deliberately restrained.

Wild deer scattered and fled, wolf packs gave up hunting and howled in fright, flocks of birds nesting in the trees were startled and scattered, otters fell from the tall trees, and black bears hurriedly burrowed into their caves.

Karon, who was looking down for his target, also saw a few hares that had knocked themselves unconscious against the trees.

But these weren't Karon's target; he was carefully searching for his prey.

A black boar over six meters long was grunting as it used its thick tusks to dig up plant tubers, the circle of mustache-like white hair around its face stained black with mud, and the coarse black fur on its fat body knotted together.

A thick layer of mud armor formed from a mixture of mud and resin covered its body; this was a boar king who had already entered the ranks of ferocious animals.

The boar king led a herd of about two hundred boars, which were scattered around the boar king, leisurely feeding.

The boar herd had no vigilance at all while feeding because their leader was the most powerful creature in this area of low hills. All invading enemies would be pierced by the boar king's huge tusks and then eaten by the boar herd.

A gust of wind blew, bringing with it a special and dangerous smell. The boar king, who had been burying his head in the ground, raised his head warily, and a pair of small eyes began to search for the source of the dangerous smell.

The next moment, the dangerous smell descended from the sky. The wyrmlings, who formed a circle around the boar herd, slowly flapped their wings to float in mid-air three feet above the ground, and the hunting instinct made all the wyrmlings focus their eyes on the leader in the boar herd.

Before the dragon group could take action, the boar king, feeling the danger, howled urgently, avoiding the strong red dragon directly in front of him and driving the boar herd to rush towards the black dragon, who looked the weakest. The boar king also began to charge forward under the protection of the boar herd.

The momentum of the boar herd's charge startled the black dragon, who quickly rose in altitude and let the boar herd pass, while spitting a mouthful of acid at the huge boar king.

The wyrmling's weak acid struck the boar king's thick mud armor, only making a slight sizzling sound, without even breaking the mud armor.

Seeing this, Karon roared angrily, rose into the air, and chased after the boar king in the boar herd.

The white dragon Kamid, who was usually slow to react on the black dragon's side, suddenly pounced from mid-air, his sharp dragon claws streaking past, cutting through the boar king's hind leg, slicing through the mud armor, and leaving a wound on the boar king's thigh, a trace of blood blossoming from the wound.

But this little injury was insignificant to the huge boar king. The mud armor, a pseudo-spell awakened by the ferocious beast, was very thick and blocked a lot of damage, so he ignored it and plunged forward.

The green jade dragon Antajena, who had arrived in pursuit, quickly used her talent, and the vines clinging to the trees suddenly twisted into tentacles and actively wrapped around the boar king's running hooves.

But the power of the rampaging boar king was something that even Karon didn't dare to collide with head-on, and a few vines couldn't restrain him. He just staggered slightly.

The white dragon Germot was half a beat slower than the green dragon. He barely managed to spew out dragon breath, but the cold dragon breath couldn't freeze the beast's running pace, but it condensed into a thin layer of ice under the boar king's feet, and the beast's front hooves slipped and he knelt on the ground.

At this time, Karon's attack also arrived. His strong muscles exerted force, and his sharp dragon claws swept past, easily piercing the mud armor and opening a cut on the boar king's back, revealing the white spine wrapped in pink muscles.

Then he tore off a piece of flesh and stepped on the screaming boar king, who was trying to run away again, using the force to fly up.

The awakened black dragon quickly spat a stream of venom at the boar king's eyes, blinding one of the boar king's eyes.

The boar king, who was running around in a panic, ran left and right, but the cooperation between the wyrmlings gradually became tacit, and ice and vines hindered his escape.

Karon and Kamid's sharp claws constantly bled and tore his flesh, while the black dragon desperately flapped his wings, trying to fly in front of the boar king to spew acid and repeat his old trick.

Before he had run a few miles, the boar king, unable to hold on, crashed to the ground with a bang, unable to get up again, only having the strength to grunt on the ground.

The landed Karon walked to the front of this ferocious boar king, biting through its neck in one bite, and the still-hot blood flowed into Karon's hungry stomach, making Karon feel a sense of satisfaction.

Karon suppressed his desire to eat, used his sharp dragon claws to break open the belly of this huge beast, took out the still-slowly beating heart, and handed it to the white dragon Kamid. This was the best reward for Kamid's bravery.

Kamid roared happily in a low voice, biting through the huge heart in one bite.

Then Karon called the wyrmlings forward to share this behemoth, while he occupied the abdominal position and began to eat. Now was the time for the dragon group to enjoy the prey; the wyrmlings' feast had begun.