Looking at Little Ka’s eyes full of longing, Chen Yu nodded slightly in satisfaction. With a thought, the blob of gel floated slowly in front of him.
In truth, across Zeyerra, there is a relatively clear dividing line between dragon beasts, subdrakes, and true giant dragons.
Monsters with a Lv.1 Dragon Bloodline are also called dragon beasts. Their bodies begin to show obvious gigantism, and they initially develop some dragon features, like scales, rudimentary horns, and wing membranes. Their strength, defense, and vitality far exceed their peers.
But because their bloodline is thin and they cannot fully harness the power, they tend to be irritable and lack wisdom, acting like beasts driven by raw strength.
Monsters with a Lv.2 Dragon Bloodline already look very close to true giant dragons. Their scales become more orderly, horns more defined, and wings basically formed, allowing for limited flight.
More importantly, they begin to emit a faint Dragon’s Aura, which intimidates lower lifeforms. These creatures are usually called subdrakes.
Their intelligence improves, they can perform simple reasoning and obey commands, but their ceiling is generally limited to the Silver rank, still one final step away from dragons with full inheritance and potential.
Kobolds and similar dragon-people are an exception. They usually have around Lv.1 Dragon Bloodline. While they gain draconic power and some features, they miraculously retain a bipedal upright form and develop unique social structures and the beginnings of civilization.
A few mutated, powerful kobolds might even possess Lv.2 Dragon Bloodlines and become shamans or chieftains of their tribes.
Actually, kobolds look like an “upgraded” version of lizardfolk: taller, harsher, and usually wielding fire magic.
Lizardfolk living on the swamp’s edge, like those of the Rotten Moss Tribe, tend to have thick brows and big eyes, be relatively small and look simple and honest—almost a chibi version of kobolds—and are far less threatening than their distant cousins.
When the Dragon Bloodline reaches Lv.3 or above, it signifies a complete transformation of life essence.
Creatures with this level can be called true giant dragons—whether chromatic dragons, metallic dragons, gem dragons, or other rarer draconic species.
They inherit the full dragon legacy, and upon maturity almost inevitably reach Gold-Rank, possessing long lifespans, strong magic resistance, terrifying melee prowess, and signature breath attacks.
However, the petrified black dragon at Riftrock Pass clearly contained bloodline power far beyond an ordinary adult giant dragon. Simply devouring its heart raised Chen Yu’s own Dragon Bloodline talent to Lv.6.
Perhaps it was an elderly dragon from some ancient corner, possibly even an elder wyrm older than most dragons.
It had lived many years and accumulated unimaginable strength and knowledge, yet its corpse was mysteriously petrified and displayed in a goblin fortress like a trophy statue... it was truly tragic.
The gel sphere he split off looked only Lv.3, but it was already enough for Little Ka to complete its metamorphosis and become a true giant dragon.
Dragons have growth stages. Although a Lv.6 ancient dragon bloodline sounds powerful, given Chen Yu’s current life form and accumulation, the dragon he could mimic at best counted as a black dragon still in its draconic growth phase.
To fully unlock the bloodline’s potential would still require centuries of natural maturation.
Splitting off a Lv.3 talent orb merely downgraded his Dragon Bloodline talent from Lv.6 to Lv.5, an almost negligible effect on his true body, but it opened a path for Little Ka to walk toward true dragonhood.
Little Ka leaned forward carefully and took the bouncy gel orb into his mouth as if determined. He closed his eyes, tilted his neck back, and swallowed the talent orb.
Glug...
The gel sphere slid down his esophagus. Little Ka blinked lazily, feeling the changes flow through him.
Slowly, an odd sensation rose from his depths, and the metamorphosis was more violent than Chen Yu expected.
Crack... crackle... Little Ka joyfully shook his large body, a suppressed high-pitched cry escaping his throat.
The deep green scales across his body visibly reddened and grew hot, as if molten rock flowed beneath. Thin wisps of searing white smoke seeped from the scale gaps, and even small sparks popped out with a soft "pfft."
His once chubby body inflated and stretched at a visibly rapid pace; muscle fibers tore and reknit, becoming thicker and mightier.
The crocodilian remnants on his body rapidly faded, replaced by a sleeker, flowing, powerfully aesthetic dragon silhouette.
The pair of bat wings on his back, once covered in green scales, ignited into roaring flames. The wing membranes grew wider and tougher in the fire. Bumps on his head split, and a pair of jet-black dragon horns slowly sprouted.
While his body transformed, his eyes retained their original cute clarity, but with an added bewilderment at the newborn power.
“Hold on, it’ll be over soon.”
With a soft "pop," Chen Yu reverted into a bouncy slime and hopped beside Little Ka, gently patting him with a gel hand to soothe him.
Little Ka bowed his head and let out whimpering chirps, feeling the inexorable power surging from within. An instinct from the bloodline drove him to lift his neck toward the broad autumn sky and release a roar proclaiming his rebirth.
Roar!!!
Though the sound was still young and clear, it already carried a hint of Dragon’s Aura, resonating across the swamp and even reaching Slime City.
The slimes had already received the notification through the Gel Network, so they merely paused their work or play, looking curiously toward where the sound came from outside the city.
Alders, who lived near the knight training ground and was chatting idly with Tulk, was stunned by the sudden roar.
At first he thought a wild giant dragon had carelessly flown into the Slime Kingdom’s capital, but he quickly learned from Tulk that the dragon was the Slime King’s mount.
A dragon as a mount?
And its master was a slime.
It seemed absurd that a proud, powerful giant dragon would bow to a slime.
This news shattered Alders’s assumption that he understood the Slime Kingdom well; he suddenly realized this monster kingdom was far more mysterious than he’d imagined.
Outside Slime City, Little Ka completed his final transformation.
The flames across his body gradually died down. The once-red-hot scales cooled like obsidian, returning to a deep jet black.
But upon closer inspection, the new scales looked like freshly donned armor, their surfaces coated with a glossy sheen.
Little Ka had become a black dragon.
Yet compared to the stereotypical black dragons of legend—savage, greedy, sly, reveling in destruction and hoarding treasure—this youngster raised on Chen Yu’s teachings had an innocence in his gaze that bordered on adorably dopey.
He excitedly spun in place, peered down at his renewed body, and gave his broader wings a testing flap, kicking up a gust strong enough to feel.
“King...”
Then he affectionately rubbed against Chen Yu’s round gel body, emitting a contented gurgle.
From swamp puppy to little black dragon—Chen Yu mentally scoffed but patted his head with satisfaction.
Because he was only a newly transformed hatchling, Little Ka’s body was not as massive as Chen Yu had imagined. His body length was roughly seven to eight meters, with a wingspan approaching fifteen meters.
Though far larger than ordinary beasts, he was still tiny compared to adult giant dragons that measure tens of meters, and retained clear juvenile features.
His skull was slightly oversized, eyes moist and blinking, and even the newborn horns on his head were short and rounded.
His power thus remained one step short of Gold-Rank, needing further accumulation and the right opportunity.
Chen Yu plopped down in front of Little Ka’s foreback. “Fly, test his new wings.”
Ka! Little Ka responded with an eager clack.
He crouched slightly on his seven limbs, thick forelimb muscles bulging, talons digging deep into the ground. With a sudden surge, his wings snapped fully open in a single powerful beat.
Boom!!!
A violent wind whipped up, flinging dust and dry grass into the air. Little Ka shot off the ground and charged toward the vast Swamp Forest.
The speed was incomparably faster than before. Wind howled in his ears, the earth shrank beneath his feet, and a novel sense of freedom and strength filled him.
Suddenly he felt an uncontrollable heat and tickle welling up in his throat, as if something wanted to burst forth. Instinctively he lowered his head and opened his mouth.
Boom!!!
A torrent of scorching flame spewed out, instantly consuming trees, shrubs, and dry moss within a radius of several dozen meters below.
It was early autumn, and the swamp had grown quite dry. The fire linked up in the blink of an eye into a spreading blaze.
Realizing he’d caused a disaster, Little Ka frantically beat his wings and tried to land to use his claws to smother the flames.
“No need to go through the trouble.”
Chen Yu stood on Little Ka’s back and lightly waved a gel hand upward, as if grasping an invisible natural scepter.
In an instant, sky above the swamp that had been clear gathered thick gray-black rain clouds.
The clouds hung low, faint lightning flickering within, and before long rain fell, extinguishing the blaze and leaving only scorched earth and charred remains.
This was the Forest Sage’s domain blessing. Within his territory, Chen Yu could locally adjust natural balance, influence weather, and vegetation growth.
The Forest Sage’s power is often tied to forests, nature, and the groups they shelter. Much of their strength manifests through control of their domain and the Treant Legion they cultivate.
That is why Chen Yu’s sage identity appeared understated during the Storm Fortress campaign, far less eye-catching than “Mana Siphon.”
After further testing, Chen Yu was quite pleased with Little Ka’s performance.
The dragon breath alone could devastate enemies below Gold-Rank. The newborn jet-black scales provided remarkable magic and physical resistance, and those dragon claws were sharper than many finely forged enchanted weapons, able to tear through heavy steel plates and rock.
Perhaps soon the Slime Kingdom would possess a Gold-Rank giant dragon.
A dragon’s rank depends on bloodline density and age, though special circumstances can speed an early breakthrough to Gold-Rank.
He had swallowed many assorted talents during the Storm Fortress battle. Back home, sorting them might reveal ones suitable for Little Ka.
Chen Yu’s thoughts spread outward.
Besides Little Ka, the Poison-stinger Wasps should be iterated; perhaps he could breed a dragon-beast legion.
And also, a knight team he’d long neglected could finally shine.
...
A spear slashed through the cool autumn wind, perilously grazing the scales on Salamander’s cheek and leaving a faint sting and chill.
Beneath him, his carefully chosen and trained strong swamp lizard mount scurried across the muddy training ground, flinging up clotted mud and helping him gain distance against the more experienced lizardfolk opposite.
“Quine, beat this kid up good, let him know how we survived in the perilous swamp back then!” Outside the training ground, lizardfolk warriors hooted.
“Go Salamander!” the younger lizardfolk cheered as well.
After days of adaptation and training, these lizardfolk warriors from the Rotten Moss Tribe had grown used to this new training ground, which was dozens of times larger than their old camp.
To better suit lizardfolk physiology and combat habits, the Slime Engineers of the kingdom even converted parts of the training area into mud pits that maintain proper humidity.
At this moment, Salamander and Quine rode their swamp lizard mounts through the mud, dodging, probing, and feinting, using training spears wrapped in thick burlap for fierce simulated cavalry combat.
The massive exertion left both panting and forced them to frequently stick out their forked tongues to aid cooling.
To be honest, lizardfolk scales offer excellent defense, but their heat dissipation is poor. Unlike human warriors with efficient sweat glands, they struggle to cool down.
Even beneath the cool autumn breeze, the sun still produced waves of internal heat.
They had to lower their bodies at times, smearing their arms and bodies with icy mud to use the evaporation for cooling and maintain stable body temperatures.
On a normal battlefield, a lizardfolk’s endurance might be worse than a strictly trained human soldier’s, but in swamp wetlands the situation reverses completely.
The swamp’s moisture compensates for their poor cooling, while greatly enhancing mobility and stealth. They can even extract faint natural energy from wet soil and water to restore vigor.
A swamp that is hard for humans to traverse is a sanctuary to lizardfolk.
This is why they are called born swamp warriors.
Old shaman Shazak was seated on a wooden stand with a clear view of the training ground, carefully supported by Tulk.
Wrapped in a thick woolen blanket, his old but lucid eyes watched the lively scene with kindness.
Seeing the younger generation striving to grow stronger and protect their new home, he smiled hoarsely, his voice rough but filled with satisfaction: “Youth... is wonderful. Full of strength, full of hope.”
A nearby tree-stump-shaped Alders inclined his head slightly, deeply moved as well.
This vigorous scene stirred a long-forgotten feeling in the old sage who had witnessed continental conflicts and natural decline.
“What a... young nation.”
His gaze swept over the mud-covered yet bright-eyed lizardfolk warriors. The sight made the old sage recall his youthful days, those years fighting shoulder-to-shoulder to protect a forest or a river.
After a long while, he returned from his memories and refocused on the training ground.
By now, the mud duel had reached its conclusion.
Salamander’s younger agility and daring charge, combined with a well-placed hit from his training spear’s blunt head, struck Quine’s mount in the flank.
He’d won!
He had bested the clan’s most experienced warrior and secured his status as the strongest scaled-claw fighter of the younger generation.
Cheers rose from the mud pit’s edge as the young lizardfolk surged forward to surround the panting Salamander.
But before Salamander could bask in victory or accept his comrades’ congratulations, his expression suddenly froze. Like the others, he stopped moving and turned to look outside the training ground.
Another Gel Network alert?
Alders tapped Tulk with a twig and asked curiously, “Child, what’s happening? Why has everyone gone quiet?”
Tulk’s face also held some puzzlement as he answered, “It seems His Majesty specially sent a new knight instructor to guide our training.”
“I heard it’s a human knight, the name sounded like... Douglas?”
Shazak the old shaman coughed twice and corrected, “To be precise, Douglas is just that gentleman’s surname. His full name is... Galvin Douglas.”
“A Supernatural knight returned from the Storm Fortress.” His voice took on a grave tone at the end.
“Supernatural professional?”