"Since black oil is edible."
"Then, energy ore with higher quality than black oil, unsurprisingly, should provide me with even richer energy."
"The problem is, these things are all strategic resources. A little black oil doesn't matter, if lucky I can dig up my own stash, and some alchemists refine it themselves, but large deposits of black oil and other energy ores are tightly controlled by all the major nations."
Galos pondered thoughtfully.
Let's leave other matters aside for now.
The Human Empire [Holden] and the Elf Empire [Naoxir], these two empires, are still secretly wrestling and clashing nonstop over the division of resources from a super-large black oil deposit.
If not for their massive scale, once war breaks out, the consequences would be unpredictable—most likely, both sides would perish together.
Right now, it's no longer just a secret contest.
"There are oil fields in the Sel Wilderness, too, but they're all guarded and mined by the army."
"Talk about it later. For now, definitely don't provoke them, or it's courting death. Besides, the energy I need for evolution isn't much; hunting demons and fierce beasts is enough."
Galos silently mused in his heart.
He looked down at the black oil on his claw.
He stretched out his agile tongue and carefully licked it, then grabbed the alchemy engine and poured the remaining black oil inside directly into his mouth.
The intense, spicy sensation shot straight to his skull.
He finished off all the remaining black oil in the alchemy engine in one go.
Galos felt as if a blazing fire was burning in his belly, and his spirit grew extremely excited.
Hoo!
He spread his dragon wings, riding a howling whirlwind into the sky, soaring at top speed high above, constantly spewing streams of flaming Dragon Breath from his mouth. The dark red patterns on his scale armor glowed and flowed like molten lava.
Fiery flames kept surging and spreading.
The clouds in the sky were dyed crimson, as if set ablaze.
Half an hour later, Galos folded his wings and landed on a slab of rock, the sensation of raging fire burning his belly now gone, and he felt a little unsatisfied.
Because in just this half hour.
Galos could clearly feel that his training effect was more than a week's worth of usual exercise, especially in terms of Dragon Breath strength and duration.
And now, he didn't feel much fatigue at all.
"This really is good stuff."
He picked up the alchemy engine and shook it again.
Only a single drop of black oil was left, falling into Galos' palm.
He meant to eat it straight away.
But on second thought, Galos looked at Samantha.
"The inheritance says this isn't food, but eating it packs quite a punch—could it be the inheritance made a mistake?"
The Dragon's Legacy isn't always absolutely right; its information might be outdated, there could be omissions or errors.
"Let Samantha try it."
Galos woke Samantha, and under her suspicious gaze, said, "There's rich energy in black oil. I just ate a bunch, you should try it too."
"Really? My inheritance never said this could be eaten."
Samantha was skeptical.
She stretched out her warm tongue and licked the black oil off Galos' palm.
Then...
Bleh!
Bleh bleh bleh!
Before she could even swallow, Samantha's eyelids twitched and she spat out the black oil onto the ground several times.
"This is edible? It's absolutely impossible to swallow!"
She ran her tongue over itself, not wanting a trace of black oil on it.
"Looks like the inheritance is fine—the one with the problem is me."
Galos was speechless.
"Take this engine, it'll help you learn alchemy magic."
He tossed the alchemy engine to Samantha.
Black oil comes in different grades. The black oil Galos just ate was the lowest quality.
Alchemy can further refine ordinary black oil, as well as convert demon corpses into common black oil—these are basic parts of alchemy.
Once Samantha masters it, it'll be time for her to repay him.
Galos doesn't keep idle dragons.
And this won't take long, since the Dragon Race is actually very talented at learning, and getting started with alchemy isn't difficult.
Samantha took the alchemy engine, examined it curiously for a few moments, then curled it up in her tail, closed her eyes a bit, and continued digging into the legacy knowledge.
Galos glanced at Samantha, who was immersed in inherited learning.
Suddenly, Galos found himself wondering how the other Iron Dragon Brother, Gordon, was faring.
Gordon's arrogance and pride was milder than Samantha's, but he wasn't as quick-witted and had always been a bit foolish; surviving alone might be quite difficult.
Galos shook his head and didn't dwell on it.
He'd already given Gordon a chance—how he chose now was his own business.
If Gordon came to pledge himself like Samantha, willing to follow orders and stop making trouble, Galos would accept him and let him, like Samantha, study supportive and beneficial magic.
But what Galos didn't know was—
Gordon would not be coming here.
If you looked down from great heights, you'd see a main road winding through nearly the entire Sel Wilderness, its branches like a dense spider web, like splitting tree limbs, stretching in every direction—a web of wilderness veins.
This network is called—the Thousand Snake Mark.
Essentially, it's the collective term for all the roads used by commercial caravans and mineral transport across the Sel Wilderness.
The Thousand Snake Mark's main road runs straight south to the Lothern Federation territory, very wide, paved with an asphalt-like material, endlessly stretching under the sun out of sight.
With tremors from time to time across the ground—
Inside, forged with metal, wheels covered with gum press over the road's surface.
A total of ten vehicles, each nearly fifteen meters long, huge truck-like constructs made with alchemy, thundered past on it.
On one of the trucks sat an open-air steel cage.
Every steel bar was as thick as an adult's forearm, densely engraved with alchemy runes.
Inside the cage was the young Iron Dragon, Gordon.
He opened his mouth and bit at the cage.
With a tooth-grinding clang of clashing metal, sparks flew.
Gordon's dragon teeth ached, only leaving shallow marks. He couldn't break out of the cage at all.
After leaving the Iron Dragon Lady's territory, he wanted to start by robbing commercial caravans to make his mark heading south.
But the moment he showed himself, he was instantly captured by the caravan's tough guards, went through a series of turns, and was finally bought by this large commercial convoy.
"Stop biting—no matter how many teeth you break, you're not getting out of this cage. It's reinforced with alchemy. Even young dragons stay trapped."
A human warrior outside the cage, clad in heavy armor, spoke.
"Damn humans, what do you want to do to the great True Dragon!"
Gordon roared, baring his teeth fiercely.
The warrior smacked his lips and said, "Don't react so strongly. We're not going to skin you, or tear apart your bones and scale armor—on the contrary, we'll dress you up nice and pretty so you can enjoy a beautiful life."
"What?"
Gordon was incredulous, full of wariness.
"The Lotheren Kingdom's beloved Little Princess wants a dragon race companion as a birthday present. The Kingdom issued an official bounty, and you, lucky little Iron Dragon, are the gift we're presenting to the Little Princess."
Hearing this, Gordon's eyes went wide.
He never expected he'd go south, his desired direction, in this way.