In the ring-shaped celestial pit, on a clearing before a mountain wall, the ground was riddled with pits of all sizes and depths, as if heavy objects had crashed down and left their marks.
No one really knew what had made so many things fall and hit the ground.
Bang!
With a shower of flying rocks, a young dragon about six meters long tucked its wings and dropped freely from the sky, slamming hard into the earth and kicking up a ring of spreading dust.
"Ugh!"
Galos spat out bits of stone in his mouth and wobbled up from the crater, shaking his head.
On his body, where once glowing silver matte shone like steel-cast black iron scale, now many spots had changed into a layer of black-grey dragon scale, and the texture no longer felt metallic; even the lava-like dark red patterning on the scale armor surface was gone.
There were also some freshly shed black-grey dragon scales scattered in the crater from the fall.
Compared to before, Galos's scale armor seemed a bit more fragile now.
And from afar, at first glance—
Now Galos wasn't exactly black, nor was he gray; his looks had taken a bit of a hit.
But—
Galos showed no sign of discontent; he turned to glance at the crater he'd just made, let his eyes fall on the dropped dragon scales, and even nodded with a pleased look.
He turned to check his own scale armor.
Underneath the spots where the black-grey dragon scales had fallen off, instead of skin, there was a layer of scale with dark red patterns and a silver matte sheen—black scale.
That's right, the black-grey dragon scale on Galos was a newly grown extra layer, mostly concentrated on his back, chest, and limb joints.
—They were all detachable buffer scales!
This layer of dragon scale could actively shed to absorb impact when heavily struck, and at the instant they came off, caused a countershock.
With the height Galos fell from just now, the old him would've been dizzy for a while and hurt himself, but this time, aside from a light jolt, he felt no discomfort or pain inside.
The changes weren't only in the buffer scales.
The pair of swept-back dragon horns on Galos's head grew thicker and larger, and the metallic exoskeleton covering the horn bases extended a lot, making them more solid.
The blade-like scales on his dragon tail grew even denser.
The muscles, bones, and organs hidden under the scale armor, invisible to the naked eye, were now sturdier and could withstand greater impact force.
"Didn't expect this evolution would give me a layer of buffer scale, instead of just strengthening my dragon scale like before,"
Galos was actually a bit surprised by the extra layer of buffer scale he'd grown.
The inner layer of his dragon scales had gotten sturdier, but not by much; this evolution's main effect was clearly the buffer scales.
"Gordon, Samantha, you two come hit me!"
Galos called out toward the distance.
The two young dragons shot out of the mine cave, eager and impatient, and landed in front of Galos.
Galos has finally bashed himself into an idiot! Even his dragon scales have lost their shine.
Their thoughts were racing, both looking like they couldn't wait to try it out.
"Come on, hit me with all you've got,"
Galos stood firmly on all fours, signaling the two young dragons to ram him.
"I'll go first!"
The more hot-tempered Red Dragon Sister couldn't wait. She flapped her wings, sped up, her heavy steps stamping footprints into the ground as she rushed at Galos.
Ramming—it's a classic young dragon move, letting them use all their power; its force isn't bad.
Usually, Galos, though strong and bigger, would get knocked away when rammed head-on.
In the blink of an eye—
Excited, Red Dragon Sister charged up to Galos and rammed him with her body.
The moment of impact with Galos's sturdy chest—
As a bunch of black-grey dragon scales crumbled and fell, an enormous countershock hit the unprepared Red Dragon Sister, flipping her onto the ground, while Galos didn't even take a step back, only swaying slightly.
"The kinetic force from the ram was almost entirely absorbed by the buffer scale; what actually hit me through the buffer was negligible."
Galos mused.
On the other side, Iron Dragon Brother had also been itching to try, but after watching Red Dragon Sister smash out a tooth and Galos standing still as a mountain, it was like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on his burning heart—instantly chilled.
"Damn you, Galos!"
Red Dragon Sister shook her head, furious, and charged at him again; her rage far exceeded Iron Dragon Brother's, and losing made her even more wild.
She didn't bother with fancy moves, just kept ramming Galos again and again.
Dragon scales flew off Galos, making him look fragile, but every time it was Red Dragon Sister who got blasted away, while he stood as steady as a sea rock getting pummeled by the waves.
Until the buffer scales on Galos's chest were nearly all gone, exposing the steel-cast dragon scales beneath—
Red Dragon Sister was now lying exhausted on the ground, covered in marks from the countershock wounds she'd gotten herself.
"Until the buffer scales shed, I can basically ignore these kinds of damage."
Galos weighed this in his mind.
He preferred straight-up evolution to make his scale armor tougher, but unfortunately, the results of Adaptive Evolution weren't something he could fully control yet. Every evolution was like a blind box—full of unknown changes. Even if his evolution always trended positive, the changes in body and posture often took Galos by surprise.
"Not the best look, but the effect is solid."
Galos inherited the Iron Dragon's practical mindset.
The black-grey buffer scales looked unimpressive, but their effect was definitely good, and Galos was pretty happy with that.
Plus, he'd keep evolving and changing anyway; maybe next time he'd become especially mighty and handsome by Dragon Race standards.
Meanwhile, Galos was reflecting on this latest adaptive evolution.
"I evolved buffer scales this time mostly because lately I've been training too much in the same way—lots of smashing into mountains and the ground, and pretty hard."
"Next, I'll try to cut back on that kind of training and experiment more with other ways."
That was his thought.
Galos was still figuring out his Evolution Talent, not shy about experimenting and comparing. He planned to lower the frequency of crashing into stuff and switch to speed and power training instead.
Suddenly—
He heard a thud!
Turning his head, he saw it was Iron Dragon Brother, who'd flown up then crashed to the ground, sprawled out four limbs and climbed up shakily.
"What are you doing?"
Galos asked, puzzled.
"Galos, I've found your secret to being strong—it must be that smashing yourself makes you stronger!"
Iron Dragon Brother's eyes gleamed with wisdom as he spoke proudly to Galos.
Hearing this, Red Dragon Sister pondered and felt her own IQ was about to rise to the top.
"Yeah, that must be it."
She nodded in agreement, saying to Galos, "Just wait, Galos—I'll surpass you sooner or later!"
In the days that followed, the two young dragons thought they'd discovered Galos's secret and started copying him whenever they finished mining, trying to 'borrow the enemy's tricks to defeat the enemy', learning from Galos, and hoping to surpass him.
The clearing's surface was now sunk and collapsed from all their crashes.
Another week passed.
Once he'd fully adapted to the buffer scales, Galos flew up to the top of the cliff, feeling the wind slice across his scale armor, eyes narrowed as he gazed toward the desolate wilds in the distance.
"Someday I'll leave Iron Dragon Lady's territory and survive on my own."
"Always relying on protection isn't a long-term solution."
"While I still have a fallback, I'd better hone my combat skills and survival abilities, and if possible, pick out a good territory ahead of time for my future den."
The young dragon quietly thought, mapping out his future.
A few seconds later, Galos spread his wings, soared skyward, leaving Iron Dragon Lady's celestial pit territory, not flying too far but starting to explore nearby.