Translator: AnubisTL
As if to confirm the fairy dragon's exaggerated words, a dull boom suddenly erupted from the bottom of the stream.
The next instant, it was as if countless explosives stuffed deep into the riverbed had been detonated simultaneously!
The crystal-clear water was torn and churned up by the violent force, transforming into billions of shattered diamonds that flew in all directions. The solid riverbanks cracked like fragile biscuits, and fist-sized fragments of stone and frozen mud shot out in all directions like cannonballs.
In the center of the sky filled with water mist and dust, a suffocatingly massive shadow covered in dark scales tore through the curtain of water and dust, soaring into the sky with an overwhelming force.
"I caught it! I caught it! Hahaha, a fish as big as a dragon!"
"Lady Vera is the undisputed God of Fishing! Deborah, hurry! Hurry and help me subdue it—"
Vera shrieked with incoherent excitement, dodging the torrent of water and flying stones as best she could.
"You idiot! That's not a fish, it's Garos!"
"I caught Garos?! Ahaha! Doesn't that make me even more amazing? 'Dragon-Catcher Vera'—what a fantastic title!" The fairy dragon danced with joy amidst the mist and dust.
"I believe he just happened to wake up," Deborah said, her gaze fixed on the sky.
At that moment, the figure that had torn through the stream and earth, surging into the heavens with a colossal torrent of water, appeared high above.
The frigid wind howled like a blade, yet it could not budge his steel-forged scales. The swirling snow, caught in his wild dance, coalesced into a massive blizzard tornado that seemed to connect heaven and earth.
Just as the snow tornado was about to fully form, his colossal wings, vast enough to blot out the sun, unfurled. The dragon tore through the storm and came to a sudden halt in the sky.
With wings as sharp as guillotines and a tail whose scales could lock together to form a massive blade or spear, his immense form—covered in black scales with silver edges—was finally revealed without obstruction against the vast, desolate sky.
It was the Young Red-Iron Dragon.
"Hmph..."
A low, resonant dragon's roar, vibrating with a metallic echo, slowly escaped Garos's tooth-filled maw.
He stretched his massive, slightly stiff body, his joints and scales clashing with a sharp, metallic ring.
"This time... I slept so long my bones feel like they've rusted."
After hovering for a moment, letting the frigid gale fully awaken his dormant body and senses, Garos began to carefully examine his changes.
First was his life grade—17!
This was a number that would make most adult dragons shudder with alarm.
After all... ordinary adult red dragons typically had a life grade around 15. Even the strongest of the main class dragons of the same age—the gold dragons—started their adult stage at only 16.
And Garos had only just entered his young stage.
"Level 17... My regular training, the massive amounts of precious metals and magic gems I've eaten, and the black oil crystals I swallowed before sleep all played a crucial role. Otherwise, I should have been level 16," Garos thought.
Then, he began to observe the changes to his physical body.
First, there was his size. From the tip of his snout to the end of the ferocious blade-spikes on his tail, his total length had reached a staggering twenty-some meters.
This was no young dragon's size.
Even among adult red dragons and gold dragons, renowned for their immense bulk, this size would be considered upper-middle tier. Using white dragons as a reference, even those in their prime would struggle to match Garos in sheer mass.
Yet, strangely, the muscle groups that should have been brimming with explosive power were now in an unnaturally shriveled and atrophied state.
The massive skeleton, covered in heavy metallic scales, remained imposing, thick-boned, and full of power. But outside the frame, the muscles—which should have been full, knotted, and bulging like volcanic ranges—now looked as if their essence had been drained by some invisible force, leaving them thin and slack.
His twenty-meter-long draconic body now presented a peculiar contradiction.
He remained powerful, yet felt utterly hollow.
It was as if the only things supporting this steel-like body were its hard, thick bones and tough, scaled hide. The interior was devoid of the active life energy that should have filled it.
This change was far from normal.
Garos remembered clearly.
Before falling into his deep slumber, he had not only devoured a vast quantity of magic gems and precious metal ingots, but had also consumed all the black oil crystals he had accumulated.
With the reserves of resources and his level of vitality at the time, even if the dragon sleep had consumed some energy for his metamorphosis, his state upon awakening might not have been as muscular and ferocious as his peak before the slumber... but it certainly shouldn't have been this—the skeletal appearance of a dragon that had been starved for a century.
Moreover, his life energy, his magic energy, his dragon qi—all of them had plummeted precipitously. It was as if something had drained the vast majority of his energy reserves during his slumber and metamorphosis.
As Garos continued his examination, this "something" finally came to light.
His heart!
Garos took a deep breath, feeling the distinct thrum of his heartbeat and the furnace-like energy it contained.
More importantly, he sensed with absolute clarity that he now seemed to have two hearts.
The specialized energy structure in his right chest cavity—the one that had evolved during his last deep slumber to store thermal energy—had transformed. Deep within his right chest, it now beat with a vibrant, overwhelming surge of power.
To be precise, it wasn't a growth of flesh and blood.
Instead, it was a new organ—a pure energy core. The vast reserves of life energy, magic energy, and condensed dragon qi that had once been scattered throughout his dragon body had been compressed, solidified, and fundamentally transformed.
It was now a unique, high-density energy heart.
It was clear: all the energy Garos had lost had been condensed into this single, new heart.
(End of the Chapter)
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