Flying south from here, it would take a Young Dragon thirteen to fourteen days of full-speed flight to cross this forest.
Beyond the forest lies an endless expanse of mountains and hills, a region so vast that even a True Dragon would need to fly continuously for at least half a month to traverse it.
That place is the Gods' Promised Land, a land favored by the gods and promised to humanity.
While it lacks the wide, flat plains of grasslands, the plains nestled between the mountains and hills are far more fertile than here, thus nurturing many races."
Carlit was perched on a platform carved out of the highest peak in this mountain range, explaining to Kalon the knowledge and insights she had gathered.
Kalon had not received knowledge of shapeshifting during his slumber, so now, every few days, after Carlit had rested sufficiently, he would consult her about shapeshifting magic .
After learning about shapeshifting magic and application techniques, he would also ask Carlit to explain some knowledge about the world, as the world was constantly changing, and the inheritance in his mind was not omniscient.
In exchange for the rare ores the Red Dragon had excavated using his master talent in metallic element control, Carlit reluctantly agreed to the Red Dragon's request.
However, Carlit no longer allowed the Red Dragon into her cave, as she had begun to feel a slight threat from the Red Dragon.
It was hard to believe: a juvenile Blue Dragon feeling threatened by a Young Dragon.
Though the feeling was slight, it was undeniably present, and Carlit chose to trust her intuition.
And Kalon, sitting beside Carlit, was no longer the tiny creature that could be blown away with a single breath.
This Red Dragon, barring any unforeseen circumstances, might become the most powerful Dragon in this Dragon family.
Given Carlit's current amicable relationship with the Red Dragon, the Blue Dragon leader held high hopes for him.
She wished for this Dragon family she had established to remain strong, to avoid being scattered across the world like her own Blue Dragon Family had been.
Thinking of this, Carlit tilted her head and looked at Kalon, emphasizing, "Little Kalon, if you plan to travel through that mountain range to human settlements in the future, you can stealthily pass through using the route I took.
You must not fly directly over the mountains, because that mountain range harbors many monsters that even True Dragon cannot contend with."
"I will be extra careful," Kalon nodded, then curiously asked, "What kind of monsters are there in that place that make True Dragon so cautious?"
"Actually, I don't know much, although the Blue Dragon Family I came from built their nest on the edge of the southern mountains, no True Dragon dared to easily cross the territory and explore deep into the mountains, even though the Blue Dragon Family has three adult True Dragon."
A look of horror appeared in Carlit's eyes.
"But one day, for some unknown reason, an adult spiny-tailed lynx appeared in the territory of the Blue Dragon Family.
Perhaps it escaped from the depths of the mountains, or perhaps it traveled from a lower plane.
This spiny-tailed lynx easily killed the leader of the Blue Dragon, then began to hunt the remaining large Dragon.
I was very lucky; I managed to escape, separated from the True Dragons of my family, and I succeeded."
spiny-tailed lynx, Kalon knew this creature, a supernaturally generated super hunter, with the appearance of a giant black three-headed mountain cat.
This creature naturally becomes a Legendary creature upon reaching adulthood; besides not being able to use magic, it is a more powerful and perfect creature than a True Dragon.
This creature possesses the ability to move silently and is skilled in hiding and lurking.
Its unparalleled agility always puts it in an offensive advantage, and it has too many powerful points.
It could be said to be an all-around enhanced version of a True Dragon, except for flight and magic.
The True Dragon's proud body is like paper in front of this creature, and the potent venom from the spiny-tailed lynx's tail spikes can easily fell a True Dragon.
If the inheritance in a True Dragon's mind were a piece of paper, then the spiny-tailed lynx race would be bolded and highlighted in red as "High Risk."
"To the west of the Blue Dragon Family's territory is a den of Hill Giants, and it is said that many beings with the Titan bloodline are scattered throughout this mountain range.
To the east of the mountains, near the coast, there are the Storm Giants, and deep within the mountains, there are powerful Cyclops lords.
Moreover, the Legendary celestial being, Supreme Sky Titan, is also said to be here, slumbering within."
Carlit roughly explained what she knew.
"Hiss," Kalon took a deep breath, his recently inflated ego quietly calming down.
No wonder Carlit spent all day sleeping in her cave, seemingly uninterested in developing the Dragon Group Territory; it seemed she had been scared into submission, and now probably just wanted to lie low and accumulate strength.
Kalon also began to wonder if his decision to travel to human settlements to study magic was too hasty.
Perhaps he should patiently wait until merchant ships appeared in the bay where the Ogre Tribewas located; it wouldn't be too late to make a decision then.
Crunch, crunch, Kalon lay on a small mound in the grassland.
He threw a refined piece of metal into his mouth, his sharp, long fangs crushing it.
The tough metal, under the True Dragon's formidable fangs, felt like good chocolate.
The Red Dragon's agile tongue licked his upper palate.
Hmm, the higher iron content made it taste bitter, similar to pure dark chocolate.
He then picked out another metal he wanted to try from the pile in front of him.
The higher silver content had a slightly cool taste, a bit like mint chocolate.
The higher gold content had a particularly soft and smooth texture.
Ingesting metal promotes the development of a True Dragon's skin and scales, making the True Dragon's skin tougher and scales stronger.
However, this requires long-term and substantial consumption.
This amount was merely a drop in the bucket for the Red Dragon; Kalon was just tasting it out of curiosity.
Kalon's mastery of metal and earth elements allowed him to perceive many things other True Dragon would struggle to find while patrolling the grassland.
When he was patrolling in the sky just now, he sensed that there were many ores in many places on the grassland below, and many black ores could cover a thick layer on the surface, while others were buried underground.
If all these places he sensed were connected, it would clearly be a large open-pit mining area, and with the Red Dragon's current perception, it was difficult to ascertain the size of this mining area underground.
This mining area had a thick layer of black ore on the surface and underground, but Kalon also found traces of silver and copper ore within it.
Upon closer inspection, he even found traces of lead and zinc ore mixed in, making it a treasure trove.
Moreover, it was highly probable that a gold mine also existed beneath the soil, which could be discerned from the associated minerals in the ore deposit.
As Kalon rejoiced, he was wondering whether to go back to the forest and reluctantly accept those Werebear and green-skinned Kobold as miners.
Just then, near a distant hill, the soil on the ground, covered by wild grass, churned, and a yellow shadow, accompanied by a gust of wind, darted out from the grass, revealing a dark, cavernous hole as the wild grass swayed.
The yellow shadow moved extremely fast, but the Red Dragon's eyesight could still clearly capture all its movements.
This creature was about the size of a dog, covered in coarse golden fur, with silver eyes and golden pupils, and eight strong legs ending in six-centimeter coppery claws.
This is a Aurumvorax.
This creature prefers to live in areas with rich gold veins and consumes gold as a supplementary food.
The appearance of the Aurumvorax confirmed Kalon's guess, but perhaps because of the extraordinary strength of his new blood, greed from the bottom of his heart instantly seized the Red Dragon's mind.
This damned thing, daring to steal my gold ore!
His thirteen-meter-wide wings spread out, casting a shadow, and the True Dragon roared, pouncing towards the Aurumvorax.
The Aurumvorax, running ahead, felt the True Dragon's aura and was scared out of its wits.
Having just escaped the siege of those evil Kobold from underground, it was inexplicably attacked by a True Dragon.
The low-intelligence Aurumvorax did not try to investigate the reason, only speeding up on its eight legs.
But before it had run much further, the normally flat grassland suddenly became strange.
The grassland beneath its eight long legs suddenly caved in, and a pit appeared out of nowhere.
The Aurumvorax, before it could react, fell directly into it.
Its eight strong legs tried to push off the bottom of the pit to leap out, but it found it couldn't exert any force.
For every inch of force it applied, the mud beneath its feet sank two inches, and its eight legs flailed in the mud pit like it was treading water.
Kalon landed on the ground and stretched his head to stare at the Aurumvorax, which immediately played dead in the mud pit upon seeing his arrival.
This creature's fur was very valuable; a fully peeled hide could be made into an extremely sturdy and exquisite leather garment by merchants.
This leather garment not only had strong physical defense but also could defend against ordinary fire damage and a certain degree of magical fire damage, making it very valuable, likely worth around fifteen thousand to twenty thousand gold coins.
And the body of a Aurumvorax could also be smelted.
A Aurumvorax of this size, with its incredibly dense body tissue, could yield about one hundred fifty to two hundred pounds of high-purity gold after smelting.
It could be said that this creature was entirely made of gold coins.
All of this was basic knowledge from the Red Dragon's inherited memories and an innate sense of valuation.
A living Aurumvorax had even greater value; once tamed, it could be used to sniff out ore veins, maximizing its utility.
However, the Aurumvorax's intelligence was akin to that of a low-intelligence beast, making communication impossible, and Kalon didn't know how to tame it, so he was currently hesitating.
From the entrance of the burrow where the Aurumvorax emerged, two heads cautiously poked out.
Crocodile-like heads on lizard-like bodies, with lizard-like claws clutching bone-like magical artifacts—all indicating their identity as Kobold shamans.
The two Kobold shamans were whispering, "What should we do? That Aurumvorax was caught by a True Dragon.
This is a cruel and greedy Red Dragon.
If we go out to ask for it, we might be burned to death.
We definitely won't get that beast back."
The slightly larger Kobold shaman shook his head and scolded, "You really are a fool!
We just need to pledge allegiance to this powerful True Dragon, offer him tribute, and then ask the great True Dragon to bestow that beast upon us so we can serve the True Dragon better.
Wouldn't that make it very easy to bring that beast back?"
"You're so smart," the smaller Kobold beamed with joy, "Then why didn't we just pledge allegiance to that Blue Dragon who seemed more powerful before?
That should be a juvenile Dragon soon."
"You really are a fool," the other Kobold glared at his companion, "That Blue Dragon is too ugly.
Look how beautiful the scales on this Red Dragon are, how majestic his physique, how dignified his head!
We Kobold should worship such a great True Dragon.
Besides, a grown Red Dragon will be more powerful than a Blue Dragon."
"You have a point."
The two Kobold retreated into the burrow, their voices fading.
"Then we need to hurry back and tell the leader, lest that precious beast be eaten as a snack by the great True Dragon."