Chaos and monsters begin with the red dragon's clone.

Crater.

The red dragon cub awakened in a cave. The cave was seven or eight meters deep, and most of the entrance was filled with lava, making the cave walls appear reddish-brown—this was the progress of the excavation over the past two weeks. Fortunately, the rock strata had been broken and soil had been reached, so the process should proceed faster.

"Very good! Your physique, strength, and stamina have all improved significantly."

Upon waking up, Zhang Xun felt much better, his body functions improved, and he wagged his tail, feeling quite good about himself.

Climbing out of the cave and swimming to the island in the lava lake, I discovered that its scales were bright red and sparkled like gemstones under the glow of the lava. As for its size, with its neck and tail stretched out, it was already the size of a small pony. If it spread its wings, it would look quite impressive.

The growth from a fledgling to a young dragon signifies that the dragon has adapted to its body and can easily hunt medium-sized prey, enabling it to survive independently in the wild.

"This should work!"

Zhang Xun, unable to contain himself any longer, leaped up and suddenly spread his wings, flapping them vigorously.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

The air was thumped and whooshed.

The young dragon took off unsteadily, hovered briefly in the air, then staggered and tumbled into the lava with a thud.

The test flight failed.

Zhang Xun was greatly encouraged.

It works!

The young dragon climbed onto the island in the lake again, flapped its wings, and leaped up.

This time, its body stabilized in the air, and it slowly climbed upwards.

"Awooo!!!"

The young dragon roared excitedly from its throat, and tiny sparks of fire spilled from its nose.

Zhang Xun didn't notice at all. The success of his first independent flight filled him with immense excitement and nervousness. It wasn't just about experiencing the feeling of flying, but also about being able to fly to the top of the crater and know what was happening outside.

"call!!"

Not long after, he stumbled and landed again.

But the young dragon had already learned how to fly. Its lava eyes surveyed the spots on the rock wall where it could stop, and after calculating its flight path, it stretched out its crimson wings again and took off.

huh-huh-

One hundred meters!

Three hundred meters!

The young dragon flew higher and higher.

The black and yellow smoke from the magma gathered and thickened at the narrowing top before being blown away by the wind. As Zhang Xun watched the increasingly approaching gray fog outside the crater, he became more and more nervous and uneasy. Finally, with the help of the rock wall, Zhang Xun rose several hundred meters and arrived at the top of the crater's ring.

The wind howled, and the air currents formed by the gray fog surged violently, like waves sweeping across the sky.

Zhang Xun took a deep breath, flew to a hollow in the wall, and cautiously peered out into the wind.

Fog, a hazy, gray fog.

The crater was surrounded by ash fog, reducing visibility to only a few dozen meters. Even the area below the volcano's outer walls was obscured by the fog, making it impossible to see anything clearly. The howling wind carried faint, extremely subtle sounds.

"Is this the foggy area?"

Zhang Xun observed that the surrounding fog had calmed down somewhat. Since it wasn't easy for him to fly up here, he was considering whether he should be bold and fly out and down to explore.

His eyelids suddenly twitched as he caught a glimpse of something unusual in the distance through the fog.

Two shadows appeared and disappeared in the distant sky, intertwined, accompanied by the surging wind and mist.

A serpentine silhouette with wings and a millstone-shaped object with tentacles were intertwined and churning, while faint sounds of monsters' hissing and frog-like croaking could be heard in the wind.

The young dragon's initial fervor cooled instantly.

Although he couldn't see the two monsters clearly, they looked quite large. Size, to a certain extent, determines strength. Whether he could handle them was another matter, but if he flew out and got chased by the monsters and couldn't find the crater, that would be even worse... This concentration of ash fog made it too easy to get lost.

The young dragon trembled at the thought of the consequences.

They quickly jumped down and flew back, landing in the lava lake inside the crater.

"We can't fly out easily anymore; we have to stay put."

"With the intense heat of the magma, no monster dares to invade this place."

Zhang Xun folded his wings, looking up with lingering fear. The sense of accomplishment he had felt from growing into a young dragon vanished instantly.

If you want to try flying outside, you'll need to be a... teenage dragon?

No, no, we still need to dig a hole out first and try to test the strength of the monsters outside.

"We've only dug this much in half a month. I wonder how long it will take to get to the outside?" Zhang Xun glanced at the cave entrance where the lava was partially exposed. "We're not in a hurry to get the red dragon body, and there's no urgent need to get to the human body yet, but it would be better to get there faster. Eating dirt can only mean that it won't hinder growth, but if you want to speed up growth, that's just wishful thinking... Hmm, eat?"

"eat!?"

The young dragon's eyes lit up, as if it had thought of something. It looked up again, and saliva involuntarily dripped from the corner of its mouth.

It has been eating dirt ever since it hatched, and it's really had enough.

huh-huh-

The young dragon flapped its wings, leaped into the air, and soared upwards once more.

This time, it flew to the upper part of the crater wall, its sharp claws gripping the cracks in the rocks, and hovered next to a mouse hole, its eyes fixed intently on it.

Unlike below, the temperature here is more suitable. Zhang Xun had caught a glimpse of a mouse earlier, but he was so focused on flying upwards that he didn't pay it any mind. Now, recalling that graceful mouse shadow, he felt a tickle in his heart.

A short while later, squeaking sounds came from the mouse hole.

Zhang Xun stared intently at the cave entrance, his dragon eyes gleaming.

Whoosh.

A gray mouse just poked its head out cautiously to look around—

A roar! A ferocious dragon's maw lunged at it.

The gray rat was startled and was about to retreat back into its burrow, but suddenly it trembled violently, froze, and stared blankly at the ferocious creature that was biting it.

"Huh!?"

The young dragon successfully bit its prey, experiencing its first taste of meat. While its lava eyes were filled with joy, it also recalled the moment when the prey froze, and was somewhat puzzled.

"Frozen!?"

"Didn't dodge!?"

In an instant, Zhang Xun was somewhat puzzled when the inherited information surfaced in his mind—

Red dragons will begin to awaken their dragon might during their young stage.

The dragon's might is an invisible, fierce aura that only affects living beings. Creatures with weak wills will feel intense fear when they sense this aura and will flee in terror when faced with a dragon, or even lose their will to resist and collapse to the ground in fear.

"So... what is this?"

"Dragon's Might!!"

After a moment of stunned silence, Zhang Xun was overjoyed. Although dragons could begin to awaken their dragon might in their early stages, he hadn't expected to do so so quickly. With dragon might, the chances of successfully hunting small prey were greatly increased. Even against medium to large prey, the intimidating effect of releasing dragon might in an instant could be a significant help.

Yes, dragons can autonomously control the sending and receiving of their dragon might.

Of course, that's after you've become familiar with the controls.

Upon thinking of this, the inherited information in my mind also revealed the techniques for receiving and sending dragon might. The techniques were there; whether or not one could do it depended on the dragon itself.

"Oh? I'm quite advantageous in this regard?" Zhang Xun was delighted upon seeing this.