Evil Red Dragon

The smoke and dust billowed away into the distance.

After losing the drive of the Thunderwing Serpent and being overwhelmed by the aftershocks of the two earth-shattering events, the beast tide transformed into birds and beasts and scattered to escape, losing its previous overwhelming momentum.

The once-raging beast tide is now reduced to a scene of carnage.

The smell of blood was so strong it was almost overwhelming.

Both inside and outside the defensive line, corpses littered the ground.

The trolls and orc warriors, panting heavily, supported each other as they tallied the casualties.

Nearly a third of the orc warriors had been killed. Gronn stared blankly, shaking the flesh and blood off his battle axe.

Gru's already small troll force has lost eight more.

More injured people are groaning.

The cattle and sheep that had been painstakingly raised in enclosures were all wiped out by the beast tide and its aftermath.

But none of this could attract Alecto's attention at the moment.

The huge wound in his abdomen opened and closed with each breath, bringing excruciating tearing pain with each breath.

Weakness followed, and Alector's vision began to darken, his consciousness gradually fading.

energy!

A boundless life energy and magic!

He needs them, now, immediately, right away!

My body is screaming with craving, and the feeling of weakness is like a maggot clinging to my bones.

Alector's gaze was fixed on the battlefield, on the mountains of monster corpses.

This lavish feast was his lifeline.

He forced himself to put Kula down, and with the last of his strength, he transmitted his voice:

"Gru! Goron! Drag over any monsters of level three or higher! Oliveira, go drag the Digivice! Hurry!"

Through the contract within his body, he knew that Oliveira was alright and was secretly hiding in the lava, but he didn't have time to worry about that now.

He needs to replenish his energy as soon as possible, otherwise if he faints like this, he won't wake up for at least ten or twenty years.

Ignoring their injuries and exhaustion, Gru and Goron immediately roared orders to the remaining warriors.

Panting heavily, they used their last bit of strength to drag the corpses of the monsters toward Chifeng.

Gru ripped off his tattered armor, threw down his spiked club, grabbed two level-four magical beasts, and charged toward Alector.

Soon, with the combined efforts of his followers, a bloody mountain of flesh, made up of the corpses of monsters, was erected in front of Alecto, which he could then devour.

At this moment, Alecto was like a crusher, his sharp teeth easily crushing bones and tearing off large chunks of flesh, which he then swallowed.

The Red Dragon's incredibly powerful digestive abilities were pushed to their limits.

Devour! Digest! Transform!

Flesh and blood were instantly transformed into energy, which flowed into the limbs and bones and into the wound in the abdomen.

Alecto could feel the tingling and itching sensation starting to appear at the wound site, which was the result of cells dividing and regenerating frantically.

But that's not enough!

He needs more!

The massive mountain of flesh was dwindling at a visible rate.

Gru and his men continued to bring food.

Alector's eating was devoid of any aesthetic appeal; it was purely about the most primitive and brutal efficiency.

He ate extremely quickly, without chewing, swallowing continuously.

Blood flowed down his jawline, turning the earth a deep, dark red.

Oliveira had just emerged from the lava when she obediently dived back down to search for the remains of the Burrowing Dragon. It took her quite a while to find the continuously falling remains deep within.

Using all four claws and every ounce of strength, she dragged the charred burrowing dragon out of the lava pit, all the way to Alecto, still complaining as she did so:

"This thing is too, too heavy..."

Ignoring Oliveira completely, Alekto bit into the chest cavity of the burrowing dragon's remains, scooped out a heart the size of a millstone, and swallowed it whole with a gulp.

Then it tore off pieces of the magically rich flesh of the Burrowing Wyvern, swallowing, tearing, swallowing...

This process repeated itself until the twenty-meter-long Digivice disappeared, leaving only the marks on the ground to record its existence.

Oliveira clicked her tongue in amazement.

What a terrible appetite!

If it were her, even just a small part of a level six magical beast's body would probably burst her apart.

After swallowing the Digivice, Alekto's eating speed dropped drastically.

Seeing this, Gru and Goron gradually stopped their actions.

Gronn silently tended to Kula, while Gru, with the remaining trolls, quietly began collecting the bodies of his people and burying them alongside the fallen orc warriors.

Amidst the bloodshed, a subtle sadness began to permeate the air.

Alecto was oblivious to everything around him.

His world consisted only of swallowing, absorbing, and an ever-increasing drowsiness.

When he swallowed the last level-three magical beast's corpse, the entire mountain of flesh vanished without a trace, leaving only a scene of devastation.

An irresistible drowsiness suddenly swept over his consciousness.

Fullness, pain, numbness, itching, bloating... all sensations eventually converge into the same signal.

sleep!

He must immediately enter a deep sleep to digest this massive amount of energy, repair his collapsing body, and at the same time evolve to an even greater extent.

Alector's consciousness rapidly faded, and his vision began to sway.

With the last vestiges of his clarity, he spoke to Oliveira beside him:

"wait for me!"

He then plunged headfirst into the lava.

Oliveira was stunned. Her brother had just fallen into a deep sleep?!

What will she do?!

On the other side, the heavily wounded trolls and orcs helped each other up, bandaging each other with makeshift bandages and the remaining herbs.

Kula was carefully placed in the innermost stone house of the orc camp, with Gronn guarding her closely.

Whether she lives or dies depends entirely on Kula's fate.

Gru led the able-bodied soldiers to inventory the remaining supplies, repair the damaged houses, and bury their comrades' remains on a hillside far from the camp.

Oliveira was still bewildered and didn't know what to do.

A somber atmosphere settled over the entire territory.

The price of victory was too high, almost draining them of the life they had just caught.

Meanwhile, Alecto was reflecting in his sleep.

He projected his consciousness into the endless, inherited memories deep within his bloodline.

In the past, he had only passively received, filtered, and applied some applicable knowledge and basic spells.

But now, after learning a bloody lesson, he takes the initiative to explore the true treasures accumulated over millions of years by the Red Dragon lineage.

arrogant.

The red dragon's innate arrogance had been numbing him, making him subconsciously believe that his natural physical strength, dragon breath, and proper learning were enough to deal with everything.

He did not delve into the deeper principles of magic as he would have done with treasure.

They didn't systematically build their own combat skill system like they would when planning territory.

He was content with simple crushing and reveled in the thrill of overwhelming power, but he neglected the importance of magic.

This serious injury was a painful lesson.

While the Digosaurus's sneak attack was indeed insidious, if I had a deeper understanding of magical perception and high-level defensive spells like Spatial Warning, I would never have ended up being seriously injured in a sneak attack.

If he hadn't been seriously injured and hadn't relied on Kula to fight to the death, the situation might have been completely different.

Simply relying on dormancy to passively grow and on instinct to fight is far from enough.

In this perilous world, the unknown enemy will never give him time to develop slowly.

The humans of Graystone Town, the escaped Thunderwing Serpent, and other powerful creatures...

Each one could deliver a fatal blow to him.

He needs change.

The reshaping of knowledge begins not after awakening, but right now, while still asleep.

Alecto decided to do something important: to systematically integrate the chaotic, star-like memories of his lineage.

He actively plunged into the torrent of inheritance, his mind racing, and began to systematically stimulate, combine, and analyze.

In the past, he approached the study of his heritage with a pragmatic attitude, like a soldier selecting weapons from an armory, drawing them at will when needed and discarding them when no longer needed.

Now he realizes he must become a true scholar and put the entire arsenal to his own devices.

The knowledge accumulated by the dragon race over millions of years must be systematically summarized.

Alector intercepts, analyzes, and categorizes countless streams of knowledge.

The first step is to build a library of his own consciousness.

The inheritance will be organized, categorized, and classified.

He collected spells one by one, along with the theories and principles of different magical fields such as elemental, spiritual, spatial, and defensive magic...

At the same time, he began to collect and organize information and clues about this world.

This will not be achieved overnight.

Faced with a vast and sometimes contradictory sea of ​​information, he needs to identify what is outdated, distorted, or even misleading information deliberately left behind by some wicked red dragon...

The entire process was accompanied by intense mental strain.

The initial sorting out of the major categories of magic alone took him the equivalent of several months in the outside world.

During this time, the intense depletion of his mental energy forced him to pause several times, falling into a brief period of unconsciousness.

But each time he resumed his work, he threw himself back into it, and his efficiency actually improved as he became more familiar with the process.

He then established categories related to combat skills and physical development.

That is the culmination of the Red Dragon's millions of years of combat experience.

How to use dragon wings more efficiently in combat, how to combine dragon breath with melee to create combos, analysis of various creatures, methods to break through physical limits...

Reflection, seeking knowledge, planning...

Alector is operating at high speed in the ocean of heritage.

The physical wounds were slowly repaired under the nourishment of energy, while the reconstruction of knowledge was proceeding at an even faster pace.

He was no longer content with merely being a powerful red dragon.

He wanted to become a ruler who knew how to use power, control knowledge, manage influence, and learn from setbacks.

As Alectus finished his initial sorting, a magnificent phantom of a library solidified in his mind.

His consciousness stood at the center of the nascent library.

There are no physical bookshelves here; it's all a virtual space.

Countless points of light float within, each containing a piece of inherited memory.

A spell model, a fragment of history, a magical theory, a material property...

He watched all of this with satisfaction.

Worth it!

But this is only a partial victory; the legacy is boundless, and what he has glimpsed is merely a drop in the ocean.

This was destined to be a lifelong task, but he still benefited greatly from it.

He has collected countless spells alone, not to mention he has read through all the magical theories, just waiting to test them himself after he awakens.

Time flows through the material plane.

In the days following Alector's slumber, the demons of Crimson Peak slowly licked their wounds.

Gru and Goron became the de facto leaders.

Kula remained unconscious, but with Goron's meticulous care and some herbal decoctions, her life miraculously stabilized, albeit very weakly.

Moreover, food became a major problem.

Because of the beast tide, all the domesticated cattle and sheep were gone, and the surrounding magical beasts became scarce. The stored food was also completely lost in the previous consumption and destruction.

The warriors had to organize small teams and, with Oliveira's help, venture further afield to hunt common wild animals and gather wild fruits and edible plants.

Life was tough, and everyone looked pale and sickly.

After the initial chaos subsided, life gradually returned, but the pressure remained immense.

Oliveira began to try to fulfill some of the duties of a deputy lord, though she was often clumsy.

She would imitate Alector and give orders to Gru and Goron.

Out of consideration for Alecto, Gru and Goron would give her a show of respect, but the actual decisions would still be made by the two of them.

Not long after, Oliveira also fell into a deep sleep.

This resulted in the hunting party bringing back food that was sometimes good and sometimes bad, barely enough to keep them from starving.

They also began to try to cultivate a small plot of land in the relatively safe valley and plant some tuberous plants with short growth cycles, but this was a long shot and not a quick fix.

A month later, Kula woke up.

He was extremely weak; he had regained consciousness, but his body was crippled.

Gronn wept with joy. Kula's awakening brought comfort to the entire camp, especially to the orcs.

But the joy was quickly overshadowed by reality.

"Don't be sad for me."

Kula looked into Goron's bloodshot eyes and said softly.

Goron wanted to say something, but his throat was choked up.

"tell me."

Kula asked, "How much did we lose?"

Goron remained silent for a moment before uttering the cold, hard numbers:

"73 soldiers, and 137 wounded..."

Kula closed her eyes, and only opened them again after a long while:

"Where is the master?"

"She's asleep. Lady Oliveira has fallen asleep too."

"food?"

"...I'm very nervous."

Kula lay on the stone bed, her expression complex.

"How much longer can we hold out?"

Goron answered in a low voice:

"Eat sparingly. It will take half a month. If the hunting party has a good catch, we can have a few more days. Besides, winter is coming..."

Kula, enduring excruciating pain throughout her body, slowly said:

"We can't rely solely on hunting. Monsters are scarce in winter, and prey are all hibernating, making it too dangerous to venture out."

"I know, but besides that..."

"Go and trade with humans."

Goron was stunned.

Kula continued:

"You know, humans need magical beast materials, furs, and precious herbs. We have quite a few in stock, and we use them to trade for food and medicine. That's how we've always lived..."

Goron roared as he interrupted:

"Humans cannot be trusted, have you forgotten?! It was because of trading with them that our tribe was destroyed!"

"That was before."

Kula's voice was soft, but unusually firm:

"We're starving now, and only humans have this much food."

"Our master has given us many maps, including one of the human settlements in Graystone Town. It's far away from us, and it would take more than a month to get there and back. We can send a small team in disguise to go there without revealing the location of our territory. Even if they have bad intentions, we can minimize our losses."

After pondering for a long time, Goron finally nodded:

"I'll discuss it with Gru when he gets back."