Evil Red Dragon

Alecto sat on the Obsidian Throne, his gaze sweeping over Gru, Goron, and Kula.

"The territory is indeed developing very well, but it is still not enough."

He leaned slightly forward, his hands clasped together on his knees:

"Such strength is certainly enough to protect oneself in border areas, but what if one faces humans?"

Gru frowned:

"Does the master mean the humans of Graystone Town? The last time Goron and his group went to trade, the garrison there wasn't very strong."

"Not entirely Greystone Town."

Alecto shook his head, but avoided the main point, saying:

"Kura's report mentioned that a princess had gone there. What does that mean?"

Kula was pushed closer by Goron, and after a moment of contemplation, he spoke:

"This indicates that this area has come under the royal family's scrutiny, which likely means that more forces will intervene in this region in the future."

"That's exactly right."

Alecto nodded:

"And don't forget, we still have enemies alive."

A cold glint flashed in his eyes:

"We still don't know where that Thunderwing Python is."

Goron clenched his fist:

"We need more soldiers."

"Not just soldiers."

Alecto corrected:

"What I need is a complete system of factions: warriors, artisans, miners, spellcasters... Currently, we only have two races: orcs and trolls. Although you are talented in combat, you have shortcomings in other areas."

His gaze deepened:

"When I was sorting through the inherited memories during my slumber, I saw some interesting things. Some red dragons did not limit themselves to a few races when establishing their power. They would absorb different intelligent races according to the needs of their territory."

Gru raised his head, his dragon horns gleaming in the firelight:

"Does Master intend to absorb other races?"

"I have that idea."

Alekto frankly admitted:

"I need to expand my power quickly. Relying solely on natural reproduction won't work. Although the birth rate of orcs and trolls isn't low, it takes too long to train a mature warrior."

Kula seemed thoughtful:

"Does the master have a specific target race?"

Alector walked to the center of the hall, raised his hand, and flames condensed in the air into the shapes of several races:

"Kobolds, gnolls, ogres... even humans, elves, and dwarves."

"And kobolds?"

Goron and Gru spoke at the same time, their tone contemptuous.

As orcs and trolls, they looked down on these short, cowardly creatures who only knew how to dig holes.

"I know you look down on them."

Alecto continued calmly:

"But the kobolds have many advantages that we desperately need."

He waved his hand, and the flames transformed into a dog-headed man:

"They are numerous and reproduce extremely quickly."

A healthy kobold tribe, with ample food, can multiply its population dozens of times in a year.

There's no need to worry about their loyalty.

Kobolds have an innate tendency to worship dragons, and many of them claim to be descendants of dragons. They will naturally submit to the red dragon.

"Moreover, they are extremely adaptable and can survive in various harsh environments. They don't require our help. Just give them a piece of land and some basic tools, and they can live well on their own."

"Most importantly..."

A glint of light flashed in Alecto's eyes:

"They are natural miners and underground engineers. Kobolds have an innate sense of geology and are better at prospecting for minerals, mining, and building underground fortifications than any other race."

Kula's eyes lit up:

"Does the master mean to use the kobolds to find and mine mineral veins?"

"That's right, I can't sense them one by one, but the kobolds can, and..."

Alecto said calmly:

"They can also be used as food."

Upon hearing this, both Gru and Goron were stunned.

"Eat... a kobold?"

Goron hesitated and said:

"Although orcs aren't picky eaters, kobold meat is both sour and tough..."

"Not what I usually eat."

Alecto shook his head:

"In times of food shortage, kobolds can serve as emergency food reserves, and more importantly..."

His tone turned cold:

"They are the perfect cannon fodder."

Silence fell over the hall.

Alecto's words were blunt and cruel.

But that's reality.

In battle, some sacrifices are necessary.

It's either him or you who dies.

In the silence, Kula slowly nodded:

"What the master says makes sense."

Gru stroked his chin:

"If what the master says is true, and the kobolds can help us find and mine minerals, then it is indeed very valuable. The mineral veins under Chifeng have been destroyed, and we need to explore new mineral veins for mining."

Although Goron still harbored prejudice against kobolds, it was Alecto's order, and he had no choice but to obey.

He could only offer a dry reminder:

"If they can really feed themselves and don't need us to provide extra food, then it's definitely worth considering. Every additional mouth to feed is an additional burden."

Seeing that all three agreed to the proposal, Alecto proceeded with it:

"Alright, then send out a scout team to search for kobolds and other races in the surrounding area."

The three demons responded simultaneously.

"If there are no other questions, that's all for today."

Alecto waved his hand:

"Go back and rest. We'll be very busy starting tomorrow."

After Gru and Goron bowed, they withdrew, and Goron slowly pushed Kula's wheelchair away from the hall.

Only Alecto remained.

He got up and walked to the window.

As night deepened, the crackling sound of burning torches echoed through the hall.

Alecto stood by the window, gazing at the scattered lights in the camp, his mind churning with thoughts.

That's not enough, far from enough.

The thought of the history of human empire expansion, the millennium war between elves and dwarves, and how the orc empire was destroyed, which he had witnessed in his legacy, made him tremble.

This world is too dangerous; he wants to go back to his little planet…

How dangerous is it? Let me put it this way.

In ancient times, humans created their ultimate weapon of war—the floating city!

A colossal war machine, thousands of meters in diameter, controlled by a legendary mage, equipped with tens of thousands of soldiers, hundreds of mages, anti-gravity magic arrays, stealth fields, forbidden-level magic shields, countless magical artifacts, and various destructive weapons such as magic cannons, and possessing complete city functions.

This is humanity's ultimate pursuit of power, a symbol of pushing civilization to its peak, and also the clarion call of destruction!

God knows how desperate he felt when he saw humans building floating cities from the perspective of other red dragons.

With that thought in mind, Alecto closed his eyes again and retrieved the relevant memory fragments from the library.

Those fragments come from different eras and different perspectives of the Red Dragon, and are chaotic and broken, but he has learned how to piece them together.

The time was about three thousand years ago, when humans were just a weak race struggling to survive between orcs and dwarves.

In the image, an elderly red dragon is perched atop an active volcano, its lair filled with various treasures.

A black dot appeared on the distant horizon.

The black dot rapidly expanded, becoming a colossal object with a diameter exceeding three kilometers.

The entire mountain was uprooted and, after numerous modifications, is now suspended in the air.

Its surface is covered with silvery-white metal armor, with tens of thousands of magical runes flowing across it, forming layers of overlapping protective barriers.

"Human toys."

Red Dragon scoffed at the time, thinking it was just a larger airship.

Until the main cannon of the floating city began to charge.

The screen shook violently.

A pure white beam of light, 100 meters in diameter, shot out from the bottom of the floating city and instantly pierced through the elven fortress a thousand miles away.

The fortress was directly vaporized, leaving behind only a lava lake thousands of meters deep.

The shockwave swept across a radius of hundreds of miles, even causing the volcano where the red dragon was located to tremble violently, with magma gushing out from the cracks.

"What is that...?"

The red dragon's murmurs echoed in my memory.

That wasn't magic, at least not the kind of magic system that should have existed in that era.

Alekto later found the answer from other red dragons.

That was a destructive energy released through an energy-conducting structure after pure magic was compressed to its extreme. Its efficiency and power far exceeded any known forbidden spell at the time.

The dwarfs are even more exaggerated!

They used half of the nation's mineral resources to build a planet-destroying cannon underground, capable of destroying an entire floating city with a single shot.

The elves, on the other hand, created the War Tree with the Tree of Life at its core. This War Tree can turn an area of ​​tens of thousands of miles into their absolute domain, and any outsider who enters will be attacked by all the plants.

In the later stages of the war, they even stole the technology for building floating cities from humans and combined it with the war tree to build their own life fortress.

The main city of the Orc Empire was bombarded continuously from near-Earth orbit for three whole months by the Heavenly Punishment Array, composed of twelve floating cities.

Eventually, the entire city, along with the ground, was evaporated, leaving behind a sinkhole with a diameter of 100 kilometers.

……

Alecto suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for breath.

No matter how many times I watch it, it still leaves me feeling utterly hopeless.

He finally understood why, despite their long lifespans and terrifying power, dragons could never become the rulers of the world.

Why do the records of floating cities, planet-destroying cannons, and the Tree of Life in the inherited memories all carry an indescribable... awe?

That's not reverence for the individual, but reverence for the entire civilization system.

No matter how strong a single red dragon is, can it be stronger than a floating city?

Can it be stronger than the Heavenly Punishment Array composed of twelve floating cities?

Can it outperform a railgun that continuously bombards in near-Earth orbit?

Could it be stronger than a planet-destroying cannon fired by a dwarf who has gathered the power of their entire race?

The answer is no!

The power of the red dragon comes from its bloodline, its lifespan, and its individual evolution.

But the power of races like humans, elves, and dwarves comes from the accumulation of knowledge, the iteration of technology, and the collaboration of the entire civilization.

Gods are merely icing on the cake.

Rejected by the will of the world, the true form of the god cannot participate, and the strength of his avatar is only that of a demigod, making it difficult for him to even destroy a complete floating city.

If you have gods, and I have gods, and everyone has gods, then it's as if no one has any.

It would take at least a thousand years for a red dragon to grow to the point where it could rival a floating city.

How many red dragons will actually live to be a thousand years old?

Humans can build a new floating city in just a hundred years.

If there is sufficient technological accumulation and readily available resources, it can be even faster.

No, maybe it's faster now!

The dragon race's heritage is good in every way, except that the time gaps are too severe, often spanning hundreds or thousands of years, and the most recent record of them in the human world is only two hundred years ago.

This period of time could probably be enough for several generations of technology to be upgraded X﹏X

Only he, who had once been human, understood just how desperate this situation truly was.

This is the gap between the individual and civilization.

This is why, even in the Red Dragons' most glorious era, they could only occupy barren lands and plunder some small border countries, but dared not truly challenge the hegemony of the three major races.

Alecto slowly sat back on his throne, his hands trembling slightly.

But he can't go back...

A complex mix of fear, longing, and ambition surged within him.

This is not a fairy tale world where one can become king and dominate simply by being brave.

This is a brutal arena where civilizations collide, technologies clash, and legends battle each other.

The dragons once stood in the center of the arena, believing themselves to be the strongest players.

Until humans, elves, and dwarves stepped onto the field, using floating cities, the Tree of Life, and planet-destroying cannons to tell all races...

Times have changed!

The era of the individual is coming to an end.

The age of civilization has arrived.

Peace is just an illusion; war could reignite at any moment. But will he sit idly by and wait to die?

Are we waiting for the three major clans to be ready to clear the field, and then divide the world into three?

"so……"

Alector muttered to himself, a crimson flame igniting in his eyes:

"If I can't fight against a civilization, then I'll build one."

"If the floating cities are humanity's answer, the planet-destroying cannons are the dwarves' answer, and the Tree of Life is the elves' answer..."

"So what is my answer?"

No dragon could tell him this question.

Because the dragons have never truly established a civilization; what they have built are nests, territories, and kingdoms, but never civilization.

Civilization needs to be passed down, accumulated, collaborated on, and the efforts of generation after generation.

The dragons, on the other hand, are too arrogant, too selfish, and too reliant on the power of the individual.

"But I'm different."

Alecto clenched his fist:

"I can learn the knowledge of all civilizations, I have followers, I can have them work, research, and develop for me, I have time, the lifespan of the red dragon is enough for me to plan for hundreds or thousands of years..."

He paused, a resolute glint in his eyes:

"I have something they don't have; I am not bound by anything."

Human technological development is constrained by ethics, factional struggles, and resource allocation.

The elves' magical research is limited by tradition, by nature, and by the will of the Tree of Life.

The dwarves' craftsmanship is limited by their stubbornness, their underground existence, and their blind worship of orthodoxy.

But he, a red dragon, was free from all constraints.

He can learn human technology, but he doesn't have to abide by human morality.

He can draw upon the magic of the elves, but he need not be bound by nature.

He can study the dwarves' crafts, but he doesn't have to be bound by their traditions.

He wants to forge his own path.

A path that integrates the essence of all civilizations, yet transcends the limitations of all civilizations.

A path never before imagined.

Outside the window, the sky was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

A new day begins.

Alecto took a deep breath, suppressing the turbulent thoughts in his mind.

It's too early to think about these things now.

He needs to lay a solid foundation first, and he needs to ensure that the Chifeng leadership truly gains a foothold.

The assimilation of kobolds, gnolls, ogres... these races are only the first step.

Next, he needs to establish a complete production system, research system, and military system.

He needs knowledge, not just magical knowledge.

"Let's start today."