Defeating the World with the Power of One Dragon!

Chapter 288: Dragon Sleep Time

Garoth extended his thick dragon claw and grabbed hold of Alberto's charred, limp golden tail.

His wings beat, stirring up a howling gale.

Dragging the youth Gold Dragon who slept like a dead pig, he finally casually tossed him into a relatively soft sand pile within Dragon Valley.

Thump!

A dull thud sounded, sending clouds of dust flying.

This rough treatment did not wake the sleeper in the slightest.

Instead, it was the thunderous snoring, like continuous rolling thunder, that resounded throughout the entire Dragon Valley.

Rising and falling, with cadence and rhythm, it continuously echoed and lingered in the empty valley.

Garoth's imposing figure gently landed in the center of the valley.

He stretched his massive body covered in cold, sleek black-red dragon scales, emitting faint bone-grinding sounds, then turned his gaze towards the elegantly standing brass-silver dragon Deborah."This Alberto, his condition seems a bit off."

He said.

Deborah let out a light laugh.

The tip of her slender, flexible dragon tail coiled around a large boulder, then flung it violently.

With perfect precision, it smashed against the side of Alberto's golden head.

Crack.

The boulder instantly shattered into countless tiny stone fragments, like an exploding dust firework.

Yet the Gold Dragon in the sand pile showed almost no reaction, only the spell-inscribed scales around his neck flickered briefly before dimming again.

"Tsk tsk, really durable, huh."

Deborah tilted her head with interest, then casually waved her dragon claw through the air.

Cold air condensed, forming hard ice crystals out of thin air.

These ice crystals fell like dense bullet rain, continuously pounding against Alberto's defenseless body, emitting dull thudding sounds.

While playing this target practice game, Deborah wore a thoughtful expression.

"Strange."

She said: "Could this guy have sworn some bizarre or ridiculously harsh oath?"

Garoth nodded his massive head, saying: "Very likely."

"The skills of the Saint-Dragon path are indeed all-encompassing and comprehensive, but they also have a huge, unignorable problem."

His gaze fell upon Alberto.

"Oaths can grant Saint-Dragons resilience and frenzied power far beyond normal reason, but they also cause an inevitable side effect."

"Saint-Dragons sometimes, due to impulse or excessive pursuit of perfection, accidentally swear oaths that are too strict, or bizarre to the point of being incomprehensible."

"Looking at his condition."

"Nine times out of ten, that's the situation."

Although Garoth didn't know exactly what oath this youth Gold Dragon had sworn, judging by his strange reaction, its impact on him was certainly significant.

Additionally.

This intense battle with Alberto, while giving Garoth a long-missing excitement and pleasure of stretching his muscles, was far from fully satisfying him.

He had indeed activated his power-unleashing Frenzied State.

However, as Garoth's own strength continuously grew, and with his multiple activations and adaptations to the Frenzied State, the cost and burden of this power had undergone earth-shaking changes for him.

In the beginning, using the Frenzied State was like performing a suffocating anaerobic sprint.

Violent and brief, unsustainable.

Now it was more like engaging in a relatively high-intensity but still sustainable 'aerobic' exercise.

He could already maintain this state steadily for a longer period, not limited to brief bursts.

After briefly exchanging words with the brass-silver dragon,

The still unsatisfied red iron dragon turned, vibrating his wings, and flew towards the specially built super-heavy training ground.

Whoosh!

Garoth's chest expanded, deeply inhaling massive amounts of air from outside.

Immediately after.

A sound like drumbeats, thunder, or engines came from within his chest, while frenzied lightning simultaneously flashed and danced across his body, placing enormous strain on his heart.

The little dragons on the other side felt their hearts palpitate merely from hearing those roaring sounds, unconsciously suffering some mental shock. It was hard to imagine those sounds were just the red iron dragon's heartbeat.

After exhaling another breath of scorching air,

Accompanied by the thumping heartbeat sounds, the red iron dragon's body rolled on the ground, performing one seemingly incredible yet beautiful movement after another, perfectly combining strength and technique.

Through this method, he was training his heart.

Even for dragons born with inherently powerful physiques, the heart remained the core hub sustaining life and power.

Its importance went without saying.

What Garoth firmly believed was that once this heart could break through its limits and complete its final evolutionary transformation, the improvement and change would definitely not be limited to this single organ.

It would inevitably be like igniting the fuse of a chain reaction, driving the essence of his entire body's life to undergo many marvelous changes.

Moreover, based on his understanding of himself and his talents, he had a strong intuition.

By the time his next Young Adult dormancy period ended, he would most likely smoothly complete the evolution of his dragon heart.

At that time, his life essence would undergo a massive upgrade.

When the last ray of sunlight at the horizon vanished below the earth's edge, as night deepened and quietly enveloped Dragon Valley,

Garoth, having finished his training, slowly immersed his massive body radiating astonishing high temperatures into the cool lake water.

Sssss—

Like a red-hot branding iron plunged into cold water.

Countless scalding white steam violently rose and churned from his body surface, the entire lake surface instantly becoming shrouded in mist because of his quenching-like action.

His eyes slightly closed, feeling the cold lake water envelop his entire body, his massive form slowly sinking to the depths of the lake bottom.

As water pressure increased and temperature dropped, his spirit gradually became calm and focused.

His thick, powerful dragon claws covered with heavy scales gently pressed against his chest.

Through the tough, thick scales and rock-solid strong muscles, even without using Frenzied State or Bloodburst spell, Garoth could still perceive with extreme clarity the powerfully beating dragon heart beneath his chest.

"I am thirty-seven years old this year, already almost halfway through the Young Adult phase."

"At most within two years, I will enter Young Adult dormancy, and estimating based on my past dormancy durations that always far exceeded my peers, by the time I wake next, I should have officially entered the youth phase."

Garoth contemplated silently: "This timing isn't exactly perfect, it will inevitably affect my plans to acquire resources during the Federation's civil war."

"But thinking carefully, perhaps it's still acceptable."

"This behemoth Federation, its internal divisions and war definitely won't completely erupt and settle within a short time."

"Those entrenched duchies and kingdoms each have their own interests and long-term considerations. They mutually distrust and restrain each other, and would never easily or rashly initiate full-scale war."

"Even now, the only ones who have truly torn up relations and formally declared war are the Duchy of Abbe and the Duchy of Harthale."

"During this precious time before dormancy, I should first return to the Ser Wilderness, establish stable outposts and strongholds in the border areas, gain a foothold, and plant wedges."

"When I step into the more powerful youth phase, with a leap in strength, I can participate in this feast with more abundant power and a more composed posture."

At the lake bottom.

Garoth silently sorted through the path to the future once more in his heart, then folded his wings against his sides and swung his tail to swim upward.

Finally, he burst from the lake with a splash of water, flying towards Scorchsteel Fortress.

Afterward, like fine sand constantly flowing through an hourglass, time passed day by day quietly.

The iron dragon Sorog, assisted by the gradually maturing Young Dragons, methodically performed his duties, managing the ever-growing subordinate army.

He busily gathered those selected, most elite warriors, meticulously counted the mountain-like stockpiles of logistical supplies and military equipment, and prepared massive food reserves sufficient to support the expedition.

The Molten Iron Tribe located in the convergence lands now operated like a precisely functioning massive war machine, filled with a sense of pent-up power,

Making complete preparations for the upcoming advance to return to the Ser Wilderness.