novelraw Chapter 311: Dragon Pearl
Chapter 311: Dragon Pearl
Garoth calmed his mind and gathered his breath, a faint faceplate-like veil settling over his features as the Face of the Self silently activated.
In this state, his perception and insight were elevated to an unprecedented peak, allowing him to, in a near-inward-vision way, penetrate through scales and flesh to scrutinize the changes brought by his dormant evolution with hair-splitting precision.
Under this transcendental clarity, Garoth could plainly see.
Aside from the energy heart pulsing in his right chest cavity,
around the biological heart in his left chest and throughout his body, countless additional primordial blood vessels had sprouted.
These newborn channels formed a precise energy network a hundred times more intricate and dense than before his evolution.
They connected the heart to every inch of muscle, every bone, and every organ with far greater intimacy.
And the changes were not limited to the heart and vascular system.
Every organ inside him—his tough dragon lungs, powerful liver, digestive stomach sac, highly efficient kidneys—had undergone marked strengthening and remodeling.
Their structures became denser, their functional efficiencies multiplied, and their surfaces and interiors were likewise covered and wrapped by numbers of newborn primordial vessels far beyond normal scope.A strong instinctive premonition, rooted in his bloodline, told him: even without any alchemical tools to assist, his transformed body structure alone could now autonomously manifest the Bloodburst State.
Moreover,
this life-essence-derived amplification would be far stronger and more effective than previous externally aided methods, and would grow alongside Garoth himself, becoming a core pillar of his power system.
"Try it now?"
The thought, full of temptation, rose up, but Garoth forcibly suppressed it and shook his head slightly.
He could clearly sense that his body was still in an extreme deficit; this was far from the best time to experimentally probe a new Bloodburst form.
Besides, compared to structural changes, the unknowns brought by that newly formed energy heart were even more stirring.
"What true might does this energy heart possess?"
Garoth focused his consciousness on his right chest cavity.
Under the exalted vision of the Face of the Self, the energy heart’s shape appeared in absolute detail.
It was not half-ethereal and half-real; it had fully materialized, presenting a deep, hard, crystalline texture as if condensed from the essence of life.
Calling it a heart wasn't strictly accurate.
It was more like an energy crystal core perfectly embedded in his chest cavity.
Evolution carries strong uncertainty; its appearance exceeded Garoth’s original expectations.
He had assumed that stabilizing the Bloodburst State through this evolution would already be a huge success—he had not expected such a surprise.
He pondered for several seconds and decided to give this energy core an official name.
"Crystal core? Dragon crystal?"
"Those names sound like third-rate fantasy novels where they dig a monster’s brain out to find a magic core—too mundane."
The red iron dragon was dissatisfied and shook his head.
After thinking a bit more, recalling the object's rough structure before evolution and referencing a distant memory of a game setting, he finally settled on a name.
"Decided!
Call it—the Dragon Pearl!"
The energy within the Dragon Pearl was exceptionally pure and concentrated, but what exact effects it could produce remained unknown to Garoth for now.
He intended to continue studying it, but the intense hollowness within his body surged like waves, growing ever more violent.
Extreme weakness made him dizzy; his vision darkened intermittently, as if returned to the gravely injured state after his near-death clash with the Dragon Hunting Team.
"Beyond the Dragon Pearl, my body is too depleted—I must replenish energy immediately."
Garoth folded his wings, slowly descended, and returned to the ground of Red Maple Valley.
No sooner had he landed than the strong vertigo struck again; a debilitating weakness radiated from within, nearly forcing him to collapse.
"Here—food prepared for you in advance."
Seeing Garoth in such a poor state, brass-silver dragon Deborah wasted no time asking questions. She swung a claw and quickly unearthed a root cellar.
Inside were the frozen corpses of large ferocious beasts and magical beasts, preserved intact in ice.
These were high-energy blood meals Deborah had personally hunted and carefully stored while Garoth slept.
But at that moment, the situation suddenly changed.
Deep in his right chest, the energy crystal core he had just named the Dragon Pearl lit up without any warning.
Crunch—
A substantive, overwhelmingly brilliant radiance burst from the Dragon Pearl's core.
It was so scorching, so powerful that it pierced through Garoth’s tough bones, thick muscles, and the heavy metal scales covering his body.
Before the astonished gazes of Deborah and the curious faerie dragon Vira who had come close,
Garoth’s right chest appeared as if a miniature sun had been embedded there—rising, blazing, dazzling—and it cast the surroundings in clear, piercing light.
Immediately after,
a grand, grounded, warm life-energy current poured out from the Dragon Pearl!
It streamed without hindrance into Garoth’s limbs and trunk, cleansing his parched vessels and saturating every muscle on the verge of exhaustion!
Thus!
Under the two pairs of suddenly widened, incredulous dragon pupils, the red iron dragon—who a second earlier had been skin-tight against bone like a wind-dried specimen—began to swell and plump with visible speed, like dead wood injected with the waters of life or like a collapsed skin bag being inflated by an invisible pump.
Withered muscle fibers reexpanded, filled with strength.
Skin pressed close to bone was pushed outward by newly born, elastic, rugged flesh.
In just a dozen breaths,
Garoth was restored from a frail, nearly falling-apart state to a stoutness comparable to an adult red dragon of the same size.
Though still slightly short of the peak, honed physique he had before sleep,
even now, simply standing motionless, the natural oppressive presence radiating from his massive form made the surrounding air thicken.
At the same time,
as his body recovered, the Dragon Pearl in his chest, which had shone like a small sun, rapidly drew its light inward and dimmed.
Garoth stretched, astonished, feeling the resurgence of power and vitality within him, and mulled the matter over.
A few seconds later, he raised a foreclaw and gently stroked his solid chest, feeling the Dragon Pearl now calm and settled, and a startling guess began to form in his mind. Without hesitation, he turned to the frozen bloodmeats in the cellar and began to devour them heartily.
Crack! Crack!
The great dragon opened his maw lined with sharp teeth, tearing, chewing, and swallowing chunks of meat along with unmelted ice.
Although far from as delectable as carefully cooked meals, a dragon’s natural palate did not disdain such primal bloodmeat—it carried a raw, rugged flavor. However, despite consuming huge quantities, Garoth felt no real satiety; his newly restored body did not grow stronger.
Instead, after efficient absorption, all the energy funneled frantically toward the Dragon Pearl in his chest, as if a bottomless pit within it awaited filling.
"Not enough. Far from enough. I must return to Dragon Valley immediately."
The red iron dragon suddenly beat his wings and rocketed toward the snow-obscured sky.
Deborah and the faerie dragon exchanged a glance and rose without hesitation, following close behind.
Three dragon silhouettes cleaved through the snowstorm and sped toward Dragon Valley.
"Hmm?"
While flying, Garoth's eyes sliced through the heavy snowfall and scanned the land below. The scene made his pupils narrow.
"How did the convergence lands come to look like this?"
As far as he could see, only a desolate, boundless white remained.
Everything was frozen and withered.
If he hadn't clearly remembered awakening among the landmark red maple forest of Red Maple Valley, he might have mistaken his surroundings for some deep, remote part of the Permafrost Tundra.
Snow did fall sometimes in the convergence lands,
but Garoth had never witnessed such extreme cold that seemed intent on encasing the entire world in ice.
He stowed his questions for the moment and accelerated his flight.
Before long,
the familiar valley outline, embraced by towering cliffs, finally emerged through the blizzard.
Unlike the apocalyptic ice outside, Dragon Valley’s unique topography—its tall walls acting as a natural barrier—kept the worst of the winds and blizzard at bay.
Although a few snowflakes still drifted inside, the ground bore only a thin layer of snow and temperatures were far milder than the outer world. Overall the valley presented a tranquil scene like early winter: some hardy deep-green vegetation still clung to life and a lake, not fully frozen, flowed lazily beneath a thin skin of ice.
It seemed much better than Garoth had feared.
At the valley’s summit, Scorchsteel Fortress still stood tall.
Thanks to the steadfast care and maintenance of his followers over the years, the magnificent fortress remained erect, like a silent iron giant bathing stoically in the storm and guarding the valley.
When Garoth’s silhouette appeared on the horizon,
the watchers below—busy or on guard—looked up.
Countless eyes, full of awe and joy, locked onto the red iron dragon cutting through the snow.
"Roar—!"
"Leader! Lord Garoth!"
"King! Our lord has returned!"
After a brief silence, thunderous cheers and roars erupted like a volcano.
Under those gazes, Garoth circled once as if inspecting his long-unseen domain, then folded his wings and calmly descended onto the fortress’s highest lookout platform.
"People of the Molten Iron Tribe!"
A roar like rolling thunder sounded first.
Rampage Bear leader Mobel trembled with excitement, his fur quivering; he pounded the ground and prostrated himself deeply!
"Celebrate! Cheer!"
"Our Lord—Lord Garoth—has returned!!!"
Like a lit fuse,
followers throughout the fortress and valley stopped what they were doing and, filled with reverence and rapture, plunged toward the high platform. In a wave like wind-stirred grain, they dropped to their knees in unison.
A dark, dense mass of bodies spread to the valley’s edges.
"Order it! Open the granaries and release the food! All followers of the Molten Iron Tribe—prepare a grand feast tonight to celebrate with me."
Having survived a long sleep was cause enough for celebration; with evolution beyond expectation, Garoth decided to throw a banquet to announce his return and rally the tribe.
After delegating detailed banquet preparations to the heads of his followers,
he used Bloodline Connection to inform iron dragons and red dragons scattered elsewhere of his awakening and the feast, asking them to gather other dragons.
Garoth then went to the fortress’s treasure vault to take some high-energy reserves, selected a broad, bright spot in the valley, and ordered his followers to continuously bring various food sources.
He could not wait for the banquet to officially begin—he decided to start eating early to feed the Dragon Pearl’s demand.
Magic gems, precious metal ingots, fresh bloodmeat, concentrated black oil—Garoth swallowed them one after another.
His digestive system operated efficiently; nutrients and energy were rapidly absorbed while metabolic waste was expelled and collected by designated followers for other uses.