Defeating the World with the Power of One Dragon!

Chapter 417: Spell Equations, Ascending to the Planetary Stage

Dragon Valley, atop a steep cliff.

The Red Iron Dragon stood tall and proud, his massive body bathed in the howling snowstorm. A thin layer of pristine snow clung to his black-and-red, heavy scales, making him look like a statue.

His gaze was grave and serious, his breaths deep and slow, and every line of his dragon face showed utter concentration.

That posture suggested he was brooding over something earthshaking.

Then, amid the wind and the hiss of snow, the Red Iron Dragon slowly raised a foreclaw.

A faint but steady magical light began to coil around his sharp talons. As his upper and lower jaws moved slightly, simple syllables of a spell flowed out, and the aura around him grew denser and heavier, like a mountain.

At last, the brewing reached its apex, and he gently swept his claw forward.

The next moment, a miracle happened.

The magical light at his claw tip twinkled softly, like a sudden spark.

The stubborn layer of snow covering him seemed to be brushed away by an invisible gentle hand, or an unseen brush.The flakes slid off in a flurry, as if shedding a white cloak, quickly revealing the clean, metallic sheen of his scales beneath, spotless and shining.

This was, in fact, a standard cleaning spell.

A zero-tier cantrip, the most basic of basics: it clears dirt, dust, and... well, snow from an object's surface.

.......

Silence fell over the mountaintop, only the wind and snow continuing their tireless howling.

A few seconds later.

"Pft... hahah!"

A tinkling, exaggerated laugh rang out from behind a snow-covered boulder.

The faerie dragon Vira flapped her rainbow-colored iridescent wings and flew out, laughing so hard she bent backward in the air, nearly rolling, tears of mirth welling.

"My great Lord of Molten Iron, that solemn look you had just now—honestly, I thought you were about to summon a meteor and plow Dragon Valley flat."

"And it was just a cleaning spell? A cantrip?"

"Your spellcasting prelude was far too long and ceremonious. Anyone unaware might think you're preparing some legendary-level terror of a spell."

The Red Iron Dragon flicked his thick tail expressionlessly, shaking the last of the snow completely free.

"The essence of magic lies in precision and control, in a deep understanding and practice of its inner principles," he said in a grave voice, carrying unquestionable authority. "Even the most trivial cantrip should be approached with full effort; carefully perceive the principles it embodies."

Faerie dragon Vira looked at him, amused by his dead-serious demeanor, her belly laughing so hard it hurt. She opened her mouth, ready to tease again.

But under the Red Iron Dragon's steadily growing dangerous gaze, she wisely suppressed the grin tugging at her lips.

"So, esteemed Red Iron Dragon scholar, what profound truth were you pondering just now? Did you really comprehend some amazing magical principle?" she asked with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"I was considering whether to shove some overly noisy little dragon right into that snowdrift over there, let her cool off, and shut that chattering mouth of hers for a while," the Red Iron Dragon answered calmly.

Vira shivered, and the mirth vanished from her face like a cloud. She had no desire to personally experience the Lord of Molten Iron's cold-physical-treatment.

Before Garoth could put that dangerous idea into practice, she gave a short shriek and beat her wings, streaking away like a fleeing rainbow, vanishing into the storm.

After chasing off the mischievous faerie dragon, Garoth steadied his scattered thoughts and refocused.

Cleaning spell was the first formal cantrip he had ever successfully cast purely through learning, understanding, and deliberate practice rather than relying on bloodline powers.

Before this, Garoth had already possessed numerous powerful quasi-spell skills.

Those effects were far more terrifying than a simple cleaning trick.

But those abilities were not gained through postnatal study; they were instincts that emerged with the growth and awakening of dragon bloodlines, as natural as breathing and flying.

They were essentially different from spells learned by understanding, building a model, and directing energy.

Meanwhile, within the ancestral memory of his bloodline, the vast magical knowledge kept echoing and surfacing in his mind.

"A spell, in essence, is an independent magical effect. It precisely reshapes and manipulates the ambient, intangible magical energies in space and eventually manifests them in a specific way within a defined area."

"A spell can be seen as a convenient tool, a deadly weapon, or a solid protective barrier. It can create or heal damage, produce or dispel status effects, even drain life force or grant new life."

"The runes and incantations that make up spells are countless. Most are the most effective means of channeling and guiding elemental energies, preserved through ages of evolution and selection, the most useful and efficient remaining, such as ywEαshan*Ho6g..."

"The spell's tier roughly indicates its strength. A zero-tier cantrip can be triggered by thought alone, while high-tier spells require the caster's full focus. Some special spells demand endless materials, even sacrificing the caster's life."

"Before a caster can use a spell, they must first inscribe it into their consciousness or store its power in a magical object."

"Once you have a foundational understanding of a spell, you can formally begin to study its principles."

"Spatial anchor theory of a spell's core, the interpretation of rune energy's nonlinear oscillations, the analytic continuation and stability maintenance of mana on the complex plane, the norm-field theory governing mana flow and its corresponding fiber bundle expressions...

............

Just skimming and trying to grasp these foundational theoretical descriptions made Garoth's head swim.

It felt as if countless abstract symbols and formulas were colliding and exploding in his mind.

"Focusing first on forging the body and strength rather than diving headlong into the sea of spells was a wise choice," he thought, relieved.

The path of spells weighs talent and comprehension most heavily.

The innumerable principles involved are as abstract and profound as the higher mathematics Garoth had once encountered in his past life.

Understanding is binary: you either get it, or you don't. There are no lucky breaks or shortcuts.

Take the seemingly basic and simple fireball, for example, and its stable casting.

Its internal energy structure is a precise construct that considers energy dissipation rate, environmental elemental density, negative-feedback suppression mechanisms, and multiple other factors. The result is a complex runic sequence arranged across many dimensions.

The relative position of each rune, the timing and intensity of energy input, directly determine the spell's final power, range, flight speed, and even the risk of energy backlash when the cast fails.

"A complete spell, from construction to release, is like solving a high-dimensional equation involving the caster's mental stability, ambient mana parameters, catalytic materials, the resonance efficiency of verbal syllables, and many other complex variables."

"Only by finding the correct solution can it be stably mastered and cast."

"Fortunately, the ancestral memories provide relatively mature and stable standard solutions for most known conventional spells—those spell models tested by countless predecessors."

"If you can use your own understanding to independently solve it the first time, you can shape a stable spell model and store it in your consciousness. The next time you construct and cast it, the process becomes far easier."

"However, that first independent solution is often the hardest step."

Garoth silently summarized the core points of learning spells.

Formal first-tier and above spells demand difficulty comparable to higher mathematics in another life, increasing in complexity and profundity.

A zero-tier cantrip like the cleaning spell equates roughly to high school-level math—a first step into the hall of magic.

Starting from basic theory, Garoth spent an entire day and finally mastered the cleaning spell.

That speed was neither fast nor slow, but average.

It meant he showed no special innate talent in magic; he was much like a typical Red Dragon or Iron Dragon.

At the same time, a question surfaced in Garoth's mind.

"Can my Adaptation talent act upon the process of learning this kind of knowledge-based magic?"

"If not, then studying spells will inevitably take an extremely long time, and unlike physical training, you cannot expect dramatic leaps in a short period."

He exhaled a plume of searing breath that condensed into white mist in the frigid air.

Learning the spell path was indeed arduous, but the conveniences and possibilities it could yield were undeniable.

Garoth refused to be merely a brute relying only on force.

Finally, he made a decision.

No matter what his innate magical aptitude truly was, from now on, whenever he reached his physical limits from intense training and needed short rests, he would not simply blank his mind.

He would use those fragments of time to continuously study and delve into spellcraft.

It was a way to train mental resilience and thinking ability, and to test whether his Adaptation talent could also produce dividends in the domain of knowledge comprehension.

"To squeeze both my physical limits and mental potential at the same time? Heh, it's a tough challenge, but an interesting one," he thought, a sharp gleam crossing his eyes as he mentally issued himself a heavy challenge.

Then, in the swirling snow, the Red Iron Dragon resumed his daily, unremitting rigorous training.

During his brief rest intervals, his mind was no longer blank.

The intricate spell principles and rune structures continually surfaced in his thoughts.

Time flowed like water and slipped by unnoticed.

After the conquest of the northeastern region, the exact location of its leyline core—and the Abyssal Rift once sealed by the Mountain King—had been successfully pinpointed by Samantha and her team of sorceresses.

At the same time, scattered intelligent clans across the wilderness were drawn by the growing renown of the Lord of Molten Iron. Many came of their own accord to pledge allegiance, expanding the tribe's followers in both scale and diversity, allowing the tribe to govern and control more thoroughly and deeply across this vast harsh land.

By now, the Molten Iron Tribe had more or less unified the Ser Wilderness.

The dragon banner symbolizing the Lord of Molten Iron now flew in every corner of this wide land.

During this period, the tribe conducted multiple rounds of negotiations with envoys from the Divine Kingdom of Theo.

After paying a price that stung, the Molten Iron Tribe agreed to release the Divine Kingdom's soldiers captured during the war. The Kingdom's envoys formally stated their willingness to coexist peacefully with the tribe, turning swords into plowshares and solemnly promising never to provoke the tribe or its interests again.

Whether that promise would hold—who could say?

Negotiations with the Lothrian Kingdom also proceeded to more concrete and in-depth stages. The two sides reached agreement on several key clauses.

Should the Molten Iron Tribe be ready to formally establish a nation, Lothrian would immediately send its congratulations and express full recognition.

Afterward, comprehensive trade in resources and technology would commence, achieving true mutual benefit.

Thus, three years passed in the blink of an eye.

Time reached the year 321 of the new calendar, and the Molten Iron Tribe's development had entered a steady and orderly phase.

By then, every region of the Ser Wilderness was dotted with the tribe's bases, outposts, and resource points—firm anchors connected by roads and communications, weaving a network that covered the wasteland and solidified the tribe's rule.

Countless intelligent beings in the southern nations now knew that a mighty dragon called the Lord of Molten Iron had risen during the kingdoms' internal turmoil, dominating the Ser Wilderness and reigning as the unchallenged uncrowned king of that vast land.

More than that,

titles born of Garoth's deeds and traits—"King of the Convergence Lands," "Crimson Inferno Star," "Wings of the Skyrend"—spread through merchants and bardic songs and became widely known.

Meanwhile, in Dragon Valley,

the towering Red Iron Dragon rose in heat waves, coiled on the ground after finishing a high-intensity workout.

Even while resting with closed eyes to recover, his mind did not truly stop; he kept studying and interpreting the Dragon Legacy knowledge, not letting himself slack for a moment.

All his progress had come through sweat as well as talent.

"Present?"

A message came from Sorog.

"Present," Garoth replied simply.

"The tribe's development is booming. Followers grow in number daily, and overall quality has risen due to dragon-forge modification and survival of the fittest. The Ser Wilderness is completely under our control now," said Sorog with a hint of pride, then asked, "When do you plan to formally declare yourself king?"

"Declare a nation?"

After three years of steady growth, Sorog believed the time had come. It was time to formally found a nation and elevate the Molten Iron Tribe into a higher form.

Garoth chuckled and replied teasingly, "What, you can't contain your rampant ambition inside anymore?"

Sorog admitted frankly, "A bit, yes, but more importantly, I think now is the right time."

"We have fertile land and abundant resources, but we still lag behind in extraction, refining, and advanced processing techniques. We can't fully utilize our advantages."

"Our growth rate has slowed and entered a bottleneck."

"After founding a nation, we can, as an equal country, establish formal diplomacy and trade with other human or humanoid kingdoms. With Lothrian's technical support, only then can we begin the next stage of higher-quality development."

He made a reasonable point.

Garoth himself also thought the time for nationhood had arrived.

However, he still had one important task to complete first.

"A few days ago, the five Metal Dragon domains jointly launched their competition," Garoth said. "After layers of selection, they'll soon choose a single challenger."

"At that time, I will go with Nasha to the dragon domains, await the challenger, defeat them head-on, and then, using the 'Eternal Tide,' step into the Legendary realm."

"Only then will we found the nation formally."

Founding a nation before reaching Legendary status would always feel a bit underpowered in prestige and authority.

"Why not simply have that Metal Dragon challenger come to the wilderness or the convergence lands?" Sorog perked up and suggested, "Our tribe has recruited many new follower clans this year who don't yet know you well. Having them see your powerful form in person would unite hearts and build prestige for the nation's founding."

Garoth shook his head slightly.

"I don't need to accumulate empty fame that way."

"Besides, the Eternal Tide lies within the Vophal Dragon Domain, and sooner or later I must go there personally."

His voice paused, and his gaze seemed to pierce the heavy snow, looking toward the distant future: "When I return from achieving Legendary stature, I will personally announce the birth of our new nation."

"That will mean we step onto this planet's grand main stage as a kingdom."