Defeating the World with the Power of One Dragon!

Chapter 9: The Tailspike Lions

After hunting in the abandoned mines and discovering the Rockgrub worm swarm, Garoth didn't immediately return to the sky pit territory under the iron dragon mother's protection. Instead, he continued circling above the clouds, scanning the endless wilderness below for magical beasts and savage creatures to hone his combat skills while scouting potential territories to claim in the future.

Here's something worth noting:

Magical beasts are shorthand for magical creatures. As a dragon, Garoth himself could be considered among the most powerful magical beasts. As for savage creatures, they're evolved and mutated ferocious animals.

Most magical beasts possess innate spell-like abilities and relatively high intelligence, while savage creatures mainly rely on their formidable physical attributes and have lower intelligence.

Over the course of the day, aside from the initial Rockgrub worms, Garoth hunted five targets in total:

A petrifying lizard, a fire-breathing crocodile, a red-eyed giant rhino, a terrorclaw owlbear, and a giant pincer rock crab.

Two magical beasts and three savage creatures.

Given the Ser Wilderness' environment, most creatures here were earth or fire-aligned.

Counting the Rockgrub worms, the six battles gave Garoth a clearer understanding of his own capabilities.

He was currently a Level 7 lifeform. Against the Level 6 terrorclaw owlbear, Garoth's naturally powerful dragon physique - further enhanced by his daily training - allowed him to kill it with a single charge.

When fighting the Level 7 fire-breathing crocodile, Garoth's inherited fire resistance from his red and iron dragon bloodlines meant the creature's high-temperature flames only left some scorch marks on his scales, while his own fiery breath reduced the crocodile to charcoal.

Other magical beasts and savage creatures of the same level were no match for Garoth either.

Even the thick-skinned red-eyed giant rhino was left half-dead after Garoth dive-bombed it from high altitude.

Currently, "Great Desolate Dragonfall" was Garoth's strongest attack besides his breath weapon.

For other young dragons, such reckless diving attacks would be dangerous - poor execution could cause serious self-injury. But Garoth's daily mountain-and-earth pounding, combined with his evolved buffer scales, made him exceptionally skilled at it.

Lower-level and same-level opponents were weak.

Only the Level 8 petrifying lizard managed to injure Garoth slightly.

Its petrification ray turned a small patch of scales on his forearm and the flesh beneath to stone - but that was the extent of damage it inflicted.

Garoth estimated that despite being only Level 7, he could likely hold his own against Level 9 creatures.

Normal dragons could already fight above their weight class, and Garoth's adaptively evolved physique made him exceptional even among dragons.

However, Garoth lacked the arrogance typical of other dragons.

Unless absolutely necessary or sufficiently incentivized, he wouldn't recklessly challenge far stronger creatures.

With his innate dragon abilities and adaptive evolution, steady growth would make him increasingly powerful.

There was no need to endanger himself through momentary pride.

Since ancient times when dragons ruled supreme, countless young dragons had died prematurely due to inherited arrogance before reaching maturity.

Returning to the main topic -

Beyond the creatures he hunted, Garoth also discovered several suitable habitats.

The good news was these locations had either fertile soil and lush vegetation, clear lakes teeming with wildlife, or easily defensible terrain.

The bad news was that like the Rockgrub-infested mines, they were all already claimed.

In this wilderness, prime habitats were scarce and inevitably occupied by powerful creatures.

Garoth particularly coveted one picturesque territory nestled between mountains and water, abundant with food resources.

Unfortunately, it was controlled by a pride of tailspike lions.

An adult tailspike lion averaged Level 5.

In a one-on-one, knightly duel, Garoth could defeat one with both forelimbs tied.

But the pride numbered around thirty based on aerial reconnaissance. They had both male and female alphas, were exceptionally large, and appeared somewhat mutated compared to normal tailspike lions.

Marking the locations of his desired territories,

Garoth thought that by the time he left the iron dragon mother's protection, he might be strong enough to displace their current rulers.

As the sun dipped into the distant mountains, staining the sky with layered sunset clouds like burning embers,

the young dragon concluded his expedition and soared back to the sky pit territory under the evening glow.

Since he was technically at the age when dragons are driven out, Garoth no longer shared the iron dragon mother's nest despite living in her territory.

He'd settled by the cliffs where he trained daily.

Upon returning,

he saw the red dragon sister and iron dragon brother lazily sunbathing in the fading light, bellies exposed as they lounged outside the mine entrance, tails idly swishing with half-lidded eyes - the picture of contentment.

These two were naturally lazy and lacked Garoth's discipline.

Initially, thinking they'd discovered the secret to his strength, they'd enthusiastically mimicked his mountain-and-earth pounding during free time.

For the first few days, they maintained this fervor,

pounding terrain whenever possible instead of their usual idle wandering or napping.

But as time passed, their true natures resurfaced and enthusiasm waned.

Recently,

when it came time for her scheduled mountain-pounding session, the red dragon sister hesitated.

She reasoned about work-life balance, deciding to nap first to recharge.

Upon waking to chilly evening winds that made her uncomfortable,

she concluded poor condition meant poor training results, postponing it till morning.

Come dawn with its fresh air,

she felt compelled to soar through the skies enjoying the view instead, completely forgetting training.

After several such cycles, she abandoned training altogether.

As for the iron dragon brother, his path differed from his sister's introspection -

During one session, he'd flown too high and misjudged his earth-pounding angle,

smashing face-first into the ground hard enough to leave him cross-eyed and slack-jawed to this day.

After this incident, he too gave up.

Truthfully, though not as dramatically effective as Garoth's visible adaptive evolution,

persistent terrain-pounding would have hardened their scales and toughened their bodies to some degree.

Even being forced by Garoth to mine had, over a month,

sharpened their claws and fangs while slightly increasing muscle strength.

Ordinary dragons actually possess far greater evolutionary capabilities than most creatures - just not as efficiently obvious as Garoth's.