Lie Down, Crawl, Roll Over, Shake Hands

Vermees reacted faster than expected—and far more violently.

When the enhancement card's effect vanished, her enormous body began rolling and convulsing across the ground.

Her entire body was wreathed in flames of astonishing heat.

It was a spell-like ability unique to Red Dragons, capable of scorching any creature that came within one or two meters of her.

Pain-filled, ear-splitting roars echoed through the lowest level of the mage tower.

Her powerful tail lashed at the surrounding rocks like a whip, striking wildly without pause.

Shattered pebbles flew in every direction.

One of them even flew more than ten meters, skimming past Raymond's cheek.

It left a small cut on his young face.

Dark red beads of blood slowly ran down from the wound.

But he did not notice it at all. All his attention was fixed on the Red Dragon's nearly crazed actions.

Clearly, all of that struggling was futile.

Neither her powerful tail and wings, nor her steel-rending fangs and claws, nor even her devastating Flame Breath and spell-like abilities could do anything to the thing that had already crawled into the Red Dragon's body.

She could only endure the agonizing pain as the Awaken Creation's barbed tentacles slowly tore open a small wound in the most fragile, sensitive depths of her ear.

Then it wriggled through the opening toward the point where her brain connected to her spine.

That bone-scraping, heart-piercing pain was simply beyond what any creature with pain receptors could endure.

But before long, her frantic struggle gradually subsided.

Only the area near her head trembled faintly, while a small amount of blood flowed from her ear and slowly dripped onto the ground.

When a flash of white light passed through Vermees's irises, she finally staggered back to her feet.

At the same time, an unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded intermittently in Raymond's mind.

"Brain! Delicious! Eat!"

He immediately realized that it was a message from the creation that had crawled into the Red Dragon's brain.

According to the description of the Creator's special ability, Awaken Creation, any magical creation granted intelligence would form a connection with its master similar to that between a mage and a familiar.

So Raymond immediately replied, "No! Cannot eat! Watch! Control!"

"Not eat! Watch! Control! Understand!"

Clearly, this newly awakened Oddity possessed intelligence barely comparable to that of a human infant.

It could not understand complex sentences.

Much less converse normally like some of a mage's familiars.

However, Raymond was not sure whether this little thing, which had inherited part of a Mind Flayer's Psionic Ability, had the potential to grow.

In other words, whether it would slowly become smarter and smarter over time.

Perhaps even grow into another creature like a Mind Flayer and eventually escape his control.

Of course, he could not afford to worry about that now. He simply decided to take the risk and walked over to try giving orders.

"Lie down!"

"Crawl!"

"Roll over!"

"Shake hands!"

The result was that the controlled Vermees not only obeyed every command perfectly, but also wore an adorably vacant expression that stood in complete contrast to her appearance.

In just a few seconds, the entire scene took a bizarre turn.

The terrifying, powerful Red Dragon behaved no differently from a pet dog.

"Good girl!"

Raymond gently patted the dragon's snout in satisfaction, then instructed again, "Allow her to speak."

Instantly!

Vermees, who had been lying on the ground like an obedient dog a moment ago, abruptly opened her jaws and roared madly, "Bastard! You lowly maggot! How dare you treat me like this?"

"I'll give you ten seconds to choose your words again! If a single curse or insulting term comes out of your mouth, I guarantee that you will never have another chance to speak." Raymond threatened without the slightest courtesy.

After all, once you had offended someone beyond repair, there was no point worrying about making things worse.

"..."

The Red Dragon fell silent.

Though her eyes blazed with brutality and rage.

Though she made no attempt to hide her urge to kill the human child before her.

In the end, she did not utter another derogatory term such as "maggot" or "little insect."

The threat worked?!

Seeing this, Raymond immediately continued intimidating her. "I believe you have already realized that the little thing which crawled into your brain can read and control all of your thoughts and movements.

For us to cooperate better and escape this damned place, I will allow you to regain control of your body shortly.

But before that, I must remind you of something.

Don't try any tricks!

Because every intention to attack will be read instantly. Before it can even be transmitted through your spinal nerves, it will be forcibly filtered and intercepted.

And if I die, no one will be able to stop that little thing from eating your brain.

You understand better than I do what it means to have your brain eaten by a Mind Flayer.

It means erasing all of a creature's memories, personality, and even soul."

"You'll allow me to regain control of my body?" Vermees asked, her surprise tinged with wild joy.

What she feared most at that moment was losing control of her body forever and becoming a puppet under someone else's control—or being completely devoured.

"That's right!

My creation has not yet learned how to control your body, innate abilities, and spells in combat.

So I've decided to give you a chance.

Also, I sincerely advise you to consider changing your attitude so that we can get along better.

After all, my patience is not limitless.

As time passes, that little thing will slowly learn from the commands you give your body.

Just imagine: if one day it learns all of your combat techniques, how do you think I will deal with a potential enemy who wants to kill me every day?"

As he spoke, Raymond did everything he could to paint a terrifying, hopeless future.

His goal was to plant a seed of fear deep within the dragon's heart so that he could better control and use her.

The facts proved that even the most violent and bloodthirsty Red Dragon would back down when faced with a fate more horrifying than death.

After a brief period of thought, Vermees quickly accepted the cruel reality and said in a slightly dejected, unwilling voice, "I can obey your orders. But you must promise not to treat me as a slave. I am a dragon—a Red Dragon, the finest and noblest among all True Dragons. I demand at least the most basic respect."

"A very reasonable request! I agree. From now on, we will not be master and servant, but equal partners and allies." Raymond nodded without a moment's hesitation.

Although he had lived in a magical world with a slave-based society for nearly two years since crossing over, he still retained the values of modern society deep down and did not reject having equal status with those around him.

Besides, that equality was only verbal.

As long as that creation remained under control, Raymond was still unquestionably the Red Dragon's master in practice, holding absolute authority over her.

"Good! As long as you maintain the most basic respect for me, I will not resist the orders you give."

Having obtained the promise she wanted, Vermees's attitude visibly softened.

After waiting for around half a minute, she discovered that her brain had regained control over her body and immediately chose to activate her innate ability.

Amid dazzling magical radiance, the massive dragon transformed in less than a few seconds into a beautiful human woman of around twenty, with long black hair, delicate and alluring features, a tall and shapely figure, and a red gown draped over her body.

True Dragons in the Forgotten Realms gained a powerful transformation ability during adolescence.

This ability allowed them to enter towns and villages in the forms of humans, Elves, Dwarves, and the like, adventure, travel, and even make friends with mortals.

Of course, Evil Dragons used it to gather information about passing caravans, build intelligence networks and forces, or recruit underlings and servants to serve them.