The Innately Evil Mudfish Dragon, I'll Get You Sooner or Later...

That was precisely why, when Xingyan chose the Flower Field Marshland Area as the site of his first hunt, he had already prepared himself for the possibility that the big creatures frequently roaming this region might interfere.

From Earth Sand Dragons to Fire Dragons and Female Fire Dragons, naturally including the Mudfish Dragon that had suddenly leaped out to attack him just now—honestly, even if some bizarre dragon Xingyan had never seen before appeared, he could accept it.

Nature—anything was possible.

And the thing now glaring down at him after landing was merely a Mudfish Dragon.

It looked like a huge fish with legs, its entire body covered in earthy yellow carapace and scales. Its pectoral and tail fins swayed continuously, while its great mouth was lined with flat, blade-like teeth. Its tiny eyes brimmed with greed and killing intent.

It wanted to kill the hatchling before it. For a Mudfish Dragon occupying the middle tier of the Great Sand Sea's ecosystem alongside Earth Sand Dragons, the Glavenus hatchling that had unexpectedly appeared before it was the ultimate feast, rich in Life Energy—nutritious and delicious.

Under normal circumstances, a Mudfish Dragon would never get to enjoy such a meal.

It was still chewing on half a Carapace Dragon in its mouth, chewing and chewing before swallowing it down.

Honestly, Xingyan felt that his already red eyes had instantly become even redder.

That was prey he had worked so hard to catch!!

His feast!!

The first meat of his life as a dragon!!!

And it had just been snatched away by another dragon?!

Not only that, but the dragon that had stolen his dream meal was eyeing him too, intending to turn him into a meal as well?!

Pain! Suffering! My hatred burns within the Great Sand Sea!

Do you know how tormented I've been for the past month?!

Do you know how badly I want to eat meat?!

You innately evil Mudfish Dragon, sooner or later I'll—!

"Roar—!!"

Xingyan let out a low growl, attempting to intimidate the Mudfish Dragon.

There was no helping it. He really couldn't beat it.

Judging by what he could see, this Mudfish Dragon was around thirteen meters long from head to tail. That was not especially huge for its species, roughly on the smaller side, but even with part of its legs submerged in mud, Xingyan still had to raise his head to see its face.

The difference in size was already plain to see. Xingyan was not some reckless lunatic whose blood had rushed to his head and robbed him of reason. He knew why the Mudfish Dragon had not rushed over and bitten him to death at once—it was wary of the adult Glavenus that should, in theory, have been protecting this hatchling.

But Xingyan knew perfectly well that no adult Glavenus was protecting him.

That did not stop him from throwing his weight around, though. While staring fixedly at the Mudfish Dragon, Xingyan slowly backed away, continuously letting out roars calling for his mother.

It worked well.

Xingyan knew that if he simply tried to run, he would never escape. This was still the Mudfish Dragon's advantageous territory: the marshland.

The mud of the marshland would slow Xingyan's short little legs, but for an adult Mudfish Dragon, this terrain was more suitable for showing off its abilities and moving even faster.

With this series of tactics, Xingyan seemed to have successfully intimidated the Mudfish Dragon. It merely watched him retreat slowly, until he finally ran out of the Flower Field Marshland Area without looking back. Even after turning past the rock wall and disappearing from the Mudfish Dragon's sight, Xingyan could still feel that greedy intent.

Fuming, Xingyan circled back to the little cave he had painstakingly dug out mouthful by mouth. The sun was setting, and his Bird Bro had no plans to work overtime. It was currently curled up in a small corner of the cave, only lifting its head to look at him when he entered.

"Goo?"

"Roar!"

After briefly exchanging greetings, Xingyan listlessly flopped back into his spot.

Glavenus student @ Can't be bothered.

The prey he had fought so hard to catch had been stolen, and he had nearly been eaten himself. If he had not managed to get a few bites in before escaping, Xingyan felt he might have become depressed.

He was angry, but anger was useless. Hunting was inherently filled with uncertainties. Hunting in the Flower Field Marshland Area offered the advantages of avoiding large Apceros herds and having places to hide, but it also meant facing attacks from large monsters such as Mudfish Dragons.

Besides, how could hunting possibly be without risk?

Honestly, considering Xingyan's current size, the sheer variety of species living in the Great Sand Sea, and its vast open terrain, he could encounter danger anywhere as long as he showed himself outside.

Rather than running into a madman like a Great Jagras in the open wastelands, Xingyan would rather encounter a Mudfish Dragon.

At least Mudfish Dragons would not chase him out of the marshland. But if a Great Jagras saw a Glavenus hatchling, it would not care about any of that. Even if an adult female Glavenus stood beside the hatchling, those thugs would charge in through their injuries to bite the hatchling to death if possible.

That was far too insane.

—But that did not mean Xingyan would simply let go of the grudge over having his food stolen!

A Mudfish Dragon, huh?

Just wait! Sooner or later, I'll eat you too!!

Thinking furiously, Xingyan flicked the tip of his tail over his head. He was getting ready to sleep.

After a good night's sleep, tomorrow would be a brand-new day, and he would forget all these sad things.

"Goo-ji?"

At the sound of stones being shifted, Xingyan slightly moved the tip of his tail aside and saw that his Bird Bro had come over, holding a Dragon Egg in its foreclaws.

"Roar?" (For me?)

"Gurgle!"

Perhaps thinking Xingyan was so downcast because he hadn't eaten enough, Bird Bro deftly tapped open the eggshell with his round, blunt beak. After placing the Dragon Egg in front of Xingyan, he chirped and waddled back to his little nest, leaving Xingyan standing there in a daze.

The bond of peeling garlic for each other!!

For a moment, Xingyan nearly teared up. He gulped down the egg liquid in huge mouthfuls, and in the end, he didn't even spare the shell.

He had to become stronger! Only then could he properly repay Bird Bro!!

Sleep!!

Compared to the Old World, the New World had far more abundant Ley Line Energy—Life Energy. As a result, the creatures living here possessed far greater vitality than their counterparts in the Old World.

They bred more easily, grew larger, and existed in greater numbers. Even the beetles by the roadside were enormous—beetles over a meter long, nearly two meters in size, were something Xingyan could never have imagined in his previous life.

It was practically like something out of a horror movie.

"Pah!"

Didn't taste good.

The beetle tasted strange—slightly sour and a little astringent. Still, the fluid inside its body contained Life Energy, so Xingyan wasn't picky.

The beetles, enraged by the attack on their companions, kept circling Xingyan and attacking him. Unfortunately for them, their attacks failed to pierce his shell. After several beetles in a row became Xingyan's food, the little things finally began to flee.

Honestly, Xingyan felt like some kind of Deviljho now. Whenever he passed anything edible, he had to take a bite. He didn't even spare the soil beneath his feet. If the dirt looked off, as though there might be a mineral vein underneath, he would chew his way down—at least Deviljho probably didn't eat dirt, right?

But there was no helping it. Everything was for the Life Energy that would let him grow.

Perhaps because he now had a goal—or, more accurately, a dragon he wanted revenge on—Xingyan wouldn't let go of any Life Energy that could help him grow, nor would he spare anything edible, driven by his desire to take revenge on and devour the Mudfish Dragon.

A bug he didn't recognize? Eat!

Soil with minerals in it? Eat!

Scales that might have belonged to a Rathalos? Eat!

In short, he didn't even spare the scales other dragons used to mark their territory. After all, those scales contained at least some nutrients.

At first, Xingyan had wondered whether he could really eat like this. What if he upset his stomach or got poisoned?

But as time passed, perhaps because a Glavenus's stomach was simply ridiculously tough, he found that after tentatively trying it a few times, his body had actually become healthier. From then on, Xingyan completely lost all restraint when it came to eating.

And under this feeding strategy—one that other dragons would almost never imitate and could even be called insane—Xingyan's body rapidly filled out. Some changes also began to occur that left him completely baffled.

First, the Life Energy in his body had become far more abundant. That itself wasn't an issue, but Xingyan wasn't sure whether other Glavenus were the same, because everything he ate turned into Life Energy to some extent. Even eating dirt did so. That energy conversion efficiency was downright terrifying.

After all, Ley Line Energy was indeed buried beneath every corner of the New World, but most creatures living here couldn't absorb it directly. They could only accumulate it layer by layer through the food chain.

Plants absorbed the energy, herbivorous dragons ate the plants, and large monsters ate the herbivorous dragons—something like that.

Or take monsters that fed on Ant Workers. Those little Ant Workers also contained Ley Line Energy, and eating them could accumulate energy as well.

But gaining energy simply by eating dirt was a little excessive, even if every mouthful of soil contained only an extremely tiny amount of Ley Line Energy.

Yet Xingyan could clearly feel the energy within his body increasing by the slightest degree. The sensation intoxicated him, like having an experience bar in a game—you could directly see it filling up.

That really made a dragon feel motivated.

And what truly made Xingyan realize that something might be wrong with him was... uh, well... he didn't poop.

Don't laugh. This was a serious matter.

At first, Xingyan had assumed it was because, during the period right after he was born, all he ate were eggs stolen by Bird Bro. Eggs were highly nutritious and easy to digest, so he hadn't found it strange that he didn't poop.

There was nothing to poop out. Perfectly reasonable.

But then things started getting a little wrong. Starting with that little Apceros he had eaten as an appetizer, Xingyan hunted many small prey over the following days. He devoured those prey completely, from flesh to bones, yet still didn't poop. Even he could tell there was a problem with that.

After all, even Deviljho pooped in this world.

So the question was, if he hadn't expelled anything, where had everything he ate gone?

Xingyan tilted his head slightly. He could clearly see the shell covering his body. Normally, the large areas of shell covering a Glavenus should have been sharp, thick, and reddish-brown, with only the heat-dissipating shells on its tail and back being pale blue.

But he was completely different.

Yes, the base color was still that of crimson lotus, but patches of pale blue or blue-gray matter had appeared across the surface of his reddish-brown shell at some point.

Xingyan tried using the tip of his tail to pry those patches off, only to discover in surprise that they had actually been secreted from within his shell. They were like an outer layer of skin—part of his shell itself.

There was no doubt that these secretions were the minerals he had tirelessly dug out of the soil and eaten. Xingyan was also no stranger to them, because the surface of a Glavenus's tail was covered in precisely this sort of mineral secretion.

It was these secretions that made a Glavenus's tail as sharp and hard as steel. It was also because it had consumed too much Lapis Lazuli that its tail took on a pale blue hue—if it ate too much of another mineral, the blade forged on its tail would take on the corresponding mineral's color as well.

That was also why a Glavenus's Sword Tail could be broken. What actually broke was the mineral weapon forged onto its tail after consuming ore. Once the Sword Tail broke, the Glavenus had to keep searching for minerals to eat and forge its weapon anew.

A blacksmith among dragons, basically.

What surprised Xingyan was precisely this: mineral secretions that should have appeared only on his tail had emerged across his torso instead. They were also far thicker than they were on the tail, practically as if he had put on a layer of armor—or as if minerals had grown directly out of his body.

This was another mutation!

When Xingyan first noticed these abnormalities in his body, he had been quite worried. Given a Glavenus's physiology and fighting habits, he needed to maintain efficient internal heat dissipation.

Glavenus possessed extremely high body temperatures. Even under normal conditions, the temperature of its tail was around three hundred degrees Celsius. When a Glavenus became enraged, entered combat, and began breathing fire, its core body temperature rose even higher.

If those mineral secretions clogged his body's heat vents or reduced his heat dissipation efficiency, that would be far from ideal. Even if they increased his defense, Xingyan had no desire to become some kind of living bomb that would suffer a Blast Chamber before an enemy even touched him whenever he fought at full strength.

However, after observing anxiously for a while, Xingyan finally relaxed—these mineral secretions seemed able to spread according to his wishes. They cleverly avoided the flame-shaped shells on Xingyan's back. Not only did they not block the heat vents between the shells, they even perfectly left open a more convenient heat-dissipation channel wherever Xingyan wanted one.

This was a good thing.