The Detel Tribe's Changes and Xingyan Reaches His Limit

Eat! Gotta devour it!

Xingyan felt no embarrassment whatsoever. When it came to eating, he'd always been shameless. The dignity of being the Dragon Slayer Boss didn't matter in the slightest. After finishing the stir-fried dishes and grilled meat, he even licked the stone slab clean.

He didn't spare even the wooden skewers that had held the meat. Anything with seasoning on it had to go straight down his throat.

As Xingyan's most important partner, Bird Bro had also been invited to serve as a judge. The Detel seemed to know what he liked, so they'd prepared several egg dishes for him: steamed eggs, fried eggs, and the like.

But Bird Bro couldn't give precise evaluations like Xingyan. As long as he enjoyed what he ate, the Detel considered it good enough.

Unprecedented deliciousness. To be honest, ever since he'd come to this world and his perspective had changed, body and soul, to that of a Glavenus, Xingyan could barely remember what the delicacies from his previous life had tasted like.

But now, those memories seemed to have become reality.

It was wonderful.

The only problem seemed to be that he hadn't eaten enough. So, after licking the stone slab clean, Xingyan turned his attention to the only contestants who hadn't served their dish yet.

Then he and the gathered Detel saw the chefs from the stew group frantically dumping ingredients into their huge pot.

Xingyan: "..."

Was that really how much they were supposed to add?

Hey, hey, hey, wasn't there any water left in the pot? The seasoning powder was already piled up to the brim!

Was this still stew—or, uh, meat stew?

Clearly, what Congcong had said earlier hadn't just dealt the stir-fry group's chefs a finishing blow. It had also deeply affected the stew group.

Once they'd realized that Congcong really did have a point, the stew group's chefs had seized their chance while Xingyan was busy devouring the first two groups' food and the other Detel were distracted, and started piling on the seasoning.

If it didn't kill you, add more!

"All right, we're ready too, meow!"

At last, several Detel carried the huge pot over to Xingyan on wooden poles. And Xingyan...

His expression was a little complicated.

Everyone, there's a pot of stew here, along with at least two or three pounds of seasoning powder. They've dumped it all in at once... It's thicker than sesame paste. Would anyone actually drink this?

As expected, the classics never went out of style. I can't believe they're still following me in another world.

But that's fine. If the Qi family won't drink it, I, a Glavenus, will!

Xingyan roared a few times to make Elder Chief Detel understand what he meant, then lowered his head and opened his mouth wide. The chief directed the Detel to work together and pour the whole pot into Xingyan's mouth. Xingyan had gone to such lengths because he didn't want to break the pot while eating.

That was the difference between one full meal and a lifetime of full meals.

Well, to be fair, when many of the Detel saw the mass in the pot—uh, the sticky, muddled, paste-like... meat—they couldn't help widening their cat eyes in shock. They stared at the stew group's chefs with strange expressions.

There was no need to say anything more. If you knew, you knew.

"We... we failed completely, meow..."

The stew group's chefs sank to the ground, wailing in defeat.

Mouth closed, chew, chew. Big dragon chewed and chewed.

Honestly, to Xingyan's taste, the stew paste was pretty good, packed as it was with seasoning.

That flavor really hit the spot!

So—"Roar!"

"The Dragon Slayer Boss says it's an eight, meow!"

"What?!"

The stir-fry group's chefs sprang back from the dead, their voices full of disbelief.

"Why, meow?! How can something that looks so hard to swallow score higher than the carefully prepared dishes we stir-fried, meow?!"

"I can't accept this, meow!"

"What's delicious and what's garbage? I can't tell! I just can't tell, meow!!!"

"..."

"Quiet! Everyone, quiet, meow!" Seeing the situation getting a little chaotic, Elder Chief Detel rapped his cane several times. It took a while, but at last the Detel calmed down a little. "Anyway, the winner of this Dragon Slayer Boss trial is the grilled meat group led by Congcong, meow!"

"Meow yeah!"

"Grilled meat wins, meow!"

"Grilled meat is invincible, meow!!!"

The grilled meat group's chefs cheered at once. The Detel watching from the sidelines joined in, congratulating Congcong and the others... the other cats... on winning the trial.

This time, the chief didn't rush to take control of the crowd. Instead, he watched the Detel celebrate with a broad smile. Only after the cheers had gradually died down did he continue:

"And those who failed the trial don't need to be sad, meow. Just figure out why you failed, meow."

"Let me explain, Chief, meow." Congcong confidently stepped forward and addressed the defeated chefs, who were all slumped on the other side, looking thoroughly dejected. "Remember, when you cook, you have to cook the kind of food the one eating it likes, meow!"

A legendary quote!

Xingyan nearly burst out laughing.

Rice must be made of rice! It was about that profound.

Still, the joke had probably only happened because the Detel weren't very good at expressing themselves. Congcong's meaning had come through clearly enough.

You had to cook according to the customer's preferences and circumstances.

Unlike Xingyan, who had nearly laughed when he heard it, every Detel looked serious, as if they'd just learned an important lesson.

Smacking his lips, Xingyan felt the situation had somehow taken a very strange turn. Uh, what was this Dragon Slayer Boss trial? Why had he somehow become the judge in a competition between three groups of Detel?

"Um, uh, hasn't something gone a little wrong, meow?" At that moment, Shanshan, the newly appointed young chief, raised a paw timidly and asked, "Weren't we trying to make good food so the Dragon Slayer Boss would acknowledge us, meow?"

Silence.

All the Detel seemed to have been hit by a paralysis spell. Their bodies went rigid, and no one moved.

Silence.

The cave was full of breathing, yet it was still frighteningly quiet... The only sound was Shanshan's voice.

"How did this somehow turn into something that feels like a festival, meow... This isn't a tribal celebration, is it, meow..."

An astonishing silence!

Xingyan looked over the little fellows, each of whom had suddenly grown tense, and chuckled to himself. In the end, he was the one who broke the silence.

"Roar!"

When he heard Xingyan's roar, Elder Chief Detel visibly relaxed.

"The Dragon Slayer Boss says you passed the trial, meow! From now on, the Dragon Slayer Boss will protect us, meow!"

"Meow yeah!"

"Great, meow!!!"

"Let's celebrate, meow! We have to celebrate, meow!!!"

They leaped three feet into the air. Even the stir-fry and stew chefs, who'd just been dejected over their failures, cheered up. They'd finally begun to realize what this meant.

Safety.

For weak creatures living in a world full of danger, nothing mattered more than safety.

Could anything be better than a dragon that huge and strong promising to protect you?

It was like Godzilla telling someone, "I'll protect you." When it came to feeling safe, nothing could beat that.

All they'd given up today had been worth it. The precious spices the tribe had worked so hard to gather hadn't gone to waste; they'd won the Dragon Slayer Boss's approval. In other words, their cooking had been recognized!

From now on, as long as the Dragon Slayer Boss brought back the prey he'd caught and handed it over to them to cook, they wouldn't have to risk their lives going out to hunt anymore!

Even if all they did was butcher the carcasses brought back by the Dragon Slayer Boss, cook the best cuts, and serve them to him, the scraps left over would be enough to fill the tribe's bellies.

No more hunting party members disappearing without a trace. They'd never again have to worry about a family member bravely leaving them because of some accident. It was simply wonderful, meow!!

The Detel cheered without pause. They seemed ready to start a feast right away. They didn't mind the food Xingyan and Bird Bro had left over, and instead grilled and boiled it.

Other Detel celebrated the arrival of their new chief. Shanshan's inauguration celebration had come a little late, but now that the tribe's great crisis had passed, every Detel was happy to have a new chief.

Now that he'd eaten his fill, Xingyan watched the Detel bouncing around with great interest. These big cats brought back a long-missed sense of communal warmth.

For a long time, the nest he shared with Bird Bro had been quiet. With things suddenly so lively, Bird Bro even seemed a little unused to it.

Lying in a corner of the cave, Xingyan watched the Detel hopping about and found himself thinking of the dragons of the DND world—in particular, the chromatic dragons.

Kobolds and lizardfolk instinctively pledged themselves to chromatic dragons, becoming their armies of servants.

Thinking about it that way, didn't these Detel already count as his own army of servants?

The thought even made Xingyan laugh.

An army of servants? These simple-minded Detel?

They might... lose to the Gajalaka.

The Detel Tribe that had pledged itself to Xingyan entered a period of sweeping change.

The most noticeable change was that the tribe's hunting party had disbanded. There was no complicated reason; they simply didn't need it anymore.

Xingyan's desire to evolve was extremely strong. He longed to become more powerful, and that desire drove him to attack other large monsters again and again. In this respect, his urge to fight far surpassed that of other Glavenus. Instead, he was more like a Brute Dragon, the kind of monster that attacked every living thing in its territory.

But unlike a Brute Dragon, Xingyan wasn't simply killing for the sake of killing. He didn't waste the carcasses of his prey. He ate every last one—after all, they were Life Energy too.

With the Detel Tribe now living under his protection, Xingyan gave up his habit of eating raw food. Instead, he brought the carcasses he hunted back for the Detel to prepare.

The tribe's hunting party had more or less turned into a team of chefs. They no longer needed to risk their lives hunting. Just carving up the carcasses Xingyan brought back and saving the scraps gave them more food than they could eat.

Their daily work was preparing grand meals for Xingyan.

It was a happy life, and no Detel would turn it down.

Besides the chefs, the tribe had also gained a gathering team, whose members traveled around the Great Sand Sea to collect spices suitable for cooking. The seasonings were in great demand at the moment.

The tribe's existing breeding team had also gained new members. These Detel searched for caves with suitable temperature and humidity to grow mushrooms and other crops. They also grew useful plants... for seasoning.

Time slipped by amid the little tasks of daily life. Xingyan truly enjoyed this life, which could only be called happy. Without exaggeration, this was the happiest period he'd experienced since coming to this world.

But that didn't mean Xingyan had forgotten the foundation of his place in this world: his strength as a dragon.

It was that strength that let him enjoy the benefits of having an entire Detel Tribe serve him. It was also his strength that allowed him to survive in the Great Sand Sea.

He'd seen with his own eyes just how powerful Elder Dragons were, and what made them so strong. So Xingyan had never given up on the idea of becoming stronger.

An ordinary adult male Glavenus stood about three to four meters tall at the shoulder. With its head raised normally, it reached five to six meters in height, and measured about twenty-two meters from head to tail. If it raised its Sword Tail as high as possible, it could slash at a height of nearly ten meters.

But Xingyan had already far surpassed those measurements. He stood five meters tall at the shoulder, and his total length, with his Sword Tail not yet reforged, had already reached an astonishing twenty-six meters.

If the mineral Great Sword on its Sword Tail was included, an ordinary Glavenus weighed a little over sixty tons. Yet even without the mineral section of his tail, which he hadn't been able to forge again, Xingyan now weighed more than that.

That was thanks to the double layer of mineral armor covering his whole body. It had exhausted him.

Given the choice between forging a blade and forging armor, Xingyan had chosen to prioritize the armor. He felt safer with it, so for more than half a year, all the ore he'd eaten had gone toward reshaping his armor first.

By now, Xingyan could clearly tell that the body of this Glavenus had probably reached its limit. Of course, that didn't mean he was going to look for a new body.

For an ordinary Glavenus, Xingyan had already reached the end point of the growth it spent its whole life pursuing.

Once they reached this level, they would find the best territory they could and settle down there. They would hunt, mate, reproduce, and fight other large monsters until they died.

That was all. Their entire lives amounted to nothing more than the life of an ordinary monster.

They were a link in the ecological chain, predators necessary to maintain it.