Devouring Steel Dragon and Evolved Forelimbs!

[Investigation Log · 194]

I was wrong, it's not friendly at all.

I think I've discovered a subspecies of Dragon Slayer, no, given the vast difference between this monster and a normal Dragon Slayer, it should be classified as a second-name monster.

Even though this conclusion is hard to believe, I personally witnessed the entire process of this monster killing a Claw Dragon, that monster with a reddish-brown body that looks like it has no skin, which is what I've temporarily named it.

This monster's attack patterns are extremely similar to a Dragon Slayer's, both using its Sword Tail to stab or slash enemies. However, unlike a normal Dragon Slayer, this monster's tail doesn't have a greatsword-like ore. Instead, its scales at the top and bottom ends of its Sword Tail serve as blades, which are very sharp.

Besides that, apart from the lack of flame-like plating on its back, this monster's entire structure is not much different from a Dragon Slayer, with similarly short forelimbs and equally strong hind legs.

The scholars will surely be excited by the appearance of a second-name monster, as it is powerful, rare, and highly valuable for research.

I've been away from the base for over a year now. Perhaps I should take my discoveries back with me, lest they be unknown if I die unexpectedly.

[Investigation Log · 196]

I'm not sure if this feeling I have now is normal, or if it's my hallucination. Is it because I've been alone for too long? Or am I poisoned by miasma?

I feel like that second-name monster of the Dragon Slayer is watching me.

It's not an illusion. I've been encountering it frequently in the caves of Miasma Valley lately. I always thought I was observing it, but only today did I suddenly realize, is it observing me too?

Perhaps it hasn't attacked me because a creature like me is the only one it has seen in Miasma Valley. (The handwriting becomes messy, as if trying to tear through the paper)

I'm getting a little too excited. I have to take a deep breath to calm myself down. This is absolutely an unprecedented feeling—I might be the first human to be observed by a monster, just as I observe monsters every day.

What is it? Could it be a scholar among monsters?

I really need to return to the base, not only because I'm running out of paper and pens, but also because I'm afraid my discoveries will disappear.

But before that, I'm going to try to head to the cave where that Steel Dragon is.

I don't know what kind of mental distress I've caused Yano, but Yano's appearance has indeed made Xingyan perceive time again, no longer just a cycle of eating and sleeping.

It's very interesting, especially when Yano would occasionally look at him nervously, which Xingyan found very amusing until he discovered rust residue from a Steel Dragon in the cave Yano had passed through.

No mistake, Xingyan remembers this smell. This is definitely rust residue left by a Rusty Steel Dragon.

Meaning, Yano is also tracking the Steel Dragon?

This discovery made Xingyan instantly serious. Putting aside his playful mood, he followed Yano, no longer mentally harassing the female Hunter.

"This, this—Rusty Steel Dragon?!"

Yano crouched down at the entrance of a cave passage, her pupils widening at everything reflected in her eyes. The unprecedented shock made her gasp involuntarily.

BANG!!

Before Yano could get a clearer look, a huge figure flew past her. The heavy footsteps of its strong hind legs landing on the rock next to Yano made a dull thud.

Yano's gasp echoed far into the cave. Xingyan, hearing her cry, also hurried over. The entrance to this cave was very large, so large that he could walk straight in without bending down.

He saw that old Steel Dragon, that Rusty Steel Dragon.

It was like a small, dark brown mountain piled in a corner of the cave. The Rusty Steel Dragon's wide wings were like two giant cloaks covering its body, motionless. It wasn't entirely rusty-colored; faint silvery-gray patches could be seen between the layers of mottled hues.

Even though Xingyan had never tried to hide his footsteps, the Rusty Steel Dragon showed no reaction until he walked into the cave and stood before it, as if it were asleep.

Dead?

Xingyan couldn't help but have such a thought—an absurd thought—Is the old Steel Dragon dead?

Xingyan couldn't dwell on this thought, as everything happening on the Rusty Steel Dragon's body at that moment was leading him to think in that direction.

The cave, lacking light, should have been illuminated only by the glowing moss or fungi scattered throughout. However, when Xingyan stepped into this cave, he found it much brighter than other caves, like a desert illuminated by moonlight at night, with even the stones on the ground in the other corner of the cave clearly visible.

Wisps of milky white light were constantly flowing outward, centered on the Rusty Steel Dragon. Yes, flowing. Light, which should have been formless and intangible, traveling at its usual speed through space, seemed to have turned into small rivers of threads here, flowing outwards.

It was exceptionally dreamlike, no wonder Yano gasped when she saw this scene.

Stopping in his tracks, Xingyan quietly watched a strand of light drift out from the Rusty Steel Dragon's body, flowing in a winding path towards the other corner of the cave, until it disappeared into the rock.

Suddenly, Xingyan knew, or rather, he had guessed what these beautiful ribbons of light were—the Life Energy emanating from the Rusty Steel Dragon's body.

As its lifespan neared its end, the Rusty Steel Dragon was releasing the Life Energy it had accumulated throughout its life from its body, returning it to nature.

In Miasma Valley, this cycle of the New World, allowing Life Energy to return to the ley lines, flowing through them to every corner of the New World.

But, this was not the Rusty Steel Dragon's own will.

The Rusty Steel Dragon had awakened at some point. Xingyan saw its rusty head now gazing at him, but without the ferocity they had shown the last time they met.

Also noticing the Life Energy dissipating from its body, the Rusty Steel Dragon stretched its neck and bit at them, trying to swallow this Life Energy back into its body, but the escaping Life Energy was far more than it could swallow.

"Roar----" (You're too late.)

The Rusty Steel Dragon's roar was exceptionally low.

"Roar." (You died too soon.)

Xingyan sighed with a touch of melancholy.

He would never have sought out the old Steel Dragon without completing its evolution and increasing his strength, but when that evolution would happen was not within Xingyan's control. Those evolutionary traits wouldn't just sit around waiting for him to consume them.

But the old Steel Dragon's lifespan was fixed. Especially as it neared the end of its life, the old Steel Dragon could no longer control the Life Energy within its body and could only let it escape naturally.

This was also a characteristic of Elder Dragons like the Steel Dragon. When they completely died, only a skeletal frame of steel would remain—meaning they had already begun to die while still alive.

It sounds abstract, right? But this is the Steel Dragon. When its lifespan is nearing its end, its body will gradually turn into true steel, starting from the outermost layer and moving inward bit by bit. This process had already begun years ago when it encountered Xingyan.

Its control over its body was gradually fading, and the essence contained within its body was escaping during this loss of control.

"Roar, roar, roar!" (You think you can kill me? Not in this state?)

But the old Steel Dragon's mouth refused to admit defeat.

"Roar, roar!" (I think I can—why can you still recognize me even though I've evolved into this state?)

The old Steel Dragon's body, which looked like it had rusted into a single piece, finally moved. It struggled to its feet and carefully examined Xingyan.

"Roar." (Your aura hasn't changed.)

"Roar?" (Aura?)

Xingyan vaguely understood what the old Steel Dragon meant, but honestly, he was now a bit unsure of what to do—the old Steel Dragon looked so weak that even moving seemed difficult. Killing it wouldn't be hard.

But its peaceful demeanor made Xingyan hesitant to strike. It would have been better if the old Steel Dragon had shown even a hint of hostility.

"Roar, roar!" (Do you know what those humans call me? They call me Elder Dragon.)

The old Steel Dragon's low roar echoed in the cave. Yano couldn't understand the conversation between the two dragons, but she could tell they were communicating—what a shocking discovery!

She was trembling with excitement. She had always assumed that when two monsters of different species met, it would inevitably lead to a fight, whether for territory or to satisfy hunger. But Yano had never imagined a development like this.

Was this a special case unique to Elder Dragons or Dragon Slayers with two names? A privilege of highly intelligent monsters?

Regardless, everything she had discovered today would overturn the understanding of scholars! It would overturn the understanding of the guild!

"Roar." (Kill me.)

But unlike Yano, who was overwhelmed with excitement, the old Steel Dragon's roar remained calm even when discussing its own death. Its head never lowered.

"Roar, roar, roar!" (I thought you were just an ordinary dragon, but I was wrong.)

"Roar!" (You are also an Elder Dragon. Your previous form was just a temporary state, and your current form is not the end.)

"Roar, roar!!" (Kill me! Eat me!! Show your true power!!)

The old Steel Dragon's roar finally carried a hint of excitement.

"Roar." (Are you sure?)

Xingyan growled in a low voice. He felt no guilt or emotion. No matter what the old Steel Dragon said today, he would devour it.

The body of an Elder Dragon, the blood of an Elder Dragon, the power of an Elder Dragon.

Even though the old Steel Dragon had lost so much of its strength, it was still the power of an Elder Dragon.

"Roar!" (Kill me!)

Repeating only these words, the old Steel Dragon struggled to change its lying posture and tried to get up. However, its body, which had largely turned into a pure steel shell, restricted its movements. Only its head remained held high!

CRACK!!

Xingyan lunged forward and accurately bit down on the old Steel Dragon's throat. Not a drop of dragon blood spilled from this bite. Xingyan felt as if he had bitten into some refined ore.

Tearing and swallowing, Xingyan bit off the old Steel Dragon's spine. This brutal and savage scene caused the excited Yano to go completely cold. She couldn't understand why the two dragons, who had been peacefully conversing moments ago, would suddenly turn on each other with lethal intent.

Swallowing the crushed bones, Xingyan raised his head and looked at the old Steel Dragon's head as it fell heavily to the ground. Its eyes were still open, and the light flickering in its cloudy gaze—was it anticipation? Or contentment?

Xingyan couldn't tell.

He only knew that he couldn't waste the old Steel Dragon's legacy.

An Elder Dragon?

So, in the eyes of an Elder Dragon, I am also an Elder Dragon?

Greedily devouring the old Steel Dragon's flesh and blood, Xingyan felt no sensation of eating flesh and blood. After a few bites, he hadn't even managed to draw out a single drop of the old Steel Dragon's Elder Dragon blood.

His mouth was filled with incredibly hard metal, similar to when he had eaten his own broken tail blade and the Sulfur Dragon Slayer's tail blade.

The old Steel Dragon's body was so withered that even its internal organs had shrunk. Xingyan anxiously searched its body for the Dragon Orb. However, even after devouring the old Steel Dragon's entire body, including breaking open and swallowing its head, Xingyan couldn't find anything that could be called a Steel Dragon's Dragon Orb.

Xingyan believed that a dying Steel Dragon would definitely have a Dragon Orb within it. But perhaps the energy from that Dragon Orb had already seeped out of the old Steel Dragon's body, strand by strand, into the earth veins before he even arrived.

After all, when Xingyan saw the old Steel Dragon, it couldn't even stand up from the ground.

Even so, having consumed the entire corpse of the old Steel Dragon, Xingyan received sufficient evolutionary information and Life Energy.

Perhaps because most of its body had turned into pure minerals, Xingyan did not gain the Steel Dragon's signature wind-controlling ability. Instead, he gained its steel hide.

The blade scales and armor plating on his body vibrated and began to shed one after another, revealing Xingyan's fragile muscles. But immediately after, new armor plating and blade scales appeared.

The reddish-brown armor plating and the blue-green blade scales were Xingyan's original colors, but now, the newly formed armor plating and blade scales had a uniform color—silvery-gray.

Even the layer of mineral secretions that had covered the original armor plating was gone; they had merged into the new armor plating and blade scales. Just like the Steel Dragon's steel hide, it was pure metal, yet it could molt and regenerate.

A form of biological metal.

But what brought Xingyan even greater joy was the change in his forelimbs—his short forelimbs had now become a pair of forelegs as long as his hind legs. Each paw had four digits: three long and one short. The short one was located on the side, like a thumb.

From this moment on, Xingyan truly possessed the standard wyvern skeletal structure with wings and four limbs. Yes, wings!

Even though his wings were very small.

Turning his head, Xingyan could clearly see a pair of small wings growing from the sides of his smooth back. They were less than one-fifth the size of his entire body, like some kind of decoration, yet they could be opened or retracted at Xingyan's will.

It's about the same as a Great Jagras's small wings.

Not quite used to this feeling, Xingyan stumbled a few steps. Just as he was about to fall, he instinctively extended his front claws to support himself. But unlike in the past, this time, his forelimbs actually supported him.

With a look of surprise, he grabbed a rock with his front claws and crushed it into powder with a slight exertion of force.

Xingyan was very satisfied with the strength of his forelimbs. This meant they weren't just for show, and from today on, he once again possessed forelimbs capable of grasping!

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Fu