What Have I Grown Into...

Chapter 45: What Have I Grown Into...

It felt like a very, very long sleep. As consciousness returned, Li Wei's first feeling was heaviness.

It was like being covered by two layers of five-jin cotton quilts in the dead of winter. He was awake, but in his groggy state, he couldn't push the covers away.

As he lifted his neck, his entire body emitted a grating groan of metal friction, like a muscle car that had been sitting in a garage for years and was suddenly started. Even after clearing away the dust, it was filled with a sense of stiffness and discomfort.

Li Wei instinctively stood up on his legs.

With a deafening "Bang!", the rock layer above the cave was directly punched through by Li Wei's head, sending countless gravel and dust raining down, blinding his draconic eyes.

"Awoo! Quickly into the nest! Protect Master!" The Gnolls guarding the cave entrance, upon hearing the terrifying commotion, rushed in immediately. They were then stunned by the sight before them.

They saw the colossal beast, which they had been feeding to become increasingly enormous over the past five years, now standing upright, its head disappearing into the dome.

This greatly frightened the pack of Gnolls. They kept tucking their tails and running back and forth, whimpering like puppies in distress, not knowing how they could help.

Dragons generally didn't like to build excessively large nests; a snug fit was preferred. This was because if a nest was too spacious, their hoard of treasures would appear relatively small.

This was the simple dialectical philosophy that had arisen among Dragon clans in their early days.

After all, it was rare for a dragon to wake up from a nap and get stuck in its own nest.

Having inherited Dragon knowledge, Li Wei had built his nest according to this custom. He figured that even if he stood up before sleeping, it would be just the right size. He never expected that after a nap, the entire dragon would have expanded by at least two sizes, its length directly skyrocketing to over thirty feet. The result was that when he stood up, he poked a hole in the ceiling.

Fortunately, after this long sleep, he seemed to have become somewhat tougher. Apart from a slight dizziness, he was fine.

As Li Wei carefully withdrew his head from the dome, his milky-white double eyelids blinked, clearing the dust from his eyes. Only then did he see his current appearance.

To prevent any leaks about his Silver Dragon true form in the Underdark, he had transformed into the form of a Red Dragon before falling asleep. Thus, his current posture was extremely imposing.

His head, noticeably larger than that of ordinary kin, could accommodate more powerful jaw muscles. At least in Huozi's eyes, one bite from Master could likely snap a young dragon's head clean off.

Another significant change was that the scales, which had been blown bald by his own breath in the Riverbank Battle, had all regrown.

And thanks to the continuous instinctive consumption of various ores over the past five years, his newly grown scales all possessed a metallic sheen. If one were to pick off a single scale, it could probably be used directly as heavy tank armor.

It was also worth mentioning that perhaps due to the psychological shadow of being repeatedly ambushed by Gnolls on his vulnerable abdomen and lower body during the Riverbank Battle, his entire abdomen had grown a layer of overlapping, neatly arranged plate armor during this slumber.

Even his cloaca, originally a vulnerable area, was now protected by two retractable external armor plates resembling the airlock doors of a battleship.

And the nape scales, the absolute vital point of a dragon, were now encircled by a complex, mechanical-looking metal structure.

Although Li Wei found it somewhat ugly and bulky, making his neck movements slightly less agile, it would prevent his "ammunition depot" from being directly detonated by sneak attacks when charging his breath weapon.

After carefully examining his new appearance, Li Wei was speechless.

This was probably due to continuously eating metallic ores for years. The accumulation of countless trace heavy metals had caused him to unconsciously grow into something resembling a dragon-shaped Gundam.

This made Li Wei even suspect if it was because of the series of dangerous encounters he had experienced since arriving in this world, which had left him with subconscious insecurity, and as a result, he had been too timid, putting all his points into defense and strength while sleeping?

Perhaps in Li Wei's own eyes, his new image was awkward and he couldn't get used to it, but in the eyes of the Gnolls who had been providing him with the food and ore he needed day in and day out, they saw a god awakening!

Look at the Master's majestic and towering figure! This probably already crushes ordinary young Red Dragons! It even looks a bit bigger than weaker adult White Dragons!

Heaven knows that if calculated by a dragon's natural lifespan, Li Wei could only be considered a wyrmling at this moment.

Well, a wyrmling that was completely growing in the wrong direction towards the unknown.

And his scales, which were like the material of Gershon City gates, although the Gnolls would never dare to test its current defensive capabilities, if he had such scales during the Riverbank battlefield, perhaps even if all of them, over two hundred Gnolls, over twenty Ogres, and the Dilo Dwarf battle group that followed, were to attack, they probably wouldn't be able to break through his defenses.

But as the Gnolls who had witnessed Li Wei transform into this form, they didn't find it strange.

You must know that in the past five years, just to provide for Li Wei's massive daily consumption of metal ore, the Didi Miners of the entire Zelandia had been working 996 shifts all year round, digging through the entire West Mining Area all the way to the 13th Layer Cavity Dome Region of the Underdark.

There had been quite a few accidents because of this. Fortunately, the entire Zelandia's armed forces were no longer what they used to be, and they were able to avert danger in time every time.

"Moo~"

Li Wei looked up and indeed, he saw Remlu, who had maintained her original Slime form, bouncing rapidly into the cave from outside. In just a few steps, she jumped onto the paw Li Wei had extended. As Li Wei raised his paw, she came to his head and excitedly rubbed her head against Li Wei's cheek, constantly muttering "Moo moo," as if chiding Li Wei for sleeping for so long.

"Alright, alright, Remlu is the best." Li Wei indulgently scratched its smooth, shiny, transparent little head with his claw tip.

Immediately, Remlu suddenly transformed into a Cavens Rat and squeaked twice. Then she successively changed into several forms such as Myconid, Kobold, Lizardfolk, and Elemental Stone Golem, before finally returning to her Slime form, as if showing off her growth achievements over the years to Li Wei.

"Not bad, not bad, you've gained so many forms. More importantly, you no longer need the help of your companions to merge." Li Wei praised the increasingly clever and agile little Remlu generously, but he was a little puzzled. The entire Zelandia was peaceful, and he had reminded Remlu not to casually eat his miners before falling asleep. Theoretically, Remlu could not possibly disobey his will. Then there was only one possibility—

During the five years he was asleep, Zelandia had experienced external wars! And the crisis was so severe that it required the Slime army, like Remlu and the others, to be deployed.

However, even if it was a crisis, it should not have reached the point of endangering the survival of the entire Zelandia, so both the Old Dwarf Tiger and Huozi followed his will and did not wake him from his slumber.

Oh well, he would know the situation if he called Huozi over to ask.

Speaking of Huozi, Huozi arrived.

"Awoo, congratulations Master on awakening from your long slumber, May all be well! My Lord! Lord Tibilus!" It was Huozi, the Gnoll Great Chieftain, who rushed over immediately upon hearing the news. He knelt on one knee, looking at Li Wei with fervent adoration, offering his most sincere congratulations.

"Wuwuwu, May all be well! My Lord, Lord Tibilus!" The other Gnolls also knelt down in unison.

Li Wei nodded at them, "You've worked hard during this time."

"Guarding the Master's nest is the lifelong honor of our Crimson Fang Gnoll clan!" Huozi said with pride.

Li Wei, without any pretense or beating around the bush with his only trusted lackey, directly asked, "In the past few years, Zelandia must have experienced quite a few things. Tell me about the important ones."

"Yes!" Huozi's expression turned serious upon hearing this. He thought for a moment and said, "Actually, as the five-year period has passed, we were preparing to wake you up according to your will. Although Zelandia has developed extremely rapidly and changed greatly, in terms of scale, it is only slightly inferior to Gershon City. However, some matters have reached a precarious state. There are two main urgent matters that require the Master to make a decision as soon as possible. The situation is as follows—"

Thanks to [Muye Canglan] for the Hundred Rewards.