Son of the Red-Iron

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Atlant Continent, Ser Wilderness.

A black-feathered, red-beaked hawk beat its wings as it flew across the sky, passing over lush mountain forests, crystal-clear green lakes, and boundless wilderness. Slowing its pace slightly along the way, it finally landed on a rugged cliffside, preening its feathers while looking down.

This place was a massive ring-shaped sinkhole that looked as though it had been struck by a meteorite.

The central area contained a forest and a river, with steep, protruding cliffs on all sides.

The black-feathered hawk tilted its head with a puzzled gaze, its vision reflecting a creature at the bottom of the sinkhole that was mustering all its strength, using its flesh and blood to slam against the mountain rocks.

From head to tail, it was about six meters long, scaled and horned, with both wings and a long tail. It was unmistakably a hatchling dragon, only its appearance was somewhat peculiar, unlike any common species.

Its head resembled that of a red dragon and featured sweeping red-dragon horns, but with a difference: the bases of the horns were encased in shovel-shaped metallic bone, forming an angular structure similar to a knight's helmet.

The dragon scales on its body were layered, set against a backdrop of black with silver flashes. The surfaces bore faint patterns, presenting a dark red luster akin to molten lava flowing across an iron plate. The edges of the scales were as sharp as knife blades, reflecting a cold obsidian-like light when rising and falling with its breath. Overall, it possessed an intensely metallic texture.

Though a hatchling dragon, it already possessed a fierce and robust aura far exceeding ordinary beasts; its limbs, tail, and wings were exceptionally sturdy.

Bang!

Garos flapped his wings—which were much broader and thicker than those of ordinary hatchling dragons—accelerating as he slammed headfirst into the base of the cliff before him. Gravel flew in all directions, and dust filled the air.

He shook his head, pulling his head and forequarters out of the rock.

Garos shook his dragon scales, shedding the small pebbles wedged in the gaps and the dust clinging to his surface. Then, he stopped the mountain-ramming behavior that had puzzled the black-feathered hawk, leaning against the edge of the large cave he had smashed open to rest.

I have unknowingly been a dragon for six years now.

Garos silently marveled inwardly, lowering his head to look at his dragon claws, repeatedly opening and closing them.

He, or rather he, was not a normal dragon.

First of all, he was a red-iron hybrid, which was evident from his strange appearance.

However, though red-iron hybrids were rare, they still fell within the normal range.

Red dragons and iron dragons were both exemplars among evil dragons, all worshiping power and strength.

One side was the head of the chromatic dragons, while the other was the head of the ferrous dragons.

Although under normal circumstances, these two dragon species harbored fierce competition and often looked down on each other, erupting into combat upon encountering one another, it was not entirely impossible that as evil dragons who similarly revered power above all else, they might suddenly lock eyes while fighting, turning combat into flirtation, and immediately succumb to an uncontrollable, passionate spark.

The reason it was said to be abnormal—and more crucially—was that inside this red-iron hatchling dragon, there was a human soul that had traveled across from another world.

That was right, Garos was a transmigrator.

He could not figure out why he had transmigrated, nor did he care to dwell on it, because it was meaningless. Moreover, a dragon's body was far more formidable than a human's, and Garos, granted a new lease on life, had long since accepted the reality of having become a dragon.

Influenced by the dragon inheritance and six years of dragon life, his human soul and dragon nature had now merged into one, indistinguishable from each other. This formed a personality centered primarily on dragon nature, enjoying the pursuit of power and strength, yet simultaneously possessing human logical wisdom. He possessed the resilience and strength of a dragon, yet lacked the negative aspects of their nature, such as excessive arrogance, conceit, or a morbid obsession with treasure.

In short.

Take the essence, discard the dregs.

Raising his dragon claws, Garos carefully stroked his head, which had been ramming the mountain for a long time.

The small scales on the facial mask and the dragon horns upon his head seemed to possess a noticeably firmer texture to the touch.

Although not very obvious, my body has definitely grown a bit stronger once again.

The hatchling dragon nodded with satisfaction, his tail—lined with blade-like dragon scales—swaying left and right, sweeping dense scratches into the ground.

Over the past six years, Garos had continuously studied his dragon body.

Aside from the various mystical traits naturally possessed by dragon bodies, he pleasantly discovered that, perhaps due to the red-iron hybrid nature combined with his own human soul, some unknown and wondrous reaction had occurred within him, granting him an innate talent surpassing that of other dragons.

--Adaptive Evolution.

This talent was not very obvious; its initial effects were negligible and imperceptible, and Garos had not even realized he possessed such a talent before the age of two.

In truth, its limits were still restricted right now, requiring day after day of accumulated exercise, polishing, and adaptation in order to yield a single effective evolution. Furthermore, the magnitude of the evolution was minor, and it required corresponding food intake to replenish his energy.

Over several years, it had merely made Garos's physique much stronger and tougher than that of a normal hatchling dragon, giving his scale armor a metallic texture already.

However.

As Garos utilized it and grew older, the talent itself was also growing and evolving. Every year's effect surpassed the previous one, and its upper limit remained unknown for the time being.

As everyone knew, any evolution-type talent was extremely bug-like, and Garos was full of anticipation for his future.

With the long and enduring lifespan of dragons, the characteristic of growing ever stronger as one ages, and coupled with my Adaptive Evolution talent, one day, I will be able to evolve and strengthen to an unfathomable degree.

Garos thought to himself with delight.

He turned his head to glance at the thick mountain mass. The sturdy hatchling dragon spread his limbs, created some distance, and then slammed into it over and over again, raising clouds of dust and scattering gravel.

A wonderful future was merely wishful thinking for now.

As for the present... he might as well continue ramming the mountain.

This was one of Garos's daily training methods.

Other methods included, but were not limited to, flying high into the sky and performing free-fall drops, leaping into bonfires to burn himself, having the iron dragon mother whip and strike him with her tail, and holding his breath entirely in deep water to desperately suffocate himself, among others.

Time slowly slipped by.

The sun gradually sloped westward, finally sinking into the embrace of the distant mountains.

Night descended, hung with countless stars. Two moons, one round and one crescent, simultaneously cast a brilliant radiance, keeping the world in the darkness from appearing dim.

After ending his training on Sun Mountain, Garos left the vicinity of a cave entrance that had clearly collapsed and caved inward.

There were many, many cave entrances like this all around, and they were all Garos's masterpieces.

By the mirror-clear lake water, Garos's arrival startled away a large number of birds and beasts.

He did not mind this, heartily drinking a large amount of water before immediately raising his head to look up at the twin moons.

Of these two moons, one waxed and waned, changing along with the sky's hue, while the other remained constantly like a perfectly round jade plate, an unchanging "False Moon."

The False Moon was actually an extraterrestrial magical fortress constructed by the Elven Empire of Nausir.

Aside from this False Moon, there were also many twinkling stars that seemed no different from other stars, but in reality, they were various "satellites" crafted by the various empires using magical means.