Water Affinity

Bernardo was the name of the planet beneath Garos's feet.

On this planet, magical culture was highly advanced, and every nation spared no effort in developing magical technology.

The more advanced nations had even built interstellar spacecraft with magical engines, exploring outer space and other planets to obtain the resources of the cosmos.

"Dragonkin are almost the most powerful creatures, but in this world, they aren't invincible either."

Garos blinked at the False Moon overhead.

His inherited memories mentioned an Ancient Blue Dragon known as Hurricane Wing, who had destroyed several cities of the Nausir Elven Empire and was hunted by Nausir for a long time.

In the end, using a city as bait, Nausir trapped Hurricane Wing with a massive magical formation.

The False Moon descended, casting a beam that annihilated everything and killed Hurricane Wing.

"Besides, the other races on Bernardo Planet don't think highly of Chromatic Dragons or Ferrous Dragons. The moment they discover one, they'll immediately prepare to launch a crusade."

The Dragon Race had many classifications.

For example, there were the most numerous Chromatic Dragons, Metal Dragons, and Gem Dragons, followed by Ferrous Dragons.

Chromatic Dragons were considered Evil Dragons because of their inherently wicked nature and love of causing trouble and destruction. Ferrous Dragons were regarded as the "mad dogs" among dragonkind, frequently killing even their own kind, much less other races.

"I'm a Hybrid Dragon of both Chromatic Dragon and Ferrous Dragon blood, and also a hybrid of a Red Dragon and Iron Dragon. I'll probably be seen as an Evil Dragon among Evil Dragons, an innately wicked dragon bastard. Terrifying indeed. I absolutely cannot be allowed to live."

He plopped down by the lake.

The Hatchling Dragon's tail soaked in the water, swishing back and forth.

Moonlight shone over Garos as he felt his tail drift through the water. Now and then, little fish came by to clean away the weeds and dust caught on it. Enjoying the sensation, he pondered quietly.

"I should train more and strengthen myself."

"Only by becoming stronger will I have more confidence when facing dangers that may come in the future."

This life as a dragon had only just begun. Garos wanted to live as long as possible. He did not want to end up like in his last life, meeting disaster at the prime age of eighteen.

"First, a modest goal: live to a hundred."

"No, Dragonkin only reach adulthood at a hundred. Better make it a thousand years."

Garos leaned backward.

The Hatchling Dragon's body shattered the surface of the lake, sending countless crystal-clear droplets splashing beneath the moonlight. He dived to the deepest part of the lake, enduring the crushing water pressure without breathing.

—Dragonkin could actually breathe underwater.

Garos merely wanted to train his heart and lungs, as well as improve his affinity with water elements.

Thanks to his day-after-day training of all kinds, his heart and lungs were far stronger than those of ordinary dragonkind. The strength and duration of his Dragon Breath both surpassed those of normal Hatchling Dragons.

Besides, both Iron Dragons and Red Dragons were fire-type dragons and did not actually like water.

The hybrid Garos was the same, a bona fide fire-type dragon.

Attacks with attributes such as water or ice would deal double damage to him.

The best way to overcome fear was to face it.

To guard against one day encountering attacks that countered his own attribute, Garos had endured his aversion to water and begun soaking in it from time to time years ago, desensitizing himself and adapting to it.

By now, his instinctive dislike of water had completely disappeared.

Although he had never truly encountered a water-type attack and could not determine his affinity for water elements, Garos felt that, at the very least, he would no longer take double damage.

All of a sudden.

A faint disturbance rippled through the water behind him.

A black shadow rapidly approached and attacked Garos.

Garos keenly caught the change in the current. Before the attack arrived, he turned around, raised his Dragon Claws, and violently swatted forward.

Bang!

A black dragon claw collided with a fiery red dragon claw, sending a ring of currents rippling through the lakebed.

The fiery red claw gripped Garos's claw tightly, trying to wrestle with him.

However.

Garos possessed astonishing strength. The powerful muscles beneath his scales bulged and swelled, even pushing his armor-like scales upward. His claw steadily forced the fiery red claw back inch by inch.

It lost the contest of strength.

The owner of the fiery red claw pulled it back and stared at Garos with a pair of red draconic eyes. In a clear yet displeased voice, she said, "Garos, you damned hybrid! Sooner or later, I'll beat you!"

The Dragonling Samantha, Garos's blood-related younger sister, was a pure-blooded Red Dragon.

Among the Dragon Race, hybrids were rare because dragon bloodlines were tyrannical and difficult to fuse with one another.

For example, when a Red Dragon and an Iron Dragon produced offspring, there was an overwhelming chance that they would give birth to a pure-blooded Red Dragon or a pure-blooded Iron Dragon. The offspring would inherit one parent's bloodline. Hybrid Dragons like Garos, capable of fusing Red Dragon and Iron Dragon blood, were very few in number.

Smack!

Garos slapped the red Dragonling's head with one claw.

"When speaking to a dragon stronger than you, watch your tone and your words."

The blow knocked the red Dragonling's head heavily to one side. Her entire body nearly spun away from the force, which was anything but light.

Between dragons, especially Evil Dragons, strength often did the talking. Only strength could earn the respect of other Evil Dragons, and Garos had grown accustomed to this manner of communication among Evil Dragons.

Red Dragon Sister had hatched one year after Garos.

At the time, Garos saw that his little sister was chubby and round, adorably simple-looking and lovable, so he tore off a piece of meat from his own food and gave it to her.

But then.

She took Garos's kindness for weakness, pushed her luck, and let her Evil Dragon nature take over, ordering Garos to hand over all his food. Iron Dragon Brother, who had hatched at the same time, also considered Garos weak. He joined forces with Red Dragon Sister and extorted Garos for food.

After Garos refused, the two actually raised their claws and tried to seize all of his food.

Afterward, Garos pinned them to the ground and beat them viciously, knocking out several of their teeth before they finally behaved.

As a Hybrid Dragon, Garos had been stronger than ordinary Red Dragons or Iron Dragons from birth, not to mention that he was a year older.

At the same time.

Having taken a claw to the head, Red Dragon Sister bared her teeth, wanting to retaliate. But when she saw the fierce glint in Garos's eyes, she wisely held herself back.

Red Dragons worshipped violence and liked solving problems with violence.

But when their violence was weaker than their opponent's, they would endure it for the time being, waiting until they surpassed them before viciously taking revenge.

Besides, she had taken plenty of beatings from Garos over the years and knew that this dragon brother of hers never held back.

"My dear brother."

Red Dragon Sister gave in and said, "Mother wants you at the Dragon Lair."

After explaining why she had come for Garos, she muttered under her breath, "You spend every day soaking in water. You're so weird. You even made me come into the water."

Red Dragon Sister felt uncomfortable all over in the water, her dragon face full of disgust.

She twisted her tail and waist, rapidly floated upward, and left the lake before Garos.

Garos was in no rush. He beat his wings underwater, then burst from the surface and soared through the air, overtaking Red Dragon Sister despite setting off later as he flew toward the Dragon Lair.

The Dragon Lair—it was located in the cliffside mountain on the eastern side of the sinkhole.

From the outside, it looked like a crude, rugged cave.

Moonlight could not reach inside the Dragon Lair, but its inner stone walls were coated with a strange metal. Some areas emitted bright light, so it was not dark within.

Garos folded his wings and walked forward on all fours, stepping across the metalized floor as he ventured deeper inside.

The deeper he went, the more metal surrounded him.

Clusters of metal bloomed from the stone walls like flowers, while angular metal pillars protruded from the ground.

At last, when Garos reached the deepest part of the cave, his view suddenly opened up as he entered an enormous "hollow."

The core of this Dragon Lair was not a rough cavern in the traditional sense.

The surrounding ground and stone walls were covered in a layer of soft yet tough metal. Its texture resembled mercury, but its surface rippled with rust-colored patterns.

To the north stood a thirty-meter-tall stepped metal platform, with Iron Dragon Mother's exclusive throne at its peak.

—It had been forged from countless swords and halberds. The weapons of the defeated had now solidified into steps, each one carved with Dragon Language runes.

Garos looked up.

On the throne sat a colossal creature twenty meters long. Even the airflow stirred by its breathing howled like a violent gale—a true giant dragon.

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