Evolution (Please Vote, Please Keep Reading)

The blazing sun hung high overhead, its vicious rays pouring down like molten gold and scorching the entire wilderness until it was searing hot.

The ground temperature kept rising, and the air rippled in distorted waves. Distant mountains flickered in and out of sight through the heat haze, their outlines blurred like mirages.

In weather like this, many creatures could not endure the heat and rarely ventured out.

The dragons living within the Ring-Shaped Sinkhole were not among them.

As fire dragons, such scorching weather instead made them more energetic and lively than usual.

More than a month had passed since Garos's last negotiation with the Iron Dragon Mother.

Hatchling Dragons were at the stage of growing, and Garos had also been diligently training to strengthen himself.

Over the past month, his body had vaguely grown another size. His dragon scales were like cast steel and forged iron, while the muscle fibers hidden beneath them tensed like twisted steel wires whenever he exerted himself, ready to unleash tremendous strength at any moment.

"Break time is over. Go mine for me!"

Near the mountain wall, Garos curled his tail and flung out two rocks, striking the Iron Dragon Brother and the Red Dragon Sister on the heads.

The two Hatchling Dragons raised their heads in dissatisfaction and protested righteously, "We've only rested for an hour! Garos, this is abuse! With the same mining hours, Mother's Kobold servants get to rest for two hours!"

The Iron Dragon Mother had servants.

One Kobold clan in particular mined for the Iron Dragon Mother.

Hearing this, Garos's tail lashed across the ground and sent sparks flying as he strode toward the two Hatchling Dragons.

"Do you know why you've never been able to beat me, why I've always pinned you beneath me, why you can only be bullied and humiliated by me over and over?"

He lowered his gaze and asked.

The two Hatchling Dragons looked at each other, utterly confused.

"Because you lack ambition!"

Garos bent down, closing in on the two Hatchling Dragons. His shadow enveloped them as he said in a deep voice, "As noble True Dragons, with Dragon Veins flowing through your bodies, you actually compare yourselves to Kobolds!"

The Hatchling Dragons shook their heads, their eyes filled with pity and disappointment.

"Trash that can't even compare to Kobolds truly disgraces your True Dragon blood."

He spoke in an extremely disdainful tone.

"Bullshit! Kobolds aren't qualified to compare themselves to me!"

The Red Dragon Sister flew into a rage.

"Bullshit! I'm a hundred times stronger than Kobolds!"

The Iron Dragon Brother also flew into a rage.

Garos's expression softened slightly, and he grinned. "Words are worthless. Prove it to me. Let me see your resolve. Let me see the strength and tenacity you possess as dragons."

"Hmph, don't underestimate us!"

The two Hatchling Dragons snorted coldly, then hurried into the mine tunnel they had previously opened. They put their full strength into it, determined to make Garos understand that they were not creatures Kobolds could compare with. In their hearts, they swore to make Garos think more highly of them.

Provocation—the ultimate weapon against dragons.

Proud and arrogant dragons could not stand being goaded.

Garos withdrew his gaze from the two Hatchling Dragons entering the mine.

"If only the Iron Dragon Mother were as easy to fool as they are."

Garos sighed.

As dragons grew older and gained experience, they could more or less control their instincts. An adult dragon like the Iron Dragon Mother was far more intelligent than Hatchling Dragons.

As for these two Hatchling Dragons, they were like fools right now and easy to deceive.

Once dragons like them grew another year and became young dragons, if they were driven out by their dragon mother according to normal development and forced to live alone outside, it was hard to imagine how they could survive in this perilous world with their weak yet playful personalities.

At the same time.

A fierce gust of wind suddenly swept past.

Garos looked up at the sky and saw the Iron Dragon Mother spreading her wings as she soared overhead. Her enormous body radiated rolling Dragon Might, and her wingspan of nearly forty meters cast a thick shadow over the ground.

Dust flew everywhere, and scattered stones trembled without end.

A dark, blurry mass was dropped by the Iron Dragon Mother. It crashed onto the ground with a deafening boom like an earthquake, smashing a deep crater into the impact point. Dense cracks continuously spread outward, while a ring of dust rapidly expanded.

Garos beat his wings to disperse the dust and focused his eyes.

A Great-Horned Savage Bull weighing dozens of tons, its body packed with layers upon layers of muscle, a pair of enormous horns on its head, and hard armor covering its body, came into view.

It was a ferocious beast above level 10.

It was also the high-quality blood and flesh Garos needed.

The Iron Dragon Mother had honored the terms of her deal with Garos and regularly provided him with high-quality blood and flesh.

This was specifically for him.

As for the two Hatchling Dragons, Garos forced them to mine, but they did not work day and night without rest. They were not truly slaves. Once they returned to the dragon nest, the Iron Dragon Mother provided them with food.

The Iron Dragon Mother was cold by nature, yet valued rules. She had always properly fulfilled her duties and had never mistreated any Hatchling Dragon, though neither had she treated them especially well.

After dropping off the prey, the Iron Dragon Mother did not linger and returned directly to her nest.

"Time to eat."

Garos withdrew his gaze, took a deep breath, and began tearing apart the Great-Horned Savage Bull's body.

Even with teeth honed by chewing metal ore, Garos could not bite straight through the layer of hard armor covering its body in one bite. He had to gnaw at it several times with force.

The beef was incredibly fresh, no worse than tearing into it while it was still alive. It was tough and pleasantly chewy.

With every bite he swallowed, Garos felt warmth spread through his body as he replenished himself with rich nutrients and energy.

When he had eaten nearly half of the Great-Horned Savage Bull's flesh, a numbing, itchy sensation suddenly began to arise inside and outside Garos's body, surging back and forth like waves.

"This is the feeling."

Delight flashed in Garos's eyes.

After eating so much beef in one go, even Garos's furnace-like dragon stomach had felt somewhat stuffed. Yet as the numb sensation emerged throughout his body, his fullness faded away, replaced by an intense craving for food.

The Hatchling Dragon took a deep breath, opened his huge jaws wide, and revealed a mouthful of dragon teeth.

Awooo!

Garos tore off a huge mouthful of beef. He casually chewed it two or three times before swallowing it. The meat that entered his stomach almost instantly turned into a warm current, flowing with the waves of numbness through every part of Garos's body, mainly gathering in the areas he had trained recently.

The scales that had intimately come into direct contact with the earth, the dragon horns that had repeatedly slammed into mountains, and the dragon tail that had whipped rocks.

It also included the muscles, internal organs, and everything else that had endured the recoil.

However.

No visible changes occurred on Garos's body. Only the tingling sensation of electricity continued without pause.

"Evolution isn't completed in an instant. Rather, once I've accumulated enough adaptation and have sufficient energy replenishment, I'll make rapid progress over the following period and gain corresponding evolution based on my recent accumulated adaptation."

Garos thought silently.

Over the past few years, he had constantly considered and explored the nature of his talent, and he had formed some guesses of his own.

Every creature possessed the power of Adaptive Evolution. Under normal circumstances, however, it often required millions of years of long-term change.

Garos could shorten that time without limit.

The key was that his evolutionary talent itself was also growing.

"Perhaps one day in the future, I'll be able to complete Adaptive Evolution in an instant, or even evolve directly in the direction I want."

He thought.

Then Garos pressed on in one burst of effort and actually devoured all the Great-Horned Savage Bull meat, despite the bull weighing many times more than himself.

The tingling sensation across his body became especially vigorous and intense.

He struck while the iron was hot. Beneath the bright, glaring sunlight, he continued ramming into mountains and the ground again and again, suffering and rejoicing at once.