The Beginning

Thanks to the evolution of living things, during their first sleep, hatchlings could use the energy absorbed from eating eggshell fragments to activate their vital organs and begin growing through bodily regulation.

This stage was not very long, lasting only about a day.

When little Caesar awoke and surfaced from the water, he found the sunlight just right. It was probably noon, and the rays pierced through layers of thick fog into the swamp, scattering a warm, pleasant glow like fragments of gold.

But the black dragon mother and his siblings deeply loathed such weather. They exuded an air of irritation, letting out low hisses as they hid in the deeper shadows of the swamp.

"Black dragons love gloomy swamps and mud pits. The filthier and fouler, the better."

That was knowledge Caesar had received through his basic instincts. Fortunately, he had not inherited that preference. Still, to avoid seeming strange, the newly awakened hatchling let out two hisses and burrowed into the nest built by the black dragon mother.

At this point, hatchlings could already breathe weapons and run, possessing some ability to defend themselves. However, they were still small and frail, not even a match for some ordinary large animals, and still required their black dragon mother's protection.

The mother dragon lay lazily inside the nest, her body covered in hard, dark scales. A black dragon's head was narrow and long, its skin devoid of full muscles and stretched tightly over bone. Its jagged skull made it seem as though it wore a mask.

Compared to adult black dragons, the hatchlings looked less gaunt and shriveled. Their necks were thick and short, their heads large and round, and their thin black scales gleamed with a metallic luster.

However, as time passed, the hatchlings would gradually come to resemble their mother. Their scales would harden and grow grayer, while their skulls would sharpen during their growth, pressing tightly against the skin and even piercing through it.

Although such changes would not harm black dragons, they would make them even more terrifying and unapproachable.

That was why black dragons were also called "skeletal dragons."

At that moment, the black dragon mother had prepared food for her children—a gigantic dire-headed fish. The monstrous fish was as large as five hatchlings, with barbed fangs protruding from its mouth. It had been soaked in an acidic swamp, and the heavy stench of rotten flesh and fish filled every young dragon's nostrils.

Caesar could even see maggots writhing across the decaying meat.

Black dragons rarely ate fresh meat. Unless there was an emergency, they generally corroded and pickled their prey in acid for many days before eating it. To black dragons, such a rotten dire-headed fish was unquestionably a rare delicacy.

The two hatchlings, already able to run freely, babbled as they gathered around. They showed no aversion to foreign matter and swallowed huge mouthfuls. A dragon's digestive system was like a furnace, capable of digesting anything it swallowed. Forget the maggots on rotten meat—even metal was no exception.

What the fuck!

As an unusual black dragon with a human soul, little Caesar watched his brothers happily eating, constantly slurping up their drool, and felt bitterness rise in his throat.

Yet he had no choice but to eat. The black dragon mother's gaze had already swept toward him, examining the little fellow whose behavior had differed from the other hatchlings ever since birth.

"Mm..."

Caesar ground his baby teeth until they creaked. His tear glands stung, but he could not refuse.

Even if he went looking for food himself, he would probably find nothing but wild fruit, mice, and insects to fill his stomach. They likely would not be as "nutritious" as this dire-headed fish.

With no other option, he shut his eyes and viciously tore off a chunk of rotten fish flesh. His throat worked as though he had swallowed deadly poison.

Pale, plump alien maggots were crushed beneath his sharp teeth. Their flesh was soft as cotton, and their juices burst inside his mouth.

"Hmm?"

The little hatchling, whose eyes were squeezed tightly shut, suddenly paused. His vertical pupils lit up. This thing was not as hard to swallow as he had imagined. Once he overcame his psychological disgust, the black dragon's senses gave him entirely different feedback.

It was actually... a little tasty?

Caesar took another bite of rotten fish meat. Once he confirmed there was nothing wrong with his sense of taste, he began swallowing great mouthfuls like the other two hatchlings.

Hatchlings had astonishing appetites. After several dozen minutes, the dire-headed fish that had seemed incomparably enormous to the young dragons was reduced to nothing but a skeleton. Even some brittle bones had been chewed up and swallowed by the dragonlings.

To sustain the consumption caused by their powerful bodies, dragons generally possessed astonishing appetites, and even young hatchlings were no exception. They ate several times their own body weight in food, yet showed no sign of bloating.

Such an appetite was an extremely heavy burden for hatchlings without parental support.

Fortunately, barring accidents, dragons generally stayed with their offspring for one to six years. Thus, dragonlings at this stage did not need to worry about food. After the two hatchlings finished eating, they floated atop the swamp and rolled around in the mud, letting sludge coat their bodies as they enjoyed the damp, salty-fishy air.

Among true dragons, there was no concept of studying or meditation. After receiving the dragon inheritance, even if hatchlings did nothing but play and sleep, they would gradually awaken magical abilities as they continued growing, eventually climbing to the top of the food chain.

Caesar, however, was different. Aside from some basic knowledge about dragons, his mind contained no inherited knowledge concerning talents or magic. Strictly speaking, he was no different from defective creatures that had been naturally eliminated and devolved into dragon beasts.

Under such circumstances, if he wanted to grow faster, he had to eat more than the other hatchlings. Even after completing a normal meal, Caesar needed an "extra meal" for himself.

Suppressing the urge to relax and doze off for a while, the little hatchling with an alien soul left the small swamp where the hatchlings rested, approached the riverbank, and stepped onto solid ground.

That was right. Caesar intended to eat dirt.

A dragon's digestive system allowed the species to consume anything it could swallow, such as dead wood, rocks, and other inorganic matter.

However, most true dragons despised such things and considered eating them shameful. The proud red dragons and gold dragons were particularly noteworthy in this regard, viewing the consumption of inorganic matter as the utmost humiliation. Even in desperate circumstances, red dragons would rather starve than touch such things.

But Caesar had learned from his basic dragon knowledge that consuming inorganic matter could help accelerate scale hardening. A newborn hatchling's scales could barely serve their intended purpose at this stage. They were tender and thin, easily torn apart, and only gradually became hard and thick with age.

Although consuming metal and stone could not make a true dragon's scales stronger, it could greatly hasten the stage at which its scales matured.

Caesar was not simply swallowing things whole. First, he used his newly sharpened claws and teeth to scrape away the silt and mud, turning over the damp earth and selecting inorganic minerals from beneath it.

"Ugh, cough, cough..."

After struggling to swallow various pebbles, the black dragon hatchling took a fierce gulp of pond water and let out a muffled cough. These things tasted unbearably awful. Even with both human and dragon tastes, he found them difficult to endure.

I want to throw up...

But there was no helping it. These were the growing pains, Caesar comforted himself.

Even as species at the top of the food chain, true dragons had a high mortality rate among their young. Some powerful creatures were immune to dragon fear and would poach true dragon hatchlings while the mother dragon was out searching for food.

Besides, even adult black dragons were not without enemies.

In this terrifying world, many creatures possessed the ability to fight true dragons, even hunting them for food. Not to mention the even greater dangers of the Underdark, where the creatures living there were constantly shrouded in an indescribable terror known as "adventurers."

Who knew how far the terrifying upright apes of this world had expanded their menu?

Naturally, the black dragon mother saw everything Caesar was doing. However, she did not care about the hatchling's strange behavior and treated it with indifference.

This hatchling had spoken its true dragon name, proving its identity as a true dragon. Following the instructions of Tiamat, Mother of Evil Dragons, she had to fulfill her duty of raising it. As for anything else, the lazy chromatic dragon had no desire to concern herself with it.

In truth, notoriously foul black dragons did not devote much energy to their own offspring and could absolutely be called coldhearted. Raising them was merely a duty. Once the young reached a certain stage of growth, they might even drive out their parents for territory and treasure.

That was how evil dragons were.

"What a freak."

The two little hatchlings soaking in the mud conversed in Draconic. Their senses were extremely sharp, so naturally they knew what their "older brother" had been doing.

Hatchlings were not ignorant creatures. In a sense, they were born with knowledge, possessing an overall understanding of the world and awareness of their own identities. From birth, they knew that they would one day become among the most powerful creatures in the world, bearing an innate pride and sense of superiority.

Therefore, the two hatchlings looked down on Caesar Ortorenso's actions, believing that he was debasing his status as a true dragon. Their attitude toward their nominal brother was contemptuous.

But a soul from another world would not care about dragons' opinions. Under the questioning gazes of the two hatchlings, Caesar spent a long time laboriously swallowing each piece of hard-to-eat inorganic mineral before finally letting out a long breath in satisfaction.