Seriously, if we're heading out, let's head out. Why are you looking at me, little dragon girl?
Even after he waited a good while, the little dragon girl before him showed no intention of looking away.
After a moment's hesitation, Chaos stepped forward.
He wasn't scared. He just felt that, as the only male dragon, he really ought to show some courage.
So, when it came to scouting ahead...
Yes, he was clearly the dragon for the job.
His claws moved.
[Rustle~]
Hearing footsteps, he glanced to the side.
A red hatchling twice his size appeared on his right, walking alongside him.
With that size, who else could it be but the little dragon girl?
Seriously, what exactly is this little dragon girl trying to do?
Chaos was confused.
He had thought she wanted him to scout ahead, but now that didn't seem to be the case.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have come forward to walk beside him.
The safest approach would have been to let him scout ahead while she followed behind.
Instead, she had come up to walk alongside him.
All sorts of thoughts ran through his mind, but he suppressed the urge to ask her outright.
The cave passage was long.
He had no idea how long they had been walking.
He looked ahead at the seemingly endless passage, where yet another bend awaited them.
This damn passage is so long.
He grumbled inwardly, but he still had to keep going.
He stepped around the bend.
[Whoosh~]
An invisible breeze brushed his face, faintly cool and damp.
His crimson slit pupils sharpened, and the mental fatigue of their long trek was swept away by the breeze.
A breeze meant there was an exit!
He instinctively glanced beside him, only to discover that the little dragon girl's crimson slit pupils were already fixed on him.
Their eyes met.
Run!
Almost simultaneously, the red hatchling and the green hatchling charged forward.
They ran side by side.
The hatchlings following behind them were initially puzzled, but their confusion was soon resolved.
As the cool, moisture-laden breeze brushed their heads, they too began moving their claws and running.
They ran and ran, until an opening suddenly appeared in the passage ahead.
It was the cave exit!
The sight of the exit filled Chaos with delight.
"Gurgle~"
As they drew closer to the exit, the sound of flowing water grew clearer.
[Whoosh~]
Chaos let out a heavy breath of excitement.
A river definitely meant prey. Prey = food!
[Rustle~]
He dug his claws into the dirt, sliding all the way to the cave mouth before barely managing to stop.
A surging underground river was the first thing to meet his eyes. Before it lay a vast, sunken valley filled with palm-sized, emerald-green plants, which grew most densely at its center.
A group of black creatures covered in thick shells were munching on the emerald plants in the valley.
Their cave exit happened to sit at the very center of the cave wall facing this semicircular valley.
The True Dragon Inheritance supplied information at that moment.
[Xelila: Magical beasts that have long inhabited the underground world. Their entire bodies are covered in thick armor that the weaker races find extremely difficult to penetrate, but before the claws of us true dragons, this armor is no different from paper. They are very weak, low-tier magical beasts that cannot even use basic magic.]
Chaos read through all the information from the inheritance.
Xelila? All I see is a bunch of giant crabs.
They looked almost exactly like crabs, except they were enormous.
Each one's back measured two to three meters across, with the largest reaching four meters.
And those enormous pincers in particular-just how tender would the meat inside be?
Chaos: (¯﹃¯).
Just imagining it felt wonderful.
Gulp~!
He instinctively swallowed the excess dragon saliva filling his mouth. He wasn't some idiot dragon who drooled.
There was only so much room at the cave exit. At most, ten of them could squeeze in side by side before it was full. Agatha in particular, with her outrageously large body compared to the other hatchlings, took up two spots all by herself.
The remaining six were all smaller hatchlings.
Standing behind the others, they chose to push forward and squeeze into a spot.
But not all of them did.
One plump white hatchling was trying to squeeze her way forward, hoping to carve out a spot for herself.
The hatchlings were all Chromatic Dragons, so naturally, none had a pleasant temper. A hatchling she pushed against raised a hind claw and kicked the smaller white hatchling squarely in the head.
An watched calmly as the round white hatchling rolled several times down the cave passage, then sprang up and tried to squeeze in again.
This was already the fifth time.
Doesn't this girl ever get tired...?
Her disadvantage in size couldn't be changed.
Since it couldn't be changed, why keep fighting over it? Their dragon race wasn't one whose ultimate potential could be determined just by their early development.
Looking at the dragons packed side by side around the cave mouth, Agatha raised her right claw, grabbed the black hatchling squeezed in on her right by the scruff of her neck, and tossed her back into the cave.
With a spot cleared and enough room to move, Agatha turned to look at the six hatchlings remaining in the passage.
The one she had thrown offered no objection, merely lying quietly on the ground.
As for whether she held a grudge, only the little ledger in the black hatchling's heart knew.
A spot!
Seeing the newly opened space, the white hatchling immediately set her plump claws moving and ran toward it.
Huh? Seeing the white hatchling beside him about to leap out, Chaos pinned her with a claw. He pressed it against her chilly back and pushed down hard.
The white hatchling flattened against the ground.
The hunt hadn't started yet. There was no need to rush.
Pinned to the ground, the white hatchling began struggling.
But as a white hatchling, her strength was clearly far inferior to Chaos's.
After gauging the force of her struggles, Chaos paid her no further attention.
There was no way she was strong enough to escape his claw.
Agatha glanced at Chaos and the pinned white hatchling, then looked away and swept her gaze over the other four hatchlings.
Like the white hatchling pinned beneath Chaos's claw, these remaining hatchlings were all on the smaller side.
"Below the cave exit is a Valley Basin with plenty of prey. They're all low-tier magical beasts called Xelila. This is our first hunt, so get ready."
Having finished her instructions, Agatha walked back to her own spot.
As Agatha returned, the white hatchling beneath his right claw was still struggling.
Without ceremony, Chaos raised his claw and smacked her straight on the head.
"Behave."
After taking that smack to the head, the white hatchling really did settle down and stop struggling.
She lay flat on the ground.
Her white slit pupils glistened, and she did look rather aggrieved.
Chaos, however, wasn't buying it.
He raised his claw in front of her again, instantly frightening her into wrapping both plump claws around her round head.
Amused by the sight, Chaos split his dragon maw in a happy grin.
Bullying little hatchlings is fun~!
"Everyone, get ready to dive."
The little dragon girl's voice rang out, and Chaos looked to his side.
He saw that Agatha, back in her spot, had already assumed a diving stance.
She lowered her forequarters slightly and held her head low, her hind legs bent a little and her big rear sticking up, while her long crimson tail stretched taut upward like an antenna.
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