Got a Light?

The big little girl went off to round up the dragons.

[Crunch, crunch, crunch~]

Chaos stopped stuffing shrimp crackers into his mouth, carried the remaining shrimp head over to the crab shell, and leaped onto it.

Inside the crab shell, White Chubby was still fast asleep.

He stopped in front of White Chubby, took the shrimp head from his mouth with a claw, and held it up in front of the sleeping dragon.

Before long, White Chubby stirred.

As always, the nose booted up first.

After two sniffs, apparently having located the food, the white Dragon Jaws opened and snapped down.

Chomp~

The bite caught the shrimp head dead on.

Chaos immediately let go, letting White Chubby take the entire shrimp head.

Crunch, crunch, crunch~

Watching White Chubby chew the shrimp head, Chaos fell into thought.

Was I being too nice to White Chubby? Why?

Affection? Not exactly. Those chubby paws, that round body, that uniquely plump, cone-shaped tail...

He seemed to have found his answer.

He seemed to be keeping this fellow as an adorable pet.

Still, it really was pretty nice.

He reached out and rested a claw on White Chubby's round head.

Those cool, smooth dragon scales felt amazing, too!

"Hm-da~"

White Chubby opened those eyes.

"You're awake."

"Hm-da, hm-da~"

The round dragon head nuzzled against Chaos's neck of its own accord.

Chaos let White Chubby nuzzle him twice, then reached out and pushed the dragon away.

"All right, we're going hunting again. Come with me."

"Hm-da~!"

White Chubby sprang up from the ground, landing on all fours. Those gleaming white slit pupils quickly focused, brimming with enthusiasm.

"Hm-da, hm-da~"

This time, Chaos felt he understood.

White Chubby was expressing enthusiasm.

"Good. You're all fired up!"

"Hm-da~!"

Seeing how eager White Chubby was, Chaos suddenly wanted to tease the dragon.

"All the magic cores you hunt down this time belong to me."

"Hm..."

"What, you don't want to?"

"Hm-da~!"

The round white dragon head shook from side to side.

"Good. Such a good dragon~"

Chaos grinned, baring his Dragon Jaws. In truth, it made no difference whether White Chubby agreed or not. All the magic cores from this hunt would still go to him. That had already been decided.

He stepped forward, turned around, and looked back at White Chubby.

"Come on. Let's go hunting."

"Hm-da~"

He brought White Chubby over to the pool, where some hatchlings had already gathered.

He stopped at the water's edge. The water in the pool had turned clear again.

With a thought, an Emerald Casting Ring formed in front of him.

Light spilled down, and emerald Perceptive Vines sprouted from the earth, reaching underwater.

He switched his view to two of the Perceptive Vines.

Underwater.

The water was clear, but the mud on the bottom was covered in a red carpet of settled blood. Plenty of food scraps lay on top, clearly traces left by the hatchlings' hunts.

Many tiny fish and shrimp had gathered at the bottom of the pool. They were too small to even fill the gaps between his teeth. This pool had clearly become a feeding paradise for them.

Same old formula.

He directed a mass of Perceptive Vines to station themselves at the innermost end of the pool.

He also sent two vines extending toward the channel opening.

The Perceptive Vines swam smoothly to the channel opening.

Leaving one there, Chaos sent the other extending deeper underwater.

There was nothing special underwater, just flowing water.

At a depth of twenty meters, small fish and shrimp began to appear.

The deeper he went, the larger the fish became.

At fifty meters, two-meter-long fish were everywhere.

Just as he had expected, the food resources in this underground river were abundant.

Watching those large fish swim around, his desire to kill that Bamokangla grew even stronger.

The aquatic resources in this underground river alone were more than enough to see their Dragon Group safely through the hatchling stage.

The Perceptive Vines kept descending.

Seventy meters, eighty meters.

One hundred and fifty meters.

It reached the bottom.

There was nothing unusual at the bottom of the underground river. It was all soft mud.

Soon, Chaos spotted an old friend.

Xelila. Densely packed Xelila overlapped across this stretch of riverbed, with small ones no more than a meter long making up eighty percent of them.

Breeding season?

These Xelila were breeding.

Since you're raising your young, I'll spare you for now. Make sure you raise them quickly.

With a thought, he began directing the Perceptive Vines back toward the surface.

[Whoosh~]

Just as it rose to roughly the halfway point, the view went dark.

In the Perceptive Vines' final glimpse, a group of Kashi were hunting a shoal of fish together.

On the riverbank.

Chaos grinned.

Found them.

With a thought, he sent a Perceptive Vine in the pool extending toward the channel opening.

The eyeball on the Perceptive Vines swiveled around, targeted a thorn hanging from the wall of the channel opening, and rammed straight into it.

The black thorn pierced the Perceptive Vines' eyeball with almost no resistance.

Pale green sap kept flowing from the punctured emerald eyeball.

The pierced eyeball had lost its sight. Using the view from the other Perceptive Vines, Chaos guided the vine with the punctured eye out to the channel opening.

Emerald sap kept seeping from the torn eyeball, diluting into the water.

Soon, one Kashi after another appeared in the Perceptive Vines' view at the channel opening.

The Perceptive Vines at the opening began retreating into the pool, looking as though they were fleeing.

The Kashi Shoal that had surfaced was clearly a fresh batch of fish.

Seeing the Perceptive Vines fleeing, the fish crowded toward the channel opening with barely any hesitation.

[Splash~!]

The water at the channel opening churned into violent waves.

Above the channel opening, Agatha sat crouched at the water's edge, her crimson slit pupils coldly watching the Kashi squeeze into the pool one after another.

Same recipe, same flavor.

There were just a few fewer fish this time, only twenty Kashi.

There was no need to wait for the Kashi to finish eating the Perceptive Vines.

No more fish were entering through the channel opening. If they didn't attack now, when would they?

He opened his eyes. The water in the pool before him was already utterly murky, churned into chaos by the Kashi.

The hatchlings around him had all tilted up their round heads, gazing at him eagerly.

Under those expectant gazes, he spoke.

"All right. Go."

"Splash~!"

The moment Chaos finished speaking, Agatha, standing at the channel opening, was the first to jump in, taking up her post as the goalkeeper of death.

"Splash, splash~!"

The hatchlings began entering the water one after another.

Hera was about to enter the water as well, but then she felt a tug on her tail. Looking back, she found Chaos holding her tail in both claws.

Her crimson slit pupils narrowed slightly, revealing the temper befitting a red dragon.

Facing Hera's questioning gaze, Chaos calmly grinned, showing his big white teeth. His right claw kept hold of her tail while he raised his left to point at the stone-pot stove nearby.

"Got a light~?"

Hera didn't want to waste time with this fellow. The savagery within her was already surging.

Her Dragon Jaws opened, and she unleashed a blast of scarlet dragon breath.

[Bang~!]

The dragon breath landed squarely inside the stove, but the stone pot was also blasted high into the air.