Worms

Redd gazed into the black dragon Ehm's enormous eyes. Suddenly, he saw a familiar emotion in them-the care and comfort of an old mother toward her son.

That look made Redd somewhat uncomfortable. The corner of his eye twitched wildly despite himself, and a feeling of being treated like a child welled up within him.

After thinking it over, however, Redd realized that this was actually quite normal.

After all, the black dragon Ehm had lived for nearly two hundred years. To Ehm, he probably really was like a child.

Thinking of it that way, Redd felt he could understand the black dragon Ehm's behavior.

He took a deep breath, steadied his complicated emotions, then smiled and patted the black dragon Ehm's head,

indicating that he had not been affected too badly and did not need Ehm's comfort.

Then Redd opened the Personal Panel data in the system and examined it carefully.

The Personal Panel displayed:

Name: Redd;

Sex: male;

Age: eleven;

Bloodline talents: Old Valyria Dragon King bloodline, Dragon Rider; Dragon King's Aura.

Status: healthy

What relieved him when he saw this was that the Personal Panel listed his status as healthy, with no influence from any curse.

It seemed that these unidentified cursed creatures might have no effect on humans.

After all, Redd had encountered these cursed creatures capable of parasitizing living beings many times in these ruins. Even powerful dragons were not spared.

By all logic, it should have been impossible for him not to have been parasitized. But since the system data showed everything was normal, that meant he might truly be a special existence.

However, with no one else to use as a reference, Redd could not be entirely certain of this.

Perhaps some unknown reason simply prevented this curse from affecting him.

Redd quickly closed the system panel, as though he had lost all interest in it.

Clearly, his current system permissions were quite limited. He could not even view the explanations for the information on the panel.

This fact made Redd realize that to unlock more permissions, he would have to give his all to completing the system's tasks.

Redd resolved to finish the system task that very day.

He nimbly climbed onto the dragon's back, settled securely into place, then gently patted the black dragon Ehm's scales.

That pat was like a signal, and the black dragon Ehm immediately began a running takeoff.

The understanding between rider and dragon had long since been established. They hardly needed words to communicate, understanding each other's intentions through a few simple movements.

However, just after they had flown out of the Dragonpit and taken to the sky, traveling only a few dozen miles, the black dragon Ehm suddenly let out a deafening roar.

This short roar was clearly a signal, indicating that Ehm needed to land.

Redd immediately gripped the bony spines protruding from the dragon's back tightly to show that he understood Ehm's intentions.

Although Redd did not know why Ehm had chosen to land at this moment, he raised no objection.

After all, apart from the Sandworms lurking underground, no other creatures in these ruins could threaten an adult dragon.

The black dragon Ehm's descent was exceptionally smooth, spiraling slowly down into an enormous volcanic crater.

As they drew closer to the crater, a strong smell of sulfur rushed at them, irritating Redd's eyes and nose and making him somewhat uncomfortable.

Rider and dragon dropped from the sky like a meteor and landed steadily inside the crater.

The moment Redd landed, he felt scorching heat rush at his face, as though it would burn his skin to a crisp.

At the same time, the pungent yellow smoke and strong sulfurous smell made his throat sting, leaving him barely able to breathe.

Enduring his physical discomfort, he struggled to open his eyes and looked around.

The interior of this crater was actually so vast that even a hundred-meter-long dragon could move freely within it.

Volcanic rocks jutting up in all sorts of shapes lay all around. They still radiated astonishing heat, as though they had emerged from hell.

Even more surprisingly, black smoke still rose from many enormous lava fissures, though no lava flowed within them anymore.

It seemed this volcano was close to becoming extinct.

Redd silently wondered why the black dragon Ehm had come to a place like this.

Before he could figure it out, however, he saw the black dragon Ehm suddenly open its mouth and unleash a stream of scorching Dragonfire into some fissures in the lava rock that were not emitting black smoke.

In an instant, the Dragonfire filled those fissures like a surging torrent.

Immediately afterward, large numbers of black-and-red worms the size of washbasins were forced out by this powerful force.

The Dragonfire had left these worms somewhat charred outside and tender within, giving off a foul burnt stench.

Even so, these worms possessed extraordinarily tenacious vitality, still struggling desperately despite being charred.

But all of this was futile, for they ultimately became Ehm's food.

Whenever Ehm bit a worm open, the juices that splashed out were bright red, like lava, making the sight rather hair-raising.

Watching Ehm eat so happily, Redd felt somewhat dubious.

Although these worms looked delicious, their shape was truly more than Redd could stomach, let alone actually taking a bite.

As Redd watched these worms gradually die, he could not help wondering whether the system had successfully collected the magical energy within them.

With this question in mind, he quickly opened the system panel and looked at King Ghidorah's hatching progress.

Sure enough, the progress bar had risen noticeably, undoubtedly proving that these worms did indeed contain magical energy.

Redd felt a surge of delight and was very pleased with this discovery.

Since that was the case, he decided not to disturb Ehm's meal any further, instead turning his attention to studying the system itself.

After some exploration, Redd was surprised to discover that he could easily consult all the details of his own personal information,

but for the black dragon Ehm, he could only see some superficial information, as though it had merely undergone a simple registration.

This made Redd realize that his permissions were still quite limited. He could not even view detailed information about the black dragon Ehm's status.

However, he was not discouraged by this and turned to checking the task's progress instead.

To his delight, the task's progress was rising slowly but steadily and had now reached 97%.

Although it was still a little short of 100%, Redd believed that if he just kept at it a little longer, he would soon complete the task.

Time ticked by, and about an hour later, although the black dragon Ehm had already eaten its fill.