The Haul

Weapons were their most common finds.

Rust-covered longswords and curved blades, some even broken, were all picked up by Redd, one by one.

He examined them carefully. Most were ordinary iron weapons, without the shimmering brilliance of the legendary Valyrian steel swords, much less their fabled sharpness that could slice through iron like mud.

This left Redd somewhat disappointed, but he could only resign himself to classifying them as "scrap iron." Still, he put them into his system storage.

Who knew whether they might come in handy someday? Maybe he could dismantle them for parts?

What truly made Redd's eyes light up were the books they occasionally found.

Most were badly damaged, their pages yellowed and brittle, crumbling at a touch, but the words and illustrations drew him like a magnet.

Redd carefully wrapped them in cloth, brought them back to the Dragonpit, and spread them out on a makeshift platform.

These books recorded in detail the glorious history of the Valyria Dynasty and House Targaryen, whose members had once ridden mighty dragons and ruled the world,

their campaigns, their glory, their struggles for power...

Redd was enthralled, as though he had traveled through time and witnessed that golden age of dragons and magic.

What truly set his heart racing, however, was that several of the books mentioned the "Black Mist Demon Eye" and the "Orc Invasion."

These terms were filled with mystery and danger to him, and the books seemed to record some tremendous catastrophe and conflict,

but unfortunately, the later sections were all missing, leaving only fragmented sentences and indistinct illustrations. No one knew the final outcome.

It was like an enormous mystery, thoroughly whetting Redd's appetite.

As for the books containing records of magic, Redd could only spread his hands helplessly.

He could barely recognize a few of the words, but those crooked magical symbols, like incomprehensible scrawls, gave him an enormous headache.

He had tried studying them, but whenever he saw those complicated runes and descriptions, his mind went blank. It felt like reading an utterly indecipherable text.

The original owner of his body really had never studied any magic, which brought home to him the pain of a knowledge barrier.

"It looks like magic is a game for people with high IQs. A lousy student like me just can't handle it."

He gave a self-deprecating smile and ultimately dumped all these books into his system storage along with the other items, thinking:

I'll keep them for now. Maybe some chance encounter will let me understand them someday? Or I could find someone knowledgeable to interpret them?

Finally, there were the hundred-odd Dragon Eggs, their greatest haul of the past six months.

Redd and his dragons had searched everywhere for them, finding them in abandoned Dragonpits, hidden caves, and even inside Sandworms' stomachs, though the odds of that were extremely low.

These Dragon Eggs varied in size and color, with deep blacks, fiery reds, mysterious purples, and profound blues,

as well as rare golds and silvers. Brightly colored, they were piled in their Dragonpit like a small, multicolored mountain.

Ehm and Aegon did not seem averse to these new "neighbors," only occasionally nudging them with their noses,

or circling overhead, watching them in an almost protective posture.

Looking at the pile of Dragon Eggs, Redd was filled with anticipation. This was future fighting strength!

Over those six months, they had practically turned the Valyria Ruins upside down.

Redd felt like an archaeologist and a butcher alike, repeating the same routine of hunting, gathering, and exploring every day.

But his goal was clear and his steps unwavering. He seemed to be getting closer and closer to his target of "ten thousand evolution points."

That day, as usual, Redd climbed onto the broad back of Ehm the Black Dragon, with Aegon the Red Dragon following close behind,

while the third little dragon, King Ghidorah, flapped its wings excitedly, striving to keep pace with the two great dragons.

Yet after they had spent most of the day flying over these familiar Valyria Ruins, everywhere they looked,

there was nothing but cracked earth, twisted metal wreckage, and deathly still air.

Normally, they could always see Sandworms writhing across the sand or mutated lizards hiding warily, but today there was not a trace of either.

"It's a little too quiet." Frowning, Redd spoke softly to Ehm beneath him.

He felt an eerie, deathly silence pervading the air, as though the entire ruins were holding their breath.

Ehm the Black Dragon gave a low, resonant rumble in response.

Redd understood. This was most likely thanks to him and his two dragons.

For six months, they had left early and returned late, killing every living creature in sight with downright terrifying efficiency.

The creatures that dared venture out during the day had probably really been almost entirely "cleared out" by those two. The survivors had wised up and switched to moving at night, seeking a slim chance of survival.

How about... trying at night? Redd began weighing it up.

Hunting during the day was now too inefficient. Rather than waste time in this empty sky, he might as well try operating at night.

Although the Valyria Ruins were more dangerous at night and the black mist would become more active, there might also be more prey.

Unwilling to give up, Redd decided to make another circuit, hoping for an unexpected discovery.

He directed the three dragons to descend and carefully search the ground.

The results, however, were even more discouraging.

Not only did they fail to find any living creatures, even the black mist that usually spread across the ground, drifting about like ghosts,

seemed to have retreated underground and hidden itself away during the day, as though the entire ruins had entered a dormant state.

Even the most common and most fearless of death, the Sandworms, had completely vanished today.

Unable to find any prey, Redd could only turn around helplessly and lead the three dragons back to their Dragonpit.

The Dragonpit lay deep within a relatively secluded canyon, its entrance half concealed by a boulder.

Back at the Dragonpit, Redd jumped off the dragon's back and looked at his empty storage space,

then at the displeasing number on his system panel-just over six thousand evolution points, still far short of his goal of ten thousand.

He leaned against the cold rock wall and sank into thought.

If daytime won't work, I'll try at night. I can't keep wasting time like this.

Although operating at night meant facing denser black mist and unknown dangers, it seemed to be his only choice if he wanted evolution points and greater strength.

While he was thinking, a series of crisp crunching sounds came from the corner.

Redd turned his head and saw King Ghidorah crouching beside a discarded metal fragment,

busily gnawing on the hard metal with its small, exceptionally tough teeth, which had yet to grow in fully. It actually bit off a small piece and swallowed it.

"This little fellow..." Watching King Ghidorah, Redd could not help marveling at its strong teeth.

In just six months, the little dragon had grown astonishingly, its body already over half a meter long and approaching a meter,

and when it spread its wings, its wingspan reached over a meter, nearly two. It was already beginning to take shape.