Great-Horned Oxen

A herd of Bystin Great-Horned Oxen had appeared before Sol.

They stood over eight feet tall at the shoulder, measured nearly five meters long, and could easily weigh 1.5 tons.

Their massive bodies were covered in dense, long hair, dark brown and almost black. Pronounced humps rose over their shoulders and backs, their limbs were thick and their hooves broad. A pair of curved horns, each nearly six feet long, extended outward from either side of their heads.

As herd animals, Bystin Great-Horned Oxen usually formed small family groups of ten to thirty. With their enormous size and the sharp "weapons" on their heads, they were rarely challenged by predators.

The herd before Sol numbered nearly fifty, a truly enormous group. They wandered across the wilderness, grazing on freshly sprouted grass like moving mountains of meat.

His gaze settled on the smaller calves among the Great-Horned Oxen. He drew his outstretched wings in slightly and began to dive.

The aura of an apex predator spread out, immediately throwing the herd into a panic. The strong bulls instinctively formed a circle, protecting the cows and calves in the middle.

Against ordinary predators, this was an extremely effective defense. Even a Dire Lion would be unwilling to take a jab from those horns, each nearly six feet long.

In the past, Sol might have had no choice but to harass them from the outside and bleed a Great-Horned Ox to death, or eat a large amount of Coal and force a kill with his dragon breath.

But after loading the Toad's biological template, he had a better method.

When he had descended to less than ten meters above the ground, Sol stopped dropping and began circling at low altitude, drawing a deep breath.

In his abdomen, near his stomach, a newly grown saclike organ secreted a peculiar oil. It surged up his esophagus and into his throat, where intense heat instantly turned it into billowing smoke that he expelled along with the air he had inhaled.

The sky-darkening smoke engulfed more than half the herd in an instant, carrying toxic substances with it. The Bystin Great-Horned Oxen that inhaled it soon grew dizzy, and their muscles stiffened.

Although the poison was not potent enough to do much to the strong, sturdy Great-Horned Oxen, their obstructed vision and the strange sensations in their bodies still sent them into an instinctive panic.

Driven by the instinct to survive, their defensive circle fell apart without a fight. Almost all the Great-Horned Oxen scattered in panic.

Sol's sharp eyes locked onto a calf just over a meter long. He swooped down with the force of his descent and pinned it to the ground.

His dragon teeth gleamed coldly in his open jaws as he bit down on the calf's neck. His powerful jaw muscles compressed its arteries, depriving its brain of oxygen. It soon stopped moving.

As the spring breeze gradually dispersed the thick smoke, the herd of Bystin Great-Horned Oxen had vanished into the distance, leaving only Sol and the calf's corpse.

The calf's meat was exceptionally delicious, tender and springy, whetting Sol's appetite. After he had wolfed it down, only scattered bones and the hind legs he had saved for dinner remained.

He rubbed his round belly and watched the herd of Bystin Great-Horned Oxen recede into the distance. If he could catch a few and let them graze, he thought, they would make fine livestock.

Unfortunately, he was not strong enough yet, and he had too few subordinates to support the idea.

"I just hope these Great-Horned Oxen stay nearby for a while longer, so I can eat a few more."

In nature, no nutrients went to waste.

Not long after Sol left, several wilderness sand foxes were drawn by the smell of blood. Some time later, carrion vultures began descending from the sky.

They fought over the scraps of meat left on the bones, occasionally letting out hoarse cries and whining snarls.

Just then, two humanoid figures appeared on the distant horizon.

They wore sleeveless leather vests beneath tattered cowhide cloaks. One carried a rugged battle-axe on his back, while the other had a curved blade at his waist and held a long-handled leather whip.

Their attire made them look rather like the nomads of Sol's previous life, but their exposed, rough skin had a faint gray-green tinge. Together with their protruding jaws and prominent tusks, it revealed them as half-orcs.

When they saw the flock of vultures and the sand foxes in the distance, the two half-orcs immediately quickened their pace and rushed over. One abruptly swung his whip into the air with a loud crack.

The startled sand foxes and vultures scattered, revealing the skeleton they had surrounded.

One half-orc took a single look and immediately let out a furious roar.

"Damn thief, how dare it steal and eat my cow! It had better hope I don't catch it, or I'll flay it alive!"

The other half-orc, who looked older and more composed, crouched down and examined the remains on the ground, twitching his nose from time to time as if sniffing for something.

"No! That's not right! Look at the bite marks on these bones, and the footprints on the ground. A dragon left these."

The younger half-orc burst out laughing, clearly unconvinced by the older one's words.

"Don't joke around. Why would the great ones from those dragon castles come here? They prefer dry sand or dense forests. You must be mistaken."

The older half-orc grabbed the younger one by his clothes and dragged him over to the bones.

"You fool, I couldn't be mistaken! Think carefully. When we brought food to those young dragons before, weren't the marks they left exactly like these?"

The young half-orc thought back carefully, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. The claw prints on the ground and the teeth marks on the bones did indeed resemble those left by the young dragons, though the scent lingering in the air was somewhat unfamiliar.

"Another young dragon has appeared nearby? We have to report this to Master immediately!"

"But what about the cattle? They'll all be eaten."

"Forget the cattle! If we stay any longer, we won't even keep our lives!"

Sol had no idea that the calf he had preyed on was actually being raised by someone else. By now, he had returned to the cave with the two hind legs and was lying leisurely on his stone bed.

When he focused his attention on the enormous wheel in his mind, the Mental Power Essence balance displayed beneath it had once again reached over twenty points.

This time, however, he had no intention of drawing another environmental biological template. He merely exchanged some essence for a lump of Coal and slowly gnawed on it as an after-meal snack.

This combustible ore, rich in extremely high amounts of energy, could stimulate his body's affinity for the fire element, raise his tolerance to high temperatures, and strengthen the power of his breath.

If he ate it over a long period, his control over fire would grow stronger than that of other red dragons.

Once his belly was nearly full, he began thinking again about how to increase the number of Boarfolk under him.

No matter how he looked at it, the core issue was food-the yield from hunting could never compare to farming.

But where could he get good crop seeds? It seemed that, in the end, everything still depended on the enormous wheel in his mind.