Peepers in the Shadows

As Jose and his familiars were discussing the feasibility of developing animal husbandry in the mine, a noise suddenly came from the corner.

Crack.

Jose turned his head towards the thirteen lizard eggs placed in the corner. One of them had a crack on its shell.

"Finally, it's time."

The little life inside the egg gradually widened the crack until a hole appeared in the shell. A small lizard poked its head out. As soon as it appeared, it saw two pairs of eyes staring at it and quickly retracted, hiding inside the eggshell to peek.

"Heh, still shy, Sorda, go get some meat."

"Yes."

A moment later, the kobold familiar brought some shredded meat, tore it into small pieces, and handed it to Jose.

Jose used the meat to lure the little lizard that was still hiding in the eggshell. Lizards and dragons had many similarities, both in body structure and physiological habits. The little lizard could eat meat as soon as it was born.

The little lizard was still scared, but its stomach surrendered first.

It first poked its head out of the eggshell, sniffed the fresh meat dangling above its head, swallowed it in one gulp, and immediately retracted. It squinted, opening and closing its mouth, chewing and swallowing with difficulty.

Jose picked up another small shred of fresh meat and continued to lure it, like teasing a cat with fish, coaxing the little petrification lizard to crawl out of the eggshell, come out into the open, and continue feeding.

The remaining lizard eggs cracked one after another. Little lizards crawled out. Seeing their kin eating with great enjoyment, they didn't need any more coaxing and scrambled to come over, their clear egg whites leaving trails on the ground.

Jose watched the little lizards crowding together and fighting for food, a smile curling up at the corner of his mouth.

Just as he expected, the little lizards hatched around him, and a trace of True Dragon's aura was on them. The best proof was that the edges of the petrification young lizards' cyan scales were slightly reddish.

Dragonkin who were tainted with the aura of dragons were naturally close to the source of their bloodline. Otherwise, newborn young lizards wouldn't have let down their guard so easily and crawled out of their eggshells to accept food.

Unlike Jose's mood, Sorda was not so pleased. He was even a bit troubled.

There were thirteen more mouths that only ate meat.

Although the young lizards were still small, they would grow up, and then there would be thirteen big eaters.

He glanced at his master beside him, feeling a little guilty, wondering if he should voice his difficulties.

After thinking about it, Sorda stopped worrying. Judging from his master's recent actions, the Bloodtooth Tribe was truly favored by the goddess of luck, having encountered an unparalleled benevolent good dragon.

Other Five-Colored Evil Dragons wouldn't care if their familiars were full, as long as they themselves ate well. If anything was slightly unsatisfactory, it was common for them to use their familiars as snacks.

"Respected master, I have some concerns."

"Concerns about what?"

"The number of your pets. The number is really too large, and I'm worried that the meat supply will not be enough."

Jose turned to look at the familiar beside him. "First, I need to correct you. They are not pets; they are warriors, just like you. Second, don't worry about the food problem. Before they grow up, this problem will be solved. Lastly, I'm hungry."

Sorda, who was listening attentively, was stunned when he heard the last sentence, and then he reacted.

"I will prepare food for you right away."

Not long after, a group of kobolds came carrying ten steaming large pots. Jose smelled the aroma of stewed meat.

The large pots filled with stewed meat were placed in front of Jose, lined up. These large pots were specially prepared by the kobold familiars for the dragon. They were three meters in diameter, which was not small for Jose.

He lifted the lid and looked at the mixed stew in the pot: large chunks of meat cut into pieces, konjac, wood ear mushrooms, and plant tubers. Due to the timing of when they were put into the pot, the plant tubers had already been boiled to mush.

To be honest, Jose felt he would definitely do better than the kobold chefs if he stepped in, but being a lazy person... he didn't want to do it himself unless it was necessary.

Hmph! What are servants for?!

Jose contentedly picked up a large pot, raised it high above his head, unafraid of the heat, and poured the steaming soup and food directly into his mouth.

Gulp, gulp, gulp~.

Pot after pot, he soon ate until he was nine-tenths full.

Nine-tenths full was enough.

The kobolds carried the iron pots away again, leaving only Jose the dragon in the cave. He lay on the ground, lost in thought.

There were too many areas that needed improvement in the primitive kobold tribe.

Take the iron pots used for eating just now, for example. These iron pots were made by pouring molten iron into molds, and after the shape was fixed, they were hammered and polished.

Due to the primitive craftsmanship, there were often air bubbles and other flaws. On average, it took three attempts to cast one qualified iron pot.

Weapons were also shaped using molds and then polished. Ironware cast this way would easily crack when subjected to impact. It was enough to deal with wild beasts and other primitive monster tribes, but if they encountered regular human armies...

Jose could already imagine the scene of the kobolds fighting against regular human armies. Their weapons would clash, the ironware in the kobolds' hands would shatter with a crack, and then it would be a one-sided massacre.

Fortunately, there was no need to worry about fighting regular human armies in the short term. The matter of casting technology could be put aside. The issue of meat food was truly pressing, as winter was coming.

In this regard, Jose had already thought of a solution. On one hand, he would actively expand outwards, annexing other monster tribes to expand the hunting grounds. On the other hand, he would form an air force to improve reconnaissance and hunting efficiency.

Of course, kobolds couldn't fly, and Jose had no channels to acquire large flying raptors, nor could the Bloodtooth Tribe afford them.

The air force Jose chose was another primitive monster race – Harpies.

Harpies were common humanoid creatures on the Tydanore Continent. They had the bodies and faces of female elves, their arms were replaced by wings, and below their knees were skinny eagle talons.

Because their arms were bird wings, harpies could not start fires, and the tools they could make or use with their eagle talons were very limited. Therefore, the civilization level of harpies was very low, and they lived a wild life of eating raw meat.

Like many birds, to guard against sneak attacks by animals while sleeping, they built their nests in steep cliffs.

During their migration, Jose happened to see a Harpy's nest, not far from the Bloodtooth Kobold Tribe.

Under the night sky, a massive dragon silhouette shot out of the forest, soaring into the sky until it disappeared into the clouds.

In the distance, on a mountain peak, amidst the dense branches of a large tree, a hidden black shadow saw the dragon silhouette flying into the clouds and slid down the tree, gripping a nearby vine.

Inside a deep, dark tunnel, an ancient Gnoll, wearing a hood, hunched over and leaning on a cane, walked quickly, his pace completely unlike his outwardly frail appearance.

Catching the faint, sweet, bloody scent ahead, the Gnoll Arcanist—Old Mosa—felt a jolt of energy and quickened his steps even further, entering the nest filled with pale green poisonous gas.

Old Mosa saw the massive black shadow lying in the center of the nest. The shadow's emerald-like, rhombic vertical pupils were staring directly at him.

He stopped, tidied his slightly disheveled clothes from walking so quickly, adopted a submissive posture, and bowed.

"Master, we have a new neighbor."