The scorching sun baked the Iron Fir Hills into a charred brown, the cracked earth steaming with distorted waves of heat.
The red young dragon lay sprawled on the gravel, panting with its tongue out, embers of dragon breath drifting from its mouth and exploding into tiny sparks in the air. Mobel was rubbing his back against the hard, rough bark of the Iron Fir, scratching an itch as leaves rustled down.
Garoth was staring intently at the Earth Spider crawling out from a crack in the ground before him.
Its body was like a grinding stone, covered with many rock-like textures. Its eight segnted legs were long and sharp, coated with so black soil. On its back was a deliberately sunken rocky carapace, filled with large chunks of black soil.
Garoth sniffed the air.
A burning sensation rushed straight into his nostrils.
A gleam of joy appeared in Garoth’s eyes as he took a swift step forward, his body casting a dense shadow that blocked the sunlight, enveloping the Earth Spider beneath him.
“The scent of black oil!”
He looked down at the black spider trembling slightly under him, his gaze fixed on the black soil on its back as he reached out his claws to pick it up.
The mont he touched it, a slippery and greasy sensation rose.
Garoth squeezed it gently, and so black oil began seeping out from between his claw joints.
This was soil soaked with black oil—though it wasn’t the black oil itself, it was still a decent result. Garoth was very satisfied with the Earth Spider’s haul.
However,
why had it only brought back black oil soil and not the black oil itself?
Holding this question, Garoth activated his Mind Link skill and entered the Earth Spider’s spiritual world.
The Earth Spider’s spiritual world was equally dark, similar to that of the Rockgrub worm, as if situated deep underground in a gloomy, lightless realm.
“Why didn’t you bring back the black oil directly?”
Garoth asked within the spiritual world.
The Earth Spider responded: “Danger... death... fear...”
Its intelligence was lower than the Rockgrub worm’s, and its answers were broken and intermittent, but Garoth still grasped the general aning.
“The place where the black oil is stored is extrely dangerous. It would kill the Earth Spider, so it dared not approach and only dug up so soil soaked with black oil around the periter.”
Garoth pondered thoughtfully.
Since this was expected, he was not overly surprised.
Any intelligent creatures guarding near the black oil fields would surely defend not only against threats from above ground and the sky but also have asures against underground intrusions.
Carefully observing the Earth Spider’s fleeting mories,
through its perspective, Garoth saw several Earth Spiders traversing dark underground tunnels ahead, surrounded by increasingly dark soil layers with rising oil content.
Suddenly,
a huge centipede-like creature appeared.
Its entire body was forged from so kind of black tal, composed of dozens of steel segnted limbs linked together. Each segnt was marked with ghostly blue energy patterns. At its joints, pairs of auxiliary legs extended, constantly contracting and expanding like folding battle blades.
The mont this creature appeared, it began hunting the Earth Spiders.
The first few Earth Spiders were torn to pieces in under a minute. After patrolling underground for a round, it did not attack Earth Spiders at a certain distance.
“An alchemical golem guarding underground? Judging by its size and performance, it’s at least level five or six. The Earth Spiders can’t confront it head-on at all.”
Garoth thought silently.
Clearly, this was not a natural lifeform but a man-made underground sentinel, specially designed to clear out any creatures approaching the oil fields from below.
“Bringing back oil-soaked soil is already good. At least there’s so gain.”
Garoth conveyed an encouraging feeling, urging the Earth Spider to keep up the effort.
The Earth Spider sent back excited ntal waves, its will growing restless as it emitted a red glow: “Exchange... promise...”
You little guy, still so impatient.
But the promise I made was to bring back black oil itself. This oil-soaked soil is of a lower grade.
Garoth thought for a few seconds before exiting the Earth Spider’s spiritual world and bringing over the female Earth Spider that was being fed and cared for.
The mont the female spider appeared, the male Earth Spider eagerly waved its segnted legs and pounced. The female spider, in her breeding period, did not refuse and gladly accepted.
Garoth curiously watched the two spiders.
They showed no sha; in broad daylight, with a dragon watching, they began producing the next generation outright.
However, their mating thod was completely different from many other creatures.
The male spider waved its segnted legs, inserting tiny left antennae limbs into the left hole on the female’s reproductive plate, and the right limbs into the right hole. At first glance, it looked like an act of murder, the process sowhat grim.
Just as the male spider was about to finish,
Garoth’s eyes flashed and he swiftly reached out his claw to pull it off the female spider.
—The haul didn’t et the original requirents, so the mating opportunity was naturally only half given.
“Ten kilograms of oil soil, one complete mating opportunity.”
Garoth expressed his demand to the claw-flailing, furious male spider.
Don’t want to be a dragon? Fine, don’t be a dragon!
It was held by Garoth, its legs flailing in protest in midair, but it ultimately submitted and agreed, then hurriedly burrowed through the ground to fetch oil soil for Garoth.
The female spider looked confused, glancing up at Garoth.
Why chase away the male spider?
She did not understand.
Crack... another patch of ground cracked and bulged, and another male spider erged, also bringing so oil soil back, excitedly coming to Garoth for a reward.
Garoth grinned and beckoned it over.
Soon, one after another, male Earth Spiders returned with black oil soil, hoping to claim their reward.
Garoth was very generous. Although what they brought back did not match the original agreent, he still gave them half the reward—interrupting their work midway.
A group of eager red-hot male spiders ca and went in anger.
They furiously drilled underground, venting their dissatisfaction and digging even more eagerly for black oil soil to secure full mating opportunities.
“Poor spiders, Garoth, you’re so an.”
Samantha changed the subject and praised: “As expected of an outstanding Red Iron Hybrid Dragon. Your innate level of evilness is beyond my reach.”
In the eyes of the Red Dragons,
being “evil” represented excellence and glory. Every Red Dragon aid to beco the ultimate evil dragon.
From Samantha’s perspective, Garoth, who even oppressed and bullied spiders, was full of wickedness, irredeemably so.
“Don’t slander .”
Garoth defended himself: “I’m just urging them to be more proactive and work harder. How is that evil?”
He never considered himself an evil dragon.
Garoth didn’t think he was a benevolent dragon who helped the weak and punished the wicked, but he also shouldn’t be called evil, right?
Evil dragons often faced attacks and sieges from all sides, and Garoth didn’t want to be treated like one.
Yet, looking at himself, Garoth was speechless.
His appearance combined traits of the Iron Dragon and Red Dragon, with so evolutionary features, making him even more grotesque than the typical image of an evil dragon.
If a powerful adventurer ca over, they certainly wouldn’t listen to Garoth’s explanations.
“Born evil Red Iron Hybrid Dragon!”
“Oh ho, still like to argue!”
“Take this from my Corruption Slayer!”
... That was the most likely outco nine tis out of ten.
“Prejudice in people’s hearts is a mountain. I, Garoth, really am not an evil dragon.”
Sighing in his heart, Garoth shook his head.
At this point, he could only find ways to arm and strengthen himself. If he ever faced a purge, at least he would have the ans to resist.
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