Garoth was in dragon sleep within the Steam Ravine.
In the distance, a group of stone giants was migrating through the wilderness in the rain, searching for a suitable settlent.
There were eleven of them in total, six of whom were not yet young adults, ranging in age from juveniles to young giants.
Among the remaining five stone giants, one was a middle-aged elder over two hundred years old, three were young adults, and one was an adult stone giant.
Giants and dragons alike were long-lived species; their lifespans varied by type, generally shorter than dragons by about one to two hundred years, with similar age categorizations.
The difference was that within the sa age bracket, dragons were ranked at least one tier higher than giants.
Giants’ advantages lay in their greater numbers, tight social cooperation, and fierce combat ability comparable to dragons of the sa rank.
Adult stone giants were ranked between level 8 and 10, roughly equivalent to young dragons or late-sequence youth dragons such as White Dragons.
Middle-aged stone giants were ranked between level 10 and 13.
This group of stone giants ca from the Stoneheart Clan.
Their leader and other higher-ranked warriors had died in the war against the Blue Dragon Clan.
Now, the strongest remaining was the middle-aged stone giant elder.
He was responsible for leading the surviving giants to a safe place and a suitable new territory.
There, they could recuperate and rebuild their strength.
They hoped one day to return victoriously to their holand.
The rainy season in the wilderness continued, with the drizzle thickening quickly into pouring rain. The stone giants braved the heavy downpour, migrating silently, gradually disappearing into the wild.
Beneath the sa sky, wind and rain raged with thunder and lightning.
The Bonegnaw Clan ogres, settled in fertile hilly lands, neither hunted nor rested nor bred. Instead, they all gathered in the central hall to hold the “Sacred Banquet.”
The banquet’s protagonists were the old chieftain and his nine descendants.
The reason was that as the old chieftain aged, his strong, pri-aged descendants eyed his position covetously.
To maintain his rule, the old chieftain ruthlessly devoured two of his own offspring.
But he knew he would eventually have to choose a successor.
After devouring two descendants, he still had nine direct descendants left.
To select the strongest among them capable of replacing him, the old chieftain held the most sacred ceremony among the ogres.
This ceremony was called—the Sacred Banquet.
For ogres, the aning of survival was simple—eat.
Their appetites were enormous, able to consu fresh at, bones, even stone and tal.
The ogre who could eat the most was the strongest and most gifted.
The Sacred Banquet revolved entirely around eating.
Whoever had the strongest stomach, who could fight through and eat until the end, would beco the next king of the Bonegnaw Clan.
During the Sacred Banquet, the old chieftain and the other nine ogres involved began eating nonstop, day and night without rest.
So far, the banquet had been going on for so ti.
The contestants had dwindled from ten to only three.
The old chieftain and his two most favored descendants: Ugo Bonegnaw and Karu Bonegnaw.
The three-headed ogres surrounded the marble slab dining table, their mountainous shadows cast beneath the light, fat dripping through the cracks of the stone table.
More ogres crowded the hall, watching the ongoing banquet with no room to spare.
On the stone slab table lay rotten sheep carcasses swarming with maggots.
Ugo was as massive as a mammoth draped in ogre skin.
Each ti he swallowed a clump of maggot-infested sheep flesh, his belly bulged slightly.
His gaze was fierce as he ate quickly, striving to finish first, eyes blazing with desire for the throne.
Karu did not care about the throne.
He stared at the dead sheep with pure love for “delicacies.”
He tore off chunks of rotten at, eating the flesh along with the maggots, a happy and joyful expression lighting his face.
In less than three minutes, the three ogres finished all the maggot-ridden sheep carcasses.
Ugo finished first, followed by Karu, and lastly the old chieftain.
With age, the old chieftain’s appetite and digestion speed could no longer match his strong descendants, but he refused to admit defeat and let the banquet continue.
The banquet went on.
The Bonegnaw Clan had almost emptied all their reserves, presenting “delicacies” that even ogres frowned upon.
These foods were deadly poisons to other species but served as the ultimate test of stomach strength for ogres competing for the throne.
After the maggot-infested rotten sheep ca the wind-dried rhino leg bones covered in sharp spines.
They had no at left; the sharp spines would cut the ogres’ mouths, throats, and stomachs, causing pain during eating.
Ugo grabbed the leg bone first, blood dripping from his mouth, his face twisted fiercely as he loudly cracked and chewed.
Then the old chieftain, frowning and holding his big belly, began eating.
Lastly, Karu, though pained in mouth and stomach, still ate joyfully and solemnly, licking even the smallest bone fragnts clean.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared; the heavy rain poured down.
The banquet continued.
Heart-piercing worm sashimi, rusted nail stew with troll toes, raw pickled thunder rhino bladder, sliced deadly poisonous mushrooms... one by one, foods no other living species dared touch were continuously brought to the table and placed before the three ogres.
Half an hour later, the ogres finished eating the armored beetle’s elytra, their huge stomachs swollen like three mountains of flesh.
“The banquet continues!”
The old chieftain burped and spoke, ordering the ogre kitchen butchers to bring more food.
“Chieftain, all the food has been eaten.”
The kitchen butcher replied, “The clan’s reserves are completely depleted.”
Ugo suddenly stood up, his voice thick and booming as he declared victory: “I always finish eating first! Victory and glory belong to !”
If all the ogres persisted to the end, eating speed was the most important criterion.
The old chieftain staggered to his feet, ready to announce the banquet’s result.
At that mont, a hungry, wolf-like green glow flashed in Karu’s eyes. He growled low, “No! I’m not full yet.”
The next second, he suddenly stood, approached the old chieftain, and amid the chieftain’s confused gaze, swung his huge fist onto the chieftain’s forehead.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With several sudden, powerful blows, the old chieftain died on the spot.
Karu turned to the butcher, grinning: “Cut Father’s corpse and the food inside his stomach in half and place them before and my brother.”
“The banquet continues.”
Silence filled the hall.
The ogre butcher gave a dull hum, then chopped the old chieftain’s body into pieces and presented them to the two ogres.
Ten minutes later, Ugo finally could not eat anymore.
His belly looked like a balloon stretched to its limit, surface cracked in lines, stomach burst. In contrast, Karu’s belly was also round, but after each bite, it bulged slightly then quickly contracted again.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the ogres watching the feast belatedly noticed that Karu’s body had swollen a size since the beginning, and not just in the stomach.
He had originally been less strong than Ugo.
But now, beneath Karu’s bloated skin, muscles bulged like filled with asphalt and oil, making him appear larger than Ugo.
The clan’s smartest two-headed ogre sorcerer turned both heads to look at each other.
In the small eyes of his other head, he saw shock and ecstatic joy.
“Karu has awakened the Gluttony Talent! He will lead the Bonegnaw Clan to glory!”
Both heads spoke in unison.
The ogre mutation—Gluttonous Ogre.
Gluttonous Ogres could digest all foods and efficiently convert food energy into terrifying power capable of shaking mountains.
Ancient clan records told of a glory long ago—a Gluttonous Ogre who founded a magnificent empire made up entirely of ogres!
Ugo finally admitted defeat and knelt before his brother.
Opposite him, Karu chewed on the old father’s arm, slurring indistinctly as he declared himself the new chieftain.
This gluttonous, raucous feast ended with the greediest stomach crowned king.
After eating all the flesh and bones of his father, Karu looked around the ss-filled hall and muttered, “I’m still not full.”
Every ogre he saw instinctively looked away, afraid to et his gaze, afraid of being devoured alive.
“Clan mbers! Follow to hunt.”
Karu shouted loudly, and all the ogres responded.
During the banquet, ordinary ogres had suppressed hunger too long, and with clan reserves completely exhausted, hunting was urgently needed.
Not only fierce beasts and magical creatures,
but the monster clans entrenched around the area would all beco targets of the Bonegnaw ogres.
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