The cold winter is retreating.
Overnight, warm air enveloped the entire icy land, and the Kawa Great Forest was about to usher in nine months of growth.
The cold air currents were dispelled by the warm currents, and large patches of ice and snow began to melt and fall. The plants on the ground, having endured a cold winter, eagerly sprouted tender buds, unfurling and adding a touch of greenery to the whole world.
At the same time, the cold and warm air currents in the sky rubbed and collided with each other, producing a large number of clouds floating in the air. A misty drizzle began to fall from the sky, and occasionally one could see flashes of lightning suddenly passing through the depths of the clouds.
Austin stood on the cliff, gazing at the overcast sky occasionally ripped apart by lightning. Suddenly, he became intrigued, spread his massive membrane wings, and soared into the clouds.
Moist vapor enveloped him, and he keenly felt the ionization in the air caused by friction. As he entered, he instantly disrupted the balance between the clouds, with the positive and negative charges neutralizing and releasing a large amount of light and heat, forming numerous lightning bolts that densely struck him. Yet, the Blue Young Dragon was unharmed, instead merging into the environment as if it were where he belonged.
Vaguely, Austin felt some connection with the storm cloud in the sky, as if it were becoming an external part of his own body. But this connection was faintly thin, weakly allowing him only to sense the nearby thunderstorm area without any other effect.
The Blue Young Dragon knew this was an inherent ability of the Blue Dragon, with control over thunder and lightning being one of the means for a Blue Dragon to stand at the pinnacle of this world. In human legends, the blue demons descending from black storm clouds, bringing a thunderstorm purgatory to the world, were those wicked adult Blue Dragons.
Blue Dragons have an innate ability to control thunderstorms, but this ability is closely tied to the dragon’s own strength. For instance, Austin, now just a two-to-three-year-old Young Dragon, could only vaguely sense a slight connection with the storm cloud and was unable to command it.
To influence the natural weather phenomena, one must at least be a Juvenile Dragon to stir a little power. Only an adult Blue Dragon could truly harness the full power of the storm clouds in nature.
"Although I didn’t have a carefree growth environment, it’s precisely because of this that my level is now much stronger than other Young Dragons of the same age."
In the inherited memories, the Young Dragon stage is raised by adult dragons, with no need to struggle to find prey or the magic substances needed for growth. They would eat and sleep to their heart’s content, with most of their time spent sleeping to digest various magical substances inside their bodies.
As the saying goes, life lies in movement. Perhaps this principle applies in the otherworld as well.
Unlike other Young Dragons with carefree childhoods, Austin had to labor and worry about survival every day, flying out of the nest to search for prey, leaving early and returning late, struggling to survive. Perhaps it was this constant motion, rather than lying around in deep slumber, that accelerated Austin’s growth compared to other Young Dragons and sped up his digestion of magical substances.
Meanwhile, using insights from his past life, Austin consistently used his talent magic, Electric Shock Paralysis, for self-induced electric stimulation training every day. Perhaps due to the differing races in this world, this method seemed to significantly enhance the activity of his cells, not only drastically reducing Austin’s sleep time but also accelerating the growth and division of his cells, making his entire body much larger than his peers.
"At this growth rate, I should be able to control the storm clouds and possess the power to change the weather by the time I’m thirty." Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn NovᴇlFɪre.nᴇt
Thirty years is just the length of a nap in the long lifespans of the Dragon Race. However, Austin’s soul is not that of a dragon. Surviving in a place without computers, phones, or entertainment for thirty years just for a bit of self-protection? That’s truly despairing!
"Let’s first set a tiny, tiny, tiny goal, like getting my Clan population to a hundred thousand!"
To rapidly increase strength, various magical substances like Magic Ore, Magic Crystals, Magic Beast Crystal Cores, and other precious Magic Resources are indispensable.
And collecting these Magic Resources is indeed challenging for Austin alone. Only by expanding the subordinate Clan forces can he hope to quickly gather more Magic Resources.
Thus, the development and expansion of the Dragon Nest Tribe’s forces is Austin’s current top priority, not to mention that a strong Clan can also better protect Austin’s Dragon God’s safety.
With numerous thoughts swirling in his mind, the Blue Young Dragon flapped his wings, flying and darting into the clouds.
Outside, the ice and snow began to melt, and the sky occasionally drizzled a light rain. The whole world seemed damp, and the creatures that had been hungry during the winter began to emerge from their nests, joyfully nibbling on the earth’s newly sprouted buds.
Meanwhile, the hunters, enduring their rumbling bellies, hid among the thickets, patiently waiting for the moment when their prey let down their guard.
The entire Kawa Great Forest once again fell into a new cycle of all things growing, marking the beginning of a new year.
Meanwhile, in the Dragon Nest Territory, the plans for the new year also commenced.
The first task undertaken by the Dragon Nest Tribe wasn’t to begin cultivating the earth and sky, but to eliminate the fierce wild beasts within the territory.
As early as during the cold winter season, the Dragon Nest Tribe had sent out small teams to patrol and purposefully hunt down the hungry wild beasts around, preventing these beasts from attacking the Dragon Nest Tribe. However, at that time, only a portion of the beasts were hunted.
Now that the cold winter season has passed, various animals are emerging from their nests and roaming the earth and mountains. Those beasts that had been hibernating are waking up and starting to hunt in various directions. To protect the environment around the Dragon Nest Tribe and to enrich the biological resources within the territory, rounding up these newly awakened beasts is imperative.
Moreover, with the end of the cold winter, the ice layers on the lakes and reservoirs have thawed, making it difficult for the Dragon Nest Tribe to attract fish with the methods of ice gouging and hot water. The tribe has thus lost a significant food source.
Though, based on Austin’s knowledge, the Beastmen have woven several nets using vines to catch a fair number of fish in nearby rivers. Nevertheless, it takes much more effort compared to ice-gouging fishing, and the yield is considerably lower.
As the population of the Dragon Nest Tribe surged, a food shortage had begun to emerge. Therefore, before the temperatures become sufficiently warm, the entire Dragon Nest Tribe has mobilized its population for a large-scale hunt.