The first thing to do was add air intakes; relying solely on two nostrils wouldn't cut it.
After much thought, Asterion decided to evolve a frontal intake design. This way, he wouldn't need to open intakes at the wing roots, chest, or abdomen, which reduced the number of openings and improved safety.
Secondly, they couldn't be placed on the neck, where other monsters often bite, or on the exposed back. That left very few options.
Sigh, an adult dragon ultimately has to compromise with life.
Asterion ultimately evolved a primary intake on his chest. It was constructed entirely of hard dragon bone. The shape wasn't obtrusive; at a glance, it looked like a slight bulge. Behind this bulge was a channel protruding from the body surface, leading directly to the Fire Qi organ.
(Structure as shown in the diagram; please visualize a version covered in dragon bone and shell).
This simple intake structure was perfect. Simplicity meant no complex parts requiring maintenance. Asterion would be engaging in melee combat with other monsters, after all; precision meant fragility and potential failure. It wouldn't be rugged enough.
Furthermore, this structure achieved the goal while effectively minimizing weight, so Asterion didn't have to worry about his tonnage increasing even further.
The forward-swept lip protruding behind the bulge would alter the pressure distribution near the intake, creating high pressure in the center and low pressure on the sides.
When the boundary layer flow passed over the forward bulge, its direction would deflect to the sides. The deflection angle would increase as it approached the intake, squeezing high-pressure airflow into the intake. This would allow Asterion to take in air more stably during high-speed flight, reduce interference, decrease drag during transonic flight, and increase thrust. Lots of benefits.
Don't understand?
That's normal. Asterion was working purely off a few diagrams in his memory. He didn't understand the technical jargon either, just that it was good for him.
Most importantly, he didn't need to worry about the chamber exploding. Even if the bulge on his chest and the side channels were destroyed, it would only mean the intake was damaged. The internal channels and cavities would remain, and the Fire Qi organ would remain unharmed.
After all, Asterion evolved this intake to increase his endurance so he wouldn't have to stop every few thousand meters to catch his breath.
Without wind tunnel testing, Asterion felt he might need a tweak or two in the future, but that could wait until he actually got airborne.
After confirming the intake was clear, Asterion evolved a new duct inside his body, connecting his newly formed lungs to the intake. This way, he wouldn't have to rely solely on his nostrils to replenish air... Hmm, might as well add a diaphragm muscle in the airway to act as a valve, and a filter screen to prevent inhaling leaves, twigs, or gravel and choking half to death.
The wisdom of his past life didn't stop there. Asterion found another speed-influencing factor in his memory: the nozzle structure.
An excellent structure could increase thrust by several percent and boost speed.
Asterion's eight nozzles were currently located beneath his eight wing bones. They were generally cylindrical, with no structural obstructions, and lined with a thick layer of heat-resistant crystals.
The high-temperature, high-pressure airflow ejecting from the Fire Qi organ would flow unimpeded through the channels...
But that wasn't enough. Far from enough.
A jet fighter weighed only twenty to thirty tons. Even calculated at thirty tons, Asterion was equivalent to at least eight fighter jets.
His heavy weight gave him a phobia of insufficient power.
Therefore, Asterion modified the ends of the eight jet ducts. He changed the cylindrical straight-through channels to channels with a constricting structure at the end—a convergent-divergent nozzle.
It wasn't complex; it just tightened a circle near the exit, but it played a powerful role.
The high-pressure, high-heat airflow from the Fire Qi organ would expand and accelerate within the duct to subsonic speeds, reaching sonic speed before expanding further to let the supersonic gas continue to accelerate—theoretically, anyway.
He wouldn't know for sure until he flew.
He didn't plan on making vectoring nozzles. Asterion's propulsion organs were his wings, which could already freely adjust the direction and angle of the jet. There was no need to rely on separate nozzle vectoring to steer.
Spending some time conducting a detailed check of all his organs, especially the newly evolved ones, and confirming he hadn't missed anything, Asterion—confident he had done the best he currently could—stepped out of his nest again. He couldn't wait to ignite and take off.
Amidst the exclamations of the Grimalkynes, he arrived at the edge of the canopy again. Asterion inhaled the air before him like a storm. It was fast, and nothing unexpected happened. In just a few breaths, the air sacs in his chest cavity were filled to the limit—
Ignition!!
The Fire Qi was burning!!
It wasn't an illusion; Asterion could even hear the sound of flames violently burning and expanding inside his body. The fire element energy plundered from Teostra mixed comprehensively with the high-pressure air inhaled into his body, burning furiously.
Open the valves!
Time to release the pressure, or he'd explode. The high-temperature, high-pressure airflow rushed through the pre-laid pipes. One second—no! It didn't even take a second. A mixture of pale blue and yellow-orange flames blasted from the ends of the eight wing bones on Asterion's back!!
Instantly igniting the canopy near the ground, unable to hide his excitement, Asterion leaped forward!!
His reinforced legs possessed shocking explosive power. With just this leap, he jumped nearly fifty meters above the canopy. This area was already higher than the entire Ancient Forest. Looking down, he saw a continuous sea of green trees; the ground was completely invisible.
Only in a place this far from the canopy could Asterion go full throttle. Hmm, "full throttle" felt a bit weird to say in this context, but anyway, he didn't want the high-heat flames to burn down his new nest.
Unlike the Dragon Energy ejected by Valstrax—which certainly had immense destructive power but mostly caused impact damage, shattering rocks into pieces or powder—Asterion's Fire Qi was different. It would actually start fires, flames that the branches of the giant trees couldn't extinguish.
Blast off!!!
With a thought, the flames spewing from the tips of Asterion's wings grew even more intense. Every four wing bones converged into a larger nozzle, and the high-temperature, high-pressure airflow erupting from them actually halted Asterion's downward trend!!
Finally—Finally!!!
I'm f*cking finally flying!!!
Even with Asterion's composure, he felt the urge to cry. Big Wyvern Tears!
How many years had it been? Since crossing over to this world and discovering his uniqueness, he had dreamed of flying!
Especially when those flying pests sh*t on his head and he couldn't catch them or vent his anger, Asterion felt like he wasn't a complete dragon!
But now, it was different.
I can fly too!!
No time to think too much. Asterion excitedly adjusted the angle of his wing bones, shifting from pointing straight down to a slight slant. Consequently, Asterion's position in the air began to change, drifting forward.
More accurately, forward and downward.
Asterion was falling.
The change in altitude was too obvious, especially with the green sea of trees ahead as a reference. Asterion could clearly see the canopy of a giant tree in the distance rising constantly—this descent speed was a bit fast, wasn't it??
The excitement and thrill in his heart cooled slightly. Asterion couldn't smile anymore.
As expected, was the thrust still insufficient?
He couldn't even maintain a steady altitude in mid-air.
And the gas consumption was higher than he anticipated? Asterion sensed his status and found that under full throttle, in just about three minutes, the high-pressure gas in his air sacs had already depleted by nearly a third.
This consumption rate meant Asterion couldn't fly very far at present. Hmm, while there was still gas left, he might as well test his flight speed.
With that in mind, Asterion shifted his wing bones to be parallel with the ground. Accompanied by the sharp whistling sound of high-heat gas ejection, Asterion's dragon body began to fly forward!
This was real flight. Even if the speed was slow and he was descending rapidly while flying, this was flying!
Because Asterion said so!!
Eventually, no matter how unwilling Asterion was, he crashed through the layer of green trees and landed heavily on the ground.
His first flight as a dragon ended just like that.
How should he put it? Very excited, very thrilled, and filled with a sense of achievement and satisfaction. But, of course, there were regrets.
The problems exposed were numerous. He didn't even need to consider issues like air resistance at high speeds or the cold vs. high heat; those weren't concerns for a dragon whose flight speed couldn't even match a Paolumu.
Yes, Paolumu!
About the same speed as that guy who inflates himself into a ball and flaps his wings to float!
It was a disgrace! A flight system built on advanced scientific concepts and flight modes wasn't even faster than a guy whose flight system was basically a primitive airship.
Even though Asterion hadn't fantasized about flying like Valstrax before takeoff, falling short of the Bazelgeuse brothers and only being able to look up at a Rathalos's speed was a bit heartbreaking for a dragon.
The cause of all this was just one thing: Asterion's weight—he was simply too heavy.
The foundation of Asterion's form was still a Glavenus. The massive amount of ore he had consumed in the past had drastically increased his weight. Even though Asterion had subsequently evolved away his sword tail, replacing the heavy tail blade—which should have been composed of mineral secretions—with bladescales.
But Asterion's bladescales weren't lightweight either. Every bit of mineral essence he swallowed became part of the bladescales, turning his scales and shell into extremely hard metal with super defense.
As the saying goes, you have to give to get. This defense and weight turned Asterion into an immovable heavy tank on land, but when he wanted to fly, it became the very thing dragging him down from the sky.
However, it wasn't a big problem. Asterion shook his head and dispelled the regret from his mind. He had absolutely no intention of shedding this weight to lighten the load.
Pure speed was useless to him. What Asterion wanted was to plummet from the sky with this massive weight and deliver a slash. Weight plus acceleration—that was his ideal, and strongest, slash. Even if the enemy was Fatalis, he'd chop a horn off!
He wasn't discouraged by a temporary failure. On the contrary, Asterion was quite proud. After all, for the past dozen years, he couldn't fly at all, forced to watch those disgusting winged things hop around over his head.
But now, he had actually flown.
Going from zero to one is always harder than going from one to a hundred. It was a process of creating something from nothing.
The next step was to find a way to increase output, making the ejected Fire Qi more potent, the power stronger, and the thrust greater.
In fact, Asterion already had a preliminary plan. There were two directions he could take. The organs inside his body wouldn't undergo major changes in the short term unless he could find a Valstrax to eat and properly study its Dragon Spirit organ.
That path was a bit difficult; no one could find or catch up to Valstrax, otherwise Asterion wouldn't have to figure out the evolution himself.
The other path was to condense a Dragon Gem of his own, or perhaps a Fire Qi Gem?
When a dragon lived long enough and accumulated enough bio-energy, that energy would gradually condense into a gem, granting the dragon even greater power and allowing it to utilize bio-energy more effectively to strengthen its special abilities or physical strength.
Asterion was indeed strong now and had eaten many powerful dragons, plundering their bio-energy. But he didn't have a Dragon Gem of his own. After all, Asterion used all accumulated bio-energy to evolve himself, and the occasional leftovers were used to replenish consumption during battle or heal injuries.
According to the Capcom lore books he had read in his past life, Valstrax possessed such powerful Dragon Energy for two apparent reasons: one was naturally the special organ that produced Dragon Energy, and the other was Valstrax's Dragon Gem.
Perhaps to make it easier to retcon later, Capcom was very vague about this, describing it in the tone of scholars' conjectures.
But this was indeed a direction for strengthening. Asterion pondered whether he should save up the bio-energy required for one or several major evolutions to condense a Fire Qi Gem for himself. Maybe it would cause a qualitative change in his Fire Qi?
As a dragon who had never owned a Dragon Gem, Asterion didn't know exactly how much stronger a gem could make a dragon... Was it a quantitative accumulation? Or a qualitative transformation?
Let's try it first.
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