Life energy was never enough, no matter how much he had. Who knew how many years he would have to diligently save up this time... He was honestly starting to miss Nergigante.
Nergigante seemed to have some nifty little tricks when it came to finding Elder Dragons, and it always managed to locate those that were old, infirm, rich in life energy, and easy to bully.
Snatching food from Nergigante's mouth just once yielded a massive amount of life energy. After that experience of stealing a Teostra corpse, Asterion seemed to have gotten a bit addicted.
Who could refuse that sensation of gambling small to win big, reaping maximum rewards?
He didn't spend a single moment resting on his laurels; Asterion had already decided on the direction for his future development. When it came to evolution, he would never be satisfied.
For safety's sake, Asterion began inspecting the physical changes in his body. He had to ensure that his newly evolved organs could withstand the strain.
He had flown for about seven minutes just now. Uh, actually, even if he could have flown longer, Asterion wouldn't have dared. He was terrified that if he flew for too long, those organs that hadn't been field-tested would explode inside him.
Fire Qi Organs... Safe. The secretion rate of the heat-resistant crystals seemed a bit too fast. Even though he was burning at full power just now, the thickness of the crystals inside the air sacs hadn't decreased; instead, it had thickened. It seemed he needed to reduce the secretion rate.
Valves... Safe.
Cooling Channels... Safe, crystal thickness normal.
Asterion looked down at the ground behind him. He had smashed into the earth at an angle just now; the maneuver he had envisioned—adjusting the nozzle angle for a vertical landing—hadn't quite worked out.
In the furrow behind him, large and small crimson crystals were visible—these were the heat-resistant crystals Asterion had sprayed from his wing-bone nozzles during flight.
They were sprayed out in a molten liquid state, and upon contacting the cold ground and the outside air, they began to gradually solidify. However, as it had only been a short time, they still maintained a liquid form.
Once fully solidified, they would likely turn into irregular, stone-like crystals.
Great. Before he could even shed his old shell due to supersonic flight like a Valstrax, Asterion had started by spitting all over the place.
It was foreseeable that in the future, when Asterion flew across the sky, the liquid heat-resistant crystals he sprayed would scatter along his flight path. When these scalding crystals fell to the ground, they might not be able to blast out meteorite-like craters just yet, but their inherent heat was enough to ignite the surrounding vegetation.
It might even trigger a forest fire.
In other words—a natural disaster?
Shaking his wings, Asterion suddenly realized the gravity of this issue.
Had he unknowingly reached that realm?
A single unintentional movement, a daily action, could cause destruction to the surrounding natural environment and affect other lifeforms... It was just that the range wasn't large enough yet.
Monsters that cannot be classified are categorized as Elder Dragons. From this perspective, Asterion was already a qualified Elder Dragon.
And his power—was the same.
Subconsciously looking back at the wings on his back, with a thought, the four fused wing-bones on his left side separated. One of the wing-bones naturally twisted forward, allowing Asterion to see the circular aperture beneath it.
He had previously mocked the Bazelgeuse brothers for looking like wooden clubs, but as it turned out, when his own eight wing-bones were fused together, they looked even more like two giant clubs. They had no resemblance to normal wings whatsoever. Judging solely by appearance, people or monsters who hadn't seen Asterion take off would never imagine this guy could fly.
Hmm... maybe he could ambush someone with this?
If some flying nuisance tried to disgust him from overhead in the future, he could abruptly rocket into the sky and give it a slash. Simply perfect.
Moreover, the molten heat-resistant crystals that sprayed out continuously at high speed whenever the Fire Qi Organs were active could also serve as a weapon. It was like a sandblaster—high temperature plus high speed. It might be able to directly pierce through an enemy's body.
Mmh, I'll find a target to test it on tomorrow, Asterion thought.
Thinking as he went, Asterion returned to his nest along the path he had flown—on foot.
Actually, there was another way to increase power: changing his elemental attribute. Like Valstrax, he could mix Dragon Element energy with high-pressure air to jet out genuine Dragon Qi.
However, taking this route wouldn't be as easy as condensing the Fire Qi King. That only required him to constantly hunt and accumulate life energy. This route would require him to hunt monsters that possessed Dragon Element energy.
And they had to be exceptionally powerful monsters. Even if they weren't Elder Dragons, they had to possess combat power comparable to, or even exceeding, Elder Dragons. Only such powerful monsters would possess high-quality Dragon Element energy and the organs to produce it, generating the Dragon Qi with the strongest propulsion.
I'll cross that bridge when I get there, Asterion thought. He couldn't think of where to find such a high-quality Dragon-type right now... Deviljho?
Deviljho's Dragon Element energy was certainly potent. If it were a Savage Deviljho—a "Golden Pickle"—it would be even more potent. But the problem was that nobody knew where those rare nomads wandered, so he would leave it to fate.
For now, the main goal was still to condense the Fire Qi Jade. Anyway, even if he planned to switch his main energy source in the future, Asterion could simply swallow the Fire Qi Jade into his stomach and digest it back into life energy without any loss. It was perfect.
Checking himself as he walked, Asterion suddenly noticed that strong heat was radiating from his eight wing-bones all the way to the cooling vents at his tail, even though he had stopped flying for a while now—was this heat dissipation efficiency a bit too slow?
Asterion puffed out a breath. He saw that the small patch of air outside the cooling vents was slightly distorted—a phenomenon caused by high heat. When he deliberately inhaled and exhaled through the cooling channels, the phenomenon became even more obvious.
Even with the eighteen air sacs assisting in heat dissipation, the improved respiratory system still seemed a bit insufficient, didn't it?
The temperature was at least several hundred degrees. This issue, which should have been discovered long ago, had been ignored due to Asterion's own heat resistance.
Asterion was already considering whether to add a water-cooling system to his body. After all, such slow heat dissipation wasn't very safe, and it would affect the operation of other organs in his body.
But adding a water-cooling system... leaving aside the weight increase, the life energy required for a large-scale restructuring of internal organs was a massive figure. Asterion's accumulated life energy was nearly depleted; he still had to do the finishing touches for this major evolution.
There were still some areas needing improvement and structures needing fine-tuning. They were minor details, and the workload wasn't heavy; Asterion had pretty much completed them during his walk.
The only adjustment worth mentioning specifically was the modification to the Fire Qi Sacs. Asterion had partitioned a small extra chamber above the Fire Qi Sacs, connecting it to the main part of the sac with a diaphragm muscle covered in heat-resistant crystals acting as a valve.
It wasn't a huge project, but this small space played a crucial role, capable of greatly increasing Asterion's endurance.
Although he had designed air intakes for supersonic flight, supersonic flight was currently just a dream, so these intakes hadn't played any role in the flight just now, functioning only during the pre-flight air intake phase.
The previous Asterion, like Valstrax, had to mix compressed air with energy and store it before flying. Asterion, in particular, jetted Fire Qi. Once the compressed air in the sacs was ignited, he couldn't replenish the air inside until the Fire Qi was extinguished. Otherwise, the high-temperature Fire Qi would rush directly into his lungs through the pipes, burning his entire respiratory system to ash.
With this small chamber, however, Asterion could compress the air entering the intakes and nostrils via the respiratory system and fill the small chamber. Then, he could close the valve between the small chamber and the respiratory system, and open the valve between the small chamber and the large chamber. This way, he could safely replenish the burning Fire Qi.
After performing a supplementary evolution, Asterion tentatively ignited the Fire Qi to run a simulation. After confirming the new structure could operate safely, he extinguished the fire with satisfaction.
With this, his endurance would receive a qualitative boost.
Having spent all the life energy Teostra had painstakingly accumulated over a lifetime, along with every bit of life energy he had saved up for years, Asterion's second major evolution in this draconic life finally came to a close.
Overall, he was extremely satisfied with the results of this evolution.
Standing on the shoulders of the wisdom of countless people from his past life, Asterion had achieved the miracle of hand-crafting a Valstrax—a purely "home workshop" version, entirely knock-off, entirely "I reckon it works."
Even if he couldn't fly as fast as a Valstrax yet, Asterion believed he would reach that realm sooner or later.
Time to celebrate!!
Walking back to the foot of the giant tree that served as his nest, Asterion finished the final touches of the evolution and confirmed his new direction. He then spread his wings and violently blasted out Fire Qi, propelling himself straight to the crown of the tree!
He would never walk that path up the tree ever again!!
Hmph!!
Peering down from the edge of the canopy after landing, Asterion was a little worried that the powerful blast of Fire Qi from his takeoff might have ignited the ordinary trees below—uh, they actually were on fire.
However, the fire wasn't large, and a small forest stream flowed nearby.
Forget it, let the Grimalkynes put it out. It would be too embarrassing to jump back down right after flying up.
Asterion felt he had to start learning to adapt to this life where his every move could implicate the surrounding environment.
"Roar!" (Bring the food!)
With one command from Asterion, the entire Glavenus Tribe had to run their legs off.
During Asterion's secluded evolution, the Grimalkynes of the tribe seemed to have adapted somewhat to the environment of the Ancient Forest. They had woven long ropes from vines at the edge of the canopy, attaching a basket to the bottom.
Using this basket, the Grimalkynes could descend from the canopy layer to the ground at high speed, plunging into a small pond below—speaking of which, this small pond was the crater smashed open during Asterion's great battle with the Dreadking Rathalos. The Grimalkynes had dug a canal from afar to divert river water into it.
It served as a cushion for the falling basket so the Grimalkynes inside wouldn't get hurt, and they also stocked the pond with fish they had caught, acting as the tribe's food storage.
This drop from the canopy was a one-way trip. The basket would be hauled back up by the Grimalkynes on the canopy pulling the rope, bringing up a basket full of fish along with the rider.
despite being the Protectors from the desolate Wildspire Waste, these Grimalkynes had already become proficient swimmers and could even dive to catch fish.
Ripples constantly oscillated across the pond's surface as one large fish after another was tossed out of the water and into the basket—these fish would soon become Asterion's feast.
Meanwhile, the fire Asterion had ignited on the ground during his ascent was extinguished by the patrolling Grimalkynes guarding the base of the tree. The Ancient Forest might lack many things, but it definitely didn't lack water.
Everything was orderly. While lying in the center of his nest waiting for his long-awaited meal, Asterion listened to the Old Shaman report on what had happened in the tribe during his seclusion.
Generally speaking, there were no major events. Leaving aside the Kulu-Ya-Ku brother, whose combat ability wasn't much to write home about, the Bazelgeuse brother alone was enough to deal with any guys trying to seize territory.
The combat intensity of the Ancient Forest greatly satisfied the Bazelgeuse brother's lust for battle. With Asterion's nest as the center, he patrolled the surroundings all day long. Regardless of whether it was Asterion's territory or not, as long as his combat radar sensed monsters fighting somewhere, the Bazelgeuse brother would fly over to crash the party.
Uh, one could only say his combat radar never stopped; the competition in the Ancient Forest was simply too fierce.
The Kulu-Ya-Ku brother, on the other hand, had found new targets for egg stealing. In the Wildspire Waste, he plagued the Apceros, but here in the Ancient Forest, he plagued the Aptonoth—similar in ecological status, Aptonoth possessed little combat power, a gentle temperament, and strong reproductive capabilities, making them a feast for predators in the Ancient Forest.
He could easily fill his stomach without getting hurt, and their flesh even contained a large amount of life energy. After all, Aptonoth ate grass, and the first to absorb the abundant life energy from underground in the Ancient Forest weren't animals, but plants.
Primary consumers.
The life energy here, far richer and wilder than in the Wildspire Waste, seemed to have caused a population explosion among the Grimalkynes. Asterion realized he had been in seclusion for nearly two years. During these two years, the number of jar-sized, burly Grimalkynes in the tribe had increased significantly.
They all lived concentrated near Asterion's nest. The strongest among them bore more responsibilities, tasked with acquiring food for the tribe and eliminating small monsters that threatened the ordinary Grimalkynes.
The Ancient Tree was not merely a tree, but a complete ecosystem. There were gaps between the trunks where soil had accumulated, and many trees had taken root and grown on the surface of the Ancient Tree itself; a single tree was a forest.
Since it was a forest, naturally there were all kinds of creatures, fighting constantly and creating quite a bustle.
The Grimalkynes led very fulfilling lives. With Asterion's nest as the center, they were building their own city.
————
Supporting me on Pa-treon to gain early access to advanced chapters and enjoy expedited updates. Your support is greatly appreciated.
pat-reon .c-om/Dragonhair
(Just remove the hyphen - and space, to access Pa-treon normally.)