"A request?"
Hearing Carl's somewhat hesitant translation, the Admiral—the battle-hardened leader of the hunters—was momentarily stunned.
A request from the Azure Star Dragon?
Under the Research Commission's system, quests were traditionally issued directly by the Guild or posted by villages and towns. Hunters would accept these requests, complete them, and receive rewards. While hunters had accepted requests from other humans, Wyverians, and even Lynians, they had never once received a request from a monster—let alone a formal, official request delivered in a coherent language.
No, that wasn't even the main point. The real shock was that the Azure Star Dragon actually had a request. Could a being like the Azure Star Dragon genuinely need human assistance?
The answer was an absolute yes.
"Growl..."(I need you Ape Wyverns to build a city for me. A city that belongs solely to me.)
Lowering his massive head, Asterion let out a low growl. Two plumes of eerie blue, misty light exhaled from his nostrils as he spoke. Following the awakening of intelligence across all dragons in the New World, his dreams had quietly entered its next phase... Er, well, maybe it wasn't a grand dream. Perhaps he was simply bored out of his mind.
"Growl, roar..."(The buildings in this city must be towering and grand, large enough for a dragon of my size to move around freely inside. At the same time, this city must also have spaces for little creatures the size of Grimalkynes to live.)
Carl no longer even knew what he was translating. He recognized every individual word, but when cobbled together, they formed a concept entirely foreign to him. For a hunter who hadn't had much formal schooling, this was pushing his cognitive limits.
On the surface, Asterion's request sounded simple enough—just building a massive city. It seemed like they just needed to scale up human dwellings by a dozen times. But that was exactly where the problem lay. Given human proportions and current technology, was it really that easy to scale up a building's structure over tenfold?
On the contrary, the difficulty skyrocketed instantly. After their initial sigh of relief, the Admiral and his companions gradually came to their senses and realized what this request truly implied. The core issue wasn't even the architectural difficulty of constructing the city, but the sheer significance of such a city's existence.
"Are you..." The Admiral felt his throat go dry. He took a sharp, deep breath to suppress the turmoil in his heart, raised his head, and asked with an unprecedentedly solemn expression, "Are you trying to establish a kingdom of your own, Boss?"
This was no simple matter of stacking a few stone huts or wooden cabins, nor was it a temporary camp cobbled together from abandoned ships and timber like Astera had been in its earliest days. This was a grand, majestic city meant to simultaneously accommodate large monsters, Lynians, and very likely humans as well.
"Roar..."(You could understand it that way.)
Faced with what could practically be called an interrogation from the Admiral, Asterion remained exceptionally calm, offering his answer without the slightest concealment.
Possessing absolute power now, he no longer needed to trouble himself with hiding his true intentions. If he wanted something, he could simply reach out his claws and take it. For a Forbidden Species standing at the absolute pinnacle of the ecosystem, all he usually needed was a target; the rest would fall into place step by step.
To claim dominion over the entire world might be an exaggeration, but at least within the New World, no force could stand in Asterion's way.
"Roar, growl..."
"The Azure Star Dragon says we are completely free to call upon our kind from the Old World to help," Carl translated rapidly, his words acting like a stone dropped into a placid lake. "He doesn't care what we humans want to do in his New World either—whether we want to study the ecology or harvest resources is irrelevant to him. As long as we build this city for him according to his specifications, that is all that matters."
A wave of uncontrollable gasps erupted among the hunter delegation.
A few young scholars couldn't help but take a half-step back, their faces masks of pure horror. Their intellect made them far more aware than ordinary people of what this request truly implied. Even though the Admiral had repeatedly and sternly warned them before entering the lair never to be disrespectful under any circumstances, what the Azure Star Dragon was saying right now was simply too shocking for them to maintain their composure.
Even if the Azure Star Dragon was highly likely one of the legendary Five Dragons of Creation from human lore—a Forbidden Species possessing the power of evolution—at the end of the day, he was still a dragon... or rather, a monster.
And now, such a monster was openly issuing a request for humans to build a city belonging to monsters?!
The scholars' suspicions were correct! The Azure Star Dragon was actually going to establish a new kingdom!
"Quiet!!"
Turning around sharply, the Admiral bellowed, his roar finally snapping the stunned crowd behind him back to their senses. He took a deep breath, subconsciously clenching his fists as he looked at Asterion, delivering his next words with heavy deliberation:
"The Research Commission can accept this request. Furthermore, we can dispatch an emergency message to the kingdoms and the Guild in the Old World, requesting them to send a specialized team of top-tier technicians, architects, and various supplies to construct this city. But I have one question, Azure Star Dragon!!"
"In this kingdom of yours, what exact status do we humans and the Lynians hold?!"
The Admiral's voice echoed continuously through the cavernous lair, carrying an unyielding determination that refused to back down. His gaze was as piercing as an eagle's.
"Are we to be subjects under your command as well? Or in your eyes, are we merely coolies and slaves meant to sell our labor to build your city—or worse yet, are we just emergency rations meant to fill the bellies of your true subjects?!!"
The Admiral understood completely now.
The Evolutionary Power: Why had the Azure Star Dragon so recklessly and without consequence unleashed his terrifying power of evolution across the entire New World?
The Ecological Chaos: Why had the ecology of the entire New World become so chaotic, filled everywhere with bloody conflicts breaking out between newly enlightened tribes over territory and resources, making the war seem like an endless, unceasing nightmare?
The Expansion of Lynians: Why had the definition of "Lynian" expanded so dramatically in such a short span of time—growing from the weakest creatures like rabbits that used to be hunted as prey, to those powerful, large monsters that once ruled supreme by pure instinct, all without exception evolving their own independent intelligence and primitive civilizations?
Everything, down to the absolute root cause, was because the Azure Star Dragon before them wanted to establish a massive kingdom—a kingdom belonging to monsters!
And a kingdom, naturally, could not consist of a king who was a mere commander without an army. It required subjects who could comprehend the king's orders and execute the king's will. The Azure Star Dragon's previous actions were precisely aimed at using the power of evolution to mass-produce a brand-new class of subjects capable of obeying his rule!
The Admiral had spotted the blind spot. Case closed! He finally understood!
"Roar!"(None of the above.)
Rolling his eyes in a thoroughly annoyed fashion, Asterion found the Admiral's impassioned indignation rather amusing. No, that wasn't fair to say; to stand up at a time like this and voice such questions required a level of courage from the Admiral that surpassed ninety-nine percent of humanity. There was nothing to mock.
"Growl, roar..."(To put it in terms you humans can grasp: every single inch of land in the New World, from the coastal seas to the skies above, and any form of life active within this region is my subject. Whether it be other dragons, Grimalkynes, or all of you who set foot on this soil—you are all the same.)
"Then what about the wars between the different species?" Standing at the back, Irene could no longer contain her emotions. She stepped forward and shouted, "If they are all your subjects, do you intend to completely ignore the bloody slaughter running rampant among them? As a king, as the ruler of this land, shouldn't you bear the responsibility of maintaining peace?"
"Only by allowing your subjects to live stably and ensuring that life can endure will the foundation of your own rule become secure, isn't that right?!"
"Roar."(Incorrect.)
At this point, Asterion couldn't help but lift his head and burst into a rough, booming laugh, which reverberated through the lair like deafening thunderclaps.
"Roar!"(My power as king is absolute and limitless!)
"Roar, growl..."(What you just said is merely you forcefully projecting human societal dynamics onto me. Because your individual human strength is far too pathetic, the power of the kings you dare not offend stems from boring bloodlines or intricate exchanges of interests. You must rely on the validation of others to rule over your own kind. But such rules are completely invalid here.)
"Roar!"(Might makes right—power is the sole justification for kingship!)
"Growl, roar..."(A dragon's foundation of rule rests entirely upon their own personal might, completely unrelated to anything else. In my kingdom, species capable of providing greater value or those who earn my favor will naturally occupy a higher status.)
"Roar..."(Just like the Grimalkynes—they cook for me and clean my lair, so naturally they rank above you. In that regard, it isn't really any different from your human societies.)
Whoever held the king's affection reaped greater benefits. It was a remarkably simple logic.
Asterion put it far too bluntly—so bluntly that it tore away the fig leaf of human civilization's modesty, making it difficult to swallow even for worldly elders like the Admiral. It was especially jarring because these words came from the mouth of the Azure Star Dragon.
Indeed, Asterion had always been perfectly aware of the sentiments these veteran hunters, including the Admiral, harbored toward him. They viewed him as the first monster capable of overcoming primal instinct to communicate rationally with humans; a bizarre creature that had trained under a master alongside humans to practice swordsmanship; a being that had stepped in during critical moments to assist hunters during arduous ecological surveys... and so on and so forth.
They even regarded him as the Sapphire Star guiding their way forward, believing him to be a benevolent dragon capable of bringing evolution to the world.
A benevolent dragon. How tragic, then, that Asterion knew better than anyone that he was absolutely no kind-hearted beast.
On the contrary, he was incredibly selfish, caring only for his own whims and amusement. If Asterion had been a benevolent dragon, he would never have triggered this brutal, continent-wide battle royale engulfing the entire New World.
If he were dropped into a superhero universe, with the power of a Forbidden Species, he would be Super-Dragon on day one, Homelander-Dragon on day two, and by day three, he'd be declaring, "I don't eat beef anymore."
There was nothing embarrassing about admitting it, nor did he feel any shame. If anything, Asterion actually quite liked this version of himself—one entirely unburdened by moral kidnapping. Consequently, he was completely unwilling to compromise his true nature just to fit into their idealized fantasies, even if the Admiral and the others possessed familiar faces that linked back to his past life's memories, causing them to harbor unrealistic expectations and trust in him.
Why bother? I am a dragon, after all—a completely unrestrained dragon.
Thus, without beating around the bush, Asterion shattered the illusions of the Admiral and his group in the most blunt manner possible. He didn't care even if the Admiral stopped calling him "Boss" or "old friend" because of this, switching instead to "Azure Star Dragon."
"Roar, growl..."(Serve me, just as you serve your kings or the Guild back in the Old World. In exchange, you shall receive my protection. Beyond that, if you desire anything else within my kingdom—be it land, resources, or peace—do not expect my charity. Go out and claim it through your own strength.)
Lazing back down with an idle expression, Asterion had a premonition: over the next several decades, or perhaps even centuries, humanity would undoubtedly provide him with plenty of entertaining spectacles to stave off his boredom.
"Then what about laws?" The ever-meticulous Sophia bit her lower lip tightly, raising her voice to ask despite the crushing pressure bearing down on her. "There has to be a boundary, right? What can be done and what cannot? If there is nothing but absolute chaos, it can hardly be considered a kingdom, can it? Even if the city is built to be breathtakingly beautiful, it will eventually be destroyed by war, leaving you with nothing but ruins. What kind of kingdom do you actually want to build?"
"Roar."(That is a fair point.)
Asterion pondered the thought. He didn't want his city to be built in the morning only to be torn to pieces by the afternoon; construction was always far more difficult than destruction.
"Growl, roar..."(I will restrict fighting within the city limits... As for everything else, that is your business.)
"Roar..."(Compete with one another, compromise with one another, restrain one another. I want to see what kind of society you can ultimately forge... I know what you want to say. The Ape Wyvern species doesn't possess strength as formidable as dragons, right?)
"Growl, roar..."(But do not forget, you are in the New World—my New World. Why do you still believe you will remain identical to your kin back home?)
Growling unhurriedly, Asterion shifted his gaze toward a few Grimalkynes who were cleaning up along the far edge of the lair. The hunters' eyes followed his gaze over to them.
Completely oblivious to the fact that they had just become the center of attention, those few Grimalkynes were currently commanding shards of Xeno-crystals floating freely in the air, shooting them at one another while letting out cheerful feline chuckles from time to time.
"Could it be—?!"
The Admiral's pupils suddenly constricted.