"A young dragon and an adult red dragon—if I don't pay a certain price, I won't be able to take them down."
The green dragon Bill crouched on the hillside, weighing his options. "There are plenty of opportunities to make a fortune. There's no need to risk my life for this one. After all, it's just the treasure of a young dragon. If I risk my life, it wouldn't be worth it. Better to call in a few dragons for help! Even though I'll get a smaller share, I won't get hurt, and afterward, we can join forces to rob other wild dragons. I won't lose out!"
Having made up his mind, the green dragon Bill took out a communication crystal and infused it with magic, instantly contacting a young dragon he knew.
"Hello, is this Marcus? I want to propose a big deal—"
"What big deal? Hurry up and speak! Your grandpa Marcus is busy. Don't waste my time," came an impatient voice.
"I found a wild red dragon," Bill got straight to the point.
...
"Your Highness, this is an image sent back by the patrolling Storm Giants. I think you need to see this." The dragonborn maid Mia, after receiving a message, activated a magical array, connecting to a Storm Giant's vision, displaying what he saw before Muria.
"Hmm, what's going on?" Muria, who had been pretending to sleep, opened his eyes and turned his head slightly. After sending out all the Chromatic Dragons of Synapse to recruit followers, he had also dispatched his personal guard, the Storm Giants, to supervise them. Otherwise, Muria worried that without supervision, this group of dragons might get too carried away and forget their limits.
"Please look, this is what's happening now."
A projection screen unfolded before Muria's eyes, showing a scene that left him speechless. In the image, two green dragons had teamed up to pin two red dragons to the ground, beating them mercilessly. After the beating, the two green dragons used magic to bind the red dragons and tossed them aside, then casually began hauling out treasures from a dragon's lair. One of the dragons, seemingly dissatisfied with the amount of treasure, occasionally kicked the red dragon. The other dragon even started interrogating the larger red dragon about the location of its lair, exuding the aura of a bandit.
If they weren't dragons but humans, these two green dragons would be nothing more than bandits ransacking a home, emptying the male's house and interrogating the female about where her home was.
"Your Highness, should we intervene in this?" Mia frowned as she watched. "According to the Storm Giant's investigation, these red dragons did not provoke the green dragons; rather, the green dragons took the initiative to attack them."
"There's no need for that," Muria rejected Mia's suggestion. "You have to understand, these are wild Chromatic Dragons, different from the dragons on the island. They shouldn't be treated the same. They need proper dragon education. Have the Storm Giants tell them to bring these two dragons back to Synapse."
"And what about the treasures they've collected?"
"They earned those treasures through their efforts, so of course, they belong to them." Muria wasn't shameless enough to take what the dragons had acquired.
Honestly, the dragons of Synapse were somewhat pitiable. Most of them lacked the wealth that matched their power and status; they were basically poor dragons. After all, Synapse didn't give them the opportunity to accumulate wealth through primitive means. Any dragon that tried to do so would learn what it meant to live a life worse than death.
Soon, Muria's orders reached the two green dragons, and his stance quickly spread through the Chromatic Dragon community. All the dragons understood that Muria didn't oppose them looting their wild Chromatic Dragon kin, and they could even keep everything they gained.
This development excited all the Chromatic Dragons. While subduing the orc villages, they also began paying attention to the wild dragons on the continent. As a result, dragon battles erupted across the wilderness.
Naturally, every conflict with wild dragons ended in victory for the Synapse dragons. The wild dragons' treasures were plundered, and they themselves were sealed and sent to Synapse to receive proper dragon education.
Even when the Synapse dragons encountered dragons they couldn't defeat, their mastery of magic allowed them to escape easily. After all, their opponents were mostly magic-illiterate and couldn't stop them.
Fleeing Chromatic Dragons would then rally their friends or powerful dragons they knew, returning to reclaim their honor. Two dragons weren't enough? Call three. Three didn't work? Call more… until they won.
A dragon war broke out in this remote corner of the continent, unnoticed by most forces, because the conflicts involved only a handful of dragons each time, though the frequency was high.
...
In a low, dense forest, a scrawny hatchling dragon hid in a thick bush, carefully suppressing its aura. Its eyes were fixed on a wild boar not far away, rooting around for plant roots. This was a recently matured wild boar, with four gleaming tusks that looked very intimidating.
Soon, the wild boar, searching for food, approached the bush where the hatchling was hiding. Just as it was happily munching on the sweet roots, the hatchling dragon suddenly pounced. The sunlight glinted off the hatchling's black scales. This was a newly hatched black dragon, hunting alone for some unknown reason.
Unfortunately, the black dragon's long-planned hunting attempt failed. It pounced on the wild boar, but the boar, after realizing its opponent's identity, easily tossed the small dragon off its back and ran away. The hatchling was too weak to overpower a boar of similar size.
Dejected by its failure, the small black dragon clawed at the nearby tree bark, then stuffed it into its mouth, chewing and swallowing it. It needed to eat. After gnawing on some leaves and roots, the poor hatchling did something even more shocking—it started eating dirt.
Seeing this, a hidden observer could no longer hold back. His form gradually materialized as he reached out to grab the dirt-eating hatchling, lifting it in front of him to stare at it.
"Kid, even though you're just a hatchling, as a dragon, it's pretty pathetic to be eating dirt. Where's your mom? Doesn't she take care of you?"
The little black dragon, with dirt still on its mouth, dumbly stared at the massive creature holding it. Although this being had black scales like it did, and exuded an aura similar to its mother, the hatchling didn't think they were the same species.
Aside from the color, this creature didn't resemble its mother at all. Although it was a dragon, its explosively muscular body was something no black dragon could ever have. Its scales were sharp-edged, looking nothing like those that grew naturally. Its face was not the gaunt, bony visage of a black dragon, but one with obvious muscles bulging beneath, giving it an imposing look.
"My mom is sleeping." Seeing this dragon that seemed to have no ill intentions, the hatchling immediately caved, trembling. In its memory, there was no concept of kinship, so it instantly ratted out its mother.
"Outrageous," snorted the monstrous black dragon. Sparks shot from his nostrils, making the hatchling even more bewildered. Black dragons shouldn't be able to spit sparks. This confirmed it—this was no black dragon but a monster.
"But even though your mother is irresponsible, you seem decent. You have some hunting skills, though they're not great. And you seem to have some signs of training. Very rare!"
The massive, grotesque black dragon examined the hatchling from every angle, feeling quite satisfied. If he could take this dragon back to Synapse, he would surely receive a good reward. Given its behavior just now, it was quite an outlier among dragons, and outliers were often geniuses.
"Show me the way! Take me to your mom. I'll help you get some justice. A mother who shirks her responsibilities deserves punishment!" the Synapse black dragon, Aelio Mandil, declared indignantly. He recalled how he, too, had been abandoned before reaching adolescence, but fortunately, he was found by a Synapse black dragon who took him in, changing his life.
"Okay!" Realizing this dragon meant no harm, the hatchling nodded in a daze and obediently pointed out the location of its mother's lair.
Thud! Thud!
A tremendous thudding sound approached, accompanied by the snapping and collapsing of trees. All this signaled the approach of a colossal beast. As the sound grew louder, a familiar dragon's aura filled the air. In the damp dragon's lair, the black dragon mother opened her eyes, turning to look outside the lair, her expression filled with shock and uncertainty. "An adult black dragon is coming! And it seems to be male? But I just gave birth recently!"
But the increasingly intense pressure left the mother dragon no time to think. She glanced at the two hatchlings huddled in the corner, trembling, and noticed one was missing.
"Where's Caesar?"
With no time to ponder where her eldest, the oddest of her offspring, had gone, the black dragon mother quickly stood up and crawled out of her lair. She was met with the sight of a towering black dragon, standing upright, its muscular frame almost grotesque. The dragon was examining her with a scrutinizing gaze, its eyes filled with undisguised disdain as it took in her living conditions.
"Your mother made you live in a stinking place like this? You poor thing," the unnervingly muscular black dragon said to the small hatchling at his feet, completely ignoring the mother dragon who was
desperately trying to assert her dominance with her dragon's aura.
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