The sun rose and the moon set; five months passed in the blink of an eye.
In the early morning, the Hemlock Hills were shrouded in a pale white mist. Garros buried his snout into the dew-covered hemlock needles. Cool droplets rolled down the gaps between his scales, carrying away the residual heat from the previous night's training.
Five months ago.
After the minor interlude with the adventurers.
Garros put away the map and continued his usual life as if nothing had happened: hunting powerful Vicious Beasts and monsters, training his physique, exploring spells, and interspersing it all with brief periods of rest.
During this time, the Earth Spiders continuously shuttled back and forth, bringing back oily soil.
The oily soil was refined into black oil by Samantha for Garros to consume. It served as his energy source, filling his spirit with a pumped sensation and significantly boosting his training efficiency.
"Power! Power! Power!"
He took a gulp of the little remaining black oil.
The newly awakened Garros instantly perked up, his eyes shining brightly. He then soared into the sky against the morning sun, heading out to hunt while the breeze was pleasant, battling Vicious Beasts and monsters to hone his killing techniques and combat reflexes.
When noon arrived.
Having hunted and completely devoured a Rank 8 Wilderness Giant Lizard, Garros began his flight training.
Under the brilliant golden sunlight, Garros's wings glinted with a cold, metallic luster, yet he could still soar through the heavens.
Relying not on Demonic Energy, but solely on his own wings.
Through persistent training and strengthening, the flexibility of Garros's wing joints was more than double that of an ordinary young Dragon, and his endurance was astonishing. He could fly continuously for several hours through wilderness sandstorms without landing.
Today, the exercise he was attempting was the dive-stop.
Flapping his wings, Garros dove from the sky toward the earth. When he was only dozens of meters from the ground, he suddenly fully extended his wings, coming to a halt mid-air.
This maneuver put an immense strain on his body.
As the repetitions increased, it eventually caused a tear in the membrane at the base of his right wing.
Garros licked away the seeping Dragon blood without changing his expression.
This level of pain had long since become a daily occurrence.
When the sun set and the twin moons rose, Garros returned to the Hemlock Hills to undergo his most dangerous resistance training: having Samantha blast him with Dragon Breath.
The flames exhaled by a Red Dragon were no ordinary fire.
They were high-temperature, overbearing, and carried an extremely strong impact.
Even for a fellow fire-element Dragon, taking a direct hit from Dragon Breath would still cause significant damage.
Initially, when Garros took Samantha's Dragon Breath head-on, he would be sent flying, his whole body burning with searing pain. But now, he was different due to further changes in his Buffer Scales.
As one could see.
The Red-Iron Young Dragon bathed in the rolling flames. The branding-iron color of the Buffer Scales on his body surface deepened within the fire, slowly extending upward without bursting. Instead, they absorbed the high temperature and impact.
Two seconds later.
Boom! A buffer scale reached its limit and suddenly exploded.
Shards burning with fire and glinting with the color of hot iron shot out, landing on a hemlock tree. With a deafening roar, they erupted into a ball of fire, snapping the tree in half.
The current Buffer Scales.
They could not only absorb impact but had also gained the property of absorbing high temperatures and then exploding.
Garros renamed them—Explosive Scales.
Currently, these Explosive Scales had not yet fully evolved. They required fire-attribute attacks to explode. However, when Garros struck the Explosive Scales with pure brute force, the temperature of the scales would rise while they absorbed the kinetic energy.
After some more time.
Garros estimated that they would be able to convert kinetic energy into heat, or absorb his own Demonic Energy to transform into a burst of explosive energy that would be released as the Dragon scales shattered.
Only then would the evolution be considered complete.
When Samantha collapsed from exhaustion, Garros had the Earth Storm Bear attack him with its earth-attribute skills, until it too slumped to the ground in fatigue. Then, he would soar into the sky and head to the Barren Mountain site.
Here.
He used the silver frost ring and lightning tail ring to train his ice and lightning resistances, tirelessly improving his defense and muscle strength. In between, he interspersed Dragon Breath exhalations to strengthen the intensity and duration of his various types of Dragon Breath.
Only when deep night arrived did the day finally end.
And Garros did this day after day, every single day and every single night.
In the dead of night, the starlit sky seemed like countless eyes silently watching the vast earth.
Garros lay alone on a rocky platform on the Barren Mountain. During his rare moments of rest, he felt the starry sky and his own changes.
It had been about a year since he left the Iron Dragon Mother's territory.
Eight-year-old Garros had reached a body length of 7.2 meters.
His body became increasingly heavy and strong. His muscle, Dragon scale, and bone density far exceeded those of an ordinary young Dragon.
The branding-iron patterns on his Explosive Scales were gradually extending toward his spine. When the patterns fully reached it, that would likely be the moment the Explosive Scales completed their evolution.
The sensation of electricity under his Dragon tail scales grew stronger, as if an invisible power grid were interlacing.
Through constant coverage with alchemical items and daily exercise, the lower membrane typical of traditional Dragonkin became thinner. Dense, feather-like fine scales overlapped on top, gradually turning fiery red and showering sparks as they rubbed against each other when he flapped his wings.
None of these changes happened overnight or formed instantly.
They were pieced together through subtle progress, forming a growth trajectory unique to Garros.
The wilderness held no Legendary encounters, only day after day of accumulation. Every shattered Dragon scale during this period told a story of strength more real than any epic.
—This was the true source of Garros's strength.
Compared to this will, Legendary alchemical items were merely optional trinkets.
As for his life rank, it remained at Rank 7, with no increase.
At first, Garros was somewhat puzzled as to why his life rank hadn't increased despite so many changes, but after thinking it through, he came to terms with it.
life rank was merely a reference; it couldn't measure the specific degree of strength. Below the Legendary level, everything was still within the realm of mortal beings.
He estimated that if he faced his one-year-ago self, who was also Rank 7, he wouldn't just be able to kill him steadily; he would absolutely dominate him.
Furthermore.
Garros's evolution wasn't a direct increase in his life rank, but rather in his 'potential.'
It was like an adult cat becoming a tiger cub.
Perhaps their size was the same, but their future prospects were worlds apart.
It was normal that his life rank hadn't increased; after all, he was only eight years old.
An eight-year-old Rank 7 Dragonkin—only a Gold Dragon could reach such a level.
And Gold Dragons were already publicly recognized as the strongest existence among normal Dragonkin, uniquely gifted and most favored by the Dragon God. Even Red Dragons couldn't compare. An eight-year-old Red Dragon would typically be around Rank 6, or even just Rank 5 for those who were weaker.
"I wonder if I could win if I faced a Gold Dragon of the same Rank."
Garros blinked as he gazed at the starlit sky, thinking to himself.
What followed was still a life of day-after-day, continuous training and self-strengthening.
But only five short days passed.
Garros encountered a problem—the black oil was gone.
For some reason, not a single Earth Spider had returned for two or three days. Thus, no oily soil was brought back, leaving no raw material to refine the black oil, and Garros had used up what little remained.
"It seems something has gone wrong."
"Could the Earth Spiders collecting the oil have been discovered?"
Garros paced back and forth in the dappled shadows, a faint sense of unease in his heart.
An accident meant variables.
Variables meant danger.
Due to the abnormal disappearance of the Earth Spiders, Garros keenly caught a scent of danger.