Under the velvet-black night sky, Garros circled at high speed in the high altitude.
He couldn't help himself and gulped down almost an entire barrel of black oil.
The thick energy transformed from the black oil surged through Garros's blood vessels. He felt his Dragon blood boiling like magma, and his heart was pumping as fast as an engine, creating a bloated feeling that desperately needed release.
He simply channeled the energy into his wings.
The dark red aura at the tips of his wing bones expanded by a full threefold, trailing a dazzling wake across the night sky. Garros felt as if he had become a true meteor, his speed breaking past his previous limits and continuing to rise.
As sonic boom clouds exploded one after another behind him, Garros gradually realized something was wrong.
His current speed was becoming a bit beyond his control.
He didn't have any Explosive Scales on him right now, but his second layer of hard Dragon scales, which were like cast iron, were gradually heating up to a glowing red under the extreme speed.
The clouds were torn into long corridors.
In Garros's vision, the mountains distorted into blurred patches of color.
He wanted to dive down and then rapidly ascend, but as his altitude dropped, his flight posture, which had been as natural as moving his own limbs, gradually began to spiral out of control. He tried to adjust the angle of his wings, only to find that because he was moving so fast, his body's reactions were half a beat too slow.
Although the surging aura behind his Dragon wings had stopped...
...the speed brought by inertia was still beyond his control.
"Wait. I can't pull up!"
Garros's Dragon pupils contracted.
A grayish-white cliff filled his entire field of vision.
There was no way to avoid it. Garros reflexively curled his body, wrapping his strong wings around his vital points.
The moment he hit the mountain, a blinding orange-red firelight erupted, and the shockwave snapped trees within a hundred meters.
Countless gravel fragments scattered like cannonballs, some even flying to the distant edge of Crescent Moon Valley, scaring several curious werewolves into scurrying away with their heads in their hands.
After the dust settled...
...a meteorite-like crater dozens of meters in diameter appeared on the cliff.
Garros was embedded in the rock layer, his wings and tail hanging crookedly, his head and Dragon horns stuck inside the rock.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Garros felt a bit dizzy.
Since the Explosive Scales that could have acted as a buffer were consumed at the Ogre clan and hadn't grown back yet, even with Garros's physique, hitting the mountain at such an extreme speed caused him some internal injuries.
From afar came the exclamations and howls of the werewolves.
Garros forcefully pulled his head out of the rock layer, just in time to see Frostfang in the distance leading a team of werewolf warriors running toward him in a panic, as if they had seen him 'crash-landing'.
He tried to move his body, and the rock layer immediately let out an overburdened groan.
Garros pulled his entire body out of the mountainside, then swayed a few times in the air, finally landing halfway up the mountain in a rather ungraceful posture.
This scene was truly too embarrassing.
A dignified Dragon losing control and crashing into a mountain because he drank black oil—if word got out, he'd probably be laughed at by other Dragonkin for hundreds of years. Fortunately, no other Dragons saw him.
"I didn't expect the energy from the black oil to boost my flight speed so much."
"It was actually so fast I couldn't control it."
"The problem is, power that cannot be controlled is sometimes a hazard and a risk; it cannot be used casually."
Garros was deep in thought when a sudden flash of inspiration hit him: "Wait, if I take another mouthful of fairy scale powder to enhance my perception, mental reaction, and other attributes, could I master this extreme speed for a short time?"
If it's feasible...
In the future, if he faced a strong enemy, he could first take a jar of black oil, then a mouthful of Scale Powder, and then activate the Blood Burst Technique. Even if the opponent was a Dragon or a giant, fighting above his level wouldn't seem like a difficult task.
"I'll verify it when I have time."
"If it succeeds, this will be one of my major trump cards!"
Thinking that his safety now had a higher guarantee, Garros flicked his tail, and his mood became cheerful.
Looking up at the sky, he prepared to take off again.
With a casual glance, Garros noticed a purple metallic luster reflecting from inside the rock layer he had smashed.
"What's this?"
Garros's eyes moved slightly, and he approached, using his Dragon claws to push aside the rubble, revealing the underlying rock structure and a purple metallic Ore embedded within.
——Purple Copper Ore.
It wasn't a magical metal, but it possessed good ductility and thermal conductivity. It was a decent metallic Ore and one of the raw Materials needed for many Alchemy Golem components.
The Serel Wilderness had many types of metallic minerals.
Purple Copper Ore wasn't too rare, but it wasn't common either, and it had a certain value, being more precious than the Red Copper Ore the Dire Bears dug out in Coniferous Valley.
Garros's pain was forgotten.
After sensing carefully for a while, he discovered that beneath this grayish-white cliff lay quite a bit of Purple Copper Ore. Once he re-established communication with the merchant caravan channels, it could be used to trade for black oil with the Southern Kingdoms.
The scales and remains of the Cliff Snake Dragon would run out sooner or later.
Garros didn't want to'sell' his own scales or blood for money. He had previously thought about using his perception talent derived from his Iron Dragon Bloodline to find some metallic Ores in his spare time to use as bargaining chips.
This accidental discovery saved him some time.
"Crashing into a mountain and finding a decent metallic mineral deposit—I guess blessings and misfortunes really do come together," Garros thought to himself, his luck finally being good for once.
Garros thought to himself that his luck was rarely this good.
The Grey-mane Werewolves were rushing toward him.
Because he had discovered Purple Copper Ore on the spot, Garros wasn't in a hurry to leave. He planned to instruct the Howling Moon Clan to mine here, so he waited patiently for a while.
"Dragon Lord!"
Frostfang's voice came from a hundred meters away.
A hint of worry appeared in the eyes of this petite she-wolf, whose fur was shiny and eyes were bright.
Although she knew Garros was powerful, hitting the mountain directly with that speed and power shouldn't have left him completely unscathed.
"Are you alright? Do you need me to treat you? I just learned a healing Spell recently."
She said.
Garros's expression was calm and composed, as if the previous embarrassment had never happened.
He raised his Dragon claw and casually tapped the exposed Purple Copper Ore: "This Dragon had long since sensed a mineral vein here; that just now was merely for precision mining."
The young female werewolf looked at the composed Dragon, who had quite a bit of dust and gravel on him, and then glanced at the clear Dragon-shaped indentation on the cliff wall.
"...Your perception and the strength of your body are truly amazing."
Her ears twitched subtly as she echoed in a low voice.
Garros nodded slightly and shifted the topic inconspicuously, instructing: "Remember this location, then bring the clansmen to mine the Purple Copper Ore. Collect the mined Ore and store it in the territory."
Hearing this, Frostfang was somewhat puzzled and confused.
She said: "I know of Purple Copper Ore... They are soft in texture, cannot be made into weapons, cannot be eaten, and cannot be used to sharpen claws. Although they are relatively rare, they are of no great use."
How could the monster clans of the wilderness know the true uses of various metallic Ores?
To be able to recognize Purple Copper, her horizons already exceeded those of other wilderness monsters by a lot.
The trade routes of the Serel Wilderness were developed, wealth was everywhere, and mineral resources were extremely abundant, but few monster clans knew how to utilize this wealth.
But this was normal.
Even Dragonkin with higher intelligence were sometimes limited by their own cognition and made wrong judgments.
Let alone these ignorant monster clans.
Garros looked toward the night sky and said, "Once we re-establish contact with the merchant caravan and set up a trade channel with the Southern Kingdoms, these Purple Copper Ores will reveal their true value."
Frostfang nodded, a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
What was the true value of these Purple Copper Ores?
The young shaman's heart was full of curiosity about all things, but seeing that Garros had no intention of explaining, she also didn't dare to ask further.
Garros took to the air, heading back toward Crescent Moon Valley.
After Frostfang and the werewolf warriors marked the location, they left a few strong warriors to guard it and then also returned to Crescent Moon Valley.