The Faerie Dragon drooped her tail and slowly shuffled over to Garros's side.
"I am not going to eat you."
The Red-Iron Dragon bent his hind legs and sat on the ground, asking, "During my Dragon Sleep, did anything major happen in Dragon Valley?"
The Faerie Dragon nodded solemnly. "Many major things happened; Dragon Valley was almost on the verge of destruction!"
Garros's gaze narrowed, and he sat up more attentively.
Ten years is but a fleeting moment for long-lived species, yet it is enough to stir up tempestuous waves in the mortal world.
He had indeed ordered the Molten Iron Clan to keep their claws tucked in, but the spindle of fate never rotates along a predetermined path; changes may have occurred during that time.
"What exactly happened? Tell me."
He asked.
The Faerie Dragon nodded her little head and said sadly, "The Spirit of the Valley has died."
The Spirit of the Valley?
What is that?
Garros flicked his tail and inquired carefully, only then understanding what the Faerie Dragon meant.
There was a cave in Dragon Valley where, whenever the Faerie Dragon Vera played and shouted inside, a special echo would return, which she regarded as the response of the Spirit of the Valley.
Starting from the third year of Garros's slumber.
The Spirit of the Valley stopped responding to her; it had fallen silent and 'died.'
In reality.
It was just that some changes had occurred inside the cave, disrupting the echo structure.
Perhaps because she was born in the Feywild, where all things possess spiritual life, the Faerie Dragon's thought process was a bit unique.
After clarifying the situation.
The Red-Iron Dragon listened as the Faerie Dragon chirped on about one 'major event' after another—for example, her beloved patch of stardust grass had withered for no reason, terrible thorns had grown in a hidden corner, and the scales on her body had faded slightly. The Red-Iron Dragon did not speak, but his silence was deafening.
A few seconds later, he slowly shook his head, realizing he shouldn't have asked the Faerie Dragon for a status report.
"Because I just woke up, my head doesn't seem very clear right now, and my thinking is a bit sluggish."
Garros thought to himself.
However, through the Faerie Dragon's reaction, it could at least be determined that Dragon Valley had not been invaded; otherwise, the things she talked about wouldn't all be trivial matters.
Besides, for the specific things that happened during this time, he should ask the Iron Dragon Sorog; he is more reliable.
When he woke up from his slumber, Garros didn't smell the scent of the Iron Dragon Sorog. Clearly, he had woken up faster than Garros and was not in Dragon Valley at this time.
The White Dragon Tereshi and the Red Dragon Samantha were also not there.
This also made Garros feel a little uneasy, which was the reason he had asked the unreliable Faerie Dragon; if there weren't important matters to handle, these dragons should have been guarding him in Dragon Valley, rather than only the Red-Silver Dragon and the Faerie Dragon being here.
After simply licking a bit of fairy scale powder, Garros's sluggish mind immediately became active.
When the effect of the Scale Powder faded and he returned to normal, his mind, stimulated by the powder, also regained its clarity and was no longer muddled.
"Let's contact Sorog first."
Taking the Communication Stone out of his spatial ring, Garros called the Iron Dragon Sorog.
Very quickly, as the Communication Stone lit up with a faint glow, the Iron Dragon's joyful voice came through: "Garros? My dear brother, your Dragon Sleep time exceeded the normal range, but you've finally woken up now."
Ten years had passed.
The original Young Dragons in Dragon Valley had generally stepped into the Young Adult stage, including the Red Dragon Samantha; she had fallen asleep two years later than Garros but had woken up one year earlier, having a shorter Dragon Sleep time than Garros.
As all three Ignas Siblings became Young Dragons.
Overall, the average standard of Dragon Valley had improved by a notch, becoming stronger than before.
However, when Garros, the backbone, was not awake, the group of dragons was leaderless and ultimately lacked a bit of confidence. Now, Dragon Valley could finally be considered complete.
The Molten Iron Clan, which had been dormant for a long time, also opened its eyes with Garros's awakening.
"Has anything major happened during my Dragon Sleep?"
Garros asked.
"There is one thing we are trying to deal with, but we haven't been able to solve it."
"It's hard to explain in a few words. Since you have woken up, come here; you will know what has happened once you see it with your own eyes."
The Iron Dragon said quickly.
"Where?"
"The Fertile Plains, the place where you killed the Bloodhoof Chieftain."
After saying this, the Iron Dragon ended the communication.
Garros was a bit confused. The Fertile Plains were already the territory of the Molten Iron Clan; could it be that they had encountered harassment or attacks from other clans?
This speculation was not groundless.
Since defeating the Bloodhoof Clan.
The Molten Iron Clan had basically occupied the southwestern part of The Borderlands.
But this was only a corner of the land, with limited and barren resources; it was not a very good territory. In other directions, there were more fertile territories and stronger clans.
Garros was no longer a newcomer.
Before falling asleep, he had basically figured out the distribution of power in The Borderlands.
Not counting the Vicious Beasts and monsters that were individually powerful and held territory, but did not have much of a scale, there were four most powerful intelligent biological clans in The Borderlands.
Given their scale, it would be more accurate to describe them as tribes.
The current Molten Iron Clan had also touched the threshold of a tribe; this was a larger unit than a clan, often formed by the integration of multiple clans.
Snake-men, Orcs, Goblins, Humans.
The Four Great Tribes of The Borderlands were primarily composed of these creatures.
It seemed a bit strange that humans appeared here, but it was a normal phenomenon.
Just as there is a difference between Gold Dragons and White Dragons among Dragonkin, the gap between humans is also very huge.
Humans belonging to the Kingdom of Lothern or even the Holden Empire, and the humans of The Borderlands, are the same species, but the education they received from childhood, their understanding of the world, and the resources they enjoyed were vastly different.
In the eyes of the citizens of human kingdoms, the humans of The Borderlands were just a kind of 'primitive person,' and they were two different species.
Returning to the topic, the conflicts and friction between the Four Great Tribes were constant, but they also had a distant alliance relationship, ruling over the most fertile pieces of territory in The Borderlands.
The Fertile Plains were located in the center of the southwest.
The Bloodhoof Clan originally occupied the Fertile Plains, and they tried to use this as a base to further expand, control the entire southwest, develop into a tribe, and then gradually gain the power to compete with the other four tribes.
But they did not succeed; they were interrupted by the Molten Iron Clan, which had migrated and air-dropped from the Serel Wilderness.
"According to what the White Dragon Tereshi and the Red-Silver Dragon Deborah said."
"The Four Great Tribes of The Borderlands have developed and accumulated for many years, and their foundations are deep; they all have powerful leaders and chiefs comparable to Young Adult Upper-Rank Dragons, or even Adult Upper-Rank Dragons."
Garros pondered in his heart.
It was not a good time for Dragon Valley to clash with the Four Great Tribes now. Only when the Ignas Siblings generally became Young Adult Dragons would they be able to have conflicts with the Four Great Tribes without fearing the risks involved.
But this was something uncontrollable.
If a tribe discovered the rising Molten Iron Tribe and came to attack, wanting to strangle it in the cradle, Garros would never sit idly by. Unless it was a last resort, he would not give up the foundation he had built here.
"It is different now than when we were in the wilderness."
"The tribes of The Borderlands are not like the nations of the Lothern Federation; they are not a community belonging to the same camp."
"Even if they want to deal with Dragon Valley, they still have to guard against each other, and it is difficult for them to bet all their chips. I don't need to worry too much about the threat of the Four Great Tribes of The Borderlands, but I cannot let my guard down either."
The Red-Iron Dragon's eyes flickered as he thought.
Meanwhile, the strong desire rising from his growth in age and strength surged in his heart, making the Red-Iron Dragon feel a bit hot, and his ambition gradually sprouted.
Defeat the Four Great Tribes and become the King of the Borderlands!
This thought surged in his heart.
Hu— Garros took a deep breath, but he did not suppress his inner thoughts; he just thought more rationally, not letting his ambition affect his reason.
Because this was not impossible to achieve, and the benefits it could bring after realization would be extremely high.
[Being weak is the greatest risk.]
This was a philosophy Garros firmly believed in.
For things that had no benefits and were dangerous, Garros would avoid them if he could and was unwilling to get involved.
However, in order to get rid of the risk of being weak, to become stronger, and for more growth resources, on the premise of being well-prepared, he dared to take certain risks for high returns and dared to take the initiative to attack, rather than always passively enduring.
PS: It's power stones time.
Nate: After unloading 200 chapter I will upload 2 chapters per day with power stones goals for bonus.