The Borderlands, Dragon Valley.
The sunlight at noon was brilliant but not blinding. Red-Silver Dragon Deborah and Garros continued their riddle game, and as time passed, the sun set and dusk deepened.
"Let's stop here for today."
Having relaxed all afternoon without any exercise, the Red-Iron Dragon felt uncomfortable, as if he had left something important undone.
"Pleasant times are always short; this afternoon passed by too quickly."
The Red-Silver Dragon seemed unsatisfied. She blinked and asked the Red-Iron Dragon opposite her: "Garros, will you continue to play the riddle game with me?"
Garros nodded: "This is a form of relaxation for me, but it must be after the real work is finished."
At this moment, accompanied by a brilliant trail of light, the Faerie Dragon Vera flew over from nearby.
"Count me in, let's all three play together."
She had been eavesdropping on the riddles between Garros and Deborah, feeling that she could also play this kind of game.
Anything related to games and play was always of interest to the Faerie Dragon.
Especially since...
Recently, Garros often played riddles with the Red-Silver Dragon, while she could only hide on the side, enviously peeking and listening, unable to participate.
Now, the Faerie Dragon couldn't help but jump out directly.
"You can solve riddles?" Garros asked in surprise.
The Faerie Dragon's games tended more towards nonsense pranks; a riddle game that required brainpower? Garros doubted she had the level for it.
"Hmph, don't underestimate me."
The Faerie Dragon's petite body hovered in front of Garros, lifting her chin, proudly saying: "Back in the Feywild, the Unicorn Elder praised me, saying I have extraordinary, world-shocking wisdom."
"Those little flower sprites and Pixiess also listen to my commands and revolve around me. If I tell them to sing, they wouldn't dare to dance."
That impressive?
The Red-Iron Dragon smacked his lips. He really couldn't tell that this little thing, Faerie Dragon Vera, was actually a wilderness bully with world-shocking wisdom.
"Wow." The Red-Silver Dragon exclaimed, saying: "Then you must be very good at riddles."
"Yes, Vera often watches you play riddle games, and now I am already a riddle master." The Faerie Dragon flicked her tail left and right, saying without modesty.
The Red-Silver Dragon's eyes shone, saying: "That's great, let's play riddles."
As fellow Chaotic Good Dragonkin, she and the Faerie Dragon got along relatively well. As for Evil Dragons like Red Dragons, Iron Dragons, and White Dragons, the Red-Silver Dragon basically did not communicate with them, though Garros was an exception.
"Okay, I'll start."
"Ahem!"
Faerie Dragon Vera puffed out her small chest, her wings vibrating at high frequency as she hovered in mid-air. She tried hard to imitate the melodic tone Deborah used when telling riddles, even the tuft of finest down on the tip of her tail twitching along.
"Listen up!"
"It is blue, very, very big, you can't touch it. During the day it covers your head, and at night when it gets dark, it... it..."
She got stuck, scratching her chin with a small claw, and said again: "Umm... it just sneaks away! Then lots of shiny little eyes will appear on it! And, soft, cotton-candy-like things will float on it, take a bite..."
The Faerie Dragon thought hard, trying to add some depth to the riddle.
"Take a bite... um... it has no taste at all! Not sweet at all! It's a fake cotton candy!"
Deborah's beautiful silver eyes blinked repeatedly. She tilted her huge dragon head, looking at Garros, then at Vera, who was waiting for praise with a serious face, and a confused purr sounded in her throat.
Garros only felt the muscles near his cheeks tighten.
He tried hard to keep his majestic Red-Iron Dragon face from collapsing on the spot, rubbing his brow bone with a claw. Although dragons don't have eyebrows, this action was almost subconscious.
He looked at Vera's confident little face, the phrase "world-shocking wisdom" buzzing in his mind.
The Red-Iron Dragon and the Red-Silver Dragon looked at each other, speechless.
Seeing that the two dragons had no reaction, the Faerie Dragon thought her riddle was too hard.
"Guess quickly, guess quickly! It is the most important thing! Without it, we would all suffocate!"
She felt her hint was a stroke of genius, shaking her head triumphantly: "And it's big, big, big! Bigger than a hundred Garros stacked together! Bigger than a hundred Dragon Valleys!"
She spread her mini wings with all her might, trying to express that boundless feeling.
"Hee hee, can't guess it, right."
After a few more seconds, because the two dragons in front of her remained silent, Faerie Dragon Vera was triumphant, flying in circles as if chasing her own tail, and flipping in the air, her small wings stirring up a current.
Garros couldn't stand it anymore.
He let out a heavy sigh like a furnace bellows, slightly puffing out two streams of hot air with sparks from his nostrils.
"Those 'fake cotton candies' and'shiny little eyes' you mentioned, are you referring to that —"
He raised his claw, pointing to the deep blue sky stained by dusk, where a few sparse stars were emerging.
"— sky?"
Vera's triumphant expression instantly froze on her small dragon face.
She looked up along Garros's claw at the profound dome, then looked down at Garros and Deborah, her small mouth slightly open, letting out a short: "Gah?"
"Uh... yes... it is the sky indeed..."
She muttered softly, completely devoid of confidence.
"Your riddle."
The Red-Iron Dragon shook his huge head, speaking slowly: "It's like mixing a piece of raw meat, a handful of dirt, and a gemstone together, and then asking someone what kind of dessert it tastes like."
Deborah, however, had a different opinion.
She smiled and encouraged: "What an interesting metaphor. The tasteless cotton candy, while immature, is also quite vivid. Vera has the potential to become a riddle master."
In order to have more dragons to play riddles with, the Red-Silver Dragon told a white lie.
Opposite, Vera's small ears twitched, and her frustration lasted less than three seconds.
Being praised by Deborah, the little flame of pride regarding her "world-shocking wisdom" burned tenaciously again.
She flew whoosh to the side of Deborah's huge head, affectionately rubbing her small head against the other's cold red-silver scales: "Exactly, still Deborah understands me, Garros you are too rigid."
She made a face at Garros.
"Alright, you two play, I need to exercise now."
The Red-Iron Dragon said.
He walked with heavy steps to his exercise area.
The area was next to the Dragon Valley lake, with flat soil and rock, an open space reinforced by Warlock Shamans, plated with a metallic luster, and a black pillar placed in the center.
This was an Alchemical Item obtained through a merchant group, capable of forming three times the gravity in a certain range.
Garros first drank a barrel of black oil to boost his body's excitement, then walked to the center and activated the gravity item.
An invisible sense of heaviness descended instantly.
The Red-Iron Dragon's deep, strong body stood like a mountain under this suddenly increased weight.
His dragon head, which seemed covered in heavy armor, raised slightly, his eyes no longer holding any laziness, only single-minded focus.
Immediately after.
The Red-Iron Dragon made a movement that was extremely abrupt and full of power.
That huge head, covered in diamond-shaped metallic scales, suddenly tilted back and up!
The heavy dragon head drew a powerful arc with a whistle that tore through the air, the thick neck muscles—like battering rams—instantly tightening and bulging, emitting a groan like straining steel cables that set teeth on edge.
The huge back of the head, like a giant hammer, smashed heavily and precisely onto the metallic-lustered ground.
Thump!
A sound like muffled thunder echoed and spread over the Dragon Valley.
Now, Garros's posture was extremely oppressive.
His huge, towering body remained motionless, his neck forming a sharp angle with the ground, his body flipped with his belly to the sky, supporting his body with his neck and hind legs, dragon arms crossed over his chest, back suspended in the air, yet firmly rooted to the earth.
And this was just the static performance.
With a low roar, the strong, heavy body began to churn vigorously, centered on the neck.
The muscles on both sides of the thick neck writhed and bulged like living mountains, the double scales almost stretched open by the tightened muscles.
The air was filled with heart-palpitating, low friction sounds and the creaking of bones and muscles stubbornly resisting gravity, like the sound of a giant bowstring being pulled to its limit.
The Red-Iron Dragon's neck seemed to become the intersection point of his entire body's strength.
The steel-like muscles operated crazily under extreme load, displaying a primitive and pure violence aesthetic belonging to the Dragon Clan.
Sweat.
Or rather, a mixture of high-temperature steam and water vapor similar to sweat, hissed out from the gaps in the scales on his neck, falling to the ground, and was instantly evaporated into a small patch of white mist by the high temperature.
The Red-Silver Dragon and the Faerie Dragon had forgotten about the riddle, staring at the Red-Iron Dragon without blinking, almost forgetting to breathe.
This body full of violence and power, not just Chromatic Dragons, even Metallic Dragons and Planar Dragons could appreciate his 'beauty'.
"Wow, so powerful, I want to try it too."
Vera arrived at the edge of the gravity field, trying to imitate Garros's method.
Crack, a crisp sound came from her neck, she sucked in a breath of cold air, flew up as if her butt was on fire, tilting her head and screaming: "Ah, so painful, my head is broken, I'm dying, I'm dying."
×=×
PS: Requesting Power Stones!
15PS = 1 Extra Chapter.
30PS = 2 Extra Chapters.
50Ps= 3 Extra Chapters.
75PS = 4 Extra Chapters.
100Ps = 5 Extra Chapters.