Chapter 2: Turns Out It's an Idle Slot

Bang~

Roar~

Inside the dark, damp dragon nest, a commotion sounded.

The noise woke the sleeping Lai Ang.

It furrowed its dragon brows, feeling its mental power fully restored through sleep before relaxing its brow, then turned its attention to the two small dragons making a ruckus not far away.

With short limbs and large heads, two black dragon hatchlings the size of wolfdogs were grappling with each other.

On the left, the black dragon hatchling with pale red pupils clearly had the upper hand, pushing the weaker, yellow‑green‑pupiled hatchling on the right all the way into the wall.

A few pebbles fell in front of Lai Ang amid the collision.

It slowly rose to its feet.

The two hatchlings that had caused the commotion also seemed to sense a tense atmosphere in the air; they stopped, looked at the Lai Ang they had woken, and a flicker of wariness crossed both pairs of dragon eyes.

"Lai Ang, what are you trying to do?" asked the hatchling with slightly reddish pupils, Sai Jia.

The hatchling with yellow‑green pupils, Ai Di, who had been pinned down by Sai Jia, saw an opening and escaped from under Sai Jia's claw.

Lai Ang watched them, a trace of thought and memory flashing in its dragon eyes.

On the seventh day after Lai Ang's birth, the second dragon egg in the nest hatched, and the dragon mother Xi Er Wa Na Si sensed her second child's birth, waking from her slumber.

The awakened dragon mother did only two things: she went out to hunt for food, and she named her second child 'Ai Di'.

That's right, dragons don't really have true names.

A hatchling's name is either given by the dragon mother or chosen by itself. Lai Ang chose the latter, picking the same name as in its previous life. Meanwhile, the dragon mother Xi Er Wa Na Si was actually pleased, feeling that her eldest son was quite clever.

On Lai Ang's twentieth day after birth, and Ai Di's thirteenth, the third dragon egg hatched; the awakened dragon mother named it 'Sai Jia', supplemented the three brothers with meat, then fell back into sleep, where she has remained ever since.

Eldest, second, third—all three hatchlings are male.

"Sai Jia is growing faster than I and Ai Di." Lai Ang glanced at the build of his third brother, Sai Jia.

Even though he is the youngest of the three brothers, his size is already approaching that of Lai Ang, who was born twenty days earlier.

His second brother Ai Di, born thirteen days earlier, has been outright surpassed; in earlier spars Ai Di could hold his own, but now he is being pressed and beaten.

Lai Ang gathered his thoughts, turned his dragon body, and walked toward the depths of the nest.

Seeing Lai Ang leave, Sai Jia let out a disdainful snort and shouted loudly at his back,

"Lai Ang, before long I will challenge you again and defeat you!"

The fading figure did not pause, merely sending back a faint reply,

"I'll be waiting."

Afterward, the hatchling's silhouette vanished into the deeper darkness, disappearing from sight.

"Sai Jia, Lai Ang's attitude is too arrogant; I feel he doesn't take you seriously." Ai Di, who had climbed up from the ground nearby, said this provocatively.

Sai Jia turned his head to glance at the speaking Ai Di, glared with his dragon eyes, strained to puff up his 'muscles' as if showing off his strength, his tone mixed with some anger: "If he doesn't value me, I'll definitely give Lai Ang a couple of hard claws!"

"Just a couple of claws, and Lai Ang might not be convinced—you know, he's proud and never even glances at us properly." Ai Di said leisurely.

"Then ten claws! Twenty claws!" Sai Jia snapped angrily.

After Sai Jia stormed off in anger, Ai Di revealed a cunning smile behind his back,

"A big‑brained simpleton." "Let you two fight over the nest's eldest; I don't want to get involved in this boring matter."

Meanwhile, Lai Ang, hiding in the quiet part of the dragon nest, felt anticipation and muttered draconic words under his breath.

"&&&oo#"

If Lai Ang's draconic words were translated into the common tongue, they would roughly mean: water element, come over here, you old man—more or less.

It should be noted that this is not a spell Lai Ang invented himself; it is innate to the black dragon lineage.

For dragons, controlling the elements is natural; in most cases they need not chant draconic words to aid the spell, but instead directly manipulate the elements with brutal mental power.

Only a novice dragon like Lai Ang, who has not yet mastered spells and whose mental power is insufficient, must rely on draconic words to stabilize and guide the elements.

After a draconic chant lasting ten or so seconds, the water‑attribute elements in the air gradually gathered before Lai Ang into a small water ball.

"Success!" Lai Ang watched the water ball, only fist‑sized, coalesce before him, a flicker of joy crossing his dragon eyes.

On the forty‑second day after birth, his mental power finally reached the minimum standard for casting the zero‑ring spell, Small Water Ball Technique.

Spells are graded from zero to ten rings, low to high, with zero‑ring spells also called minor tricks.

Such tricks are generally weak, enough only to deal with ordinary people or low‑level beasts.

"According to the black dragon lineage, ordinary black dragon hatchlings only gain enough mental power to study magic after three years of age." Lai Ang felt quite satisfied that he had learned a spell in such a short time.

Behind this result, aside from Lai Ang's special soul, there is also a significant connection to the mysterious hexagonal groove in his mind.

After dozens of days of uninterrupted 'watching', with hundreds of cycles of mental expenditure and recovery, Lai Ang clearly felt that his mental power had improved considerably in both quality and quantity.

He can now confirm that the mysterious hexagonal groove indeed has the effect of honing mental power.

Thinking of this, Lai Ang subconsciously entered his mental space and glanced at the hexagonal groove.

"This is. what?"

As Lai Ang's consciousness entered his mental space, he suddenly saw a pale blue rune hovering above the hexagonal groove.

"Looking at" this suddenly appearing pale blue rune, and the familiar magical pattern on it, isn't this exactly the zero‑ring trick, Small Water Ball Technique, that he has been practicing these past dozens of days? Lai Ang vaguely realized something.

With anticipation, excitement, tension, and so on, Lai Ang directed his thoughts, "slowly moving" the pale blue rune formed from the Small Water Ball Technique onto the hexagonal groove and gently fitting it together.

A flash of light passed.

A stream of information flowed into Lai Ang's mind, making him clearly understand the function of the hexagonal groove.

Place any rune formed from an ability into the groove, and then each day the rune inside will receive a certain boost.

"Isn't this just an idle‑slot? You put in a skill, then after a period of time you gain experience to level up." Lai Ang realized.

In his previous life he had also played many games that featured similar functions.

"Moreover, any ability‑formed rune." Lai Ang suddenly thought of the two innate abilities all dragons possess: Dragon Majesty and Dragon Breath.

If these two powerful abilities could also be turned into runes, then placing them in this groove for idle training. Moreover, if Lai Ang self-learns weapon forging and turns the forging ability into a rune as well, then in a moment Lai Ang imagined many things, and Lai Ang's mood became agitated.

This is the hope of being able to quickly become strong.

(End of chapter)