Chapter 28: with translation of chapter title

"Master, what should I do for you next?"

In a great hall.

Diwigas, who had preliminarily accepted the dragon vein transformation, inquired respectfully.

After hearing this, Lai Ang pondered briefly, then slowly said,

"I know the Emerald Academy's training system; students like you who have signed a dragon kin contract will graduate and leave the academy within a year. So, after a year, before you are about to leave the Emerald Academy, come to the Dragon Fort Plains and find me—I will assign you a task."

The graduation of these monster students at the Emerald Academy falls into two scenarios.

One is to stay for ten years, after which they graduate automatically. This also corresponds to the maximum time the Dragon Fort's young dragons can theoretically stay at the Emerald Academy.

Once the young dragons exceed ten years of age—that is, once they enter the adolescent growth stage—they can no longer remain at the Emerald Academy to enjoy its unconditional care; they must go out and contribute to the Emerald Dream and the Green Dragon Queen.

By contributing, they obtain various resource supplies from the Emerald Dream.

Even a metallic dragon could not support its offspring for a lifetime, let alone, for the Emerald Dream, these young dragons are not considered its offspring.

The relationship between the Dragon Fort's young dragons and the Emerald Dream is more like a protective symbiotic relationship.

It protects you when you are weak, helping you grow; once you have grown, you naturally must repay the Emerald Dream with certain value.

This forms a healthy cycle.

The second scenario for monster students' graduation is exactly Diwigas's current situation—having signed a dragon kin contract with the Dragon Fort's prince.

Under the dragon kin contract, monster students gain dragon vein power, plus they receive feedback of dragon vein power from growing with their contracted Dragon Fort prince; staying in the academy is no longer suitable.

They are better suited to go out, fight, slaughter, and grow.

Because the dragon vein within them wants to be deeply aroused and grow, it needs the 'irrigation' of fresh blood and battle—this is the same principle by which dragons gain strength from combat and slaughter.

A year is merely a buffer, allowing these students about to leave the academy to make sufficient preparations so they do not easily die outside.

"During this year you must prepare yourself—weapons, armor, whatever—I cannot temporarily provide these for you; you must obtain them yourself." said the black hatchling dragon.

In principle, the master is responsible for everything of the servant, after all, everything belonging to the servant, including life, is yours.

But who made Lai Ang so poor? The only thing it can call a treasure is the sixth-rank water-system magic core awarded by the academy.

This water-system magic core can now slightly promote its growth, and it will be useful later, so it is naturally impossible to give it to Diwigas for consumption.

"Yes, sir." Diwigas nodded, not feeling surprised.

Or rather, it was only because the master deliberately mentioned this that Diwigas felt quite surprised.

Because the dragon clan's trait of 'hoarding wealth' is especially famous, few dragons are willing to share their treasures with other beings.

And the meaning behind the master's words seems to be: if it had the means, it would make preparations for it.

Thinking of this, Diwigas felt moved, not expecting the master to have considered so much for it.

This feeling of being valued made Diwigas straighten its chest, and a surge of emotion arose—even if it meant dying for Lai Ang, it would not matter—hot blood flooded the dragon person's mind.

The gray-scaled dragon people mostly belong to the lawful evil alignment; lawful evil, put plainly, means:

"'Follow your own bottom-line standards to gain benefits for yourself.' Essentially, it is not truly an evil degenerate race; after all, this is simply the nature possessed by the vast majority of creatures."

Perhaps in the eyes of enemies, the gray-scaled dragon people are evil incarnate, but within their own faction, they could hardly be more normal.

Lai Ang departed, and after saying a few encouraging words to its first kin servant and becoming somewhat acquainted, it returned to the Black Dragon Fort.

For now, the most important thing is still to increase one's strength.

Otherwise, being inferior to one's own kin servant would be too embarrassing.

Indeed, whether from the kobold maid 'Pestoya' knowing Diwigas's battle record and strength, or from Lai Ang's own perception—this dragon kin Diwigas likely is not weaker than the black dragon 'Hol'.

It might even be somewhat stronger; it's hard to say.

A body length of five meters is at the level of initial Third Rank among dragons; the initial Third Rank Hol actually cannot defeat a Diwigas at the peak of Third Rank, which is quite normal.

After all, dragon people are not weak races like goblins or kobolds; moreover, Diwigas was selected as a genius from many young dragon people and, among numerous powerful monster talents, successfully secured third place at the Emerald Academy.

Even among frail humans with generally low talent, some outstanding dragon-slayers of the same rank can emerge.

Time passed.

As long-lived dragon species, they lack nothing more than time, and their perception of time differs from that of ordinary mortals.

One month after the Dragon Fort ranking battle ended, Lai Ang's third brother, Sai Jia, had grown his dragon body length beyond three and a half meters, and his dragon biological rank naturally broke through from First Rank to Second Rank.

Lai Ang did not have Sai Jia's bodily mutation talent; its physical talent was not much different from that of an ordinary black dragon.

However, under the passive, gradual nourishment of Second Rank black-water battle energy, Lai Ang's growth speed was also not slow.

In these days of gradually growing stronger, half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

During this half-year, Lai Ang did not undertake any major actions.

Besides beating the resentful red dragon hatchling 'Mandy' several times after it was defeated in the arena, thereby reconsolidating its prestige and earning the awe of many weak hatchlings—

The only other thing worth mentioning is that the white dragon Pana advanced from the hatchling stage to the juvenile stage, and its dragon rank broke through from First Rank to Second Rank.

However, Lai Ang seriously doubted that perhaps among First Rank, the more ferocious red and blue dragon hatchlings could probably suppress and beat Pana.

It's hard to imagine—after all, it's still a dragon—why it could be so cowardly.

Before battle, already timid, even with full strength it might not be able to exert seventy percent.

"If I were to build my own force, then Pana continuing to be this useless would be a bit too wasteful." Lai Ang sometimes thought.

After realizing the Emerald Academy's policy for cultivating Dragon Fort's young dragons, Lai Ang had actually already been pondering this problem.

What the Emerald Academy wants to cultivate is a powerful dragon, more precisely, a powerful lord dragon.

Such a lord dragon that casually gathers a bunch of misshapen monster kin, then occupies a resource‑less patch of land and dominates the region, is, in the eyes of the Emerald Dream, merely a play‑pretend affair.

(End of chapter)