Starting with watering the World Tree for otherworldly survival

Page 340

Shallow City isn't stupid; it's not going to let these guys get out of control.

The main attraction should be the green dragon.

One adult green dragon and four young green dragons.

The adult green dragon possesses the power of a mid-seventh-tier dragon, while the four young green dragons are at the lower sixth-tier level.

So far, the leading adult green dragon has not shown any hostility towards Shallowwater City. Its four sisters have grown into young adults and have even tamed a group of forest lizardmen as their followers.

The War Lizardmen are not within the scope of the mission, but they are still a force to be reckoned with.

These creatures usually serve by the giant tree where the green dragon lives. Although there are only about two hundred of them, they are stronger than ordinary lizardmen and kobolds.

The green dragon had been plotting how to bring orcs, goblins, and trolls under its control. However, these creatures had one enemy.

Enemies of dragons...

Regarding the mysterious forest dragon, some say it is an ancient and mysterious black dragon that can spew burning fire poison.

Some people say that it is a dragon species that has never been seen before, with bright scales all over its body.

Qin He had several guesses about the true identity of this enemy of the green dragon.

First, there's the Black Dragon.

It's possible that the black dragon was a hybrid that acquired fire-type subspecies abilities by chance. Its blood might be mixed with that of a red dragon or an iron dragon.

Upon hearing this guess, Qin Lan began cursing the black dragon. If it really was a fully grown black-iron hybrid dragon, she would be ready to unleash a torrent of abuse.

Although Qin Lan didn't have much respect for the resurrected Garugsingo, she cared a great deal about her identity as a member of the Atheros race.

If such a hybrid were to appear, Qin Lan would definitely endure and strive to become stronger. Only when she was able to kill it would she take action to "cleanse the house".

The second possibility... is that the creature that was hostile to the green dragon was a giant dragon from the Atherosthid race.

Adult iron dragons can indeed turn black due to iron deposits. Not all iron dragons are as smooth, beautiful, and supple as Qinlan.

A proper iron dragon will have some black markings on its body. To be mistaken for a black dragon... while somewhat offensive, is understandable.

"Damn it! How could there be such blind adventurers? We Iron Dragons are so strong and beautiful, how can those skeleton Black Dragons compare!"

As Qin Lan was complaining, Qin He began to describe another possibility.

"Qin Lan, a purebred Iron Dragon is indeed not easy to be mistaken for a Black Dragon."

"But what if it's a Nickel Dragon, whose behavior and attributes are very similar to those of a Black Dragon, and it has Iron Dragon blood as a hybrid dragon?"

Nickel Dragon is the type of Iron Dragon that is closest to Black Dragon. Except for its scales gradually turning white as it gets older, Nickel Dragon is indeed charcoal gray, closely resembling the appearance of Black Dragon.

The difference between the Nickel Dragon and the Black Dragon lies in their horns. The Black Dragon's horns are curved and forward, while the Nickel Dragon's horns are the standard type that extend towards the back of its head.

Both types of dragons use acid breath, and in their centuries-long struggle, they have evolved their acid breath to the point that it can overcome the other's resistance.

In other words, the acid immunity of these two does not work on each other.

If a nickel dragon were to have iron dragon blood, it might actually be able to compete with a green dragon.

"However... this is just a hypothesis. Even the nickel-iron hybrid iron dragon does not meet the two conditions of being an unprecedented dragon species and having brightly colored scales."

Qin He overturned the possibilities he had listed and carefully considered which dragon species could rival the Green Dragon.

Living in the forest...breathing poisonous fire...an unprecedented species of dragon...with brightly colored scales.

"Perhaps the mysterious dragon you are about to face is an orange dragon."

Mentioning the Orange Dragon, Qin Lan immediately frowned. As the mainstay of the Rainbow Dragons, the Orange Dragon, although not as strong as the Purple Dragon, would not have much trouble dealing with the Green Dragon.

"Orange Dragon... those crocodile heads!"

The orange dragon has a short, stubby head like a crocodile, almost no neck, and even its wings are very small.

In fact, apart from the breathtakingly beautiful Purple Dragon, the other two of the Rainbow Dragons created by the Three-Tailed Dragon were deformed and lacked any dragon-like shape.

The Orange Dragon is a winged crocodile with bright orange scales all over its body, while the Yellow Dragon is a giant flying loach that may not even grow wings.

Based on individual strength and breath attack attributes, the orange dragon is indeed slightly superior to the green dragon. After all, it can at least hold its own against a bronze dragon.

The Orange Dragon's Tar Breath involves spitting out a tar-like substance enveloping flammable, molten metal. The tar has extremely strong adhesion, quickly revealing the flammable metal within it upon hitting an enemy.

The flammable metal used by the Orange Dragon in its breath weapon can not only continuously burn enemies, but also explode. Even with fire resistance protection, the explosive power of the metal and tar should not be underestimated.

On Dragon Island, the Purple Dragon's Blade Breath, the Orange Dragon's Tar Breath, and the Amethyst Dragon's Gem Burst are the most threatening breath weapons.

If the Orange Dragon has any disadvantages... it's that its breath attack has a really short range. Can a spit of tar mixed with molten metal really have a longer range than a Bronze Dragon's lightning breath?

The bronze dragons were already incredibly powerful. Back then, on Dragon Island, the gray dragon, also in its prime, only managed to defeat them by sheer force of blood transfusion after the bronze dragons had been fighting non-stop.

The tar breath only has a chance of hitting when the bronze dragon gets close. But regardless of the type of dragon, the fact that it can hold its own against a mid-tier seventh-level green dragon suggests that its own strength is no less than that of a seventh-level dragon.

"But...aren't orange dragons extremely vicious? They attack adventurers with their tar breath, causing them to suffer extensive burns."

If that monster is an orange dragon, it does explain why it can rival a green dragon. Its tar breath is also very effective against trolls.

"Indeed, that is one of the points of doubt."

Qin He listed these possibilities to warn Qin Lan and Zhuang Daihua to be careful.

The total population of kobolds and gnolls, who often bring their families along, has recently exceeded a thousand.

After all, pregnancy doesn't exist in this world yet. The offspring and eggs are directly placed into the birthplace by Hraheim, who controls life and death.

Since the kobolds and gnolls live within the demiplane ring, Hraheim would naturally choose to place his birthplace within the demiplane.

In the past few days, the gnoll cubs born in the demiplane have all become strong and healthy, and they will be able to walk on the ground almost immediately.

As for the kobolds, they obtained many coveted Dragonforged Eggs. The kobolds hatched from these Dragonforged Eggs were chosen ones, destined to become Dragonvein Warlocks from birth.

The dog-headed people attribute this to the leadership and blessings of the two dragon lords, Qin Lan and Zhuang Daihua.

But in reality, this was a small advantage that Hraheim deliberately gave to Zhuang Daihua.

Generally, the talents and abilities a life possesses at birth, as well as its species, are determined by Celesi.

Although all life forms are randomly born and possess their own innate abilities, if someone sincerely worships Seresi, they might get a perfect start in their next life.

But the cycle of life and death and the place of reincarnation are all under the control of Heraheim.

Hraheim then randomly assigned newborns with powerful talents to Selesi based on probability and directly placed them into the demiplane.

While Heraheim doesn't determine the probability of receiving a drop, it can decide who receives it and how many. Thus, the SSR kobold, born with the potential to be a Dragon Vein Warlock, was created in the demiplane.

During their meditation, the kobolds gradually gained new dragon vein sorcerers. After establishing a master-servant contract with Qin Lan, their abilities advanced by leaps and bounds.

As the Dragon Lord, Qin Lan did not impose any restrictions and opened up her inheritance to her followers without reservation. This allowed the kobolds' combat power to rapidly increase by leaps and bounds.

Kobolds are a very versatile race, although their individual strength is somewhat weak. However, advancing to become a Dragonvein Warlock is an absolute steal.

Moreover, with Hraheim making repeated concessions to Qin He, Celesi also agreed to help her "secretly alter" the probability of kobolds becoming dragon servants.

This caused the kobolds loyal to Qin Lan and Zhuang Daihua to quickly grow fine iron scales. Their strength and physique were significantly enhanced, but problems also began to emerge—

We're running out of iron!

As kobolds and some gnolls gained the iron dragon's diet due to their loyalty to Qinlan, they began to grind the iron ore they mined into powder or smash it into small pieces and swallow it along with their normal food.

This wouldn't have been a problem; Qin Lan was, after all, their dragon master. Even if the kobolds starved themselves to death, they would never mistreat Qin Lan.

The problem is that the iron ore mined previously is gradually becoming insufficient.

Aside from the daily intake required by Qin Lan as a fully developed Iron Dragon loli, the current iron ore reserves in the demiplane are insufficient to forge new equipment.

"Hmm... Why don't you go check out the underground of Shallow Water City? I heard there's a decent iron mine around the mithril mine here."

Qin He knew that he would have to prepare for iron ore sooner or later. Without iron ore, how could he smelt alloys with good performance?

Unprocessed iron ore is also very beneficial to the growth and development of iron dragons. Just as humans worry when they don't have money, iron dragons feel very insecure if they don't have enough iron ore.

I can save less, but I can't live without it. That's the mentality of Iron Dragon—because fighting with miners from dwarves and other races over iron ore is also part of Iron Dragon's life journey.

Although mining secretly is not a good thing, Zhuang Daihua has a demiplane ring.

With Qin Lan's innate metal perception ability as an iron dragon, finding iron ore underground in Shallow Water City was incredibly easy.

Even if they encountered a mithril mine, Qin Lan's dragon claws and teeth wouldn't be able to break through it. That would require Zhuang Daihua to take action, using the energy blades of the purple dragon in conjunction with the Banshee's Blessing to forcibly mine and extract the mithril.

"Hehe~ Your Highness Qin He! You are truly a genius!"

The little girl dressed as a maid was already cheering for Qin He, and Zhuang Daihua was also eager to try when she heard that she could get mithril.

However, the newly acquired Banshee's Blessing, a magical sword that had just slain her first opponent, was about to be used for mining.

This is truly both laughable and infuriating.

Qin He immediately issued a mission: Zhuang Daihua and Qin Lan were to prepare to mine, and he was also to prepare to meet the Crimson Dragon Miss on the eighteenth floor.

[Mining Prodigy]: Venture into the underground mines of Shallowwater City, mine iron and mithril, and return safely. Unlock extra rewards by remaining undetected by the miners.

Mission Reward: Mithril Plating on All Weapons (selectable based on weapon affinity) *1 time.

Bonus: A high-quality iron ore vein of random size (automatically generated within the demiplane).

Upon hearing that she could obtain an entire iron ore vein, and that regardless of size, the quality would be at least top-notch, Qin Lan immediately shook her head in happiness.

How much iron can an iron dragon consume in its lifetime? It can't possibly eat up your entire mine, can it?

A whole vein of ore, that should be enough.

Having achieved her ultimate goal of becoming a dragon, Qin Lan is now full of energy. Once this task is completed, she'll immediately start forging iron!

The idea that dragons grow scales by eating dirt is the biggest lie in bards' songs. Young dragons can grow by eating anything; it's just a matter of how fast or slow.

But for Iron Dragons, high-quality iron ore is absolutely essential for rapidly increasing their constitution!

She has a high-quality iron ore vein, which is enough for her for the rest of her life. And she can't gain weight no matter how much she eats; in fact, she can even improve her scale defense with this iron ore.

With improved scale defense and constitution, the Carved Skin Dragon has a better chance of advancing to higher levels.

Don't ask for much, just enough to advance her to a level four Carved Skin Dragon. With her lower-tier level four strength and the innate armor runes she gains from the advancement, she'll have a chance to fight even an adult green dragon.

Chapter 401 The Transparent Path

The seventeenth level of the underground city, the "Convergence Zone" of the underground river in the Dragon Crystal District.

Ishtar donned her magnificent golden robe once more, shrunk her forty-meter-tall human form to its normal size, and brought Qin He with her to this place.

This is where the Xeno'jiiva dragon hatches, and it is also the area in the dungeon where dragon crystals are most densely generated and the earth vein energy is most abundant.

"Here we are."

After brushing her shimmering golden hair over the pair of golden horns unique to the Kulve Taroth, Ishtar pointed to the glowing cocoon-like object fixed in the crystal in the distance.

"This is the Xenoshiva I've been guarding, the new Xenoshiva... 'The Otherworldly Soul'."

Although the Kulve Taroth's true form is far stronger than this unhatched embryo, this Xeno'jiiva has a future far exceeding that of an ordinary Safi'jiiva.

The giant cocoon that was nurturing the Netherworld Dragon was already nearly forty meters long.

Qin He could clearly see the energy belonging to the Netherworld Lamp Dragon within it—a semi-perpetual motion structure as hot and scorching as the heart of a furnace, difficult to control.

This is an extremely powerful internal combustion organ, which is generally not activated by Xeno'jiiva.

Only adult Safi'jiivas that have undergone multiple transformations are capable of controlling this organ within their bodies, which is able to completely simulate the energy cycle of the earth's veins, thus achieving a perpetual motion machine-like effect.

Based on this, unless it is violently destroyed by external forces, causing the Safi'jiiva to suffer damage exceeding the limits that its energy cycle can repair, it will be able to survive.

Otherwise, Safi'jiiva wouldn't need to rely on ley lines like Xeno'jiiva. Once it absorbs ley line energy, Safi'jiiva can instantly regenerate its body.

In this world, there's no need to worry about a region's ley line energy being completely drained. This is because Celestia, as the goddess of nature and the origin of the World Tree, will promptly distribute energy to repair the environment.

In other words, the Safi'jiiva, which can absorb energy almost infinitely, is very difficult to kill. Even for top-tier powerhouses like Chassa and Dorgossohn, hunting a Safi'jiiva is no easy task.

Qin He dared to negotiate with the Crimson Dragon because he had this in mind.

"Are you kidding? He's the chosen one of nature! The supreme goddess of nature, Celestia, is his woman. If this Crimson Dragon lady doesn't want to discuss cooperation... then Qin He can sever the ley lines with a single thought."

Moreover, wherever she flies, the ley lines there cannot be absorbed by her. The Safi'jiiva, which already possesses a perpetual motion machine-like life structure, is not afraid of "starving to death," but she must be wary of her ancient nemesis.

Alatreon, the embodiment of natural disasters, is the strongest ancient dragon that even "gods" fear.

Of course, the term "strongest Elder Dragon" is subjective, but at least Fatalis is capable of fighting Alatreon to a standstill.

But what if there's no ley line energy to replenish during the battle? In a fight between the two, one of them will inevitably die.

If Safi'jiiva doesn't want to take risks, it needs to ensure that the ley line energy can be replenished, just in case.

If the Fatalis suddenly attacks, Qin He has many trump cards to deal with it. Lucia, Dorgosos, Chassa, and Iristris.

Every single one of the helpers Qin He could muster could take down the Crimson Dragon.