dmims Page 2
Page 2
An extremely old dragon, especially if it were a metallic or colored dragon, would be considered a powerful overlord anywhere in Faerûn. It could kindly manage a small kingdom while ruthlessly oppressing surrounding powers. As long as it doesn't offend certain powerful figures, it could live a comfortable life with a large number of adult offspring.
But no tiara can do that.
Quietly ruling over a few kobold and lizardman tribes and building up a small power is fine, but if any Atheros dares to meddle in the humanoid kingdoms and announce its existence to the world, its bones might be hung on the highest peak of the Burning Smoke Mountains before the next day.
This has nothing to do with factions, nor with whether the dragons have done anything hateful. This is a war that has continued since ancient times—the War of the Dragon Fall!
The Dragonfall War as perceived by the current dominant races of Faerûn—humans, elves, dwarves, and other humanoid races—is not real. The Dragonfall War was not a war between metallic dragons and chromatic dragons, nor was it a war of faith between the Platinum Dragon King Bahamut and the Rainbow Dragon Queen Tiamat. The metallic dragons, the chromatic dragons, and even the gem dragons who hid in the Inner Realm were all victors in the Dragonfall War.
No dragon remembers what exactly happened in that war. Apart from the dragon gods who witnessed it firsthand, the only secret is the sealed secret of each of the Supreme Dragon Guardians of the Athelonian race.
The consequences and effects of the war continue to this day: the Atherons were the losers in this war.
This is why the Aetherian Dragons disappeared from the sight of the people of Faerûn, vanishing from their view... Of course, no Aetherian Dragon would admit the defeat of their race. The Dragonfall War has never stopped and will never stop. The surviving Aetherian Dragons are still working hard to restore their former glory.
The Dragonfall Wars predate the Age of Dragons. Humanoid races, including elves, are short-lived and forgetful to dragons; their memories and histories cannot reach that distant era. Even most true dragons have forgotten the Atheros.
But this doesn't mean all the dragons have forgotten all of this, especially since the ones who led the war back then are still alive and well.
Those who still remember the chromatic dragons of the Atheros, and even some metallic dragons, are unwilling to see the Atheros reappear in the world, even though it is no longer the age of dragons.
For generations, countless Aegilops have proven with their blood and lives that any Aegilops who dares to show their face alone will only be beaten to death by a group of chromatic dragons that appear out of nowhere!
How can dragons in Faerûn, which is so small and can't even occupy a single territory, get married and have children?!
To ensure the continuation of their race and to restore their former glory, the surviving Aetherian dragons united and established a strict hierarchical system. Each Aetherian dragon was a member of a family, and two to three families formed a clan. Each Aetherian dragon clan was led by its most powerful member. The Primal Dragon Overlord of each species led all the clans of that specific species of Aetherian dragon.
Finally, all the ancient dragon overlords were directly subordinate to the sole leader of all the sub-dragon races, namely the supreme dragon, Garugsingo.
"To this end, all the ancient dragons of our Aetherian race joined forces to create a magical mind network centered on the Supreme Dragon, allowing the consciousness of all Aetherian dragons to connect to this network. They can freely communicate and exchange knowledge remotely..." Fionamiron's tone was full of pride, seemingly without any fear of the future despite being a defeated remnant of an ancient war that was being besieged. What a naive fellow.
"Tsk tsk... What's so special about this? The sacred Kara is connected to us?" Casalos was even more carefree—it could sense that having such chaotic thoughts was not its original human nature; it was probably because its dragon nature was influenced by human memories.
"What are you muttering about?" Fionamiron, who was reminiscing about the history of metal dragons, turned around and stared at Casalos upon hearing this.
"Nothing, just a thought..." Casalos chuckled and changed the subject, asking, "Then why haven't I connected to the internet yet?"
"Didn't you just hatch? Who helped you connect?"
Miss Tungsten Dragon tilted her head and stared at the fledgling dragon with eyes full of pity for someone with intellectual disabilities: "Besides, didn't I tell you that the Supreme Dragon is the core of this mental network? Now is the time for the Supreme Dragon to pass on its legacy, and the entire mental network has stopped. How can you connect now?"
"Hmm, I see. No wonder I didn't receive the inheritance. I thought I..."
"Inheritance? What strange thing are you talking about?" Fiona squinted her eyes in confusion.
The word "legacy" that Casaloz used in Dragon Language at this moment was a proper noun, not a description of the Supreme Dragon's "legacy" as Fionamiron said.
The curved spikes that cascaded down the back of the tungsten dragon's neck, like long hair, swayed like waves as it moved its head. As if it had thought of something, it suddenly opened its eyelids wide: "You mean those despicable things those chromatic dragons came up with? In order to shirk their responsibility of raising and educating their offspring, they actually came up with the idea of stuffing a bunch of messy knowledge into their offspring's brains and then letting them roam free, and they even call it the inheritance of dragons. It's ridiculous!"
Is knowledge something that can be stuffed into your head and then used? If you don't read, understand, or practice, what's the difference between stuffing it into your head and throwing a bunch of books at a fledgling dragon? Tungsten Dragon tilted his head at a 45-degree angle, reflecting on whether there were any problems with what he had said.
"Okay, there is still a difference. At least throwing a bunch of books at a fledgling dragon won't burn its brain!"
4. The Legacy of Ayatron
"Won't it damage the baby dragon's brain?" Casaroz was speechless.
"That's right. How could a fledgling dragon's brain possibly withstand the forced indoctrination of a large amount of knowledge? Those beast-like colorful dragons, weren't they created by burning their 'inheritance' like that? I've never heard of a metal dragon ever appearing as a dragon beast."
"what……"
Sure enough, only the chromatic dragon is the orphan who will be abandoned!
Fiona paused briefly to let Casalos process the information before continuing, "Of course, the Dragon Heritage methods created by the Color Dragons aren't entirely useless, but they're just too wicked, too brutal, and too crude."
This method of knowledge transmission certainly has its merits, but it certainly cannot be done like the one with the colorful dragon.
They risk burning the brains of the fledglings by stuffing a huge amount of descriptive 'knowledge'—of unknown usefulness—into their heads. Even if the fledglings successfully receive the inheritance without any problems, they still need to search through that complex and vast database of inherited information and relearn and understand it in order to recognize things and comprehend the world.
Our method is much safer and more efficient.
Think about it, when you first saw iron ore, did you recognize it as iron ore? When you first saw lava, did you recognize it as lava?
Also, how do you think you learned your dragon language?
If we must talk about 'inheritance,' then this is the 'inheritance' of our Athelon tribe.
During the Dark Ages, the magic masters among the Atheros had long since improved upon the inherited spells developed by the Chromatic Dragons. Afterward, through the selection process of multiple generations of dragons, they transformed essential common sense into more intuitive experiential 'feelings', which were then transmitted to each newborn Atheros. This allowed them to directly perceive what they saw and heard after hatching, thus bypassing the stage of learning to speak.
Metal dragons also learned our inheritance method, so their offspring did not produce any brain-damaged dragon beasts.
After the young dragons receive this experiential transmission, every elder of the Atheros will take turns educating the new generation of dragon cubs, providing unreserved assistance, guidance, and answers to each newborn dragon cub's questions about survival, hunting, combat, magic, and other aspects within the mental network..."
"Hiss, common sense indoctrination plus live online education, and if you add socialization, this Azera is going to live like a communist." Casalos blinked his second translucent eyelids and silently complained to himself.
Of course, given the current situation of the Atheros and the nature of dragons, communism is out of the question, and socialism is even further away. In the end, they are only banding together for survival out of necessity.
Tungstendra is the only benevolent dragon among the Atheros, so it's understandable that Fiona harbors unrealistic fantasies about the Atheros.
Casalos knew perfectly well that unreserved guidance and education within the mind network was utterly impossible. Perhaps the Iron Dragon leader dedicated to the revival of the Atheros, or other benevolent Tungsten Dragons, could achieve that. But how much crucial knowledge would the Chromium, Cobalt, and Nickel Dragons, aligned with evil, retain during remote, live instruction? And would they deliberately include their own biases and misinformation to mislead the dragon offspring of other races, clans, or families? That was highly questionable…
Garugsingo is not the name of a dragon.
Or perhaps it was simply the name of a dragon.
Now, Garugsingo is a title that every Supreme Dragon of Athelon inherits.
Dragons are indeed long-lived, but longevity is not immortality.
In Faerûn, immortality is the privilege of the gods. History has shown that any covetousness of immortality is seen as a usurpation of divine authority and will inevitably come at a terrible price.
The archmages of the Netheril Empire were like this, as were the liches.
Therefore, the supreme dragon Garugsingo must naturally be replaced and a handover must take place.
Every Supreme Being, Garugosingo, is an ancient iron dragon.
Besides representing the pinnacle of power in the mortal world, the cessation of growth at the Ancient Dragon stage, much like for most life-giving creatures, also signifies the approaching death of the dragon.
After reaching the Ancient Dragon stage, dragons can generally live for several centuries. As one of the noblest metallic dragon subspecies, the Iron Dragon generally lives more than twice as long as the Colored Dragon, but no matter how long they live, they will eventually die and cannot escape death forever.
When the burden of the dragon's life finally collapses, forcing the dragon's physiological functions into a vicious cycle, that is when its twilight years begin.
A dragon's twilight years typically last for many years, but as it ages, its body deteriorates rapidly. The supreme dragon, bearing the heavy responsibility of leading and protecting the entire Aetherian dragonflight and supporting the spiritual network of the entire race, must not allow its twilight years to be prolonged.
When each Supreme Dragon approaches its twilight years, it must immediately gather all the Iron Dragons in the Holy Land to hand over the reins to an Ancient Iron Dragon who is "young and powerful".
Barring unforeseen circumstances, this spectacle will occur once every twenty centuries or so. This is what Fiona meant by Casalos's good fortune.
It's quite fortunate that Hatching Day coincides with this once-in-two-century grand event for all Asian ethnic groups.
But is this really... considered lucky?
To participate in the ceremony, Casalos's mother, Quetamiz, left her clan's territory and her safe haven, taking Casalos to the sacred grounds of the Atheros to incubate it. The aging Supreme Dragon's body was weakening day by day; in preparation for the handover ceremony, it could no longer sustain the strain on its mental network, leaving Casalos without a connection after hatching. To prepare for the ceremony, Quetamiz couldn't stay by Casalos's side during incubation, instead enlisting a young female tungsten dragon to help care for it, giving Casalos a rather startling experience upon hatching… These were all minor matters, having little practical impact on Casalos's future growth and development.
The real big thing is...
"So what is my dragon mother doing now? And, although you haven't said anything and I haven't asked, we tigresses aren't parthenogenetic, are we? Where is my dragon father?"
"Ah, you mean them? As adult dragons with ample combat power, the handover ceremony is about to begin, so what can they do now? Of course, they're preparing for battle."
"Battle? What the hell? Does this handover ceremony include any ritualistic activities like a arena match?" Casalos asked, bewildered, but before Fiona could answer, he already knew the answer: "Shit, you mean this ceremony will be attacked by foreign enemies?"
Fiona first struck a pose as if to say, "It seems you're not so stupid," then sighed and slumped down, saying, "Of course! The handover ceremony of the Supreme Dragon and the existence of the Holy Land are no secrets. How could those despicable chromatic dragons just stand by and watch us complete the ceremony smoothly?"
Every time the Supreme Dragon is handed over, a great battle inevitably breaks out.
The young female tungsten dragon looked up at the cave ceiling, her gaze seemingly piercing through the thick mountains to the sky, and muttered to herself, "This time, I wonder how many more dragons will perish here. xxx is truly damned!"
Who deserves to die?
Fiona glossed over the question, but Casalos knew it was a name that couldn't be mentioned.
5. Lesson 1
An hour passed by in the midst of a casual conversation with the female tungsten dragon. Who knows exactly how long an hour in Faerûn is? In any case, Casaloz, through the more abstract yet more intuitive inheritance he received from the Atheros, could easily perceive the precise passage of time—in the way that the dragons of this world were familiar with.
With Miss Tungsten Dragon's rumination-style feeding, Casalos's physical growth in just one hour was remarkable. It was able to flap its wings and fly off the ground, relying on its almost instinctive inherited ability, and it flew quite well.
Generally speaking, except for certain special dragon species, young dragons are at the best and most graceful when they fly throughout their entire life. After that, as their size and weight increase exponentially with each age, they fly worse and worse, and it's common for them to be mocked by other flying species with comments like "This is what you call flying"—of course, anyone with a modicum of sense would not make such a sarcastic remark to a dragon's face.
Dragon would never admit that he flew poorly!
Casalos dared to admit it only because it might possess the soul of at least half a human...
Whether it's a human or a newly hatched dragon, taking flight for the first time using one's own wings is an absolutely novel experience.
Casalos flapped its wings, darting around the nest like a sparrow that had wandered into a house. Every now and then, it would accidentally bump into the top of the nest, either plunging into the lava and splashing lava flowers, or crashing into a pile of iron ore, getting up covered in dust, shaking its neck to clear its dizzy head, and then excitedly soaring into the air, flying more and more skillfully.
Until Miss Fiona Milon of the Tungsten Dragon could no longer tolerate it.
"Have you had enough? You still have a lot of things to do."
"Ah...what's the matter?"
After all, the soul had twenty years of life experience from its previous life. After being stopped, Casalos realized its mistake: because the day it hatched coincided with the grand ceremony of the Atheros, it was already missing a lot of necessary experiences after hatching and would have to make up for them later. If it continued to cause trouble, the young lady who came to help take care of it would leave, and it would probably really have to eat dirt.
After all, no one knows how long this ceremony of passing on the supreme dragon will last.
"Now, your body is ready for flying, fighting, and thinking and learning."
Next, the first task for the fledgling dragon is, of course, to learn how to become a dragon!
This includes the ability to defend food, find a burrow, and understand oneself.
Normally, you should now begin your first lesson in your dragon life, which is eating... Don't misunderstand, the iron ore I just fed you was merely preparation for this meal.
Your first proper meal will be a live prey!
Casalos nodded.
It realized that the hatchlings of the subiron dragons raised by their parents would receive both their first hunting lesson and their first meal from their parents after hatching. The dragon parents who had hatched the eggs had already prepared the delicious food that the hatchlings preferred—live! Compared to the colorful dragons that could only gnaw on eggshells and faced competition from their nestmates, this was practically VIP treatment.
"Unfortunately, you hatched a few hours early, and Kuitamiz hasn't had time to prepare suitable prey for you. She's currently preparing for the upcoming fierce battle and hasn't told me what you might like to eat."
"Besides, as you know, we tungsten dragons are usually herbivores, so we don't carry any live meat or livestock. And the Holy Land is located in a remote area; there aren't many wild animals within hundreds of kilometers... So, given the limited resources, I can only prepare an otherworldly summon for your first proper meal!"
"Huh? No..."
Casalos was shocked. An otherworldly summon? Did that mean that the first prey it would face after hatching would be a named "monster" that could be listed in the Monster Handbook of the Three Treasures Book?
Fiona completely ignored its slight shock and immediately began casting a spell with her head, wings, claws, and tail working together. A magic circle outlined by glowing red lines took shape in front of Casalos, and something wriggled and rose from it, like a shadow, becoming more and more solid.
Level 2 Monster Summoning Technique.
Unlike the spellcasting of metal dragons and chromatic dragons by warlocks, the spellcasting of terrestrial dragons is cast by mages.
As a weak dragon in the True Dragon advancement rules, Fiona Milon is larger than Casalos, so she must have reached at least adolescence. Even without a part-time spellcasting profession, she must have at least level 5 innate spellcasting level.
This second-circle summoning spell is almost useless to her. If it were a warlock like a metal dragon or a rainbow dragon casting the spell, they would have already removed this known spell when leveling up, so as to leave the precious second-circle "spell slot" for a more practical spell.
As a spellcaster of the mage caster level, Athelon has the same freedom in choosing spell slots as humanoid mages: any spell they have ever learned can be freely transferred to their known spell slots through meditation by memorizing the spell.
For the young tungsten dragon, second-circle conjuration spells were a piece of cake, which also showed that her choice of prey for Casalos was not a whim, but rather a well-prepared one.
The problem is that, according to the rules, shouldn't creatures summoned by the Monster Summoning spell be sent back to their original plane when they are killed, so they can still be prey?
Or is this a difference between reality and the rules of the game?
Casalos had no time to think or verify the answer. The writhing shadow in the magic circle had fully unfolded, transforming into a giant scorpion over 3 meters long, glowing with crimson light, which lunged at him, brandishing its pincers and tail hooks.
Casalos suddenly sprang backward with all four limbs to dodge the attack, flapped his wings and took off, taking the lead in the air and carefully observing his first opponent.
Fortunately, it was just a medium-sized mutated scorpion from the Purgatory, which wouldn't pose much of a threat to the Iron Dragon hatchling. Iron Dragons are even stronger than Red Dragons! Miss Tungsten Dragon had indeed done her homework well in advance.
So what remains is to devise a tactic to achieve victory at the lowest possible cost...
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the Hell Scorpion on the ground, after realizing that it had been summoned and its target had flown off the ground, let out two hissing cries, plunged its two large pincers into the ground of the ore pile, creating a large pit, and then burrowed its entire body into the ore pile, disappearing with its segmented tail waving.
"Good idea. Flying is indeed the best way to deal with these little guys that can't fly and don't have any ranged attack methods. But you have to fly before they spot you. If you're in the wild, they'll have already escaped, so your hunt has actually failed."
6. A battle with no suspense whatsoever.
A slight smile appeared on Fiona's scale-covered dragon face. She said, "Don't be so nervous. This is your first hunting lesson, not a combat lesson. We Atheros will never mistreat young dragons like the Chromatic Dragons. You should be thinking about how to capture and kill your prey."
"So this counts as a failure... You summoned it and it was facing me, how could I not be detected?" Casalos asked, staring at the dragon's eyes.
"Then why didn't you hide before I summoned you? Did you think I could control the summoning circle to chase after you?"
"You make a good point!" Casalos wanted to refute, but couldn't find a reason.
"Besides, it's just a small infernal creature. If you hadn't jumped back to avoid it when it charged at you, but instead had charged at it instead, with your strength and size, you would have torn it to pieces long ago."