Evolving by devouring from a young dragon

When Grimm followed Blue into the dragon's lair, the first thing he saw was darkness.

Then, there is light.

A soft, pure purple light emanated from the deepest part of the cave.

Grimm had lived for fifty years and had never seen such light.

He had seen the magic crystal.

Those goblin merchants occasionally manage to acquire some inferior magic crystals, the size of a fingernail, with a murky glow, yet they cherish them dearly.

He had only seen such pure magic crystals once before, at the goblins' "Golden Party".

The goblin merchants had it set on the top of their canes, and they would swing the canes around as they walked so that all the goblins could see it.

Grimm remembered that light for ten years.

And now, that dark purple light was right in front of him, so pure, dazzling, and eye-catching.

Grimm subconsciously touched the patterned stone in his pocket.

The cave was getting deeper and deeper, and the top was getting higher and higher.

A faint smell of sulfur filled the air, mixed with some kind of... metallic smell?

Grimm found it strange.

Black Dragon... is this what it tastes like?

But before he could think any further, a wave of oppressive force washed over him, making his legs go weak, while Gru...

He glanced at his son and saw that he had fainted.

Grimm sighed.

This child, like his mother, is timid.

However, it's good that I'm dizzy, because then I won't say the wrong thing or embarrass myself.

It's already embarrassing enough...

Grim straightened his back a little, though he wasn't exactly straight to begin with.

At the end of the cave is a wide obsidian platform.

Above, a dragon sits.

Grimm had seen dragons, from afar.

Having spent fifty years in the underground world, it had only caught a glimpse of it from afar a few times.

A red dragon flew through the depths of an underground fissure, and the heatwave could be felt hundreds of meters away; a green dragon lingered in some abandoned elven ruins, and all the creatures within a ten-mile radius moved away.

But it had never been this close to a dragon before.

He was so close that he could see his own gray-green, wrinkled, one-eyed face covered in scars reflected in those dark golden vertical pupils.

It knelt down.

A person who stands can say one more word than a person who kneels.

This has always been its guiding principle.

But that was said to goblins, to kobolds, or at most to gnolls.

It wasn't said to the dragon.

Standing in the face of a dragon isn't courageous; it's stupid.

"Great...great dragon—"

Its voice, strained from its throat, was high-pitched and thin: "Grimm, I pay you my highest respects!"

Behind him, in Blue's left hand, Gru was still unconscious.

Luckily, I was unconscious; otherwise, this good-for-nothing son would have knelt down even faster and more pathetically than I had.

Alduin looked at the old goblin kneeling on the ground, without even glancing at the large goblin who had been thrown to the ground by Bru and had fainted.

Alduin didn't know why Blue had brought back two goblins, but he was satisfied that he had completed the task he had given Blue.

"Grimm".

Alduin spoke, his voice calm, which relieved Grimm.

"Yes...yes! Great dragon!" Grimm answered quickly.

"How many years have you been in the underworld?"

"Fifty...fifty years, the great dragon."

"Fifty years," Auduin repeated the number, his tone unreadable, neither praising nor mocking. "Raise your head."

Grimm raised his head and looked at Alduin with his good eye.

Those dark golden vertical pupils were so close, they were terrifyingly cold.

Grimm's teeth started chattering, but he clenched them and didn't let his jaw shake too much.

It cannot make the dragon seem too afraid—even though it is terrified.

An old goblin who had spent fifty years in the underworld knew one thing best: you can be afraid, but you can't let the people above think that all you can do is be afraid.

Those who are afraid are useless; only those who are useful have a chance at life.

"To live to be fifty years old," Alduin said slowly, "means you know what you should and shouldn't do."

Grimm nodded frantically, "Yes, yes, yes! Grimm knows! Grimm has always been very careful..."

"Then you should also know," Alduin interrupted him, "that I'm not here to kill you."

Grimm shut his mouth.

The fear remains, but behind the fear... there is something else.

It swallowed hard, its voice dry as it asked, "Great dragon... what can Grimm do for you?"

Alduin extended a claw from the stone platform, its tip touching the ground in front of Grimm.

It has a pale gold rune engraved on it.

"I need a runesmith. A living one, someone who can do the work."

Grimm's one eye widened.

It touched the stone in its pocket, which it had picked up from a dwarf, intending to sell it for some money, but no one wanted it.

The patterns on those stones were exactly the same as those on the ground.

His hands were trembling, not from fear, but from...excitement.

He sensed an opportunity to turn things around!

"Grim knows one!" its voice nearly leaped out of its throat. "Grim knows a dwarf! That fellow—"

It got stuck.

It did know a dwarf, but it never asked the dwarf's name.

The dwarf hid in some underground corner, making a living by working for various unsavory forces.

It had only dealt with him once.

"That guy can carve these patterns!" Grimm's fingertips trembled as he pointed to the pale gold runes on the ground. "Grimm saw it with his own eyes! What he carved is exactly the same as this... exactly the same as this!"

"Great dragon, look..."

Grimm took the stone out of his pocket, and for the first time, he found it to be so beautiful.

Auduin looked at the few broken stones.

Although it is broken, the original runes on it are still clear and have penetrated deep into the body, which is obviously not an ordinary surface carving.

The ability to inlay runes inside ordinary stones demonstrates exceptional skill.

Ordinary rune masters can only perform surface engravings on ordinary materials, such as stone and leather.

This is not a technical issue, but an experience issue.

But true high-level rune masters can rely on this tactile sense to perceive the internal structure of each material and truly embed the runes within it.

Just like the stone in front of you.

As for those who can create something from nothing, carving the core on ordinary rocks and creating a "core" out of nothing, they are true legendary masters.

In the memories passed down through generations, there are legendary dragons that have been immersed in history for thousands of years, and there is this kind of craftsmanship.

As for how the copper dragons created the stone giants, it was a legacy in their bloodline, a resonance with the elements, and was fundamentally different from the "core-creating" runes.

Runes are created from nothing, while the copper dragon is their child, awakened by magic from the faint elemental consciousness within the stone.

Alduin looked at the broken stones, silently sensing them with his sound waves, and finally smiled softly.

"interesting."