Evolving by devouring from a young dragon

Grimm is gone.

Clutching that top-grade magic crystal, and with his good-for-nothing son, he scrambled away.

As they left, they didn't forget to look back one last time.

The cave fell silent.

Alduin lay back down on the obsidian platform, moved the rune fragments in front of him, and activated his sonic perception again.

In his mind, the guides, forms, and inspirations are deeply etched into the stone, each in its place, undisturbed by one another.

It was on a rock, such an ordinary rock, picked up casually from the roadside.

A strange light flashed in Alduin's eyes.

This craftsmanship is simply amazing.

With his ability to perceive sound waves, he can also see the internal structure of the stone and know the orientation of each crystal.

But he could only see it, not do it.

His claws were too thick, and his magic output was too unstable; they would start shaking halfway through carving.

It's not a technical problem, it's a physical one.

Dragons are not naturally suited for delicate work. It's like asking a giant to thread a needle; no matter how clearly he sees, he can't fit his finger through the eye of the needle.

Although it can be mastered with a lot of practice, it is not something that can be easily mastered in a short period of time.

To be honest, the rune artist who carved this stone must have been a high-level rune artist.

What's more, he was a dwarf.

Alduin recalled what Grimm had said.

Dwarfs and gnomes were the two closest races in the underground world hundreds of years ago.

The two races lived side by side; the dwarves were skilled in forging, and the gnomes were adept at runes. Their skills complemented each other, and they lived in harmony for generations.

Until the rise of the human empire, which recognized the dwarves' forging skills and the gnomes' runecrafting, they offered an olive branch for an alliance.

However, the differing ideologies of the two races caused them to part ways completely at this moment.

The dwarfs were unwilling to leave the underground where they had lived for generations, and unwilling to have too much involvement with the creatures on the surface. They chose to uphold the ancient rune tradition.

The dwarves, yearning for a wider world, chose to emerge from the earth, form an alliance with humans, and combine their forging skills with human magical technology to gradually build a magical empire spanning the continent.

As time went by, the dwarves rose rapidly with the help of magical technology, and their rune technology was improved and developed as a result, making them the race most skilled in runes.

The dwarfs, living in seclusion, gradually faded from people's sight and became a hidden presence in the underground world.

The once closest relatives and siblings gradually drifted apart, even becoming enemies with each other.

The Underground Dwarves view the Surface Dwarves as traitors who have abandoned tradition; the Imperial Dwarves view the Underground Dwarves as backward and conservative remnants.

Centuries of separation have long since severed the blood ties between the two races.

A dwarf?

Auduin nodded in satisfaction.

It seems that finding goblins was the right choice; they always have connections and can always find talented people.

And that's the kind of talent he needs.

……

Auduin felt that the Silent Basin had been very quiet for the past month.

It wasn't because it was the dry season and the Hengduan Mountains blocked out all moisture and air currents, but rather a kind of stillness.

Perhaps it's because the Serpent of Ig died?

Auduin returned to the wind-eroded Gobi Desert, where several Ig snakes once lived.

However, he ate the giant snake and gained the ability to detect sound waves; as for the smaller snakes…

Alduin made them kill each other, then left them to fend for themselves on the eastern side of the Bone Hill.

There were enough magical beasts there to fill the belly of the little snake that survived.

Once it grows up, as long as it can be tamed, it will be a powerful weapon against dragons; if it cannot be tamed, it will not be wasted, it can be eaten directly.

It's unclear how long it took the goblins to bring the people over.

Stone giants, though they need to slumber for thousands of years to grow, are primarily absorbing earth elemental magic, condensing it into their core, and slowly tempering their bodies.

However, as long as there is a high concentration of magic in the environment, the stone giant can also grow quickly, but it still takes a long time.

Alduin estimated that even if they slept in piles of top-grade magic crystals every day, it would still take hundreds of years.

"If only I could find a magic that allows for rapid growth..."

Auduin thought to himself.

However, he also knew that this kind of magic was generally high-level magic, which was not only difficult to obtain, but most importantly, it would damage the core.

He didn't want a broken retinue; he needed true elite troops.

Let's talk about these things later.

Alduin shook his head, spread his dark golden wings, and took off into the air, flying towards the rainforest.

After all, he is only at the sixth rank, which, by the standards of dragons, is just a young dragon who has just established his territory.

To conquer other tribes and truly take control of the Sunken Basin, one would need at least the strength of a seventh-tier epic, or even a legendary dragon.

So, let's eat first.

Besides, he was indeed hungry.

The rainforest is located on the south side, covering most of the basin area. When viewed from the air, the canopy looks like a solidified green ocean, so dense that the ground is not visible.

Auduin lowered its altitude and glided close to the treetops.

Sound wave perception quietly unfolded, penetrating through layers of branches and leaves, outlining a complete picture of the rainforest's interior in his mind.

Beneath these images are countless tiny, pulsating points of light.

These are all Warcraft.

A slight smile played on his lips. The hunt was about to begin.

Auduin did not rush to make a move.

He circled once, his sonic perception sweeping across a wider area of ​​the rainforest as he quickly searched for prey.

The nearest heat source is 300 meters directly below, a fourth-order heat source, small enough to fill a tooth gap.

He flashed and instantly appeared directly above the sword-backed wild boar.

The fourth-tier sword-backed boar didn't even have time to raise its head before the dragon claw pressed down on its back. The sound of bones cracking came from under the claw, and the boar let out a short scream. And then... that was it.

Auduin lowered his head, bit off its spine, and swallowed it whole.

The warm energy melted in his throat. He licked his lips, spread his wings, and took to the air again.

Because of its evolution, it no longer needs to flap its wings to fly. Combined with the Shadow Dragon's abilities, it makes very little noise and can quickly decapitate its prey before it is discovered.

next.

The sound wave perception locked onto a third-tier venomous tusk spider, feeding in its nest, one kilometer to the southeast.

Alduin swooped down, its dragon claws tearing open the roof of the nest.

The tarantula's eight legs thrashed wildly, its mandibles spitting out pale green venom. The venom landed on its scales, making a sizzling sound, and then slid off without leaving a trace.

Auduin smashed its head with a single claw and then swallowed it whole.

next.

Alduin was enjoying his hunt here, while on the other side of the basin, in the Ash Highlands, a completely different scene unfolded.

The lava in the crater is much less than before, and its color is also much darker.

The great shaman sat cross-legged on the edge of the crater, his bone staff resting on his knees, his hands covering a tortoise shell covered with fine cracks.

He closed his eyes, and the runes on the bone staff began to slowly light up. The cracks on the tortoise shell extended, intersected, and branched in his mind, eventually converging into a pattern.

A pattern he had seen countless times.

But this time, the end of the pattern is missing a section.

The great shaman opened his eyes, and his cloudy pupils were filled with golden flames.

He turned around and slowly gazed at the eastern side of the sunken basin.