Red Dragon Monster Hunter Template.

Chapter 354 Development

For Thor, capturing those crocodiles with dragon blood flowing through their veins was a piece of cake.

With just one order, a large number of people would be mobilized, and in just a few days, hundreds or even thousands of crocodiles of different sizes and shapes were delivered.

Among them, some are enormous with thick armor; some have backs covered with sharp thorns; and some can exhale poisonous breath from their mouths.

Thor even found several crocodile-men among these crocodiles.

This is also a type of beastman, except that after transformation it takes the form of a giant crocodile. Its challenge level can usually reach around level 5, which is quite powerful among the entire beastman group.

These unfortunate crocodiles were all treated by Thor with the Dragon's Curse and radiation. More than 90% of them did not survive and died on the spot. The rest were thrown into Mirror Lake.

Another challenge is looming. Since Thor's territory has not yet reached the coastal areas, these crocodiles are actually freshwater crocodiles, but the water in Mirror Lake is seawater. If they cannot adapt to the seawater environment, they probably won't live for long.

In the days that followed, almost every day, all sorts of crocodiles were brought up by his men, infected by the Mad Dragon Curse, and then thrown into Mirror Lake.

The newly created Mirror Lake has attracted many fish, but it is clearly not enough to fill the bellies of these crocodiles.

Moreover, crocodiles are not suited to fishing in deep water; they prefer to ambush prey in swamps and riverbanks.

In addition, the physical changes caused by the Mad Dragon Curse brought about an intense hunger, which forced them to constantly kill each other. The individuals that survived the struggle became increasingly adapted to the aquatic environment.

Under this cruel elimination mechanism, which is like raising poisonous insects, coupled with Thor's conscious observation, some exceptionally talented individuals soon began to show signs of transforming into sea dragons.

Their necks gradually lengthened, their skulls thickened, their faces became more three-dimensional, their limbs became more developed, and they grew bony thorns and carapace structures on their bodies.

Even some fish that took the opportunity to peck at the flesh and blood of the crocodiles during their fights were infected by the curse of the mad dragon and began to gradually mutate.

It seems that this time, not only will we be able to breed sea dragons, but we might also get a batch of ichthyosaur monsters.

At that time, with these giant beasts protecting them, ordinary aquatic creatures would not dare to approach.

Time passed day by day amidst these changes, and Thor's entire territory was developing at an ever-changing pace.

Through his economic siege of the entire North, the population of his territory is steadily increasing and now constitutes a considerable portion of the population.

It must be said that humans are indeed a very outstanding race. Following the dragons, giants, and elves, they were able to rule the earth, and there was a reason for that.

Their year-round estrus cycle, over ten years of growth period, coupled with generally higher intelligence and potential, set them apart from other races.

Races that are more fertile than humans often have lower intelligence and far less potential.

Those races with higher intelligence and longer lifespans than humans have lower reproductive capabilities and require a long time to mature.

In a world where food is plentiful and the environment is stable, a couple can theoretically have more than a dozen children in their lifetime, and the population can grow exponentially in just a few generations.

Their high average intelligence also provides Thor with a significant amount of spiritual essence.

As for whether this will lead to overpopulation and excessive pressure on land and housing...

If you look closely at the map of the entire northern region, you will find that less than 1% of the area has actually been developed; the rest is all barren and desolate land.

But this was no problem for Thor at all; the advantage of dictatorship was that his subordinates had strong enough execution capabilities.

Along the way, mountains were cleared, lakes were created, and canals were dug to divert water. In this world where personal power trumps everything, even the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers of the past could be forcibly diverted, and a passage could be carved out of the majestic Himalayas.

As long as top-tier experts have ideas, there is no place in this world that cannot be turned into fertile land.

Just like the Sel region, the stronghold of the Red Robe Wizarding Society, it was originally an arid desert.

However, thanks to a series of spells designed by the red-robed mages, the local climate was adjusted to be the most suitable for grain growth, and its grain production reached almost 30% of the entire Northland, even more than that of the Golden Plains.

In the Moonsea Kingdoms, Coldlands, Deepwater Harbor, Silvermoon City, and the entire western part of the Sword Sea, a considerable portion of the food needs to be imported from Sel.

This explains why those city-states, large and small, collapsed so easily after Sol bought up large quantities of food and basic supplies.

Magic is the primary productive force; a top-tier spellcaster can easily support thousands of people.

Unfortunately, the strong have their own pursuits. All their energy will inevitably be devoted to improving their own strength and delving into more profound knowledge. How could they possibly invest their resources in mundane things?

Take the food-creating and water-creating spells for example; a single use can only produce enough food and water for a dozen or so humans for a day.

Is it that magic can't do more? Not at all! It's because this is already enough. Continuing to research further would be disproportionate to the effort, and there's also the influence of the gods in the shadows.

If all food and water can be obtained through magic, and mortals do not need to farm or labor, how can the gods who rely on agricultural beliefs maintain their existence?

Thor, being a dragon, naturally wouldn't set his sights on these tiny creatures, but these little things could bring him real benefits, so naturally the more the better.

Therefore, he did not mind ordering his strong men to serve the common people, cultivate more fertile land, and build a stable and suitable climate environment.

At the same time, Thor also introduced a large number of deities related to agriculture and farming into his territory, a privilege that even Tiamat had never enjoyed.

Most of these deities are neutral gods who don't care about good or evil. As long as they can better spread their faith, they don't care where the temple is built.

Although doing so will inevitably cause some creatures within the territory to turn to these gods.

However, Thor's spiritual essence does not only come from faith. Envy, jealousy, fear, and even the most crucial desire can all generate spiritual essence.

Therefore, while expanding the arable land within his territory, Sol was also simultaneously advancing another plan that had been determined long ago—compulsory education.

Schools, resembling creations from another world, began to spring up in various biological settlements throughout the territory, centered around the Doomsday Volcano.

These schools will impart knowledge of development and construction to the virtuous, as well as the methods of fighting and killing to the evil creatures, broadening their horizons equally and igniting insatiable desires in their hearts to pursue more.

Chapter 355 The giant ship is launched

The ever-growing golden disc, like a great sun hanging in the sky, dazzles with sunlight.

Below, there is the magnificent Crimson Flame Palace, the Doomsday Volcano shimmering with black gold, and the majestic city built against the mountain, stretching endlessly.

These earth giants, who were plundered from the Earth Elemental Plane, are almost all outstanding master builders. They can even build buildings hundreds of meters high overnight, at a speed beyond imagination.

Only half a year has passed since the golden disc rose, yet the surrounding cluster of buildings has already outlined the rudiments of the capital city.

Various humanoid creatures and monsters of all shapes and sizes roamed among them, yet they managed to maintain a semblance of order. This was not because they had all become law-abiding beings, but rather because an even greater terror loomed overhead.

Thor's existence effectively banned all private fighting in the entire capital. If they truly couldn't control their bloodlust, they could head to the large arenas in the four corners of the capital.

Anyone who signs up can participate in the arena, where there are no taboos and one can use the blood and lives of enemies or even their own to entertain the audience.

The financial offensive against the northern human territories continues. Almost all the small city-states have succumbed to the pressure and vanished completely.

Some of them sold everything within their territories to Thor, while others simply merged into those large city-states.

City-state organizations like Deepwater Harbor and Silvermoon City, which have survived for thousands of years and centuries of change, are not so easily crushed.

After withstanding the initial shock, they quickly stabilized, banding together for warmth and leveraging their respective networks to rapidly recover their strength.

Ancient monsters like Elasdra and the Silver Moon Queen, who have lived for thousands of years, can be associated with gods. As long as they are willing to procure resources such as food and copper and iron minerals, it will not be a problem.

They can also directly open an interdimensional portal to acquire resources from other planes. Although the cost is slightly higher and the process is a bit more troublesome, at least it can stabilize the current situation.

Unfortunately, in the process, most of the small city-state territories were annexed by Sol.

The tide of battle had turned. Once Thor's fleet was launched, they would face a double blockade from both land and water.

To this end, Thor spent considerable effort exchanging his resources for a large quantity of timber. Most of it was common jacana wood, a tough and excellent type of wood suitable for making hunting bows.

In addition, there are a small number of Cloud-forming Hardwood and Cloud-forming Heavywood, which are special individuals born after Cloud-forming Wood has grown for a sufficient number of years and is nourished and promoted by the energy of the earth's veins.

Its toughness is such that it can even be used to make the main body of katanas and greatswords, enough to fight against giant monsters head-on.

Other types include giant tree heartwood, floating cloud twigs, sand-heart rosewood, and frost-covered cypress.

In fact, Thor had already obtained most of the seeds of these plants and planted them long ago.

Whether it was because this world possessed magic, or because the green dragon's innate ability to care for plants was truly outstanding, or perhaps it was the help of dragon manure fertilizer, all these plants were growing well.

However, it will take at least several decades or even hundreds of years for them to reach maturity, which Thor cannot afford to wait for.

Fortunately, as his territory expanded and the number of people under his rule increased, Thor's rate of obtaining spiritual essence also continued to improve.

Even with consumption in all aspects, the balance is growing at an extremely rapid rate, and it is expected that it will be able to draw a new Ancient Dragon panel soon.

A few days later, the first completed giant ship was finally launched.

This giant ship is about 100 meters long and 30 meters wide. Its entire body is made of cloud-knot wood, and the main body is a single huge cloud-knot heavy wood. In addition, the surface is inlaid with swallow-bird stone iron sheet, which is enough to withstand the head-on impact of an adult white dragon.

On the bow of the ship, there was a giant cannon, with a spear more than ten meters long protruding from the barrel with a sharp tip that gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

This is the dragon-slaying spear that comes with the airship design blueprints we extracted earlier; it's specifically designed for hunting giant sea creatures.

Although it was just a slightly larger toy compared to Thor, whose body length was approaching seventy meters, it was an absolute behemoth to the many fleets in the Sword Sea.

All of this was thanks to the amazing magic and the help of Thor's gigantic Darkin subordinates; otherwise, the construction speed would never have been so fast.

…………

After the giant ship was launched, it sailed along the long canal toward the sea without a specific destination, simply to familiarize itself with the sea conditions and train the sailors.

Therefore, there were not many people accompanying them this time, only some human and orc sailors, black-scaled kobolds, and the yellow dragon that had just been tamed.

However, it was precisely this disregard that led them into trouble.

Shortly after the ship entered the nearshore waters, a group of Shahua fish-men riding sharks emerged from the water.

This is an ugly creature that is 1.8 to 2.2 meters tall and weighs 90 to 150 kilograms. It has a short and broad face, a protruding mouth, a shark-like snout, and fins on its limbs and back.

Their bodies were covered with thick, keratinous scales ranging from green to blue-brown, and they held rusted steel forks, letting out short, sharp roars at Thor's giant ship.

The crew members on board didn't take it seriously. With the rudimentary weapons in the hands of these inferior creatures, they weren't even capable of penetrating the thin layer of sparrowstone covering on the ship's surface, let alone chiseling through the hull.

And that was indeed the case. Seeing that their extortion efforts had gone unanswered, the shamans who had surfaced immediately controlled their sharks to dive back down, leading the main force towards the bottom of the ship.

Together they held onto a giant ramming cone—an effective means of dealing with ships at sea—but unexpectedly, it crashed into this behemoth with its metallic blue surface without leaving even a scratch.

Just when the sailors on the ship thought the matter was over, a large number of ugly heads emerged from all around like a school of fish rising to the surface.

One by one, the shamans controlled the sharks to rise completely to the surface, and with a powerful throw of hooks woven from seaweed and coral, they precisely entangled them on the edge of the boat.

The lead sailor was startled upon seeing this and immediately led his men forward, drawing their scimitars and beginning to hack and slash at the Shahua fishmen who were climbing up.

The yellow dragon, located at the bottom of the sea, also rushed up with a roaring current, tearing and biting, splashing large amounts of blood.

However, the number of Shahua fishmen was simply too great, and even a single Huanglong was somewhat powerless against the swarms of sharks.

After all, his most powerful breath weapon is a pillar of salt crystals, but that stuff is underwater...

The captain could only steer the giant ship in a desperate retreat until it entered the canal. Only then did the sand bream stop their pursuit and unwillingly begin to devour the corpses of their companions.

Chapter 356 The City of Caves

"What do you mean by saying the boat that was launched was driven back by a group of Shahua fish people?"

When Thor heard the news, he was filled with rage.

A giant ship hundreds of meters long is afraid of a group of fish and shrimp with an average height of less than two meters. It's like a fishing boat being forced back by white stray fish on the water. Is that reasonable?

He simply couldn't believe that one of his men was such an idiot, utterly hopeless.

And that yellow dragon, as a fully grown true dragon, performed worse than even the white dragon of the same age. No wonder the colorful dragon couldn't amount to anything.

The enraged red dragon immediately swung its claws and enslaved the ship's captain, sailors, and even the deck-washing laborers, throwing them into the desolate mountains and rivers to perform hard labor.

Huanglong was sent to the salt factory, where his pitifully weak salt crystal breath was more valuable for sale and consumption than for fighting.

Thor then quickly gathered another group of men and arranged for the giant ship to set sail again, determined to get his revenge.

As for personally taking action... how could a bunch of lowly Shahua fishmen possibly trouble the great Red Dragon? To say that would be an insult to his majesty.

The Red Tyrant's orders were carried out throughout the North, and soon experienced sailors gathered from all directions.

This time, however, they were only responsible for operating the ship, while all the combat tasks were carried out by Thor's evil creatures.

To deal with the lowly Sawa fishmen, one should naturally use the lowest of the low, the goblins. A group of dwarfs with purplish-green skin scurried up and down on the wide deck, like a swarm of flies.

The massive ship sailed down the river once again, and soon after, it once again entered the near-shore waters where it had encountered the Shahua fish-men.

As one of the largest underwater forces in the surrounding waters, the Shahua Fishmen have even established their own kingdom in the deep trenches, and naturally possess unique reconnaissance methods.

They can not only control sharks to fight for them, but also enslave schools of fish, like animal companions of druids, providing information for their reconnaissance.