Hot winds swept across the Iron Pine Hills, carrying grains of sand, whispering softly.
Galos hurled the Rock-Breaking Worm heavily onto a patch of open ground, holding its head with a Dragon Claw, forcing this giant worm, nearly twenty meters long, to curl up into a ring.
If it weren't for the layer of insect shell covering the Rock-Breaking Worm's body.
With its length and girth, it would look more like a giant serpent at first glance, rather than a worm.
"Rock-Breaking Worms live underground, digging and burrowing is an innate talent, adept at hiding and lurking."
"If I can tame it, I can have the Rock-Breaking Worm steal Black Oil for me."
"No, it wouldn't be considered stealing, since the Black Oil reserves are unowned. It's about earning it through one's abilities."
Galos mused.
The defenses of the Carmel Black Oil Field are rigorous and there might be some kind of defense underground as well, but the oil fields in the Sel Wilderness are not just one. Some smaller oil fields have less stringent defense levels, offering a greater chance to acquire Black Oil.
As for Samantha.
Her Alchemy cannot be relied on for now, as she hasn't learned how to extract and refine Black Oil.
And even if Alchemy could be used to directly extract Black Oil from magical creatures, the efficiency wouldn't be high enough.
Black Oil itself is the result of an extremely long period, formed through special reactions of the remains of magical creatures underground.
Unless one's alchemy level is extremely advanced, directly extracting it through alchemy would require consuming a massive number of magical creatures to obtain a small amount of Black Oil, making the effort and gain disproportionate.
The main source of Black Oil still remains natural reserves.
Refining Black Oil is possible, though.
Galos hasn't tasted higher-quality Black Oil, but he suspects that, much like the difference between ordinary metal and Hundred-Forged Steel, refined Black Oil must be more effective.
His gaze fell upon the Rock-Breaking Worm.
Galos took a deep breath, his claws pressing firmly against the worm's head, preventing it from breaking free.
Magic-like Skill—Telepathic Sense.
A white glow appeared in Galos' Dragon Eyes as he closed them, focused, and extended an invisible stream of mental energy to touch the head of the Rock-Breaking Worm, sensing its mind.
The skill of Telepathic Sense was something Galos had unearthed from his bloodline after much searching.
Whether it was due to luck or a clear purpose, his Adaptation Evolution Talent activated.
It didn't take long for Galos to awaken this skill.
It allows the caster to sense the emotions of the subject, while also letting the subject understand the caster's thoughts, enabling a form of communication through the spiritual world to some extent.
This gave Galos hopes of taming the Rock-Breaking Worm.
Such a fierce beast as the Rock-Breaking Worm, with low intelligence and difficult to communicate with, could only be communicated through skills like Telepathic Sense.
Due to the disparity in their spiritual strength, the Telepathic Sense was successfully cast on the Rock-Breaking Worm.
In Galos' perception, first came primitive impulses like hunger and the desire for destruction, then memories of tasting the salty remains of Kobold corpses while gnawing at mineral veins, the excitement during mating with other Rock-Breaking Worms, and the fear of being plucked from underground and carried into the sky by a Dragon...these memories flashed like snippets.
The Rock-Breaking Worm's consciousness was dimly aware.
A dragon-shaped light representing Galos' will appeared within its spiritual world.
Galos looked around, finding that the Rock-Breaking Worm's spiritual world was particularly dark, like the pitch-black underground, its consciousness curled up in a pit.
"Submit to me, and I can let you survive, grant you food."
Galos' voice echoed in its spiritual world in a manner it could perceive and comprehend.
"Oh."
The Rock-Breaking Worm's reaction was indifferent, as if life and food didn't matter.
Recalling its previous points of excitement, Galos paused and said, "Submit to me, and I will grant you unlimited opportunities to mate with other Rock-Breaking Worms."
As expected.
The Rock-Breaking Worm's emotions soared instantly.
To it, this seemed to be the most important and sacred aspect of worm life, even surpassing life itself.
"I, am, willing."
It replied haltingly.
Wonderful, it was simpler than expected.
Joy surged in Galos' heart.
Although communication through Telepathic Sense was not enslavement, with the worm's limited intelligence, it had no concept of deceit. As long as Galos could provide what it wanted, it would be loyal to its instincts and serve him.
It was more of a mutually beneficial exchange.
An arrangement where both parties took what they needed.
At this moment.
Something unexpected happened to Galos.
The underground-like spiritual world suddenly began to quake, filled with awe, reverence, and fear.
"What's happening?"
Galos asked.
"The King, is, here."
The Rock-Breaking Worm replied painfully.
At the same time, its consciousness began to tremble, with cracks appearing on its surface, and then it shattered, releasing a much smaller, yet more solid and lifelike tiny worm.
It had no eyes.
But Galos could feel it seemingly staring coldly at him.
At that moment, the entire spiritual world of the Rock-Breaking Worm began to collapse, and the small worm gradually became transparent and slowly disappeared.
Galos opened his eyes again.
The Rock-Breaking Worm before him twitched a few times, then lay still, as if it had become a soulless shell. Its body bore no fatal wounds, yet it had died.
"Taming the Rock-Breaking Worm doesn't seem simple."
Galos sighed, but was not discouraged, quickly regaining his determination.
This world doesn't revolve around him. Encountering setbacks is normal; the key is how to overcome obstacles, make flowers bloom from thorns, and turn rough paths into smooth roads.
"The King came...that last small worm must be the Insect King."
"It can directly determine the life and death of its worms, destroying their spirits?"
Galos recalled the Insect King he had seen before, its shell reflecting a metallic sheen in the sunlight, its body reaching about a hundred meters long, truly intimidating. Its life level must be over level 12.
At level 12, a Red Dragon would take about 40 years to reach such a life level, and an Iron Dragon would need over 50 years.
That is to say.
The Insect King's life level is at least equivalent to a young Dragon, far beyond what Galos can handle now.
"Strange, the inheritance never mentioned that the Rock-Breaking Worm King had such means of mental control."
"Perhaps it has undergone some mutation, acquiring skills different from ordinary Insect Kings."
Galos pondered.
Following that, he went to the abandoned quarry again, using the beasts he lured there as bait to draw out ordinary Rock-Breaking Worms, which he then captured alive, using Telepathic Sense in an attempt to subdue them.
The result was the same, again thwarted by the Insect King.
This made Galos realize that unless he could deal with the Insect King, he couldn't use his current means to make the Rock-Breaking Worms work for him.
"Spoiling my plans, you'll pay for this."
Galos remembered the troublesome Insect King.
Someday, he would catch it, make it dig for minerals and oil until it collapsed from exhaustion.
As they say, 'the sky never bars a dragon's path.' No matter what one wishes to do, alternative methods can always be found. This swarm of Rock-Breaking Worms might be hard to tame, but Galos had other targets in mind.