At noon, the cave was filled with a peculiar smell of roasted crab meat mixed with crystal powder.
Caesar was holding a piece of King Crab energy storage crystal as large as a millstone, gnawing on it expressionlessly.
"Crunch... crunch..."
The hard crystal shattered under the dragon teeth, and the texture was like gnawing on glass—
[Ding! "Rock Attribute" factor detected, absorbing...]
[Experience +10!]
[Experience +10!]
The System prompts kept ringing, but Caesar wasn't happy at all.
He struggled to swallow the crystal fragments while using his claws to fork a large piece of sizzling, roasted crab leg meat into his mouth, trying to use the delicious meat flavor to dilute that earthy, fishy smell.
Calling this stuff 'eating dirt' was giving it too much credit.
Though Earth Dragons really can eat dirt—this was a recent discovery, and it even grants experience. Garchomp naturally love crystals, but that doesn't mean Caesar is willing to eat dirt.
If it weren't for grinding Rock-type skills, Caesar wouldn't be suffering through this.
More importantly, this mountain of crab meat had to be finished quickly, or it would soon rot. Although with the Dragon Clan's stomach, eating a bit of rotten meat wasn't a big problem, the smell... Caesar felt nauseous just thinking about it.
From last night until now, the two little dragons hadn't stopped eating.
Caesar was about to vomit from eating so much, but the only consolation was that he finally reached LV.31, just one step away from LV.32.
Beside him, Cecilia had already eaten herself into a round silver ball of meat, lying belly-up on the pile of treasure, her stomach rising and falling as she grunted happily.
Caesar glanced at her status.
LV.19.
Only one step away from advancing to the Silver Rank.
Once she began the advancement, she would fall into a long slumber.
"Alright, stop eating," Caesar slapped Cecilia's round belly with a claw. "Any more and you'll really become a ball."
Caesar didn't dare let this fat dragon advance in a place like this.
Just as dawn broke this morning, he had captured two Sub-dragons flying overhead with sonar. The shadows cast by those massive wings silenced the entire forest.
—Activities from the Dragons Nest were becoming more frequent.
These guys might be trying to blockade the ley lines, or they might have found traces of the Myconid, but most likely... they were after him and Cecilia.
Caesar couldn't help but think of the Red Dragon he encountered before.
Thinking back now, that guy seemed to be searching for something anxiously. Could it be... Cecilia?
After all, a healthy pure-blood Silver Dragon egg appearing in the danger-ridden underground world didn't seem right no matter how you looked at it.
Whether they were hunting him or looking for Cecilia, there were now a bunch of potential pursuers wandering the skies. Letting Cecilia fall into a slumber at a time like this was no different from seeking death.
Better wait until they were in a safe place.
"Stare..."
Cecilia shrunk her head and looked at Caesar, then glanced at the fragrant crab meat, but ultimately didn't dare move again.
The Earth Dragon sighed and continued to expressionlessly gnaw on that piece of tasteless energy storage crystal.
[Ding! "Rock Attribute" factor detected, absorbing...]
[Experience +10!]
Why couldn't he just unlock a Rock-type skill?
Caesar felt a bit frustrated.
He had a vague feeling that relying on devouring attribute factors to comprehend skills was a newbie benefit for the first time. After that, gaining skills through the same method would likely require meeting certain specific conditions.
For example, Dragon Pulse required proficiency in prerequisite skills, while Sandstorm was a Integration and sublimation of two skills.
What he wanted most right now wasn't Rock Tomb or Stone Edge, but Stealth Rock.
This was a god-tier skill in pokémon battles with great strategic significance.
Back when he played Garchomp, setting up Stealth Rock at the start was a mandatory move; it could counter many Ice and Flying-type pokémon.
Except for Mamoswine, most Ice-type pokémon were actually at a disadvantage against Garchomp because they would immediately lose 1/4 of their HP to Stealth Rock upon switching in.
And Garchomp, with its fourfold weakness to Ice, often didn't lose to Ice-type pokémon, but was taken out by an Ice Punch—originally meant for Landorus—pulled out from who-knows-where by the opponent.
It was truly like 'intelligent matchmaking'.
Of the two little dragons, one slept until the afternoon, while the other forced himself to gnaw until the afternoon.
It wasn't until the Rank number on the System panel finally jumped from '31' to '32' that Caesar breathed a long sigh of relief and swallowed the last bit of crystal crumbs in his hand.
LV.32.
Finally leveled up.
As night slowly enveloped the forest, Caesar stuffed the stone pots, barbecue racks, and other items into his Storage Ring, then kicked Cecilia awake.
"Let's go, time to move!"
Shouldering their packs, the two little dragons plunged into the deeper forest under the cover of night... In the nighttime forest, countless points of light floated like a flowing river of stars.
Those weren't fireflies, but a group of pseudo-dragon creatures called 'Firefly Drakes'. They looked like miniature wyverns but were actually Bug-attribute little things with no real offensive capability.
Seeing this, Cecilia grew interested. She transformed into a rather abstractly shaped 'Firefly Drake', flapping her small wings to blend into the swarm of lights.
This actually helped mask her Silver Dragon aura.
Caesar followed behind and noticed that the flight paths of these Firefly Drakes seemed to have a specific direction. Following the trail, he actually found several plants hanging with fruit among a thicket of bushes.
[Ding! New Encyclopedia entry discovered: Figy Berry!]
A System prompt popped up.
Caesar picked one and found that in the encyclopedia, this thing seemed to be a material for making Advanced healing potions, though the recovery effect was significantly weakened.
He stuffed it into his dragons maw and took a bite; a spicy taste exploded on the tip of his tongue.
Hmm... feels like it can be used as a chili pepper.
Since reaching Level 32, the System seemed to have unlocked an Encyclopedia function. Caesar stopped and started along the way, discovering many Berries like Chesto Berries and Pinap Berries. Although not very useful, they enriched his food stores.
When the first ray of dawn pierced through the forest mist, the two little dragons had arrived at the outer regions of the Dragon Spine Mountain Range.
The morning mist was heavy, clinging damply to their scales.
Caesar flicked his tail, shaking off the dew clinging to it.
Here, traces of human activity could already be seen—felled trees, packed paths... But surrounded by mountains and steep cliffs, Caesar couldn't quite figure out how those humans... actually got in?
Just as he was at a loss—
"Earth Dragon, look at this!"
Cecilia's voice came from the side.
She was currently maintaining that 'ugly-cute' Firefly Drake form, only the size of a palm, hovering over a pile of rubble and pointing her short, thick finger at the base of the mountain wall.