I ignored the round white dragon rolling past me and dropped down next to Vesperra.
My claws hooked the fish's head. A little pressure, and the flesh split clean down the middle — pink, tender, absurdly appetizing.
I resisted the urge to eat the whole thing myself and pushed half of it toward her.
I couldn't read Vesperra's intentions. Not fully. But one thing was certain: she protected me. That much was obvious.
She didn't hesitate. Her jaws opened and she took a section of the fish in one clean bite. Half a fish for Vesperra was just a warm-up.
I released my claw and fed the rest of my half into my own mouth, slurping it in like noodles.
Delicate. Smooth.
That was the taste of this fish.
"Syl."
"Hm?"
"How much longer until we start hunting?"
Her body lay prone, her gaze fixed on the pit ahead — already filling with water.
I shifted my focus and let my consciousness flow into the three Sense Vines.
Three underwater views bloomed in my mind simultaneously.
At the pit bottom, dozens of translucent shrimp and meter-long fish were already tearing into the green vegetation. They were enjoying their lucky banquet.
There were some. But not nearly enough.
"We need to wait a little longer."
I paused, then added: "Oh, and Vesperra — when we start hunting, I'll need some of the physically stronger hatchlings to hold the channel mouth. Can you arrange that?"
"Mm. I'll handle it."
She pushed herself up with her claws.
"I'll go organize."
And with that, Vesperra moved toward the cluster of hatchlings resting in twos and threes along the bank.
The channel mouth had been dug wide to let more Kelpfang through. One dragon alone couldn't guard it.
From a pure capability standpoint, Vesperra was obviously the ideal choice. But something told me that if I'd tried to recruit her directly, she would have said no.
Vesperra didn't do alliances. She did... whatever it was she was doing. Alone.
A round white snout bumped into my peripheral vision.
Munch was staring at me.
No — more precisely, Munch was staring at the half-fish still poking out of my mouth.
Her bright white vertical pupils held nothing but desire. Pure, undiluted want.
*Slurp.*
I ate the rest of my fish in one quick bite, under Munch's devastated gaze.
Was I going to give her any? Absolutely not.
She'd already eaten a third of *my* fish. Not demanding compensation was already generous of me. Lord Sylvaros, benevolent as ever.
"Don't look at me. Go catch your own when we go in."
*"Mrah~ Mrah~"*
The round white snout dropped to the ground with a soft thud.
I didn't understand white dragon hatchling-speak, but I understood the tone perfectly. Disappointment.
I didn't care.
I closed my eyes and shifted my full attention to the three Sense Vines.
Three views.
The pit bottom.
Nearly transparent shrimp and meter-long fish grazed freely on the underwater plants, savoring their unexpected feast.
One, two, three...
Only a few dozen. Too few.
Patience, then.
In the gaze of my emerald eyeballs, a school of meter-long fish swam past overhead in the current.
Time passed.
I wasn't sure how long.
The pit had formed proper schools of fish and shrimp now — visible even from the bank, where the hatchlings lounged.
Several of them couldn't contain their hunting instinct anymore. Claws scraped restlessly at the dirt.
The largest hatchling — a red dragon a full head bigger than the rest — rose to her full height.
Vesperra moved to the front of the group and lay down, her snout facing the line of hatchlings.
Instantly, the restless group fell silent.
My heavy eyelids — covered in fine, dense scales — lifted. The pink inner membrane slid open. I opened my eyes.
My gaze flicked to Vesperra not far away.
Well done.
I silently praised her in my head, then pushed myself up and walked toward the channel.
Beside me, Munch lifted her dirt-smeared round head from where she'd been boring patterns in the mud. She blinked, then scrambled up and trotted after me.
I stopped at the channel's edge.
The water before me was calm. Clear.
A thought, and a green spell circle unfolded in the air before my snout.
It was the Sense Vine circle.
The spell matrix was covered in crooked, chaotic runes. A single glance was enough — my mind automatically parsed what each rune meant, and exactly where each one should sit.
It came as naturally as breathing.
This time I wasn't summoning Sense Vines. I was *modifying* the spell. Making it do something else entirely.
I raised my right claw and pressed the tip against one rune on the circle.
A light touch, and the rune dissolved into green motes of light.
Don't need this one.
Or this one.
Or this one.
One by one, I stripped runes from the circle, leaving gaps.
A round white snout drifted closer. Bright white pupils watched the spell circle with open curiosity.
"Stay put."
I pushed Munch's head away with my claw.
*"Mrah~"*
She obediently sat down beside me and stopped bothering me.
In front of me, the spell circle waited. And in my mind, rune arrangements began to form — fast, precise, automatic.
One by one, the gaps filled.
I raised my right claw.
Claws covered in emerald scales traced through the air.
The motion was fluid. Unhurried. There was an elegance to it — the kind of ease that comes from knowing exactly what you're doing.
Each swipe of my claw tips left trailing emerald light in its wake.
A pause. A rune condensed in the air.
I tapped it with my claw tip.
It slid into the spell circle and locked into place.
Again. And again.
Green runes materialized one after another, each tapped into its proper position.
Until the last rune fell into the circle.
The dim spell circle erupted in blazing emerald light.
One ring birthed a second. Two concentric circles, overlapping.
I split my jaws wide in a grin.
Done. Spell modification — complete.
If I'd failed, the circle wouldn't have lit up. It would have exploded in my face.
I raised my right claw and pressed it against the green spell circle.
Green light spilled onto the dirt.
A violent, unmistakable sound of rapid growth erupted from underground. The soil began to writhe.
Black thorned vines burst from the earth — each one as thick as an adult's wrist, covered in wicked black spikes.
The vines snaked forward, sliding down the channel mouth and into the water.
Weaving. Intertwining.
Within moments, a dense net of thorned vines blocked the outflow completely.
Ready to hunt.
"Munch, follow me."
*"Mrah~!"*
She bounced after me.
We stopped in front of Vesperra.
"Ready?"
"Yeah. Your call."
At my confirmation, Vesperra turned her head toward the line of barely-contained hatchlings.
"Line up."
The hatchlings shuffled into a neat row at the water's edge. Every single round snout was fixed on the pit below.
The underground river was clear enough that you could see the fish and shrimp moving below even from the bank.
Munch and I took position at the right edge.
Vesperra's red head rose, scanning the line once. Every hatchling was ready. She lowered her body.
She looked hungry too. She hadn't eaten much since the slumber — the bit of fish I'd given her was barely a mouthful.
"Remember — no fighting during the hunt. Settle your disputes *after* we're done."
"That's all. Get ready."
A single roar.
Vesperra hit the water first.
The instant her roar ended, I kicked off with my hind legs.
The water was cool. Not bad.
Using the three Sense Vine views, I flicked my tail and angled toward a large shrimp nearby.
The prey scattered. Fish and shrimp that had been grazing peacefully exploded into panicked flight.
Including my target.
The shrimp kicked its tail, jetting bubbles as it shot ten meters in an instant.
I didn't chase. Instead, I opened my jaws and snapped left.
A fleeing fish swam straight into my bite.
Fresh fish flesh filled my mouth.
I didn't hold back. I had no intention of swimming up to eat.
My claws shredded the fish. A ring of blood bloomed in the clear water.
My tail kept me anchored in place as I ate right there, suspended.
Before I'd finished, one of my Sense Vine views caught a transparent shrimp drifting toward me.
Left claw up. One precise strike — claws pinned the shrimp's head.
A squeeze.
The entire head collapsed into paste. No pain. No struggle. Dead in an instant.
Nice. Another delivery to my doorstep.
I watched the hatchlings chasing fish one by one, my green pupils dilating slightly.
These hatchlings' intelligence was... questionable.
But not all of them were idiots. A few of the smarter ones had already started imitating me — finding a spot, lying in ambush, letting the other hatchlings drive prey toward them.
My right claw tore off another chunk of fish and shoved it into my mouth.
Right — had Munch caught anything?
Let me check.
My green pupils rotated, and with the three extra views, I found her quickly.
Munch was chasing a fish with her jaws wide open.
Good. At this rate, even if she didn't catch the fish, she'd drink herself full.
My jaws parted—
And then something miraculous happened.
A fleeing shrimp, panicked and directionless, slammed headfirst into the fish Munch was chasing.
Both fish and shrimp had been at full speed. The impact was enormous. The fish's eye popped out. Both of them flipped belly-up.
Which meant Munch opened her jaws and caught *two* prey in a single bite.
The blue hatchling who'd been chasing the shrimp glanced at Munch, flicked her tail, and went after a different target.
Lucky little idiot.
Seeing Munch eating, I stopped worrying about her.
My gaze drifted on, and I found the target I'd actually been looking for.
The water churned. Faster than the fish, a red hatchling closed the distance to a Kelpfang-sized shadow, opened her jaws, and bit clean through half the fish's body. Then her claws scooped up the other half and fed it straight into her mouth.
Brutal. Efficient. A pure stat monster.
I'd expected it, but watching Vesperra's unreasonable physical output in person still stirred something envious in my chest.
*That's* the kind of stats a proper dragon aspires to. Not like me — born with a permanent debuff, the kind you can't dispel.
Then, mid-hunt, Vesperra suddenly pivoted.
Wait — why was she swimming toward *me*?
She reached me without a word and dropped a two-meter white shrimp into my claws. Then her tail flicked and she was gone, back into the hunt.
I stared at the shrimp in my arms.
My jaws opened and I bit off the whole head. Fresh, savory flavor flooded my mouth.
As I chewed, a thought nagged at me.
Why did this feel like being a corporate sugar baby?
Like a CEO with an expense account — except I was the one being expensed.
Anyway, their dragon-species XP was their problem. Mine was intact.
Being kept was out of the question. I'd just... remember the favor. Repay her when I had the chance.
Yeah. That was it.
Satisfied with this explanation, I finished the last of the two-meter shrimp.
Empty claws. Back to hunting.
With three extra views, underwater hunting wasn't difficult.
Dragon digestion was absurdly efficient — we ate and digested simultaneously, which meant we could consume several times our body volume. All of it converted to growth.
I checked my internal gauge. About thirty percent full.
The pit was turning murky now. Blood mixed with stirred-up sediment.
I climbed out onto the bank.
My jaws opened in a long burp.
A scan of the shore — no other dragons yet. I was the first one out.
Though not the first one *done.* Vesperra had stopped hunting ten minutes ago and had been watching the others from the water's edge.
Supervisor behavior. Classic floor manager energy.
I found a flat rock and lay down on my belly, watching the water.
It wasn't long before the second hatchling emerged.
The second red dragon in the group.
She climbed out without any intention of talking. A cold glance in my direction, and she found a spot — not to lie down, but to stand.
While every other hatchling collapsed belly-first onto the nearest flat surface, this red dragon remained on her feet. Her crimson gaze swept the water's surface with methodical precision, lingering on each ripple, each shadow beneath the murk.
She wasn't resting. She was counting.
Counting prey. Counting threats. Counting the distance between every hatchling in the water and the bank.
She looked at me like she was already calculating how hard I'd be to beat.