Heavy eyelids, like stone gates sealed for a thousand years, slowly pulled upward accompanied by the rough sound of grinding grit.
The first thing to flood his senses wasn’t light, but that familiar and reassuring, thick scent of rust and the clean smell of dead ash, mixed with countless strange biological odors filled with awe and trembling toward him.
Balthazar’s consciousness surfaced from that bottomless dream of genetic restructuring.
He felt his body was as heavy as a mountain range, but this weight wasn’t weakness; it was an extreme compression of mass and density.
He subconsciously wanted to stretch his limbs, which had been curled up for a week.
“Crack—Boom—”
With just a simple lift of his head and an extension of his forelimbs, the thick layer of limestone fragments and dust covering him slid off like an avalanche.
The dark iron dragon scales that originally clung tightly to his body emitted a series of explosive sounds like heavy machinery engaging.
Every scale sparked slightly from the friction.
If his scales before the slumber were rough cast iron, now this black armor had turned into some kind of deep black crystal alloy capable of swallowing light.
As he moved, an eerie water-like ripple occasionally flashed across the surface of the scales—proof that the ‘Optical Camouflage’ gene from the Indominus Rex had perfectly integrated into the Ferro-Dragon bloodline.
“Phew…”
Two streams of scorching white smoke puffed from his nostrils, instantly blowing away the dust on the ground in front of him.
Balthazar’s dark red vertical pupils quickly focused.
His originally blurred vision became incredibly sharp, allowing him to clearly capture even the dust floating in the air.
And what met his eyes was a grand pilgrimage.
Inside the mountain hollow of the originally empty and cold Iron Imperial Palace, it now actually appeared somewhat crowded.
As far as his vision could reach, it was full of bobbing heads.
Hundreds of pairs… no, perhaps nearly a thousand pairs of eyes emitting a faint yellow glow were staring intently at him under the dim light of torches.
Those weren’t the few dozen Kobolds from before, but a true army—or rather, a massive tribe.
They were knelt in a dense mass on the open ground thirty meters away from the dragon’s nest, arranged according to some primitive hierarchy.
At the very front were the strong individuals equipped with iron pickaxes, while on the periphery were countless thin wanderers whose eyes shone with the light of hope.
Hearing the movement of the dragon awakening, the entire cave instantly fell into a deathly silence; even the sound of breathing seemed to stop.
Directly in front of the dragon’s head, the former Dark Elf Queen, Olga, was sitting on a rock covered with soft dinosaur hide.
She held an old parchment book she had gotten from somewhere; it seemed she had been guarding him since he fell into his slumber.
When she saw Balthazar open his eyes, a flash of hard-to-conceal surprise and relief crossed her face, which usually wore a mask of arrogance.
Beside Olga was the half-blood Dark Elf knight Chloe, who was gestating the Dragon Seed.
She was still in a comatose state, wrapped in a black blanket and placed in a comfortable nest made of hay and dinosaur hides.
In a week’s time, her lower abdomen had already visibly bulged as if she were nine months pregnant. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Faint golden, fine dragon scale patterns appeared on her skin, emitting a pure Dragon Aura that made the surrounding Kobolds dare not approach.
“Roar…”
Balthazar opened his large mouth and let out his first roar after awakening.
The sound had become deeper and thicker, like muffled thunder in the deep sea, making the stalactites at the top of the cave tremble slightly.
His massive body stood up completely.
His body length had broken the ten-meter mark, and his shoulder height had reached a staggering four meters.
A huge black shadow was projected onto the rock wall, like a demon god descending.
“Re… port.”
It was still that raspy, metallic Common Tongue, but this time, Balthazar spoke more fluently.
Every syllable was like a hammer striking the hearts of all the creatures present.
His demeanor was lazy and arrogant.
Those vertical pupils indifferently swept over the ‘ants’ below, like a lord looking at his overflowing granary, feeling both greedy and satisfied.
Hearing his master’s voice, the old Kobold Klar, who had been kneeling at the very front, suddenly sprang up.
He was even wearing a leather half-armor stripped from some unlucky human, and he held the iron pickaxe that seemed to symbolize power in the Kobold community, dancing around excitedly like a madman.
“He has awakened! The great Dragon Emperor has awakened!”
“Praise you! You are the nightmare of the mountains! The ruler of steel! You are… our Steel Dragon Emperor!”
Following Klar’s scream, the dense mass of Kobolds in the back simultaneously kowtowed to the ground, letting out a wave-like fanatical shout:
“Woof! Woof! Dragon Emperor! Dragon Emperor!”
“Squeak! Long live Balthazar! Long live!! Long live Balthazar!!!”
At this time, the panel appeared before Balthazar once again.
Name: Balthazar
Gender: Male (Young Adult)
HP: 450/450
Stamina: 160/160
Mana: 180/180
Strength: 30 (Dragon-level crushing strength, a flying battleship)
Agility: 18 (A massive yet swift dragon body, though your size makes you less flexible.)
Intelligence: 12 (Resourcefulness far exceeding most humans; you can make your opponents suffer through wisdom alone.)
Perception: 18 (A dragon’s keen senses—smell and sight—allow you to see through most hidden things.)
[Molten Iron Ray Lv1]:
Breath out a plasma jet mixed with high-voltage electricity and molten metal ions, carrying high-temperature penetration, paralysis, and EMP effects.
[Optical Camouflage (C+)]:
Passively refracts light to blur your silhouette; can be actively activated for invisibility (but fails during violent attacks).
[Dragon Aura Lv3]:
Regional mental suppression; grants absolute dominance over low-tier creatures and can even cause physical mental damage.
[Ore Vein Perception]:
Allows perception of ore veins within several kilometers.
[True Name Revelation]
When declaring your true name, all attributes are slightly increased for a short time, and you gain recognition of your overlord status by the laws of the world.
[Black Beast World Language LV1]
As a dragon, you cannot speak fluently, but you understand how to read and write the script of this world.
Items Held:
[Belly Treasure]
Undigested gold coins and gems (Reserves from the Black City).
Exchange Points: 3500 points
Balthazar enjoyed the impact of these cheers.
Looking at this powerful panel data, he opened his mouth slightly and let out a satisfied roar.
“Roar…!”
That satisfied roar was like a physical wave of sound, instantly drowning out the high-pitched voices of all the Kobolds.
Several stalactites at the top of the cave could not bear the burden and snapped with a crack, crashing into the distant rock piles and kicking up a cloud of dust.
But this did not make these fanatical slaves feel fear; instead, it made the fire of worship in their eyes burn even more fiercely.
This was their master.
With just one breath, one low growl, he possessed the power to change the environment.
Balthazar watched this scene, his dark red vertical pupils narrowing slightly, his massive chest rising and falling with a pleasant hum.
He withdrew his gaze from those lowly subjects.
His thick neck, capable of easily crushing rocks, slowly turned with the harsh metallic sound of scales scraping against each other, bringing his massive head close to the rock platform on his front side.