The Red Dragon Mother landed heavily on the platform protruding from the cave’s front. Two streams of white gas exhaled from her nostrils were ignited by the high temperature within her body, dancing like twin tongues of flame and leaving fleeting, scorching trails in the air.

Clutched firmly in her massive claws was a giant wild boar. Judging by its thick, protruding tusks and the needle-like bristles standing upright on its back, it was clearly a fierce old boar, weighing approximately a ton.

This was undoubtedly the kind of beast that would dare to charge a tiger head-on, but at this moment, its spine had been crushed. Warm blood gurgled from the corners of its mouth, snaking across the platform and gathering into thin streams of gore.

The thick, cloying scent of blood carried into the cave by the forest wind instantly triggered Thor’s appetite. He snapped his head up, a clear look of longing flashing in his eyes.

Karp and Sistana, who were already somewhat malnourished, had a green glint in their eyes. Without a second thought, they rushed out toward the platform.

However, what greeted them was not the Dragon Mother’s maternal love, but a merciless lashing.

Red Dragon Mother’s broad wings swept forward like a thick city wall, violently batting the two Hatchlings away and sending them crashing to the ground.

Following this, she let out a warning roar, showing no intention of sharing her prey. She lowered her head alone and began to tear into the boar with great gulps.

Watching the two Hatchlings fall to the ground, a faint hint of mockery appeared in Thor’s eyes.

But then, he thought of his own situation, which didn’t seem much better. That trace of mockery instantly turned into dejection, and he listlessly lowered his gaze.

The three Hatchlings watched the Dragon Mother feast with longing eyes. Only after she had eaten her fill, licked the residual blood from the corners of her mouth, and slowly crawled back into the cave to lie down did they dare to rush toward the remains of the prey cautiously.

Thor, who was relatively strong and sturdy, took the lead and snatched a piece of the remains with the most meat left on it.

Seeing Sistana trying to move in and fight for it, he turned around without hesitation and knocked her to the ground with a whip of his tail.

This was the first time since Thor’s birth that he had eaten truly normal food, aside from those eggshell fragments.

His stomach had long been churning with acid from hunger. At this moment, he didn’t care if the raw meat was disgusting; he only wanted to fill his belly as quickly as possible.

He quickly devoured the small amount of shredded meat. Even the hard bones were crushed by his sharp, sturdy dragon teeth and swallowed in large gulps.

But such a small amount of leftovers was clearly far from enough to satisfy Thor’s vigorous appetite.

Despite the small size of Hatchling Dragons, their digestive and absorption systems functioned like high-temperature furnaces, supporting simultaneous eating and digestion, rapidly converting the food they consumed into the energy their bodies required.

Combined with the excellent elasticity of their stomachs, which could hold a large amount of food at once—almost like a pocket dimension—Thor instinctively turned his gaze toward his younger brother and sister. Unfortunately, these two Hatchling Dragons had learned their lesson from the eggshells and were now much smarter.

They were all like reincarnated starving ghosts, stuffing the food in their claws into their mouths and eating even faster than Thor. By now, there was nothing left at all.

Refusing to give up, Thor continued to rummage through the boar’s fur and scraps on the ground, hoping to find something else edible.

In the next moment, a long wooden shaft caught his attention.

He picked it up with his claws and saw that one end of the wooden shaft was embedded with a jet-black, shiny arrowhead.

It was an arrow, though its size was several degrees larger than the heavy arrows Thor had seen in his previous life as a human.

He couldn’t help but feel a bit puzzled. What kind of creature could fire such an arrow, and why would it appear on the wild boar brought back by the Dragon Mother?

While he was pondering, a grumpy low growl suddenly came from the Dragon Mother inside the cave.

“You three idiots! Clean up the trash once you’re done eating. I don’t want to see a single scrap left when I wake up!”

Thor, who was rummaging through the remains, froze. He turned his head toward Sistana and Karp and roared sharply.

“Did you hear that? You two idiots! Clean up the ground immediately!”

This action instantly incited dissatisfaction in the other two Hatchlings, and they both roared in protest.

“Damn you, Thor! You have no right to order me around!”

“Mother clearly said all three of us should clean up. Why are you pushing it all on us!”

Thor curled his lips, revealing sharp fangs. He cloldly laughed, raised a front claw, clenched it into a fist, shook it forcefully, and said,

“You dare to disobey your elder brother’s orders? It seems you both need more education.”

Just as the three Hatchlings were about to come to blows over their disagreement, the Red Dragon Mother, lying in the cave, impatiently raised her head and growled lowly,

“If I hear you shouting and disturbing my sleep again, I’ll twist your heads off.”

Hearing this, the three Hatchling Dragons immediately lowered their heads dejectedly, not daring to make another sound as they obediently began to clean the ground.

This was by no means a simple threat. With the explosive temperament of a Red Dragon, nothing was too outrageous for her to do.

Cleaning up the scattered scraps of meat was not easy, and they didn’t even know where to dispose of them.

However, Red Dragons naturally had their own unique methods.

Soon, they gathered some dry branches from near the cave and piled them on top of the scraps. Then, the three Hatchling Dragons raised their heads, took a moment to prepare, and opened their mouths to breathe forward.

Although the breath organs of Hatchling Dragons were not yet fully developed, they were more than sufficient for igniting wood.

One large and two small fire snakes, accompanied by wisps of rising black smoke, spewed from the mouths of the three Hatchling Dragons, igniting the pile of dry branches on the ground.

As the blazing flames rose, the remaining scraps and bloodstains on the ground were scorched black and carbonized under the high temperature, eventually mixing with the ashes and leaving no trace…

“Damn it! After that one breath, I feel even hungrier.”

“I really want to eat a whole wild boar! A whole one!”

Their innate fire element resistance meant that Sistana and Karp didn’t need to stay away from the fire. Instead, they lay directly next to the bonfire, letting the flickering tongues of flame lick their scales as they complained incessantly.

Thor ignored them and found a secluded corner to lie down alone. With his eyes closed, he appeared to be resting, but in reality, he was manipulating the giant roulette wheel in his mind.

Thanks to Sistana and Karp’s “selfless contributions” during this period, the balance after essence of mental power had finally grown to 1.52, enough to perform the simplest draw.

One point of mental power essence transformed into starlight and was cast into the giant wheel; the outermost ring immediately began to spin with a rumble, eventually coming to a steady stop on a simple diamond-shaped pattern.

Thor focused his attention, and more information appeared.

[Dragon vein crystal fragment. Extract? Yes/No.]

‘Is there even an option not to extract it immediately?’

Thor’s heart stirred. Considering the current environment wasn’t exactly safe, he chose “No.”

He began to recall information about dragon vein crystals in his mind.

This was a product of highly condensed leyline energy(1). In the world of Monster Hunter, it existed widely in the Elder’s Recess and was considered a somewhat precious ore.

Saying that it was precious wasn’t entirely accurate, though. In the Elder’s Recess, dragon crystals were piled up like mountains and could be seen everywhere, almost as common as rocks on the side of the road.

However, seeing the result of the draw, Thor still squinted his eyes happily.

The digestive and absorption systems of True Dragons allowed them to digest almost all common substances in this world. While flesh and blood were high-quality food for a Red Dragon, they were far from the best.

Only gems and metals saturated with magic could be considered the most ideal food for a True Dragon.

And energy-rich dragonvein crystals undoubtedly belonged to that category.

 

Note: 1- Leyline energy: pure bioenergy that has leaked from the earth’s natural underground currents, which are known as “Dragonveins