Chapter 4

 Crimson dragons; one of the creatures located on top of the food chain in the world of Floren.

Earthlings, however, are the beings who are located on the very top of the food chain in the real world, the world which the Mages of the Seashore reside in.

Not one of the creatures at the top, but the only being on the very top.

Throughout millions of years, the upright walking apes were always the most atrocious carnivore ever existed.

The amount of living beings massacred by them even outnumbered the total amount of living beings killed by all other carnivoresby a large margin.

"By combining the two, what would you get?"

Claudius once thought about this question, yet he couldn't reach a conclusion on what he actually was.

However, he was a 100% carnivore when it came to hunting pathetic prey.

Cannibalism was a concept abandoned by Earthlings merely centuries ago, and Claudius didn't seem to be bothered by consuming humanoid animals.

It was worth noting that Claudius had not yet met a humanoid creature after he had become a dragon, though.

With the size of a stallion, Claudius was probably one of the largest carnivores back on Earth, but here in Floren, things were different. Creatures with the size of a stallion were not even worth mentioning in Floren.

"These fellows are all larger than bulls, not to mention stronger in strength as well.

I totally don't want to mess with them," Claudius muttered while peeking at the nearby mountain where the bears live in.

Claudius was confident that he could handle a single wolf, probably a wolf pack as well.

The scales on his body were an indestructible shield to most wolves living in the forests, but there were also magical beasts, such as wolves enhanced by magic.

As the scales Claudius had were bright and shiny, he ended up being a good boy and chose laid low.

He originally wanted to hide and sneak on his prey, but his dream shattered the moment he realized how eye catching his scales were.

Apart from hiding in lava, it was impossible for his prey to not notice his presence. Let's be realistic, why would there be lava-drinking creatures?

Even if there were, Claudius wouldn't stand a chance at all. In fact, he himself would probably be the one killed.

 As a result, Claudius ended up as a pathetic fisherman who only went to the sea to catch fish at night.

He was scared and didn't dare to step out of his lair during daytime, and even came to the conclusion that sleeping while concealing his intimidating dragon aura.

Luckily, dragon whelps have really weak aura, and it was relatively easier to conceal.

Claudius also went to visit his sister Britannia, only to find out that the young dragoness has become a worm eater.

The volcanic ash contained large amounts of organic substances, and there lived a bunch of excessively reproducing worms.

These worms feed on volcanic ash, and were around 1 to 2 meters long.

Although the worms would sometimes spit corrosive sulphur liquids, but the attacks were ineffective against crimson dragons.

Being able to hunt such delicious prey without much effort, Britannia lived an easy life and had grown up quite a bit.

With Claudius suddenly visiting her base, Britannia tensed up quite a bit, fearing that her brother was here to occupy the place.

The most important thing, though, was the piece of gold which appeared out of nowhere.

Occasionally, gold would condense within the lava, and the young dragoness happened to find one, treating the gold ingot as her most valuable treasure.

Claudius snorted at her sister's foolish actions. He was no ordinary dragon.

Through combining the soul of a human into a dragon, the greedy nature of dragons has vanished into thin air.

Claudius was probably the only dragon in Floren which had no interest in valuables or treasure.

"What is the point of being rich if you lose your life?" Claudius retorted in his mind.

Catching fish wasn't too difficult for crimson dragons as they could swim in shallow waters, despite being somewhat clumsy.

Although he was not a dark dragon which dwelled in swamps and mud, he still managed to satisfy his appetite through catching fish fairly easily.

The only problem for him though, was the hydrophobic nature of crimson dragons.

There were plenty of different monsters living in the ocean, but there were also intelligent beings such as sharkmen.

Although Claudius was cautious when hunting in the sea, it was inevitable that the strong creatures in the ocean would discover his location.

For now, a sharkmen tribe had found out the existence of Claudius, and could tell that the dragon whelp had quite the appetite as it came regularly to hunt every night.

The sharkmen tribe of this location were rather poor as cargo ships seldom passed through the region, but now they had hit the jackpot: a tasty crimson dragon whelp.

Of course, the sharkmen tribe had to report this event to Anbo, the irrational and evil goddess which they believed in.

In the open space within an undersea cavern, the Cardinal of the sharkmen tribe repeatedly called out to the goddess, eagerly awaiting her response.

The seawater which had evacuated from the half empty undersea cavern suddenly gushed out from the endless void, polluting the chamber of water into pure darkness.

At this moment, a strong will descended into the mind of the Cardinal. Without wasting a single second, the Cardinal reported the incident while trembling out of both fear and gladness.

"RESTRAIN IT!"

It was the only order given by the goddess.

 Nonetheless, catching a crimson dragon was still not something the sharkmen could easily achieve, even though their target was a dragon whelp.

In order to capture Claudius alive and offer it as offerings to the goddess, the Cardinal assembled a whole squad of sharkmen hunters, silently waiting for Claudius to get baited.

With two sharkmen mages, four sharkmen warriors, and even the Cardinal himself, surely Claudius had no chance of winning.

 Yet Claudius did not come as planned. This fellow had been devouring everything he could for the past few months, almost killing off all the fish within the region.

The most devastating fact was that he was not a picky eater.

Be it crabs, clams, shrimps or even seaweed, the crimson dragon whelp could eat them all, as if he had no dignity as a crimson dragon at all.

Perhaps he might have saved up enough nutrients and was now experiencing a growth while sleeping.

 "This is the true pleasure of being a crimson dragon. Who would have thought that you could gain experience through eating? It really feels like playing a game, gaining experience for whatever you do,"

Claudius said while looking at the full experience barwhich only he could see.

This was actually an unintentional discovery for Claudius as he once felt bored while hunting and opened up the attribute screen, and there he saw his experience bar being filled up just a little, with 3/100 points. 

Afterwards, he stopped hunting for a few days to find what action allowed him to gain experience.

When he could no longer stand the hunger, Claudius went back and caught a small whale to satisfy his grumbling stomach, only to realize that hunting and eating actually gives him experience points...

 The experience bar was full, yet the option to level up was not available, but Claudius felt extremely tired, which was similar to the time he first broke out of his egg.

For safety reasons, he dug another hole within the cave and hid inside, only poking his snout out of a little hole before sleeping.

 Claudius sleeping was not a big issue, but triggering the anger of the Cardinal of the sharkmen tribe was the real deal.

Sharkmen could not stay on land for an extended period of time, yet Claudius' cave was over 10 kilometers away from the sea.

As Claudius could fly, it only took him one hour to reach the ocean, but the sharkmen could not possibly walk such a long distance to capture him, despite its location being predicted by the Cardinal using divine skills.

To the Cardinal, dragon whelps were only pathetic beings that could use neither divine skills nor magic.

Without the protection of their parents, dragon whelps could rarely live until they were fully grown.

For dragon whelp orphans who lacked protection by their parents, such as Claudius and Britannia, over 90% of them died before reaching the adolescent stage.

 The Cardinal was extremely troubled by Claudius' actions.

As Anbo was an irrational goddess, it was hard to tell if she would grant them the ability to travel on land or instead annihilate the whole squad along with the Cardinal himself.

Given that Anbo was also an impatient goddess, the Cardinal had no choice but to report to her that he lacked power to fulfil her order while cowering in fear...