Chapter 13: Cloud Giants and the Golden Dragon

Muria walked towards the platform of the Crystal Castle. Along the way, numerous dragonkin maids greeted him, and Muria nodded in response to each, as all these maids had the appearance of young and beautiful girls.

When Muria ascended the platform of the Crystal Castle, he was greeted by cloud giant guards kneeling on one knee. These giants, whose skin was a mix of milky white and sky blue, had long sensed Muria's unique aura.

"Abert, haven't I told you? There's no need for this. Just greet me as the maids in the castle do," Muria said with a headache as he looked at the cloud giant guards kneeling. Their excessive respect made him uncomfortable.

Before his slumber, Muria didn't spend all his days reading. Occasionally, he would spend his daily three hours of activity time wandering around, so he was acquainted with some of the island's monster leaders.

Abert, one of the cloud giant leaders guarding the Crystal Castle platform, whose ancient face seemed carved by a knife, respectfully answered, "For someone of Titan lineage, this is necessary protocol."

"Can't you come up with a different reason?" Muria complained, holding his forehead. "It's always the same reason."

The cloud giant leader remained silent, and Muria sighed, gesturing for them to stand. "Get up, all of you!"

Then, the twelve-meter-tall cloud giants stood up, and the fifteen-meter-tall cloud giant leader Abert looked at Muria with astonishment in his eyes. "Prince Muria, you've grown stronger again."

"Of course, I've been asleep for a year. There ought to be some change," Muria humbly accepted the praise, which was a statement of fact.

Then, Muria hesitated as he looked at the wide golden dragon wings on his back. Behind him, a slender tail swung restlessly. He looked at Abert, "After this slumber, I feel the power in my dragon wings has strengthened. I should be able to support my body weight. I want to try flying."

"Flying?" Abert nodded, understandingly. He didn't say anything more but turned to command the cloud giants behind him, "Did you hear that? Prince Muria wants to learn how to fly. Call down your griffon partners to protect Prince Muria."

Then, the cloud giant leader hesitated for a moment before taking the horn from his waist and blowing the horn made from the horn of some large beast.

"Woo..." The long horn sound echoed in the skies above the Crystal Castle, responded to by a slightly sharp roar.

Muria looked up at the sky above the castle. A huge dragon-like creature, with its wings pulled into a dart shape, was diving rapidly towards Muria's position.

"Boom!" The massive sound of a heavy object landing was heard. This was a twenty-meter-long bipedal dragon, covered in gold. Compared to true dragons, it lacked a pair of front limbs, had a bald head without dragon horns, but was still majestic.

"Lord Muria," the giant dragon-like creature bowed respectfully to Muria, supporting its body with its wings and leaning its weight forward.

"Leader Bart, no need to be so formal. Stand up," Muria said to the bipedal dragon leader, almost pressing its head to the ground.

"It is necessary. You are the offspring of the great Atlis," the bipedal dragon leader Bart answered. Its status was somewhat special because it was a follower of the Golden Dragon Mother, strengthened by the Golden Dragon Mother's power. Otherwise, ordinary bipedal dragons wouldn't have its majestic shape and size.

The dragon leader Bart stood upright on its hind legs, its golden vertical pupils glancing at the cloud giant leader Abert. "You called me down not just to meet Lord Muria. What else is there?"

"Humph!" Abert saw Bart's attitude and clenched the staff in his hand, snorting coldly, "I called you down because Lord Muria wants to practice flying. Just watch from the side."

"Gaga, I understand." The golden dragon laughed proudly, "But why did you summon all these cute little ones down?"

"Shush, shush, shush..." Unbeknownst to them, over three hundred griffons were hovering at low altitude around the platform where Muria was. His surroundings were filled with these majestic creatures, the sound of their flapping wings in the air.

"They look quite good," Muria observed the cloud giants' tamed magical beasts. "It's a pity they're too small."

These creatures, with the body of a lion and the head, beak, and wings of an eagle, had wings and hair like sunlight. Their eagle-like heads and wings were covered in golden feathers, while their lion-like bodies had yellow-brown fur.

Unfortunately, their body length was mostly around three meters, with a wingspan of only seven to eight meters. For ordinary people, such size was already rideable, but for Muria, who was now eight meters tall, these creatures were too diminutive. Aside from admiration, they seemed to have no other use.

Hearing the flying dragon leader's mockingly phrased question, the cloud giant leader Abert clenched his staff even tighter. He really wanted to smash this golden-skinned dragon beast with his staff, but he couldn't because he was no match for this dragon that had received a blessing from Lord Atlis.

"So, Abert, do you intend to have these diminutive cuties help Lord Muria practice flying?" Dragon leader Bart laughed heartily, "You really have some ideas."

"Enough, Leader Bart," Muria, seeing the cloud giant leader's face turn red with anger, shouted. If he didn't intervene, he feared Abert would lead the surrounding giants, who looked unfriendly, to attack Bart.

"Abert, we, the Golden Dragons, will take care of teaching Lord Muria to fly," the dragon leader immediately shifted his stance, no longer mocking the giant leader. "You cloud giants need not interfere. Flying isn't your field of expertise."

"Lord Muria," the dragon leader Bart turned to ask Muria, "How long do you wish to learn to fly?"

"The sooner, the better," Muria answered without hesitation.

"Good, climb onto my back. I'll take you to the skies."

Muria hesitated for a moment, then bit the bullet and climbed onto the back of the dragon. Whether in his previous life or this one, he had always yearned to fly, not to mention that in this life, he was born with a pair of dragon wings.

The golden dragon carrying Muria grimaced. It felt the pressure from Muria's weight but had just boasted in front of the cloud giants, so now, even if it had to burst its liver, it had to take off.

"Hold tight, Lord Muria." The golden dragon spread its wings, ran a few steps on its hind legs, clenched its teeth, and soared into the air, carrying the "child" on its back.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" The roaring wind passed by his ears. Muria, who had become braver after his rebirth, looked down. Everything beneath his feet became increasingly smaller as the dragon flew higher—the cloud giants, the Crystal Castle, and then the

 island where the castle was located.

To Muria, the only thing that didn't seem smaller was the Titan Archipelago in his eyes. He realized the archipelago was larger than he had imagined. One after another, large islands appeared in his vision, growing larger as his line of sight extended, until...

"This must be land!" The large island where the Crystal Castle was located now seemed no bigger than a palm in his eyes, while at the edge of his vision lay a vast landmass. As for the edges of the Titan Archipelago, sorry, he could only see the side where he was; the rest was out of sight.

"Lord Muria, that's not land. That's the Eternal Island of the Elves," dragon leader Bart explained, following Muria's line of sight.

"Elves?" Muria was curious. "Isn't this the territory of the Titans? How come there are elves here, and they even have such a large landmass?"

"Hehe, it's said to be a group of high elves seeking refuge with the Titans. Then the Titans allotted that island for the elves to live on and provided protection," the dragon leader laughed. "Moreover, I've heard that these prideful long-ears have never admitted to being under the Titans' protection, claiming to be allies with the Titans."

"These elves must be quite special, after all, the Titans don't accept the allegiance of any race," Muria didn't join in Bart's gossip but thoughtfully said.

"I don't know about that. I haven't been here long with Lord Atlis, so I don't know much."

"Hmm."

"Lord Muria, don't just look down. Look up at the sky as well."

Muria looked up to see the sky shimmering with golden scales, as numerous golden dragons wove through the clouds. The brilliant sunlight reflected off the followers of the Golden Dragon Mother, dazzling to behold.

"How is it, Lord Muria?" Bart asked proudly.

"Very nice."

"Roar!" The dragon leader roared, "Children, come and pay your respects to Lord Muria."

"Roar!" "Roar!" "Roar!"... Excited roars echoed one after another, as numerous eighteen-meter-long golden dragons flew towards Muria.

Muria, riding on the back of the dragon leader, watched nearly a hundred golden dragons circle around him, filled with excitement and a sense of pride.

"Kids, our task today is to help Lord Muria learn to fly," the dragon leader shouted at the many dragons, then received a series of excited roars in response.

"Lord Muria, are you ready?"

"What?" In Muria's slightly bewildered mood, the dragon leader turned its body, and suddenly, Muria began to fall freely.

"Damn!" Muria managed to curse out this one word before, driven by fear, he spread his wings...

DND's cloud giants, adult males are about 18 feet tall, which is about six meters. If we use feet as the unit, that's even sadder, only five-point-four meters.

In the current popularity of "Attack on Titan," who can accept giants of five to six meters? Well, I can't, so I simply doubled the height of the cloud giants and added another three meters to the giant leaders.