Chapter 23: The Challenge of the Hatchling Dragons

The sudden news, like a bucket of ice water poured over him, brought Muria back to his senses. After a moment of silence, he looked down at the girl at his feet.

"Mia, you're as attentive as ever to the six hatchling dragons. If they wake up, let me know."

"Of course, Master Muria," Mia replied respectfully. Then, lifting her gaze to Muria with her large eyes fluttering, she asked, "So, will you sleep in my room tonight?"

"Mia, aren't you taking your role as a personal maid a bit too seriously?" Muria looked down at the maid, whose scent he found quite pleasant, a maid who had made a strong impression on him.

Since the day Mia slept beside him, Muria had taken the opportunity to speak with the head maid, Sophia, requesting Mia, the maid as bold as she was in other respects, to be his personal maid, responsible for his daily needs.

Sophia, the head maid, readily agreed to his request. She had plenty of duties every day, and having someone share the workload was a relief.

As for the concern of diluting her authority, it was unnecessary. Sophia's authority came from the Gold Dragon Mother, Atreus, not Muria. If Atreus decided to find a personal maid other than Sophia, that would be the time for her to worry about losing her authority.

"Cough, I'm merely fulfilling the duties of a personal maid. A personal maid must be close at hand, after all!" Mia argued.

"Is that how you interpret the role of a personal maid?" Muria looked at Mia incredulously. "Sophia would kill you if she knew!"

"Hehe! As long as you don't tell, the head maid will never know," Mia said with a grin, pressing Muria again, "So, will you come to my room tonight?"

Faced with the maid's repeated inquiry, Muria raised an eyebrow and countered, "When have I not slept in your room after returning to the castle?"

...Over the next year and more, Muria frequented the training arena even more, gradually reducing the time he spent in the library studying spell models. This was because dragons are inherently immune to many lower-tier spells. Even hatchling dragons, if not entirely immune, can resist most of the damage from spells.

Therefore, against dragons, physical attacks are often more effective than magical ones, provided, of course, that you can face them without being swatted dead with a single claw. Otherwise, running away might be the wiser choice.

This was not a problem for Muria, whose veins coursed with Titan blood and ancestral Golden Dragon blood, both known to be among the strongest in the world, far surpassing that of Red Dragons.

Facing any single hatchling dragon, Muria was confident he could overpower them. However, he was not facing one but six dragons, a number that even made Muria somewhat apprehensive.

Under such pressure, Muria's visits to the training arena became more frequent. Eventually, he practically moved in, taking care of all his needs there.

In the arena, Muria demanded that all Cloud Giant guards he sparred with use their full strength, with no holding back.

As for the other Cloud Giant commanders, Mountain Giants, Tide Giants, and even Storm Giants, Muria didn't arrogantly demand they exert their full effort.

After all, they were battle-hardened giants of at least Gold III rank or higher. Even with Muria's bloodline advantages, being overwhelmingly defeated was the only outcome. He was still too young.

On Muria's thirteenth birthday, as he exchanged blows with a Storm Giant using a greatsword, he noticed Mia, his personal maid, entering the training arena.

Muria, wielding a sword over one meter wide and more than ten meters long, forced the Storm Giant back with a single strike. He then signaled a halt to the battle and looked down at Mia, who had approached him.

"Master Muria, the hatchling dragons are about to awaken. I can feel the six dragon veins gradually stirring," Mia reported.

"Is that so?" Muria nodded, his face showing no concern but rather brimming with confidence. "I've been getting a bit impatient."

For nearly five years, driven by a sense of crisis, Muria had been training almost ceaselessly, day and night. His ideal life of leisure, filled with eating, sleeping, and playing, lasted only a few months.

Everything he did was to prepare for the trial prepared by the legendary Gold Dragon Mother, Atreus. Whether Atreus had done this specifically for him or merely incidentally, Muria wasn't sure.

But Muria felt it was more likely intentional, given Atreus's status as a legendary mage. At such a level, her intelligence was extraordinary, surpassing even some deities in this aspect.

A being of such caliber always acts with deep purpose, never aimlessly. They wouldn't engage in futile acts.

Muria planted the large sword into the granite floor. It was borrowed from a Storm Giant and naturally couldn't be taken with him.

Most giants were quite poor, their immense size making it difficult to find suitable metal weapons. They mostly used stones or wooden clubs for combat, a stark contrast to the more affluent Cloud Giants and Storm Giants who possessed metal weapons. Tide Giants, slightly better off, sometimes used ship anchors found at the bottom of the sea as weapons.

Knowing this, Muria couldn't bring himself to covet the giants' arms.

After many days, Muria returned to his room with Mia. Although he hadn't slept there in five years, it was still his place.

Upon entering the room, Muria felt the air thick with scorching heat, unbearable for ordinary people who would quickly dehydrate and faint within minutes.

Muria immediately spotted the culprits behind the abnormal room temperature: six emaciated red dragon hatchlings, stretching eight meters from head to tail, acting like furnaces and constantly emitting astonishing heat.

In over a year of slumber, the hatchlings' strength had grown to Silver I rank, depleting nearly all their stored energy.

Their muscles were shriveled, and their crimson scales clung tightly to their skeletons. Muria could see every bone in their bodies, but even so, they radiated the fearsome dignity of dragons. No one would underestimate a dragon in such a state.

Muria walked into the room and sat in front of the six hatchlings. He could see the eyelids of a few dragons trembling; they were indeed about to awaken.

Hungry, so hungry, I'm starving, thought Cynthia as her consciousness gradually surfaced from sleep, compelled by an intense hunger to open her eyes.

Upon awakening, Cynthia immediately recognized Muria, the child-sized giant with horns on his forehead and wings on his back, as the scoundrel who, taking advantage of his age, had bullied them with a thunderous assault right after their birth. This ordeal had left her in agony, forcing her and her siblings not to step out of the room for years.

"Roar!" The little dragon growled, the strength gained during her slumber urging her to challenge Muria, wanting to repay the pain he had inflicted on her.

But Muria's four-meter-tall sitting figure greatly intimidated Cynthia. Excluding her tail, she was only about four meters long.

Coupled

 with the overwhelming hunger, Cynthia's first words upon awakening were, "Give me food, Muria."

Her request in Draconic sounded almost pleading.

Almost simultaneously, outside the room, the head maid, Sophia, appeared with a team of dragon maids, carrying platter after platter of sliced raw red fish meat, food prepared for the starving hatchlings.

Muria watched silently as Sophia directed the dragon maids to place the fish slices in front of the awakening hatchlings, further confirming his suspicion that the Gold Dragon Mother had intentionally left him to raise these malevolent dragons.

Seeing the tender red fish meat in front of her, Cynthia hesitated not a moment before grabbing a large piece with her claw and stuffing it into her mouth. The challenge against Muria could wait until after she had her fill.

The sound of Cynthia eating, along with the scent of the raw fish, greatly stimulated the other hatchlings, leading them to awaken one after another.

Under the instinctual drive of their bodies, these young dragons, even in the presence of their "enemy" Muria, made the same choice: they lowered their heads to eat.

Dragons are apex predators, and their stomachs are extremely efficient furnaces. Muria witnessed this firsthand as the hatchlings ingested fish meat that was almost instantly broken down and absorbed as nutrients, fueling their starved bodies.

The most apparent external change was Muria watching the six feeding hatchlings, their previously emaciated bodies gradually filling out with muscle, stretching the scales that had clung to their skeletons.

Muria witnessed a miracle; in just an hour, six dragons that had been skin and bones turned into robust, majestic, and fearsome young dragons after a hearty meal.

"Muria." The recently fed hatchling, Auston, couldn't wait to step forward, calling out Muria's name.

"What is it?" Muria stood, his ten-meter-tall figure casting an imposing shadow over the six dragons.

"We," Auston hesitated under Muria's towering form, but the power surge from their slumber gave him immense confidence. After a glance at the other five dragons, his courage bolstered, "We six dragons want to challenge you together! Do you dare accept?"