The Crimson Dragon

Translated by: SaltyTank

Edited by: crimsonwolf8439

First chapter of the day. Salty is busy, but we have stockpile, so all g.

Chapter 40

 Claudius was probably the only one starving among other Crimson Dragons of his age; he finally realized the surrounding seas could not support his appet.i.te.

 "This freaking island…… Even the closest areas are deep sea zones! Gosh, all the fish are small as h.e.l.l too! Am I supposed to eat oysters all the time?!"

 Although Claudius was complaining, he had no intention of leaving as he had just finished constructing his lair. Rarely did dragons die of hunger either, so he thought it would be fine one way or another……

 There was larger prey available within a hundred-kilometre radius, ranging from whales and sharks to huge colossal squids and weird looking sea monsters, but things were not that simple. Carrying the large corpse all the way back would be tiring and troublesome, not to mention how difficult it was to battle and kill these creatures in the sea. For lazy creatures like dragons, this was too much work just to satisfy their bellies. There was a better solution when there was insufficient food — sleeping. Dragons were magical creatures in the first place, thus experiencing growth after a period of deep sleep without eating or drinking was rather normal for them. However, Claudius quite enjoyed his current lifestyle and did not want to fall into slumber for who knows how long. It was troublesome to travel so far all the time, but it could be done. To solve the problem of transporting the corpses, Claudius decided to eat as much as he could in the sea before returning with a stomach full of meat.

 Such a leisurely life gave Claudius tonnes of free time. Judging from the texture and thickness of the topsoil, it seemed that the thin layer of soil was formed by the wind-eroded rocks mixing with humus. The barren area had nothing but black rocks; not even a speck of soil was present. It was impossible for Claudius to make ceramic plates with such rocks, and all he could do was make carvings on the walls of his lair. It did not matter much though, as he was too tired and lazy to do so; at least not until he felt too bored……

 Apart from wandering around and chilling on the island, Claudius would only leave and hunt for a whale once every few days or so. The reason for not hunting everyday was that the risk was huge; his injuries had not fully recovered yet, and he would rather avoiding showing up all the time and end up fighting again. The fact that this was a dangerous world was now made clear to Claudius. He understood that simply by living on this continent, someone might hunt him down just for the single reason of him being a Crimson Dragon. Another reason was that catching a whale or sea monster of considerable size was not a simple task. Claudius" body structure and size granted him superiority in air and on land, but fighting underwater was a different matter. It was inconvenient for him to move in the sea, and without his mobility, he lacked confidence to kill the ma.s.sive sea creatures safely.

 Given the circ.u.mstances, Claudius could only follow the group of whales while flying in the sky and strike when the whales surfaced. With his momentum, Claudius would try to smash the skull or spine of a whale before proceeding to enjoy his meal. It had to be finished quickly though, as the blood would attract extremely powerful monsters from the deep sea zone and Claudius did not want to fight them by all means. The whole hunt would be wasted if he could not stuff as much meat as he could into his stomach before the monsters came.

 Even with his intelligence and battle prowess, it was still quite difficult for Claudius to successfully kill a whale with one go all the time. Once he screwed up the timing and missed his initial strike, the whales would submerge for a while before reappearing, forcing the dragon to follow them for a long while. It wasted a lot of time and it was not fun at all, thus he would entertain himself by singing on his way back and in his lair.

 "Speak softly, love and hold me warm against you heart. I feel your words, the tender trembling moments start……" Claudius sung the opening theme of G.o.dfather while recalling the scenes of the movie in his head to pa.s.s time. He also had idle thoughts such as how his Udaeus would look like after they were fully grown.

 After the teeth were buried for a month, the Udaeus finally climbed out of the ground. As the ground rumbled and shook, Claudius jumped aside immediately while paying close attention on the situation. Rocks broke off and collapsed, rolling down the slope while an arm armoured in bronze gauntlets poked out and pushed the ground, sending the upper body out of the rocky floor.

 "Heh, not bad, not bad."

 A humanoid clad in armour stood in front of Claudius, with the helmet covering its face, only showing the pair of glowing red eyes. Similar to the Udaeus he fought a while ago, the exposed body parts were pale white, but the tattoos were flame red stripes instead. The surroundings became hot and steamy as the Udaeus" upper torso protruded out of the rocky ground.

 The Udaeus soon pulled itself out of the hole, and it was fully clad in Roman-style armour. They were born with a ma.s.sive rectangular shield, which from the look and weight of it, seemed to be fully made out of metal.

 Claudius thought, "Quite strong, aren"t they?"

 Their weapons were arm-length broadswords and spears which were as tall as one and a half human adult. It was a similar case with the shield; the weapons were almost made solely out of metal. Although Claudius did not know too much about weapons and metals, he could tell that the equipment were all made with high quality metals and had exceptional craftsmanship. Crimson Dragons had the innate talent of appraisal, allowing Claudius to have a rough grasp on the value of the equipment. The weapons would each sell for at least a thousand gold coins — they were enhanced magic weapons which were blessed by condensed fire elements.

 Claudius planted three of his teeth, thus according to common sense only three Udaeus should appear, but the Mages of the Seash.o.r.e apparently interfered with things here — not three, but three Udaeus companies popped out of the ground. There were around 240 infantry fully armed in Roman-styled equipment, and their looks certainly coincided with his true name, Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. The two-metre-tall soldiers stood in tight and tidy formations in the shape of an inverted pyramid while awaiting Claudius" orders.

 Claudius was troubled as to how to handle the soldiers, "Holy s.h.i.t! What should I do with the army? There"s nothing but rocks here, how am I supposed to feed them?"

 Now this was worrying situation. To keep the army alive, Claudius had to somehow s.n.a.t.c.h a few boats and let the Udaeus travel to nearby islands which were more suitable for living — there was nothing he could do apart from planting more Udaeus on the rocky island.