Chapter 222: Dragon Life Experience

The eerie valley.

With the dragon’s departure, silence settled over the place.

“Will the Lord be alright?”

McKen felt uneasy—climbing onto the dragon’s back was an act of extreme peril.

Though knights could briefly take flight in their later years, that was only possible at the Silver Moon rank. Ronin had not yet reached such power.

A fall from such a height would be catastrophic.

Riedal frowned, his heart heavy with worry.

“The Lord’s move is reckless, but he must have a plan. All we can do is trust him.”

Elron murmured softly, “May the God of Light guard the Lord!”

As they spoke, Clami and the others, who had been hiding in the cave, crept out trembling.

The flames from the dragon’s breath had died, but the air still reeked of charred flesh and scorched earth.

“We actually survived!”

Jenny turned to her husband, Horn gripping her hand tightly; both their eyes shimmered with the joy of escape.

The rest shared the same sentiment.

Carlo’s grotesque head had left a deep shadow in their minds—they would surely dream of it for weeks to come.

“Commander, where is Lord Ronin?”

Tom scanned the group. Only Riedal, McKen, Elron, and Joffrey stood outside. Ronin was nowhere to be seen.

Others noticed too, their gazes turning anxiously to Riedal.

Surely the Lord hadn’t met with disaster?

“The Lord intends to conquer the dragon. He mounted its back and flew north.”

The group froze in stunned silence.

To them, merely standing before the dragon required immense courage—let alone climbing onto its back.

Their Lord had not only done so—he sought to tame it?

They looked up at the sky. How could their Lord dare such a thing?

“McKen, Elron—you stay here and lead the group. Until I return with the Lord, you must monitor this cave. But under no circumstances enter it.”

No one knew if more enemies lurked within. For safety’s sake, they would wait for Ronin’s return before acting further.

“I’m going north. Maybe I can find the Lord’s trail.”

The dragon flew too swiftly—vanishing into the heavens moments after takeoff. Yet faint, distant roars seemed to echo from the north.

Though they worried for their Lord, they could do nothing but remain here, guarding the cave’s mouth, silently praying for his safe return.

…

Ronin sat on the northern beach, listening as Carlo recounted its tale.

If one word could describe its life, it was—suffering.

Since hatching, Carlo had been imprisoned within the cave—two hundred and eighty years now.

For all those years, Natalia had channeled some dark energy through a black altar into its body, attempting to warp its flesh.

Honestly, Ronin was stunned by its age.

He’d assumed the dragon was merely decades old. He had no idea it had lived over two centuries.

Even more unbelievable were Natalia and her kind.

According to Carlo, these people had imprisoned it since birth.

Meaning Natalia, Nebular, and the others were older than the dragon?

Yet even Star-tier beings rarely lived past one hundred and thirty. Natalia was merely a Silver-rank—how could she live two hundred years?

But when pressed, Carlo could not answer.

As a prisoner, he had no access to such knowledge.

Carlo only knew that for decades, Natalia and her followers had performed the same rituals daily.

Each morning, they ritually tormented him. Each night, they patrolled outside. Two hundred years, unchanging.

The only variation: Natalia’s mating partners changed—today Nebular, tomorrow Uthan, the next day another knight.

As for the master mentioned by the female knight—Aeliot—Carlo had never seen him. Not once.

After their exchange, Ronin told Carlo to rest, then sat in silence, thinking.

Two hundred years ago, the Orland Empire had already collapsed. The continent had plunged into decades of chaos.

It was then that the Auduin and Tricia families—blood relatives of the imperial house—grew powerful, eventually becoming the northern and southern kingdoms.

No one knew what had transpired during those centuries of turmoil.

Even the chronicles of Mount U were sparse, recording only grand deeds—never the hidden happenings in the northern reaches of the Ubei territory.

Ronin suspected that this strange cave, Carlo, even Natalia and her kind—were relics left behind by some powerful figure from that age.

But perhaps the figure had forgotten this place… or perished?

He could not fathom it. He set the thought aside, turning his focus to the matter before him.

“Carlo, I offer you a gift as reward for your submission.”

Perhaps the contract scroll from his landing reward differed from Rulans’s—Ronin could now summon Carlo’s status panel, as he had with McKen and the others:

[Frostfire Wings · Carlo]: Level 5 (7349/7500)+

Frostfire Wings was Carlo’s title—said to have existed since memory began.

Ronin cared more for its level and progression.

For humans, Level 5 meant Silver Knight or Chief Mage. To reach Level 6, they needed only 1,500 or 2,000 Essence Cores.

But Carlo—the dragon—needed 7,500!

No wonder, after all those centuries, it remained at Level 5.

Still, it made sense.

A dragon like Carlo was still a juvenile at three hundred years old, typically between Levels 4 and 6.

To have reached this level despite imprisonment and torture was remarkable.

Had Carlo’s progress been slow, Ronin might have hesitated to invest. But the bar was nearly full—he was willing to help.

As Ronin poured Essence Cores into him, the panel shifted:

[Frostfire Wings · Carlo]: Level 6 (0/12500)+

The number made Ronin’s heart leap.

Good heavens—to raise this dragon from Level 6 to 7 required over ten thousand Essence Cores!

This is outright robbery!

Looking at the remaining 1,449 Essence Cores in his hand, Luo Ning felt a sudden wave of exhaustion.

On the other side, Karlos stared wide-eyed, utterly stunned.

He had been wondering—this master’s hands were empty; what kind of gift could he possibly be preparing?

The next instant, a wondrous force descended upon him, bringing a sensation as refreshing as rain after a long drought, prompting an involuntary, blissful dragon’s roar.

“Did I… just level up??”

The edges of Karlos’s scales had turned crimson, no longer merely icy blue.

Beneath the old scales, new ones were already sprouting.

When the new scales fully emerged, the gaps between them would shrink dramatically—making it nearly impossible to thrust a weapon through those narrow fissures.

*Plop.*

One old scale fell to the ground. Then a second. Then a third…

Karlos shuddered, and hundreds of scales tumbled down like autumn leaves.

“What is this?”

“When my strength increases, aged scales naturally shed, and new ones grow in their place.”

Karlos’s voice grew reverent. “Thank you, Master, for this gift!”

From Level Five to Level Six—it seemed like merely a hundred-odd points of progress. But left to his own devices, it would have taken him decades, even centuries.

And now—he had broken through in the span of a breath!

Karlos was stunned, elated. Indeed, this master was infinitely superior to Natalya.

Comparing them, warmth swelled in his heart, and the earlier conflicts, the unpleasantness—all of it faded away.

Though a dragon, he had been isolated for so long that he still retained a childlike heart.

“These are priceless!”

Luo Ning’s eyes lit up. He hurried over and picked up a scale, examining it closely.

No larger than a palm, the icy-blue scale was tougher than steel, and possessed a certain resistance to magic.

“Dragon-scale armor…”

If these scales were crafted into armor, their defensive power and value would be extraordinary!

“Karlos, are these scales still useful to you?”

Luo Ning asked. “I’d like to forge them into a suit of armor.”

“Use them freely, Master!”

To Karlos, shed scales held only sentimental value. But for the master who had elevated his strength, he offered them without hesitation.

“Shed scales hold no value to me.” (End of Chapter)