The tiny black flame in midair went out almost immediately, fleeting as a night-blooming flower, leaving only a faint smoky scent behind.
Gelu jumped at its sudden appearance and took one step backward. Not far away, the chubby cub covered his mouth with both claws and stared at him through blinking golden eyes, mischief filling them.
“Are you a fire-aligned magical beast?” Gelu finally reacted and became ecstatic. Fire affinity was wonderful. It meant powerful attacks, while the chubby cub’s scale-covered body surely gave him excellent defense. A perfect combination of strengths!
“Good cub, breathe another flame for me.” Gelu smiled eagerly.
Long Ming opened his mouth and held his breath with all his strength for a long time.
Nothing came out.
Maybe fire-breathing was another skill that depended on luck, Long Ming thought.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You’re still little. Once you grow up, you’ll be able to breathe fire.” Seeing the little tail drag motionless across the floor, Gelu hurried to comfort him. “Our good cub is very powerful. Don’t be discouraged.”
Long Ming blinked.
He was not discouraged at all. Gelu simply loved imagining things.
“We’ll go dig fire crystals for you together later.” Gelu’s eyes nearly disappeared into smiling slits. If the cub had fire affinity, then the fire-element-rich Hell Volcano right next door—with all its fire crystals—could not have been more suitable as his food supply.
Long Ming obediently nodded. “Awoo~.”
Aoduoduo watched from nearby, his eyes lowering slightly.
Black flame.
That was extremely rare. Even he had never seen it before. He wondered how the black flame of a Chaos Dragon differed from the flames of other dragons.
Gelu happily hummed a goblin song. He bent down, took something from his cloth sack, and waved it in front of the little creature.
Long Ming’s eyes lit up in surprise. He stared at the pale-yellow honeycomb and smelled a sweetness he had not encountered in a long time.
Honey!
Gelu placed a small piece of honeycomb into the chubby cub’s personal bowl and gently broke it open, exposing syrup like flowing gold. Honey began to spill out.
“This is tree-bee honey. It’s sweet. Eat.” Gelu handed the bowl to the little cub and watched him happily lower his head to eat. Even his tail wagged much faster than usual. Gelu felt both delighted and strangely wistful.
“Delicious.” Long Ming looked up and immediately met Gelu’s affectionate gaze. The wrinkles at the corners of Gelu’s eyes had deepened with his smile as he watched Long Ming warmly.
“Finish it all. No being picky.” Gelu pointed at the honey remaining at the bottom of the bowl and reminded him, “Picky eaters don’t grow tall.”
Long Ming beckoned one claw, asking Gelu to come closer.
“What is it, good cub?” Gelu crouched. His hair was as tangled as ever, his clothes dirty all over, and a huge cloth sack was still tied around his waist.
Long Ming stood on tiptoe and affectionately rubbed his face against Gelu’s neck. “Thank you, Gelu.”
Gelu had not expected the little creature to do anything like that. Once he recovered, he coughed several times and gently pushed the milk-scented little fatty away. For no reason at all, he tugged awkwardly at his clothes, flustered. “Ahem. If you want to thank me, then thank me. Why get so close? Now you’ve rubbed honey all over my clothes.”
Long Ming stared at the slightly reddened tips of Gelu’s dusty gray ears and softly went, “Awoo~.”
“Just—just eat.” Gelu turned away and began preparing dinner for himself and the mermaid.
Aoduoduo watched the awkward goblin for a moment, then looked elsewhere.
After dinner, Gelu took a hammer and cloth sack and went with the chubby cub to dig fire crystals.
“Oreo, goodbye.”
Long Ming waved at the mermaid in the iron pot, then followed Gelu into the tunnel.
After several months, he had become very familiar with the route. He even had enough attention to practice roaring as he walked. At least, Long Ming believed they were roars. To Gelu walking ahead, every single sound was nothing more than a soft babyish awoo, and Gelu struggled not to laugh.
When they neared their destination, Gelu set the torch beside the entrance and planted it in the soil. He and the chubby cub entered the passage, then followed the slope down into a small pit.
The pit was the result of three months of work. The deeper they dug, the purer the energy contained in the fire crystals became.
Gelu and Long Ming each carried a hammer. Long Ming had no idea where Gelu kept finding these things. Sometimes his pile of junk seemed even more magical than a cartoon robot cat’s bottomless pocket.
“Twenty today should be enough.” Gelu looked at the pit, muttered to himself, then lowered his head and began digging.
Long Ming remained above for a while to admire the ravine before returning to sit among the red rocks.
“All right, let’s go.” Once Gelu had finished, he took the chubby cub’s claw and prepared to leave.
“How many did you dig?” Gelu looked down at him.
Long Ming opened his claws and answered in his soft voice, “Gelu, five.”
“Haha, not bad. Our good cub is amazing.” Gelu never missed a chance to praise the obedient little creature.
As they left, Long Ming glanced back once more. The volcanic ravine looked exactly as usual: silent and magnificent. Red light illuminated everything, while the cliff walls resembled glass vessels cracked by heat and freshly pulled from a furnace. Fractures covered every surface, giving them a strange kind of beauty.
After Long Ming and Gelu disappeared, a tiny glowing figure slowly flew out from the boiling magma.
It was a newly formed fire spirit. Its entire body glowed crimson, translucent scarlet wings trembling delicately behind it. Within moments, it mastered flight perfectly and began circling through the red ravine.
It was still very young. It was curious about the strange creature it had just seen, yet did not dare approach. It could only peek at them shyly from a distance.
Before long, the newborn fire spirit grew bored and began spinning in circles. Remembering the strange creature with brilliant golden eyes it had seen from beneath the magma, it fluttered its wings, then eventually dove back into the molten pool.
It was a shy little fire spirit.
………
Several more days passed in this way. Long Ming felt that his intimidation skill had improved considerably and began wanting to see the outside world.
Gelu looked helplessly at the chubby cub’s pleading eyes. No matter what he did, he could not bring himself to refuse.
What should he do? If they encountered an enemy, Gelu had a terrible feeling his cub’s “intimidation” would turn into an attempt at acting cute.
Aoduoduo, who had been quiet for several days, suddenly spoke. “I’ll go outside with you.”
“Your injuries are healed?” Gelu blurted out, staring suspiciously at Oreo.
“I can barely protect myself.” Aoduoduo chuckled.
Long Ming saw white light spread over Oreo’s body. When it faded, the mermaid tail had disappeared.
Oreo climbed out of the water barefoot, wearing a dripping black robe. He stepped onto the ground and smiled at the two stunned figures.
“Let’s go.”
Long Ming stared at Oreo’s completely natural walking posture and looked up at his tall, slender figure. He tugged Gelu’s clothes and hurried after him.
“Wait, good cub! You haven’t put on your bunny-ear hat.” Gelu hurriedly took the little creature’s hat from the wall and chased after them.
Aoduoduo opened the cave door, lifted the little dragon behind him, settled him into the crook of one arm, and walked outside.
White light filled Long Ming’s vision. His pupils contracted several times as icy air entered his lungs.
A vast, boundless snowscape spread before him. Because he was being held high, Long Ming could quickly see the towering forest in the distance. Faint fresh green had already begun appearing on the branches. Snow pressed heavily against the main trunks, while everything else stretched out in an endless expanse of white.
Long Ming stared without blinking, thrilled beyond words.
“Put his hat on.” Gelu handed the hat to the mermaid, complaining slightly, “Oreo, you’re holding the good cub too high.”
Aoduoduo put the bunny-ear hat on the little dragon and looked into his glittering golden eyes. Smiling, he asked, “Good cub, are you afraid?”
“Not afraid, not afraid.” Long Ming wished he could go even higher. His tail wagged furiously with excitement.
Aoduoduo looked over the endless blue sky above the mountains, and his own mood improved somewhat.
How could a dragon possibly fear heights? Dragons were a proud, aloof race who looked as though they wanted to view everyone from the corner of one eye.
Still, this chubby cub was different.
Aoduoduo set the restless little dragon down and watched him sit in the snow beside the goblin to roll snowballs.
“Gelu, snowball!”
Long Ming’s fat little legs moved quickly. He carried several snowballs in his claws and prepared to put some distance between himself and Gelu so they could have a proper snowball fight.
He had completely forgotten Gelu’s warning from a few days ago not to wander far.
Only Gelu’s heart began pounding violently. He chased after him. “Come back, little fatty!”
That was the Lightning Leopard’s territory.
Long Ming’s foot slipped on the snow. He had no idea what he stepped on, but his entire body went “splat” into the ground.
He raised his head.
Directly before him was an enormous yellow beast eye, nearly five times larger than his entire head. It stared at him without blinking, like a predator that had been lying in ambush for ages and was finally looking at its prey.
An enormous head slowly rose from the snow into Long Ming’s view. Lying flat on the ground, Long Ming looked upward at the leopard opening a bloody maw toward him. Foul breath blew across his face between drool-coated teeth. Huge fangs opened only inches away, ready to crush his throat.
Long Ming had never known his heart could beat this fast.
He was so terrified that for a moment his mind went completely blank.
In that instant, he felt as though his consciousness had left his body and drifted somewhere impossibly far away. At the same time, it felt as if countless invisible threads had wound around that consciousness. Countless gazes were watching him, looking down upon him, sheltering him.
Long Ming instinctively opened his mouth toward that enormous maw and tried to intimidate it too.
“Awooo—woo!”
A sudden, intense mixture of rage and confusion made his mouth feel hot. A tiny black flame shot out.
Unfortunately, just like the previous few times, it trembled out of existence in midair before ever reaching the enemy, leaving only a faint wisp of smoke.
Long Ming blinked: …QAQ!
Lightning Leopard: …(#▼Д▼)!
The next instant, Long Ming turned and ran without a second thought.
Only a dragon who endured the bitterest hardships could become a dragon above dragons. He could always avenge this humiliation after he grew up.