The Northern Territory, Sioni Icefield.
At the foot of the snowy mountains.
Clang—Clang—Clang—
Sharp sounds of metal striking metal echoed from within the cave. The massive din startled a large flock of Snowrot Birds resting on the withered branches, causing them to flap their wings and take to the sky. They resembled a vast, soft white curtain circling above.
Only when the sound gradually subsided did those white "angels" transform back into the white snow resting on the branches.
Inside the cave, a creature covered in silver scales lay slumped on the ground.
Measuring about four meters from head to tail, with four legs, five claws, two wings, and two horns, this was unmistakably a juvenile silver dragon, though its appearance was somewhat peculiar.
This silver dragon’s body was a size larger than typical wyrmlings, and its muscles were not slender like those of other silver dragons; instead, they were the type that possessed explosive power.
Furthermore, the edges of its wings, claws, and horns were inlaid with a layer of crystal-clear ice crystals.
They looked as if they were made of diamonds.
Izo swayed as he pushed himself up, shaking off the gravel that had splattered into the gaps between his scales.
"Four years, and I’ve already dug this Silver Crystal vein so deep. If I keep digging like this, I really will turn into a pangolin."
Looking at his increasingly translucent dragon claws and then at the silver-flecked mountain wall covered in scratches, stabs, and slashes, Izo couldn't help but feel emotional.
Originally, Izo was just a corporate slave who worked late-night overtime at his company. After finishing work late one night, he brewed a cup of coffee and prepared to rest for a while.
The moment the coffee hit his mouth, he felt his legs no longer hurt, his waist no longer ached, and his heart no longer beat.
In the blink of an eye, Izo arrived in this world and became a noble metallic dragon.
As for why he was in this desolate, ice-covered place, that was another story.
He clenched his claws. The feeling of weakness after exhaustion spread through his arms; Izo was very satisfied with today’s training results.
Relying on the powerful physical body of the dragon race, even after undergoing the most rigorous training and tempering, he could mostly recover by the next day, provided he had sufficient energy in his body.
During these four years, Izo had not only adapted to the dragon body and behavioral habits but had also discovered his own uniqueness.
Aside from the innate extraordinary nature of dragons, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was no ordinary silver dragon. Perhaps it was a gift of fate, or perhaps it was a genetic atavism, but he possessed one more ability than other dragons.
Adaptive Evolution!
According to Darwin's theory of evolution, every creature evolves for survival. Normally, evolution occurs over centuries; those who adapt to the current environment survive, while those who don't die out, thereby pruning unsuitable genes through reproduction.
But Izo was different; his evolution occurred on a daily basis.
Through his own actions, he could slowly change himself. It might be becoming more cold-resistant, gaining more strength, or some other ability.
At first glance, this ability didn't seem very strong, but when combined with the long lifespan of dragons, it became incredibly broken.
He couldn't quite control the direction of evolution yet, but he already had some ideas.
Those diamond-like scales and claws were his latest achievement.
They possessed rigidity comparable to diamond combined with decent toughness, and they were extremely lightweight. As for corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity—what one might call magic resistance—it was still unclear.
This was far superior to the scales of an ordinary juvenile dragon.
As Izo walked out of the cave, he calculated how to get some food in this extremely cold land.
As a noble metallic dragon species—and a silver dragon, one of the top-ranked among metallic dragons—he didn't actually want to eat dirt.
Although he had chewed on a lot of the silver-flecked veins in the mountain, those were ultimately just materials for modifying his body and didn't provide much energy.
Fortunately, there weren't many creatures in this area that could threaten him anymore, except for that adult white dragon who was a divorced mother of two.
That white dragon was originally Izo's dragon mother. After all, a newly hatched silver dragon didn't look much different from a white dragon, the shame of the chromatic dragons.
As he grew older, his dragon mother eventually noticed something was wrong and kicked Izo out last year.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Walking through the snow, Izo still couldn't understand why a silver dragon egg would appear in a white dragon's nest.
Ordinary chromatic dragons definitely lacked the ability to steal a metallic dragon's egg, let alone a white dragon, which was the shame of the chromatic dragons. Even if it were a capable ancient chromatic dragon, it wouldn't risk being hunted down by other metallic dragon families just to steal an egg.
Metallic dragons were famously protective of their young. If you provoked a young metallic dragon and you were in the wrong...
You had better run as fast as you could, use every means possible to hide your tracks, and then leave that territory quickly. Go as far as possible and never return.
Otherwise, what you would face next was the entire metallic dragon family behind them.
If they couldn't win a fight, they really would call their mothers. It was a perfect interpretation of "beat the young, and the old comes; beat the old, and an even older one comes."
As for why Izo was abandoned by his biological parents?
Perhaps the answer was hidden within the Dragon Inheritance, but the problem was that currently, Izo could not open it...
Whenever Izo tried to open that "treasure" hidden deep in his soul, he would experience a splitting headache. It was likely because his soul had not yet fully fused with the dragon soul.
This pain was not meaningless. After each attempt, Izo could feel his mental power grow slightly; Adaptive Evolution was working.
With the passage of time, he believed that one day he would be able to open this "treasure" that was the birthright of all dragonkind.
A row of Snowrot Birds on the withered branches stared in unison at the silver dragon strolling on the ground.
Their necks moved like a motorized gimbal, slowly turning from left to right.
It was as if they were observing a glittering anomaly in the snowfield.
Snap.
The sound of a branch being stepped on came from behind a snowbank.
In the next second, a white shadow about three meters long lunged toward the back of Izo's neck with extreme speed.
I’ve got him!
The target was within reach, and the white shadow couldn't help but think to itself.
The moment the sharp claws were about to touch Izo.
Whoosh! The sound of breaking air came from the side.
With a slight exertion of Izo's tail, the tip easily broke the speed of sound. Like a whip swung at high speed, it lashed fiercely against the white shadow.
"Argh!"
The white shadow only had time to let out a scream before it was sent flying by the whip-tail, falling through the air like a ball and smashing straight into the snowbank it had used for the ambush.
With a boom, the snowbank exploded, and snow flew everywhere.
The Snowrot Birds on the branches were startled once again by the loud noise and flapped their wings, flying into the sky.
"Leodero, you're still so childish..."
Izo spoke while continuing to walk forward.
"Vivian, you should stop hiding too."
As he passed another snowbank, Izo reached down with his dragon claw and plucked up another juvenile white dragon.
Rate on N.U.
