Chapter 35: Chapter 35: I, Galos, Am Really Not an Evil Dragon

The scorching sun baked Iron Pine Hills into a charred brown, with the cracked ground steaming with twisted waves of heat.

The red dragon hatchling lay limp on the gravel, its tongue lolling, while embers of Dragon Breath drifted from its mouth, bursting into tiny sparks in the air. Möbel was scratching its back to relieve an itch with the coarse bark of the iron pine, shaking loose some leaves in the process.

Galos was gazing intently at the earth spider that had emerged from a crack in the ground before him.

Its body resembled a millstone, with many rock-like textures, and its eight limbs were long and sharp, covered with some soil soaked in black. On its back was a deliberately sunken rock shell, carrying large clumps of black soil.

He sniffed the air.

A burning sensation rushed up his nose.

Galos’ eyes lit up with joy; he dashed to the front of the earth spider in one swift step, casting a thick shadow over it, blocking the sunlight.

“The smell of black oil!”

He looked down at the black spider trembling slightly beneath him, his gaze falling on the black soil it carried, and reached out with his claw to pick it up.

As soon as he touched it,

a greasy feeling arose naturally.

Galos squeezed it, gradually oozing some black oil from between his clawed fingers.

This was soil saturated with black oil—not exactly bringing back black oil itself, but it was still something, and Galos was quite pleased with the earth spider’s find.

However,

why did it only bring back oily soil and not black oil itself?

With this question in mind, Galos used his mind-reading skill to enter the earth spider’s mental world.

The earth spider’s mental world was equally dark, similar to the Rock-Breaking Worm, almost as if it were in a suppressed, lightless underground world.

“Why didn’t you bring back black oil directly?”

Galos asked in the mental world.

The earth spider responded, “Danger…. death…. afraid…”

Its intelligence was lower than the Rock-Breaking Worm’s, its response halting, but Galos still understood its general meaning.

“The place where the black oil is stored is extremely dangerous, enough to get it killed, so it didn’t dare go near and only dug up some soil saturated with black oil from the periphery.”

Galos was thoughtful.

Since this was expected, he wasn’t too surprised.

The intelligent beings guarding near the Black Oil Field obviously wouldn’t only defend against threats from the ground and sky, but also have corresponding defense measures against the underground.

Observing the earth spider’s flashback-like memory fragments carefully.

Through its perspective, Galos saw several earth spiders navigating through the dark underground ahead, surrounded by layers of earth with deepening color and gradually increasing oil content.

Suddenly,

a huge, centipede-like creature appeared.

It was entirely made of a certain black metal, with a body composed of dozens of steel segments connected together, each section adorned with ghostly blue energy patterns, and auxiliary limbs extending from each joint, constantly retracting and expanding like folding battle knives.

The creature started slaughtering the earth spiders as soon as it appeared.

The foremost earth spiders were all ripped to pieces by it in less than a minute, and after patrolling underground for a round, it didn’t attack the earth spiders at a certain distance away.

“Some kind of Alchemy Golem guarding underground? Judging by its size and behavior, it’s at least at level 5 or 6, and the earth spiders can’t possibly confront it head-on.”

Galos pondered silently.

Clearly, this thing wasn’t a natural life form but an artificially created underground guardian, specially made to clear out all sorts of creatures approaching the oil fields from underground.

“Bringing back the oily soil is already quite good, there’s at least some harvest.”

Galos conveyed an encouraging emotion, urging the earth spider to keep up the good work.

The earth spider responded with an excited mental wave; its will manifested with impatience, emitting a red glow: “Exchange… promise…”

You little rascal, you’re surprisingly eager.

But the promise I made at the start was for bringing back black oil, and this oily soil is of a lower grade.

Galos pondered for a few seconds, then exited the earth spider’s mental world, bringing along the well-fed and well-kept female spider.

Upon seeing the female spider, the male earth spider eagerly moved its limbs, rushing over, and the female spider, in its reproductive phase, welcomed it, accepting it with pleasure.

Galos watched the two spiders with curiosity.

They had no sense of shame, even under the broad daylight and with a dragon watching; they began creating the next generation.

However, their mating process was drastically different from many biological forms.

The male spider waved its limbs, using its small left pedipalp to insert into the left opening on the female spider’s reproductive plate, the right pedipalp into the right opening, appearing as though committing a murder, with the process somewhat grotesque.

And just as the male spider was about to finish,

Galos swiftly reached out with his claw, yanking it off the female spider.

—— The items brought back didn’t meet the initial requirements, so naturally, it only gets half the mating opportunity.

“Ten kilograms of oily soil for a complete mating opportunity.”

Galos expressed his terms to the male spider, which was flailing its limbs about furiously.

Stop being a dragon, you really do act like a shameless dragon!

It was held by Galos, with limbs flailing in the air in protest, but in the end, it conformed and agreed, then hurried to burrow through the ground, heading off to gather more oily soil for Galos.

The female spider, bewildered, looked up at Galos.

Why chase the male spider away?

It didn’t understand why.

Crack… yet another piece of ground split and heaved. Out came another male spider, carrying some oily soil as well, excitedly seeking Galos for a reward.

Galos grinned and beckoned it over.

Soon, one male spider after another came, bringing back black oily soil, hoping for a reward.

Galos was quite generous; although what they returned with didn’t match the initial agreement, he still granted them half the reward—stopping midway during their efforts.

A bunch of red-tinged male spiders arrived excitedly, but left angrily.

They burrowed furiously into the ground to vent their discontent and, driven by the desire for a full mating opportunity, found themselves even more urgently digging for black oily soil.

“Poor spiders, Galos, you’re terrible.”

Samantha turned the topic mildly, then praised, “Truly an excellent Red Iron Half-blood Dragon, the innate level of evil is beyond my reach.”

In the eyes of the red dragon,

being bad implies excellence and glory, with every red dragon aiming to become the ultimate evil dragon.

In Samantha’s view, Galos, who even bullied the spiders, was truly a schemer, utterly incorrigible in malignance.

“Don’t slander me.”

Galos defended, “I’m only encouraging them to become more proactive in doing their jobs, how could this be considered evil?”

He never considered himself an evil dragon.

Galos didn’t think he was a good dragon, who liked to help the weak and fight evil, but wasn’t necessarily evil, right?

Evil dragons were often besieged and hunted down; Galos didn’t want to be regarded as an evil dragon.

But looking at his appearance, Galos was left speechless.

He incorporated features of both the Iron Dragon and the Red Dragon, having undergone some evolutionary appearance, looking fiercer than the typically known evil dragons.

Should powerful adventurers arrive, surely they wouldn’t listen to Galos’s explanations.

[Born evil Red Iron Half-blood Dragon!]

[Oh my, and he likes to argue too!]

[Try explaining to my Evil-Breaking Slash!]

…….This is, like, a probable outcome.

“Prejudices within people’s hearts are a great mountain, I, Galos, am really not an evil dragon.”

With a sigh, Galos shook his head.

Given the circumstances, he could only find a way to arm and strengthen himself, so if confronted with a hunt in the future, at least he’d have the means to resist.

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