NOVEL NEXT Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Successive Births
It's worth noting that with as many as eighteen cloud giant leaders, it would require a coalition among them to obstruct Muria's awareness. Certainly, it was not limited to just two cloud giant leaders.
Therefore, upon clarifying which cloud giant leaders attempted to use means to prevent Muria from accepting new giants' allegiance, he exiled them without hesitation. However, Muria still showed kindness, giving these eight cloud giant leaders a chance to redeem themselves.
During Muria's half-year stay on Taiji Island, his continuous exile of cloud giant leaders indeed terrified most cloud giants, leaving them in a state of constant anxiety. Thus, under this fearful atmosphere, the construction of the Giants' City, which Muria did not set a deadline for, was progressing at a surprisingly fast pace.
Muria noted this progress with a sigh. Besides visiting the Baiyu Divine Palace on the first day of each month to handle Taiji Island's affairs and inspect the island's construction progress, he spent the rest of his time in the Five-colored Dragon Castle studying magic circles.
Muria was quick to grasp the basics of magic circles, thanks to his endless supply of casting materials for practice. On this basis, Muria began attempting to modify the hatching magic circles for dragon eggs, aiming for the magic circles' elemental energy to precisely match each dragon egg's needs.
In the fifth month of his stay in the Five-colored Dragon Castle, Muria had individually adjusted the hatching magic circles using his elemental perception. By the sixth month, with some mental preparation, the first dragon hatchling emerged.
"Your Highness, the dragon egg in the room I was guarding is shaking non-stop. It seems like a dragon is about to hatch." One day, while Muria was studying magic circles, a somewhat young cloud giant rushed into his room, led by the maid Mia, to report.
This was per Muria's earlier orders to report any abnormalities with the guarded dragon eggs.
"Is it hatching so soon?" Muria was slightly taken aback by the cloud giant guard's words but quickly regained his composure. "Which type of dragon egg is it?"
"A black dragon egg."
"Take me there."
When Muria followed the cloud giant guard to the guarded room, he saw a young dragon with a large head and small body, covered in thin, small black scales, lying on the shattered eggshell, its dark eyes warily watching Muria and the cloud giant beside him.
Without using polymorph, Muria, now nearly eleven meters tall, posed an insurmountable presence to the newly hatched black dragon, the size of a foal.
Muria's aura caused the young black dragon considerable conflict; it felt both familiar and repellent due to the dragon blood in Muria, particularly the gold dragon aura.
The faint sense of kinship stemmed from Muria's care over the past six months, especially the last month when the modified magic circle provided comfortable elemental energy, allowing the hatchling to memorize Muria's scent even before breaking out of its shell.
After some hesitation, the young black dragon, seeing Muria and the two cloud giants just standing quietly at the door without any hostile intentions, grew a bit bolder.
It stretched out its paw, picked up a piece of broken shell, put it in its mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Throughout, the young black dragon kept its gaze on Muria and the cloud giant.
"We're late!" Muria, seeing the hatchling already eating, frowned and then turned to the other cloud giant. Each room had two cloud giants on duty: one reported to him, while the other stayed in the room, witnessing the entire hatching process.
"What's the dragon's name?" Muria inquired. Dragons reveal their true names upon birth, then commence their first meal by eating their eggshells, without exception.
"Your Highness, I don't understand Dragonese," the staying cloud giant said, showing an embarrassed expression. Dragon hatchlings' true names are spoken in Dragonese, incomprehensible to those unlearned in the language.
Muria remained silent, waiting until the young black dragon finished its shell meal before approaching it, attempting a gentle smile, "Little black dragon, what is your dragon true name?"
True names are unique and have special functions, like signing contracts, but are only effective if written by the bearer. Writing someone else's true name on a contract does not invoke any effect.
So, true names are mainly useful to the bearer, and to others, another's true name serves merely as a form of address.
"My name is Saxton." The young black dragon, shy and wary due to intelligence, responded without hesitation, revealing a part of its true name to Muria.
"Um, is there more to eat?" Saxton pawed at its belly, shyly asking Muria. It had eaten all its eggshell but was still hungry.
"Hm?" Muria sniffed, then frowned at Saxton, detecting a faint foul odor, "Yes, but you need a bath first."
Saxton looked puzzled at Muria, wondering why a bath was suddenly necessary.
"You smell a bit!" Muria looked disdainfully at Saxton, aware of the unique scent of black dragons, which prefer swamp habitats and invariably carry a foul smell, similar to the sulfur scent of red dragons or the natural mixed fragrance of gold dragons. Some dragons have no scent at all.
Confused, Saxton, as a dragon only slightly superior to the despised white dragons and born with high intelligence, knew it had to behave and not cause trouble.
"Take it for a bath, then feed it until full," Muria commanded the cloud giants at the door, "And add some fragrance to its bathwater. I don't want to smell it next time."
"As you command, Lord Muria," the somewhat bewildered cloud giants hastily complied.
Over time, dragon hatchlings emerged one after another, but no two dragons hatched on the same day. This indicated that Muria's father likely acquired numerous evil dragons, selecting only one egg from each brood. Each egg was carefully chosen by the legendary Titan Ansor, including the least desirable white dragon eggs, which underwent a selection process.
A 100% hatching success rate spoke volumes, credited not only to Muria's modified hatching magic circles but also to the high quality of the dragon eggs.
Three years flew by, and the number of giants on Taiji Island exceeded thirty thousand. The population of mountain giants and tide giants each broke through a thousand, while storm giants increased to three hundred and fifteen.
The Giants' City, centered around the Baiyu Divine Palace, began to take shape, housing most giants. Continuous giant influx meant the White Jade City was always expanding without halting construction.
The increase in storm giants signified the expansion of Muria's royal guard. As their numbers grew, storm giants naturally formed a hierarchy based on external factors affecting combat outcomes. Having a roc partner became a status symbol among storm giants, with those possessing rocs forming a circle and subconsciously excluding those without.
Storm giants with rocs stayed close to Muria, executing tasks of patrolling Taiji Island and the surrounding eight food-producing islands assigned to those without rocs.
Over three years, the cloud giant leaders exiled to the eight islands around Taiji Island diligently fulfilled Muria's tasks.
They cleared the islands of useless trees, planting fruit trees and berry bushes found on the Titan Islands
, and grasses favored by herbivorous lower-tier monsters.
Fruit orchards and large pastures with herds of cattle and sheep-like monsters grazing became common sights on these islands, supplying Taiji Island with meat and fruits, diversifying the giants' seafood-heavy diet.
Muria was highly satisfied with these achievements, allowing the eight cloud giant leaders to attend monthly meetings in the Baiyu Divine Palace to report their work.
During these three years, Muria spent most of his time in the Five-colored Dragon Castle, welcoming the births of the five-colored dragon hatchlings.
All the dragon eggs gifted by Muria's father hatched successfully without a single failure, a miraculous feat that would have caused a sensation on the mainland. However, as the Titan Islands' giants were isolated, the news could not spread.
Witnessing nearly a hundred dragon hatchlings, Muria verified some facts, such as dragons being highly intelligent creatures. Even newly hatched dragons could read the room, knowing when to submit, even if the one giving orders carried the detested aura of a gold dragon.
Of course, evil dragons remain evil by nature. Among the five-colored dragons, green, black, and white dragons behaved well upon understanding their environment.
However, red dragons and some second-strongest blue dragons, after receiving their heritage knowledge, displayed arrogance similar to the six red dragons Muria initially raised.
For such dragons, Muria consistently "educated" them with his "thunderous" methods on how to behave under his rule.
"I shouldn't have updated twice today; I should have saved it. I thought I'd have time to write in the afternoon, but I ended up being busy and didn't have time to write. My painstakingly saved chapters have diminished by one, alas."