Ch.3939. Operation to Eliminate the Fire Dragon

After absorbing the Mountain Lord and his territory completely, my next target was naturally to eliminate the Fire Dragon of Mount Baekdu and seize its habitat.

Since this needed to appear as Theseus’s (the Hive Dragon’s) territory expansion on the surface, I prepared monsters that resembled Theseus, making them look as if they had been created by Theseus’s true dragon’s ability to generate lesser dragons.

Lesser dragon generation ability.

It’s a kind of reproduction method commonly possessed by true dragons with Western dragon forms. Simply put, it’s the production of degraded dragon species without the help of another individual.

These degraded dragon species, no matter how strong, can never become high-rank monsters, but in exchange, they hatch from eggs in just three days and reach adulthood in a week, making their growth rate incredibly fast.

Of course, to grow them this quickly requires consuming enormous amounts of food. Most individuals born among lesser dragons grow at a rate similar to ordinary animal-type monsters.

Anyway, while normal dragon species would produce offspring, a fake dragon that only looks like one—the Hive Dragon Theseus—naturally lacks reproductive ability.

Therefore, Theseus set out toward Mount Baekdu, leading various monsters I had produced to resemble lesser dragons.

Twelve Hive Wing Drakes, twenty Hive Wyverns, sixty regular wyvern-type monsters, about 200 drakes, and a total of 441 Hive Raptors were mobilized.

This force was meant to counter the lesser dragons produced by the Mount Baekdu Fire Dragon, but also to hunt bosses in the areas they passed through to expand territory.

After the Fire Dragon’s advance began, Theseus was making smooth progress.

The Hive Raptors would scout, the wyverns would conduct air raids, and then the drakes would move in to completely overwhelm the enemy. This was enough to easily handle monsters up to mid-rank.

Only once did they encounter a high-rank—grade 2 monster, a nine-tailed fox, which Theseus personally confronted.

Being an ordinary monster with a lower rank than Theseus, at a disadvantage in terms of compatibility, and facing Theseus’s subordinates as well, the nine-tailed fox was naturally crushed.

Its soft golden fur was completely burned away, and of its nine flexible tails, only three remained.

The nine-tailed fox, barely clinging to life, was eventually transported to my side and reduced to a puppet state like the Mountain Lord.

While dealing with various minor monster groups, Theseus advanced relentlessly and finally entered the Fire Dragon’s territory—the foothills near Mount Baekdu.

‘We’re entering. Everyone, stay alert.’

Following Theseus’s order, the black dragon’s army began to advance proudly, with Hive Raptors in the scouting role maintaining vigilance around the perimeter.

The scattered Hive Raptors and wyverns scouted ahead, the heavily armored drakes took the front line, and behind them, Theseus moved his massive body with dignity.

‘Yes, keep engaging.’

Meanwhile, the scouting monsters encountered lesser dragons with red scales and began combat. As Theseus naturally accelerated to support those dragons—

KKKKkkrrrrrrRRRrrraaaAaaaAAAaAaAAAAA—!!!!!!

‘…Damn it.’

With a majestic roar echoing through the air, a giant dragon with red scales cast its shadow over the black-scaled dragons.

Sensing the presence of “relatives” invading its territory, the Fire Dragon of Mount Baekdu had quickly flown in to eliminate the intruders.

Its size was about 45 meters, not much different from the average grade 1 dragon species.

Its scales were the color of half-melted, reddish basalt, but they didn’t look like basalt due to their smooth surface and faint metallic luster.

Overall, its body was slimmer than Theseus’s, but its chest was quite swollen, containing the high-pressure fuel sac necessary for breathing fire.

Uniquely, the membrane of its wings looked like solidified flames, and it had an additional small pair of wings near its waist.

On its head were three pairs of bumpy horns that looked like they were made of obsidian, but they were neither particularly long nor suitable for attacking as they were tightly curled.

From its tail, flames were burning as if it were some kind of Li■ong. As if to prove these weren’t normal flames, the dark red flames suddenly brightened—

“Koo, kooooo kooo (Oh, such a handsome male)…!”

‘—!! ……..????’

Suddenly, it made a cry that was definitely not threatening, infused with psychic energy, directed at Theseus—a low yet strangely shy sound.

‘…Courtship?’

At first, Theseus had no idea what this signal meant, but as the instincts encoded in the dragon genes that formed his body awakened, he realized this was a courtship call—and was severely flustered.

‘W-what? Why? Aren’t I an invader?’

Thanks to the common sense he had received from the Hive Mind, Theseus had a relatively normal way of thinking, so he was quite bewildered as he looked up at the Fire Dragon in the sky.

At the same time, Theseus accelerated his mind with psychic power to assess the situation, and roughly understood why this was happening.

Theseus himself was about 58 meters long, much larger than other grade 1 dragons that were typically 40-50 meters, and his appearance was perfect because the Hive Mind had put great effort into creating him.

Additionally, Theseus had genes from other psychic-specialized monsters implanted in him, making his psychic energy emission more powerful than ordinary dragons.

Leading hundreds of mid-rank lesser dragons was also a plus, which was impressive considering the production capacity of other dragon species’ lesser dragons.

Over 80% of lesser dragons born from eggs are low-rank or below, and only about 20% have the potential to grow into mid-rank lesser dragons.

But once they reach mid-rank, the food required to maintain their bodies is substantial. Even the high-ranking Fire Dragon that dominated Mount Baekdu and its surroundings could only maintain about 100 mid-rank dragons by investing all the available food resources in the entire mountain.

Additionally, dragons typically let their lesser dragons grow on their own to select the strongest individuals.

This creates a problem.

Low-rank lesser dragons can survive by hiding and grazing on grass due to their modest caloric needs, but mid-rank lesser dragons need more calories and must actively hunt.

Of course, newly born mid-rank lesser dragons are still just low-rank dragons with the potential to grow into mid-rank, so inexperienced ones are naturally filtered out.

Therefore, mostly low-rank lesser dragons survive, with only a tiny fraction of innately talented mid-rank lesser dragons making it.

But now, Theseus was traveling with hundreds of “lesser dragons” (not really) that he had “birthed” (a misunderstanding).

Although these lesser dragons were actually Hive Mind monsters, the Fire Dragon perceived them differently.

To the Fire Dragon, Theseus either had extremely superior genes that could mature hundreds of mid-rank monsters, or possessed enough food to raise hundreds of mid-rank monsters, or both.

The Fire Dragon also noticed that the lesser dragons under Theseus followed his orders with absolute loyalty.

Ordinary mid-rank lesser dragons don’t have connections to the Hive Mind like Theseus does, so true dragons typically have to rule them by force, and they tend to be quite disobedient. Considering this—Theseus’s control was an incredible achievement.

Somehow, Theseus had completely dominated these lesser dragons, creating something close to a medieval feudal system.

So, in human terms, Theseus was tall, handsome, wealthy, intelligent, with perfect charisma and leadership, and perfect genes—essentially an SSS-grade super alpha male.

Naturally, considering that the other dragons the Fire Dragon had met were either stupid lower-rank dragons, feral lesser dragons, or disobedient lesser dragons—it’s not so strange that the Fire Dragon fell for Theseus.

At this point, anyone would think this could be used as a pretext for a marriage alliance, but there’s a serious problem with this idea.

‘…Fuck, I’m screwed.’

The problem is that the Hive Mind had removed the reproductive ability from Theseus, the fake dragon pretending to be a dragon—the Hive Dragon—out of concern that he might create variables.