Ch.4040. Capturing the Fire Dragon Alive

Dragons, or true dragons (jinryong), are fundamentally hermaphroditic creatures possessing both male and female characteristics—or rather, they are closer to asexual beings without gender distinction.

Considering that other monster-type beasts, and even lesser dragons born from true dragons, mostly have gender distinctions, this can be considered a unique characteristic of dragons. Thanks to this trait, dragons have one notable feature.

As mentioned earlier, they can reproduce alone, but the eggs produced this way will invariably hatch into lesser dragons (aryong), a degraded dragon species.

The reason for this phenomenon is that originally, creating a true dragon’s egg requires two true dragons, but when one attempts to handle the process alone, problems arise.

One dragon concentrates psychic energy to form the material components of the egg, while the other expends psychic energy to shape the form of the dragon growing inside. The psychic energy consumed in this process is never insignificant, and the process itself is so complex that it requires dedicating their high intelligence solely to this task.

When attempting to perform this process alone, it naturally becomes overwhelming.

The psychic energy contained in the egg is relatively reduced, and the delicate calibration needed to shape the dragon’s form becomes distorted due to decreased computational power.

Therefore, creating an egg that will hatch into a true dragon requires at least two dragons, and herein lies the problem.

Theseus, being a hive mind monster manufactured primarily for combat, has had resources that would normally be invested in egg production diverted elsewhere, making it impossible to create eggs.

‘…What should I really do?’

Anxiety pressed on his mind, and meanwhile, the fire dragon continued to direct mating calls toward the magnificent (at least in the fire dragon’s eyes) and impressive Theseus.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Theseus used his last resort.

‘—I’ve reported the situation.’

[…What?]

That is, calling mother—the Hive Mind—and dumping all his concerns on her.

※ ※ ※

‘Siiiiigh… I assigned you a task, so why are you bringing me such a troublesome issue…’

After receiving the full account from Theseus, I grabbed the flower-like part of my head and internally expressed my negative reaction.

For good reason—honestly speaking, this kind of problem doesn’t have a clear solution and is just annoying.

If things go well, we might be able to recruit a 1st-grade boss dragon to our side, but that doesn’t mean we can do anything about the current situation.

If the fire dragon realizes that Theseus is sexually impotent when they try to mate, it will undoubtedly turn hostile, and then I would have no choice but to kill a creature I could have recruited.

Therefore, I fell into deep contemplation to somehow avoid this situation, and only by mobilizing my highly advanced collective intelligence could I finally devise a solution—which I immediately put into action.

First, I ordered Theseus to accept the fire dragon’s confession while simultaneously leading it to a cave I had designated.

‘Theseus, can you do it?’

[It’s an order, I will gladly obey.]

Speaking with a slightly uncertain voice, Theseus communicated with the fire dragon using psychic communication, which he had only recently learned and wasn’t proficient with. Somehow, he managed to lead it to his fake nest.

‘Move quickly! Hurry, hurry!’

Having successfully lured the innocent(?) fire dragon, I now had to work faster than it would take for the fire dragon to fly to our base.

I moved noticeable Hive Mind monsters away from the expected flight path and mobilized tens of thousands of monsters to create a trap cave disguised as Theseus’s nest.

As someone who could mobilize tens of thousands of times more troops and biological heavy equipment than a division commander capable of performing the mountain-vanishing magic “Wingardium Mountainlessa,” creating the cave didn’t take much time.

The fire dragon was expected to arrive within an hour, yet I completed a cave large enough to accommodate a 60-meter-long dragon in just 17 minutes.

Anyway, with the environment prepared, all that remained was to wait.

I waited quietly in the fully prepared cave, detecting Theseus and the Baekdusan fire dragon approaching through hidden sensory monsters.

The fire dragon arrived at the cave in just 30 minutes—twice as fast as the expected hour—following Theseus’s guidance, and without any suspicion, it strode into the cave behind Theseus.

After entering a suitable distance inside and following the first corner with Theseus walking ahead, the fire dragon trotted along behind him. The moment it entered the corner…

‘—Now!’

My psychic wave resonated throughout the cave, and suddenly the entrance began to collapse with a thunderous sound.

Krryaraaaaaaaa?!!!

In that moment of confusion at the incomprehensible phenomenon and the felt psychic wave, Theseus swung his front paw—which had been secretly prepared since entering and was covered with a compressed yet thick energy field—with all his might.

Whoosh!

Crack—Swoosh!

Krrraraaaaaaaa!!!

No matter how much the dragon normally had an energy field around it, it wasn’t enough to block an attack that came in this completely off-guard moment.

As the claws passed through the dragon’s chest, scales shattered, and the skin and muscles beneath were torn, spraying boiling-hot blood in all directions.

Five such swings. Theseus rapidly swung his claws, delivering five strikes, but this seemed to be the limit of attacks he could inflict on the unresisting fire dragon.

KKkkrrrraaaAaaAAA—!!!!!!

Regaining its senses from the considerable injury and felt pain, the fire dragon unleashed its anger born from the terrible pain of the corroding energy field and sense of betrayal—and simultaneously spewed flames.

Fwooooooooooosh!!!

Slightly weaker compared to Theseus’s energy breath, but considering it required no charging, it was more than sufficient.

The high-pressure flames, capable of melting rock with just a slight touch, flew in an almost straight line targeting Theseus—

‘—Activate.’

[Activating Psychic Structure (A).]

[Activating Telekinesis (A).]

Woooong—Kwaaaaaaang!!!

At that moment, I suddenly appeared from hiding and launched a massive psychic structure projectile that directly hit the dragon’s chest—its flame sac—causing the fire dragon to choke and stop breathing fire.

Of course, ceasing to attack an enemy during battle is essentially inviting counterattacks.

[Activating Physical Enhancement (A).]

[Activating Psychic Supply (A).]

[Activating Sensory Amplification (A).]

Crack—Rip! Crunch! Tear!

With my full support enhancing his already superior physical capabilities and larger frame, Theseus viciously attacked the fire dragon in close combat.

He bit and tore with his teeth, swung his wings to push the enemy back, clawed at the exposed flesh of the previously attacked areas, whipped his tail to strike, and persistently attacked with the spikes at its end.

This literally overwhelming assault continued until the fire dragon was tattered and exhausted. Finally, the fire dragon gave up on close combat, retreated slightly, and frantically activated its psychic abilities.

It formed its specialty, psychic flames, large enough to cover an entire wall of the cave and launched them with telekinesis, while also creating hundreds of explosive psychic structures and pouring them toward Theseus.

As a fire-type psychic user, it had fewer specialized categories but higher enhancement ratios, which should have inflicted significant damage on Theseus, but…

Whoosh—Boom!

Surprisingly, Theseus, who charged through the flames and struck the fire dragon with his tail, didn’t seem to take much damage.

The reason for this phenomenon was the effect of the psychic suppressors I had hidden throughout the cave beforehand.

Psychic suppressors. While they might sound like biological facilities, they are actually 5th-grade monsters I created directly.

Specialized only in jamming the psychic abilities of specific targets, their combat power is lower than that of a basic hive, but their psychic jamming capability is unbelievably powerful for 5th-grade monsters.

They downgraded the psychic abilities of the 1st-grade boss monster, the Baekdusan fire dragon, to a level that could almost be ignored.

Kheuk!

Anyway, back to the main point. The fire dragon, having its neck struck by Theseus’s powerfully swung tail, writhed in pain, naturally losing its posture.

‘Activate.’

[Activating Gravity Multiplication: 4x (A).]

[Activating Gravity Multiplication: 4x (A).]

[Activating Gravity Multiplication: 4x (A).]

[Activating Gravity Multiplication: 4x (A).]

Woooooong—Kugugugugugugugu!!!

Seizing this moment of imbalance, I activated gravity manipulation psychic abilities to slam the fire dragon to the ground. Then Theseus injected “that” which I had prepared in advance into the fire dragon, which couldn’t move a muscle due to the gravity.

Shunk!

“That”—a syringe filled with concentrated fluid from venomous porcupines, containing poison so potent that a single drop could fell a mid-grade monster—injected the poison inside upon piercing. Despite being 1st-grade, the battered fire dragon succumbed to the dozens of liters of concentrated venomous porcupine fluid and fell into a near-death state.

Though somewhat unsightly, we had nonetheless achieved victory over the fire dragon and secured it.