Red Dragon Emperor - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Foraging

Jose was strolling in the forest. It had just rained, and the tips of the green leaves in the primeval forest were still dripping with sparkling raindrops. The ground was also wet, and leaves stuck to his feet as he walked while observing the surroundings.

The trees in the Dark Forest were all broad-leaved plants, while the Jorgol Mountains mostly had needle-leaved trees. The territory of the kobolds was located at the border between the two, so there was a mix of needle-leaved and broad-leaved trees.

“Hmm…”

Species Name: Cedar

Height: 34 m

Distance: 1054.64 m

…

Species Name: White Heron Grass

Length: 20 cm

Distance: 5.34 m

…

After experimenting for an hour, Jose had a better understanding of the new ability. [Data Visualization] was the literal meaning of the effect. It could convert visual information into data, and this data would be precise to the centimeter level. As for storage, deduction, simulation, and other functions, they did not exist.

Maintaining [Data Visualization] would also consume his mental energy. Although it did not consume much, there was still a taxing feeling if he wanted to keep it activated for extended durations.

“Let’s try this at high speed.”

Immediately, he ran at high speed through the primitive forest and constantly accelerated. At the same time, he consciously observed the scenery along the way.

The more places he passed, the more information he could see, and the faster the data in his eyes refreshed. Finally, his head began to hurt.

“[Data Visualization] has yet to reach its limit, but my brain can’t process information fast enough. I have to pay attention to this during battle…”

The more he studied his new ability, the more confused Jose became. What puzzled him was the grade classification of the statues.

[Heart of the Undying Bird] was S rank, and [Data Visualization] was F rank. It was obvious that [Heart of the Undying Bird] was stronger, but there was no huge difference between it and the F rank statue.

He muttered to himself, “Perhaps I haven’t fully excavated the ability of the [Heart of the Undying Bird]. Could it really allow me to be reborn from ashes?”

He was extremely curious; he wanted to test it, but his rationality told him that this was no joke.

What if he did not revive and died on the spot? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing for all transmigrators?

Crack!

This was the sound of a twig being stepped on. Jose suddenly woke up and unleashed his draconic aura while looking at the source of the sound.

“Who is it?!”

“Howl~” Thirty meters away, a dog-like creature stood up with its tail between its legs and scrambled away, not even wanting the rabbit in its hand.

“A gnoll?” Jose frowned and looked at his surroundings. It turned out that he was too engrossed in researching his new ability and unknowingly arrived at the border of the blood-tooth tribe’s territory.

He quickly chanted an incantation.

Body Incineration Curse!

The Body Incineration Curse was an elementary fire magic and could only be used on targets far weaker than the caster himself. Its specific effect was to summon flames from the inside out and kill the target.

The gnoll that was running at a high speed suddenly froze. Orange flames emerged from its seven orifices as it fell to the ground. In an instant, it was engulfed by the flames from the inside out and turned into burnt bones.

“Unlucky child.”

Jose got rid of his own traces and returned to the cave. As he walked, he was solving the food problem of his followers.

Just as he thought, there was no lack of food in the primitive forest. The kobolds did not know what food was edible, but there was a large pine forest on the mountain, and just the pine nuts in this forest could feed the entire tribe.

He also found three kinds of crops in the forest: peanuts, konjac, and asparagus. As it had just rained, mushrooms could be seen on the forest floor, and edible black fungus grew from the fallen trees. The black fungus absorbed the rainwater and became large and fat. It was tender and alluring.

Jose returned to the nest with food samples.

“Soda! Ergou! Come here!”

The two kobolds ran over and asked, “Master, what are your orders?”

“Remember, I’ll only say this once. This is a pine cone.” Jose crushed the pine cone in his hand and revealed the hidden pine nuts inside. “The grains inside are called pine nuts. The nuts inside can be eaten. There are many of these in the forest on the mountain. What you need to do is climb up the tree and pluck them…

“This black thing was called a konjac. It is poisonous but can be eaten after some processing. Wash and clean it first before grinding it into powder. Then add water and stir evenly…

“The mushrooms and black fungus can be cultivated manually. Cut down some trees… water them…”

After that, the two kobolds looked at Jose with admiration as they praised, “Master! You’re really the lucky star of the blood-tooth tribe! The savior that descended from the sky! The noble Dragon Sage…”

“I like these words. Continue to spread them around.” After a round of bootlicking, Jose felt comfortable all over. He walked lightly towards the nest.

He had not gone far when he heard the cheers of the kobolds. The tide-like cheers gradually faded away, and he could not help but smile.

It was not bad to do things that were beneficial to his followers occasionally.

While the kobolds were looting the forest, Jose returned to his lair. He lifted the stone slab on the ground and revealed the covered passageway.

After he looked down at the crimson lava below, he folded his wings to his sides and jumped down without hesitation.

After descending for about three to four hundred meters, he finally passed through the tunnel and arrived at the lava pit.

He dropped another hundred meters. The bubbling red lava was right in front of him. He closed his eyes and plunged into the hot lava.

Thump!

Jose could dive into the lava with the help of gravity, but the density of the lava was much higher than that of water. After sinking for a distance, he floated upward uncontrollably.

As he ascended, he kept an eye on the solid forms around him.

Even though the lava was over a thousand degrees in temperature, there were still substances that it could not melt. For example, the metals represented by iron and the gems represented by diamonds.

In the vast underground lava lake, a small Red Dragon head popped out like a grain of rice on a chessboard.

“I didn’t get anything, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not here to mine anyway,” he comforted himself and swam towards the shore of the lava lake.

The shore was a long and narrow island, like a lollipop reaching into the depths of the lava lake, so he named it the Heart of Molten Fire.

The Heart of Molten Fire was about the same size as a standard football field. It was seven to eight thousand square meters, and the lollipop’s round portion and the cylinder took half of the space each. This was now Jose’s new private space.

When he got ashore, he shook his body to remove the lava on it and then walked towards the center of the island. There was a small piece of flat land there with a small pile of items. They were some metal and a small amount of raw diamond stones.

This was what he had found when he first entered the lava lake. It was precisely because he had tasted the benefits of plundering the lava lake that he had used his momentum to dive in to search for treasures deeper in the lava.

These things fished out from the lava were very precious. Diamonds were more valuable than gold coins, and they could be easily sold even in the outer planes. The metals here were not ordinary metals either. After soaking in the lava for countless years, even the most ordinary iron had been infused with some fire elements and could be used to forge fire-based magical equipment.

After checking his treasures, Jose got down to business.

It was obvious that the [Heart of the Undying Bird] was related to the element of fire. There was no place more suitable than the lava lake.