Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 312: Chapter 311: Please Care for and Adopt Stray Animals

Chapter 312: Chapter 311: Please Care for and Adopt Stray Animals

“Roar———!!”

With an angry roar, dozens of fire dragons spread their wings and swooped towards the black dragon in the sky. To the eye, the black dragon was only slightly larger than the fire dragons, one on one, the fire dragons would stand no chance. But now, face to face with the horde of fire dragons closing in from all directions, anyone would think that the black dragon would ultimately meet a brutal end under the fiery onslaught.

But that was not the case.

As the dozens of fire dragons charged towards the black dragon, it suddenly raised its body, staring coldly at the swarm of fire dragons below, as if it were the monarch of the sky. At the same time, the fire dragons, which had been flying towards the black dragon like lightning, abruptly began to slow down, their bodies, once agile in the air, became as slow as snails, and even the speed at which they beat their wings seemed as sluggish as an ox-driven cart.

The fire dragons had no idea what had happened to them; their beast-level intelligence couldn’t comprehend the dilemma they faced. Even so, they still opened their mouths and spewed out fierce flames at the black dragon. However, these flames, capable of incinerating everything, were thwarted by the magic barrier that shimmered in front of the black dragon before they could show their might.

After that, the black dragon lifted its head proudly and opened its mouth.

The next moment, the fire dragons visibly began to weaken, their once robust bodies gradually wasting away, and their strong limbs starting to wither. The fire dragons realized that something was wrong, and instinctively tried to beat their wings to escape, but bound by that invisible force, even fleeing became a luxury.

Just then, the black dragon let out a furious roar, and at the same time, it fiercely flapped its wings around.

“—————!!”

Pitch-black dragon breath sprayed out from the black dragon in midair, spreading out like a mist, enveloping the horde of fire dragons. The fire dragons hit by this pitch-black dragon breath cried out in agony, then slowly bowed their heads and fell silent. In the blink of an eye, the previously chaotic and berserk sky returned to tranquility, and the fire dragons, once wild as beasts, hung motionless in the sky, silent.

Looking at the scene before it, the black dragon huffed lightly, then suddenly flapped its wings once; the next moment, the bodies of the fire dragons plummeted straight down, crashing heavily onto the ground, lifeless.

“Sigh…”

Looking down at the corpses of the fire dragons on the ground, Fang Zheng took a long breath, then slowly landed on the ground.

In the days since he’d entered this world, nearly ten days had passed, and in this time, Fang Zheng had more or less come to understand it.

First and foremost, this was a very “normal” world.

Indeed, “normal” meant that there was no magic, no mythology, no immortal techniques, no demons, nor anything fantastical—everything was “real”. Even the fire dragons were a reality—after examination, Fang Zheng was astonished to find that these creatures breathed fire not by manipulating something like the fire element, as dragons in the Main World did, but through a pair of glands by their mouths, similar to those of venomous snakes, which sprayed a liquid. When this liquid from the glands mixed together, it would create a substance with a very low ignition point that ignited in the air, causing the fire dragons to spew flames.

Frankly, Fang Zheng was flabbergasted when he learned this.

It was just too scientific!

Not magical at all!

As for how humanity had become extinct, Fang Zheng’s research and observation of these fire dragons led him to a conclusion. The fire dragons had hard exteriors resistant to radiation, bred at an incredible rate like fish, laying clutches of eggs, and were not picky eaters—they’d consume anything alive, plus they could breathe fire…

Well… it seemed the human civilization of this world had been literally piled to death by an ocean of fire dragons.

How tragic.

Fang Zheng silently mourned for the human civilization of this world for three minutes. What else could he say about it? Tough life, blame society.

As for his mission in this world, Fang Zheng was also getting the hang of it—That was to plunder the time of these fire dragons, storing up enough to reach the first “Top-up Ten-Pull”, then start “top-up and change fate”. Once Fang Zheng could grow to the next stage successfully, the remaining issues would naturally be no problem at all.

Therefore, during this time, his main activity was hunting down fire dragons to hone his skills.

During this process, Fang Zheng had also conducted a certain degree of research on the ability of the “Breath of Plunder” and his sensation when devouring time.

Time is inherently flowable, unidirectional, irreversible. Just as the essence of time can be characterized by the process of “health—aging—death,” when Fang Zheng devoured time, its essence would naturally be collected by him as well. Although as a Time Dragon, he existed outside of time and was thus unaffected by it, Fang Zheng still didn’t want to end each meal with a mouthful of stinky tofu.

Luckily, Fang Zheng had a strategy for this. As the holder of Malthael and Arthas’s Soulstones, he was no stranger to the power of death. He used the Time Dragon’s power to weave a “filtering net” that removed the impurities attached to time. In this way, when Fang Zheng devoured and plundered time, these “characteristics” would be intercepted by the filtering net and not enter his body. Moreover, Fang Zheng could finally expel them in one breath, using them as Dragon Breath.

Keep in mind, those were the characteristics of “aging” and “death,” so Fang Zheng’s Dragon Breath might not have any direct physical attack power, but those struck by it would be directly infected with the DEBUFF of aging and death. Without adequate countermeasures, their fate was clearly sealed to death.

“But this power is not enough… I wonder where I can find more Fire Dragon hordes…”

While muttering to himself, Fang Zheng looked around and suddenly cast his gaze in one direction. Not far from him, a collapsed Fire Dragon Nest was strikingly in view. Although it was unclear whether it had been destroyed in the recent battle, it appeared now that the nest was doomed.

However, what caught Fang Zheng’s attention was not the collapsed Fire Dragon Nest, but the eggs within it.

“These must be Fire Dragon eggs.”

Curious, Fang Zheng approached the nest and closely examined the Fire Dragon eggs before him. It was his first time seeing Fire Dragon eggs, which were mostly dark red, matching the color of the dragons’ skin. It was likely due to the collapse of the nest that most of the eggs had been damaged by falling rocks, showing pits everywhere, clearly no longer viable for hatching any life.

“Crack.”

“Hmm?”

Just then, a faint sound reached Fang Zheng’s ears. He quickly turned his head, curiously looking toward the source of the noise. That’s when he noticed an egg not far from him—unlike the others, this egg was entirely black. If it weren’t so unusually large, Fang Zheng might even think it a stone!

“Crack… crack…”

Under Fang Zheng’s watchful eye, the black dragon egg began to crack gradually. Soon after, the top “popped” open, followed by a tiny head poking out.

It resembled a Little Fire Dragon, similar to the other fire dragons in appearance, but its body color was different; this one was black all over, with golden eyes.

It was probably a Darkening phenotype.

After taking a good look at the Little Fire Dragon before him, Fang Zheng quickly drew a conclusion. In a world without magic, where the existence of fire-breathing dragons had a logical scientific explanation, the occurrence of Darkened variants was not surprising.

In fact, many animals in nature have conditions like albinism and melanism, such as white tigers, whales, peacocks. There are also animals with melanism, such as the well-known black panther, which is actually a leopard with melanism.

So, the existence of a Little Fire Dragon with melanism was not strange at all.

“Yah—!”

What Fang Zheng did not expect was that, as the Little Fire Dragon struggled out of the eggshell, it opened its eyes and saw him. The Little Fire Dragon’s eyes lit up, and it scampered over to Fang Zheng’s side, stretching out its head to gently nuzzle his body.

“…”

Seeing this scene, Fang Zheng was completely taken aback.

What’s going on here? Does it think I’m its daddy?