The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

Beneath the dark and tranquil lake, a lush riverbed concealed a jade-green dragon egg. As the dragon egg continuously swayed and cracked, a tender hatchling dragon emerged from within.

The dragon hatchling's scales displayed a verdant yellow-green hue, resembling young buds. After confirming its surroundings, the hatchling calmly devoured the eggshell, completing its first meal after birth.

The rich energy contained within the eggshell would allow the hatchling to survive the initial vulnerable period, nourishing its body and providing the stamina to explore the underwater world.

The hatchling folded its slender, short wings against its back, and like a fish, it propelled itself upwards by swaying its thin, long tail, parting the water. After surfacing, the hatchling gazed at the expansive lake, its pupils involuntarily contracting.

Scanning the surroundings, the hatchling exclaimed:

"What a vast lake! If I couldn't see the distant boundaries of the land, I would have thought I'd reached the ocean. But such a large lake can barely be considered a sea."

"What kind of dragon lays its eggs underwater?"

Although it was a dragon, it possessed the ability to breathe underwater. Moreover, while in the water, Attilan felt subtle, cool energy nourishing its body.

Being able to descend into another world as a true dragon, Attilan found the sensation wonderful. Although he was just a newly hatched dragon, he could sense the limitless potential within the true dragon's body.

He would surely write his own legendary tale in this world!

"Attilan Neptune Augustus!"

A feeling of sudden enlightenment surged within Attilan, compelling him to speak his true name as a dragon. Instantly, a surge of power erupted from his true dragon bloodline.

Accompanied by a shimmering green oceanic light, Attilan received the inherited memories befitting a true dragon, and began to examine his origins.

An Elemental Dragonkin is essentially a subspecies of the Elemental Dragon, formed from the materialization of the four elements—earth, wind, water, and fire—either individually or in combination. Attilan, in particular, was a Marine Dragonkin formed from pure water element!

The emergence of the Elemental Dragonkin was due to an Elemental Dragon, who gathered the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire, completing a godhood ceremony. To expand his devoted followers, he subjected the Elemental Dragons to true dragon evolution.

After materialization, the habits of the Elemental Dragonkin became similar to those of Metallic and Chromatic Dragons. Under the guidance of Io, the Nine-Faced Dragon God, the neutral-aligned Elemental Dragons quickly adapted to life in the material plane.

As for the Elemental Dragon God who created the Elemental Dragonkin, he vanished without even leaving his name. Clearly, he had underestimated the difficulty of creating a dragon species.

Ultimately, he sacrificed himself in the process.

But his results were gratifying. Elemental Dragonkin were true dragons possessing twelve growth stages, although the strength level of some Elemental Dragonkin was barely higher than that of a White Dragon.

This naturally did not include the Marine Dragonkin. Comparing himself to the Metallic and Chromatic Dragons, Attilan believed that the ability level of the Marine Dragonkin was basically on par with that of the Silver Dragon, and the egg-hatching method was similar to that of the Bronze Dragon.

The dragon egg needed to be submerged in the ocean, or in a place where the tide flowed over it at least twice a day. After a long incubation period of 660 days, Attilan finally hatched.

No wonder his dragon egg was in the riverbed; this was indeed a suitable environment for hatching a Marine Dragonkin. With just a gentle inhale, he could feel the rich water elemental energy surging into his body.

There was just one problem. Although Elemental Dragons were not as responsible as Metallic Dragons, they were also not as completely indifferent to the life and death of their dragon eggs as Chromatic Dragons.

So, where were his parents?

At least one of them should have been guarding the dragon egg; it was impossible for them to completely abandon it.

Wait!

Attilan discovered a key point: there was only one dragon egg, his, on the riverbed! This meant that his dragon egg had been lost or stolen.

Was it intentional? Or accidental?

Attilan couldn't know. He had more important things to do now.

Hunting to promote physical development, and establishing his own dragon lair.

Attilan could only follow the hunting techniques inherited from his memories, concealing the unique aura of a Marine Dragonkin, and using the true dragon's superior dark vision to search for traces of large fish underwater.

The resources of this lake-sea were very abundant. After diving for less than three minutes, Attilan locked onto a target: a large black carp nearly two meters long.

As long as he caught it, one fish would be enough to fill his stomach.

Relying on the stealth ability inherited from his innate gifts, Attilan swam like a ghost behind the large black carp. Approaching the carp's alert range, Attilan wagged his tail and accelerated his charge with his limbs.

With the first bite, Attilan felt the water elemental energy rich in the fish meat. He frowned slightly and muttered to himself:

"Is this lake so nourishing? If I could eat such large black carp every day, wouldn't I be able to enter the juvenile dragon stage three years ahead of schedule?"

This was not an ordinary large black carp at all; it was a magical black carp!

Speeding up to stuff the large black carp into his stomach, Attilan planned to dive back into the water to see if there were any more such large black carp.

If large black carp existed in large quantities in the lake, then he could choose to nest on a small island in the lake or on the shore.

Diving back into the lake, Attilan planned to first search the area where he had just discovered the large black carp. Since there was one there, then there might be a second one.

However, after Attilan swam there, he didn't see the large black carp, but instead saw a small fish-man holding a harpoon. Based on comparisons in Attilan's inherited memories.

This green-scaled fish-man should not be an adult, and fish-men have the habit of taming aquatic animals larger than two meters as mounts, which means that the large black carp that Attilan had just eaten should have been the mount of this small fish-man.

The small fish-man was 1.3 meters tall, and the height of adult fish-men was around 1.5 meters. Because of their height, the harpoons used by fish-men were generally longer, some even reaching three meters in length to compensate for the fish-men's lack of height.

Since a small fish-man who tamed a magical large black carp as a mount appeared here, then there must be a fish-man tribe nearby. If he provoked this tribe, the hatchling dragon might not be able to gain an advantage.

However, Attilan really couldn't bear to miss the magical large black carp of the fish-man tribe.

If he could tame this fish-man tribe to be loyal to him, Attilan felt that he would have successfully established a foothold in this area.

Compared to fish-men, Marine Dragonkin were more likely to gain the loyalty of aquatic lizard-men and aquatic snake-men.

Diving to the bottom of the lake and picking up some aquatic plants to wear as camouflage, Attilan approached the small fish-man to hear what he was saying.

This small fish-man's sense of smell was quite good. Following the scent, he found the remains of his large black carp... and was currently holding the large black carp's entrails discarded by Attilan and crying, while complaining:

"Damn magical beast, I just dozed off for a moment, and it actually ate my large black carp! Ah-ba will definitely not let me off when I get back, but discovering a magical beast that preys on large fish has appeared near the tribe, which can barely be considered a contribution."

"I hope Ah-ba won't punish me too severely."

The small fish-man was speaking the aquatic language, which was in Attilan's inherited memories. Even though the distance was a bit far, Attilan's ears could hear it clearly.

Through the small fish-man's reaction, Attilan learned that this kind of magical large black carp was also very rare in their tribe. He was able to get one because he was the son of the chieftain.

Following behind the small fish-man, Attilan saw this dilapidated fish-man tribe that lived at the river's estuary, with half of the camp on land and half underwater.

The corners of Attilan's mouth twitched. He seemed to have overestimated this fish-man tribe. The magical large black carp were not the result of their cultivation, but were naturally bred by this lake with an abnormally high water element content.

Then, there must be a secret hidden in the center of the lake regarding the lake's excessive water element content. Thinking of this, Attilan decisively chose to go ashore and build a nest!

And put the subjugation of the fish-man tribe on the agenda. As long as he subjugated the fish-man tribe, he would have a cannon fodder force to explore the mysteries of the lake's center, and he only needed fifty years to grow into a capable young dragon and master excellent spell abilities.

It would not be too late to explore the core area of the lake then. As a dragon, Attilan believed that the most important thing was to be steady! Relying on the fact that he was a dragon and thinking that he was invincible was an intolerable, arrogant idea.

Choosing the location of the dragon's nest within the fish-man tribe's activity range would easily be discovered by the fish-man patrols, and the food here would not be enough to supply Attilan's hunger.

Although dragons could survive even by eating dirt, he did not plan to spend his days in laziness. With the scope of this lake, as long as he persisted in hunting magical creatures like the large black carp, his rate of body growth would be enhanced.

Attilan's body length was only 2.8 meters, and when standing on the ground, he was only 0.7 meters tall. His wingspan was 5 meters, and his weight was 40 pounds. Unless he spread his wings and issued a dragon's roar to deter the fish-men.

Otherwise, with his size, he couldn't even intimidate the fish-men.

Only by working hard to eat and increase his size from small to medium could he initially display the majesty of a dragon. At least this small fish-man tribe would be willing to submit to him.

Traveling along the coastline from the fisherman tribe for almost 30 kilometers to the west, Attilan finally found a lush habitat with abundant aquatic plants. Small fish here would attract large fish to prey on them.

Large fish eat small fish, and small dragons eat large fish.

Attilan grinned, took a sip of the water-element-rich lake water, and raised his claws to start building his first dragon's nest.