Su Nian could feel that he could freely control the Flame Arrow Tower, designating a specific direction for its attacks.
It was just like playing a game—point and shoot.
However, it had to be within range.
Well, this definitely had the vibe of a tower defense game, except the wild monsters had been replaced by players.
Perhaps this was karma at work.
Thinking this, Su Nian shifted the attack target to a rock wall not far away and issued an attack command.
"Whoosh—"
In the blink of an eye, a fiery arrow, a meter long and as thick as a baby's arm, shot out. It struck the rock wall with a thunderous "boom."
When the smoke cleared, the targeted rock wall was scorched black. Its once-smooth surface was now riddled with craters, and stone fragments were scattered everywhere.
"Holy crap?! This thing is supposed to be a flame arrow? Are you sure it's not a budget version of a ballistic missile?"
The sheer power of the Flame Arrow left Su Nian dumbfounded.
No wonder its attack speed was so slow—it packed a hell of a punch!
"Bolikri!"
A resounding dragon roar echoed through the skies surrounding the dragon's lair. The kobold chieftain, Bolikri, hurriedly dropped what he was doing—literally, his wife—and scrambled toward the source of the roar, pulling up his pants as he went.
Moments later, Bolikri was panting and prostrating himself at Su Nian's feet.
"Oh great master, you summoned me?"
Su Nian nodded his massive dragon head and commanded, "Go, gather twenty of each type of those creatures. I want to conduct an experiment."
Bolikri dared not delay. He leapt down the rock wall and scurried off to inform the various beast leaders to assemble their troops.
Though he had no idea what his master intended, he was certain that everything his master did was nothing short of magnificent.
A short while later.
A group of magical beasts stood tall and proud at the base of the rock wall, neatly lined up, awaiting the black dragon overlord's orders.
"Bugs Bunny, take your Fireflame Rabbits and go test it out."
Su Nian manipulated the Flame Arrow Tower to open its wooden gate. As the group of Fireflame Rabbits entered the tower, a new system prompt appeared in Su Nian's mind.
[Ding! The Flame Arrow Tower is loading 20 soldiers. However, since these are unconventional soldiers, the Flame Arrow Tower will undergo some mutations. Continue?]
"Continue."
Su Nian's dragon face remained calm—he wasn't the least bit worried. If it broke, he could just build four more and keep playing.
After loading the Fireflame Rabbits, the Flame Arrow Tower showed no outward changes.
But when Su Nian issued an attack command...
He discovered that the arrows fired by the Flame Arrow Tower had transformed into enhanced Fireball spells.
Shaped like carrots.
"So that's how it works—it adapts based on the abilities of the subordinates?"
Su Nian scratched his dragon chin, the sound of his claws scraping against his scales echoing with a "crunch, crunch."
Next, he tested the Flame Arrow Tower with gnolls, kobolds, Blackwater Pythons, and Cockatrices, one by one.
When loaded with gnolls, the tower's performance was average, with no noticeable changes.
The kobolds, however, were impressive. The Flame Arrow Tower began alternating between various elemental flame arrows.
Poison-tipped arrows, dung-laden projectiles, and even venom sprays—though it also occasionally fired regular arrows and standard flame arrows.
In short, it was unpredictable but extremely disgusting.
The Blackwater Pythons turned the tower into a terrifying sniper. Each attack launched a Blackwater Python, which would strike the enemy with precision.
However, this took a toll on the pythons. After several attacks, the magical beasts had to carry the injured pythons away for treatment.
After thoroughly testing all the creatures, Su Nian concluded that only the ones mentioned above had any effect on the tower. Other creatures either failed to activate the tower or couldn't fire a single arrow.
Which made sense—how could a bunch of low-slung Rock-Armored Crocodiles possibly operate a tower? That'd be absurd.
Finally, Su Nian tested the charged skill, Flame Arrow Rain.
It wasn't the missile-launching spectacle he had imagined. Instead, it was more like a firestorm spell.
Its single-target damage couldn't compare to a flame arrow, but it covered a much larger area.
As for upgrading the Flame Arrow Tower, it required ten third-tier fire-elemental monster cores.
In the Silvermoon Forest, finding that many third-tier monsters would be nearly impossible. Only deeper within the Silvermoon Mountains might they exist.
For now, though, the level-one Flame Arrow Tower was sufficient. It lived up to the standards of its purple-tier blueprint.
So there was no need to risk venturing into the dangerous Silvermoon Mountains just yet.
When the human players eventually came to attack his dragon's lair, they'd learn the true meaning of "barbecue on a stick."
Su Nian grinned wickedly as he coiled atop the Flame Arrow Tower, his pale gold dragon eyes gazing toward Sakura No. 1 Novice Village, as if envisioning the scene.
"Master, something terrible has happened! Our eggs are gone!"
Just as Su Nian was imagining the future, Rekton crawled over, huffing and puffing, with two teary-eyed female crocodiles in tow.
"What eggs are missing?"
Su Nian glanced at Rekton's body, but due to Rekton's low stance, he couldn't see anything.
Sensing the black dragon's gaze, Rekton awkwardly tucked in his thick legs and anxiously explained, "Master, it's the crocodile eggs, not my eggs."
"Your eggs are crocodile eggs, aren't they?"
Rekton froze, his brain short-circuiting for a moment before finally realizing what Su Nian meant. Stammering, he clarified, "Uh… Master, I mean the female crocodiles' eggs, not mine. We were only gone for a little while, and when we came back, they were gone."
"Female crocodiles lay eggs?"
Bolikri looked curiously at the female crocodiles, whom he and Grey Wolf had previously tormented, his interest visibly piqued.
"Um… Brother, Anna thinks what the big crocodile means is that the baby crocodiles were stolen."
Perched on Su Nian's back, Anna had witnessed the entire exchange. Tilting her head, she bit her pale fingers and pondered for a moment before offering her interpretation from an elf's perspective.
Watching the two female crocodiles sobbing in each other's arms, and combining Anna's hint, Su Nian, who had been lost in thoughts of a bright future, finally snapped out of it and roared in fury:
"What?! Someone dared to steal my eggs?!"
Bolikri: "(⊙o⊙)!!"
Rekton: "(°ー°〃)??"
Unbelievable. Stealing from a dragon? That's practically a death wish!
These creatures were all Su Nian's private property, including the Rock-Armored Crocodile eggs. Once hatched, the baby crocodiles could grow into mounts.
But anger wouldn't solve anything.
Su Nian quickly calmed down, his sharp claws gouging deep grooves into the rock wall.
"Take me to the crime scene. I want to see who dares to steal from a dragon." """
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