The Birth of Elaine: A Water Dragon’s Debut

The dagger lightly grazed Ai Ou’s finger, leaving a faint white mark. Only then did Ai Ou recall how rapidly his physical constitution had improved recently. The strength of his flesh was far superior to what it had been before; a light scratch simply couldn’t break his defenses.

Determined, he pressed harder, dragging the blade across his finger until the skin finally broke. Blood welled forth, yet just as quickly, the flow began to diminish. Ai Ou hurriedly dripped the fresh blood onto the blue dragon egg. Like a sponge, the dragon egg absorbed every drop of Ai Ou’s blood. Soon after, the wound on Ai Ou’s finger healed, forming a faint white mark, no longer bleeding.

Once it had absorbed Ai Ou’s blood, the life within the dragon egg began to stir, its heart beating with increasing rapidity. Suddenly, Ai Ou felt a peculiar connection, a special sense of awareness, with the life before him. He understood then that he had formed a contract with the dragon egg.

“Crack, crack…”

The crisp sound of a shell cracking echoed through the revitalized Dragon Isle. Hearing it, Ai Ou immediately looked down at the dragon egg in his hands. Erza, too, stared with wide, crimson eyes at the egg before them. She knew that her sibling was about to be born.

The dragon egg split open. A tiny hatchling, no bigger than a kitten, poked its head out. This newborn dragon was entirely sky-blue, appearing both clumsy and utterly adorable. As it wriggled out of the egg’s fissure, it accidentally slipped from Ai Ou’s palm, tumbling to the ground with a clumsy fall.

“Yai… yai!”

The newborn sky-blue dragon cried out, startled and pained by the sudden impact. Its mouth puckered, and its sky-blue eyes began to mist. Tears welled up, streaming from its large eyes and falling to the ground, where they solidified into semi-translucent sky-blue crystals.

‘Dragon tears… this little one actually cried!?’

Ai Ou felt a mix of surprise and amusement. When Erza had been born, she was fearless and barely cried. He hadn’t expected this second dragon to be so delicate. ‘This dragon is far more sensitive than Erza. It seems I have a pampered young lady on my hands!’

Erza, seeing a fellow dragon in Ai Ou’s hands, approached like a large dog, sniffing at the newborn Water-elemental dragon. The hatchling, seeing Erza’s much larger form, was terrified. It swiftly leaped onto Ai Ou’s head, then cried even harder.

Ai Ou chuckled softly, then soothed a somewhat dejected Erza. He gently took the hatchling from his head and said, stroking it, “There, there, little one, don’t cry. It’s okay, it’s okay. This is your big sister; she likes you. There’s nothing to worry about, baby, don’t cry, it’s alright!”

Ai Ou began to comfort the newborn dragon like a doting father. This was a new experience, different from raising Erza. It felt as if he were holding a human baby, not a dragon. Erza wanted to get closer to the dragon baby, but every time the hatchling saw her, it threatened to cry. Ai Ou, caught between amusement and exasperation, could only comfort Erza and ask her to keep her distance from the baby dragon. Erza was both sad and frustrated. While Ai Ou’s reassurances helped, being disliked for no reason would make anyone uncomfortable.

Cradled in Ai Ou’s arms, the Water-elemental dragon baby seemed to recognize a familiar, comforting scent. It immediately stopped crying, giggling at Ai Ou and nudging him with its small head against his chest. It was… a display of affection.

[Ding! A new dragon has been born. Generating attribute template…]

At that moment, Ai Ou looked at the new dragon, and an attribute template flashed before his eyes.

Ocean Water Dragon King
Name: Unnamed
Gender: Female
Level: Tier 0
Skills: Dragon’s Breath, Dragon’s Might, Bite, Flight (Glide)
Habitat: Water Elemental Dragon Lair
Output: 1 Dragon Stone/day; efficiency increases tenfold after constructing a dragon lair.
Experience: 0/10
Personality: Timid, Gentle, Dependent
Description: King of Water Dragons, Master of Water Elements. Ruler of all Water-elemental dragons and magical beasts. Controls all water dragons and water elements, capable of devouring all rivers and oceans to replenish stamina.

[Please name the new dragon.]

‘Just as I thought.’

Seeing ‘Female’ in the gender section, Ai Ou sighed. Indeed, it was a delicate little girl, just as he’d suspected. He wondered if she and Erza would clash when they grew up. After all, fire and water were incompatible; the Fire Dragon King Erza and the Water Dragon King represented two extreme attributes. He couldn’t help but wonder if conflicts would arise.

Ai Ou patted the newborn hatchling’s head, then gathered all the eggshell fragments and offered them to the baby dragon, saying, “Little one, I’ll call you Elaine. You’ll share my surname!”

Although Ai Ou’s actual surname was White, not Ai, it didn’t stop him from using ‘Ai’ as the beginning of names he bestowed upon others.

[Naming successful. Information updated.]

Upon hearing Ai Ou’s words, Elaine chirped happily, her face beaming with joy, as if she was particularly pleased with the name.

[Congratulations, Island Lord, on acquiring your second dragon! You have received 100 Free Attribute Points. A detection of items containing abundant magic power has activated the Exchange System.]

Suddenly, Ai Ou heard the system’s voice, feeling somewhat puzzled. He addressed the system, “What’s the use of this Exchange System? What can I exchange?”

[The Exchange System allows you to convert items containing magic power, such as magic stones and magic cores, into Free Attribute Points. These points can be allocated to dragons owned by the Island Lord to increase their growth value, or to yourself to enhance your own growth value.]

Understanding the prompt, Ai Ou gently placed Elaine, who was happily munching on her eggshell, onto the ground. He then walked over to the pit. Inside were fifty magic stones, all ‘acquired’ from the people on the ship—or rather, ‘gifted’ by his shipmates.

Only fifty stones from sixty or seventy shipmates! Ai Ou felt his skills had deteriorated significantly and was rather dissatisfied. He knew many on the ship still possessed magic stones; he had only ‘harvested’ a portion. Now, knowing from the Dragon Isle’s system that magic stones could be exchanged for Free Attribute Points, Ai Ou resolved to employ all his accumulated knowledge to claim every last magic stone from the people on the ship.

Picking up a magic stone, Ai Ou heard a prompt in his mind:

[Detecting a basic magic stone of excellent quality. Can be exchanged for twenty Free Attribute Points. Do you wish to exchange?]

“Exchange it!”

Instantly, the magic stone in Ai Ou’s hand was recycled by the Dragon Isle’s system. At the same time, a new dialogue box appeared in Ai Ou’s personal attribute panel, displaying ‘Free Attribute Points: Twenty’.