Beneath the Red Dragon

Chapter 74: Chapter 29: The Volcano Is the Red Dragon’s Lair (Part 2)

It can nourish the land’s ecosystem, bringing abundant mineral resources and forming many valuable gemstones, which are favorites of the Kobolds and adornments of the Giant Dragon Treasure Vault.

Moreover, volcanic lava fused with other materials to form pumice-like stones and volcanic ash and cinder are top-quality building filler materials used for constructing houses and paving roads.

The benefits are countless, but there’s just one drawback; if not managed well, it results in catastrophic outcomes, affecting the entire Dragon Nest Mountain Range and potentially triggering tsunamis hundreds of miles away.

Besides these Giant Dragons and those sufficiently powerful beings, this place will become extinct, and everything will wither, taking a long time to restore its former vibrant appearance.

However, Karon is confident in controlling this extent. After all, he’s the Red Dragon mastering lava and fire and has enhanced senses to assist him, he shouldn’t miss.

Setting to work right away, the Red Dragon first digs out the volcanic dome that originally capped the eruption, though this dome’s existence shields the nest from wind and rain, its existence now acts as a limitation.

Considering that the volcano’s re-eruption path and his ever-growing body might be affected, Karon decides to dismantle the dome piece by piece and pile the rubble on the nearby mountain plain.

Dealing with this dome isn’t much of an effort with the current strength and physique of the Red Dragon.

These rocks will merge with the erupting debris and lava after the Red Dragon clears the volcano, continuously piling higher to form a new peak.

One can imagine that, influenced by the Red Dragon’s power, the peak will inevitably rise higher, similar to the Mexico Paricutin Volcano in Karon’s memory, which initially was just a few centimeters wide fissure spewing black smoke.

Hours later, the fissure widened to several meters, the eruption becoming progressively vigorous, the accumulating debris and lava at the eruption site forming a conical peak reaching hundreds of meters high.

Ordinary volcanoes don’t frequently erupt, thus the accumulated height is limited. When activity temporarily ceases, the accumulated crater can be eroded by rainwater and other reasons.

But with the presence and influence of the Red Dragon, if the Red Dragon desires, the volcano under their power can remain active around the clock.

Perhaps as the Red Dragon’s power further grows, the entire mountain range will be continuously elevated by the Red Dragon’s strength until the Earth Core Energy is depleted.

Looking at the neatly piled giant stone cubes covering the ground, Karon suddenly has an amusing thought; if he could return to his original world, maybe he could have these dragons try touring construction sites, earning themselves a thousand bucks within half a day.

Not to mention the number of bricks a dragon of such size can carry, even some cranes aren’t as handy as the dragons under his command, carrying heavy loads, yet agile and swift.

Perhaps even as delivery flyers, they could enter the ranks of the top-paid jobs, considering his current Dragon Group and those beloved creatures, all are quite handy workers.

Shaking his head, Karon believes the Red Dragon’s greed for wealth has affected his mind, he dismisses these silly thoughts, jumping down into the cave, starting to work with his muscular forelimbs.

According to Karon’s sub-brain accessed knowledge library, which isn’t included in Giant Dragon heritage, volcano formation has two main reasons.

One is at the junction between continental plates, due to relative movement between plates, where one plate dives under another.

The descending plate’s rock melts due to immense pressure forming magma, which rises, some rising to a certain extent stops, others rise to the surface forming volcanoes, accounting for the majority.

But in the perception Karon spreads, the volcano beneath him forms for the second reason.

That is, radioactive substances inside the Earth Core decay releasing heat, causing rocks to melt and ascend to the surface forming a volcano, described in this world as excessive Elemental Magic Energy changes leading to the volcano’s formation.

This is good news for Karon, he just needs to control the scale of lava channels and the intensity of hidden underground energy eruptions to create a continuously erupting controllable volcano.

Not only benefiting the territory but the Red Dragon can also bathe in the eternally gushing Fire Attribute Magic Power.

Karon first opens a passage in the ground which has solidified into basalt and various impurity rocks, leading to layers of lava solidified into root-like pipes.

However, he didn’t expect there to be some strange creatures living in the passages covered by these rocks and volcanic ash.

Inside these passages close to underground solution springs are many peculiar giant tube worms, differing from their sea counterparts, they resemble worm-like creatures clad in a thin leathery layer.

They are enveloped in a special body fluid allowing them to thrive even near heat-emitting solution springs.

Karon curiously pokes at such worms with his claw for a while, their movement speed very slow.

With such speed, to prey they must employ disguise-like predation methods akin to Cannibal Flowers or sudden attacks with retractable mouthparts like frogs catching mosquitoes.