Chapter Eight: The Stillness Before the Roar

During this week, I’ve been

Going out every day to the riverbanks, searching for small fish. I don’t need them for food, but I want to raise them inside the cave.

I dig holes and fill them with river water, preparing them to be a suitable environment.

I use large tree leaves — each one about a meter long and two meters wide — to carry and store the water.

While I was busy fishing today, I noticed slow movement among the submerged grass. I approached cautiously…

It was a small turtle, green in color, strikingly beautiful amid this savage world.

I reached out my hand and picked it up, holding it gently… a rare moment of peace in the midst of chaos.

But suddenly, the ground shook.

A deep roar erupted from the depths of the forest.

Screams echoed, branches snapped, and the ground trembled under the weight of heavy footsteps.

The monster surge had begun.

It was like a raging storm sweeping through everything in its path.

I panicked. I grabbed the turtle and ran, weaving quickly between the trees, my heart about to explode.

I leapt behind a large rock, hid, breathing heavily, and watched with tense nerves.

The monsters passed by me… fleeing, not chasing.

As if they were running from something unknown — something far more terrifying than themselves.

I held the turtle to my chest.

What’s happening?

And why do I feel… this is only the beginning?

After five hours of hiding, the monster surge calmed down, which allowed me to return to the cave.

As for the turtle, it looked beautiful and gentle, so I took it without caring whether it had a family or not. However, at first, I didn’t think it had a family.

I began searching for the reason behind the sudden monster surge and discovered it was the result of a battle between two powerful monsters deep in the forest: the Golden Lion and its purple turtle, which controlled its territory deep in the forest and owned a cave rich in energy.

In that battle, the Golden Lion won and took over the area after defeating the turtle.

I was lucky in that regard. When the monster surge ended and I left the cave, I found a snake badly wounded and on the verge of death. He asked me for help after telling me everything that happened deep in the forest.

But most importantly… I finally confirmed: this world is the same world as the novel I read in my past life.

After that, I received important information from the snake. It seems the Golden Lion was seriously wounded, its training level dropped by two levels, and it will need at least a hundred years to regain its former strength.

Even I was surprised that a snake, on the verge of death, knew all these details! But he surprised me again when I asked him how he knew… He simply said: “The turtle is my wife.”

Then he told me what happened… during the battle, the snake was seriously wounded and nearly killed, but he managed to take his newborn daughter and then fled the place.

After that, he fainted from the severity of his wounds, and when he recovered after a full day, he couldn’t find his newborn daughter anywhere.

He searched for her for a long time, in every direction, without finding any trace… until I met him.

It seems the snake is the turtle’s husband.

Anyway, it seems that the turtle I found is the snake’s daughter.

However, I am not yet ready to hand over this beautiful and delicate creature to that snake.

First, I decided to deepen my relationship with the snake.

I am confident that he will be of benefit to me, especially since he is very strong and capable of securing his own territory in this forest. Having him by my side means I won’t have to fear weak, low-level monsters, like the blood-toothed wolf or other similar beasts.

So, I began making plans on how to make this snake my personal servant and guardian in this forest.

The next morning, I gathered some medicinal herbs from the edges of the forest and mixed them with pure water inside a giant coconut shell I found near the river. Then I headed to the wounded snake, who was still writhing in pain but lifted his head slightly when he saw me approaching.

I sat quietly beside the snake,

and spoke to him.

I know trust isn’t easy… but if you want to regain your strength, you need me.

He didn’t reply. He just watched me with half-closed eyes, so I took a piece of the shell and began applying the medicinal mixture to his festering wounds. His skin was rough and cold, but I felt a slight twitch in his body…

Minutes passed in silence, then the snake finally whispered.

The snake said: Why are you doing this?

Well,

maybe because I don’t want to be alone in this world… and maybe because I need a strong ally like you.

A long silence followed before he said weakly,

The snake said: I owe nothing to anyone… but I will owe you a service.

I smiled, though I wasn’t sure if his decision came from gratitude… or something else lurking behind his silent eyes.

But that was enough for a beginning.

The snake said, eyeing me with curiosity: Can I ask you a question?

Well… yes, go ahead. What do you want to ask?

The snake moved a bit closer and raised his head.

The snake said: What is a small red dragon doing in this forest? In fact, how is it even possible for a young dragon to exist? Weren’t dragons extinct in this world a long time ago?

I sighed deeply.

The extinction of the dragon clan is a long and complicated matter… let’s leave it for another day.

Then I smiled.

As for why I’m here? Well, it seems that my mother and father suddenly decided they wanted a different parenting environment… and they started believing in inner peace, nature, and the nonsense of self-development.

I waved a small claw toward the trees.

So they told me: ‘My dear, instead of becoming a dragon who breathes fire and burns villages… why don’t you go meditate in nature?

Nature is good… go admire the beauty, learn from the trees, be a cultured dragon… or even a farmer! Enough of fire-breathing and village-blowing.

Become a farmer dragon?’

I shook my head lightly.

And so, I found myself in this forest, chasing rabbits and talking to snakes… what a fate.

And here I am… in the middle of the forest, watching the clouds and planting herbs, instead of living a life of glory, flame, and destruction.

What a miserable life…

Then I sighed again and muttered:

I was supposed to be on top of a mountain, roaring as people ran away… not living in a cave, peeling carrots and raising a turtle!

I shook my head.

I didn’t even attend a self-development course… all of this is homeschooling from Mama and Papa.

I paused for a moment, then said to myself bitterly:

What a sad… red dragon I am!

At that moment, the snake looked at me with a puzzled expression, his eyes slightly widened, and he raised his brow as if I had spoken a foreign language.

The snake said, tilting his head slightly: What is this self-development course you’re talking about? Is it… the ancestral land of the red dragon clan?”

I stopped for a moment, staring at him, then burst out laughing:

“Hahaha! No, genius… a self-development course isn’t a sacred land, it’s a silly human thing where they talk about life goals and time management and deep breathing!”

I shook my head and added sarcastically:

But imagine, a red dragon attending a workshop on inner peace… truly, a glorious end to the age of flame!

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(Number of words in this chapter: 1,394 words)

Best regards,

[Ss1000101]

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