Lick.

I licked my lips.

An involuntary sound like "ooh-hyo" escaped my mouth at the breathtaking sight before me.

My mouth was already watering.

Old man Compy flinched in surprise, but it was hard to hide my desire for the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

To think I’d discover this mural in such a remote place.

No matter how much I looked at it, it resembled the one left behind by the Heavenly Demon.

Of course, it might not be the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

This was the cave where the Utahraptor had been sleeping.

There was a mural in that place too, something left by the Heavenly Demon. According to Baek Yeon-Yeong, it was indeed left by the Heavenly Demon, but it couldn’t be called the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

It was a martial art created by the Heavenly Demon, but it fell short of being labeled as a "divine art."

Still, what the Heavenly Demon considered "lacking" was an invaluable treasure for someone of my level.

And next to it, there were objects that looked like elixirs.

Maybe I could sneak one out later.

Whatever it was, I was practically drooling.

At the same time, a question arose in my mind.

The entrance to this cave was extremely narrow.

It didn’t widen as it went further inside either.

It was such a tight space that it was more of a random crevice in the rocks than a proper cave.

But here, there was a mural left by the Heavenly Demon?

I squinted my eyes and carefully examined the cave.

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t understand.

There wasn’t any special mechanism or altered structure.

In other words, this cave hadn't changed since the time the Heavenly Demon etched this mural.

Thinking back to the murals in Silver Dragon Cave and the Utahraptor's hideout...

Hadn’t the engravings been made at a height so tall that even if you stretched out a gomodo-rania, it barely reached?

Yet now, it was at a height smaller than that of a Green Basilisk.

What in the world was the identity of the Heavenly Demon to make something like this possible?

"Gehg!"

I glanced over at old man Compy.

The old man was staring at me with curious eyes.

He seemed to have noticed I was absorbed in the mural.

Right.

This old man probably had no idea what the mural was either.

He might know a bit about martial arts, but this was an inscription left directly by the Heavenly Demon.

At best, he probably brought me here to show the pictures at the bottom of the wall, but my eyes were fixed on something else, so he must have thought, “Oh, this kid knows something.”

"Kehkeh."

The old man’s expression softened a bit.

How should I put it?

Maybe he would forgive my trespasses?

It was the look of someone who had suddenly realized, "Oh, you’re more competent than I thought."

Like the look you might get from a disapproving father-in-law when he learns your salary is higher than he expected.

I only had one thing to say.

"Gehg..."

I know nothing.

"Kek?"

Naturally, I couldn’t even read the script used in this place.

Occasionally, I recognized a Chinese character, but that was rare.

There were far too many unknown symbols.

I couldn’t even properly read the text, so how could I possibly interpret that intricate passage?

Unless it was a beginner’s illustration, I was lost.

It looked like some figure was performing breathing exercises in that drawing.

That was the extent of what I could grasp.

The traces left by the Heavenly Demon, with their mix of straight and curved lines, were far too profound for me to understand.

Maybe if I brought Baek Yeon-Yeong here, she could figure something out.

I mentally stored the scene.

Later, when I met Baek Yeon-Yeong again, I could either bring her here or try to trace those lines with my claws. Maybe she would be able to tell me something.

"Kek!"

Whack!

As if to say, "Of course," old man Compy smacked me on the head.

I felt like my skull was denting.

"Keh, kehhek?"

Is this supposed to be okay?

The old man looked a bit flustered, but then he cleared his throat as if it was nothing.

I felt like my face was turning into a triangle.

"Kehkeh."

The old man rummaged through his scales and pulled out something familiar.

[High-Grade Inner Core]

A high-grade inner core!

So the old man knows the concept of rewards, huh?

I wasn’t sure if this was a reward for cracking my skull or for protecting his territory.

I bowed my head, ready to accept it.

I had a sneaking suspicion of where that core came from.

...Wasn’t that the one inside the Megatherium?

I looked up and glared at Compy.

Seeing him avert his eyes, I knew I was right.

It was mine to begin with!

I’d been so busy messing around with the other lizards—no, checking the aftermath of the battle—that I hadn’t even noticed when he’d taken it.

Well, he’d saved me the trouble of processing it, so I’d accept it with a generous heart.

Besides, I was planning to collect those elixirs I’d seen earlier.

The core was high-grade.

High-grade, huh.

It wasn’t a low-tier core by any means, but it still felt a bit lacking.

When I had killed the Cockatrice, I had obtained a supreme-grade core.

The Megatherium had been an even tougher opponent than the Cockatrice.

Of course, the Cockatrice’s main weapon was petrification, while the Megatherium relied on brute strength and size, so they were different in nature.

In terms of sheer combat power, they might have been similar.

No, even if you compared them, they were equals.

The strength of the Megatherium and Cockatrice was comparable.

The Cockatrice was a legendary creature, while the Megatherium was a real ancient beast.

Does that mean the Cockatrice ranks higher as a life form?

Well, being strong doesn’t necessarily mean the core is of high quality.

If that were the case, then hunting an elephant should at least give you a mid-grade core.

High-grade is still good.

With that thought in mind, I gulped it down.

As expected, my body didn’t change.

Eating a core didn’t mean the internal energy was immediately absorbed.

It seemed to accumulate over time, bit by bit.

If a dire situation arose, like during the Dilophosaurus fight, I might burn it all at once for a burst of strength.

Alright, the core is consumed.

Old man Compy doesn’t know what’s written on that mural.

So why did he call me here?

There had to be a purpose for him bringing me here.

The core he gave me seemed like a peace offering for cracking my skull.

"Gehk."

Just spit it out already.

Old man Compy looked at me with unusually serious eyes.

"Kehekehk!"

Shouting words I couldn’t understand without the status window, he grabbed my arm.

Then, he started running his hands over my body.

It was like when Baek Yeon-Yeong had tried to teach me martial arts, pulling and prodding at me.

What the hell is wrong with this old man?

If it were Baek Yeon-Yeong or the Snake Queen, I wouldn’t mind.

But I don’t have any interest in being touched by another man.

At least bring Tus or Pus, Nephila Jurassic, or Sssisska.

"Gehgek."

I let out a very uncomfortable growl.

But I didn’t attack him.

He was, after all, my father-in-law on paper. How could I commit such an atrocity?

Besides, there had to be a reason he brought me here.

The old man tapped one of the scales on my chest.

It felt strange, like something hot was bubbling up from within me.

"Geh... Gehhek!"

Where do you think you're touching?

Even Baek Yeon-Yeong hasn’t touched there.

Old man Compy poked at one of the scales on my chest.

The heat inside me intensified.

If I had to visualize it, it would be like fire.

It was even stronger than the fire energy I had felt from Hwari.

What the hell is this?

I looked down at my chest and noticed one of my scales was oddly reversed.

Wait a minute.

That’s... a reverse scale.

...I had a reverse scale?

No, I knew I had one.

But that was the name of a skill!

I hadn’t realized I had an actual reversed scale on my body.

I had never touched it before.

Its precise location had been hidden among the other scales on my chest.

In other words, even if my chest was attacked, the other scales would protect it.

When I grew larger, it would be even safer.

The scales would grow along with me.

I hadn’t realized the reverse scale was there because of how tightly packed the dragon scales were.

But now?

Now that Compy was flipping through my scales, it was easy to find.

Of course, the old man hadn’t directly touched the reverse scale.

He had only prodded the scales surrounding it.

Even so, I felt something I had never experienced before.

It was as if fire was about to pour out of my mouth.

Right.

The reverse scale isn’t some weak point of a dragon.

It’s a sensitive spot that, when touched, angers the dragon, causing them to kill whoever dared touch it.

Compy seemed to know that, carefully avoiding the reverse scale itself.

I was uncomfortable, but not to the point of being enraged.

"Grrr..."

I let out a growl of displeasure.

No matter how much he was my father-in-law, this was too much.

If it had been the Snake Queen touching it, I would have welcomed it with open arms, but this was just wrong.

If he accidentally brushed the reverse scale, I might bite him.

As I had that thought, Compy withdrew his hand from my scales.

But the fire that had been stoked wouldn’t die down easily.

The unresolved heat filled my body.

"Grrr..."

Compy took a step back, observing me carefully.

After several minutes of watching, once he was sure I wasn’t going to take any drastic action, he sat down in place.

Then, he crossed his legs into a meditation posture.

I wasn’t surprised.

He was a dinosaur who could use martial arts and possessed deep internal energy, so it wasn’t strange for him to assume such a posture.

But why now?

Why bring me to this place?

Was it to warn me about the reverse scale?

Would he really have gone through the trouble of dragging me into this dark cave just to show me something like that?

No, there had to be another reason.

The core I had just eaten.

The mural’s inscriptions and drawings.

Compy’s meditation posture.

And the strange feeling I had after my reverse scale had been prodded.

If I had to name it, it was an emotion close to anger.

The old man was guiding me.

He had intentionally amplified the heat inside me and was now urging me to calm it through meditation.

Now I understood why the old man had brought me here.

When I first succeeded in opening the Small Heavenly Circuit, I had acquired a certain martial technique.

Baekran Martial Technique
A very basic internal energy technique. It holds the potential to evolve into any form of martial art.

Baekran Martial Technique.

Whenever I used internal energy, I had always relied on this technique, rather than the power of the status window.

But its efficiency was never great.

Compared to the elixirs and cores I had consumed, its output was always lacking.

If I had to rank it, the Nine Yin Bone Claw was top-tier, while the Baekran Martial Technique was low-tier.

Among all my skills and martial arts, the Baekran Technique was the weakest link.

In a way, what I needed most urgently was a new internal energy technique.

By controlling my energy more efficiently, all my other abilities would naturally be enhanced as well.

But there was no one to teach me.

Baek Yeon-Yeong couldn’t teach me because, as she said, our body structures were too different.

The Snake Queen was in the same situation.

I needed someone with a body similar to mine, with deep internal energy, and who had goodwill toward me.

Either that, or I needed to figure it out myself.

"Kekek."

And that someone was sitting in front of me, cross-legged.

The Baekran Martial Technique.

It was like a white egg.

A very basic technique with the potential to evolve into something more.

It was time to crack the egg.