Chương 55: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 55 - Flame Arrow Tower Trial (2)

Su Nian could feel it — he had full control over the Flame Arrow Tower, free to designate any target direction he wanted. Point and shoot. Just like a game. Within range, anyway. He had to admit, it had that tower defense feel to it. Except the monsters were now the players. Maybe that's just how the wheel turns. With that thought still turning in his head, he shifted the attack target to a nearby rock wall and issued the command.

Under Su Nian's stunned gaze, a flame arrow the length of a meter and as thick as a baby's arm shot out with a WHOOSH and slammed into the rock wall in a single blink. The impact hit like a hammer blow. BOOM. When the dust cleared, the rock face was scorched black. The smooth surface was now pitted and cratered, stone chips blasted in every direction.

"What the hell? That's a flame arrow? You sure that's not a simplified Dongfeng missile?" The sheer power left him genuinely stunned. No wonder the attack speed is so slow. It's got insane crit damage.

"Bolikri!" A dragon's roar rang out above the Dragon's Nest. Kobold Chieftain Bolikri immediately dropped his wife, yanked his pants up, and scrambled toward the sound on all fours. A moment later, he arrived panting, prostrating himself at Su Nian's feet.

"Great master, you called for me?" Su Nian nodded his dragon head.

"Go. Bring twenty of each monster type here. I'm running an experiment." Bolikri didn't hesitate for a second. He jumped off the rock wall and went to notify the various monster leaders to gather their forces. He had no idea what the master wanted to do. But everything the master did was great. That was beyond doubt. A moment later, the assembled beasts stood below the rock wall in neat rows, chests out, heads high, awaiting the Black Dragon's orders.

"Bugs Bunny. Take your Blaze Rabbits inside and give it a try." Su Nian used the tower controls to open the wooden door. As the Blaze Rabbits filed in, a new prompt appeared in his mind. [Ding! Flame Arrow Tower has loaded 20 soldiers. However, as these soldiers are non-standard soldiers, the Flame Arrow Tower will undergo mutation. Continue?]"Continue." Su Nian's expression didn't flicker. He wasn't even a little worried. If this one broke, he could build four more and keep experimenting.

The Flame Arrow Tower's exterior showed no change after loading the Blaze Rabbits. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. But when Su Nian issued the attack command, he found that the arrows it fired had become enhanced Fireballs. Carrot-shaped ones.

"So that's how it works. It shifts based on the followers' own abilities?" Su Nian scratched his dragon chin, producing a dry crackling sound. Then he started running through the rest of them, Gnolls, Kobolds, Blackwater Pythons, Cockatrices, cycling through each group one at a time. The Gnolls were unremarkable. The tower with them loaded performed about the same as baseline, no notable changes. The Kobolds were something else entirely. The tower started firing alternating arrows of every attribute imaginable.

Poison arrows dripping with venom. Projectiles mixed with feces and urine. It could even spit poison. Mixed in were some ordinary arrows and standard flame arrows too. Completely unstable. Absolutely revolting. A perfect Kobold. The Blackwater Python tower was its own kind of deranged. Every attack launched an actual Blackwater Python out of the barrel at high velocity for precision strikes. After a few rounds, the other beasts had to haul the dazed Pythons off for emergency treatment.

Once Su Nian finally finished cycling through all of them, the verdict was clear. Every beast he hadn't mentioned, stuffing them inside produced nothing at all. Not a single arrow. Evidently, they simply lacked the capability to operate the tower. Which made sense, honestly. How was a Rock Helmet Crocodile going to operate an arrow tower? Their legs barely cleared the ground. That was just asking too much. Last, he tested the charged skill: Flame Arrow Rain. It wasn't the rocket barrage he'd imagined.

It was closer to a Rain of Fire spell, wide area, low single-target punch. Couldn't hold a candle to a regular flame arrow for focused damage. As for upgrading the tower, that required ten third-tier fire-attribute monster cores. Those weren't easy to find around Silvermoon Forest. Only the deeper Silvermoon Mountains would have enough third-tier beasts. But for now, a level one Flame Arrow Tower was more than enough. It lived up to its purple blueprint spec. No reason to risk the Silvermoon Mountains yet.

He'd wait. When the human players eventually came to raid his Dragon's Nest, they'd find out exactly what "spicy skewers" meant. Su Nian bared his teeth in a cold grin and coiled himself on top of the Flame Arrow Tower. His pale golden eyes fixed on the direction of Sakura Island's No. 1 Newbie Village, as if he could already see it playing out.

"Great master, it's terrible — our eggs are gone!" He was still savoring that future when Rekton came huffing and puffing toward him, two female Rock Helmet Crocodiles in tow, both of them blubbering with tears streaming down their faces.

"What eggs are gone?" Su Nian glanced down at Rekton. But Rekton's ground clearance was genuinely pitiful, and he couldn't make out anything. As if feeling the Black Dragon's gaze, Rekton pulled his thick hind legs in slightly, his expression caught somewhere between embarrassed and frantic.

"Master, crocodile eggs. Not my eggs."

"Your eggs aren't crocodile eggs?" Rekton's brain seized up. He stared blankly for a moment before finally catching up.

"Uh... Master, I mean — the female crocodiles' eggs. Not mine personally. We left for a bit just now, came back, and they were gone."

"The female crocodiles have eggs?" Bolikri was staring at the female crocodiles with great interest, the very same ones he and Grey Wolf had been rather rough with earlier, looking disturbingly eager.

"Um... Brother, Anna thinks..." The small voice came from Su Nian's back. Anna had been watching the whole thing from up there. She tilted her head, nibbling on one pale finger, brow furrowed in thought.

"... Anna thinks what Big Crocodile is trying to say is that the baby crocodiles were stolen." Su Nian looked at the two female crocodiles holding each other and sobbing. He factored in Anna's interpretation. His mind, which had still been half-floating in visions of a glorious future, finally caught up. He let out a roar.

"What?! Someone actually dares to steal MY eggs?!" Bolikri: (⊙o⊙)!! Rekton: (°ー°〃)?? Absurd. Whoever did this had stolen from under a dragon's nose. Were they just not interested in living? Every monster here was his private property. That included the Rock Helmet Crocodile eggs. The hatchlings that came out of those eggs would grow up into mounts. Perfectly good mounts. But rage wasn't going to solve anything. Su Nian went cold in an instant.

His dragon claws dragged across the rock wall, carving two deep gouges into the stone.

"Take me to the scene. I want to see exactly who has the nerve to steal from a dragon." ➤ Next: Harpy