Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1053: Chapter 1052: A Glimmer of Light

"This is the situation we currently face."

Red Dragon Carladore stood beside a charred long table, speaking to Heragor, who was seated on the other side.

This was one of the few relatively intact "rooms" within the temporary sanctuary; it was originally a pipeline control room of a factory. When the shockwave hit, this facility, half-buried in rock layers, withstood the impact due to its sturdy structure, but it didn’t come out unscathed—there were deep cracks from the ceiling to the walls, some of which already led to the outside, allowing the howling cold wind outside to pour into these gaps, bringing not only sharp whistles but also bone-chilling cold.

A dragon’s physique can ignore such cold, but the psychological gap brought about by such a bleak situation is unavoidable.

"How many dragons are there in this camp now?" Heragor lifted his head to look at Duke More, who was silently sitting nearby.

"Two thousand—most are injured or suffering severe backlash from the Enhancers and Hallucinogens, with less than half being considered healthy," Duke More said, "The good news is that many of the injured dragons still have some labor capacity; at least after emergency treatment, they can help search for supplies. Also, we send out scouting teams daily, searching for awakened comrades in nearby ruins, gradually increasing our manpower."

"How large is the search range?" Heragor asked again.

"Currently limited to the surroundings of Agondale, extending to the great rift on the western side at most—supplies are limited, communications are difficult, and elemental creatures still roam deep in the ruins, so scouting teams dare not venture too far from the camp,"

"Elemental creatures?" Balogar frowned, "Why are there elemental creatures?"

"In the late stages of the battle, the gods’ power shattered the great barrier of the prime material world, tearing several rifts leading to the elemental world in the center of Talronde—and then the rift briefly expanded to a third of the continent, countless elemental creatures surged out from inside," Duke More patiently explained, knowing Balogar wasn’t on the battlefield at that time, "Although the elemental power retreated on its own afterwards, and the main rift healed, a considerable number of roaming elemental creatures still operate near the rift’s radiation zone, and there are countless leftover small fissures... These things probably won’t dissipate completely for decades."

The room fell silent for a moment, after several seconds of silence, Speaker Andar finally spoke: "The search work must continue. From what we see now, more awakened comrades are waiting for rescue in the ruins. Presently, communication in Talronde is cut off, and the wild environment has become extremely dangerous. The survival chances of these isolated comrades in the wilderness diminish daily. Additionally, the search range must be expanded as much as possible, especially in the direction of the City of Gods, over there..."

Andar’s words were interrupted halfway when the distorted metal gate nearby suddenly "creaked" open. Melita Ponia walked in with a tired expression. She paused for a moment upon seeing the room’s scene, then lowered her head in greetings to Andar and Heragor. The White Dragon Noreta, sitting at a corner of the long table, stood up: "You’re back? How’s the situation outside?"

"Our comrades in the west are battling withdrawal symptoms from the Enhancers, but the situation is better in other areas," Melita exhaled, trying to speak about the more optimistic parts, "It’s evident that after Speaker Andar returned, everyone has been greatly encouraged, plus the dragon eggs you brought back today... I feel many dragons have found hope in those dragon eggs."

"Noreta found a dragon egg storage at the old site of the incubation factory. She and a team dug there for a long time and found hundreds of well-preserved dragon eggs," Carladore turned to Heragor, the three dragons, and said, "We stored those dragon eggs in the central cave of the camp, arranging for dragons to take turns guarding them—when the dragon eggs were brought back to camp, there was a noticeable boost in morale."

"Store them separately, don’t place them all in one cave," Balogar immediately cautioned, "Now, all the buildings above ground or caves below are quite unstable. Separately storing the eggs would be safer."

Carladore nodded quickly, "Yes, I’ll go arrange that soon."

"But really, I didn’t expect... you actually found intact dragon eggs," Andar couldn’t help but speak, his tone carrying a slight tremor, "I thought they’d all be destroyed after the incubation factory collapsed... It’s good to have found dragon eggs. With them, we can have a healthy new generation, unaffected by the Enhancers and implants from birth... In the days to come, only such ’original dragons’ can adapt to a dragon society without the Omega System."

Andar’s words deeply resonated with Melita—within this short period of awakening, she had already come to realize a fact: the previous phase of Talronde’s civilization had ended, the gods and Omega had both departed, and the previous generation of dragons raised in the cradle had already been cast off by the wheel of time. Implants, Enhancers, Automatic Systems... these things once shaped the entire dragon society, but this dragon society she knew had already vanished into thin air alongside those things. In the new era... the reborn dragons need a generation starting from scratch.

The dragon eggs Noreta found among the ruins weren’t just "hope" boosting morale—that was the genuine "future" of the Dragonkin.

"There should be more dragon eggs in the collapsed area of the incubation factory," Carladore was also moved by Speaker Andar’s emotions, wearing a face almost solemn, "Aside from rescuing the injured and gathering supplies, our primary focus next will be excavating those dragon eggs, transferring them to relatively safe and stable places."

"Good, that should be the approach," Speaker Andar nodded slowly, but then shook his head, casting his gaze slowly over the room, "But there’s still a problem, have you ever thought about it?"

Carladore looked curious, "Another problem?"

"...Do you know how to hatch dragon eggs?" Andar maintained a serious expression, scanning over Melita, Noreta, and other young dragons, even glancing at Carladore, who was relatively older, speaking in a tone without any hint of jest, "Among the young dragons in the camp, does anyone still know the technique of hatching dragon eggs without relying on factory facilities?"

Upon this utterance, the room fell into silence once more, Carladore’s expression momentarily stiffened, Noreta fell into a state of contemplation, and Melita pondered carefully for a while before hesitantly speaking, "Just tossing them into the magma or magic power pool... uh, probably won’t hatch them, right?"

"You’d only boil them," Carladore gave Melita a peculiar look, then turned to Andar, "I... probably know the process. It should involve maintaining the right temperature, sustaining a stable magic-pervasive environment..."

"Even someone like you, a Red Dragon, knows only this much. It’s predictable how the younger and more ignorant Dragonkin in the camp would fare in this aspect. I’m not hopeful at all," Speaker Andar sighed, slowly shaking his head. "Yet it’s not any of your fault, nor any dragon’s fault... After all, until today, no one had ever considered this kind of situation."

"...The Dragonkin were taken care of by the ’cradle’ for far too long, for something like this to happen," Duke More also sighed, his old humanoid face showing a bitter and self-deprecating smile. "And hatching dragon eggs is merely the first step. How to take care of young dragons without automatic nurturing systems or climate-controlled nests is another problem."

"So what should we do?" Melita Ponia looked to her left and right at those around her, feeling a bit helpless. "We don’t even know how to hatch the eggs... Then..."

"Then we learn, start learning, learn these ’skills’ that should have been biological instincts," Heragor broke the silence, speaking in a low tone. "We old folks from ancient times at least know what to do—we will teach the young dragons how to hatch dragon eggs and take care of the young ones bit by bit. But before that, one important thing must be addressed."

He stopped halfway, and Speaker Andar knew what he was about to say, so he picked up the conversation: "We can only hatch a portion of them, even just a small portion... Until our food supply is stable, the camp can’t sustain so many young dragons."

"Let’s start preparing now, selecting dragons willing and able to take care of dragon eggs and hatchlings, and we will teach them how to do it," Heragor said slowly. "We will take it bit by bit, start from zero, beginning with nurturing offspring, and we will rebuild Dragonkin society on this wasteland."

"Furthermore, I suggest at least two dragons be assigned to a dragon egg, or form groups to nurture them together," Speaker Andar added. "We need to avoid losing labor due to caring for the hatchlings, especially since the polar day has now passed halfway. Before the colder polar night arrives, we need to establish a relatively stable living environment quickly, which requires a lot of labor."

Starting from zero, starting from a wasteland—rebuilding a homeland.

Melita Ponia lifted her head, seeing Speaker Andar and Heragor discussing the future of the clan. Then Carladore and Balogar started discussing how to expand the camp and find stable food sources from nearby seas and islands. She saw Noreta sitting on the side, weary but with bright eyes. Suddenly, another scene surfaced in her mind—

She somehow thought of the little camp at the foot of the Dark Mountain Range years ago, the human beings who weakly and tirelessly built houses and cultivated wasteland, and the tents and panel houses by White River, along with that "pioneer" who stood next to a wasteland dreaming of the clan’s future with boundless energy and creativity.

Just a few years ago, she was merely an onlooker for all of that.

The images in memory overlapped with the scene before her, yet her state of mind from back then was completely different from the present.

That human being created many interesting words. Which word could be applied here? ’Things remain, but people have changed’? Or ’times have changed’? Neither feels quite right...

Melita Ponia drifted into her thoughts, only because what Speaker Andar and others were discussing had reached a domain beyond her understanding. She couldn’t think of anything useful on the matters of grand planning, but after zoning out for a while, her attention returned to the room as Speaker Andar was discussing the vision for rebuilding society with Duke More—

"The area we have explored so far is still too limited," Duke More commented regretfully. "Even though the scouting teams have flown to the ends of Agondale and nearby factory zones, the entire Agondale area is only one of many cities in Talronde... There’s still more than ninety percent of this continent that remains uncharted. Perhaps other places have established camps like ours, or maybe they need our help urgently or have resources we desperately need, yet we can’t contact each other at all."

"There are wandering elemental creatures on the surface, and the sky has unstable spatial rifts or elemental corridors at any time. All long-distance activities are fraught with danger, and sending out expedition scouting teams without a sure safe route is tantamount to suicide," Speaker Andar shook his head. "Communication is cut off, and the harsh natural conditions have fragmented different areas in Talronde."

"We found some ancient communication devices, but almost all of them won’t power on, and the few usable ones receive no signals," Carladore supplemented nearby. "Either there’s indeed no other camps within the search range, or interference on the wasteland is too strong..."

They discussed, while Melita Ponia listened at the side, suddenly unable to stop herself from saying, "Why don’t... we light fire beacons, like the humans did."

Speaker Andar and Duke More immediately paused their discussion, several pairs of eyes landed on Melita Ponia one after another, causing her to shrink her neck instinctively: "I’m just suddenly having an idea... I remembered seeing what those humans did when building pioneer camps. They lit fires or projected light beams in the wilderness, letting nearby refugees know the location of shelter... Of course, my consideration may not be thorough..."

"No, we’re not questioning, we’re just... a bit surprised," Speaker Andar said, suddenly unable to resist knocking his own forehead lightly with a smile, "we should have thought of such a simple and primitive method from the beginning."

"We only focused on repairing communication systems or restarting transport lines," Heragor spread his hands, "after all, we haven’t used firelight to communicate with distant places for over a million years."

"But in the current situation, even lighting fire beacons might not be useful, right?" Noreta, who hadn’t spoken much, looked at Melita Ponia, then at Heragor, and couldn’t help but say, "Not to mention how far the light and smoke from the fire beacon can travel, even if it’s seen from afar, the wilderness still has many insurmountable obstacles. Just from the areas we’ve explored, the surroundings of Agondale are almost completely blocked..."

"No, it’s still useful. Even if one survivor trapped in the ruins sees a beacon and finds the camp, it’s useful," Heragor shook his head firmly, "And even in the worst case, as you said, if obstacles in the wilderness block everyone, the fire beacon has its significance, informing other persistent camps and survivors, letting them know—we are here."

"I’ll prepare for this matter," Balogar said, "I’ll arrange the most grand firelight possible, so even across the ravine it can be clearly seen—Dragonkin must light a beacon, it mustn’t be small in scale."