Duncan maneuvered the juvenile dragon to gradually leave the battlefield, but he did not fly far and continued to hover in mid-air.
The Northern Bear-men soon collapsed in retreat.
Duncan considered pursuing them but decided against it after checking the energy bar; the juvenile dragon had not fully developed and its energy bar was less than half of that of unit one in human form. The previous hunting had already consumed a lot of energy, and with continuous flying and fighting, only about a third remained, requiring time to recover slowly.
On the battlefield, the Catman tribe watched the hovering juvenile dragon with trembling anticipation.
A Catman hunter stepped forward and asked the elder Priest, "What does the dragon want to do?"
"Why doesn’t it leave?"
The elder Catman Priest was also observing the hovering juvenile dragon. He glanced at the nearby corpses, pondered for a moment, and said, "Bring out all our stored food."
People hesitated slightly. A Catman Warrior whispered, "That is our last grain of food."
The elder Catman Priest’s eyes showed a hint of ruthlessness. Glancing at the Bear-men’s corpses not far away, he said in a deep voice, "Isn’t there food over there?"
"Go."
"Bring out all the stored meat, especially the juicy venison and fish."
The surviving Catman Warriors began to carry out the orders.
The elder Priest’s meaning was simple: use the tribe’s meat to feed the dragon. If they have nothing to eat later, they can directly eat these Northern Bear-men’s corpses.
"What are they doing?"
Duncan merely stopped to observe for a moment, and upon seeing the Catman hunters move a pile of frozen meat, he immediately understood their intentions.
Fine.
Consider it a protection fee.
Duncan didn’t need this meal, but he did need a meal to start establishing contact.
More than ten Catman Warriors placed a small pile of meat on a distant hillside, a spot from where the juvenile dragon could take off easily, and then retreated, leaving only the elder Priest standing a hundred or two meters away.
The juvenile dragon landed, sniffed, and then began feasting.
The dragon’s innate talent was very strong; it could detect the slightest off smell. Thieves trying to sneak into a dragon’s nest must use potions to remove all scent from their bodies.
Finally, it was full!
The juvenile dragon let out a screech, took to the sky, and disappeared, with the Catman Priest watching the dragon’s silhouette vanish into the snowy wind, deep in thought for a long time before returning to the tribe.
The initial tentative contact could be considered a success.
However, the juvenile dragon couldn’t speak other languages yet. Dragons need time to master various language abilities; not being able to communicate with language right now was still a bit inconvenient.
—— Innate Weapon - Claw Mastery: The juvenile dragon is already quite adept at using its innate claws and fangs to attack enemies. It can initiate combat form through its claws. Additional combat forms: horizontal sweep, tearing bite, swing.
Duncan checked the abilities and noticed a dim gray special ability.
It showed as inactive.
—— Cold Bloodline [Special Ability]: A unique bloodline possessed by creatures of the Northern Land, slightly enhancing its own cold resistance and lowering the survival adaptation temperature threshold.
(Inactive)
(Can be bestowed upon other creatures, converting them into a cold subtype).
The dragon’s innate bloodline was too strong.
The juvenile dragon was almost immune to conventional frost and cold damage; even magic had a hard time breaking its resistance. As the embodiment of magic, such a low-level bloodline side special ability, even if acquired, would not activate.
"Can it be bestowed?"
Duncan studied this a little, discovering that it seemed to be a dragon-exclusive ability, requiring some special materials to perform a ritual to convert certain creatures into a ’cold subtype.’
This ability, in a way, meant that southerners could become like Russians, just a bit more frost-resistant, ready to swim in winter.
Before leaving.
Using an overseer’s perspective, Duncan checked on the nearby Catman tribe, noticing that the marked elder Priest turned into a blue unit, while other Catmen mostly remained neutral, with very few retaining hostility.
For survival, to endure this winter, some female Catmen were already cutting up Bear-men corpses.
Born with bear hide coats.
As for other things, for the tribe’s survival, they ate with closed eyes.
Should the juvenile dragon ever get desperately hungry, it would eat anthropoid creatures, too, just the same. The Northern Land was very barren, with scarce resources, and only the South had abundant food resources. However, the southern hills were mostly occupied by Highland Elf nobles with development decrees; they were quite ruthless, having slaughtered several Giant tribes.
The Catman tribe had previously migrated to the hilly highlands, where Hill Giants were enslaved by the Elves, shackled with heavy chains, whipped to build majestic temples to the great Dark Elf Empress.
Forced with no other options, Feline Beastmen generally don’t like cold regions.
.........