“That’s what we are facing right now.”

Red Dragon Calador stood at a long burnt table and said to Hragore, who was sitting on the other side of the table.

This is one of the few intact "rooms" in the temporary shelter. It was originally a pipe control room of a factory. When the shock wave arrived, the facility half buried in the rock formation had withstood the blows with its solid structure, but it was not without damage. There were several deep cracks in the room from the roof to the wall, and some cracks could lead to the outdoors. The howling cold wind outside the house poured into these gaps, bringing not only sharp whistling, but also a biting cold.

The dragon's physique can ignore this coldness, but the psychological gap caused by such a desolate situation cannot be avoided.

"How many dragons are there in this camp now?" Hragor raised his head and looked at Dukemore who was silent on the side.

"Two thousand - most of them are injured or are suffering from severe backlash from synergists and hallucinogens. There are only less than half a century of health," Dukemore said. "The good news is that many injured dragons also have a certain ability to work, at least after emergency treatment, they can help find supplies. In addition, we are now sending search teams every day to search for awakened compatriots in the nearby ruins, and have gradually increased a lot of people."

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

"Currently, it is limited to the surrounding area of ​​Argondor, the great rift valley farthest to the west - limited supply, inconvenient communication, and there are wandering elemental creatures in the depths of the ruins, so the search team dare not leave the camp too far."

"Elemental creature?" Balogel frowned, "Why are there elemental creatures?"

"The power of the gods in the late stage of the battle shattered the barrier of the main material world, and tore open several rifts to the elemental world in the center of Tallond. Then the rift once expanded to one-third of the continent, and countless elemental creatures surged out from it," Dukemore explained patiently, "Although the elemental power retreated on its own after that and the main rift healed, there were still a considerable number of wandering elemental creatures moving near the rift radiation belt, and countless small rifts of all sizes remained... These things may be difficult to dissipate within decades."

The room was quiet for a moment, and after more than ten seconds of silence Andal spoke: "The search work must continue. At present, it seems that more people who have recovered from sobering are waiting for rescue in the ruins. Now that the communication between Tarlong is cut off, the wild environment has become extremely dangerous. The chances of these isolated and helpless compatriots in the wilderness are decreasing every day. In addition, the search range should be expanded as much as possible, especially in the direction of the City of Gods, over there..."

As soon as Andal was halfway through his words, the twisted and deformed metal gate not far away suddenly creaked and was pushed open. Melita Pernia, who looked tired, walked in from outside. After seeing the scene in the room, she was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head to greet Andal and Heragor, and the white dragon Noreta, who was sitting in the corner of the long table, stood up: "Are you back? How is the situation outside?"

"The compatriots in the West are fighting the symptoms of synergistic withdrawal, but the situation in other areas is fine," Melita exclaimed, trying to say the more optimistic part. "It can be seen that Speaker Andal and others were very encouraged after they came back, and the dragon eggs you brought people to dig back today... I feel that many dragons have been ignited by those dragon eggs."

"Noretta found a storage warehouse for dragon eggs at the former site of the hatchery factory. She led a team to dig there for a long time and found hundreds of well-preserved dragon eggs," Caladol turned to Hragor Sanlong and said, "We stored those dragon eggs in the cave in the center of the camp and sent dragons to take turns to watch. When the dragon eggs were transported back to the camp, everyone's morale improved significantly."

"Storage separately, don't put it in a cave," Balogel immediately reminded, "Now, both the buildings on the ground and the caves on the ground are very unstable. It will be safer to store those eggs separately."

Calador nodded quickly: "Yes, I'll make arrangements later."

"But I really didn't expect... you actually found the intact dragon eggs," Andal couldn't help but speak, with a hint of trembling in his tone. "I thought they were all destroyed after the hatch plant collapsed... Just find the dragon eggs. If we find the dragon eggs, we can have a healthy new generation, and a new generation that has not been affected by synergists and implants since birth... In the days to come, only this 'primitive dragon' can adapt to the dragon society that has lost its omega system."

Andal's words made Melita feel deeply - in the short period of awakening, she had clearly realized a fact: the previous stage of the Tallond civilization has ended, the gods and Omega have left, and the previous generation of dragons who grew up in the cradle have been dropped off the wheels as the times change. Implants, synergists, automatic systems... These things once shaped the entire dragon society, but this dragon society she is familiar with has disappeared with those things. In the new era... dragons starting from scratch need a generation starting from scratch.

The dragon egg Noreta found in the ruins is not just a morale "hope" - it is the real "future" of the dragon clans.

"There should be more dragon eggs in the collapsed area of ​​the hatch plant," Calador was also moved by Speaker Andal's emotion. He had a nearly solemn and serious expression on his face. "The next step is to search and rescue the wounded and collect materials, our focus is to dig out the dragon eggs and transfer them to relatively safe and stable places."

"Very good, I should do this," Speaker Andal nodded slowly, but then he shook his head again, his eyes slowly swept across the room, "But there is another question, have you ever thought about it?"

Caladol had a curiosity on his face: "One more question?"

"...Do you know how to hatch the dragon egg?" Andal's serious expression looked at the young dragon clans such as Melita, Noreta, and even swept over the relatively old dragon clan of Calador, with no joke in his tone. "Does anyone in the camp still know the skills of hatching dragon eggs without using factory facilities?"

As soon as this said, the room suddenly became quiet again. Caladol's expression was a little stiff for a moment, and Noreta fell into a state of thought. Melita thought carefully for a long time before hesitating: "Take it directly into the magma or magic pool... Uh, it probably won't hatch?"

"You can only cook them," Caladol glanced at Melita with a weird expression, then looked at Andal, "I... probably know this process. It should maintain a suitable temperature and maintain a stable magical environment..."

"Even a red dragon like you only knows this little thing. You can imagine how young and ignorant dragon clans in the camp are in this respect. I have no hope at all," Andal sighed and shook his head slowly, "But this is not your fault, no dragon... After all, before today, no one has considered the situation at this moment."

"... The dragon clan has been cared for by the 'cradle' for too long, and this kind of thing actually happened." Dukemore sighed, with a bitter and self-deprecating smile on his old man's face. "And hatching dragon eggs is just the first step, and how to take care of the young dragon without an automatic breeding system and a constant temperature nest is even more problematic."

"What should I do?" Melita looked around the people around her, feeling a little helpless, "We can't even hatch eggs...then..."

"Then learn, learn from the beginning, and learn these 'skills' that should be biological instincts," Hragor broke his silence and said in a low tone. "We old guys from the ages at least know what to do - we will teach young dragons how to hatch eggs and take care of young dragons little by little, but before that, one thing is important."

He stopped halfway through his speech, and Andal, who was beside him, knew what he was going to say, so he took the following words: "We can only hatch part, even a small part... Before our food supply stabilizes, the camp cannot raise so many young dragons."

"Let's prepare now, pick some dragons that are willing and have the energy to take care of the dragon eggs and the young dragons, and then we will teach them what to do," said Hragor slowly. "Let's do it little by little, starting from scratch, starting from the descendants, and we will rebuild the dragons on this wasteland."

"In addition, I suggest that at least two dragons claim a dragon egg, or form a group to raise it together," Andal added, "We must avoid losing labor due to caring for the young dragons, especially since the polar day is now halfway through. Before the colder polar night comes, we must establish a relatively stable living environment as soon as possible, which requires a lot of labor."

Start from scratch, start from a piece of wasteland - rebuilding a home.

Melita looked up and saw Andal and Hragor discussing the future of the ethnic group. Then Caladol and Balogel began to discuss how to expand the camp and find stable sources of food from nearby waters and islands. She saw Noreta sitting aside, exhausted, with bright light in her eyes, and suddenly another image appeared in her mind.

For some reason, she thought of the small camp at the foot of the dark mountains a few years ago, the weak humans who carried their shoulders to build houses and reclaim wastelands in the wilderness, the tents and prefabricated houses on the banks of the Baishui River, and the "pioneer" who seemed to have infinite energy and countless creativity, who had stood by a wasteland to outline the future of the ethnic group.

Just a few years ago, she was still a spectator of all that.

The scenes in my memory overlap with the scenes in front of her, but the mood of my memory back then was completely different from the mood of my current ones.

That human created many interesting words. Which word can be used here? Things change and people? Or are time passes? It seems that the feeling is not right...

Melita was thinking a lot, just because what Andal and the others were discussing had become more and more areas that she could not understand, and she could not think of any useful opinions on issues involving overall planning, but after a while of excavation, her attention returned to this room, and Andal was discussing with Dukemore's idea of ​​rebuilding society-

"The areas we are exploring are still too limited," Dukemore said with regret. "Even if the search team has already flown to the end of Argondore and the surrounding factory areas, the entire Argondore area is only one of many cities in Tallond... More than 90% of the areas in this continent are in an unknown state. Perhaps camps like this have been established in other places. Maybe they need our help in urgent need, or maybe they have the resources we need, but we cannot connect with each other at all."

"There are elemental creatures on the surface, and the sky has unstable space cracks or elemental channels at any time. All long-distance activities are dangerous. Sending an expedition exploration team without a safe route is equivalent to suicide," Andal said, "Now that communication is cut off, and the harsh natural conditions have divided the various areas of Tarlongde."

"We found some ancient communication devices, but almost all of them were unable to turn on, and a few of them could not receive signals," added Caladol, who was on the side. "Either there are no other camps in the search range, or the interference on the wasteland is too strong..."

They discussed, and Melita was listening, and suddenly, she couldn't help saying, "Or... let's light the beacon, just like those humans."

Andal and Dukemore stopped discussing, and several pairs of eyes fell on Melita, which made the latter subconsciously shrink his neck: "I just suddenly had an idea... I remember what people did when they saw when they built pioneer camps. They made fires or fired light columns in the wilderness, so that nearby refugees knew the location of the shelter... Of course, I might not be considerate..."

"No, we are not questioning, we are just... a little surprised," Andal said, suddenly unable to help but smile and knocked on his forehead. "This simple and primitive method is something we should have thought of at the beginning."

"We just want to repair the communication system or restart the traffic line," Hragor spread his hands. "After all, we have not communicated with distance with fire for more than a million years."

"But in this situation, it is not necessarily useful to light a beacon, right?" Noreta, who had not spoken much, looked at Melita, then looked at Hragor, and couldn't help but say, "Not to mention how far the light and smoke of the beacon can travel, even if you see it from afar, there are still many obstacles in the wilderness that cannot be overcome. As far as we have explored, there are almost blockades around Argondore..."

"No, it's useful. Even if a survivor trapped in the ruins finds a camp after seeing the beacon, it's useful," Hragor shook his head and said solemnly, "and even in the worst case, as you said, obstacles in the wilderness block everyone, the beacon has its meaning. It can tell other camps and survivors that are still insisting on, let them know that we are here."
Chapter completed!