"So many gems, I'll just take one, the smallest one, the one least likely to be noticed."
At this moment, Garon had already thrown the idea of snatching his younger siblings' eggshells to the back of his mind.
The benefits of swallowing a gemstone were far more attractive than those eggshells.
The energy contained within magical gemstones could allow a dragonet to grow faster and survive the easily fatal dragonet stage. Even ordinary gemstones, with their constituent elements, would help with the growth of a dragonet's scales and bones.
The White Dragon Mother naturally knew this, but the selfish and greedy nature of evil dragons, along with their obsession with treasure, determined that she would never share her gemstones with her dragonets.
Under normal circumstances, although dragonets were born with a love for treasure, they wouldn't dare to covet their dragon mother's hoard.
Not out of respect or filial piety, but because the power gap between them was too large, making it extremely easy to be discovered. Once discovered, they would likely face a severe beating.
When a dragonet grew to the juvenile stage, with a sufficiently strong physique and a strong desire to collect treasure and territory, the dragon mother, in order to ensure that the increasingly powerful juvenile dragon wouldn't turn its attention to her, would unceremoniously drive it away.
And Garon's mind was already firmly made up.
The most vulnerable period for dragons was the dragonet stage. This was partly due to the dragon mother's lack of responsibility and partly due to the dragonet's weak body. In order to get through the dragonet stage as quickly as possible, Garon set his sights on the gemstones.
As the weakest white dragon dragonet, without any golden finger system to accompany him, if he didn't dare to take a little risk, Garon felt that he might not survive to adulthood. The mortality rate of white dragon dragonets was too high.
A dragon dies with its roots facing the sky!
A dragon without gemstones is not a fat dragon!
A daring dragon dies of fullness, a timid dragon dies of hunger!
...
Before long, Garon clapped his dragon claws together, having come up with a feasible plan.
He immediately ran back to the nest entrance and looked around again.
He still couldn't see a trace of the White Dragon Mother in the sky filled with goose feather-like snowflakes. It seemed that the White Dragon Mother would need at least some more time before returning.
Returning to the depths of the nest, the little female dragon Hill had finished eating her eggshell. Her curvy dragon body was sitting on the ground like a wolfhound.
Her dragon head with its smooth facial armor swayed with Garon's movements, clearly staring at Garon with curiosity.
There were only Hill and Garon, two dragons, in the nest, along with those gently shaking dragon eggs. The dragon eggs were boring, and she had nothing else to look at besides Garon.
Garon knew that if Hill saw him taking the White Dragon Mother's magic gemstones, she would definitely report him without hesitation when the White Dragon Mother returned, and then gleefully watch him get driven out of the nest by the White Dragon Mother.
"The first challenge of dragon life: borrow a gemstone from the White Dragon Mother's treasure hoard."
"The first hurdle: how to successfully get rid of the witness."
Garon's platinum dragon pupils narrowed slightly, and a strange light flickered within them.
Due to her excellent intuition, Hill seemed to sense the malice directed at her and restlessly wagged her slender dragon tail.
Garon grinned at Hill, trying hard to look friendly, but the young and sharp dragon teeth in his mouth made him look somewhat cute yet fierce no matter how he tried.
Under Hill's wary dragon gaze, Garon slowly walked forward.
His lion-tiger-like size at birth made him several times larger than Hill, and his imposing aura was overwhelming.
This ill-intentioned approach immediately made Hill retreat repeatedly.
Like a maiden forced by thugs, the little female dragon Hill soon had nowhere to retreat and leaned against the reflective ice crystal wall.
She angrily shook her small dragon head and growled low at Garon, striking a pose of warning and threat, revealing a mouthful of tender white dragon teeth.
White dragon dragonets generally had low intelligence, the lowest among the evil dragon lineage. Even with the Dragon Inheritance, they mostly acted according to beast-like instincts.
As they aged, the intelligence of white dragons would slowly increase. By the juvenile stage, it would be similar to that of normal humans, and most adult white dragons could use magic, possessing the high intelligence to become mages.
But the current Hill was still in a silly stage and easily deceived.
"Don't blink, dragon brother will show you a treasure."
Garon shook his tightly clenched dragon claws, then slowly extended them.
His obvious movements immediately attracted Hill's attention. Just as Garon had expected, Hill lowered her head, her gaze focused on Garon's dragon claws.
Immediately afterwards, with lightning speed, Garon's dragon head, covered in layers of facial armor, suddenly tilted back, his neck arched like a fully drawn bowstring, and then slammed down abruptly.
In an instant, the hard bony facial armors collided.
A crisp and powerful sound echoed in the nest.
Thanks to the highly reflective ice crystal walls, the sound was almost like a reverberation in an empty valley, lingering for a long time. The slightly shaking dragon eggs seemed to be stimulated and shook even more violently, and their hatching time should be advanced a little.
Opposite him, the little female dragon Hill didn't make a sound. Her limbs immediately went limp, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the ground, knocked unconscious by Garon's headbutt.
Dragons had extremely tenacious vitality. A single headbutt was nothing to worry about regarding the little female dragon's safety. Garon had controlled his strength, and she would at most be unconscious for half an hour.
"Hill, dragon life is perilous. You can't be so easily deceived like this in the future." With a look of earnest intention, Garon said earnestly to the unconscious Hill.
He felt no guilt whatsoever for repeatedly harming his little sister.
Immediately afterwards, Garon excitedly rubbed his dragon claws together and quickly ran towards the depths of the nest where the treasures were piled up.
"The first hurdle has been successfully cleared."
"Now for the second hurdle: how to make it difficult for the White Dragon Mother to notice the theft of treasure."
Garon raised his head, looking at the various treasures that could bury him, his platinum dragon pupils reflecting a wicked color.
He took a deep breath, his mind working at high speed.
Dragons had extremely developed memories. Even ancient dragons that had lived for thousands of years could clearly remember the monsters they had hunted in their youth, the skies they had flown through, the jungles they had traversed, the soil and rocks they had gnawed on... down to the smallest details.
It was a photographic, terrifying memory that could remember everything seen.
With such a memory, coupled with their greedy obsession with treasure, dragons would remember the exact number of their treasures. Even if the most inconspicuous one was missing, they would notice the anomaly.
In summary, after careful consideration, if Garon didn't want to incur the White Dragon Mother's wrath and wanted to deceive her eyes and ears, he had to meet several conditions.
First, the gemstone he targeted had to be isolated, at the very bottom, and not relying on other gemstones for support, otherwise any movement would likely cause a chain reaction.
Second, he needed an identical replacement to fill the gap after the gemstone was taken.
"The isolated gemstone at the very bottom..."
Garon's pupils moved, his gaze scanning through the pile of treasure, and he quickly locked onto his target.
It was a rhombus-shaped white crystal located on the left edge of the treasure mound, at the very bottom corner, as big as a baby's fist, making Garon extremely envious.