The first batch of chocolate came out wrong.
Kai stared at the blackened lump cooling on the stone slab and sighed. Too much heat, not enough patience. The cacao beans had been perfect—small, dark, fragrant—but he'd rushed the roast like always. Flicker hovered over his shoulder, shaped like a tiny chef's hat.
'Third time's the charm,' the wraith chirped. 'Or the tenth. Who's counting?'
Kai scraped the mess into a bowl anyway. "Waste not."
He carried the bowl to the square. Children swarmed instantly—kipper, goblin, human, beastkin—drawn by the smell of something new. He broke off pieces. The chocolate was bitter, grainy, but their eyes went wide.
A kipper licked melted streaks from his fingers. "It's like eating night!"
A goblin girl squinted. "Night shouldn't taste good."
"Wait till it's better night," Kai promised.
The merchants were next. They tasted, paused, tasted again. One old trader from Vorath actually teared up.
"In forty years on the Road," he rasped, "I never thought I'd live to see this again."
Word spread faster than fire. By dusk, half the city was begging for another batch. Kai spent the night roasting beans slower, grinding finer, mixing with honey and a touch of kipper nectar. The second try melted smooth on the tongue—dark, rich, with a bite that lingered.
He handed bars to the crowd at sunrise. Silence fell as they bit down. Then cheers loud enough to rattle the new glass windows.
Kilo stood on a crate, arms wide. "The Stray brings sweet darkness! All hail chocolate!"
Kai laughed despite himself. The sound still felt foreign.
---
Mid-morning, the wizards gathered the townsfolk in the square for elemental testing. A circle of runes glowed on the ground, six stones floating above it—ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond, onyx, quartz.
One by one, villagers stepped in. Light flared, stones reacted. Fire for the blacksmith's son. Water for the fisherman's daughter. Earth for a quiet farmer who blushed when the emerald sang.
When Kai's turn came, he waved it off.
"I'm good."
The lead wizard frowned behind his silver beard. "But lineage of Sloth with Azourath fragment—your affinity could reshape—"
"I have resonance," Kai said. "Different system."
He walked away before they could argue. Flicker spun into a tiny middle finger behind his back. The wizards pretended not to see.
---
Afternoon brought gossip instead of work.
Kilo found him at the windmill, sharpening Flicker into a sickle for harvesting.
"Mister Kai! Mister Kai!" The kipper bounced, axe clacking against his belt. "I heard adventurers talking! Big dragon east! Hoard full of gold and magic and shiny things! They said no one comes back!"
Kai paused. "East, huh?"
Kilo nodded furiously. "Big cave! Smoke comes out sometimes! They said dragon eats people but also sleeps a lot!"
Kai's interest flared sharp. A dragon. Real, not guardian, not rumor. Something ancient. Something that might know more about the Old Realm than any book.
He headed straight for the guild hall.
The clerk there—a scarred woman with a missing ear—looked up when he asked.
"Dragon? East of here?" She barked a laugh. "Boy, you don't want any part of that. Name's Vyrathrax. Old as the mountains. Been sleeping centuries. Woke up cranky last month. Ate three parties of gold-rank adventurers. Their tags are still on the board if you want souvenirs."
Kai glanced at the wall. Three platinum tags hung limp, edges scorched.
"Don't go," she warned. "Not even the king's knights bother it. Let sleeping legends lie."
Kai thanked her and left.
He was going anyway.
---
The flight east took all day.
Nimbus Cloud carried him above the treeline, wind sharp against his face, cloak snapping like a banner. The landscape changed—forests thinned into jagged rock, rivers carved deep scars, and then the mountain rose. A black peak split by a cavern mouth that breathed smoke like a sleeping god.
Kai landed at the edge.
The heat hit first. Not fire, but presence—like standing too close to a forge. The air shimmered. Inside, gold glinted. Mountains of it. Weapons, armor, jewels, books—centuries of tribute.
And at the center, coiled atop it all, the dragon.
Scales black as obsidian, veined with molten crimson. Wings folded like cathedral doors. Eyes burning gold.
It regarded him with the weight of ages.
"You are small," the dragon rumbled, voice rolling like thunder trapped in stone. "Yet you carry two hearts that are not hearts. And a third that remembers my brother's touch."
Kai didn't flinch. "Azourath?"
A low growl rumbled approval. "His brother. Long chained. You freed a piece of him. I smell it on you."
Kai stepped forward. "I didn't come to fight."
"Good," the dragon said. "Because you would lose."
Silence stretched. Then Kai smiled. "Wanna bet?"
The dragon's laugh shook the cavern. "Bold. I like bold. Come, little god-touched. Show me what a Sloth's heir can do."
They fought.
Not with rage, but respect. Kai danced on Nimbus Cloud, Velnix lashing like black lightning. The dragon met him with claw and flame, each strike measured, testing. When Kai bled. The dragon bled. Stone cracked, gold scattered, and the cavern rang with the song of battle.
Hours passed—or minutes. Time bent strange in the presence of something that old.
Finally, Kai stood panting atop a mound of treasure, Velnix coiled tight around him, Flicker humming in his hand. The dragon lay opposite, wing torn, scales cracked, but eyes bright with something like joy.
"You fight like you have nothing to lose," the dragon said. "And everything to protect."
Kai wiped blood from his lip. "That's about right."
The dragon lowered its massive head until one golden eye filled Kai's vision. "Take one thing from my hoard. You have earned it."
Kai walked the treasure. Crowns, swords, grimoires, artifacts that sang with power. Each time he touched one, the dragon rumbled, "Not that one."
Finally, he found a small gemstone—black, veined with silver, no larger than a coin. It pulsed faintly, like it was listening.
"This," Kai said.
The dragon hesitated, then nodded. "A memory stone. It holds what I have forgotten. Take it. And take this promise: Nepthuren will have a neighbor in me. Harm comes to your people, and I will answer."
Kai bowed, the weight of the stone warm in his palm.
When he left, the dragon watched him go, smoke curling from its nostrils like a farewell.
---
That night, back in Nepthuren, the bonfire roared high.
Humans, goblins, kippers, beastkin, even a few wizards sat in a wide circle. Daniel stood in the center, voice carrying over the crackle of flames.
"And then they cleared every floor until the fiftieth, earning their freedom. Hell, they even let one live out of mercy."
Kilo bounced on a log. "That sounds like a perfect place for ninja work!"
Laughter rippled. A goblin elder snorted. "Ninja? You barely reach my knee, little one."
Kilo puffed his chest. "Knees are for climbing! We train every day!"
A kipper squeaked, "We make traps! Tiny traps! Big booms!"
The crowd roared again.
Daniel grinned. "Careful what you wish for. The Tower eats dreams and spits out bones."
"But they won," a human girl said softly. "They walked out."
"Yeah," Daniel said, voice quieter. "They did. Not after a young boy called little tom took and ate his eye though. He lost many things in that city. "
Kai stood at the edge of the firelight, the dragon's memory stone warm in his pocket. He didn't join the circle. He just listened, letting the stories wrap around him like Velnix's cloak.
Tomorrow he would go to Vorath. Tomorrow he would teach a toad prince how to make glass.
Tonight, he let the fire speak for him.
And somewhere in the dark, a dragon slept with one eye open, dreaming of a strange boy who had earned its respect—and its promise.
Nepthuren was growing.
And the world was starting to notice.
Sitting on a cloud and sleeping kai entered his soulprint.
Name: Malakai Apolix
Alias: Stray (cosmetic only – no mechanical effect)
Lineage:
- Sloth (Zoma) – primary divine lineage
→ Nimbus Cloud (healing/protective cloud, flight capable)
→ Restful Gaze (eye contact = indefinite sleep, reversible only by Kai)
→ Ruler of Sleep (enter & manipulate dreams)
- Soul (Azourath fragment) – secondary lineage
→ Soul Magic (bind pieces of self into objects / left-arm storage + right-arm manipulation)
Attributes:
- Fateless – quests routed to guardian; cannot be directly targeted by Sovereign quests
- Alone – deep refusal to accept friendship (self-imposed)
- Weak – physical strength repeatedly proven insufficient
- Tired – constant fatigue (heavily mitigated by Azourath fragment)
- Time Immunity – retains full memory through time loops/stops/rewinds
Boons:
- Residual Step – short-range teleport behind target + disorienting afterimage
- Quiet Step – footsteps produce no sound
- Spiritflow – guardians evolve passively without cores or gems
Taboos (permanent soul stains):
- Dual Mind – second consciousness (DM): thought management, probability calculation, pain dampening, system interface
Soul Items:
- Ever-lasting Smoke – infinite cigarettes (original Class-A relic)
- Pain Ledger – stores 1–2 major injuries; works in tandem with Velnix
- Rift Seed – Old Realm – clay seed capable of growing permanent, stable rifts (currently
"Wow... I should really use these alot more."
The thought left kai faster than it entered. He has work in vorath tomorrow. So sleep couldn't come sooner.
It was a very eventful day.