The only clear sound I could hear was the ringing in my ears.
I woke to the taste of iron. My whole body throbbed with pain that no rush of battle could hide anymore. The adrenaline had drained, and what it left behind was worse than death. Every nerve screamed, every breath was fire.
The cavern was still. No more roars. No more lance tearing through stone. I dragged my head to the side. The lancer was gone. Nothing but mist remained, black and shifting, curling upward until it vanished into nothing.
I let out a ragged laugh that turned into a cough. Blood hit the ground.
"…Still… no answer."
I clenched my fist. That fight should have meant something, should have given me clarity. Instead, all it left was emptiness.
Then I noticed it.
The door.
It stood like a wall that touched the heavens, as wide as the cavern itself, ancient and unmoving. No....not unmoving. It was open. The stone had split, and behind it… an abyss stared back at me. Endless dark.
A shiver passed through me, though my body was already broken.
"Go in? Stay here? What more could be worse… than this?"
My legs protested, bone grinding against bone, but I forced them to move. Each step was agony. Every inch dragged me closer to collapse. Still, I searched.
My spear.
I found it lodged in the surface of the door itself. The shaft was splintered, the blade cracked and hanging by threads of mana. A single strike away from shattering. My armor wasn't any better. Torn, dented, shredded until it was little more than scraps clinging to me.
I pulled the spear free, leaning on it like a broken crutch. My eyes lifted toward the abyss beyond the doorway.
Something stirred.
In the dark, a faint glimmer. One particle of light—blue, soft, fragile. It drifted slowly until it came to me. I raised my hand, weak as it was, and let it fall onto my palm. It shimmered once, then faded into nothing.
I closed my hand around it.
"…Alright."
I turned, limping, dragging the remains of myself and my weapon, and stepped forward. Into the dark.
I don't know how long I walked through the darkness. There was no way to measure time here. No sun. No stars. Only my own footsteps echoing back at me.
But then—I saw it. A light.
Distant. Out of reach. No matter how far I walked, it seemed to drift further away, mocking me. Still, I kept moving. One step, then another.
I don't know when it happened, but suddenly I was there.
A grand opening stretched before me, a chamber unlike anything I had seen. I stepped inside, and the darkness peeled back into brilliance. The cavern walls shimmered with giant crystals, of every size and shape that grew across the stone like frozen lightning. They pulsed faintly, alive, casting radiant beams that turned the entire chamber into a cathedral of light.
I raised a hand to shield my eyes.
"…Magnificent."
The word slipped out, unbidden.
The light was so overwhelming I didn't notice what lay beneath it until I lowered my gaze. Treasure. Piles upon piles of it. Gold and silver coins spilled across the floor, crowns stacked like discarded trinkets, chalices lined with gemstones, necklaces heavier than my weapon. Riches enough to drown a kingdom.
And also,I could feel an almost oppressing pressure here.
No...no oppressive,powerful would be a better word to describe it.
"High amounts of mana?" I wondered.
I could see very trace amounts of particles floating around in the cave. Clearly this area of the cave was enriched with with a large amount of mana,but why?
I knelt, almost without thinking, and picked up a single gold coin. It was warm to the touch, as if it held a faint heartbeat. Real or not, it was beautiful.
I kept walking, the coin clutched in my hand. The further I went, the higher the piles grew, until they towered over me, glittering walls of wealth. The path widened again, and then I saw it.
And I froze.
The sight drove all air from my lungs.
A Dragon.
It slept on the other side of the chamber, its body coiled in silence, its sheer size consuming nearly the entire clearing. Its scales gleamed white as silver, crystalline horns running down its massive frame. Twin silverine wings rested, folded, gleaming even in stillness.
For a heartbeat, I was mesmerized. It was beautiful. Otherworldly.
Then the fear crashed in.
I turned, careful, my body moving as if the weight of silence itself might shatter. Each step was slow. Painful. My broken armor grated with every shift, the sound like thunder to my own ears.
Walk slowly. Walk slowly. Walk slowly—walk slowly!
That was all I could think. Nothing else mattered. Just steps. Quiet steps.
But I didn't notice the claws.
They came silently, impossibly fast. Twin talons hooked my armor's collar and lifted me off the ground.
My body rose. My soul felt like it was leaving with it.
…I am not going to die. Right?
The claws turned me around, and I met its gaze. Eyes vast as the cavern itself, white and blue mingling like frost over deep water, hints of violet shimmering at the edges.
And then it spoke.
Not a hiss. Not fire. Not rage.
A voice heavy with weariness, old as the stone around us. Melancholic.
"…Who are you, little rat?"
I didn't breathe. Couldn't. The dragon's eyes bore into me, pools of silver-white with a strange, lazy flicker of blue and violet shifting deep inside. Ancient wisdom and crushing weight lingered there, yes, but also… something else.
Boredom.
Its voice came at last, low and resonant, echoing in my chest like a cathedral bell.
"Whooo… are you, little rat?"
The words dragged on, almost like the creature itself wasn't in any rush to speak. Each syllable was slow, heavy, but also… careless. It was the voice of something that could destroy me without even thinking, yet couldn't muster the energy to care.
I froze, clutching the coin still in my hand as if it would save me. "I—… I…" My throat locked. My mind screamed say something, anything.
The dragon tilted its massive head, one crystalline horn scraping the cave ceiling with a crack of falling stone. Then, in a mock whisper far too loud:
"Is it… afraid? Does it tremble?"
Its claws adjusted their grip on me, raising me higher, then lazily spinning me in the air like a child examining a toy they weren't sure they liked. My legs dangled helplessly, armor clattering.
'Walk slowly, I said… walk slowly… Idiot!' My thoughts spiraled. Why did I even touch that coin? Why am I even still alive?
The dragon gave a long, exaggerated sigh, like a bored child forced to play a game they didn't like.
"Hrrm… so small. So fragile. Like one… of the many gnats that scurry, chasing scraps of gold." Its golden wings twitched as though it might yawn. "I thought perhaps… you would be different. But no. Still just… another insect."
Its claw lifted me close to its eye, and that immense gaze squinted. For a heartbeat, I thought fire would come and consume me whole. Instead…
"Peh."
The dragon flicked its claw, and I tumbled to the ground with a grunt, coins scattering under me. I scrambled to rise, staring up as it pressed one claw gently against my chest — not enough to pierce, but enough to keep me firmly in place.
"Go on then," It drawled, almost sing-song, voice both thunderous and utterly uninterested. "Scurry away, little rat. Crawl back to your shadows. You are… dull."
It nudged me, as if brushing aside a toy it had grown tired of.
I staggered backward, armor scraping as I tried not to fall. Every part of me screamed to run — but a strange shame burned inside me too. To be dismissed by such a creature not as a threat… not even as prey… but as boring.
And still, the dragon's tired eyes followed me, half-lidded, as though deciding whether letting me go was worth the effort at all.
The claw lifted from my chest at last. My body was shaking so badly I could barely keep my footing, but I didn't waste the chance. I stumbled backward, each step carrying me closer to the mountain of treasure that had nearly been my grave.
The dragon had already begun lowering its massive head again, eyelids heavy, like it was ready to sink back into slumber. For a moment, I thought it was truly over.
Then… I did something unimaginably stupid.
I don't even know why. Maybe it was fear. Maybe pride. Maybe the absurd pressure of being treated like a bug when I had fought monsters, bled in caverns, lived through things that would kill any other man. Whatever the reason… my hand twitched.
The gold coin I'd been clutching slipped from my grip and clattered onto the pile of treasure.
TINK. TINK. TINK.
The sound rang like thunder in the silent cavern.
I froze.
The dragon's eye slid back toward me, lid lifting just enough to expose a gleam of light within. A sound rumbled from its throat — not a roar, but something worse. A low hum, like a child who had just noticed their toy squeaked when squeezed.
"Ohhh…?"
The word slithered out, half amusement, half warning.
Its claw curled slowly into the coins, raking the treasure so the metal cascaded like a waterfall. The sound filled the cavern, deafening.
"…It dares make noise," The voice echoed, still slow and weighty, but tinged now with an edge. "The little rat… squeaks."
I tried to move, but my boots slipped on the treasure, sending me sprawling to my knees. The coin rolled away from me, bouncing once before stopping right at the tip of the dragon's claw.
It tapped the coin once. Clink.
The dragon's head lifted, its gaze now fixed wholly on me.
"…Amusing."
The cave trembled as its chest swelled with a lazy, almost bored inhale. But beneath the lethargy was something far more dangerous — a spark of curiosity. The kind of curiosity that could burn me alive in an instant.
"…Perhaps this rat has teeth after all. Let us see… if it squeaks louder when crushed."
Its wings shifted, sending a gust of wind and gold scattering through the air.
My throat dried. My hand tightened on my spear.
'Idiot....you have done it now,'
The dragon's head aproached closer.
"Go on...tell me your tale before I end it,"