This world was super different from Jupiter. Well, after all, it marked the beginning of a new journey. The artificial sun of the Dragon Emperor Domain hung motionless above the farms. Ember rested against Nicolas’s leg, her ember-scaled body warm and steady at Level 7. The breeding cave breathed soft heat. The summoning tree’s branches swayed without wind. That is to say the entire domain waited for him the same way the empty altar had waited only this time something answered. Well, not all of them.
The system’s voice returned, calm and precise.
Time dilation active.
One thousand years inside the Dragon Emperor Domain equal one hour in the outside world.
Host may remain as long as desired. Outside, almost no time will pass.
Nicolas exhaled slowly. The frustration increased by leaps and bounds. No one could imagine what he was suffering from.. A thousand years for a single hour. He could train, grow, and build an empire while the academy, Daniel, and even his parents’ grief remained frozen in the same night he had left. In that way the hunger inside him uncoiled a little further, tasting the possibilities the gods had refused to give him.
He opened the store again.
Five hundred Dragon Coins had become four hundred after Ember’s purchase. He scrolled past locked eggs and higher ranks until another Common entry caught his eye.
Common Terra Dragoness : 100 Dragon Coins
Young female. Element: Terra. Potential: Stable. Growth rate: Standard.
He bought it without hesitation. After all the gods had given him nothing. The system at least kept answering.
The egg appeared in his hands heavy, rough-shelled, the color of rich soil. Nicolas looked at the new life. He carried it to the breeding cave and set it beside Ember’s old nest. The shell cracked almost at once. A small dragoness emerged, scales the deep brown of fertile earth, eyes the soft green of new leaves. She blinked up at him, then gave a low, curious rumble. Nicolas was full of fervor.
Name your second dragon.
“Victoria.”
The system accepted it.
Nicolas worked the farms once more. Terra-grain and stone-fruit sprouted under his hands. He harvested carefully and fed Victoria piece by piece. She grew steadily Level 1 to Level 7 in the same focused stretch of domain time that had raised Ember. When she finished, her body had lengthened, her claws sharpened, and the earth itself seemed to lean toward her whenever she moved. What is more the solid weight of her presence settled something that had been hollow since the temple.
Nicolas sat between the two dragonesses. Ember pressed her warm side against his right leg. Victoria settled against his left, cooler and solid as living stone. He reached out and ran his fingers along Ember’s glowing scales, then along Victoria’s rough, earth-toned hide. Both leaned into the touch.
“You’re the first,” he told them quietly. “Everything starts with you two. Well, I guess you are the best that I can have.”
Ember chirped. Victoria gave a deeper, approving rumble. That is to say the hunger inside him no longer felt quite so alone.
The system pulsed.
Combat Arena available.
Recommended first challenge: Rock Dragon (Common, Terra element).
Reward upon victory: Common dual-element egg.
Nicolas stood. “Ember. With me.”
They entered the arena together. The scarred stone floor stretched wide under the domain’s unchanging sky. Across from them a Rock Dragon materializedstocky, stone-plated, eyes like dull pebbles. It roared and charged.
“Ember left flank. Flame breath on its legs.”
Ember launched forward in a streak of heat. Her first breath of fire struck the Rock Dragon’s lower limbs, cracking stone and forcing it to stumble. The impact shook the arena. Dust rose. The Rock Dragon swung a heavy tail; Ember twisted aside with a speed the larger beast could not match. In that way the first real battle of the domain began the same way every true climb beginswith something that can be broken.
“Again. Under the neck.”
Ember darted in, claws raking, then exhaled a tighter stream of flame directly into the softer stone beneath the Rock Dragon’s jaw. The creature reeled. Cracks spread across its chest.
Nicolas’s voice stayed calm, absolute. “Finish it.”
Ember gathered herself and released a concentrated burst. Fire punched through the weakened stone. The Rock Dragon collapsed, dissolving into motes of light.
Victory.
Combat rank progress: 1/5 toward Bronze I.
Reward obtained: Common Volcano Dragoness Egg (Flame + Terra).
A new egg appeared in Nicolas’s hands black-shelled, threaded with veins of glowing red and deep brown. Heat and earth pulsed inside it together. The thing is the dual element already felt like more than the pure spirits the academy had handed out so easily.
He carried it back to the breeding cave. The shell split under his touch. A third dragoness emerged, smaller than the others at first, scales the dark charcoal of cooled lava, eyes burning with twin lights of fire and stone. She stretched her wings, tested her claws, then looked up at him with sharp curiosity.
Name your third dragon.
“Lola.”
He fed her the same way flame-fruit mixed with terra-grain, harvested fresh from the farms. Lola ate with fierce focus. Level by level she grew until she, too, stood at Level 7. Again and over again. This took a tool. Her dual nature showed in every movement: the heat of Ember, the solid weight of Victoria, fused into something denser and more dangerous. What is more the fusion itself felt like the beginning of something the gods had never intended for him.
Nicolas knelt. Lola climbed into his lap without hesitation, butting her head against his chest. He laughed under his breath and scratched the soft scales behind her horns. Ember and Victoria crowded close, watching. For a while he simply played with themrolling a smooth stone for Lola to chase, letting Ember warm his hands with careful puffs of flame, feeling Victoria’s steady presence anchor them all. After all the hollow space in his chest had begun to fill with something hotter than grief and quieter than rage.
The system’s voice returned once more.
Host synchronization available.
The Dragon Emperor may channel the powers of bonded dragonesses.
Elemental affinities of bonded dragons become usable by the host.
Host physical and magical attributes increase in proportion to the strength and number of bonded dragons.
Nicolas felt it settle into his blood like a second heartbeat. Ember’s fire stirred behind his eyes. Victoria’s earth settled into his bones. Lola’s dual nature threaded through both. His golden skin tingled. The faint sunset aura that had always clung to him brightened, edged now with heat and stone. That is to say the system was not merely giving him dragons. It was rewriting him from the inside out.
He rose, three dragonesses moving with him as if they had always belonged at his side.
Outside, in the real world, barely a minute had passed since he vanished from his bed.
Inside the Dragon Emperor Domain, he already had the beginning of an army.
And the night was still young.
What is more the climb had only just begun and Nicolas could barely stop dreaming.
A new day came to an end.
Nicolas was more than welcome to a new era.
Well, this shall be seen soon enough.
Thanks for reading! Well, bros this is going to get savage.