I opened my eyes to a round white snout inches from mine.
Munch was dead asleep, her head resting on the stone beside me. Her jaws hung open in a lopsided grin, a tiny pink tongue poking out. Drool pooled beneath her in a glistening puddle.
*That tongue has been hanging out since birth. It's a miracle it hasn't dried up.*
I reached over and gently pushed the tongue back into her mouth with one claw.
Two seconds later, it popped out the other side.
*...Fine. Enjoy the airflow.*
I pushed myself upright. Every muscle protested — my body felt like it had been put through a meat grinder and reassembled by an intern.
On my head, Nixie stirred. She rubbed her eyes with tiny fists, wings crinkling from sleep.
"Why do you keep moving... oh! Chaos, you're awake!"
She fluttered to my eye level, her blue eyes wide with relief.
*She actually looks worried. Huh. The poor thing probably spent my entire unconscious period panicking.*
"Are you okay? You were out for a long time! I checked your magic and it was all gone and I was so worried and then Vesperra said you were just sleeping but I still —"
"I'm fine, Nixie. Just hungry."
*Zero-frame interrupt. Mid-cast cancelled. She was about to say something else — probably the contract again. Every time she builds up courage, I deploy the hunger defense. Like a corporate email saying "let's circle back on this" to dodge an uncomfortable question.*
"Oh! You're hungry? Let's eat then! Dragons need to eat to grow big and strong!"
*...She's too wholesome. It's messing with my scammer instincts. If she were any nicer, I'd feel guilty. Fortunately, I've trained myself to ignore guilt since my previous life. It's a survival skill.*
The Mindkraken's carcass had been butchered into a small mountain of meat on the bank, covered with a thin layer of frost — one of the hatchlings must have used an ice spell to preserve it. Smart.
I was about to dig in when a shadow fell across me.
A crimson hatchling approached, nearly four meters long — significantly larger than the others sprawled on the bank. In her jaws she carried something the size of a bathtub.
A heart. The Mindkraken's heart, still coated in a thin layer of frost.
*Ferra.*
We'd fought not long ago. I'd beaten her. The relationship could best be described as "actively hostile."
She stopped in front of me and dropped the heart. It hit the stone with a wet *thud.*
Then she opened her jaws. Wide. Blood still coated her teeth.
*...Is she threatening me? Really? That's your play?*
"This heart has high magic density. I saved it for you."
*Saved it. For me. Right. Sure.*
I was 90% sure this was an intimidation tactic. The "I saved this for you" was probably Ferra-speak for "remember what happens if you cross me."
"Thanks, then."
I flipped the heart over with one claw. She'd bitten into it — I could see her teeth marks on one side. I picked it up from the *clean* side, carefully avoiding her saliva.
*Hygiene first. Who knows what bacteria a red dragon's mouth harbors. Also, she didn't even offer to share a meal. In dragon culture, sharing food means you trust each other. This is just... dropping off a suspicious package at my doorstep.*
*The most aggressive performance review I'd ever received.*
I carried it to the shallow edge of the lake and built a small pool from river pebbles. The heart soaked while I planned the menu.
Behind me, Ferra stood watching. She didn't leave immediately. She just... stood there. Crimson eyes tracking my every movement.
*What? Waiting for me to sign a receipt? "Heart received in good condition, please initial here"?*
She turned and walked away without a word.
*...Weird. I expected more posturing. More tail-flicking. More red-dragon-drama.*
Maybe she was trying a new strategy. Psychological warfare. Drop the gift, leave silently, let the recipient spiral into paranoia.
*Spoiler: it's working.*
The heart soaked. I mentally cataloged ingredients. *Spicy. Definitely spicy. This thing screams hotpot material. But first — the magic core.*
A four-ring Mindkraken that size would have a magic core to match. And since *I* killed it, that core was legally mine.
*Corporate asset allocation policy, section 7, subsection "I did the killing, I keep the loot."*
Vesperra was easy to find. She was the heat source.
The air around her shimmered with thermal distortion, like heat rising off asphalt in July. She lay on the far bank, asleep, her crimson scales radiating warmth like a space heater cranked to maximum. She'd grown again — nearly five meters now, up from her previous size. The Mindkraken fight must have triggered a growth spurt. Her body had used the combat as a catalyst, burning through stored energy to rebuild herself at a larger scale.
*Of course she has a growth-spurt power-up. Why would Vesperra have anything normal?*
I made a mental note. If I ever fought her — and I fully intended to, someday — I'd need to account for that temporary nine-meter form she'd pulled during the Mindkraken charge. Five meters resting, nine meters combat. That was a two-stage boss fight right there.
Beside her, resting on the stone like a blue boulder, was the magic core.
One meter in diameter. Perfectly spherical. Filled with liquefied blue magic that glowed like a captured ocean.
My mouth watered.
*Hello, beautiful.*
I crept forward on tiptoe — then launched myself onto the core. All four claws wrapped around it. It was almost as big as my entire body.
Cold. Smooth. Vibrating with raw power.
*My precious.*
"You're awake."
I froze. One crimson eye had opened.
Vesperra watched me with the expression of someone who'd been expecting this.
"The Mindkraken was yours. The core is yours."
I blinked. "You're... giving it to me?"
"Yes."
*...What?*
A four-ring mutant Mindkraken core. Worth more than my entire previous life's salary. And she's just... giving it to me?
"Don't you feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"Your eye. Your left pupil. It's changed completely."
I blinked my eyelid, running the pink membrane across my eye. Vision was crystal clear — I could see individual cracks in the cave wall fifty meters away.
I shook my head.
Vesperra lifted one claw and pointed at the core beneath me.
I looked down.
The core's surface was smooth as a mirror. And in its reflection — my face. Green scales. Emerald eyes. And the left pupil—
*What the—*
My left eye wasn't a dragon's slit pupil anymore. It was a *golden pocket watch.* Two tiny hands ticked inside my iris, rotating steadily, counting seconds I couldn't hear.
I leaned closer. The reflection sharpened. The golden hands kept turning.
Then the watch *appeared* — not in the reflection, but in my actual vision. An overlay. My left eye projecting the timepiece directly onto my field of view.
*A new ability?*
I pushed magic into the left eye.
*Tick-tock. Tick-tock.*
The sound filled my ears — clear, rhythmic, unmistakable. A pocket watch counting seconds.
The world went silent.
Not quiet. *Silent.* The underground river stopped flowing. The bioluminescent moss stopped flickering. Vesperra's sleeping breath froze mid-exhale.
Everything stopped.
*This is the same feeling as the fight. The same tick-tock.*
My body couldn't move — but I could feel magic flowing. Slowly. Like honey through a straw.
Then a sharp sting in my chest. My magic reserves — already rebuilt from the core's ambient energy — were *draining.* Fast. Down to twenty percent in seconds.
For a heartbeat — or maybe a minute, hard to tell when time itself had stopped — I just *existed* in the silence. No hunger. No plans. No scammed fairies. Just the golden hands turning, turning, turning.
*So this is what it feels like. The power to pause the world. No wonder the old me would have sold his soul for this.*
Then the sting became a burn. My reserves plummeted. Fifteen percent. Twelve.
*Abort. ABORT.*
I cut the flow.
*Tick... tock... ... ...*
The sound faded like a music box winding down. The river resumed its rush. Vesperra's breath completed its exhale. A droplet of water that had been suspended mid-fall hit the stone with a tiny *plink.*
*That was... expensive. Like running a crypto miner on a laptop. Beautiful, but the battery doesn't agree. Maybe thirty seconds of real time, and it cost me nearly eighty percent of my rebuilt reserves.*
"You slowed time again."
Vesperra's crimson eye was fully open now, watching me with an intensity that made my scales prickle.
"Just testing."
"Any cost?"
"The magic drain is steep."
I didn't hesitate to tell her. Vesperra was trustworthy — if I ever left this cave, she'd be my first ally pick. Her strength was undeniable, and unlike Ferra, she didn't try to solve problems by headbutting them.
Vesperra stared at me for a long moment. Then she closed her eye.
"Next time, say the whole sentence at once."
"Okay."
*She's asleep already? That's... actually kind of trusting. Falling asleep in front of a potential threat with a time-manipulation ability.*
Or maybe she'd already calculated that I wasn't a threat. Either way, her breathing evened out into the deep rhythm of sleep.
I looked down at the core beneath me.
*Priorities. The time powers can wait. Right now, I have a one-meter magic crystal to eat.*
I settled my belly against the cool surface and opened my jaws wide. The first bite cracked the outer shell — it was like biting into a frozen coconut filled with blue Jell-O. Cold magic flooded my mouth, my throat, my entire being.
*Oh. Oh yes. This is the good stuff.*
Each fragment was different. Some tasted like cold mountain springs. Others had a metallic tang, like licking a battery. One piece near the center was so dense with magic that it made my scales tingle for a full minute after swallowing.
Nixie sat on my head the entire time, occasionally asking "Is it good?" I ignored her. She was a spectator now. This was a solo performance.
It took two and a half hours.
Two and a half hours of crunching, cracking, and savoring every blue shard. The core was dense — each fragment exploded with cold magic on my tongue, flooding my reserves like a firehose.
Nixie sat on my head the entire time, occasionally asking "Is it good?" I wordlessly flicked a shard upward once. She caught it, bit down—
"BLEH! So hard! So bitter!"
She spat it out immediately.
*I literally handed you a magic crystal. What did you expect? Chocolate?*
I caught the falling shard mid-air and popped it into my mouth. *Waste not, want not. No more sharing with the fairy.*
When the last fragment disappeared, I let out a belch that echoed off the cave walls and flopped onto my back.
*Can't. Move. Don't want to.*
"Chaos, sleeping again?"
"Mmhmm."
"Okay then..."
Nixie landed on my round, distended belly and propped her chin on her tiny hands, staring up at the cave ceiling.
*She's plotting something. I can feel it. That look is the same look I used to give my boss when he said "we'll discuss your raise next quarter." Pure determination masked by false patience.*
"Chaos?"
"Mmhmm."
"Do you think we'll eat together again soon?"
"Sure. Next time."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
*Another promise I have no intention of keeping on any specific timeline. But she doesn't know that. And honestly, at this point, keeping her around is more entertaining than the alternative. She's like a puppy that doesn't understand the concept of a closed door.*
But I was too full to care. Sleep took me like a wave.
*"I saw this tentacle first."*
*"You said you saw it. You didn't say you claimed it."*
*"What's your problem?"*
*"No problem. This tentacle is mine."*
*"You're asking for it!"*
*"RAWR!"*
I cracked one eye open.
Two hatchlings — one black, one green — were squared off against each other, bodies low, tails whipping. A fight over a piece of Mindkraken tentacle.
*Finally. Entertainment.*
"Chaos, you're awake!" Nixie chirped from my head.
"What's going on?"
"They both want the same piece of food, so they're fighting!"
My interest level *doubled.*
The two hatchlings charged. Body slam. No claws, no magic — just raw juvenile dragon wrestling. They collided with a *thud* that sent pebbles skittering.
The green one had the weight advantage. The black one had the attitude. They rolled across the stone, snapping and growling, neither willing to yield.
Around them, a small crowd of hatchlings had gathered. Some were betting — nudging pieces of dried meat toward one side or the other. Nobody was intervening. This was the colony's first real drama since the Mindkraken, and everyone was *invested.*
I propped my chin on my front claws and watched.
Nixie fluttered down from my head and landed on my back, peering over my shoulder. "Who do you think will win?"
"The black one. She's hungrier."
"How can you tell?"
"Look at her eyes. That's not anger. That's *famine energy.*"
*This is better than television. Better than the break room microwave wars. Better than the great printer debate of Q3.*
*Civilization is back on track.*