The reddish glow flickered faintly in the distance.
Noir slowed his pace.
His paws moved cautiously across the damp stone as his Draconic Senses remained on high alert.
After his encounter with the Stone Maw, he no longer saw that cave as merely a fantasy setting.
’Will there be another monster ahead?’ He wondered, but he didn’t sense any danger.
After all, he’d only been a dragon for a fortnight, and he still relied too heavily on his Dragon Senses.
The golden sphere drifted down until it hovered beside his head, softly illuminating the walls.
Noir narrowed his eyes.
’You’re definitely doing this on purpose.’
The sphere didn’t respond, of course.
It continued floating forward.
The little dragon snorted and decided to follow it.
As it moved forward, the tunnel widened, and the reddish glow grew more intense.
The mineral veins on the walls grew denser, and the reddish hue began to blend with the bluish glints he had seen before. The air changed, too.
Noir noticed it immediately. It was warmer. His nostrils flared. There was no smell of blood or dampness.
...There was something else.
A dry, mineral scent that vaguely reminded him of hot metal.
Noir felt a bit nostalgic; he now remembered when the nurses at the hospital had indulged him on his birthday.
’...Fire?’
His wings fluttered slightly. The thought stirred a certain excitement within him.
Besides... he was a dragon. And even though he’d barely managed to unleash a small burst of flame in his previous fight, it still filled him with a pride that was hard to explain.
Wagging his tail with interest, he quickened his pace slightly.
The tunnel sloped downward in an uneven gradient, covered with small cracks that emitted faint reddish glimmers.
Then, something caught his attention.
Noir stopped; his vertical pupils narrowed, and he studied the rocks closely. They had marks on them, but... they weren’t natural.
They were long, deep grooves, as if something enormous had scratched the walls as it passed by.
The little dragon approached cautiously. He ran a claw across the surface, and the rock melted slightly.
’...A Stone Maw didn’t do that.’
They looked like a cat’s scratches. A ridiculously huge cat.
Noir stared at the golden orb, searching for some answer. It just kept spinning, but offered no clues.
Just as he expected.
’What can I expect from that useless bastard?’
He snorted in annoyance, having sought an answer from something that only frustrated him.
And then he heard it.
Thump.
For the first time since he’d known it, the golden orb stopped, ceased its fluttering, and remained completely still.
The entire stone beneath his feet vibrated slightly.
The little dragon swallowed hard.
And for some reason... his heart began to beat faster.
Thump.
The sound rang out again.
Noir stood motionless.
His claws dug lightly into the stone as his Draconic Senses swept through the tunnel.
Thump.
The vibration rippled through the tunnel once more.
Noir stood motionless for several seconds. His senses remained on high alert, but he couldn’t make out anything clearly.
And that was precisely what unsettled him.
Until now, whenever he had encountered something dangerous, his senses had given him some warning. This time, however, he felt only a strange pressure and that uncomfortable sensation running through his scales.
And he didn’t like that one bit; maybe it was because there was something even more terrifying ahead that far surpassed it.
The little dragon took a step back.
Then another.
’Nope.’
Noir shook his head from side to side.
’No way.’
Maybe it was a huge monster—maybe a giant fire serpent, or maybe something much worse.
Whatever it was, Noir had no intention of finding out the hard way. After all, he’d barely survived a Stone Maw.
He wasn’t quite that desperate to gain abilities. Without another word, he turned on his heel—he’d only just been reincarnated to die so soon.
And then something hit him in the nose.
"..."
Noir looked down, somewhat surprised. The golden sphere was floating in front of him, blocking his path.
’Move!’
He kicked it with his paw; he wasn’t going to pay any more attention to that little bastard, but the sphere remained motionless.
Noir began to get annoyed and tried to devour it; it dodged him quickly, and the sphere reappeared in front of him.
An imaginary vein seemed to appear on the little dragon’s forehead.
’Listen, shiny ball. This is a tactical retreat.’
The sphere spun around.
Then it moved a few meters toward the reddish glow.
It stopped.
And turned back.
As if it were trying to tell him something and saying it wasn’t dangerous at all—something he didn’t believe for a second.
Noir watched for several seconds.
’Do you want me to keep going?’
The orb glowed faintly and spun around his small, beautiful horns. Then it turned forward again.
Noir narrowed his eyes. That was suspicious... Very suspicious.
All this time, the little spirit had never tried to influence his decisions directly. It would guide him from time to time, show up when he least expected it, and go out of its way to annoy him, but it had never been so insistent.
’Could there be a treasure further ahead...?’
Noir tried to find something that would convince him to keep going; he wasn’t going to lie: he was curious—very curious—but that wasn’t enough.
Thump.
The vibration shook the stone once more.
This time, even small pieces of rock fell from the ceiling.
Noir swallowed hard. His instincts were screaming at him to leave. But the sphere kept waiting for some absurd reason; it seemed convinced that it had to go on.
The little dragon looked into the darkness stretching beyond the tunnel.
Then he looked at the golden sphere.
And finally, he let out a long sigh.
’I’d better go back the way I came.’
Noir turned around and began to walk away. He wagged his tail contentedly; he had avoided a great danger.
However, the golden sphere clung desperately to his face; it looked as if it were crying... or perhaps that was just Noir’s imagination.
"..."
He tried to ignore it, but it was too persistent, so he had no choice but to walk back toward the tunnel.
The golden sphere spun merrily around.
’Damn manipulator.’
Noir snorted, following the golden sphere into the depths.
***
About twenty minutes later, the tunnel finally came to an end.
Noir emerged from the rocky slope, and his paws stopped of their own accord.
A huge cavern stretched out before him.
The ceiling faded into the darkness, and enormous reddish crystals sprouted up everywhere, bathing the place in a dim, pulsating light.
The heat was much more intense here.
Then...
Noir froze; he looked up and saw a being whose entire body seemed to be made of gold, revealing blue pupils.
His eyes met those enormous blue pupils.
For a moment, the cavern fell silent.
Then an ancient voice echoed throughout the place.
[You... who are you?]
And for the first time since he’d known him, Noir felt like strangling a ball of light.
’Where the hell did you bring me, you damn spirit?’