"Heard about your dragon," I say as she passes, keeping my voice level. "The one nobody can tame."
She doesn’t even slow down. Doesn’t look at me. Just keeps walking like I’m furniture.
"I can tame it," I say.
That gets her. One step, then she stops — doesn’t turn around yet, just stops, back still to me, like she’s deciding whether I’m worth the effort of a response.
"You," she says finally, turning halfway, eyes flicking over me — the porter bags still slung half-off my shoulder, the blood drying at the corner of my mouth, the crumpled state of me in general. Then to Viperess, standing calm and lethal just behind me. Her eyes narrow slightly at that part. "You tamed that?"
"I did."
"And you think you can tame a bonded dragon that’s gone feral on a hunter who’s already tried everything." Her voice is flat, unimpressed, like she’s heard this pitch a hundred times from a hundred men who wanted something from her. "No offense, but I don’t need help from an F-rank with a lucky pet."
"E-rank now," I say. "And it wasn’t luck."
"Doesn’t matter." She’s already turning back around, done with the conversation before it started. "I’ve had S-rank tamers try. Guild-sponsored specialists. My dragon nearly killed two of them. I’m not handing him over to some nobody I met five minutes ago standing over my ex."
She walks. Doesn’t look back this time, footsteps sharp and final against the floor, out through the door and gone before I can get another word in.
Viperess tilts her head, watching her go. "She will return, Master," she says, almost amused. "Pride like that always circles back when it runs out of other options."
The quest window’s still sitting quiet in my vision, patient, unbothered by the rejection.
I let her walk. Whatever pride she’s carrying, it’s not mine to untangle tonight — I’ve got somewhere I need to be.
The hospital’s colder than I remember, that same sterile hum in the hallway lights, and my stomach drops the second I see the nurses gathered outside her room, clipboards out, faces already arranged into that gentle, practiced kind of bad news.
"Family of Amara Vance?" one of them says as I walk up, and I don’t even let her finish.
"I’m her brother. What’s happening."
"Sir, the account’s been in arrears for—"
"How much." I’m already pulling up my balance before she answers.
The number she gives me is ugly, the kind of number that would’ve broken me completely yesterday. Today it’s nothing. I transfer it on the spot, full payment, watch her face shift from apologetic to confused to something like shock as the hospital system pings the confirmation back at her in real time.
"That’s... that’s paid in full," she says, blinking at her tablet like it lied to her.
"Then unplug nothing," I say. "Let her rest."
I don’t wait around for more explanation. I push past into the room where Amara’s lying there, small and pale against the white sheets, machines humming steady around her, and I just sit down in the chair beside her bed like my legs finally remembered they were allowed to stop.
Viperess settles in behind me, quiet, posture easy against the wall, and she doesn’t ask why I’m not leaving, doesn’t question the money or the tears I’m blinking back or any of it. She just watches the door instead of me, like she already understands this part isn’t about power or systems or dragons.
This part’s just mine.
I sit there a long while, holding my sister’s hand, and for the first time since I woke up F-rank with nothing, I let myself believe things might actually be different now.
I sit there in the little diner across from the hospital, plate of food in front of me that actually tastes like something for once, Viperess across the table quiet and watchful, tail curled around the leg of her chair.
My mind’s already moving past tonight. New apartment — somewhere Amara can actually recover proper, sunlight, clean walls, not that cramped one-room place we’ve been surviving in. New gear, mine this time, not rented off some guild’s back. And a real guild next, one that takes an E-rank tamer with an S-tier maiden seriously, one that pays hunters what they’re actually worth instead of treating them like porters to squeeze dry.
I’m halfway through that thought when the system chimes again, softer this time, almost patient.
[New Mechanism Unlocked: Realm Hopping Protocol][Description: Access parallel realms containing untamed beasts of varying rank and origin. Each realm generates unique Maiden-tier targets and localized quests. Realm access scales with Master’s Level and bound Maiden count.][First Realm Detected: Sealing...]
I stop chewing halfway through a bite, staring at the notification hanging there in front of me like it’s rewriting my whole plan before I even finished making it.
Viperess catches the look on my face and tilts her head. "Master?"
"...I think we’re not just building a harem and getting rich in one city anymore," I say slowly.
I set my fork down.
"I think we’re about to start hopping realms."
The notification isn’t done — it expands, another layer unfolding underneath the first.
[Realm Hopping Protocol: Full Unlock Requirements][Condition: Tame minimum 4 Beasts → Maidens before God-Tier Hunter path unlocks][Note: Not all realms contain Beasts compatible with the Evolution Engine. System will filter and reveal only compatible targets.][Reward at Full Unlock: God-Tier Hunter Advancement Path — Unprecedented]
My chest tightens reading that last line. God-tier. That’s not a word anybody throws around casual — that’s the kind of rank that doesn’t answer to guilds, doesn’t get told to carry bags, doesn’t get laughed at for asking for pay he earned.
But right under the excitement, something colder creeps in.
Amara. Alone in that hospital bed, machines humming around her, no one but me who actually checks on her.
"If I’m realm hopping," I say slow, "what happens to my sister? I can’t just vanish on her."
The system answers like it already expected the question.
[Clarification: Realm Hopping is non-permanent per cycle. Return to Origin Realm available at any point, at Master’s discretion. Time dilation may vary by realm — verification recommended before extended stays.]
That eases something in my chest, even if the "time dilation may vary" part sits a little uneasy in the back of my mind. Still — I can come back. I’m not choosing between her and this.
I sit back in the diner booth, plate half-forgotten now, and let myself actually picture it for the first time. Different realms. Different beasts, things no guild in this city’s ever even seen, all of them waiting to become mine — strength, loyalty, maybe even something more. Four tamed just to unlock the real path. And after that... god-tier. A rank where nobody laughs, nobody backhands me for asking what I’m owed, nobody threatens my sister to keep me small.
Viperess watches me go quiet, thinking, and there’s something almost like pride in the way she looks at me.
"You’re already deciding," she says. It’s not a question.
I look at her, then down at the notification still glowing soft in the corner of my vision.
"Yeah," I say. "I am."