Chapter 03: Arad, the white dragon.

The ancient ruins of Garlahad

The sanctuary made by Garlahad, the first ever saint. It was known that the first saint created a sanctuary in the isles of Blanche.

Of course Kai wasn't interested in the ancient ruins of Garlahad on the isles of Blanche because of that sanctuary. Kai didn't want to get involved with a god or a saint. He was pretty content dodging the plot of the novel, so he didn't want to get dragged into it by a god he didn't care about. But...

The first calamity.

The very first dungeon of this world opened in that place. The emergence of dungeons happened so suddenly that no kingdom was prepared for it.

When a dungeon isn't cleared within a period of one month, it will burst open and release a wave of monsters into the surrounding. Many people would think being an island, the monsters that got released into the isles of Blanche wouldn't reach the mainland. That they would stay in the isles of Blanche.

It might have happened, had the monsters were not sea serpents, who were adept at travelling long distances through water. These monsters attacked the shorelines of Emmanuel empire, Aevum kingdom, Eclipsara kingdom and Mobaid kingdom.

The sea serpents devastated the lives of the people living near the shorelines of the Southern continent, taking hundreds of lives until the sea serpents were killed. They dominated the seas, resulting in the sinking of many ships. Due to the loss of so many lives, that incident was named the first calamity.

'But it wasn't the last calamity,'

Kai thought forlornly as he trudged his way through the Chione forest.

The Chione forest

It was the only forest that managed to span through all the kingdoms in the Southern continent. One had to cross the Chione forest to reach the port of the Gareth city.

The port at the Gareth city was a commercial city that developed due to the involvement of many traders and merchants from the Northern continent. The port at the Gareth city functioned as the connecting point between the continents.

It was also the only port that took tourists to the isles of Blanche by ships. So Kai was headed there.

Kai hurried as he saw a huge waterfall in the distance. Since the sun was starting to set, he was thinking of finding a place to set up a camp fire. At last, he reached the waterfall and sat down on the rocky bedding at the bottom of the waterfall, where the collected water formed a lake.

Kai looked on in wonder as the setting sun dyed the reflection of the lake with such beauty that the landscape gave off an ambiguous background. He closed his eyes to bask in the serenity of the sounds of the cries of birds, the sound of the rushing water cascading to the lake and the echoing sounds of the water pattering on the rocky bedding.

'Wait a minute!! The echoing sound of water ?'

Kai's eyes snapped open in bewilderment. He narrowed his eyes as he stood up to inspect the waterfall thoroughly.

He moved towards the waterfall to better observe it only to find a wedge between the waterfall and the stony cliff that the water rushed down on.

'Is there a space behind the waterfall ?'

Kai entered through the wedge carefully. A cave opened upto him. The black stone walls of the cave looked so smooth that Kai would have believed it was a natural cave, if he had been ignorant.

There was no way the walls could be this smooth unless it was made by magic.

"Was it a ma-"

He abruptly stopped talking as his vision was filled with the huge claw marks left behind on the stone walls. Though this world was a fantasy world, there were no monsters in this world until the emergence of the dungeons. He unsheathed his sword from its black scabbard.

Was there a dungeon he didn't know about ? There were things that the novel didn't mention after all. Kai traced the claw marks from the tips of his gloved fingers. The marks looked quite old.

'Is it possible these marks were left by one of those beings ? But they were rare creatures, almost extinct now.'

Kai's mind wandered through few possibilities.

'Let's just run away if I meet one of those beings.'

Kai made up his mind determinedly as he headed further into the cave. After travelling for some time, he started seeing light at the end of the tunnel of the cave. As he finally reached the end of the tunnel, he felt a presence within ahead.

A trickle of mana was leaking through whatever was beyond the cave.

'It was a good thing I learned to hide my presence as well as conceal my powers.'

Kai thought with a wry smile curling at his red full lips.

He let out a slow exhale as he leaned on the wall at the end of the cave. After awhile, he slipped his head and peeked into the space beyond the cave. He became stiff after seeing the sight that greeted his eyes.

The space beyond the cave looked like a different world in contrast to the dark and gloomy tunnel of the cave he walked along.

A plain covered in green grass spanned as far as the eye could see. A huge tree looking as ancient as time loomed at the centre of it. It looked beautiful with its contrast to the azure sky due to its red leaves. But that wasn't what caught Kai's attention.

It was the corpse of a black dragon that was around 300m long and 75m tall. Had it not been for the corpse that Kai could feel had no life force, the view might have belonged in a gallery of paintings with serenity.

He had vaguely guessed it was a den of a dragon after seeing the claw marks. Only the dragons had that kind of ability until monsters appeared in this world to leave such traces.

Kai stepped up into the open space as he scanned the dragon's den with his senses to check for traps and such. The dragon had been stabbed by many spears throughout his whole body. A sword stuck to his chest finishing the struggle of the creature.

Kai wouldn't have understood why the dragon hadn't fled or fought, if he hadn't been able to sense the presence still protected under the crouching and defensive figure of the dead dragon. Even in death, the adult dragon protected that presence with all his might.

That's how precious children and offspring were to them. Kai touched the scaly head of the black dragon. He couldn't help but feel melancholic at the scene.

Dragons

They were creatures many thought to be inhuman existence, just for the fact that they were born differently from humans. The dragons might have inhuman strength and can wield magic like moving another limb of their body but they also felt human emotions. His gaze swept across the dragon's corpse.

A parent trying to protect their baby because of love and humans who killed the dragon because of greed and envy.

Between these two parties, Kai couldn't help but wonder who was more inhuman.

Kai's galaxy blue eyes met round golden eyes. The white baby dragon under the wings of the black dragon stared distrustfully at him.

Eventhough the baby dragon was severely malnourished, Kai thought he was beautiful.

*****

The baby had been waiting for a long time in this place with his mother's last words echoing in his head.

He didn't know where he was. Neither did he know what to do other than to survive. His mother had left him a book, a recording device and a small orb that glistened like the night sky.

He loved that beautiful orb. It glistened like stars with its twinkling lights inside the orb. The orb reminded him that even if he didn't leave this place just yet, he had a whole new world out there to explore. Every time he lost hope, he would look at the orb to remind himself to never give up.

The book his mother left him, was an introductory book on imperial language of the Emmanuel empire written in dragon tongue. It was written by his own mother.

The recording device was an orb where you had to inject mana to view the message left behind. He didn't have a lot of mana but the small amount he had, he used it sparingly. His mother, who was killed by humans had left behind parting words about them.

The baby couldn't understand why his mother, whose dying wish was to watch her baby hatch and enter this world, couldn't do so only because of humans, would remark about them in a good light.

"My dear child, I don't how long I have left. I am afraid that I won't be there to watch you enter this world. That's the only regret I have. I want you to know that I never regret protecting you with my life."

His mother smiled gently concealing her pain even as tears flowed down her cheeks in sadness. Her golden eyes shone with love so vast, the baby choked in agony eventhough he hadn't met her when she was alive.

"I want you to be wary of humans but do not hate them, my hatchling. I don't know if the humans who killed me will come back. So please hide and survive until you have enough strength to leave this place."

His mother coughed up blood in the video recorded in the device. But even as she was dying, she could only think about her baby.

The baby thought he wouldn't have begrudged her, if she had left this place and him behind when the humans attacked her. He wouldn't have been angry either.

"Listen baby, the baby dragons need mana as their food during their infancy. But they can't ingest the mana in the nature directly into their body. It will kill them. Only the mana processed in a human body or an adult dragon can supply nourishment to the babies. So even if it's disgusting, I want you to absorb my mana into yourself."

His mother smiled in pain as another coughing fit wracked her frame.

"Also I know you might come to hate humans. But don't do so baby because there are good humans among them just like there are bad humans. When you find someone that treats you well and cherishes you, you'll come to love them as family."

The baby watched as his mother's breathing laboured in the recorded video.

"One last word. I will always love you, Arad."

With that, the baby - no - Arad watched as his mother breathed one last time and closed her eyes forever.

Arad's heart was wrenched with sadness that involuntary tears dripped down his cheeks no matter how much he tried to stop.

Ever since then, he had been surviving on his mother's remaining mana. It wasn't much. So he was soon forced to absorb the mana in the nature even as it made him sick. He had to survive no matter what to avenge his mother's death.

Arad couldn't understand why she asked him to not hate humans. They had taken his mother from him. Where there should have been a loving childhood instead, he has been suffering with malnutrition and starvation.

All of these things happened because of humans. So why couldn't he hate humans ? If he hated humans, then he wouldn't have to blame himself, nor would he have to hate himself for his mother's death.

Then on one day, Arad met him.