As they moved closer to the cottage Damien was bewildered at the contrasting notion that a dragon would live in such a tiny dwelling.

‘This is so different from what I read. I thought dragons occupied massive mountaintops or isolated caverns.’

Damien’s thoughts were written all over his face. Cal was able to pick up on his confusion before they reached the door.

“It’s odd right? Not what you would expect from what you have learned. Dad’s temperament has softened drastically from long ago. To us he is not a legendary dragon, but just a regular father.”

Cal continued to talk about their childhood and how they grew up knit tight in this very cottage. He explained that every family member he brought in lived with him in this very cottage. They were raised until they were independent. As time passed many decided to come back and raise their families inside their father’s estate. It grew to a strong community that only happened because of their father's capacity to love and provide.

Yuki was the first to reach the door to their household. She slowly pushed open the door that revealed a simple, but elegant interior. The living room was small and cozy, featuring a fireplace with burnt embers. The warmth was still lingering in the air providing a good feeling. They walked into a corridor lit by magical candles that never went out. They passed by a couple of rooms which were exposed to be Cal and Yuki’s.

Yuki refused to let anyone come into her room, insisting that they were only here to visit their father. Cal did not mind opening his room to give Damien a tour around. He had many magical trinkets scattered around the room. Magical tomes were piled with cobwebs in a single corner of his room. It appeared like they had never been opened before. It was practically a mess but Cal was able to naturally maneuver around everything with ease. He picked up some trinkets along the way so he could show them off to Damien. He demonstrated the features of what appeared to be a decorative metallic cube. It had a rune inscribed on each of its six sides.

“Look, if I push it down here with some mana it activates into something spectacular!”

Cal inserted his mana into the cube through his thumb. He held out the metallic cube in the palm of his hand directly in front of Damien’s face. Seams began to appear throughout the cube separating itself from a single shape. The cube unfolded itself into a square golemite that stood on its own. It took a look around the room before it jumped off his hand onto the floor. On its own it started to clean up the mess in his room neatly putting everything away.

“That’s my buddy, Kemo. He’s basically a familiar! I accidentally left him behind, but I’ll be taking him back with me. Now you have to check this out…”

“Cal, did you forget what we came here for? You know father is waiting. This isn’t the time to be playing around, let's go.”

Yuki impatiently held the door open so they could exit back into the corridor. Before Cal took a step out, Kemo ran back to him and jumped up all the way to his left shoulder. He took a seat hanging it’s feet down while carefully analyzing its surroundings. Damien’s curiosity was not fully satiated of all the exotic things in the room that were still unrevealed to him.

Damien came out into the corridor with the rest and continued to walk. They reached the end where there was a fortified metal door. It was abnormal to see it be incongruous with the rest of the house. The door was sealed shut with various locking mechanisms placed upon it. Yuki efficiently undid every mechanism in a matter of seconds.

“This door is to prevent the cold from coming out. It’s much worse when father is sleeping since he is unintentionally releasing massive amounts of freezing energy. If it weren’t for the seal, then everything would be frozen in the vicinity.”

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Yuki explained the harsh reality of what her father has to do in order to be close to his family at all times. She propped open the metal door with the sound of pressurized air escaping a vacuum. A white cold mist emerged from the other side sending a chill down Damien’s spine. He had never felt a chilling cold like this before. His hairs stood up while goosebumps emerged all around his body. Damien had to circulate his mana around his meridians to warm his body up. Yuki had no issue whatsoever in the face of the frigid cold. Cal however was trembling uncontrollably. He also protected himself by circulating his mama around his body to fight off the cold from entering.

The white mist faded away unveiling a set of stairs spiraling down into the earth. They entered one by one onto the staircase. It was entirely made up of hardened earth. As they walked down into the excavated earth Damien was able to see vivid colored minerals on the way down that lit up their passage. The lower they reached the colder it became and the more energy the two boys had to use to continue.

Halfway down the stairs Cal already began to pant heavily. His body was drooping sloppily, moving side to side. Damien did a facepalm in disappointment as he watched Cal bounce off the stone wall back to the guardrail.

‘I forgot that he has horrible stamina.’

Damien couldn’t keep watching Cal continuously ricochet off everything he hit and Kemo hanging on with everything it had. Just like he did in Swordsmanship Class, he offered him a helping hand. Cal didn’t refuse the help, but instead shed tears of gratitude. Usually he would end up bruised and cut up by the time he reached the bottom.

Damien had no issue carrying the extra weight. In fact he couldn’t really feel the difference. After what felt like an eternity, a bright light emerged from an open passageway at the bottom of the stairway. Cal loudly sighed in relief to have finally reached the end. He didn’t dare think about the trek back up at the moment or he would’ve fallen into despair. Cal picked Kemo up and placed him inside his pocket.

Once they walked through the opening the change from dim to bright light partially blinded them for a couple of seconds. Damien’s vision fully recovered quickly due to his shaded lenses. Once his eyes focused, he saw a fantastical scene appear before him. He entered an immense icy cavern filled with rich minerals and crystals. The ceiling was over 300 meters tall and lined with ice blue crystals. Those crystals illuminated the cavern with their shining brilliance. Unmined ores poked through the walls in many locations revealing that they were in a rich ore vein. Icicles were formed randomly on the walls alongside patches of ice.

It was a mesmerizing scene of natural beauty that could not be experienced on a whim. Damien took the sight all in until a rumbling shake ran through the cavern. The shaking entered his body, vibrating his insides slightly. Damien looked deep into the dark abyss in the depths of the cavern that was veiled. An outline of a colossal shadow slowly emerged from the depths. The closer it came the stronger the trembling became. Icicles broke off raining down around them. They broke into fine glistening particles once they impacted onto the floor.

The shadowed figure emerged from the darkness that enveloped the deeper parts of the cavern. A giant scaled talon of immense proportions came to light following the rest of its body. Its body was densely packed with icy azure scales that brilliantly reflected the lighting of its surroundings. Its wings were spread out filling up the entire width of the space. The ridges of the wings were capped off with sharp icicles that could be utilized as weapons.

Its long scaly neck propped up a vicious reptilian head. Sharp spikes of ice came prodding out around its face. A long snout unveiled deadly sharp fangs that were prominently sticking out of its mouth. Its eyes were a vivid blood red with vertical pupils, the exact same as Yuki’s. On the top of the head was a crown made of ice that seemed to be naturally forming.

Damien took in every single detail of the dragon that was facing him. It stood approximately 150 meters tall with a wingspan surpassing that.

‘So this is a legendary dragon! It’s so humongous that it’s insane! I don’t know how anything can match up to that! I wonder if I could one day in the future.’

Damien’s thoughts were interrupted by its mere presence causing him to shake uncontrollably in fear. No amount of willpower was enough to snuff out this primal, insticual feeling. Even so Damien held his head high to stare directly into its eyes.

‘I want to know how I currently hold up to it. I’m not going to give in easily!’

The dragon took it as a challenge to its pride as an apex lifeform. It sneered with its snout releasing a freezing white mist. As the seconds passed Damien started to have a nosebleed. He got dizzy and experienced a gut wrenching nauseating feeling.

Damien’s consciousness was on thin ice. He struggled to stand straight and slowly was losing his balance.

‘I was just curious to see if I could hold on in front of its presence, but I’m going to faint any moment now.’

Damien on the verge of having his consciousness frozen was spurred on by his Inner Core. It harmonized with his will, granting him a second wind. As he was pulling himself together so he could continue, Yuki stood between them with her arms crossed.

“Father, that’s enough playing around!”

‘That was playing around?’

Damien was stupefied at the thought that it wasn’t even being serious with him. He could only imagine what would happen if it showed no restraint. While he played out different scenarios in his head, the dragon lowered its head down to Damien’s face level.

“Interesting….”