A few days passed whilst we all recovered from the battle with Clive.

Sally kept the ship on track towards the continent but spent most of her time relentlessly attempting to fix its flight capability.

The catonid really hated sailing, but honestly, I was happy to have a few days to relax.

Having waited out my mandatory hour of no healing in relative agony, I had then spent an entire day meditating to fix all of my wounds and regain some stamina.

According to Sally, if I hadn’t activated my scales when I did, that force blade would have sliced me clean in two. The only reason it didn’t kill Bell is because she had the sense to activate a fireball shield scroll she’d pilfered.

Sadly, despite killing plenty of zealots and hacking my way through countless zombies, I didn’t gain a single level. I guessed they were all just weaker than me and in the end decided that was probably a good thing.

I nearly died as it was.

Worryingly, I also didn’t receive a notification for Clive’s death meaning either, I’d not managed to cause enough damage to him to merit me getting in on the death experience points, or he was still out there somewhere. A notion which sent a chill down my spine.

The rest of my time was spent trying to hatch my mystery egg. Most of my efforts resulted in keeping it with me. I had just enough room to tuck it into my armour, keeping it next to my heart and hopefully warm.

Though of course, that logic may apply to birds back home, but I had no idea if it would work on whatever this thing was.

For some, unexplained, reason I couldn’t place it in my inventory and no matter how much I focused on it I couldn’t get a system notification to appear.

It was almost as if it existed outside of the system entirely.

Yet, something drew me to it. I wanted to hatch it, but more than that, I felt a bond with the glimmering, black egg like it belonged to me, or was part of me.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Panda said amazedly when I pulled it out during breakfast one day. “It’s almost hard to look at, it kinda hurts my eyes.”

“Do you think?” I replied quizzically, “I think it’s hard to look away from it.”

“I can crack it open if you want?” Sally called from the kitchen counter, “we didn’t get a chance to resupply in Asquith Town and an egg that size would make a mean omelette.”

“NO!” Panda and I shouted back in unison, though likely for entirely different reasons.

“I want to study it,” he said adamantly, “a discovery like this is sure to increase my sagely wisdom after all.”

“I hope it’s a dragon,” Bell said casually whilst flicking through a book she seemed oddly engrossed in. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her read anything before. I didn’t even know she could read.

She had slept for about twelve hours after the battle but woke up in perfect condition. However, she was a bit upset at having missed the demon flicking Clive to God-knows where like a crumb.

I tried to tell her that she must have been awake because when it had asked who’d summoned it, she’d pointed at me. Something I wasn’t planning to forget anytime soon, but she insisted that she had no memory of any of it.

“Why would a dragon egg randomly appear on the ship?” Panda replied, shaking his head at the fireball mage, “if anything, it’s probably a kraken egg. At least that would make some kind of logical sense.”

“I hope not,” I said, curling my lip at the thought. “I’ve seen enough krakens to last a lifetime.”

“Must be all that hentai you’ve been watching,” Bell said nonchalantly.

“There’s no internet here,” I replied dryly.

“I know,” she said, flipping a page in her book, “and that makes it so much worse.”

The days passed in an almost splendid reverie as I read books, slept in, trained and meditated the time away. Sailing was a lot slower than flying, but thankfully we didn’t run into any storms or more sea kaiju.

In fact, I was almost sad when we finally spotted a land mass in the distance.

From out at sea the continent looked like a long green lump stretching across the entire horizon. Though from the map on my HUD, I knew it was a near exact replica of the land masses back on Earth.

The continent we were headed to was North America back home. More specifically, we were going to land somewhere on the Florida coast.

“We should be there soon,” Sally crooned as she joined me and Panda on the bow of the ship. “Hopefully there will be some skilled craftsmen at the port so we can get the ship sky worthy again.”

“Where are we landing exactly?” I asked.

“Cali Port,” she replied, “it’s the biggest trade port in the south of the continent. It’s no Castalor of course, but I bet there will be all sorts of exotic items for you to buy. That should be your number one priority if you want to survive this place. Havar was like kiddie camp compared to the continent.”

“What’s wrong with my gear?” I asked incredulously.

“Nothing… per say, it just needs some upgrades,” she replied patting me firmly on the shoulder with her massive hand. “For example, do any of your enchantments add 100% to your stats?”

“You can do that?” I replied dumbstruck.

“You can,” she nodded, “100% is the maximum you can increase each stat through enhancements and basically every adventurer on the continent has at least one stat buff that has a 100% buff. If you don’t, then you’re already massively behind the curve.”

“Sounds a bit pay to win,” I muttered, but she ignored me and continued.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Not to mention that there are a lot of level cappers on the continent,” she took a breath, wrapping her arm around me and pointing out at the closing land mass. “You were a respectable level in Havar, here you’re not. On the continent, you’re a lower level than most blacksmiths. Of course, you’ll gain levels much faster here, but you won’t get any special treatment...”

As she spoke I felt something wriggling beneath my cloak. I ducked out of her grip swiftly and pulled the egg from its place under my torso armour.

It shook.

“Hey, don’t ignore me when I’m trying to help… oh, it’s moving.” Sally said, gazing at my egg with wide eyes.

I pretended not to notice her hand twitch as if she wanted to unsheathe her sword.

“I’m telling you it’s going to be a dragon,” Bell said as she looked over the rim of her book at us. “Try channelling some mana into it.”

She had been lounging on a deck chair for most of the day reading that same book.

“I don’t have any mana,” I replied.

“Oh yeah,” she said absently, “well the book says that you need to channel mana into it, that’s what mother dragon’s do to hatch their eggs.”

“Wait, that book is about egg hatching?” I asked, turning towards her, “where did you even get something like that?”

“Panda let me borrow it,” she said with a shrug.

“Whatever it is,” Panda said, “I’m sure it’s going to be a great find. Maybe it’ll be a creature we’ve never seen before. How great would that be? I can see the award ceremony now.”

As the egg shook in my hand a small piece of the shell chipped away and my dragon’s eye took over. Suddenly, the black, glimmering shell which had previously shown no sign of mana, was overflowing with a gentle, dark glow.

I felt a sudden urge to pour my own mana into the egg, just like Bell had suggested, but I didn’t have any to use.

There was something I could channel into it, though it could be dangerous. Before I could let that thought linger, I began channelling a small amount of my soul energy into my fingertips.

Another piece cracked off and before my very eyes the glow darkened and began to tinge with a forest green that swirled within its natural black energy.

Was that my doing?

I almost lost my grip as the gentle shaking turned into violent thrashing I put the egg down and backed away. Whatever was inside the shell was ready to get out.

I couldn’t help but feel like introducing my own soul power had pushed the hatchling into hatching faster, just like Bell’s book had suggested… kinda.

“You did something didn’t you?” Bell said with a satisfied smile.

Sally’s hand was fully on the hilt of her sword as she took a tentative step backwards and Bell put down her book, leaning forward eagerly.

“This thing better not destroy my ship, Gonads,” Sally hissed.

“It’s a hatchling, what could it possibly do?” I replied with an irritated shake of my head.

“Can you not see that aura?” She demanded, “whatever it is, it’s not normal.”

I could see the aura leaking through the cracks, I was pretty sure I’d helped to form it. I wasn’t going to tell Sally that though.

“Green and black is not a good mixture,” she said, eyes glued to the vibrating egg.

A few more pieces of shell came off and then… CRACK.

“Oh thank the gods, I’m finally free of that retched place,” a deep, booming voice said loudly. “I’ll tell you; it was terribly claustrophobic in there.”

Standing before us, with a tiny piece of shell stuck to its head like a little hat, was a baby dragon.

“I told you it’d be a dragon!” Bell yelled, jumping out of her lounger.

The dragon was about the size of a small chihuahua and its scales were jet black with a slight green tinge to the tips. Hidden within the blackness was small, glimmering dots of white light which looked like stars. The dragon had two, tiny wings that didn’t look fully formed yet and deep, forest green eyes.

“Oh Kaleb, it’s so cute!” Bell squealed, clenching her fists as she seemed to struggle to control her urges, “what are you going to call it? How about…”

Before she had a chance to offer up a suggestion, the baby dragon dived at my chest, knocking me to the floor.

“Try to soul bond with me will you?” It yelled. It was surprisingly strong for such a tiny creature. “Your soul is mine human; I claim it in the name of Asmodeus!”

At that we all went silent.

Sally reached for her sword once again, Panda took a step back and Bell’s eyes went wide.

“Asmodeus?” I asked, speaking to my hatchling for the first time as it wriggled against my chest like it was trying to burrow through my rib cage.

“Ow, stop!” I shouted as it nibbled at my clothes. Grabbing it by the scruff of the neck I ripped it off of me and held it at arm’s length.

“Unhand me this instant!” It protested, kicking its underdeveloped legs helplessly in midair. “This is not how one treats a demon lord.”

“Listen buddy,” I began, shooting the baby dragon a disapproving look. “I’ve met Asmodeus, and you’re not him.”

“How dare you assume to know me,” the dragon hissed, “we’ve only just met, Kaleb Akabane.”

I paused for a moment as he continued to wriggle and fight against my iron grip.

“How do you know my name?” I said quickly.

“We are soul bonded,” he replied with a slight flutter of his wings, “how else?”

“You’re soul bonded?” Sally asked incredulously, shooting me a wide-eyed stare as her grip tightened on the hilt of her oversized sword, “to the demon of lust?”

“He’s not the demon of lust-” I began but was cut off.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Panda said sulkily, “I’m your familiar, we’re supposed to discuss things like this, kid.”

“I don’t even know what soul bonding is!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air in frustration and further upsetting the aggressive baby dragon who swung in my grip like an empty shopping bag.

“Wait,” Bell said, putting herself between me and the others and scratching her chin. “When I told you to channel mana into the egg, what did you do?”

“I don’t have any mana,” I began, “… so I channelled soul energy in there instead.”

“Why would you do that?” Sally said exasperatedly as she pulled her hand slowly down her face.

“I don’t know…” I replied, “it just felt… right.”

“To think that one such as you would believe your soul to be of high enough quality to merge with me,” the baby dragon scoffed. He had stopped wriggling around now and instead hung from my hand with his front legs crossed like arms. “Do you have any idea of the power I possess as a demon lord?”

Was my new pet scolding me like a child?

I scowled at him for a moment when a notification popped up in my HUD.

You have unlocked a bonded familiar:

Asmodeus (Soul Bonded)

Due to your use of the Chaos Seed, a small fragment of the demon lord Asmodeus has remained in the mortal plane.

Possessing a miniscule amount of his powers and personality, he has hatched as a demon familiar, taking on a shape imposed on him by the imprinted soul to which he is bound.

As a soul bonded familiar, Asmodeus cannot directly disobey your commands.

Make sure you house train him.

I guess it did say “results may vary” when I pulled the seed out, I thought.

I wondered why I couldn’t conjure a notification when he was still an egg? Moreover, why would my soul imprint make him take on the shape of a chihuahua sized dragon?

I did have a few dragon related skills, and a dragon’s eye. Still though, was that really all it took for my soul to take on that shape? Did that mean I was part dragon now?

I had so many questions and literally no answers. One important part of the message stuck with me though: Asmodeus couldn’t disobey my commands. So, surely, he wouldn’t be dangerous as long as I ordered him not to be.

“Asmodeus,” I said and the little dragon glared up at me. “I’m going to put you down now, but I forbid you from attacking me, or anyone else on this ship. Understood?”

“How dare you presume to order me around,” he began, “do you know who I am!”

Despite his bravado, when I placed him on the ground he made no attempt to go after any of us.

“Good boy,” I said patting him softly on the head.

“One day I am going to devour your soul, human,” he muttered and a little snort of black fire poofed out of his nostrils.

“I think the demon lord needs a nap,” Bell said, scooping him up before I could stop her.

“How dare you!” He roared, his unnaturally deep voice carrying loudly across the ocean air. “Unhand me this instant, you insolent cur I will… actually, I am kind of sleepy,” he yawned, “After some consideration, your offer of nap time is agreeable to me, human, show me to your finest lair.”

“We are going to talk about this when she gets back,” Sally said in low, dangerous voice as Bell cradled the baby dragon in her arms lovingly.