Chapter 7: The Drake's Hoard
Rei woke from a light doze with carved lines still pulsing behind his eyes.
The sealed boundary ahead kept its clean banding, grooves brightening and fading in measured beats. He stayed seated for a moment longer and let Ember Circulation run slow. Life moved through him in a disciplined loop, taking the sharpest edge off his ribs and steadying his hands.
Jinx clung to the wall near the ceiling seam, a dark cutout against the carved glow. Vesper sat closer to the floor, pale shape half in shadow. Both flickered at the edges when the boundary's pulse climbed, then sharpened again when it fell.
Rei pushed to his feet and rolled his shoulders once. "Alright," he murmured. "Let's see what you were pointing at."
The boundary's rhythm dropped to its softest point—grooves dim, pressure eased. Rei stepped in and placed both palms to the seam.
The carved lines brightened in a tight, synchronized sweep. A low grind followed, and the boundary split just enough to take his weight.
Rei slipped through.
The sound behind him dulled at once. Damp air gave way to dryness and dust, with a faint bite of old oil. The carved-line glow continued here, straighter and more regular, running along the walls like deliberate filigree.
His HUD hovered at the edge of his vision.
End of Beta: 26 days, 18 hours, 12 minutes
Dungeon: Grey Hollow – Depths
Status: Active Hazard
Progress: 14%
The percentage flickered.
14% → 12% → 19% → ERROR
A thin static line cut across the last word and vanished. Rei blinked, then kept moving.
The passage opened into a wide chamber that stopped feeling like a cave. The floor had been leveled. The walls held shallow niches and supporting ribs cut into the stone. Treasure lay everywhere: heaps of coins pooled in drifts, cracked helms and bent blades half-buried, rings tangled in chains, a lacquered shield split down the center. At the chamber's center, a basin-shaped depression fell away into a jagged crack. Faint light rose through it, bright enough to tint the underside of the treasure piles.
Rei scanned the room.
Jinx moved first, dropping to a coin ridge and padding along it. Vesper held back by the threshold line, pale outline steady.
Rei's gaze snagged on a flat stone slab near the nearest hoard—someone's idea of a display. Several items rested there in a neat row, untouched by grime: a robe folded with care, gloves set palm-up beside it, and a quill laid across a strip of cloth. A small trinket sat at the edge—something sized for a fox, a thin metal loop with two bead-like charms hanging from it, one pale and one black. Each bead carried a spiral cut that matched the chamber's linework.
Rei crossed to it fast.
He grabbed the robe and gloves first and put them into his inventory. He scooped a fistful of coins next. The weight left his hand as the coins vanished.
He pulled the robe free again. The HUD gave him a clipped line.
[Item Acquired]
Veilweave Robe (Rare)
Restriction: Kitsune
Rei frowned at the word, then at the robe in his hands. The cut looked made for him—long sleeves, roomy shoulders, and a hood deep enough to hide ears he still refused to think about for too long.
He shrugged into it.
The fabric settled on his shoulders, light yet warm. As the gold trim caught the carved glow, a faint vibration threaded through the stitching, matching the chamber's steady rhythm. The lining sat close along his ribs and back, and he felt a second pocket of strength settle there—contained, held, like extra space sewn into the robe itself.
Rei drew the new gloves and swapped them on in a single motion.
The fit hugged tighter at the knuckles. Fine gold seamwork ran along the palms and fingertips. When he flexed, the material tightened with him.
He pressed one hand to the stone wall.
His weight shifted—and his hand stayed where he put it.
Rei's grin broke wide before he could stop it. "You've got to be kidding."
He pressed his hand to the wall again, harder this time, then shifted more confidently. The glove held. The move that would have turned into a skid in the corridors landed clean.
Jinx watched from a coin ridge with bright attention, then bounced twice like it wanted him to do it again.
"Later," Rei told Jinx, and kept moving.
A narrow tray held a quill.
It looked wrong in a dungeon: clean, intact, and deliberate. Dark metal, golden tip, the shaft etched in the same pattern language as the robe. The crystal point caught the carved glow and threw it back in a sharp line. Rei pictured dragging it across stone to leave marks. Routes. Warnings. A sign for his future self.
He put it into inventory.
[Item Acquired]
Gildline Quill (Kitsune) — Rare
Coins sat in bowls beside it. Rei swept up another handful and sent them into inventory.
[Currency Acquired]
Gold: +62
The fox-sized trinket came last. He hesitated for half a beat, then scooped it up as well.
Warmth spread through his fingers, gentle and alive.
Jinx froze mid-step, head tilting toward Rei's hand.
Vesper turned from the threshold line. For a heartbeat the outline steadied, then wavered again as the carved light hitched.
Rei slipped the trinket into inventory and filed the reaction away. Meaning could wait.
A faint static ticked across his vision.
A voice rolled through the chamber, rough at the edges, words catching and resetting like a damaged recording.
"You're wearing something that doesn't belong to you, little fox."
Rei's head snapped up.
A shape unfolded from the shadow above the hoard. At first it read as a long silhouette near the ceiling ribs. Then the carved glow touched it, and the outline resolved into a drake: narrow skull, ridged neck, wings folded tight. Its body looked half-translucent, as if pale light had been poured into a reptile shape and left to settle. Glitch artifacts tore along its spine in short bursts, breaking it into squares and rejoining it a blink later.
The HUD snapped an overlay into place.
[Spectral Drake] Lv. 6
HP: 520 / 520
Rei's throat tightened.
The drake's head tilted. Its eyes held that same wrong brightness Rei had seen in other anomalies, then stuttered into static for half a beat.
"Put it back," the drake said. The last word doubled, then stabilized.
Jinx's outline flickered hard and sharpened again on a coin ridge. Vesper thinned at the edges, then returned, as if both foxes were fighting to keep their forms intact.
Rei stepped onto clearer stone and lifted his hands, claws angled forward.
"Then take it," Rei said, and his grin stayed thin. "If you can."
The drake dropped.
Coins scattered in a ringing wave as it landed on the hoard. Rei moved at once, keeping a ridge of treasure between himself and the drake's chest.
The drake lunged anyway.
It moved like a predator built for short bursts—neck snapping forward, claws carving shallow trenches through coin drift and grit. Rei pivoted and raked at its forearm as it passed.
Claw met dense resistance under the translucent surface.
Glitch squares popped along the strike line, then knit back together. The HP bar shaved down by a sliver.
Rei used the moment and pushed off the floor, planting one palm to the wall. The new glove bit. He ran two quick steps along the stone at an angle and dropped behind a broken chain pile.
The drake tracked him anyway.
"Clever," it rasped, the word carrying a faint echo.
Its wings flared.
A pressure wave hit the chamber, heavy enough to jar bone and balance. Coins lifted and fell in a metallic patter. Rei's boots slid across loose treasure.
He caught himself on the wall with one hand, glove gripping hard enough to sting his palm. His ribs flared. Ember Circulation tightened in response, life tempering the jolt into something he could carry.
Jinx blurred from ridge to ridge, keeping distance without leaving. Vesper shifted along the threshold line, holding Rei's blind side.
The drake advanced, claws cutting through hoard without hesitation.
Rei darted in.
He aimed for the wing joint as it passed, looking for a seam. The drake twisted in mid-step and caught his forearm with the back of its wrist.
Impact lifted Rei off his feet.
His shoulders hit the basin edge hard enough to rattle his teeth. The robe softened part of it; the rest landed in his ribs and made bright sparks flash behind his eyes.
Rei rolled, came up on one knee, and drove forward again before the drake could settle.
Stone shifted under him with a low grind.
A long crack ran across the basin floor, starting under the drake's foreclaw and spidering toward the hoard.
Rei felt it as a sudden drop in air pressure, a violent thrum below the stone—dense, bright, hungry.
Treasure slid toward the new seam. Coins poured in a dull river. Broken metal clattered down into darkness.
Rei's boots found traction for a heartbeat.
The drake struck.
It drove forward with a shoulder slam that hit Rei square in the chest. The robe took some of it. The rest turned his lungs inside out.
Rei lifted.
Air tore past his ears as he shot upward, the chamber spinning beneath him—hoard, crack, falling coin, a widening gap in the basin floor with a bright, violent glow far below.
Jinx and Vesper flickered at the edge of his vision, their shapes tearing into static as the drake's glitch surged.
Rei reached for the wall.
His gloved hand closed on empty air.