Reincarnated As A Dragon With A Godly Inheritance

This time, they drank quickly.

There was no lingering by the lake, no marveling at how the water restored their mana or soothed their aching muscles. The pain in their limbs faded, their strength returned but one thing remained untouched.

Their stomachs howled with hunger. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"What are we going to eat now?" Taria groaned as they hurried away from the lake. "We haven’t eaten since last night. Or... was it two nights ago?"

Kaedros frowned. "It was morning when we entered the castle, but inside it’s always dark. Outside was even worse. By my guess, it should be night now."

"To me," Rauk muttered, "it feels like five days have passed. From Vexa’s sudden betrayal to the Celestial Order and the bounty hunter’s Association’s not-so-surprising backstab... to the deaths of nearly everyone on this raid but us."

He ran a hand through his dusty hair. "I’ve lost count of how many times I almost died. And something tells me... this is just the beginning."

Taria nodded, picking her way carefully over twisted roots as they followed Chef and Thalso. "I couldn’t see any sun when we entered. Not outside, not inside. And yet everything’s so bright... so warm. It’s strange."

"Yeah," Kaedros agreed. "Even outside Throne of Ruinlight was oddly lit, even through the darkness."

"I wonder how this place was built," Taria mused. "A castle this small on the outside, yet so massive and open inside? A lot of spatial magic must’ve gone into it. Dozens of hidden dimensions, maybe."

"Don’t worry. You’ll be doing that in a few days," she added teasingly to Rauk. "Weaving such grand spells."

"In my dreams," Rauk snorted. "Would be nice, though. If I had a ridiculously high mana."

Kaedros sighed. This entire raid had turned upside down long ago. Now all they could do was survive. And given how Chef was glaring at them from the clearing ahead, even that seemed uncertain.

But then again, everything Kaedros has been doing since he could remember was trying to survive.

"We should pick up the pace," he said dryly. "They might decide to make us fight again."

"I dare you to walk slower!" Chef snapped from up ahead.

She and Thalso were waiting in a clearing surrounded by towering trees, the largest they’d seen so far. Their leaves were a deep, glossy green, and the branches drooped with large, reddish-pink fruits.

"Sorry," Taria muttered as they stepped into the clearing.

"What were you talking about?" Thalso asked, tilting his helmeted head. "I heard something about time."

"We were wondering what time it is," Kaedros replied. "It looks like early afternoon here, but we’ve lost track."

"That’s not something I can help with," Thalso said, tapping the side of his head with a hollow metallic click. "Time here works differently than outside."

Kaedros stilled. That set off alarm bells. He’d heard of places where time warped, where a year could pass inside, while only a day passed in the real world.

"Is it... faster here?" he asked, barely breathing.

Thalso took a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes. Now I remember. Time here moves slower. Something about excess spatial magics messing with the flow."

Kaedros released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Good. That was better than the alternative.

Chef cut in with a wave. "Enough yapping. We have work to do."

"True, true," Thalso said, stepping aside. "Chef, they’re yours."

Chef’s dark eyes gleamed. "See these fruits?" She gestured to the trees. "This is your food."

Then she waited. Watching. Her gaze cold and calculating.

But when none of them moved toward the fruit, she scoffed and took a swig from her bottle, the string keeping it close to her robes jingling lightly.

"Well?" she asked, lowering it. "Aren’t you going to eat?"

Thalso didn’t move. He stood there like a statue made of armor, clearly waiting to see what they would do. Chef could be cruel sometimes, and Kaedros knew it. He knew a trap when he saw one.

He shrugged and gave a disarming smile. "Didn’t you say we’d have to earn it? Or have you changed your mind?"

Chef stared at him for a long second, then scoffed again and shook her bottle at him.

Thalso chuckled softly. "No fun for you."

Chef pouted dramatically, looking a bit childish as she did. "Why is it never fun? I like splitting open the skulls of eager, starving candidates with my kitchen knife. Why so cautious?"

"Yeah, shame on us," Taria said, eyeing the fruit hungrily. "We really should’ve leapt at the chance to get decapitated."

"She did say we’d have to fight for our food later," Rauk muttered. "We’re weak, not stupid."

"You’d be surprised how many bit into these and got a warm taste of my blade," Chef said with a nostalgic sigh, as though reminiscing fondly over past executions of what she did to eager people trying to eat her fruits.

Kaedros’s stomach growled. "So, what now? Who, or what, are we fighting for food?"

Thalso stepped forward, tone shifting. "Before that... I’ve watched how you fight. And all I can say is..."

He shook his head in disbelief.

"...how have you survived this long?"

"What do you mean?" Kaedros asked. He knew he wasn’t the strongest, but he thought he had been doing well enough... hadn’t he?

Thalso grunted. "You fight so poorly. If anything here had truly intended your death, you’d have been dead the moment you stepped through the gate."

"We’ve faced powered people, and things," Kaedros pointed out. "They could have killed us, sure."

Thalso’s helmet tilted, and though his face was hidden, Kaedros felt the weight of narrowed eyes.

"None of you have trained," Thalso growled. "Not properly. All I saw was half-hearted fighting. There’s no discipline. No form. Taria," He pointed at her. "You look like you’re wielding a weapon for the first time."

Taria flushed. It was true. She had relied more on brute strength than technique. When Kaedros brought her into his team, she had gone with the flow. He’d tried his best to teach her, but as a mage, there was only so much he could do.

Maybe her father would’ve trained her, if the Celestial Order hadn’t destroyed her family.