The river was dark and heavy.
The koi floated near the bed, his crimson scales glimmering faintly. The silence pressed against him like a weight.
The Legendary Task burned in his mind:
[Objective One: Form a bond with a Human Tamer.]
[Objective Two: Travel to Emerald Peak.]
[Bonus Objective: Slay the Emerald Dragon (Tier One).]
Impossible. That word would have broken anyone else. But for him, it was all that remained.
He could not remain the Dominator of the River forever. If he stayed, he would stagnate, his scales nothing more than a bloody crown of mud. If he failed, the System would erase him.
The only path forward was through a Tamer. And to find one, he had to master the one tool that could reach beyond the water: Sense.
Yet even after weeks of stretching his awareness, widening it until it brushed against travelers and merchants miles away, he had failed. No one was strong enough. No one had the conviction to climb a mountain where even dragons nested.
Until he found Brandon.
The man's aura had been like iron — clear, sharp, unyielding. But he was far from the water, and koi had no way to reach him.
That was when the System whispered:
[Telepathy Sub-Skill Unlocked: Dream]
Project thoughts into a sleeping Tamer's dreams.
Range limited by Sense.
Clarity unstable.
The koi had tested it night after night.
And failed.
Sometimes his message dissolved into static, his voice warped into meaningless echoes. Sometimes he projected too far, and his mind collapsed in pain. Other times, the dream rejected him entirely, spitting him back into the river with nothing to show but exhaustion.
Each failure gnawed at him, but he did not stop.
Because this was no longer about memory or revenge. It was about strength. If he was to be chosen, if he was to stand by a Tamer without being a burden, he had to seize this chance.
So he forced himself to try again.
—
That night, Brandon slept.
The koi steadied his body in the current, closing his eyes, focusing on the pulse of Sense that stretched out like invisible threads. He found Brandon's aura, steady as a stone, and poured his will into it.
The world around him dissolved.
The river faded. The current vanished. His scales disappeared.
He was nothing but a presence pressing against the boundary of another's dream.
This time, the barrier opened.
—
Mist. Endless, white, and heavy.
Shapes flickered in the haze — broken fragments of memory, half-formed echoes of reality. It was the shifting ground of dreams.
And standing in the mist was Brandon.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. His stance firm, even here. His aura pulsed steadily, not warped like most minds in dreams.
The koi did not reveal himself. He had learned from his failures. To appear as a talking fish would only unravel the illusion. Instead, he let the mist carry his voice.
It rumbled low, steady, otherworldly.
"Brandon."
The man's head turned sharply. He searched the fog, but found nothing.
"You have been chosen."
The words sank into the mist like iron weights, echoing in the silence.
Brandon's eyes narrowed, but he did not speak. He waited.
The koi continued, weaving the tale he had rehearsed again and again in the river's silence.
"There exists a Mystical Koi. Tomorrow, when the sun stands at its peak, you will walk to the river. It will leap. You will catch it. That is the moment of fate."
The dreamscape rippled, mist curling tighter around him.
"From that moment, you will form a bond. Together, you will climb Emerald Peak. You will face the Emerald Dragon. And you will conquer."
The silence stretched. The koi's fins twitched even though his body was not here. Would the dream break? Would Brandon dismiss it as nonsense?
But then the man spoke. His voice was calm, his gaze unwavering.
"…Understood."
The koi jolted. That's it?
Brandon nodded once, as if the words had only confirmed what he already believed. "If the dream came, then it is truth. I'll be there."
No laughter. No doubt. No suspicion.
Pure belief.
—
The koi's presence trembled in the mist. His mind reeled. He had prepared to convince, to cajole, to trap Brandon in the lore. Instead, Brandon had accepted it without hesitation.
He almost didn't understand. How could a man believe so easily in something so absurd? A mystical koi, a prophecy of bouncing into his arms? It was ridiculous. Any other Tamer would have scoffed.
But not Brandon.
And suddenly, the koi understood.
This was why the System had chosen him.
Not for strength of muscle. Not for a blade. But for conviction. For belief that did not crack under the weight of the impossible.
Compared to him, others were fragile — their doubts would kill them before any dragon ever did.
Belief was strength. And Brandon's belief was unshakable.
—
The mist dissolved.
The koi snapped back into his body, gills flaring as water rushed through them. His fins trembled, his crimson scales glowing faintly.
It had worked.
Tomorrow, Brandon would come. Tomorrow, the koi would leap. Tomorrow, the bond would be tested.
The koi floated in silence, heart pounding. For the first time in years, he felt something different from emptiness or despair.
Not hope. Hope was fragile, breakable.
Conviction.
The kind of conviction that could pierce even a dragon's scales.