An extract from the book of history:
The human populus might be the largest but they are not completely dominant. Due to how hard it is for the other races to propagate, they each have a single nation, each protected by its guard, and is built far from any dungeons, like the woods of Elleria.
The other races emerged around the age of change. This is right when the first Knight became S-rank, level 101, when powers were being learned. Some of these powers demanded change, thus the formation of these races. Each possessed advantages and disadvantages, but the shape of their souls made it easier to handle power.
Their offspring, which were hard to make, were not born human as they once were, but born with their soul shapes, thus they were born with power. They did not have to the ability to learn any other power, but in turn, they only had to meet fewer conditions than their predecessors to activate the power within them.
The dragons are true beasts that have manifested from the scaled beasts. Each true beast possesses a power, making their shape of soul harder to reproduce. The disadvantage dragons possess, is that all dragons of a specific elemental are one soul.
Their advantage is that it is easier for them to cross breed. Dragons have formed offspring with many of the other races including humans. These are known as the dragon folk, otherwise known as dragon kin. They still share the fatal flaw of sharing half of their soul with their ancestral dragon. These dragon kin have banded together and created the nation of dragon folk, known as Pyre city.
***
A week back in Pyre city, located of the oceanic island, Dragonara. It has been placed here to dissuade any visitors. Dragon folk are the only race made up of nothing but half breeds who can reproduce amongst each other, cross breeds usually can't. This has made them the target for chimera experiments by the council of manifestation.
They wish to make the most powerful being, and make it fight the darkness, but every attempt has died instantly, handling more than a single power is just that overbearing, and with the dragon's ability to cross breed, they had become their prime targets. This is why the only way to get to the island is by flight, which every dragon folk can do, or by boat, which is perilous for its own reasons, either way getting to the city can prove disastrous.
Not to worry though, they do allow safe passage for those who gain clearance and do trade with other nations, they are notorious for their interbreeding. This is not a problem because of how strong their dragon side is, every child born is always half dragon, seen in the sheen of their scales. For the most part though they are secluded.
They even have their own guard, the Elementera. Amongst their guard is Druig, a level 132 dragon folk. He is very rambunctious, and just plain annoying for the ladies. A dragon kin's libido is off the charts, with the relative safety of their city, it can sometimes be the most prevalent form of crime. He sports a black scaled skin, letting it be seen that he has the blood of the darkness dragon. He is currently harassing a water dragon, Delana.
"I promise I will be a great father to your kids."
"Until you aren't. Druig! I have customers coming in soon, you're disturbing the business, unlike you, guards, us normal folk have something to do, the early morning rush won't feed itself."
He was wearing armour forged of heavy steel and jade, made by the mountain folk who stay here. This city is sometimes known as the laziest because they rarely engage with the other nations in military action, even their polished armour tells no stories. She was still wiping the windows of early morning dew, and he stood outside. The restaurant had not even opened yet.
His smug face just ruined her day, surprisingly though, this was his fourth time here this week, she had thought he would leave after a few rejections, 'even the shallow, have perseverance, or it's more likely he has nothing better to do.' She told herself.
"He's still here?" Said the human cashier Valdi, as she walked out of the changing room, slowly tying her apron behind her. She then continued to prepare the notes for taking orders.
"You should tell him to go; he'll scare away the customers. How does he still not get that he's bad for business?"
"I keep telling him, all those ladies he's been involved with, want nothing to do with him, and surprise, surprise, half of our clientele is women."
The pale human beauty, Valdi, walked outside the store and tried to chase him away using the broom.
"Come on get. She already said no like a hundred times."
"I know, but if I leave now, then all I said is meaningless." So, he said as he was dodging the broom.
"What about all those who've rejected you before, you left them eventually."
"Not if you want to be tec…"
He had fled in the sight of the wings coming from downtown, he recognised those wings from anywhere. The crimson scaled enchantress is the restaurant owner Ferris. She is known for sending men packing if she catches them harassing her staff, she used to be in the guard, retiring at level 223.
To this day, Druig is still the only riffraff that still comes by to this place. It was an early morning, but the first customer had already rung the bell as they entered, Fred, a regular. Happens to also be a dark dragon kin, he is a researcher for the city and works with the engineers.
The other nations may use pattern crafting/smithing, but they were not as fond of it, thus their streets weren't littered with glowing carvings. The nations had their own systems in place, Prye used the elements to produce electricity. Humans have far outgrown it, using it for mostly lighting and small display screens. Pattern crafting was far superior, but the other nations were not as good at it, as such they have relied on electricity or other alternatives.
Electricity is usually problematic to use in this world, but they had limited options, only humans could use patterns, they were a power. Since the other races had power already, it made it near impossible to use patterns, as such the only use of it is from recruited humans. Fred is a researcher, researching ways to use pattern craft without having the power over its source.
"How has the lab been treating you?" asked Ferris as she entered the restaurant herself, carrying supplies she had went to fetch.
Someone had held a party yesterday, running them dry of supplies, that's why she had to do this morning run with post haste.
"The lab has been rampant, just yesterday, we managed to procure this specimen from Maroon city. It's an artifact that does not run on electricity, patterns, elements, or any known source of anything. All one has to do is focus on achieving its purpose it performs the miraculous feat.
The one we have is a dagger with no poison, but everything it stabs is poisoned. They haven't told us just how they made them, or where they got them, but they have lent this one to the lab to get our expertise, a real value has not been decided for them yet. We will be having it for a year, if we can figure it out, we keep it but share the findings, otherwise onto another lab to be checked out."
"Sounds like fun…"
"It is, but I'm not on the main team, I'm just supposed to run over their other findings and compare them to ours."
The forest folk are religious to their belief about 'nature' as such they tend to distance themselves from the other nations, but this has not stopped them from spreading relations, because becoming a nation that fights the darkness alone is just pure insanity. Foliel is another customer who lives in Pyre city, she is part of the morning rush.
"Fred is here; he better not be bringing the morning mood down with the taboos done in those labs of theirs."
"I think his exploits are charming." Said Valdi, she was moving in to take their order.
"Yes, this is an exciting development, it means that if we can reproduce this thing, we could discard the use of electricity."
After the conversation and meal, he shook Ferris's hand, sending her values, paying for the meal, and left for the lab. By the time he left, the morning rush was in full swing, it was hard to look at this crowd and remember in about thirty minutes, this whole place will be empty. Then it would be time to prepare for the lunch rush, and after an even shorter break, prepare for the dinner rush.
"Delena, where's that boy of yours, what's his name? Duil? Dguil?"
"You mean Druig? He scurried on his way when he saw you coming."
She laughed, "He's just like his father, can't control himself around a pretty lady."
"I heard that."
"You know he would be chasing you too Valdi, if you hadn't yet married."
They joked around when this adventurer, a rhino type beast folk. The city of Pyre was relatively peaceful, even with the monsters in the island and the sea monsters sometimes causing problems, adventurers have a limited scope of quests, as such the guild has so few, it's hard to not know all of them.
"Have you guys heard, a whole passenger ship was totalled just south of the coast of the island."
Everyone became suddenly sullen at the loss of lives. "Everyone survived!"
Valdi threw a huge pan at the man, who caught it. "You could have started with that!"
He moved the pan and placed it on a nearby table, "Sorry, but that's the thing, that's not the bad news."
Ferris put the cloth that she was using to wipe the table down. 'Why didn't I see it? Why would the guild master send one of the cities only adventurers here to spread the word? That's because it's something needing all those able on hand.'
She then looked up and said, "So, what is it? Spit it out."
"Waeria had to send its legion of dragons to deliver the passengers."
Waeria is the water dragon, instead of roaming the planet, she decided to stay in the vicinity of her children and guard the waters around the island.
"She said that an underwater dungeon has expanded, the void is expanding outward, bringing with it the destroyers. The adventurer's guild has allied with the guards to fight them on arrival."
'Bringing those green horns to face destroyers is death. This is why we had decided to make a city all the way out here.'
She then asked Reed the standard questions, "If you are recruiting even retired veterans like me, that must mean that it's even closer, how did one manage to make it this close? The nearest dungeon should be too far to pose immediate danger. Did Waeria retreat from the waters? Most of all did the guild master send someone to request the help from the knights?"
"From what the reports said, this is a cavern type dungeon, it was still a ways off, but their cavern system from which the dungeon burst was near here. It had been covered up by a thin plating, so it had been missed, and instead of going through the entrance it came through that breach, which is remarkably close to here.
Wearia's legion flew off in all directions and most of these dragons are on their way to Arulli with someone carrying a message for the knights. We are two days away from the night in which the darkness will emerge from the deep, it might be one...
The knights might make it here in three days at best, with the dragons, but their full support will take even longer. That is why I was sent here to fetch you, the city is bolstering its defences and sending a team to keep the darkness at bay, its every hand on deck."