《Life as a Dragon》 Chapter 1 ¡°hmmm...¡± I opened my eyes from my slumber and looked around, only to find myself inside a white endless space. ¡°What is this place¡­. Urg! My head hurt like hell!¡± ¡°Ohh!... you are finally awake.¡±(??) A man¡¯s voice was heard which startled me for a bit, I started looking around trying to find the origin of the voice, but no one was inside the endless space other than me. ¡°Who¡¯s there? Where are you?¡± I felt a bit anxious, I wanted to stand but strangely I can¡¯t feel any of my limbs, when I looked down, the only thing that I saw was a pale blue flame, my "heart" beats faster, what happened to my body? A sudden thought came to me¡­ ¡°I- am I dead?¡± panic overcame me as soon as I said those words. ¡°W-what happened, I-¡°I frantically questioned myself the reason of my death. ¡°Please be calm.¡±(??) An intense light came in front of me. ¡°Ohh¡± the light so bright that would normally make one cover their eyes by instinct, yet, I did not take away my gaze from it. It felt warm and gentle, taking away my uneasiness. The light slowly took shape of a tall mid-40¡¯s uncle, he¡¯sclothes are similar to those on ancient Rome anda golden leaf crown is on his head, his looks are almost perfect but. ¡°Shiny¡­.ah! Sorry¡± crap I accidentally blurted out something taboo. *Gikuri* A vein on the man hairless head is currently pulsing. ¡°ahem¡­. I am called Demclas the overgod of this world ¡®Matrea¡¯, also called the Chief God of light by the inhabitants of this world. You are inside a realm where time doesn¡¯t exist which I like to call Pandoras Box, a realm created just for these kinds of cases by me. By the way, the world you are from ¡®Earth¡¯ is also inside my jurisdiction (in short-long story: he is the boss in earth and all the minor gods there are under his wing/command); and you young man, died last night from exhaustion because of working five days straight non-stop.¡±(Demclas) ¡°eh?... seriously?¡± ¡°Seriously Seriously¡±(Demclas) Is what god said with a solemn face while nodding. After a few minutes of silence, I suddenly remembered why I was working so hard for. ¡°Aah! W-what about the earned money for my friend''s operation? D- did it perhaps fail?¡± I unconsciously raised my voice by a few levels. Demclas¡¯ eyes widened a bit before giving me a gentle smile. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I¡¯ll be taking care of your best friend¡¯s sickness¡±(Demclas) ¡°I, I see, alright, thank you¡± My anxiety faded as I breathe out a sigh of relief. ¡°huhu¡­ looks like I really got lucky finding you m.............¡±(Demclas) said in a whispering tone ¡°Sorry, what was that?¡± God said something while looking like he''s satisfied with something but I did not hear it clearly. ¡°Ahh. It¡¯s nothing,*ahem* anyways, I shall explain to you as to why you¡¯re here. ¡°(Demclas) ¡°¡­.Yes, please¡± I didn¡¯t pursue it and just answered. God nodded and started to explain. In a long story short: ¡®Matrea¡¯ the world that I will be sent to was attacked by a Vagrant god; the chief god and a couple of minor gods fought and successfully destroyed it. But before the vagrant god got killed it managed to drop a fragment of himself into Matrea, giving birth to an existence which came to be the demon king. The gods wanted to kill the demon king but they cannot directly interfere with the world of mortals, so instead, they sent four heroes from different worlds to help Matrea¡¯s inhabitants. The heroes were on par with the demon king in terms of strength, but the demon kings armed forces/army far surpasses matrea¡¯s inhabitants strength by a hundredfold, not only the demon kings army far outnumbered the defenders, the unity of Matrea¡¯s inhabitants isn¡¯t very strong, and with a few twists and turns, the heroes and Matrea¡¯s inhabitants were defeated. Matrea is now conquered by the demon king and the former inhabitant of Matrea is either enslaved or instinct. ¡°*slurp*¡­ I see, such a tragic thing happened, such pitiful people.¡± I listened to God''s story while drinking a few (floating) cups of tea (can¡¯t taste anything) using my non-existing hands,(after all, I¡¯m just a clump of blue flame.)Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Wait, a question¡­. you¡¯re not going to send me there to brawl with the demon king and his army alone are you?¡± ¡°ohh¡­that sound amusi-*ahem* I mean of course not¡­¡±(Demclas) Gods¡¯ eyes looked serious. ¡°Oi!¡± ¡°ahahaha sorry sorry I¡¯m just messing with you¡±(Demclas) I coldly looked at the god who''s laughing whiles covering his mouth and making an annoying face. ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°*ahem* anyways back to the topic. I¡¯ll be sending you to Matrea, thirty years before the birth of the demon king and you shall build a force that can rival them and their army.¡±(Demclas) ¡°Wait, won¡¯t it be much better to just kill the demon king after their birth?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, we cannot.¡±(Demclas) ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°The vagrant god made sure that we cannot kill the demon king by isolating a tenth of the world using his own divinity to create a barrier.¡±(Demclas) ¡°I see, then how long will the barrier last?¡± ¡°Thirty years after his birth¡± (Demclas) ¡°I¡¯ll have sixty years to prepare huh. And will the four heroes still come? ¡± ¡°Yes, a human kingdom will conduct the summoning a year and a half after the demon king¡¯s birth.¡±(Demclas) ¡°I see,¡± I said while nodding. ¡°Well then, shall we start creating your body?¡±(Demclas) ¡°Eh? Ah¡­ now that I think about it¡± I looked at my blue flickering body and returned my sight to god. God closed his eyes, he lifted his hands a few moments later and a white mass appeared within his palm. "Time" slowly passed and my body to be, started taking form. The skeletal system materialized followed by hundreds of nerves forming, fibers of muscles and flesh, internal organs and the leathery skin with steel-like white scales. He then threw my body to be after completing it. Boom! My miniature body in the air slowly got a lot bigger before landing with a booming noise. ¡°Fuuu, so¡­. do you like it?¡±(Demclus) God wiped his forehead with a handkerchief although there¡¯s no sweat. In front of us is a white giant winged lizard, No, a majestic, four-winged white dragon proudly stood in front of us. ¡°Holy sh-¡­.¡± I almost said something rude in front of god, but immediately corrected myself ¡°Err Yes? I mean.... why is it so large?¡± ¡°Large? Pffft no way. It¡¯s just the average size for an adolescent dragon¡±(Demclas) said while waving his hand. ¡°What was that? You¡¯re calling a two hundred something meter long dragon ¡®Just¡¯ average?¡± also "¡­.still on its teens!?¡± I who is standing beside god involuntarily shouted. ¡°Ouch, hey, you don¡¯t have to shout, I¡¯m not deaf¡±(Demclas) I put my non-existing hand into to my non-existing face with a sigh. "anyways, can you make it a bit smaller?" The sheer size of it is too eye-catching, dragons are also a target for subjugation in novels that I¡¯ve read before, and getting hunted by a great number of hunters, knights, and mages is not a laughing matter. God smiled and his expression looked like he knew what I was thinking and said. ¡°You don''t need to worry about being hunted; the number of people that can kill you in Matrea is almost nonexistent, there¡¯s no need to summon the four heroes and yourself if there are people that have the same strength with this body of yours, and if you really do get hunted down by the inhabitants of Matrea, then that only means you¡¯re a big joke. Besides, your body will also have this ability¡± (Demclas) God said so while having a meh expression and pointed at the huge dragon(me), and a light suddenly shrouded its(my) entire body, the light faded and left behind an adolescent elf wearing white full body armor. ¡°Your original face is still the same except for the hair color and some parts of your body. The armor is something that is a part of you and can change it at will, come and I¡¯ll start binding you into this body¡±(Demclas) White hair that goes all the way to the chest, pointed elf-like ears, silver-colored slit iris'', height about 165 centimeters, the face is¡­ if this world¡¯s sense of beauty is the same as my old world, quite good¡­I guess. ¡°alright¡± I nodded my head and drew closer into the dragon¡¯s forehead ¡®Ohm¡¯ I felt a strong Vibration from within my very soul, and my head started to hurt a little bit. Moments later my eyes opened, I blinked a couple of times till my vision adjusted to the white space. I looked at my hands while opening and closing them. I took a few deep breaths and started to walk, my first few steps were very clumsy just like a baby, but after walking for a couple of minutes my walking phase started to smoothen, after familiarizing myself with jumping and running I turned back into a dragon and practiced my movements some more fully grasping my new body. God started talking to once again. ¡°You¡¯ve synchronized with your new body pretty fast there.¡± god said with a smile I did not say anything, no, there¡¯s nothing to say. My face right now probably has a wide smile on it. ¡°Come here, I¡¯ll start imparting you the necessary items, skills, and knowledge for your mission.¡±(Demclas) A string-like light came out of his hand and connected into my forehead. A massive flow of different kinds of information pertaining to different types of languages, history, martial arts, and magic arts started flashing into my mind. So much information is getting cramped into my head that I started to get dizzy. God retracted his hand and stopped the flow of information. ¡°That should help you well in your future endeavors, Get a bit of rest until the dizziness goes away¡±(Demclas) ¡°T-thanks¡­.¡± I lay down with my eyes closed to concentrate and arrange my disoriented thoughts, only recovering after a while. ¡°haha, now put your hands on top of mine¡±(Demclas) God lifted his hands towards mine. I put my left hand on top of his. *sshiii* a sun-like mark appeared on my palm before disappearing. ¡°What is it for?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­. you''ll know in the future, but you can just think of it as a token of our meeting here¡±(Demclas) ¡°I see--¡± before I had the chance to say the rest, God''s expression suddenly turned odd. ¡±¡­!!¡± A hole suddenly appeared bellow me, before I started to fall. ¡°Go! Save Matrea, although I say that, this is a new life for you, do enjoy it as best as you can.¡±(Demclas) Demclas said with a playful yet sad smile. I didn¡¯t even have any chance to scream before blacking out. _ ¡°It came much quicker than I thought¡±(Demclas) Demclas looked at his hands which has started becoming transparent as if it could fade into nothingness at any moment. ¡°A god using most of his own divinity in just creating a body is unheard-of while using the whats left to create divine items and sending him through space and time. Now, my body has started its collapse.¡±(Demclas) Using his last bit of strength, Demclas peered through space. A world is reflected in his eyes. A once beautiful planet full of life, now covered in eternal darkness devoid even a single bit of liveliness in its past. He then looked past ¡®Matrea¡¯ and countless worlds came and go. All of them have a single similarity. ¡®Lifeless¡¯ covered by the aura of death. Demlcas¡¯ eyes clouded with sorrow and regret which only lasted in but a second. He smiled and said " I have done everything I could, I give my blessing you m...¡° Chapter 2 Early winter season, A Wasteland somewhere of Vidia Continent. ¡°Hrmnn¡± I opened my blurry eyes and found myself laying down in a white space¡­-not. Looking around with my eyes finding myself laying in a huge clearing blanketed in snow -not... I slowly shook away the exhausted feeling in my head which is most likely a byproduct of jumping through space and time and looked around once again getting a much clearer view of my surroundings. A crater... a crater spanning a few kilometers in radius and a few meters in depth. ''What the hell...'' I stood up and... "urghh!" I failed to get up and fell back down to the ice-cold ground. Pain, everything I felt was a pain as if being stabbed by tens of thousands of needles throughout my body which erupted whenever I tried to move. I search through the immense knowledge bestowed upon me and quickly found the answer. "rejection" The world is rejecting me or to be exact my soul is being rejected by it. "But why? hundreds, of, other-worlders, throughout, the age''s come, and, go, to this world ahck!" my pained voice echoed throughout the crater. but then... Heat was then felt on my left palm amidst the pain. Lifting my hand/Claw in eyesight, a crest of the sun gently shone in my palm as if telling me to calm down. I then remembered Demclas who had a pained and urgent yet gentle expression just before I got sucked into the void. Such memory calmed me down as his eye full of deferent types of emotions swirling and mixing in one. "resolved" a single word escaped through my strained breathing. But why? what is such resolve for? ''Why did he suddenly kick me out of that place so suddenly? what happened to him?'' *Sigh* "forget it, I should calm myself and save these questions for later" I closed my eyes, made a grasping gesture with both of my hands/Claw and took a deep breath. And then... *Bang* A soundless explosion erupted as the mana in the surrounding expanded at a very fast speed, blowing away the snow inside the crater overflowing it with mana soo dense it became visible to the naked eye before going back as it started to compress in between my hands/Claw. "*chuckle* I haven''t been in this world for long and yet you already kicked me in the face forcing me to lie down in this ice-cold ground, now that''s just rude." Words comprised of the languages of both gods and draconic origin slowly got engraved on the ground one by one forming sentences, creating arrays and making a colossal circle covering the entirety of the crater. it didn''t take long before the circle is complete. but... "Tsk, it''s harder to cast magic than I thought it would be." ''I an earthling who had no experience in magic, casted my fist ever spell could not help but curse, the difficulty of using magic is much more complex than what I have imaged it to be. But as they say, Knowledge and experience are two entirely separate things; although I have the knowledge that would make even gods themselves die in envy, using it to my advantage is an entirely different case.'' "But I''m not finished yet!" my voice once again echoed in the area. A second circle slowly materialized on top of the first. A third circle... Forth... fifth ... .... Three grueling painful months later and a majestic array with thirteen layers of magic formation mixing and supporting one another is finally complete. In the middle of it, is me who has gone so "pale" from exhaustion yet could not help but grin. "Kekehe" a feeble laugh along with a cracked yet proud voice escaped my lip. A three-layered spell to tweak and trick the world itself and seven separate spells to hide it to every being that might notice; Be it gods or god-like beings the like''s of dragons and many types of magic users and seers. The tweaking part is easier but a lot of effort is needed to hide everything from everyone. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "hahaha Not bad... not bad at all for my first try in spell-weaving." I basked in pride and joy started to laugh heartily. ''Of course, everything is thanks to Demclas for giving me such a durable body and a vast amount of knowledge. But nonetheless, it is a feat that anyone can be proud of. although I may have done it so passionately that I might have gone overboard with the concealment part...'' "Well, there''s nothing wrong with that right? better safe than sorry I guess" Yep, nothing at all! I brought my left hand/Claw in eyesight once more and looked at the shimmering crest on my palm and smiled, then connected my thumb and middle finger and... *snap* A flash! The three-layered spell burst into a tower of light rising towards the heavens. Of course, seven separate spells covered the tower of light hiding it to others keeping it from being discovered. The tower vanished, no, the now invisible tower of light continued its rise and pierced the heavens before slowly chipping away turning into countless small particles scattering throughout the world. On that particular day, some parts of the world experienced a pleasant snowfall while other parts suddenly got drizzled by rain, falling to both land and sea. The changes did not stop there as all croplands all-over the world doubled in yield and the occurrence of calamities such as storms, earthquakes, etc. have been halved. All these events lasted years, spanning from a year to a decade. _---_---_---_---_---_Meanwhile, Back at the Wastelands_---_---_---_---_---_ As everything was going on, the last three-layered spells activated. The surrounding terrain changed; the large crater I''m on top of vanished, leveling the ground, as well as crushing the rocks and boulders underneath the earth turning the few kilometers of lands soft and fertile. *rumble* A dark cloud hung in the sky with flash'' of lighting slithered through the clouds. *drip* *drop* Heavy rain fell, soaking the land, and giving it the possibility of life. Then... the earth shook as vegetation suddenly grew, pushing out the blanket of snow. As wild grass, bushes, and towering trees grew at neck-breaking speeds growing as tall as 50 meters in height and thick trunk that need a dozen or so full-grown men to surround. I can''t help but nod at the miraculous sight, such things which are only seen in books, movies, and such in my previous world. The pain I''m in is also subsiding, but it will most likely take a bit more time to truly vanish. *sigh* A Sigh of Exhaustion escapes my lips as I started to feel drowsy. Using more than a dozen grand magic just after crossing time and space may not have been the best decision. ''Not that I had a choice...'' I have a lot to think of but will need to put it all aside, for now, rest, yes I really need some rest right now. I laboriously lift my hand/claw and taped the tree beside''s me. " I will be resting now, please stay watch for me." A questionable action if seen by other people. but... *rustle* *rustle* The tree shook as it answered. I gave it a nod before closing my eyes, slowly drifting asleep. *rustle* *rustle* The tree shook once again, but not towards the one sleeping under it but to the other surrounding trees. *rustle* *rustle**rustle* *rustle* *rustle* *rustle**rustle* *rustle* The forest shook before returning to silence. Chapter 3 3rd p.o.v. __------_____------_____------______-------______------______------________ A wasteland somewhere, Early-mid spring The once-barren piece of the wasteland, a verdant forest that appeared some time ago, is now welcoming the morning sun rising from the eastern horizon. an oasis in the middle of the western barren lands giving a lively sound unlike the deathly silence in its surrounding regions, just like a green island in the middle of a calm sea. But suddenly... *rustle* *rustle* The trees in the inner part of the forest shook with a joyous vibe as two pairs of wings stretched past the surrounding treetops. Two pairs of wings that spanned four hundred meters for the first pair while the other pair is about three hundred or so meters. The entire forest shook as if celebrating a joyous occasion. -----------------M.C''s p.o.v--------------------- I can''t help but stretch as my entire body felt sore for sleeping in bare ground. *Crack* *clack* " Ahh, that feels great," I exclaimed as I look at the surroundings and gave a nod as it doesn''t seem to be a problem around me. " ah, right, how long have I been asleep?" I looked back at the tree and asked. *rustle* *rustle* "... Sorry, I can''t speak tree." I made a bitter smile at the tree''s response. *Rustle* *rustle* The tree strongly shook as if offended and started hitting me. "I''m just messing with you, haha please stop hitting me with those branches of yours." I can feel their emotions because I''m the one that made them, but it looks like they haven''t fully developed some of their cognitive senses yet and are unable to talk at the moment.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I taped the tree with my claw and read the tree''s memories with a spell converting it into images. The spell didn''t take long to finish the task as it is just been made/born just recently. "Ohh, it looks like their memories are fine, let''s see... twenty-six days and twenty-seven nights..." I couldn''t help but frown. "Looks like I''ve stayed a bit too long in this place." An entire season, it took me three months to finish tweaking the laws of the world and slept for almost a month after. *sigh* "Not that I had the choice" with a meh, I toss the unnecessary thoughts away. There''s more than half a century to prepare the things that need to be prepared. " Anyways, I still got time to spare. Right, did something happen while I was asleep?" *rustle* *creak* The tree twisted left and right shaking its crown, dropping a few of its leaves on the ground. " I see." That was a No, right? urg. Newborn treants don''t have the ability to speak making it hard to converse with them at times such as these. " Then I should look around for a bit." I don''t even know where I''m at right now, I''ve done such crazy things before I even got to stand. Just thinking back, the whole three months of spell-weaving made me so lonely. I who''s human just recently is used to have at least a single person to talk to every day and felt quite painfull without socializing to anyone. I then started patting the tree''s crown making a rustling sound. "Thankfully you guys are here ahaha... aha... *sigh*." I spread my wings and large golden rings appeared, made up of a dense number of runes as small as a pinky nail revolving around in each of the wings bases, washing away my gloomy heart. (Note: is the ''base'' part right? I tried to find dragon body parts terminology on the net but failed to find any except the ''scapula Draconis'', should I use it instead? (will delete this note tomorrow.)) " I''ll look around for a bit, be right back in a few hours." *rustle* the tree replied while shaking one of its branches. The golden rings gave a dim glow and a feeling of weightlessness came as I slowly started floating upward until my limbs left the ground. I flapped my wings gently as to not make a strong gust of wind and accidentally uprooting the trees below, Each beat of my wings got me higher and higher with the forest below becoming smaller. My ascent stopped after climbing up ten thousand or so meters where the air became a bit thin to breathe. "Looks like I can''t get any higher without casting a life support barrier around me. This high is enough for now. " saying so as I looked at the rising sun in the eastern direction. There''s not a single cloud to be seen all the way into the horizon giving no obstacle to my sight, but that''s not all, a wasteland as far as one''s eye can see. A black and grey land full of cracks and craters large enough to be called canyons is sparsely strewn around here and there. " A vast wasteland, dark-colored land, canyons, and craters. there''s also snow a few months ago as well as the direction of the sun." There are a few wastelands on the continent, but such a unique terrain, there''s only one. " The Land of Ashes, North-West of Vidia Continent." That''s right, it can only be that ancient name. An ancient battle-ground where a massive war between a god and a dragon took place.