> The creatures known as dragons consists of many different varieties, each of them dangerous in their own way. For example, the red dragons can exhale a flaming breath powerful enough to burn down a town, while the so-called Wings of the Night (that's what the dark dragons call themselves) can utilize devastating magics like [Comet]. However, most dragons, regardless of their type, can utilize some form of magic.
- Excerpt from Chapter One of "The Guide to Dragons: Adventurers' Edition"
***
System Initializing...
This may take a while, so please be patient.
Huh?
Where am I?
Catherine awoke with a start. She groggily remembered gun shots.
Ohh, there was that shady alley.
She winced as she recalled more of her memories. She remembered entering a dark alley, thinking that her friend was waiting for her there. She remembered bullets tearing into her body.
Am I alive right now?
She recalled the strange blue box that she had seen.
It said something about a "System." Am I in some sort of Isekai?
She had read plenty of Isekai novels.
Hello [Catherine Smith]!
Welcome to the world of Vencura!
This definitely sounds like an Isekai.
Catherine waited for a few moments, but nothing happened.
Suddenly —
Error!
Error!
Target [Catherine Smith]'s death not related to human vehicle known as a [Truck].
She giggled out loud. Trucks were a prominent trope in Isekais after all.
D̸̢̙̥̮͐́̿͝u̷͈͉͙͗̌e̴̺̝̥͂͋̒̈ ̴̹̌̍͘ẗ̴͓͚́̈̓o̷̻̦͆̎̿̕ ̵͖͔̎̅̀S̵̙̜͙̭͋̓͛y̷͓̰̎͘s̸͔̈t̵̮̓e̷͖͉̼͊̚m̵̬̌͛̅ ̶̯̮͊̃̌͝Ȩ̴̡̦̙̋ȑ̶̢̝͑̋ȓ̴͇o̶͇͔͉̬̿̈́r̵͍̩͍̽̽̈́͛s̴̔͌͗͗ͅ,̴̺̎̿͛̇ ̴͔̦͐ÿ̸͎́o̵̭͐͂ǘ̵̬ͅ ̷̯̘́̇͂w̷̮̰̣͛e̵̩̠̘̚r̴̗̯̹̦̈́͌ĕ̶̮̘̓ ̷̻̣̼̼̄ṷ̵̼̪̱̊̊̚ṅ̷͉͚̳̈́a̸̮͆͝b̴̻̀̆͊ļ̸͙̽́ę̸͙̝̿̋̎͒ ̵̨̆̉t̵̞̔̾̈́ô̶̢̮͓̞ ̷͖̙͒̌̏͝f̸̢̺̖̋ĭ̶̡̤̭̪̒͑̀n̵̘̍d̶̛̹͕̀́̏͜ ̵͖̓å̴̫̬̭̯͝ ̶̧̧̞̞͐̎̈̐h̸̰̦̀̈̎u̷̧̯̪̫̿̾͋m̵̤̿͊́ǎ̴̝̾̎͊n̶̯̩͕̍̀͐o̴̜͚̊̋͝í̷͙̯̙̆d̶̡̞̥͋̏̚ ̴͈͑̓b̶̂̿̒̀ͅo̵̳͙̼̩̅́̿͝d̵̻̯̤̜̆̑y̵̨̼̔̔͆.̴̠̱͖̺͊̓̍
Searching for intelligent and sentient creatures...
She couldn't read the first line of text, but she was pretty sure that it said something about not having a humanoid body.
Shit. Am I not gonna be a human or something? She shuddered. A slime would be terrible. Or a zombie? Or —
Suitable target found!
Enjoy your stay, [Catherine Smith].
Welp, here it goes anyway. Gotta be ready, right? The books say something about fading out —
Catherine began to fade out of consciousness.
***
Catherine awoke again. Everything hurted. Ow. She was in a bare stone hollow in the ground, presumably in a cave somewhere, since she could see stone running all the way overhead. The cave seemed suspiciously bright though. Ah well I'll worry about it later.
She stretched her arms, and saw two claws — wait. Claws? She stood up completely, ignoring the pain. Nearby was a small pool of water. She hurried over to it, and gazed at the reflection.
What gazed back wasn't a 17-year old blonde girl, but a silvery reptilian face with what looked like ice crystals on her horns — did I mention the two horns that protruded on her head — that she admitted, sometime later, was quite pretty.
She suddenly felt the presence of a tail, and she gazed back at her body.
Her body was the same color as her face, with silvery blue scales and occasional clusters of ice crystals covering her body. Her tail was long and fairly thin, with several sharper and longer crystal spikes at the end. She also noticed that she didn't have any clothes on. And she had wings, too.
She was a fucking dragon. What.
Catherine spun around in disbelief, taking in the senses of a four-legged lizard.
She looked at her dragon body, and decided that she was female in this world too. At least it's not a gender bender, she thought.
Now that she established who she was, Catherine took a look at her cave-nest thing, or at least that's what she assumed it was.
Now that she paid attention to it, she noticed furs and leaves in the stone hollow, likely to make it more comfortable.
Congratulations, you have learned the [Identify] skill!
Ice Dragon Nest (Juvenile)
A simple ice dragon nest meant for a juvenile of their kind, it consists of simple furs and leaves.
Grants [Restfulness] effect to ice dragons within it.
Well, that was... interesting. An [Identify] skill, sounds very useful. If this system works how I think it is, I should be able to activate it by just thinking abo —
[Identify] (Active)
(Skill) [Common], T1.
You have learned to pay attention to important details of an object or creature.
Provides basic information on the subject you are currently looking at.
May provide additional advanced information as it tiers up.
Yep, works just like I thought it would. [Common] is a rarity right? So does it mean it's easy to get, or something else? Now what about that [Restfulness] effect?
Catherine concentrated on the words in the [Identify] description, and soon enough, another blue box popped up.
[Restfulness]
(Status Effect)
You feel at rest while having this status effect.
Grants doubled health regeneration and mana regeneration.
That seems very useful. Doubled health and mana regen? Wait, mana?
Catherine almost scoffed at herself. Of course there was magic. Not sure how dragons use magic, however.
Oh! How could she forget one thing! The status screen, of course!
She concentrated on the word "Status" in her mind. A large blue box popped up in front of her.
Borealis
Dragon (Ice), age 8 months
Level 1
Class: None
XP: 10/100
0 attribute points available.
HP 150/150 MP 50/50 IM 50/50 Strength 12 Dexterity 10 Intelligence 13 Mind 11 Armor Value 12
Skills:
[Dragon of Ice]
[Symbiotic Crystals (Ice)]
[Frost Breath]
[Identify]
[Advanced Claw Combat]
Spells:
None
Only 8 months old? And my dragon name is Borealis? In all honesty, that sounds like a cool name.
Catherine/Borealis inspected her status sheet some more, noticing the number of stats that were significantly than the 8 or so stats that the Isekai books she liked to read had. Catherine, of course, decided to investigate these first. She mentally focused on the stats in general, and another blue box popped up right in front of her face.
Strength (STR): Determines HP, physical strength and ability to carry heavy objects.
Dexterity (DEX): Determines physical dexterity and ability to do complicated actions.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Intelligence (INT): Determines general intelligence and strength of various spells.
Mind (MIN): Determines MP and mental fortitude.
Armor Value (AV): Reduces chance to be hit with an attack that is not an area of effect, and reduces damage if hit. Can be increased by armor, magical effects, the DEX stat, etc.
Seems like this particular system went for a simplistic approach, lumping related stuff in one stat. Then she wondered about whether the system was sentient. Then she realized that she was getting off track. Focus, Catherine, focus, she thought, you're literally Isekai-ed into a dragon.
What's IM though? She concentrated on the words.
Innate Mana (IM): A stat that reflects the amount of natural energies you have within your body as a dragon.
Of course, duh. Dragons use innate energies too, and there must be a stat to track it.
To be honest, she thinks that she likes this "System" more. All of the books use weird names and as many stats as possible to "stand out," which makes them extremely annoying to read.
She checked the skills out next. Seemed like the most important thing to do, after all. knowing what she could do was very important.
[Dragon of Ice] (Passive)
(Skill) [Common], T1.
Innate ability of all ice dragons.
Ice dragons live in cold areas with freezing temperatures, thus they adapted to their environment over hundreds of years before becoming the ice dragons we know today.
Grants the following benefits:
+2 Strength,
+1 Intelligence,
+1 Mind,
Ability to withstand freezing temperatures,
Gain resistance to FROST related attacks.
+2 Strength? I guess my base stats are 10. And the rest just makes sense, I suppose. Also if my base stats are 10, why is my Intelligence 13, even accounting for the bonus? Maybe it takes the mental stats of me back on Earth.
[Symbiotic Crystals (Ice)] (Passive)
(Skill) [Common] T1
Innate ability of all ice dragons.
Your icy blood allows magical crystals with the element of ICE to thrive on your body, granting you the following benefits:
An increased armor value of +2 if not wearing armor (hint: dragon's don't wear armor),
Your tail is covered with sharp crystal spikes, and can now be used to attack your enemies, dealing PIERCING and FROST damage.
Is it just me, or does is the system attempting humor? She wondered, and this skill also makes a lot of sense. Explains the crystals growing on my body, I guess.
[Frost Breath] (Active)
(Skill) [Common], medium range, T1.
Uses 15 IM.
Innate ability of all ice dragons.
Manipulate the freezing storms that reside within each ice dragon to exhale a freezing mist in a cone in front of you, dealing FROST damage.
Damage caused by this skill will inflict one stack of [Frostbite] status effect upon target.
Damage caused by this skill will increase as the tier increases.
I'm assuming that active means that I have to use it proactively, she thought. Well, she had nothing to freeze at the moment, so it wasn't super useful yet. Now, about [Frostbite].
[Frostbite]
(Status effect)
Magical frostbite. Nothing more, nothing less.
Can have up to five stacks. Each stack increases damage taken by 10% and reduces movement speed by 5%.
This status effect will be removed upon taking FIRE damage.
I am sure that movement speed reducing debuffs will be fun! I've NEVER seen anything suggesting the opposite!
She had already looked at [Identify], so she focused on the last skill.
[Advanced Claw Combat] (Passive)
T1
(Skill) [Uncommon], T1.
You have been well trained in the ways of Claw-to-Claw combat, or, Claw-to-anything, really.
You automatically understand the weak points of known enemies, and you gain bonus damage when using claws for combat.
Bonus damage increases with each tier.
Thump thump thump.
Catherine/Borealis — or just Borealis, she thought, sounds much cooler, heard a noise coming from outside of the cave. A large dragon head poked in her cave, and grinned. Grinned! She never knew dragons could grin.
"Well, did you have a good night's rest? 'Cos we are going to do something more exciting than hunting animals today!" The male dragon she presumed to be Father said.
Something exciting, huh.
***
"I want you to kill this goblin. Remember our training. Goblins are more formidable than moose." Mother said.
Father had found a goblin somewhere and dropped it in their cave.
Borealis stared at the goblin in front of her. The green creature has been trying to run away for a while now, but is kept back by the imposing form of Mother. Eventually, the goblin seemed to have come to the conclusion that it can't run away, and has been cowering on the cave floor for the past few minutes.
"Borealis, hurry up and kill it already! We don't have all day for you to make up your mind of which part to eat first!" Mother scowled. The goblin yelped in terror.
Borealis sighed. She didn't want to kill such a humanoid enemy. Ah well. She grabbed the goblin in her claws and in a swift motion, bit its head off.
[Advanced Claw Combat] kicking in, eh.
You have slain [Goblin]!
+15 xp
+5 bonus xp for skilled maneuver!
Skill [Advanced Claw Combat] has upgraded to Tier 2!
Bonus damage increased!
Nice. She smiled.
The rest of the goblin's body rolled off her body and onto the floor, leaving behind a bloody trail.
She was rather proud of that maneuver, and Mother nodded approvingly. She swiped away the screen, just in time to see Father bring in two more goblins. This time however, the goblins were more equipped, each one holding a club and leather armor.
"Good job with that goblin," Father said, "now let's see how you deal with two more."
The goblins charged at Borealis immediately, perhaps because they deemed her the weakest. And in truth, she wasn't much bigger than them, at least in comparison to her parents.
Borealis swung her claws at them, but she missed. A goblin circled around her, and she swiveled her body to keep it within her sight. The second goblin, seeing their chance, swung their club down on her tail. I wish I had a higher Dexterity...
"Ow!" Borealis cried out. The goblin was already beginning to swing again. She slashed with her claws, and caught the goblin, leaving a bloody gash. She then swung her tail, knocking the other goblin over. Tiny frost crystals spread from the wound, making movement stiff and she quickly finished them off both with her claws.
You have slain [Goblin Warrior] x2!
+40 xp
Level up!
1 attribute point available.
"I leveled up!" Borealis exclaimed.
"See, I told you my dear here will level up, after all of the beasts we gave her," Father said, "I get to pick dinner tonight!"
While her parents were talking, she looked at her status. She had leveled up, which means that she gets to increase an attribute by 1, among other things.
Borealis
Dragon (Ice), age 8 months
Level 2
Class: None
XP: 10/100
1 attribute point available!
HP 146/150 MP 50/50 IM 60/60 Strength 12 Dexterity 10 Intelligence 13 Mind 11 Armor Value 12
Abilities:
Skills:
[Dragon of Ice]
[Symbiotic Crystals (Ice)]
[Frost Breath]
[Identify]
[Advanced Claw Combat]
Spells:
None
Hmm. Seems like the IM point increase with each level. Makes sense. I'm getting stronger as you level up, and it won't make sense that my "Innate Mana" pool isn't getting larger too.
After some internal debating, she decided to put a point into intelligence. I really want to try magic, if that's available. Intelligence it is. If it turns out to be a bad choice, I can just level up later and get another point.
She shrugged. Time to try out [Frost Breath].
She concentrated on the ability in her mind, and she breathed frozen mist all over the three goblin bodies, freezing them solid and covering them in snow.
She felt the snowstorm in her throat fade away, and ever so slowly build up again.
"Look, she's learning so fast!" Mother cooed.
Borealis smiled. It was nice to have such a loving family, compared to some... interesting Isekai stories, even if they aren't humanoid. She wondered about other dragon families. Are the other dragon parents as nice as mine?
***
-[Tundra Trout]-
(Creature)
A common trout adapted to living in cold waters, with blood that has similar effects to ice dragon blood.
Borealis dropped her [Identify] and the fish. Not everything was interesting as she had hoped.
But hey, she got a new skill:
[Fishing] (Passive)
T1
(Skill) [Common], T1.
You understand the basics of fishing using claws.
May increase ability to catch more elusive fish or other aquatic creatures as this skill tiers up.
***
After a nice meal of tundra trout and a cold river bath to clean off the blood, Borealis laid in her nest, extremely bored. She pulled up the blue boxes again, and the bright blue background assaulted her eyes in the darkness. She already began to hate the bright blue box, so she decided to find some settings and lower the brightness. Turns out that the system was very intuitive, and she set it to automatically adjust brightness depending on the surroundings.
She closed the box, and curled up in her bed.
That night, she dreamed of breathing frost, and swiping through endless boxes.