Chapter 1: A new beginning
When Zarach regains consciousness, it is again dark around him but unlike last time, he can feel some sort of solid walls surrounding him. Remembering the words of the spirit, this must be the shell of the egg he was talking about. Zarach doesn't hesitate at all and driven by some strange instinct he begins to hit the surface of the shell. At first the egg simply sways a little and stays unscathed but after a hard hit, a small crack appears and a faint light almost completely blinds him. Encouraged by this small success Zarach doubles his efforts and soon the top of the egg is cracked open. Finally Zarach has the opportunity to take a look around in his new world.
The first thing Zarach sees is already enough to shock him to the very core of his being: a giant white skeleton, over a hundred metres long. Like an enormous mountain of bones, it reaches al the way to the ceiling. It isn't the skeleton of a human, but of some kind of enormous beast. A born predator judging from it long claws and teeth.
'It even had wings, I really wouldn't want to meet this... thing this... monster when it was still alive.' does Zarach think when he looks at the thinner bones on the back of the skeleton.
Then Zarach takes a look at his surroundings, he seems to be in a rather large cave, hundreds of metres wide. The cave is almost completely covered in ice. It is illuminated by faint light coming from above, there must be a hole in the ceiling. The floor, the ceiling and the walls are almost completely covered in ice and there are even a few ice pillars supporting the cave. This all gives the cavern a strange atmosphere. Like a serene prison of ice, a place frozen in time. Forever a calm and beautiful scenery, never to change.
'No wonder that it is so cold here, but where in the world am I?' does Zarach wonder while he shivers. Only around the pieces of the broken egg has the ice melted a little, they still seem to be a little warm.
When Zarach sees this he immediately realises that that strange spirit kept his promise to help him overcome the frozen death, which was fatal for the real infant. 'Well either way if I don't get out of this place then I will still freeze to death.' does Zarach think when he steps forward to explore the cave, or at least he tries to.
Because Zarach was too absorbed with observing his surroundings and his body didn't felt uncomfortable at all. He didn't realise what he should have known, he was no longer human. Zarach loses his balance for a moment and falls on the ground, luckily it didn't hurt. This new body seems to be rather tough.
Then Zarach finally looks at his own body for the first time. His body is completely covered in black scales and he has, instead of two arms and legs, four legs with sharp claws. When Zarach tests his body and tries to move his claws, he notices that he has gained some extra limbs, two scaly wings and a spiky tail. While the scales on the wings seems to look somewhat more fragile, the scales on the end of the tail seems to be even harder than those on the main body. There's one thing all the scales have in common, all of them are black. The scales look like black crystals and even seem to shine a little. Although Zarach is anything but happy with his new body, even he must admit that they look even more beautiful than the the imperial robes from his previous life.
Then Zarach suddenly realises that the skeleton was probably his mother, who died hundreds of years ago. 'Hm how ironic, I will become the monster that I definitely didn't want to meet.' laughs Zarach with a wry smile.
Then he inspects the enormous skeleton more closely and sees countless small bite marks on the bones. His mother must have been devoured, by someone or something long ago. It seems it was merely due to luck that the egg was overlooked. Otherwise there wouldn't have been an undamaged body to reincarnate in, which is something he should be happy about. But at the same token, if this body was destroyed then maybe... maybe the spirit would have found a more human body...
'No he probably would have gone out of his way to look for something worse, something like a frozen rat for example.' shudders Zarach.
But no matter what the future will bring, survival comes first and Zarach feels himself getting colder and colder in the icy cave. He begins to walk through the cavern, at first his movements are very clumsy but he soon gets the hang of it. It is completely quiet in the cave and together with the faint light reflecting on the ice, gives the cave a somewhat unreal atmosphere. Gradually the ice gets thinner and it seems to get a little bit warmer, as Zarach walks further in the cave. Finally after walking for a while Zarach arrives at the exit of the cave, or should you call it the entrance?
When Zarach steps out of the cave he is blinded by the intense daylight and a cold wind blows in his face, or that what was supposed to be his face. After blinking with his eyes a few times they gradually get used to the light and Zarach sees that the entrance of the cave is on the slope of a mountain a few hundred metres above the ground. Bellow the mountain is a large valley, with grass plains and forests as far as the eye can see. Zarach is somewhat surprised when he notices how far he can see, much farther than with his human eyes.
But the strangest thing is, it doesn't seem to be winter or all that cold! There is only snow visible on top of the mountain, why was it so cold in that cave? But no matter how much he thinks about it, he can't find a reasonable explanation. Suddenly Zarach feels hunger like he never felt in his previous life, as an emperor he never once hadn't enough to eat.
'Judging from the position of the sun, it seems to be in the late afternoon so there is still some time to search for something to eat.' thinks Zarach while he looks down at the valley.
'Hm, it would be much faster if I can fly there.' thinks Zarach when he looks at his wings. Although he isn't too eager to put his trust in these new limbs, it would be stupid if he didn't use them. Zarach begins to flap his wings, but he doesn't achieve more than creating some wind. He didn't even lift up a millimetre. 'This body must still be too young.' is his conclusion.
Then Zarach starts climbing down the mountain, which is obviously far more difficult than walking on the flat surface in the cave. And certainly when your still a newly born infant, luckily this type of monster doesn't seem to be too fragile after birth. After almost falling down a few times, does he finally reach the valley. The grass feels nice under his claws, it is a lot warmer here and the wind caries many different smells.
Zarach has never relied on smell, but the sense of smell of this new body is a bit overwhelming. Then he suddenly recognises the smell of rabbit among them, what only makes his hunger even worse. He follows the smell and sees a small brown rabbit, driven by hunger he charges at once.
But unfortunately he has never hunted before, his food was always prepared by others. And to make matters worse, currently he had wasn't in his top condition so it shouldn't be so surprising that the glorious hunt quickly ended in failure.
The rabbit senses Zarach, the master of stealth, coming from miles away and simply dashed quickly out of range and ran away. He tried to chase the rabbit but it quickly jumped into a small hole. Frustrated and with growing hunger Zarach continued to search for new prey. Just when he was beginning to fear that he would starve because he was incapable to hunt, he suddenly noticed something hoping in the grass.
Curious he approaches and there he sees a large bird, even bigger than the rabbit, making a strange walk, some kind of jumping movement on the ground. Then Zarach notices that the left wing of the bird is broken and even he knows that a bird that can't fly is dead meat. Even a third rate hunter like him can hunt a defenceless prey like this, it seems that luck hasn't totally abandoned him. The bird makes a last desperate attempt to get away while flapping with his good wing before Zarach's claws come crashing down and end its life.
He has finally killed his first prey. But although he is incredibly hungry he doesn't want to eat raw meat. Even on the battlefield in his previous life did he eat finely prepared meals. So he couldn't help but look for a way to somewhat prepare his meal. In the end he didn't achieve more than removing most of the feathers before he gave in to his hunger. Surprisingly enough it wasn't as disgusting as he had imagined. Maybe he was too hungry or maybe consuming raw meat was natural for his new body, either way it tasted surprisingly good.
After eating the bird, except the bones and feathers, Zarach waked towards the river to drink and to wash the blood off him. Maybe the beast he was now would normally either not care about it or clean itself, like a cat, by licking. But to Zarach, a former human, that was a little bit too much.
When he went to the river to wash the dirt of his first hunt away, he saw his new appearance for the first time in the reflection of the water. Quite shocking! A black oversized lizard with wings covered in blood stares back at Zarach with his black eyes, shining like diamonds or at least that was what it looked like to him. Judging from the size of his surroundings and the size of the rabbit, Zarach estimates that he is approximately around the size of a dog.
'What in the world am I? What kind of beast or monster did I become?' wonders Zarach depressed while he washes himself in the water.
Then he notices that it is getting dark, 'Better not wander around in a unknown world when it is night.' thinks Zarach while he looks around for a safe place to spend the night.
Fortunately he soon finds a small cave near the river, smaller and darker than the cave up in the mountain. But still a thousand times more comfortable, firstly he won't freeze here and secondly there was something strange going on there. Besides his mothers corpse was there as well. Although he didn't feel much of a bond with this blood related mother, he wasn't going to stare a whole night at that monstrous skeleton or he would go completely insane. Considering that there aren't any other options, Zarach carefully enters the cave.
The cave that looked small from the outside, gets surprisingly larger once Zarach enters deeper inside, around two meters wide? But it size still can't match the huge cavern where he was born. There grows even some kind of moss on the cave walls that gives out a dim light. Only a bit of little light, but much better compared to absolute darkness.
Zarach falls down on the cave floor completely exhausted and tries to analyse his current situation. 'Yesterday I was an human emperor brought down by betrayal and now I am some kind of monster alone in a cave in a world I do not know anything about.
'Truly depressing, I never was in such a bad situation before, even when my uncle tried to take the throne I still had friends and moreover I was still a human. A human that considered magic to be a fairytale, but now through magic things became like this. Damn that moron from the void, I already had enough troubles by my own.' Alone in the dim lighted cave Zarach curses the spirit that was responsible for his problems.
Until suddenly a unwelcome, but familiar voice disturbs him. "Congratulations with your first hunt!! From this day onwardssss.... you arrreee... a neeewwww... member of the big and wide wilderness!!"
'Speak of the devil.' thinks Zarach when he enraged begins to yell, "You god damn lunatic! What have you done??!".
"Done?? I gave you the chance to start over in a new life! Besides you where totally screwed in your previous one even if that incident with the spiritual gate hadn't happened. So no reason to get angry at this benevolent spirit that saved you."
"Benevolent??? Malicious you mean! Why the heck was I reborn as this monster and not as a human??" yells Zarach angry. He must admit that the spirit did indeed save him, but in his current situation he doesn't feel grateful for it at all.
"Human? What is so good about being a human?? Humans are weak, helpless and die easily and worst of all majority of them have a totally boring life." asks the spirit to Zarach, to him there is clearly nothing good about being a human.
"That last argument of yours is totally wrong! We humans call your 'boring', a calm and peaceful life! And humans aren't as weak and helpless as you think. Besides I was human and I want to stay human so resurrect me again and do it properly this time!" demands Zarach.
"Uhm,... there might be a tiny little problem... Well how should I put this... You see the connection between your body and soul was forcefully broken by the gate by that Orcus fellow. So considering that you were a spirit that wouldn't pass on naturally and would wander on for all eternity... well I... sort of fixed your connection with an unused body. Your soul is now connected with your current body and... well we will never ever be able to change it again... Ho ho, sorry my bad!" apologises the spirit with a laugh, but he doesn't seem to feel much guilt.
"Never? No that can't be!", the words of the spirit push Zarach even further into despair. "But if I die or we use a second gate and do it over then surely..." begins Zarach.
"No no, forget it, if you die then your soul will pass on normally and it will be over for good. Using a spiritual gate to repeat that fiasco is even worse, not only are those gates extremely rare, but that Orcus fellow managed to produce a truly unique result. In a sad way, we should even admire him. Because even if you could reproduce the exact same situation there would be absolutely no guarantee about the results. Which would be truly disastrous, with a painful and permanent death the least worst of them."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Then there is no hope?? Then if this was a one time, one choice situation, why the hell did you choose this body!?" does Zarach yell in frustration. He simply can't imagine that somebody would so carelessly make an irreversible choice,..no this lunatic definitely would.
"Because it was such a waste, such a magnificent creature to never even being born, come on! That would even make a querulous guy like you sad, right? Besides majority of the human race is pretty much screwed in this place, not only do they fight among themselves they are considered easy prey for the other powerful beings that live in this world."
"Hrgg, this will get me nowhere. Fine at least tell me what kind of creature I am now." Zarach already realises that there is nothing that can be done. So he will have to survive the best he can in this new world with this body the lunatic gave him. And the first step in surviving, is gaining information, more importantly information about himself or what on earth he did become.
"Oh yes, you never seen it before in your previous world... Ha! I bet that you're curious... It is actually quite easy, just say 'show status' and you will be able to see it."
"Status?? Previously I was an emperor and had a high status, but now I don't have any status, thanks to who?! And what do you mean with see it?"
"Ha ha ha... You're really funny, you know? I didn't meant your social status, but your personal status... You won't understand it that way... Ah just say 'show status' and you will see, this way too hard to explain."
Zarach begins to wonder if the spirit is pulling a joke on him, but out of alternatives he hesitantly says, "Uhm, show status?".
This last day Zarach has seen and experienced a lot, but none of them could compare to this. Out of the nowhere a bluish paper appears befor him, giving out a feint light. "What in the world is this?" yells Zarach surprised.
"It is called a status screen, all living beings in this world have one. Or at least those smart enough to command it to appear. In theory animals and insects should have one as well, but considering their low intellect they never summon it, a true pity... Ah, I got sidetracked,..well about the status screen. Your status screen displays all your stats which are numbers that measure how great your, physical strength, resistances, life energy, magic energy, agility and intellect is. It also displays your skills and some personal information, as a bonus!"
[td2]Race
STATUSZarach Asherenar0 years[/tds]DragonstageHatchlingclassEmpyrean beingSTATSvitality100mana100strength50defence50magic offence50magic defence50agility50intellect200STATUS EFFECTSwandering soulintellect of race x 100, protection against illusionsmagic bloodaffinity for all elementsdragon resistprotection against all elements, immunity against all poison and diseasesdragon tongueautomatic translation of all spoken languages
"This is really too strange..." mutters Zarach in surprise when he looks at the so called status screen.
"Maybe, but it is very convenient, the status screen describes perfectly how strong a being is or what it can do. The numbers aren't absolute, combat experience, tactical planning and resolve also influence the outcome of a battle, but normally the one with the highest stats wins the fight. Especially when the difference in stats is too big, then it is practically impossible to overcome the immense gap in power."
"Hm, I see... Then are my stats low or high? I seem to have 100 times my intellect, does that imply that my original intellect was 2??" asks Zarach, the majority of the stats look good to him. Especially the intellect, but if you take the wandering soul status effect in consideration, it gets way too low. 'Is this thing implying that I am stupid? Or a misplaced joke of that damn spirit?' thinks Zarach while he feels his anger rising again.
"Oh yes, a dragon's stats are always very high, a human child has an average of 10 and a normal adult has an average of 40-50, with training 60-80, not considering the few exceptions that have surpassed their limits. Dragons are blessed with many talents except when it comes to intellect, dragons are... well... dumb, they are in fact idiots,.. their natural intellect is very low. Thanks to the fact that you're a reincarnated soul, you seem to have far surpassed every dragon infant when it comes to intellect. Maybe good for a change, most of them are brutes that don't use their enormous magic power well."
"Ah, so I am able to use magic now?" asks Zarach. Although he didn't believe in magic during his reign, as a child he did believe in it and even longed to be able to use it. That was why he admired Orcus in the beginning, but that was before that impostor made him bury his childish dreams for good.
"Eventually, but not immediately. Magic is a quite complex, it takes time to learn and master. Although it goes a little bit faster with inborn racial magic."
"Good, I just need to have a bit of patience. So I am a beast that is called a dragon, but what does stage and class mean?" asks Zarach. The race is clear and even stage he can already somewhat guess but class is truly a mystery to him.
"Stage tells you at which growth stage you are, obviously hatchling is the stage of a dragon infant. Each time you grow to a higher growth stage your stats will increase greatly. But this only counts for beasts.
Then concerning the class on the status screen.. In general, class is your profession or function you hold in this world. Races like humans, goblins, elves and dwarves have a profession like warrior, villager, elder, blacksmith, merchant, and so on. They can have multiple professions and pretty much freely change it during their life, a villager can become a warrior, a blacksmith can learn alchemy. It gives sometimes more information about what they are currently doing, than about what they are.
For the beasts, living in the wilderness, is it an entirely different matter. It defines their position in the food chain, it rarely changes and they can obviously only hold one position. Roughly it comes down to this, beasts, magical beasts, mystical beasts, empyrean beings. Beasts are normal everyday animals, like the ones you know from your previous world. Magical beasts are beast that have evolved because of magic and are far more dangerous than ordinary beasts. Among these magical beast, there are some beasts that evolve even further, although the chance is very low it still happens, becoming mystical beasts. They are the kings among beasts and extremely dangerous creatures that can easily turn the local ecosystem upside down.
Lastly there are the ancient creatures, they didn't evolve from weaker kinds of beasts, but simply where there since the beginning of time. The true horrors of nature, the empyrean beings. These beings aren't bound by any normal limits and approach godhood very closely. luckily they are very rare, otherwise this world probably would end up being destroyed... and I wouldn't have anything to watch to kill time..."
"...."
"So? Aren't you happy?? You aren't a normal beast, but an absolute divinity among beasts! It's like having unbelievable luck, less than one in a billion! Yes, say it, 'thank you, my noble and ever benevolent saviour!', it isn't so hard to express you gratitude!"
"... Why should I thank you? Even if your blunder had a good side effect?" asks Zarach. Although he is happy that he is reborn as a rather powerful beast, but thanking the spirit for it is a bridge too far.
"Tch.. All the effort I spent searching for a good body, wasted on a ungrateful brat like you. It almost makes me cry." complains the spirit.
"You did just however you pleased without my consent! Besides although I am 0 years old now my soul is a lot older, so I am not a brat."
"Anyone younger than a few thousand years is a brat to me. Tss.. just born and already such a tone against his elder... What is going to become of him??"
"Oh just curious, but what exactly happened in that cave?" asks Zarach when he suddenly remembers the strange cold.
"Aaarh, what must I do? Shall I tell this ignorant child the cruel truth or shall I tell a slightly adjusted story to spare him?...Hmmm... Okay, you see your mother hasn't really died and that skeleton is just fake. Now she is currently on a vacation somewhere far away and..."
"The bloody truth, of course!" screams Zarach when he finally loses his temper.
"Haa, you asked for it! Your mother was murdered and then devoured, after she hid her egg. Then foul ice magic was used to freeze the whole place forever and kill any remaining rats. Happy now?"
"Who did it?" asks Zarach curious. He simply can't imagine who killed such a large beast.
"Oh? Are you going to travel the world in search for revenge? In search of the despicable villain, that you will bring to justice!.. Oho, I can already totally envision it!.. With a heart filled with grief, the young and inexperienced dragon sets forth on his journey for vengeance.."
"Stop spewing nonsense! Firstly I don't have any kind of bond with that mother, my real mother is my human mother, who was one of my father's concubines. Secondly she was eaten hundreds of years ago!.. I was simply curious who was capable of such a feat." yells Zarach in order to prevent that the spirit gets any more strange ideas.
"... Pff for such a boring reason... not telling then!"
"Whatever, I am no longer interested." says Zarach resigned. He isn't going to mind the spirit's childish tantrums.
"Well have fun with your new body and explore the countless opportunities in this unknown world, filled with strange creatures, more wonders than you can count! Or die a painful death when you let your guard down for a moment..."
'Could it be that he has some grudge against me now or is he joking about that last part?' wonders Zarach while he decides to be extra careful, just to be safe.
"Remember at all times that when you die, it is the end, no second chances like last time! Oh now that I remember... Your epic showdown against that rabbit was really a sight to behold, an empyrean being biting the dust...ha ha ha.." These are the last words Zarach hears from the spirit, at least for now...
"Tch, the creepy stalker was watching, I should have known." mutters Zarach against himself. But the conversation with the spirit yielded some useful information, he now knows what he is.
Now that he is alone in the cave, his thought wander of and he can't help remembering the faces of his past subordinates. His teacher Rorarth, who was like a father to him and all the others who stayed with him until the very end. They were all resolved to die alongside their master, but now he lives and they are the ones who are dead. It all felt so meaningless and sad...
Zarach feels his resolve growing to live this life to the fullest and make sure it doesn't end like his previous one. This time he is definitely going to stay alive longer and even if he gets himself killed by someone... Then let it at least be someone that is truly strong and formidable. Not some kind of fat and corrupt noble or a crazy impostor, that didn't even know what he was doing.
'Whatever the future will bring I will need strength to face it, this world seems to be far more dangerous than I originally thought.' thinks Zarach. He realises that even if he is an empyrean being, he is only an infant therefore still very weak. So his two main priorities for now should be to learn to hunt and to improve those so called stats. With these thoughts in mind Zarach falls asleep, tired of his first day as a dragon.
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Author note: Before you ask, no the mc isn't stupid. He comes from a normal world with middle age technology, so he has never seen a dragon or status screen (in VR), so he doesn't know what it is. He has a lot of human pride so it is normal that he doesn't like his new body. The only people who would go "Whoo! I became a dragon!" in his situation, are people, like me, who read too many fantasy novels. I just wanted to clarify that and I apologize for any grammar mistakes.
And chapter lenght will probably be inconsistent (I will try but..) so one will be shorter the other longer.