I woke up in a pitch-black, emptiness-filled void. I made an effort to move, but it felt as though I were in water. I sighed as I asked, "Where am I?" and "SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" I looked around me to see if there was a way out of this situation. I could see three lights above me. The last one was a bright, deep red that resembled fire, followed by a dark green color that was a bright, golden color.

I began to swim to the red source of light, and the closer I got to it, the hotter it became. The light released so much heat that my blood felt like it was boiling and my skin became drier and drier. There was so much heat that I couldn’t even keep my eyes open, so I continued to swim and tried my best to reach the light. Then I felt something hard, and all the heat left. I am confused about what happened, so I pushed hard on the object in my way, trying to feel if that did something.

I heard a click and felt my body heal. I slowly opened my eyes to see that I wasn’t in a void of nothingness but in a village that is on fire and that there are dead humans everywhere. I quickly stood up, looking around, realizing I was in the middle of a market street with all the humans looking like they had been massacred, when a roar caught my attention. "What monster did they unleash? I see bite marks and claw marks, and some people appeared to be burned to ash or crisp." "ARRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" As the roar sounded like it was getting closer, I tired of searching for a weapon. As I found an ax under a body, I rushed to it and went to move it, but my arms went right through it. "Huh, what happened?" I tried again and again, but the same thing happened. "What's going on? I can't touch anything."

I looked to my left and saw a humanoid with wings and two horns pulled back on its head. As it came closer, I stood up and waited for it to attack. It kept walking more and more closer till it was staring down at me, and I noticed its skin was just scaled and the tail it had plus the claws on its hand were dripping blood. It was at least a head and a half taller than me.

"Hey, Scaley, you look tough and ready to fight," I said, exposing more of my tusks. It just looked at me with its two flaming red eyes. "I know you are tall, but at least say something before I make two axes with your horn." It had its huge hand on my head and was lifting me off the ground before I knew what had happened. I tried punching its arm, but once again it went right through. "You've got to be screwing with me." It lifted me to eye level with it.

"You orcs are weak. I will show you and this world my true power. The power of the true dragon, Kin Shandar Ulmathal. "Now die, tiny, weak orc." Shandar spoke while sparks of fire came out with each word he spoke. Shandar then opened his mouth beyond what a human could, showed teeth the size of small daggers, and in the back of his throat, a ball of fire became bigger. A second later, he released the fire that was engulfing me.

"AAAAAGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRHR" I shuddered as he continued to breathe fire. "AAGGHH!" I yelled while opening my eyes in shock. Breathing heavily, I checked my body to see that I was perfectly fine. "Did I just die as a result of a dragon's breath?" I thought, trying to think of what happened. I looked back to see that there are two lights, but the red door is dark with no more heat.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"What is going on?" "Why am I still alive?" I started to make haste to the dark green feeling, and my body started to have more energy and gain more. "Life energy?" It felt like I was moving faster and the light was getting closer. Then it hit me—a wave of green energy that, upon contact, grew lumps, and my body felt bigger. "This isn't like the red light with that damn Half Dragon; this light makes me sick."

I started to swim faster, knowing that if I didn't, I would die again. The bigger and more lumps that grew on my body as I got closer made it difficult to swim with lumps now growing on my joints. I started to get closer to getting the feeling that the lumps were growing inside my body, making me more sick. After making it to the door, I wonder, " Why am I doing all this? "Do I even gain anything? ""Maybe it’s just a challenge, yeah, a challenge, and if it is, then I will complete it and crush whoever is at the end of this challenge." I touched the door, hoping Shandar wasn't here.

I held my hand there, thinking something would happen, but nothing happened. "Is this thing broken?" I pulled back my hand, but it was stuck. "Hey, you door, let go of my damn hand." I felt a strong pull from the door as I yanked my hand even harder to try to rip it off. "My hand is not for you to take, door. Now let go!" I did another strong pull, which ended with the door beginning to slowly pull my whole body in.

"Hey, I don’t want to die like this. Stop Stop." I put my other hand on the door to push myself out, but my hand just ended up going in. I tried to feel if there was anything on the other side of the door, but I couldn’t feel my limbs.

This better be a damn forest, and it better have good food and something strong to fight with. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what happened inside that door.

I opened my eyes to see that I was in a forest and that all of the lumps had left my body, which had shrunk. "This is the most confusing day of my life." I searched my surroundings, seeing that I was just in a forest with very thick and tall trees, and the sun was just rising. I smelled the air to see if I could track any scents. The only thing that can be smelled is clean air, not the burning ash of that human village or the empty void. I put my ear to the ground to hear if anything big was nearby, but after hearing nothing, I went to the branch that was on the ground. This could work well as a club, but after picking it up, I noticed how much this weighed more than it looked. "This will do a lot of damage," I thought, smiling at the battle that is soon to come.

I started to walk randomly until the sun was starting to set. "I wish there was a damn animal; I am so hungry." I walked, rubbing my belly. I should rest now and find meat to eat when I wake up. "Would a tree be the best place because I bet those branches can hold at least 10 of me?"

I started to climb the thick bark of the tree to rest up for the night. "Why are these trees so tall?" Finally making it to the top, I start to wonder where I can find food in this damn forest. As nightfall approached, I began to nod off to sleep.