It was a peaceful morning in our small village. After practicing in the comfort of our home for so long, Dad thought it was finally time for me to go out into the world. He didn't know about my little trips outside into the forest at night, and I intend to keep it that way.

Key word, intend.

“You look excited,” Dad said as he held my hand.

"Of course."

For me, it was just another trip to the forest. For Dad, though, it was my first time facing real danger and challenges. I either need to act scared, happy, or excited. Any expression that showed this as being my first time out. That way, he wouldn't feel suspicious of me.

We made our way to the local Adventurers' Guild. I lived in a small village, so our Adventurers' Guild doubled as the village hall. Even then, it only had a small, old building. A receptionist served as both the guild’s receptionist and the public servant. Dad talked about it several times, but I never been inside.

"Welcome." The guild receptionist greeted us. I took a look around. Despite its age, the building was well maintained. It was clean, warm, and comfortable. One wall had a map of the world, featuring the continent, Mimosa. The game itself took place on the southern part of the continent, in the Kingdom of Syla. We lived near the kingdom’s southern border and weren’t part of the game map.

"Does that map interest you, Forti?"

I nodded. The top part of the map looked nearly the same. The game did show the world north and south of Syla, despite it being inaccessible. I wonder if they ever had the plans to expand down here. Still, everything that was covered looked almost identical. There were differences here and there, but nothing major. The town names, their locations, the highways. I could navigate through this world without needing a map.

My dream for now was to go up north, to the Syla Royal Capital, where adventurers start in the game. I wanted to see just how accurate the capital in the game was compared to the capital in this world.

It might be different, though. For one, many of the in-game events were treated as history. Like, for example, one of the events described the rise of the new faction, the Eastern Wolves. In the game, their rise happened five years before the main story. In this world, more than a hundred years have passed. Quite an awful lot of time.

“So, which one do you want to take, Forti?” my dad asked. I moved my attention down. There were many gathering, delivery, and even escort quests, common things in this world. I wanted something to fight, though.

“How about that one?” I pointed toward one of the quests attached to the board. It was a monster subjugation quest. The monster in question was Kamior Birds. As its name suggested, these airborne enemies spent most of their time in the sky.

“Eh…” Dad stared at it. “I think we should pick something else.”

“Yeah…”

These birds didn’t bother anyone as long as you didn’t pass a certain height. There were probably more urgent quests around. I scanned the board, but I could see no such quests.

“Why not that?”

“That? Oh you mean those Kamior Birds? Sorry to disappoint you, but your father isn’t good at using magic.”

“I see…”

No wonder he never taught me anything remotely magic.

I thought he did that because my mother was better at it. I never questioned it until now.

“But I can use magic, remember?” I proudly held up my wand. My mother’s wand, to be exact. In this world, you could only deploy spells that were the same as the element your wand had. My mom lent me her fire magic wand, which meant I could only use fire magic. I could shoot magic projectiles with this, though, and I was sure Dad saw me doing that before.

He shook his head disapprovingly. “If we trigger the birds, then something happens to you, I can’t help, remember?”

“... I guess?”

In the game, the birds would do hit-and-run attacks. This meant players without range attacks only have a short time window to take them down. They were agile flyers as well, making ranged magical attacks tough.

“But there are no other monster quests?”

“Maybe we should stick to home training for today…”

“Aww…”

That said, I could easily take out those birds. I had been grinding, after all, but I did it all in secret. I would definitely receive a stern lecture if I admitted to going out during the night to train.

All of a sudden, the building went dark. The sun rays from outside disappeared and reappeared within a split of a second.

“What was that?” Dad asked, pulling me closer. The receptionist looked out the window.

“What the…” She stared out the window, frowning.

“Cecilia, what’s going on?”

“A dragon…”

“A dragon? Impossible.”

Interesting.

Dad and Miss Cecilia probably never saw a dragon before, let alone fought them. Me? I ate them for breakfast.

Just kidding. I did defeat one, but I never killed one. Unlike in other worlds, the dragons in this world are intelligent species comparable to humans. They lived in the mountainous regions of the west. They were quick flyers, so them being here wasn’t impossible.

But why?

Dragons were impossible to tame, and only few had one as a friend. Our village was far too small and insignificant for a visit of someone like that. Most dragons preferred the cold climate of the mountain, so one of them flying here for no reason was unlikely.

Yells and screams rang outside. I instantly knew what was happening. I shot straight for the door.

“Forti!” Dad yelled.

“I’ll be alright!”

I ran out of the building, turning north toward where the red dragon was flying. Some fields at the north end were burning. Local knights prepared for battle, while civilians evacuated the area. I painted a black circle in my vision, right on the dragon, then painted the symbol for Zoom above the circle. The part of my vision inside that circle grew larger, zooming in on the target. A fire dragon, proven by their red color.

Feeling the adrenaline rushing through me, I sprinted past the crowd, heading straight for the flying dragon.

“Kid! What are you doing!” one of them screamed toward me, but I ignored them.

I had been making rough calculations ever since I killed my first monster. I had a rough estimate of my level, and I knew I had a high enough level to fight this dragon.

I hope it won’t lead to that, though.

The dragon flew in circles above the northern road of the village. They had a few spines on their back. The older a dragon gets, the more spines they’ll have.

Another feature that made me sure this was a youngling was the fact that they didn’t try to communicate. Older dragons had the ability to communicate in human language. This young dragon was probably lost. Unable to talk with humans, they circled the world aimlessly, looking for home. Someone probably triggered them by doing something to them. Most of the people here I assumed never even saw a dragon in the first place.

I stopped and pointed the wand forward. I stared at the dragon. Within my vision, I painted a red circle above the dragon’s wing. Inside the circle, I painted a symbol for a spell called Total Sun Ray. It was a complex symbol with many horizontal and vertical lines mashing together. I needed to be able to envision that symbol accurately to be able to use the spell, as the slightest mistake could cancel the spell.

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Once I completed the symbol, A heat ray appeared above the dragon’s top. The dragon’s flapping weakened, and they soon lost control of themselves. They tumbled down, crashing down to the road.

Everyone stared in shock. I ran forward, coming next to the dragon. All dragons, even fire dragons, were weak to extreme temperatures. Their undersides, normally, had thicker armor-like skin than their tops. That's why they could use their flame breath to burn the land, but not be affected.

Even then, they still needed to keep a distance from the flames. My spell not only appeared right above them, but also near the wings, the weakest point of a dragon.

The dragon tried moving.

“Fortisbel!” one of the local knights called. They tried to move forward, but I waved my hand.

“Stay away! Seriously!”

I inched closer and patted their snout. The young dragon hadn’t grown large yet, not in dragon standards at least, their body only around fifteen meters in length.

They opened their eyes, then growled, but did nothing. I imagined the dragon’s face, then I painted the symbol for the elementless spell, Connect. It was used to connect the minds of two individuals. I managed to connect, but the words I heard in my mind were unclear.

The spell isn’t stable.

A stable spell could even help me understand if someone didn't speak my language or couldn't speak in the first place, as it conveyed the sender’s thoughts. The instability of this spell meant that the dragon was in great pain.

“Anyone carry an ice wand?”

One of the knights warily approached, carrying an ice wand with him. I took it. I painted a light blue circle above the dragon, then a symbol for an ice spell.

Cool Air.

I painted the symbol in my vision. Instantly, the surrounding temperature dropped. The dragon began moving, but unlike before, no aggressiveness was visible from their eyes. I patted their snout again. They let out a little growl.

“Hey, that tickles!”

The dragon licked my face, a sign of affection. I began patting their head, and they looked comfortable.

Then, two massive shadows appeared from the west, followed by a fierce roar. The dragon looked up at the sky and growled in return. The knights then pointed their weapons toward the dragon. The dragon, in return, stared sharply at them.

“Everyone, stand down! You’re scaring them!”

The sound of flapping wings entered my ears, and from the sky, two larger dragons came and landed on the road behind the little dragon. One was blue, a water dragon, and the other red, a fire dragon. The little dragon turned around and cheerfully ran toward their parents.

“Little one. Are you the one that helped her?” came the blue dragon’s heavy voice.

So the dragon is a girl. Well, I couldn’t deny that she’s quite cute.

Unlike humans, what trait got passed down from their parents depends on the dragon’s gender. Since this one is a girl, the fire dragon would be the mother.

“Is she lost?”

The young dragon growled, and the mother replied. “We were so worried about her. She got lost in a blizzard two days ago. We spent ages looking for her.”

“The dragons can speak?” Dad murmured, standing beside me. As I predicted, he had never seen a dragon before.

“Are you hungry?” I asked.

The mother looked down at her daughter and growled, and the little dragon whimpered.

“Is there a chance you have any food?”

“Please wait a moment.”

I ran as fast as I could back home.

“Forti? What’s going on?” Mom asked in a panic.

“A dragon. Do you mind if I bring them some fish?”

“A what?”

“Thank you, Mom.”

I picked up the basket full of fish and ran back to where the dragons waited. Luckily, my training paid off, as I could do the loop without losing my breath.

“Will this be enough?” I presented the basket. Only then I realize that the basket only contained two pieces of fish, along with five loaves of bread. Some dragons were omnivores and could eat bread, but not all. “Umm… it looks like I didn’t bring many.”

The little dragon stepped forward, sniffed at the fish, and ate it first. As they chewed, their eyes lit up, and they scoured everything else. Once they finished, they licked me and growled.

“Thank you, little one.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

“We will be going home now. Do not worry, we have gathered some treasures from the mountains. We will be bringing some back to repay the damages our daughter had done.”

“Thank you, little boy. We appreciate your kindness,” said the mother.

The little dragon chirped, and the three took flight, heading west.

“Have a safe trip.” I waved as they disappeared to the horizon.

* ••

I became the talk of the town for quite some while after that.

‘The child prodigy that defeated a dragon.’ turned into the hot local news. Everyone was talking about it. People crowned me a hero, even offering me gifts and whatnot. Even my parents' standing in town rose, and the local knight and lord tried recruiting me several times.

I rejected them every time. As a gamer, and as an adventurer, I value my freedom. No matter what they say, I didn’t want to be tied to formalities and the like.

In the days after the event, my parents drilled me for information. How did I know spells that Mom didn’t teach me, spells that Mom herself didn't know? How did I get that powerful? How could I stay calm when I faced the dragon? How did I know the weaknesses of the dragon? I couldn’t tell them about my past though. Not yet at least.

Even after my performance, Dad banned me from going into the forest alone. Despite that, I continued sneaking out like usual.

Sorry Mom and Dad, but you couldn't stop the grind.

A week later, six days in this world’s calendar, the family of dragons returned.

“We sincerely hope that this is enough.”

“Woah…”

The three of them dropped a mountain of gold in the village’s plaza. Dragons liked gold, and they could mine them on their own. They view gold like how we view beautiful potted plants. That was why many adventurers tried to fight dragons, although many attempts failed. They weren’t hostile unless provoked, so even back then, I didn’t see a reason to fight them.

“Baron Kustorv, can you handle this please?”

“Are you sure, Fortisbel?”

“I still have my parents to support me.” I turned back toward the dragons and bowed my head. “Thank you very much.”

“No, thank you for what you did.”

“Are you planning to stay in this village, little one?” the father asked all of a sudden.

“Huh? I haven’t planned when I’ll be going, but no.”

No gamer stays in one place. My parents were really nice to me, so I would definitely come and visit them. The townsfolk were friendly as well. I had many reasons to come back. It wasn’t like my previous life, I had a family now.

I would still go on an adventure, however. Not now, but dragons could live much longer than humans. What for me is a 'sometime in the future' may sound like next week to them.

“Is that so? Come on, speak for yourself.” Using his wing, the father pushed the daughter forward. The little dragon turned her head to her parents, before turning to me.

“...”

“Yes?”

The little dragon shook her body, and then a cloud of magic appeared around her.

Ah, yeah. I completely forgot about this.

The next moment, a naked girl appeared before me. I immediately turned away. Panicked screams rang all around me. Mom and Dad both covered my eyes, with Mom trying to cover Dad’s eyes as well. A few seconds passed, and a piece of cloth now covered the girl’s body.

“I would never understand why humans treat nakedness as something weird…” The father shook his head.

The girl standing before me had long straight red hair, with dragon horns appearing above her hair. Her clear, ruby red eyes looked down at herself. “Is this a human custom?”

“I guess you can say that.” I sighed. Based on her father’s question, and how she transformed in front of everyone, I could tell where this was going.

This part, too, matched the game. In this world, some kinds of beings could use magic to take on human forms. These human forms were exactly the same as normal humans, with some features carried over from their original bodies. In a dragon’s case, their horns.

Dragons didn’t normally use human forms, though. They rarely interact with humans. If a dragon decided to use their human form, that would only mean,

“I would like to travel with you. I want to know more of this world with you,” she admitted, bringing in the surprise gasps from everyone around me. Had this been another world or another game, this moment would definitely be sweet, but…

In this world, no matter what, dragons couldn’t see someone outside their species as romantic partners.

So, unfortunately, no romance tag here.

“I have no plans on leaving now, though.”

The world outside was dangerous. I may be at a high level, but I still have a lot of grinding to do.

“I can wait.”

“Yeah… dragons did have a long lifespan.”

Even now, this girl is older than me. Dragons typically gain their ability to speak at fifteen years old.

“Well… if you don’t mind waiting. Mom, do we have an extra room?”

“Ah, huh, oh… AH! I mean, yes, we have some space for you!” Mom panicked.

“I can sleep outside.”

“Well, that won’t do!” Mom was half-yelling for some reason. Murmurs began sounding around us.

“Please, take care of our child.”

“Thank you.”

The father and mother bowed their heads. Despite being dragons, they understood human ethics quite well. Maybe they lived with humans at some point in their lives?

“Ah, don’t worry! We’ll make sure she’s well fed and grow healthy and big and smart and-”

“Honey, calm down,” Dad whispered. Mom took a deep breath.

“Yes, we will definitely take good care of her.”

After some more back-and-forth, the two dragons bid farewell to their daughter and flew home. We took the dragon home, along with some gold reward.

* ••

We sat around the dining table.

“So, who should we call you?”

“My dragon name is Mayadokeuasnfeniskeos.”

All three of us paused at her name. Yeah, I should have remembered. Dragons always had these long, complicated names.

“... Can I call you Maya?” I suggested.

“Feel free to.”

“Well, welcome to the family, Maya.”

We celebrated the night with some grilled fish.