<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Physical Resistance Lv. 2] [Pain Resistance Lv. 2] [Mana Control Lv. 2] [Holy Magic Lv. 3] gained>

Butterflies drinking from flowers. What a cute sight in this dangerous forest… Well, if you exclude that face of theirs, eeuk…

A group of butterflies were extracting nectar from a couple of flowers nearby, enjoying their meal only for a bird to swoop in and grab one of them. Before the other butterflies could escape, the bird flapped its wings and slammed two of them. They were dead before they landed on the ground. Once it pecked those bodies up, it flew away, leaving me alone.

… I hate this place.

Three nights have passed since I made this berry bush into my new home. If you were to ask me what I did these past days, aside from avoiding every creature I saw, then I would like to point you at the once abundant strawberry bush. Most of its berries, or nuts if you want to be pedantic, were gone, fully digested in my stomach.

I guess it should have been expected, but even stuff like strawberries taste differently compared to those from Earth. They were more sweet than sour, but, boy, did I love every single bite. With everything inside this place probably able to kill me, this was my sole haven. A damn good one, at that! Free housing, free food and water, and mild protection from rain.

Still, did that make me seem lazy? Think again and behold!

__________________________________________

Name: *    Level: 0   Race: Dragon Hatchling

Age: 0 Months

Status:    Health: 30   Mana: 97 (+17)

Strength: 11 (+1)   Intelligence: 8 (+2)

Vitality: 6 (+2)   Wisdom: 5

Agility: 18 (+2)   Stamina: 12

Effects: None

Skill Points: 0

Skill:  Magic skills and related:

[Mana Control Lv. 2] (+1) [Holy Magic Lv. 3] (+2) [Primal Magics]

Senses and movement skills:

[Stealth Lv. 3] (+1)

Resistances:

[Physical Resistance Lv. 2] (+1) [Pain Resistance Lv. 2] (New)

Spell List: Holy spells:

[Minor Heal] [Cure] [Modest Heal]

Other spells:

[Shine]

Titles:  [The Light] [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] [Otherworldly Reincarnator]

__________________________________________

Staying in a safe location sounded all good and awesome, but there was nothing for me to do here but eat. I was too frightened to explore this place and this bush wasn’t equipped with a TV or PC for me to look up a survival guide.

It got me thinking of practicing healing myself to prepare for the next emergency. Now, I know self-mutilation wasn’t a virtue, but I had to test how much my healing could do with every cast. This was an experiment, I am not a masochist, okay?

In any case, boredom was such a motivator that I was able to occupy myself with this in the last few days. As a result, I was rewarded with multiple upgrades to my skills and also a new one in the form of [Pain Resistance]. It did exactly what its name stated, it dulled down pain.

However, what surprised me the most was [Holy Magic]. With every level up, I received a spell — [Cure] from level two and [Modest Heal] from three. From my testing, [Modest Heal] was a straight-up superior version of [Minor Heal]. Talk about power creep within the first three levels.

Unfortunately, for [Cure], I wasn’t able to get any substantial results, however, if I could hazard a guess, it probably acted like an ailment cleanser? Like healing poison and venoms. I wasn’t sure about it, but I’ll have to keep that in mind if I ever was infected with a disease or something.

Of course, magic training wouldn’t be over if I didn’t try to understand more about this system. There had to be more to this and I was likely only scratching the surface of this practice.

For example, I learned that you could increase or decrease the amount of mana spent on a spell, altering its potency depending on how much you spent. Still, if you looked at the performance to mana ratio, using [Modest Heal] was just flat out better than [Minor Heal], even with this realization.

Reducing and increasing mana costs probably will become more useful once I get more spells with varying effects. I could probably hold back in the future if I received some offensive spells, but, it’ll be a while until I would have the luxury to do so.

Seriously, with all the magic and game stuff, this world just made me wish it was all just a dream about a realistic video game, but I’ve already accepted the truth in these past three days. I had enough time to mourn for myself. Complaining about it any more was useless.

After all, I somehow managed to handle myself using only the information I got from those fake survival drama shows, but I was a city girl at my core. You don’t get wilderness survival training in the middle of New York while lounging in front of a TV!

But still, complaining about it won’t yield anything. There was nobody to ask for help, so I had to start relying on myself and adapt. If I wanted to survive, then I needed to be proactive and experiment, since there were no search engines to look up the most efficient process.

There was also the most horrifying fact — getting used to living outside.

Food was sorted with the strawberries and if it rained, I could snatch a droplet or two from the bush’s leaves. The berries also had a lot of liquid, so staying hydrated wasn’t a problem.

Climate-wise, it was rather warm and humid, but that posed no issues for me. On the contrary, the warmer the day was, the more comfortable it was for me. Maybe it’s ‘cause dragons were reptiles and as such cold-blooded? Actually, now that thought about it, are dragons even cold-blood? Bah, whatever.

Unfortunately, that was all the good things about this life. What was so bad?

The fact that I had no access to a permanent water source. Yes, it rained, but not often enough. Thankfully, when it did rain, I could clean myself, but sadly it didn’t come whenever nature called. It felt disgusting not being able to clean after I peed or pooped, and all that waste was also neatly packed with me under this bush, since I couldn’t go out.

Use leaves to clean, you say? Dig a hole and bury it all there?

Well, uh, you see, my front legs were a bit too short for that. I have to bend over, including my head, to clean anything, and it certainly wasn’t a welcoming sight. Also, I couldn’t dig too deeply, my arm strength was literally that of a hatchling. I had to go to the toilet often enough that I reeked even under the ground.

So, now do you understand what I have to go through? And I’m expected to continue doing all of this to survive. Honestly, dude, it wasn’t a fun feeling being under this bush for this long. I honestly want to put this topic to rest…

There was also the problem of my new body, specifically being quadrupedal. After what happened during that chase, I’ve made up my mind to relearn how to walk, but with how awkward it was to coordinate these four legs, I felt just annoyed by them.

My center of mass was different and knowing when and how to put a single foot forward required getting used to it. Currently, when I tried walking for an extended time, I would lose focus and ruin my balance and fall. Rolling around on the dirt so often was discouraging, but I had to learn how to do it sooner than later.

It also didn’t help that my home stank and was made out of shit and piss at this point. All the earth stuck onto my scales and claws and it would linger there until the next rain shower. Literally, my safety bush was turning into an unwanted home.

And lastly… I haven’t been able to get a single good night’s sleep in these past few days. All the chirping, all the leaf rustles — every sound felt nerve-wracking to listen to. They came from every direction; sometimes it was the wind, sometimes larger animals.

I couldn’t relax. I thought, “Was this it? Will I get caught today?” I couldn’t fall asleep. The only way for me to stop complaining about everything was to do all that training and theory crafting. I had something else to think about instead of loathing every second of being here.

… Just like what I was doing right now.

…

Everything about this whole situation is fucked up! Verdammter Scheiße!

Best part about being half-German — cursing felt more impactful.

Why the hell am I stuck in this godforsaken place all alone, without anybody around for help? Why did I have to born so early that I ended up in this hobbit reptile’s body when literally everything else is larger than me. Why can’t I have a dragon breath like a normal dragon?

And most importantly… Where are my fucking parents?! Where are those damn lizards? Whose cruel enough to dump my egg in this forest without any help, heeeeellooooooo?!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Okay, deep breaths.

In…and out.

In…and out.

We’ve gotten over complaining about this.

This is what boredom did to me. Getting away from all this reality could only be done if I kept my mind focused on training and getting stronger.

For one, it seemed training helped improve my stats over time. For example, using mana increased your maximum capacity. Biting or scratching myself would increase my Strength and Vitality. Even doing sit-ups will show results in some way.

The second reason was, honestly, it felt wrong not to increase it. I’ve recently only had time for mobile games, but when I was still a kid, my Mama used to introduce me to the video games she liked to play, and RPGs was one of her favorite genres. My competitive side demanded me work!

However, these relatively quiet days were about to end today. That problem that has plagued humanity since its inception — food. The strawberry bush was nearly exhausted, and I couldn’t find another one close by. I could explore the forest, yes, but was that just suicide with those large birds flying around. Birds liked lizard steaks.

Driven by desperation and this impending hunger, I had to make up my mind — I needed to hunt.

The egg yolk seemed to have given me the necessary nutrients for four days, but the lack of protein was giving me cravings now. Sadly, I didn’t have the physical prowess nor confidence to go out hunting. I might only be a few days old, but I had couldn’t possibly grow up with only strawberries now, right? The situation was inevitable.

The only solace I found in all of this was that I was quite curious about the leveling system. The only way to find out how it worked was to… Haaaaaaa, I had to kill.

At first, I was really apprehensive of that idea, but as I weighed the pros and cons, I knew there was only one option left, if I didn’t want to turn into a vegetarian.

But, man, was I surprise to find out I accepted that reality that quickly. What normal student randomly decides that she wanted to kill for her dinner today? Was it ‘cause I’m a dragon now? Dragons are like monsters even in this world, right? If that’s so, then normalizing killing others would come naturally to me.

Speaking of monsters, my target finally arrived.

It was a rabbit with a pair of small doe antlers. It looked about the size of a normal bunny, but from my perspective, it was kinda hard to tell.

Inspecting myself, my new body would fit perfectly in an adult’s hands. If I had to describe myself objectively, without self-deprecating myself, then I guess you could compare me to a crocodile hatchling. The problem was that the bunny would probably overflow in a human’s hand with all its fluffy fur.

If you hadn’t guessed it at this point, I was targeting something that looked larger than me. Even that bird from before looked more intimidating compared to me. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to target something smaller, this was just the next largest target. Otherwise, bugs, but those critters are either too fast or no where around this bush.

In any case, during my time in this bush, multiple of these rabbits have been wandering around this area. Probably looking for food. So, I left my last strawberry in front of this bush in hopes to lure it in. I’ll hide and cover my presence before sneak attacking it while it nibbled on the berry. Simple, yes, but it should work.

Come closer, bunny, bunny, bunny.

The rabbit hopped towards the berry, staying slightly on guard as it looked around itself. I swallowed my saliva in anticipation. This was my last piece of food I was using as bait, so I couldn’t allow myself to fail. If I did, then, well, I will have to leave this place and that was something I wanted to avoid.

Slow breaths, do it exactly how you’ve always done it. Calm yourself and just focus on the task… You can do this, girl.

… Now, Shine!

“Miiih!”

Casting my spell from my tail, a bright light burned the eyes of the rabbit as it began eating the berry.

Normally, the spell [Shine] only required relatively little mana to cast a small light source, however, pump the mana amount up and it could act as a flashbang. Using my tail to cast it from behind it me also prevented blinding myself.

“Kriii!”

My legs pushed off the ground, letting my body leap out of the bush. I poured mana through my jaw and crunched onto the rabbit’s throat with my fangs.

I confirmed by using [Mana Control], I could use mana to temporarily empower my body. Back then, I used it on escaping my egg and fleeing those dog-headed men, and now I was using this skill to squeeze the life out of this rabbit with my bite.

It struggled, trying to throw me off, but I held onto it as hard as I could with my legs. I dug the claws on them them into the rabbit’s body before putting every bit of strength I had left into my jaw. Without being able to breathe properly, the rabbit couldn’t summon the appropriate amounts of power to defend itself.

Urrrgh, please, just stop moving. Please, come on, j-just… please, die for me!

“Eiiii…”

<Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Dragon Hatchling *] has risen from [Level 0] to [Level 4]>

<Attributes have increased due to level up>

<Acquired 400 skill points>

<Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Mana Strike Lv. 1] acquired>

<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Stealth Lv. 3] evolved into [Stealth Lv. 4]>

I’m sorry…

The warm blood of the rabbit spilled into my mouth, giving me the first taste of raw, warm blood in this life. The thick fluid filled my mouth, slowly seeping into my stomach as I was still recovering from the fact I just killed something. Once I regained my mind, I spat everything out, even coughing to make sure to clean myself from this foreign blood.

It was revolting. Traumatizing, even. How the rabbit struggled to break away from me or how I broke its neck with just my… teeth. I saw it’s eyes looking at me in terror as I crunched away the last remaining fire in its life… Killing with my mouth made it too personal.

However, as if the world wanted me to get over it, the moment I leveled up, I felt absolutely ecstatic. My body filled up with an alien energy as my strength began to grow.

Profile.

_________________________________________

Name: *    Level: 4   Race: Dragon Hatchling

Age: 0 Month

Status:    Health: 50/50 (+20)   Mana: 137/137 (+40)

Strength: 19 (+8)   Intelligence: 12 (+4)

Vitality: 10 (+4)   Wisdom: 9   (+4)

Agility: 28 (+10)   Stamina: 20/20  (+8)

Effects: None

Skill Points: 400 (+400)

Skill:  Magic skills and related:

[Mana Control Lv. 2] [Holy Magic Lv. 3] [Primal Magics]

Physical skills and related:

[Mana Strike Lv. 1] (New)

Senses and movement skills:

[Stealth Lv. 4] (+1)

Resistances:

[Physical Resistance Lv. 2] [Pain Resistance Lv. 2]

Spell List: Holy spells:

[Minor Heal] [Cure] [Modest Heal]

Other spells:

[Shine]

Titles:  [The Light] [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] [Otherworldly Reincarnator]

_________________________________________

Hiehie… it was worth it. Yeah, this has to be the way. This was my reward.

I was happy to see my current profile. It looked proper now. It was also good to see that you receive a full Mana recovery whenever you level up.

Furthermore, the leveling up gave me 100 skill points pet level up, netting me 400 points to spend. When I first tried to look into this [Skill Points] thing in my profile, it opened up a skill list for me. Everything was grey out, though, but now that I had points, I should be able to buy something. Hopefully, there was something combat related since ambushing probably won’t always be available as an option.

Skill List Open— Oof.

There were a ton of skills in this list and as I expected, they weren’t grey out anymore. I should probably sort them for now.

Display the lowest available skills.

_________________________________________

Skill List

Sort by: Lowest available skills

Cost: 50 SP

[Fire Magic] [Earth Magic] [Identify] [Unarmed Technique] [Enhanced Claws] [Enhanced Fangs] [Enhanced Enemy Sense]

_________________________________________

Cool, first try. I’m getting better at using this thing.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few skills under the 50 points category. Wasn’t my current amount enough to buy all of them at once? There were some useful sounding skills in there, like sensing enemies or using magic or using even more magic!

What a discount!

If I had been born in a safer environment, for example with my new parents, I could have probably tried to get some of these myself… But that was wishful thinking now. Live in the moment. I didn’t have the luxury to imagine what could have been when I was still trying to get accustomed to all of this.

Let’s also stop calling those deadbeat lizards ‘parents.’ I only have one true pair of parents and that will never change.

Before I took any of those skills, I first turned to preparing the rabbit for a meal. It had to be bled out first, as I heard meat tasted terrible if there was too much blood. I could just eat it raw, but knowing which skill I could buy made me believe I could enjoy some “luxury” for just today.

As such, I bought the necessary skills.

From the lowest available skills category, I took [Fire Magic], [Earth Magic], [Identify] and [Enhanced Enemy Sense]. I didn’t take the rest ‘cause I found some useful ones among the 100 SP group. Those would be [Cooking] and [Dismantle]. The former group would help me kill stuff, while the latter would help me avoid food illnesses.

<Would you like to buy [Fire Magic] [Earth Magic] [Identify] [Enhanced Enemy Sense] [Cooking] [Dismantle] for a combined amount of 400 SP? Your current SP is 400>

Yes, please! Oooh, I’m actually buying skills!

<You have bought [Fire Magic Lv. 1] [Earth Magic Lv. 1] [Identify Lv. 1] [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 1] [Cooking Lv. 1] [Dismantle Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 0>

<Magic gained: [Fire] [Earth Wall]>

Oooooooh, yes!

As I returned my eyes to the rabbit, [Dismantle] seemed to have activated, as I suddenly somehow knew how to take off its pelt. With my claw, I began scrapping its fur off.

… I cannot explain how disturbing this felt. The smell of iron quickly assaulted my nose, causing a sense of nausea. A shiver ran down my body as I opened its throat wide open, letting the pool of blood grow and grow in front of the bush.

Ewwwww… this will attract predators if I don’t cover it up. Guess I have a use for all my bathroom trips now.

Once bled out, I cast [Fire] — from [Fire Magic Lv. 1] — on the soft rabbit fur, using it as kindling to make an impromptu fireplace. I then tore off the rabbit’s flesh, slicing them into mouth-sized chunks before skewering them with a branch. With this kebab, I laid it over the flame.

Compared to the fur, I believe I did a far better job with cutting up the meat. Just as with my teeth, my claws were surprisingly sharp for how small they were.

Mhmm.

It began smelling appetizing. I had no idea if [Cooking] would magically make the meat more edible, but it certainly smelled far better than it deserved for not being seasoned. Not even salt, meeeeeh.

… It should be finished now. I licked my non-existent lips. I expected it to be bland, but seeing all the juices dripping onto the floor told me otherwise. Thanks for the food!

“Mhmpf!”

Hmm, interesting.

Okay, expectations averted. The meat was slightly tough from being overcooked, but the juices fully simulated my tongue with that oh-so-amazing taste of cooked fat. It wasn’t bland at all but I couldn’t say it was delectable. But then again, considering there wasn’t any salt in the cooking process, it was a pleasant surprise to see it coming out good enough.

If [Cooking] did all of that, then it was quite a cheat, although I wished it had told me before it became medium rare. I was a rare girl, you see.

… The organs?

As I finished the kebab, I still had a big appetite when I looked at the organs, wondering if I could make them edible with the skill. I was a bit apprehensive about consuming them, but wasting food wasn’t allowed in this household! Even if the looked less than desirable…

No, no, I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to eat meat! Oh wait, what if I covered the organs with meat and skewered them? It would look similar enough to a döner kebab.

… I shouldn’t drool.