Isaac finally understood the riddle of what came first. The chicken or the egg…
‘But this time..’ he looked over at the human-sized eggshell…
It was a dragon. How did he know?
He looked down at his claws.
And it was him.
‘Damn’ was what he tried to say.
“ARrcheeGggrrr ” was what came out.
Somewhere deep inside, he knew he had died as a human. Was this reincarnation? His thoughts swirled, hazy and uncertain.
It felt like something was jabbing the backs of his eyes. He lifted his clawed hands to steady his spinning head.
A sharp sting followed as he realized, a bit too late, that claws were not ideal for head-scratching.
Those claws were viciously sharp. Isaac’s talons came back smeared with blood, and he awkwardly tried to use the palm of his... whatever-it-was.
Fantastic. Now he was bleeding and hallucinating letters floating in front of his eyes.
“Congratulations, you are the first-born dragon in Veern.”
Isaac blinked.
The words stubbornly remained.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
No luck.
Still there.
He glanced around, hoping for a distraction.
The text followed him, persistent as a shadow.
Was he tripping on mushrooms again? No, this was weirder. Actually, nothing could top that one time with his grandma—wait, the text vanished
Well, that was new.
So he needed to think of nothing, then the text would disappear.
Noted.
If this were some kind of system, then—
Stats.
Nothing.
Menu.
Nada.
Isaac.
Suddenly, information flooded his vision.
Dragon: Hatchling.
level : 0
Dragon nourishment : 0
Skills:
Bite level 0
Claw level 0
That’s all?
Underwhelming much.
He glanced around, suddenly aware he had no idea where he was.
He twisted his neck, taking in his surroundings. Cave? Tunnel? Some weird cave-tunnel hybrid?
There was a path down and another up. He squinted; the upward tunnel glowed with distant light.
Huh. Night vision. Neat.
His gaze landed on the eggshell, and suddenly, hunger gnawed at him.
It looked suspiciously like one of those stat bars.
Dragon nourishment: -1
That made sense. Birds ate their shells, right? He could really go for something crunchy.
Thirty minutes later, he was in a full-blown food coma—and still craving seconds.
'But, damn, that was the best eggshell I have ever had.' Isaac thought.
How much did that fill him up, anyway?
Dragon nourishment: 0.5
He tried to say, 'What the hell?' but all that came out was, 'Gururrrch.'
He already missed his human mouth.
Clearly, he was going to need a lot more food.
Isaac was about to explore when a strangely familiar sound echoed through the cave...
Ribbit.
Wait. Was that—
Ribbit.
A frog?
He looked up.
Yep, that was a frog—a giant one, easily twice his size.
Oh, hell.
Isaac scrambled upright, bracing himself for a fight.
He didn't know how to fight, never knew it as a human nor as a dragon, but he had to…
The giant frog, blissfully unaware of Isaac’s panic, kept coming.
Just as Isaac tried to react, the frog shot out its tongue, slamming into him like a wrecking ball.
Fuck me. The force of the sticky and slimy tongue almost knocked him out there and then. Isaac was sure that the force of that thing could have gone through a wall.
He shook off the daze and lunged back at the frog.
Something clicked inside him. A new, primal instinct surged to life.
The frog, sensing the danger, jumped back but continued its assault with the tongue.
'A shit', it did hit him again, but not directly; its tongue sliding off his new scaly ass was somewhat.
But it hurts like hell.
The battle dragged on, each round bringing Isaac closer. The frog was tiring, and so was he.
All of a sudden, the frog changed tactics, instead of bludgeoning him to death… it tried to eat him whole. As in, the tongue latched onto Isaac. The frog began to drag him into its mouth.
'You shouldn’t bring a tongue to a claw fight,' Isaac thought, and slashed it off. leaving it limp on the ground beside him.
The frog panicked, writhing in pain, but Isaac held tight to the tongue and yanked it back.
He sank his teeth into the frog with surprising strength. It struggled, but it was already losing too much blood.
Hmm. Tasted like chicken. He gorged himself, not sure when the frog died, only that it did. It was like KFC, but frog. Maybe he should feel bad, but it was just too damn good.
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Mid-feast, notifications popped up in his vision. He checked them between bites.
You have defeated a level 3 Froglet
Congratulations, you are now a level 1 Dragon Hatchling.
His food bar ticked upward, too.
Dragon nourishment: 9
Was that good? He had no clue.
He glanced at his blood-stained belly. Not that big. He could definitely eat another.
Were dragons always this ravenous?
If he needed more than one frog a day, this could get problematic.
With the frog gone and nothing left in the tunnel, he crawled toward the light.
What he saw was jaw-dropping.
‘Holy frog!’
The cave opening had a cliff for him to stand on, and green hills on either side. But it was what was under that took his jaw…
The valley below was a green heaven on earth. Furthermore, if his new dragon eyes weren’t betraying him, he saw new colors that no human had ever seen.
‘Fuck me sideways.’ Why did I need to die to see this—’ frog! ‘
He barely dodged the tongue in time as a new frog jumped down from the green hill.
Ooo.
Then he realized—the green wasn’t just plants.
It was frogs…
Adrenaline surged. Instincts flared. He was ready for round two—and, weirdly, kind of enjoying it.
He licked his teeth. Tonight, he would feast.
This fight went smoother.
The frog attacked just as before, but Isaac felt stronger now.
And soon after, he got a notification.
You have defeated froglet level 2
You have leveled bite to level 1
You have leveled claws to level 1
That was new—and pretty neat. No level up, though. He tried to ignore his gnawing hunger.
Dragon nourishment: 9
He took a bite.
Dragon nourishment: 9
Figures. Nothing’s ever that easy.
The next hour was a bloody, delicious mess.
How about now?
Dragon nourishment: 10
Did he really need to eat every frog? The thought made him pause.
His hunger was growing—and so was he, maybe?
He was a growing dragon, after all. Maybe this was normal.
Time to get back to it. Isaac gazed out over the frog-filled valley.
There were a lot of frogs.
He tried to grin, though it felt all wrong on his dragon face.
Yeah, dragon faces were not made for grinning. Ugh.
Day 2
Five more frogs down, and he’d learned the hard way: level 5 frogs could really kick his ass. On the bright side, he’d leveled up several times.
You have leveled bite to level 2
You have leveled claws to level 2
You have leveled claws to level 3
Congratulations, you are now a level 2 Dragon Hatchling
Congratulations, you are now a level 3 Dragon Hatchling
If he wasn’t mistaken, he was now more than twice as strong.
Hell yes.
Yet, after all that, he was still hungry.
Dragon nourishment: 13
Maybe the bar needed to hit a hundred. That was his best guess. Only one way to find out.
Day 4
Fuck fuck fuck
He’d found Mama Frog, and she was furious. Thankfully, she couldn’t squeeze into his cave.
He couldn’t see levels, but she was massive—easily twice his size. Then again, the tunnel felt smaller, so maybe he’d grown too.
Still, he’d come a long way.
Dragon nourishment: 25
That was the best progress yet. His hunger had finally eased a bit.
That reminded him—He yawned.
Yeah, nap time. He hadn’t slept since hatching. Dragon things,
But level first.
You have leveled bite to level 3
You have leveled claws to level 5
He preferred using his claws over biting. No surprise—Isaac didn’t like getting his face close to anything except food. Dead food, specifically.
His dragon level, too, had increased.
Congratulations, you are now a level 5 Dragon Hatchling
This was easy so far, but he was still just a Hatchling. Who knew how long that would last?
Well, he could explore more of that the day after.
Day 9
He closed his eyes for what felt like a second. When he woke, he was starving—and there was something new in his vision.
Congratulations, you are now a level 0 Dragon youngling
Now that was progress.
Dragon nourishment: 0
Nooo.
