“Gruoooh!”

“Graah!”

Seeing the two furred things shout and then come running at me, I started screaming, “Kriiiiiahhhh!”, before fleeing in the opposite direction.

Nein, nein, nein, nein! I need to get the fuck away!

I don't care where I'm running to but anywhere is better than to stay here with those "things". However, even as my fear was shouting at me to run as far away as I could, my legs couldn't match my commands. Running on four legs should be easier than on two but I'm literally at my skill limit here. I wanted to run faster but any more and my legs will just be tangled into each other and trip me.

My chest hurts from all this breathing. My legs hurt from running. I can’t keep this up. There has to be something else that I can do!

My eyes darted around, looking for some kinda solution to my problem, but all I could see were large bushes. Wait, couldn’t I hide in one of them? They easily dwarf me so hiding shouldn’t be a problem.

Figuring out a plan, I turned my head around to check how far away the kobolds were, however, at that moment a stone crashed beside me, leaving a small dent on the ground.

Scheiße, it missed me but that would have crushed my head if their aim were just a bit truer. Come on, this is a fucked situation! The only plan that I need is to get the fuck away from here. Just keep running for your dear life!

Somehow, my wish to run away seems to have activated that “feeling” inside me again, bestowing my legs with more strength. My fear and confusion have completely overwhelmed my mind, so much that I just continued running single-mindedly.

After what felt like an eternity, I eventually escaped by hiding in a bush. Sigh, fleeing for my life, after just waking up, isn’t that a bit too much to expect.

Urgh, this is far too harsh fo-…

“Gruh.” I heard a low growl.

“…”

I’m sorry, I'll stop complaining and just stay quiet.

Like in those stealth games where you stay in the bush until everybody is gone, I stayed quiet like a ninja and assassin combined. Yeah, let’s treat this like a game. I'll continue shivering by my lonesome, and you two can forget all about me.

Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Stealth Lv. 1] acquired

…That startled me. Was that just a voice talking in my head? Uhh, I hope I was just imagining it, but we can sort that out later. For now, I need to make sure I stay quiet. At least, that voice helped me calm down.

*******************

Some time went by since then, and those two dog-headed men are nowhere to be seen. It seems to be safe, but I think it’s best to just stay in this bush for a while longer. My four legs felt cramped from all that sprinting, and I needed a moment to organize my thoughts anyways. So, to start…

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Stealth Lv. 1] evolved into [Stealth Lv. 2]

…Yeah, I think I should talk about this voice in my head, first. Alright, how am I supposed to make sense of this?

It appeared when I was hiding in the bush and mentioned something about a fulfilled requirement? That weird voice echoed inside my mind and an image of what was said was injected into my brain.

Was it [Stealth]? If that is the case, then it sounded similar to an announcement a game would give to inform a player. So, does this mean that [Stealth] can be called a skill or perk?

If so, then I guess the monotonous voice announcing a “skill” acquirement should be the so-called System Voice? I don't know if that's what it's called but I should give it a name for convenience, especially when its function is that similar to a game’s system messages.

Coincidentally, that made the whole reincarnation idea even likelier. So, does that mean there is a way to open a status window or profile? Question is, how do I open it?

Articulating words doesn’t seem to be possible with this body, so voicing the command is useless. Could I just call it out through my mind? Hmm, let’s try the simple ones first.

Status Open. Nope.

Open Status. Nah.

Status. Nein.

Status Window Open. Rejected.

Open Status Window. Denied.

Profile: Name: * Level: 0 Race: Dragon Hatchling Status: Health: 26/30 Mana: 47/80 Strength: 10 Intelligence: 6 Vitality: 4 Wisdom: 5 Agility: 14 Stamina: 3/12 Effects: None Skill Points: 0 Skill:

Magic skills and related:

[Mana Control Lv. 1]

[Holy Magic Lv. 1]

[Primal Magics]

Senses and movement skills:

[Stealth Lv. 2]

Spell List:

Holy spells:

[Minor Heal]

Other spells:

[Shine]

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

…I gu-guess that’s it? I am a reincarnator, who was reborn into a fantasy world, after dying on Earth? I mean, [Otherworldly Reincarnator] is literally what you would expect to grow somebody like, right? Ha ha.

Like hell! Wake up!

“Kuighhh…,“ still believing that this was a dream, I bit my right arm…right front leg.

Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Pain Resistance Lv. 1] acquired [Bleeding (Minor)] inflicted on [Dragon Hatchling *]

Profile!

Profile: Name: * Level: 0 Race: Dragon Hatchling Status: Health: 18/30 Mana: 47/80 Strength: 10 Intelligence: 6 Vitality: 4 Wisdom: 5 Agility: 14 Stamina: 3/12 Effects: [Bleeding (Minor)] Skill Points: 0 Skill:

Magic skills and related:

[Mana Control Lv. 1]

[Holy Magic Lv. 1]

[Primal Magics]

Senses and movement skills:

[Stealth Lv. 2]

Resistances:

[Pain Resistance Lv. 1]

Spell List:

Holy spells:

[Minor Heal]

Other spells:

[Shine]

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

My b-bite caused me to bleed!? Wait, my health is still depleting! Urgh, this must be a dream! This just has to be a dream!

Gulp, my health just dropped under ten now. If this is a dream, then I should wake up when it reaches zero…but on the off chance that this was my second life, wouldn’t I be kicking the bucket again?

“…”

… [Minor Heal]. [Minor Heal]. Minor heaaaal. Oh scheiße, how do you use magic?!

The bleeding wouldn’t stop, and I can’t heal myself. I-I need to stop the bleeding first. Some leaves should substitute as bandages until I can figure out how to use [Minor Heal].

Trying to do an impromptu first aid without any thumbs really makes me miss my thumbs. My eyes wanted to cry but I suppressed them, dragging those tears back inside me. This wasn’t the time to complain! I have to hurry up and stop the bleeding, now!

After wrapping the leaf bandage tightly around my arm, I had to check my profile to see that the [Bleeding (Minor)] was gone. It’s a bit inconvenient that the System wouldn’t announce when a status ailment disappears but, whatever. The crisis averted but I’m still low in health.

…Sigh, I’m sorry, Mama and Papa. I don’t know how I died, but it’s a fact now that I left before you guys. I always made you guys worry but now…

To think that hurting myself and solving it was enough for me to calm down and think about the situation. Once I accepted that I could have actually died from the bleeding, I also gave up on denying this world.

I don’t want to accept this life. I don’t want to accept this world. I want to go back. I want to go back home. I don’t want to accept this reality! Make me wet my bed or whatever, but send me back into my comfy bed, in my sparkly room, with my loving parents, please…

I’m so useless. You guys always encouraged me whenever I failed an audition, and, verdammt nochmal, did I fail a lot. Now I even failed in life. I died as a…nobody.

[Depression (Minor)] inflicted on [Dragon Hatchling *]

Oh great, even fucking System Voice is mocking me with that [Depression (Minor)]. How is this minor!? Pretty sure I’m 100% suffering here, so make it major or greater or whatever.

…What am I doing? Shouldn’t my priority be fixing up a [Minor Heal], so I don’t die again? Yeah, let’s do that…

Sigh, it looks like just calling the spell name isn’t enough to activate it. Unfortunately, there is neither a manual attached to the skill nor is there a “Help” option in my profile. The amount of information I’m given is pathetic. I wish I had something to appraise my skills and magic.

…Nothing? System Voice, this is the moment you would throw me a ball and allow me to get something useful. You need to give others a manual or instructions, otherwise, everybody will be confused.

How about we try citing a phrase or channeling some mana? Just like in those fantasy animes.

Ok, here goes: Goddess, I beg you to heal these wounds. [Minor Heal].

Ok, next: I am the source of power. Grant this being your blessing. [Minor Heal].

Well, I never expected that to work anyway when I'm just saying some random words.

Maybe, I should try some mana control here? I do have the skill [Mana Control] …but how do you control mana? Hmmm, for some reason my mana isn’t maxed up. How did I lose some of it?

…Yeah, I’m not smart enough to actually figure this out. Couldn’t I just try every single method out, that I know from those novels?

********************

Minor Heal! Oooh, I finally did it!

By finishing the spell, a white circle surrounded my whole body and began basking it in a dazzling light. The wound on my right front leg slowly closed up, leaving no evidence of there ever being a bite mark, not even a scar!

Aha ha, my health maxed out again, and with this, I'm a cleric! No need to praise me here; I mean I just learned how to use magic after just being born.

So, just to summarize how I made sense of this magic system; to cast a spell, I need to imagine the whole spell casting process from the beginning to the end but just imagining it isn’t enough.

After imagining which spell to use, I need to activate that “feeling”, which was mana, so it could start flowing inside me. Then I had to direct it towards a single focus point on my body to act as the origin of the spell. My limbs, tail and my head seem to be the most effective points, though.

Once that part was done, my mana started flowing outside my body and formed a circle with weird words. I think this might be a magic circle or rune circle, or something. Either way, once the circle appears, the spell will materialize, and I can activate it whenever I want.

It sounds easy, but how would you figure this out without any instructions? It took a great amount of trial and error for me to figure out that the feeling I had when I was in my egg and during the chase, was mana. Who could possibly deduce that on the first day of their life?

Still, it was strange that I was even able to do that in the first place. In most stories, you needed somebody to teach you how to feel it.

Was it ‘cause I owned the [Mana Control] skill? I dunno but it helped, I believe.

Well, that was quite fun, but I've gotten hungry through all that trial and error. It seems like the sun is also setting soon. Do I really have to sleep with an empty stomach on my first day? I heard that newborns aren’t supposed to go hungry, otherwise, it would impact their growth.

Hmmm? There is a bush with berries close by. I’m pretty reluctant to part with my safety bush, but, hey, that berry bush could just become my next safety bush.

Poking my head outside, I turned my head to every direction; left, right, up, down, up-left, down-right, and so on. Every angle that my head could turn to, I checked. Better safe than sorry.

My body felt numbed and exhausted from all that running and sitting around hungry didn’t help my muscles adjust. I couldn’t afford to flee, again.

Swiftly creeping through the dangerous path from my safety bush to the berry bush made me feel like a gecko. If my human-self had seen me now, she would probably shriek from my fast movements.

Once I made it to the bush, I checked inside it to see if somebody was there. As there was nobody, I jumped in and made myself at home, panting from that little bit of exercise.

I need to build up my stamina, again. Dancing would be impossible if I can’t breathe after two minutes.

Looking up, I saw a berry…on closer inspection, these berries are huge. While I am aware that I’ve shrunk quite a bit, these things are like gigantic strawberries, they’re even larger than some of these rocks on the ground…being tiny sucks.

Enough of this, let’s have a bite.

Pulling one of them off a branch, I immediately had my tiny teeth pierce the berry’s skin, slowly sucking out a bit of the sweet juices to quench my dry throat. Once I was done, I put in a bit more power to tear a chunk of strawberry flesh off.

Chewing the soft interior, my reptilian tongue waved around happily as it enjoyed every single bite. Gulping it down, I felt a warm feeling inside me praising me for a job well down. I knew that my stomach wanted me to continue but I couldn’t help but let out a sigh in relief.

…Delicious.