I sat on the floor, staring numbly at the screen in front of me.

Murderer.

Was that what I was now? I’d come to this strange world, dazed and confused, not having a single clue about what had happened to me and now I was committing murder.

I looked over at the body of the switch holder, watching purplish blood gush out of the gaping wound in its chest. That thing was evil, but I didn’t want it dead….

Right? I didn’t want it dead. Well...yes, yes, I did. It deserved to die for what it had done to me but was I the right person to go through with it? Did I have the right to decide what should happen to it?

I didn’t know. I didn’t know and I wasn’t going to find out sitting like this, numb in the face and cold in my heart.

The dragons in the pen had come down from their horny high; I hadn’t noticed during the fight. They were staring at me blankly, their large, slitted eyes going right through me.

“Poor things,” I muttered, trotting over to one of the pens. “Let me help you out of there. You just sit a spell right there and I’ll see what I can do…”

I stopped at the gate holding them in and pressed my paw against it. As soon as I made contact with the wooden barrier, a shock ran up through my arm. I jerked back, but the damage was already done.

Falling to the ground, I spasmed wildly until the electricity finally cut the beat of my heart short.

A minute ago I was dead. Now I’m in another giant egg, covered in egg yolk and trying to hold back a wave of terror and panic that was fighting to take over.

Keep it together, Daphne. Everything is alright. You are perfectly safe. That’s right. I’m all fine and dandy. Let’s just...just get out of this egg and-and we’ll see where this goes.

Self-assured, I broke off a sizable space of the eggshell and took a gander outside. I discovered I was in another valley. Or maybe it was the same one? I recognized those flower petals; I was surrounded by Sneezers.

I very carefully exited the egg, mindful of the few Sneezers growing around my egg. Once I was free, I took a look at my new body. My skin matched the green of the grass now. I reached up and patted my head, feeling a thin packet of skin at the sides. I pulled at it a bit; the skin expanded about an inch away from my head and, though I couldn’t see it, I reckoned I looked a little like a king cobra.

I shrugged my shoulders, limbering myself up a bit, and felt something flap against my back. Were those...wings? I hadn’t had those before!

I couldn’t see them well when I tried to look at my back, but I could feel them well enough when I shrugged. Wings and a cool looking hood, huh? I was turning out to be a fine lookin’ baby dragon if I don’t say so myself.

That reminded me. If I had a new body, was my Status the same? I pulled it up, expecting the worst.

Name: Mupin (Daphne)

Age: 2 minutes

Sex: F

Job: Unemployed

Condition: Fine

Species: Hill Dragon (Juvenile)

Class: None

Mana Generation: None

Magic Use: None

Faction: None

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Mana: 0%

Strength: Low (1)

Speed: Low (1)

Constitution: Low (1)

Defense: Low (1)

Endurance: Low (1)

Effects:

None

Hoard:

Empty

Spells:

None

Everything was...gone. All my spells, all my hard work. It was all gone.

“System, what happened to me?”

Huzzah! You’ve used up a life! (●⌒∇⌒●)

Be a little more careful next time, yeah? ⊂( ・ ̫・)⊃

You revert back to zero when you’re reborn! (o⌒．⌒o)

~Better luck next time, Mupin.

So everything had been reverted except my name. I was still called Mupin.

Names are the last thing I need to be worried about. I’m completely defenseless and without mana. I need some way to be re-awakened so I have some chance of surviving out here.

“System, how can I be re-awakened?”

Unfortunately, the system didn’t deign to send me one of its message boxes, leaving me hanging without that crucial piece of information.

“It’s fine. It’s completely fine. I can figure this out on my own.” I exhaled slowly and relaxed my paws.

My mama always told me that when things didn’t work out like expected, you just needed to pray something would change and keep doing what you always did.

So I prayed something would change and looked deep inside myself, where that dark space was. It was still there, fortunately, as was the cube, devoid of all green orbs. And then I started my squats. I did ten, paused and saw my stamina had dropped by 1%. No green orb. Another ten, no green orb.

Again, nothing. Again, again, again.

Push, Daphne! Push! Push! Feel the burn! Push! Get the orb! Puuuush-

A little green orb flashed in the dark space and floated ever so gently into the cube.

Congratulations! You have awakened yourself through sheer-willpower! -(๑☆‿ ☆#)ᕗ

You have gained the ‘Squats’ Mana Generation due to your persistence! ヾ（*⌒ヮ⌒*）ゞ

Keep up the good work! (☝ ՞ਊ ՞)☝

Finally! My stamina had gone down to 86% by the time I’d gained a single point of mana. Such a waste for such little gain…

That didn’t matter now, though. I needed something to defend myself with in case the fairies came looking for me.

The [Rune: Helping Hands] were useful but…They were a little too efficient at killing. I needed something else. Something a little more familiar, like a shotgun.

That was perfect!

I thought back to when I was seven-years-old, running around my grandaddy’s old ranch house. I hardly remembered what it was like now; it’d been sold off when he died. But I could distinctly remember when I was digging through the attic, looking for something I could use to get back at my older brother for pickin’ on me, as older brothers tended to do.

There was a dusty crate sitting in the corner, the wooden lid shut tight. My curiosity was obviously peaked, so I pried it open and found a 12-gauge shotgun in there. It was unloaded but I knew it was the perfect tool to terrorize a ten-year-old hooligan.

I chased him around the house, pretending I was hitting him with big blue balls of energy that would melt him on impact. I got a little too into role-playing, pretending I was some alien cowgirl with a semi-sentient shotgun that shot six blue balls of energy that melted its target on impact; magical buckshot. I called it ‘Shotty’.

I heard the familiar pop and opened my eyes to see the gun I’d been imagining floating a few feet off the ground.

You have learned to use Runes! (／・ω・)／

You have added your first spell to your list: [Rune: Shotty]. Congrats! ヽ(´ω｀○)ﾉ.+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+

Don’t get too crazy with that thing, Mupin へ(゜∇、°)へ

I got my Shotty. Everything was gonna be A-okay.