Chapter 3: Temple

My consciousness slowly raises to awaken. I had many dreams while I sleep, but I forgot most of them. I can tell that I've slept to a long time that the amount of dream I could remember is as long as a full life. Some about my previous world, some are my expectation of this world...

Why is everything still black? Oh right, I have to open my eyes to "see". How troublesome. Those Deities probably took away my ability to Sense, huh? At least I can feel my hearts' beating now. Still two hearts. That's good, they let me keep my dragon shell; though they should have added aura-vision to my new body. I try to add it but nothing happened. So this world is stabilized and I lost control to those deities. I don't need to control anything but my body anyway.

I wonder what the Status of this world now... Just as I thought so, something appears before me. Aren't my eyes still closed? I twitch my eyelids to check. Yes, still closed.

Paying some attention to the strange rectangle thingy in 'front' of me, I immediately recognize it as a Status window due to my last incarnation's job. It is probably projected directly into my mind. Either some deity added a game system to this world or I did it in my sleep. Either way, I have nothing against game-like worlds.

Name: UnknownAge: 12000Level: 1Race: DragonHP: 50/50MP: ∞STR: 1SPI: 1VIT: 1AGI: 1DEX: 1LUK: 1

"What the hell?" I shout in my mind, not because of my horrible stats (it's more fun starting from scratch), but because I had slept for about 12000 years. How long does a year here? Luckily in these 12000 years, none decided to stick their weapon on my fragile body. Or there is a Re-spawn system?

Taking a moment to understand my stats, I remember something... It's the same as the biggest hit game I helped develop before. The six main stats, if it's the same thing as that game, each affects two sub stats and there are 6 sub stats, forming a circle of stats:

LUK→Atk←STR→Def←VIT→Recovery←SPI→MAtk←DEX→Speed←AGI→Crit←LUK

"Close... Close status... Clear... Dismiss..." I think in my mind, trying to find the command to close the Status window. 'Dismiss' seems to do the trick. That's weird. I will complain to whoever created this later.

Now let's see what this world is like. First, I try to move my body, feeling it. Ah, so numb. That's why you shouldn't sleep for twelve millenniums. Wake up you sleepy head! I scream in my mind as I try to opens my eyes. Two rows of orange lights blind my eyes which were closed for thousands years. I suddenly hear some faint sound of something metallic falling onto hard floor. Footsteps can be heard running away. Some coward dragonslayers thinking they could kill me in my sleep and run away as I awaken, I guess?

However, an unexpected scene appears before me as my eyes adjust to the lights. The row of orange lights was two rows of candles on the walls. I am in some sort of temple, laying on a huge cushion on a high altar. The walls are decorated with stained glass depicting some huge scenes with humanoid figures, strange monsters,... and a dragon in the center. That looks like the fuzzy imagination of dragon I used...

"Great, I hate standing out too much yet now I'm the center of attention." I mumbles the first sentence ever since I got this new body. The voice is a bit strange to me, but it's just typical voice for a dragon, I think.

I lift my body up from the cushion and look toward the temple's entrance. There is a set of two huge gates with the shape of many different dragons carved on. It's slightly opened. A golden basin is dropped on the ground near the gates, water spilled on the granite floor around it. So it wasn't a dragonslayer dropping their weapon but someone dropped the basin.

The two gates are slowly opened wider without a sound. Many people in white robe and white pointy hood with gold decoration can be seen on the other side. Oh no... I hope they come here to kill me so I'd have some fun running away from a cult... But judging by the scene around me, they most likely come here to worship me...

AND I HATE BEING WORSHIPED!

A moment ago, somewhere in the same temple...

An old man donning a white robe with golden decoration which gives off a solemn aura, kneeling in front of a small altar with many humanoid statues of different deities around him. As he was praying, the door to the chamber he was in burst opens. A young boy, around fifteen of age, wearing a plain white robe, runs in. Before the high priest could complain about how impudent the boy is, the boy's words make him freeze in place.

"The prophecy has came true! The Dragon of Origin has awaken!"

"The end is near...", the high priest mumbles as he stands up then follows the young boy to the main hall.

Chapter 4: Wolf

I spread my wings, trying to flap them a few times, making a small winds. The robed group is running toward me, if I don't escape now, they'd most likely flood me with things I don't like. Looking up, there is a huge hole on the roof blocked by stained glass. My fragile legs and arms lift my body up from the cushion. Then after a low jump and some violent wings-flapping, my whole body leave the ground and flew straight toward the roof. Even after 12000 years of sleeping, it seems I have no problem flying.

Breaking through the stained glass, I was greeted by the sunlight. The single sun is at its zenith. "Only one sun, huh?" I've visited many worlds where they live under many suns or moons at once. Looking to the horizon, I see a blue-ish moon is raising. I will call that direction "West". The temple I came from is on a side of a mountain range, facing "west". In front of the temple is a vast grass plane while on the other side of the mountain is a dense forest.

I hear commotion from the temple under but I decide to pay no attention to it. Even though I don't know about this world geography, fleeing toward the forest is obviously the right choice. After flying over the mountain and across the forest, the dark green fills my vision to the horizon. I keep flying, however it seems a lv1 dragon can't fly far nor fast, the stats probably affect my stamina and flying speed. Soon I have to glide and after awhile, land on a small clearing in the middle of the forest.

Only now that I notice my size in comparison to the surrounding. I'm about as tall as a tree in this dense forest when standing on two legs and half that when I stand on all four. Without a human standing next to me, I'm not sure how tall I am in measurement-unit. And the huge wolf in front of me probably won't help with that...

Wolf?!

A brown wolf is standing at the border of the clearing. Its size is probably only as half as me, but in a world where "stats decide it all", against a wolf that obviously not lv1, I'm as good as dead.

I step a few steps backward while trying to flap my wings. I'm too tired to even make a small wind now, so flying is out of question. With each step I take, the wolf step two steps forward. Don't tell me it can read my stats because I don't think anyone would want to mess with a dragon twice its size. I'm even standing on two feet, which makes me look four times bigger than the wolf.

Before I could think of anything else, the wolf suddenly rushes forward. Surprised by its action, I clumsily fall onto my back. It seems I created this body before "ground" existed so I didn't notice it's pretty unbalanced when standing and would easily fall backward if I leaned back even a little... I guess I will do it better next time...

The wolf is standing on my chest, quickly buries its fang on my neck. My HP appears in my vision, how handy. 10/50. Another bite and I'm a goner, not like it's the first time I instantly die after getting to a new dimension.

However...

Confusion appears on the wolf face as it stagger back away from my face but still on my chest. I lift my head up to look at it, and it's the first time I get vision of my own body. My scale is completely black. However the part where I can feel the wind blowing sideway against my body is pale cyan. And where the wolf stands on, my scale is brown. To confirm my doubt, I grab a fistful of grass where my hand is and lift it to my vision. My hand is green...

I immediately understand... my scale takes on the symbolic color of the element that it touches. The color-code for the elements is the same as the game in which this world's stat-system based on.

The wolf leap off my body and my scale returns to black, color of element-less. I sit up and look at the wolf who is lowering its head like bowing to me. It growls something that directly translated to words in my mind.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you're the Dragon of Origin..."

"STOP WORSHIPING ME!"