by Necoco
“Eghhhh!”
We crashed into the ground. The darkwyrm cushioned my fall, but the impact still rocked through my entire shell. The wyrm was stunned and curled into a ball. Blue-black liquid streamed from its mouth as it collapsed.
Oof, looks like I took a bunch of damage, too.
Maybe I put too much faith in Fall Resistance. But as long as I took the wyrm with me, it was worth it.
Unfortunately, my enemy began to rise unsteadily back up.
What? You’ve gotta be kidding me. C’mon, buddy, chill out! You’re bleeding from every orifice! Don’t you think you’ve earned a nice, long nap?
The darkwyrm turned its vacant bug eyes on me. Digging its heavy back half into the ground, it reared up furiously.
Huh? What’s it gonna do? It looks pissed.
“Gggchhkkkk!”
It let out one last horrible cry before falling back to the ground.
J-jeez, that scared me. But it’s dead…right? It’s dead for real this time?
Gained 12 Experience Points.
Title Skill “Walking Egg” Lv — activated: gained 12 Experience Points.
Whoa, good for you, Walking Egg. Way to go get that EXP!
Dragon Egg’s Lv has increased from 1 to 5.
Dragon Egg has achieved MAX Lv.
Evolution Requirements have been fulfilled.
I won! I won! All I actually did was run away, but I beat it!
I leveled up a lot, too. Was it due to the Walking Egg title skill? I was still a little confused by the title skills, but apparently they gained levels on their own, but passively boosted other things, too—and it seemed like Walking Egg was giving me a lot of experience points. The darkwyrm sure made an awfully weird noise when it died, way higher pitched than its other cries. Well, it was dead, so no longer my problem.
What now? Should I take the time to eat the wyrm? I’d chowed down on enough bugs at this point that this wasn’t going to give me pause. After all, I required lots of nutrition… Don’t underestimate the needs of a growing egg.
Maybe it was because I leveled up, but I could really feel my body inside of the egg beginning to take shape. A fragment of shell near my mouth cracked and flaked off, perhaps knocked loose by my fall. I could feel my teeth now. Gingerly, I closed and opened my jaw, chomping my teeth.
Yeah, I can move them!
Excited by my newfound dentition, I leaned over and bit into the darkwyrm’s back with a crunch. The wyrm’s bitter fluids seeped out and filled my mouth.
PART 4
AFTER I FINISHED my darkwyrm dinner, I checked my status. Hadn’t it mentioned something earlier about evolving?
Species: Dragon Egg
Status: Normal
Lv: 5/5 (Max)
HP: 5/9
MP: 5/5 (Max)
Attack: 5
Defense: 8
Magic: 3
Agility: 15
Rank: F
Special Skills:
Eggshell: Lv —
Divine Voice: Lv 1
Resistance Skills:
Physical Resistance: Lv 1
Fall Resistance: Lv 2
Hunger Resistance: Lv 1
Poison Resistance: Lv 1
Loneliness Resistance: Lv 1
Normal Skills:
Roll: Lv 2
View Status: Lv 1
Title Skills:
Dragon King’s Son: Lv —
Walking Egg: Lv —
Klutz: Lv 2
Just an Idiot: Lv 1
Wow, my stats just keep getting higher!
Since I’d hit max level, I figured I could evolve. But how? Evolution meant I could become something other than an egg, right? Some kind of actual creature?
Display Evolution Pattern?
The words popped into my head as if my mind was being read.
Man, Divine Voice. And here I thought you were just a heartless jerk. I guess you can be pretty considerate when you feel like it. All right! Let’s get outta this egg!
Future:
Baby Dragon Rank D-
Little Dragon Rank D+
Present:
Dragon Egg Rank F
History:
So, what, I had to choose between Baby Dragon and Little Dragon? How was I supposed to know which was better? I guess I could just go by stats and pick Little Dragon since it had a + next to its rating.
Little Dragon: Rank D+. A Small Dragon Species. Keep in mind, even a Small Dragon is larger than a Bear. Its Fire Blaze attack is feared by adventurers.
Oh, there’s a description. Man, you’re really cool today. Guess the hot part of your hot-cold personality is firing up, huh? I’m glad, I was about to die of loneliness.
Anyway, back to the Little Dragon. Sounded pretty good to me. Maybe I’d finally be able to take on some other monsters. Might as well check the other option, though.
Baby Dragon: Rank D-. Its tender flesh is exceedingly delicious, especially with sauce. Its claws and fangs are short and attack power is low. However, it has many potential abilities and many chances for additional evolution. Baby Dragons are often hunted by other monsters and adventurers.
Well, that sucked. This description might as well be a restaurant review. Nah, I wasn’t going to risk it. Little Dragon was the safer choice. I was barely surviving as it was.
If I evolved, I wouldn’t be able to rely on my tactic of pretending to be a rock so the other monsters ignored me. I was going to have to fight.
Get stronger.
Huh? I just saw more words in my head. Is that you, Divine Voice? Doesn’t sound like you. I didn’t know you could sound emotional.
Get stronger. Get stronger. Get stronger.
Get stronger. Get stronger. Get stronger.
What? What’s going on?
You have only one goal: to gain power. Otherwise, you won’t be anything but a common rock.
But I…expect more from you.
Don’t disappoint me.
Divine Voice…?
“Divine Voice” Lv 1 has become Lv 2.
Just now?
Following the notification of its level increase, the voice went silent.
It was freaky, in the same way coming across a glitch in a video game could be. A uniquely unsettling experience that wasn’t intended by the game developer… What should I do? Should I go for Baby Dragon after all? Divine Voice sure seemed to feel strongly about it, and to be honest, I was more afraid of it than the monsters. Divine Voice could get inside my head, and it appeared to have high expectations of me.
It told me to become powerful. Get stronger. Be the strongest. Well, if that was the goal, I might as well do the thing properly. Turning into a Baby Dragon would be the greater challenge, and I’d still be stronger than I was as an egg.
Time to make up my mind.
Whatever creepy entity Divine Voice actually was, it was all I had to rely on. Better to keep it on my side as long as I could.
“The strongest.” I had to admit, I did like the sound of that. All right, let’s go. I choose Baby Dragon. And don’t start thinking this decision had anything to do with you, Divine Voice. I’m making it on my own.
No sooner had I thought this that my egg prison began to shatter. God, my body felt so much lighter now that I wasn’t carrying around that heavy shell!
Lost Special Skill “Eggshell” Lv 1.
Gained Special Skill “Dragon Scale” Lv 1.
Due to Title Skill “Dragon King’s Son” Lv —, all Resistance Skills less than Lv 5 have increased.
For real? Isn’t enhancing Resistance Skills kind of cheating?
Gained Normal Skill “Baby’s Breath” Lv 1.
Gained Normal Skill “Whistle” Lv 1.
Gained Normal Skill “Lovebite” Lv 1.
Wow, okay… That’s a lot of Normal Skills. Is it just me, or do they sound kinda…adorable? Were they actually going to help me? I really didn’t think I had time to go around giving lovebites and whistling.
Species: Baby Dragon
Status: Normal
Lv: 1/25
HP: 5/15
MP: 5/5
Attack: 6
Defense: 5
Magic: 6
Agility: 10
Rank: D-
Special Skills:
Dragon Scale: Lv 1
Divine Voice: Lv 2
Resistance Skills:
Physical Resistance: Lv 2
Fall Resistance: Lv 3
Hunger Resistance: Lv 2
Poison Resistance: Lv 2
Loneliness Resistance: Lv 2
Normal Skills:
Roll: Lv 2
View Status: Lv 1
Baby’s Breath: Lv 1
Whistle: Lv 1
Lovebite: Lv 1
Title Skills:
Dragon King’s Son: Lv —
Walking Egg: Lv —
Klutz: Lv 2
Just an Idiot: Lv 1
Wow, that was a huge stat increase all the way across the board. I wouldn’t have thought just one level would make such a difference. Maybe I’d hit dragon puberty, or something.
I walked over to a nearby spring to check out my reflection. My body was yellow and I had big, round eyes. I had wings sprouting out of my back, though they were almost embarrassingly small.
Aw, I guess I’m pretty cute.
But cute or not, I didn’t seem to have gained many useful skills. I definitely couldn’t fly yet. When I tried to flap my wings, all they did was twitch a little bit. I was absolutely dying to soar through the sky, but I guessed that would have to wait. The Divine Voice wanted me to grow stronger. I had no idea what it was up to, but I knew I didn’t want to let it down.
PART 5
AHHH, refreshing!
Drinking was so difficult when I was inside the egg. It was a constant struggle to get water past the cracks. Now, it was like I’d been reborn. Well, I guess “re-hatched” since, ya know. Egg.
As I was drinking from the lake, I heard a sudden terrible noise behind me. I turned very slowly and faced down a mass of shadows lurking in the forest.
“Shhkkk!”
“Shhkkk!”
“Kshhhk!”
“Shkshkshk!”
“Shhkkk!”
I knew that sound. Darkwyrms. Plural. There were a lot of them. They showed themselves all at once, appearing along the same path I’d taken to get to the lake.
There must have been twenty at least, and the sight of them was awe-inspiring. Did they often run in packs like this? What were they doing here, anyway? Oh god, I hoped it wasn’t because…
I thought of that horrible cry the darkwyrm let out just before it died, and I remembered that skill I’d seen on its Status Screen: Call Allies. Great. So it managed to get one last dig in before it kicked the bucket.
It took everything I had just to defeat one of them, so how was I supposed to get rid of this many at once? But those doubts burned off as quickly as they’d come, and I felt a strange burst of excitement.
I just don’t think I’m gonna lose. Sorry, darkwyrms. But I’m not a little egg anymore.
The wyrms slithered around me until I was completely surrounded. Then they attacked. I released a gout of fire, the Baby’s Breath skill I gained when I evolved. Just like the others, all I had to do was focus on the skill and I knew how to use it.
The darkwyrm directly in front of me rolled onto its back and began to writhe in pain. This was going to work. I charged the wyrm and stomped on its midsection as hard as I could.
“Kshhhk!”
I stomped again, digging my claws into its stomach. A second darkwyrm came at me from behind.
Yeah, try it!
Maybe it was because my HP had increased, but getting bitten didn’t hurt at all. I was no longer a defenseless egg.
The darkwyrms closed in on me from all sides. I tore into them and sent them flying. When one of them recoiled and left its midsection vulnerable to attack, I seized the opportunity and hit it as hard as I could.
Time for one more Baby’s Breath!
The weakened darkwyrms gradually began to run out of steam, four of them collapsing completely. That left sixteen to deal with. What? That’s all ya got, caterpillars?
Gained 48 Experience Points.
Title Skill “Walking Egg” Lv — activated: gained 48 Experience Points.
Wait, I still had the Walking Egg skill? Thinking about it, the only skill I lost was the Eggshell Special Skill. Was I really going to keep getting double EXP? It felt a little like cheating, but I just put it down to good karma from a previous life.
“Baby Dragon” Lv 1 has become Lv 7.
Gained Title Skill “Infighter” Lv 1.
Gained Normal Skill “Dragon Punch” Lv 1.
Whoa, look at all the power I just got! I’m not gonna let even one of these wyrms get away. They’re a total EXP buffet.
I leapt back into the fray, barreling into them from the side. They tried to bite my fists, but their teeth didn’t even puncture my skin.
I’ll punch their lights out. Eat my Dragon Punch! Fire blazed from my fists as I knocked the wyrm’s teeth out of its mouth and sent it hurtling through the air in a flaming arc. It landed on its allies just behind it. And that’s two more! Just gotta keep up the momentum.
I beat them to shreds. Tore them apart and knocked them out, over and over again. My once worthy opponents, reduced to nothing more than a way to farm EXP.
“Kshhhk!”
I landed a Dragon Punch on the last remaining wyrm. It all took less than five minutes. I had a constant stream of messages from the Divine Voice informing me of EXP increases and level-ups. Every time the number climbed higher, I felt more powerful.
Turns out Baby Dragons are pretty strong.
It was a totally different experience from being an egg. I mean, what kind of weird caterpillar could beat a dragon?
Gained 12 Experience Points.
Title Skill “Walking Egg” Lv — activated: gained 12 Experience Points.
I still feel like this egg thing is some kind of glitch. It must be why I keep leveling up so fast. My next evolution is at level 25, and I’m gonna get there in no time.
“Baby Dragon” Lv 7 has become Lv 15.
Title Skill “Infighter” Lv 1 has become Lv 2.
Species: Baby Dragon
Status: Normal
Lv: 15/25
HP: 3/57
MP: 1/55
Attack: 51
Defense: 35
Magic: 48
Agility: 35
Rank: D-
Special Skills:
Dragon Scale: Lv 1
Divine Voice: Lv 2
Resistance Skills:
Physical Resistance: Lv 2
Fall Resistance: Lv 3
Hunger Resistance: Lv 2
Poison Resistance: Lv 2
Loneliness Resistance: Lv 2
Normal Skills:
Roll: Lv 2
View Status: Lv 1
Baby’s Breath: Lv 1
Whistle: Lv 1
Lovebite: Lv 1
Dragon Punch: Lv 1
Title Skills:
Dragon King’s Son: Lv —
Walking Egg: Lv —
Klutz: Lv 2
Just an Idiot: Lv 1
Infighter: Lv 2
Pest Killer: Lv 1
Not bad, not bad. Unfortunately, my health didn’t appear to recover when I evolved or leveled up. My dwindling HP and MP were definitely a concern. I should probably rest up and give myself time to recover.
My agility didn’t seem to be leveling up as quickly as my other stats, but it stood to reason that this body type wasn’t made for speed. But one thing was clear: becoming the strongest wasn’t out of reach after all.
Chapter 2:
The Girl and the Dragon
PART 1
“KYAAAAOOOOH!”
The graywolf howled as I sent it flying through the air with a Dragon Punch. It slammed against a tr
ee and slumped to the ground.
This creature was, as its name suggested, a gray wolf. It was nearly twice my size, and a formidable opponent.
The sun had almost set, so I decided this would be my last conquest for the day.
Gained 24 Experience Points.
Title Skill “Walking Egg” Lv — activated: gained 24 Experience Points.
Since defeating that big group of darkwyrms, I was able to attack other monsters much more aggressively, but my level wasn’t really going up that much. Possibly it was due to only choosing battles I was sure I could win; I was always sure to check a monster’s stats before engaging. This got me a Title Skill called Safety First: Lv 1. I was pretty sure Divine Voice was trying to call me a wuss.
My Loneliness Resistance and View Status had also gone up. It made sense, since all I’d been doing was going around checking out statuses, and I was alone all the damn time. The Loneliness Resistance didn’t really seem good for much, though, since I still felt pretty lonely.
Feel free to talk to me more, Divine Voice.
Three days had passed, but I was still only at level 15. I needed five more additional levels before I could evolve again, at level 20.
I’d spent a lot of time searching out and defeating lower-level graywolves. I could take out up to about a Lv 6 with no problems. The one I just defeated was a Lv 6 graywolf who had strayed from his pack.
Maybe I should explore more? The only way to level up was to get more experience, after all. I wouldn’t get very far if I kept hunting with Safety First.
New experiences and tougher battles had to be the key to growth. That was true back in Japan, so I was sure things couldn’t be all that different here.
But what exactly was my goal? I was surviving just fine, but occasionally the Divine Voice would pop into my head and start pressuring me with the same line, over and over. Grow stronger. I knew I shouldn’t put blind faith in it to the point of endangering myself, but it was definitely egging me on. Even though I wasn’t an egg anymore.
I used Baby’s Breath to roast the graywolf. It was a bit gamey, but still exponentially better than giant caterpillars. I just wished I had some salt and pepper.