Dragon, Silver Dragon Read online

  Dragon, Silver Dragon by MArienach

  Category: OriginalGenre: Adventure, Fantasy, LitRPG, Magic, Male Lead, Non-Human lead, Reincarnation, Strategy, Strong Lead, Supernatural

  Status: Completed

  Chapters: 36

  Summary:

  Michael has a few problems… besides being dead… ish…

  He finds himself in a new world. In a new body.

  But with a few more appendages than he is used to and the concept of near immortality facing him, he is having a rather hard time coping. Luckily, the body’s ex-tenant is there to help.

  Prologue

  A bright flash, a huge pressure, an almost noise… almost pain, cut off too fast to be felt. Then… nothing.

  No, not quite nothing. There was an absence of senses, only perceived due to the memory of what they used to be. He somehow felt as if he was falling, but truly had no external stimuli to verify his feeling. No sense of time passed, seconds could be hours for all he knew. With nothing else to focus upon, he turned inward. He was human. He knew that to be true. It was all he could come up with at the moment. His mind, his thoughts would not put anything with that basic claim. Focusing hard, he had fleeting images that lasted less than an instant before disappearing into the nothingness. Trying that much harder out of not quite desperation, a name. He grasped it and hung on as a drowning man would a lifeline.

  He was Michael.

  We have found one.

  Is it a suitable subject?

  We have not the time to do a full profile analysis. We must act now to save the primary.

  There are no others?

  This one shown brightly. Again, we do not have time to do extensive scans.

  I suppose we have little choice.

  Sudden light, then darkness.

  Transfer complete, nominal parameters.

  He awoke in pain. His body refusing to answer him. He was definitely falling this time, feeling the rush of air and the relentless pull of gravity.

  Sensory input optimal.

  A detached part of his mind noting that he was in shock. This detached portion of his mind also noted that his body had a few more parts than what he was used to. It quietly waited in the corner for the shock to wear off and the panic to begin.

  Primary is active.

  Michael finally managed to pry open one eye and was immediately sent into said panic. The reason was not what you would expect, however. It was the colors. They were wrong… no… not wrong, just… impossible was the only word that came to mind. Streaks of fire, halos around the clouds, shifting color as he rushed by. He finally collected himself enough to look down and then screamed as the ground rushed up to meet him. Without thinking he opened his wings.

  Wings?

  The ground got tired of waiting and crashed into him.

  Nothing… this was getting to be a habit.

  Emotional instability present. Primary is not interfaced at this time.

  Will the subject be viable?

  Unknown at this time.

  Definitions

  (Oxford English Dictionary: Dragon)

  NOUN

  1 A mythical monster like a giant reptile. In European tradition the dragon is typically fire-breathing and tends to symbolize chaos or evil, whereas in East Asia it is usually a beneficent symbol of fertility, associated with water and the heavens.

  1.1 derogatory A fierce and intimidating woman.

  ‘the geography teacher was a real dragon’

  2 another term for flying lizard

  2.1 Australian Any lizard of the agama family.

  Origin

  Middle English (also denoting a large serpent): from Old French, via Latin from Greek drakon ‘serpent’.

  –––––––––––––––––-

  RPG

  1 Report program generator, a high-level commercial computer programming language.

  2 Rocket-propelled grenade.

  3 Role-playing game.

  * * *

  Dragon Mindset

  A dragon is natures most perfect predator. They are geared for survival. They are extremely long lived. They are extremely intelligent. Depending on the breed, they have access to various magics. They also have breath weapons, the most common being fire. So what does this mean for a dragon’s mindset… it’s basic view of the world around it?

  Start with predator. Dragons focus on the hunt. When on a hunt, they are single minded with an almost tunnel vision. This does not mean that they are not aware of threats around them. While able to focus their vision on a single target, they can use each eye independently as well. When not on the hunt, they are still looking for anything that they can hunt. This tends to lead to a basic food, not food, mentality. This also carries over into their survival instincts, with the view towards threat, not threat.

  Now comes the complications. They are extremely long lived and intelligent. As they mature, the intelligence level increases and tends to add views and ideas to the hunting. They come to think of enjoyment in regards to obtaining their next meal. The long life also tends to lead to boredom. So you have a predator that is bored that tends to enjoy killing. No real problem… so long as you are a dragon. If not? Find a deep hole.

  Since they are long lived, this tends to make them ignore anything which doesn’t effect them directly, unless it is something that they have personal interest in. This gives them a rather strange perception of time. If nothing new comes into their immediate area, they could go though years as if no time had passed for them at all. The intellect simply goes into idle mode. Even if faced with a long term goal (a rarity) they will only notice things that forward this goal. While this may seem strange. It prevents them from going quite insane with boredom. They bypass it by going on autopilot while the basic intellect sleeps. This is not a simple on off switch however. There is more of a flow between different states.

  They can operate on various levels socially without truly coming into full awareness.

  Then you have magic. This is what gives dragons their attitude. They are incredibly powerful. This leads to a very arrogant attitude. Not that any of the other race cares to argue the point. It puts a line of greater and lesser races in their mindset. Their goal is more power and do not deal with anything of lesser power. Therefore the one thing that dragons lack more than anything is compassion.

  Awakening

  He awoke to pain and disorientation. It took more than a few minutes to push beyond it and catalog the locations on his body. He actually hurt too much to panic, much, when his inventory covered more than as a human he was equipped with. The little detached part of his mind was amused when he paused upon finding his wing and tail were causing the daggers in his back.

  He had a tail… and wings…

  He almost passed out again.

  He couldn’t describe the emotion he felt as he cautiously opened his eyes.

  Is this going to be a problem?

  Unknown, we are putting a biped into a body it is not familiar with.

  His gaze traveled down his… arm? It stretched out to the side and was covered with bright silver scales and his fingers, or whatever they were called, ended with long black claws. He closed his eyes again, confusion warred with panic at the memory of what he had seen. After a time he tried to move his arm with little success. Gradually, the pain seemed to fade except for the sharp spike in his right… wing. He cringed away from the thought as well as the pain. Instinctively he focused on his damaged appendage. Shock coursed though him as he felt a heat and the easing of the pain, as well as a shift of balance. It suddenly occurred to him his wing had been broken. He wondered for a brief moment at how fast he had healed… at least he hoped he had healed his wing.

  It achi
eved mental stability quickly.

  With the pain gone, he begin thinking about his situation. A feeble attempt to move again ended with failure, so he had little to do beside think. For one thing, he had no clue where he was or how he had gotten here. Come to think of it, he had no clue what he was. Good question that, what the hell was he? The shock and panic returned with a vengeance when a screen appeared in his mind.

  RACE - Planar Dragon

  BREED - Silver

  AFFINITY - Fire, Magic

  CLASS - Ancient

  ALIGNMENT - ????

  Health - 62%

  Mana - 85%

  WTF?

  Parameters are good. Success is predicted

  Not understood. Obvious mental distress.

  It is still conscious.

  Revelations

  Michael stared in shock at the words Planar Dragon for a moment when another window popped up.

  Planar Dragon

  A dragon that is capable of traveling between the planes of existence. While all dragons are magical beings, the planars have a greater knowledge of magic. Their magic abilities range from attunement with elements with affinity towards one major class (fire) but can influence the other fields, the weakest being the polar opposite of their greater affiliation (water). Their control of the planes lets them travel almost instantly between two points by jumping between planes as a shortcut. Stronger planars can see across planes to a limited degree, with the masters being able to shortcut their sight to see far distances. Their breath weapons can be enhanced with magic as well.

  (Note; you are the eldest of the ancients. This enables you to create and modify spells. You can now grow beyond the limits of your race and class (114% health, 137% mana).

  His eyes widened in shock. If he was understanding this, he was more than maxed out stat wise. Followed by the thought; is this a freaking game? His thoughts spiraled into a tailspin of confusion.

  After an undetermined time his mind wandered back from it’s sabbatical. Given, this wasn’t the body he was born with… as far as he knew. Who knows, maybe his previous memories were false. That didn’t feel right somehow, since so far, he was not responding well to the (shudder) thought of wings and a tail. Speaking of which, he opened his eyes and managed to get his looong neck to respond enough for a peek at it. It was not what he expected. His idea of a dragon had horns and spiky things all over it. His was smooth and sleek. He stared at it curiously then tried to gauge it’s size. Without a reference point, he had little success beyond comparing it to the local rocks. Letting his gaze wander upwards and around, he looked to be at the foot of a volcano, judging by the smoke rising from the peak. A part of him was drawn to the smoking mountain in front of him. He looked again at his tail, then followed it up his body. Again, bright silver with what looked like little rainbows from the angle of the sun, smooth and sleek. His back legs had those wicked looking claws as well and they were on the joints of his… wings as well. He sighed and just stared at them for a while. While it didn’t really make them seem normal to him, it did help with the sheer disbelief of them. He tried to open one but failed.

  A thought, almost not his own, seemed to ask him if he had to think to open his fore-talons. It rather derailed his attempts as it suddenly sunk in that fore-talons was not in his normal vocabulary.

  “Hello?” The word traveled out of his mouth as an almost guttural growl.

  There was a dry chuckle, followed by; “Greetings” This comment taking place within his mind.

  “Um… who are you?” This time it was a lower growl, but quite clearly spoken. So. I am a talking dragon at least.

  “I am now you. Just before my mind was destroyed, I compartmentalized the part of me that thinks and sent it temporarily to another plane. Imagine my surprise when I picked up a hitchhiker. I cannot last long in this state, so soon you will inherit my old form. By the way, what is human?”

  There was a long moment of silence as the implications of these words were digested.

  “I don’t know how to describe a human, really. Biped?”

  “Hmmm. I wonder, do you know of the race of elves?”

  “Do they have pointed ears?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then think of an elf without the pointed ears.”

  “You were a scavenger?” The voice in his head sounded shocked and a little outraged.

  “Did scavengers have their own cities and use technology?”

  “ They do have their own towns and the technology of this age, but are less than… reliable. I can sense you are from a higher technological background, however.”

  There was another long pause as both of them thought of the concepts they were introduced to.

  “Um… you mentioned your mind was destroyed?”

  “Ah yes. A master mage dedicated her life to making a spell that would attack my mind if she touched my head.”

  There was another touch of panic. If she was around, then she had another chance at finishing the job.

  The voice in his head chuckled again, catching the stray thoughts. “Not to worry, while she is quite close she, is no longer a threat to you.”

  “CLOSE? Where is she?” He looked around in panic.

  “Digesting as we speak.”

  Long pause.

  “Um… Is that our normal diet?” Not sure what passed for tact with a dragon… spirit?

  A long laugh echoed in his mind. “Diet… I suppose I should start your education. Lets see… a dragon’s diet. First there are two major rules to remember.”

  “Rules?”

  The voice in his head was still quite mirthful. “Yes… Rule one. If it moves it is food.”

  It paused to let that sink in.

  “Rule two. If it doesn’t move it is food.”

  “Do what?”

  “What do you know of energy? Do the scavengers… er… humans of your world know of energy states?”

  Thoughts of physics and electricity floated to the top as another memory surfaced. Where the hell were they when I was looking for them?

  “Ah, I see you do… partially. You have it wrong though. The universe is not based on the matter it is made of. It is based on energy and matter is pretty much along for the ride. Your unique digestive tract allows you to pull energy from anything from a rock to a living being. You also gain energy from other energy, such as sunlight or heat.”

  “Sunlight? Heat?” In my mind I had an image of soaking up too much sun and exploding.

  There was another laugh, quite longer this time and I felt rather embarrassed.

  “That was a good one as you say. Tell me, can you fill a bucket too full?”

  “No, it would spill over.”

  “Very good.”

  “But.”

  “No, that is now your tail, but I begin to get images from your mind now and you were an ugly creature, weren’t you?”

  I didn’t know whether to be shocked or amused.

  The laughter came back to my head. “I can see where you get the idea of elves from, but you do not do them justice. There is a decent resemblance though.”

  The thought occurred to him that he was being trolled. It also occurred to him that the dragon spirit was directly reading his thoughts.

  “Yes, but you see, I have been around for a very long time and I do not get the chance to talk as often as I would like.”

  Curious, I probed. “Why would that be?”

  “Dragons are not the most social of creatures. We tend to be territorial and the other races of the land do not particularly wish to converse either.”

  I mulled this over for a while. “Random thought… if I am to, um, inherit this body, just what territory would I claim?”

  “All of it.”

  “Oh…”

  Activate the avatars.

  Is this wise? We have to go through a full cycle to retrieve them should this fail.

  Observe. This is the most activity we have seen from the primary in the last century.
<
br />   But the secondary?

  The secondary seems to be acting as a catalyst.

  As you command. Shutting down monitoring system. Activating god seeds. Avatars created. Results nominal. Deactivating monitor links.

  Education

  The next few months were training. He learned to use his body. Surprisingly, walking was harder than flying, once he got the hang of wings. His time on a hang glider had taught him about shifting his weight to move through the air. Having wings that could kite, extend and fold were a major bonus. Walking? Well he sure wasn’t a biped anymore and still would trip and stagger if he was distracted. Part of the problem was he had too much power. He tended to over compensate a bit… well… a lot. There was also the problem of a tail. It tended to go the wrong way and overbalance him. He also discovered that not holding his neck centered… well… thank whatever maker there was, that his nose was armored.

  After his first week he had come across a large puddle or pond. It was his first view of his own face. It was almost hypnotic. Mostly silver scales with black bands across his long narrow snout. Glowing red eyes, long tapered pointed ears and long black horns that tilted backwards with a slight upward curve. He had black eye ridges as well. While he was watching a long blood red forked tongue slithered out and touched the water. He couldn’t help but stare.

  The plain he was on was surrounded by a ring of sharp mountains with a volcano in the very middle. It looked like a meteor strike with the volcano being the impact zone. It was completely desolate from the ring to the center. No other sign of life, plant, bird or animal.

  Their first major trip was up to the volcano’s caldera. That was where he learned a fact that shocked him to his core. Lava was nothing more than a warm bath to a dragon such as he. The heat had accelerated his healing exponentially, while recharging his mana at the same time. He also had his first meal. Iron nuggets and few gemstones. The voice in his head assured him that he would eat better later.

  The first jump off the side of the mountain took everything he had. The voice in his mind took it’s amusement as his body started dropping like a rock. He had practiced opening and closing his wings, with coaching from the voice, on bending them certain ways. It paid off as he opened them and caught air. He managed to turn the fall into a glide… with a rather unimpressive landing. Yeah, gotta work on that. The rest of the day was spent climbing up, jumping off, gliding down… and healing. That evening was spent in the lava soaking up mana.