Chapter 1: The Birth of a Hatchling Dragon

Deep in the dark, damp cave.

From the huge round nest built of piled stones came intermittent cracking sounds.

Where is this?

A black hatchling dragon, its scales still slick with slime, poked its head out of a human‑sized dragon egg, looking around dazedly.

It remembered its name was Lai Ang, an unknown office worker on Blue Star who had collapsed dead at his desk after overtime. 'Have I been reborn in another world?'

Lowering its head to look at its tiny claws, it received the black dragon's inheritance information in its mind; Lai Ang finally came to his senses and understood his present situation.

It had come to another world and become a newly hatched black dragon hatchling.

But Lai Ang did not panic overly, for his previous life as a numb office worker had already bored him.

Being transmigrated was fine.

What's more, he had become a mighty dragon.

Lai Ang, quickly accepting reality, struggled free from the half‑broken dragon egg, glanced at the two other unhatched black dragon eggs in the nest, then silently lowered his head to eat his own eggshell fragments.

A dragon's eggshell contains extremely rich nutrients that can quickly harden the soft scales and claws of a newly hatched hatchling, giving it a certain survivability.

Crack, crack.

Lai Ang swallowed the last piece of eggshell.

Just as it was pondering whether to explore the nest, a huge roar came from the cave mouth where the nest lay.

It sounded like a massive beast striking a mountain peak, dull yet booming.

After the roar, heavy footsteps sounded at the cave entrance.

Lai Ang turned his head and locked eyes with the huge black dragon that had just entered the nest.

One large, one small—large eyes staring at small eyes.

Lai Ang noticed the shattered scales on the huge black dragon's body and several deep wounds down to the bone, likely inflicted by some large sword‑type weapon.

Dark‑red dragon blood dripped drop by drop onto the ground.

The black dragon's injuries were grievous; Lai Ang was certain that, were it not for the dragon's tenacious vitality, an ordinary beast would have long died from such wounds.

'My child, you have finally been born.'

The gravely injured female black dragon spoke, breaking the cave's rather silent atmosphere; looking at her newly hatched child, a hint of relief flashed in her dark‑yellow slit pupils.

The dragon mother slowly approached, the dragon blood dripping from behind forming a bloody trail that was shocking to behold.

Lai Ang said nothing; he merely looked at the dark‑black beast carcass, shaped like a water buffalo, being dragged by the dragon mother's tail.

When Lai Ang was puzzled by the creature before him, the black dragon's inheritance naturally informed him that it was a wild ox.

The wild ox, when adult, possesses second‑rank strength, its meat is delicious; it is a herd‑dwelling beast often found in swamps and damp forests, favoring marsh grasses and black smiley‑face mushrooms. This world has magical beasts, monsters, wild beasts, humans, elves, dwarves, giants, and so on.

In a world that is extraordinary and where spirits exist, a cultivation system naturally arises.

Beasts whose bodies are naturally nourished by the elements, monsters that gain special power from their bloodlines, warriors who refine elements into battle qi, or mages who refine them into spiritual power, and so on.

In simple terms of rank, the vast majority of beings in the world can be divided into zeroth through ninth rank.

Beyond ninth rank lies the realm of sages, a transcendence of the mundane and also the path to immortality.

A newly hatched black dragon hatchling, according to rank, is merely first rank—just a bit stronger than ordinary people who are unranked and wild beasts that have not been tempered by elemental nourishment.

'Eat.'

Dragon mother Xi Er Wa Na Si lowered her dragon head, gazing at her eldest son; with a slight twitch of her thick, long tail she set the three‑to‑four‑ton wild ox before him.

Lai Ang, tormented by hunger, instinctively drew near the wild ox carcass.

At the distorted, thick neck of the wild ox was a huge blood‑hole; Lai Ang glanced up at the jagged bone spikes protruding from the dragon mother's tail and suddenly understood.

He could easily imagine the huge black dragon sweeping across the sky, spotting the wild ox on the ground, then diving low to seize it, its tail coiling around the ox's neck; under the dragon's terrifying power, the ox's bones and flesh twisted instantly, and the tail's bone spikes then pierced through, creating a gruesome blood‑hole.

'What kind of being could inflict such grievous wounds on such a fearsome black dragon?' Lai Ang harbored doubt and a thread of worry.

From the black dragon's inheritance he knew that true dragons are the top of this world's food chain, with few beings able to rival them.

Moreover, the dragon mother is an adult black dragon.

'I wonder if that guy is dead,' Lai Ang thought, tearing into the wild ox's sinewy meat with big bites.

It would be best if the dragon mother had killed him; otherwise, while Lai Ang was eating, Xi Er Wa Na Si dragged her scar‑covered dragon body over, staggered to a spot not far from the dragon eggs, lay down, and fell into a heavy, exhausted sleep.

Beneath her lay a pile of faintly glowing magic stones, scattered gold coins, a few silver coins, and scarcely any gems.

Streams of elements flowed from all sides toward these specially energized treasures, providing the dragon mother with the energy needed to heal her wounds.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Since returning to the nest that day, the dragon mother had remained in deep slumber; were it not for her gradually healing wounds and the thick dragon aura emanating from her, Lai Ang would have doubted that the massive beast was dead—after all, her breathing had grown extremely faint while she slept, and her body barely rose and fell.

'How boring.'

A black dragon hatchling three days old was about the size of a wolf‑dog, with a huge head, tiny wings, and a short tail.

It looked rather cute, lacking the fearsome bone spikes of an adult black dragon.

Lai Ang lay on his belly, belly up, exposing the fine‑scaled underside, gazing at the stone spikes hanging upside‑down from the cave ceiling, his expression revealing boredom.

A newly hatched hatchling is quite weak; even a somewhat strong human wielding a handy weapon could have a chance to kill it.

Thus hatchlings usually stay in the nest, growing and shedding scales under the mother's feeding until they possess enough strength to safeguard their lives, at which point they venture out under her protection for their first hunt.

Starting from the weakest prey and progressing step by step with time, once they can hunt sufficiently strong prey by their own dragon power, the mother drives them from the nest to begin an independent, autonomous life.

With nothing to do, Lai Ang spaced out for a while, then resumed studying the golden finger that had accompanied his birth.

Closing his dragon eyes, in a void Lai Ang saw a rough hexagonal stone groove.

The more Lai Ang looked at the stone groove, the more he felt something needed to fit into it—perhaps runes?

Yet Lai Ang also found no rune‑like shapes in this void of mental space.

Here there was nothing but void, only that lone mysterious stone groove.

After studying a while, feeling mentally fatigued, Lai Ang withdrew from this void mental space—although he could not discover the true purpose of the hexagonal groove, he found that merely observing it caused his spiritual power to drain at an extremely rapid rate.

When Lai Ang first discovered the mysterious groove, they didn't notice their mental energy draining to exhaustion, and they collapsed straight into sleep; upon waking, they felt their mind seemed to have become a bit sharper.

Lai Ang speculated that observing this mysterious stone groove might train their mental energy.

It is not certain whether this is true, after all only three days have passed; the time is too short to confirm whether this is not just its own illusion.

"Unfortunately, the spells in the Black Dragon inheritance cannot be learned for now." Lai Ang, whose spirit was in a drowsy state, wistfully thought.

If they could learn spells, they wouldn't spend every day just eating and sleeping, or researching that mysterious hexagonal groove.

The reason Lai Ang currently cannot learn spells is because the newborn hatchling's mental energy is not yet strong enough.

Learning spells requires drawing in external elements, and drawing in elements requires sufficient mental energy.

Perhaps due to reincarnation, Lai Ang feels their mental energy is somewhat stronger than that of other hatchlings (the Black Dragon inheritance has a specific description of this, which Lai Ang can refer to).

"It should be soon; I'll be able to learn spells in no time."

Holding onto the anticipation of learning spells, as well as the fleeting image of the Dragon Mother's gruesome wound, Lai Ang fell into a deep sleep.

In their sleep, the hatchling had a nightmare.

The Dragon Mother was beheaded by a powerful human with a single sword strike; behind her, a group of adventurers, seeing this, cheered and rushed forward to skin and bleed the dragon's massive corpse that had collapsed with a boom, their movements practiced and natural.

And the hatchling, having just been born and being too weak, was toyed with by this group of human adventurers until, after expending all its energy, it was locked in a cage, awaiting an unknown fate. "No!"

After an unknown amount of time, the hatchling awoke from the dream with a start, letting out a low growl tinged with anxiety.

After a moment, it realized this was a dream.

After a brief silence, Lai Ang closed their dragon eyes again, but this time not to sleep.

It entered that void-like mental space.

Then they once again observed the mysterious hexagonal rune groove, quickly consuming the mental energy that had just been mostly restored.

This is the only method they can think of to actively become stronger.

It is true that giant dragons are the top of the world's food chain, but that refers to giant dragons that have grown up.

As for hatchlings, the time required to grow to adulthood is extraordinarily long for short-lived species—as much as three hundred years!

However, three hundred years is possibly less than one-tenth of the lifespan of giant dragons, a long-lived species whose lifespan can reach thousands of years; even after reaching adulthood, a dragon's life has only just begun.

But Lai Ang feels that if they really do nothing and just slack off, they probably won't be able to grow up leisurely.

The Dragon Mother's horrifying injury remains vivid in mind, casting a shadow over Lai Ang and likewise pressuring Lai Ang to strive to become stronger.

Having finally arrived in a vast and tumultuous fantasy world, if they do not properly experience it before once again having their life erased, how painful that would be.

"I just want to live well and experience another world." Lai Ang thought silently.

A hint of resilience flickered in the hatchling's pale yellow vertical pupils.

Whoever threatens its life should just go die.

Holding this thought, Lai Ang more seriously began "observing" that mysterious hexagonal groove.

In this special state, its mental energy began to drain rapidly.

Time passed; in the blink of an eye, dozens of days and nights went by.

(End of chapter)