“Interesting. This ability really comes in handy.”
Shellmi: A highly effective medicinal herb. Contains a high amount of magical energy.
When I focused my gaze on a pretty flower growing by a tree’s roots, its data popped into my brain. That was how the Analysis ability worked, huh? I’d figured out that my evil-looking left eye was actually responsible for the trait, meaning it wasn’t just for show. Cool?
Exploding Panther Cap: If you eat it, you’ll blow up.
Hot damn. Talk about a dangerous shroom.
I’d been using the Analysis ability to learn more about everything I’d seen so far, but there was just way too much awesome stuff in this new world. Shocker, I know. I’d managed to find a lot of grasses and fruits that were safe to eat, though. It was nice to know I didn’t have to spend DP to survive.
Oh, right, that whole “study the geography of the area” thing. Yeah, I gave up on that real fast. Why? ’Cause a Maps feature showed up in my menu not long after I left the dungeon. Seriously, the interface has got to be a god or something.
Anyway, Maps was exactly what it sounded like—the interface captured every geographical feature that entered my field of vision and updated the feature accordingly. All I had to do was wander around enjoying the view, and the interface would do all the work to fill out a map of everywhere I went.
I learned something else about Maps too. Right now, the interface only notified me of intruders in the dungeon, but apparently, there was an upgrade that showed enemies everywhere, even outside the dungeon. Unfortunately, though, the upgrade could only be bought with DP. Since I didn’t have enough for it yet, I planned to save up and buy it as soon as I could. It’d be a huge advantage to have that feature, after all.
After exploring some more, I basically understood what the area looked like, so I decided to call it a day. The moment I turned around, though, something appeared out of thin air. I don’t know why I even looked, but I couldn’t help it. I heard the sound of wings flapping in the distance, and when I turned my head to see where it had come from, I saw a humongous creature soaring through the sky.
At first, I thought it was just a huge bird, but the minute I had that thought, it swooped straight down from the sky. It made a super-quick stop right above the ground, then landed surprisingly gracefully.
“Hoooly mackerel!”
The force of the wind it kicked up by flapping its wings made me unconsciously close my eyes. When it finally stopped, I gingerly opened my eyes again to learn more about the beast.
Name: Lefisios
Race: Ancient Dragon
Class: Supreme Dragon
Level: 987
Title: Conqueror of Dragonkind
What stood before me wasn’t a bird, but a massive, lithe dragon with beautiful silver scales.
Wait. I’m sorry, what? No. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. Not a chance. This was wrong. I need a second. No, make that a minute. This is not happening.
I knew logically that this was a completely different world from Earth, that it was much harsher and more dangerous, so I was totally ready to meet all kinds of monsters and other magical beings here. But no way did I ever think my first encounter would be with a dragon, of all things!
Not to mention that it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill dragon. That would have been too easy. No, instead, this was a freaking Ancient Dragon. It sounded insanely powerful from the race name alone. And because things could somehow get even worse, its class was Supreme Dragon. What the actual fuck? I thought this was supposed to be like one of those garbage games people clowned on!
Adding insult to injury was the fact that it was a blasted level 987. What kind of BS luck did I have to run into something that was pretty much maxed out?! It was literally—and I mean literally—987 times more powerful than me. I was still level 1! I couldn’t even see what the rest of its attributes were, probably because of the enormous difference in our levels. I was a thousand percent screwed.
Damn. Okay, okay, calm down, me. I gotta calm down. Grandma always told me “Haste makes waste” and that nothing good ever comes from panicking. I technically didn’t have a grandma here, but that’s not the important part.
All right, thinking time. Maybe this was like one of those online games where some classes automatically started at a super-high level. If that was the case, it was still a threat, but not as absolutely massive of one since it might not actually have been 987 times stronger than me. Positive thinking for the win, I guess?
Now that I was in a better frame of mind—sort of—I realized I couldn’t actually use Analysis to learn more about its race and class. Strange, but whatever. I tried using the ability on the dragon’s title instead, which did get me some info.
Conqueror of Dragonkind: The most powerful dragon in the world, with no equal in existence. Possesses the unique ability Conqueror’s Might, which temporarily buffs Lefisios’s stats. The Supreme Dragon class is also unique to Lefisios.
Yeah, no shit. I could tell it was at the top of this world’s food chain just by looking at it. Thanks for nothing, Captain Obvious. I swear, sometimes it felt like this damn interface was deliberately messing with me...
Hold on, though. Oh, damn, okay. It was all coming together. I’d known something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t able to put my finger on it until now. Armed only with the Analysis ability, I found it odd that even a noob like me could find plants to eat so easily. All I did was poke around anywhere I could, and bam, food.
And I just realized that it was so easy precisely because nothing and no one had gotten in my way. I hadn’t felt so much as a hint of life the entire time I’d explored. No wonder I’d been—and still was—kinda disappointed, since I was looking forward to seeing what sorts of monsters lived here. That was one of the things the dungeon had “told” me when I’d touched the core.
I was guessing the local inhabitants knew about the dragon. They knew that something way more powerful than them was nearby. Made sense that they’d all flee if a creature like that chose to live here.
My brain was moving a mile a minute, but my body was actually frozen in place. My mouth was too, for that matter. The illogical part of me was completely overwhelmed by the sheer power emanating from the magnificent being in front of me.
Keeping me in its sight, the dragon opened its mouth.
“You there. Might you be a member of the demon clan? Perhaps even a high-ranking one?”
I couldn’t say anything. But I could still think.
Shit! Balls! Fuck! Shit! It talked! Holy fucking shit!
I clapped my hands over my mouth to stifle the instinctive scream. Taking deep breaths to try to calm myself back down, I answered with all the composure I could fake without my voice cracking.
“Uh... Yeah. Yeah, I’m a demon. No clue how high my rank is, though. Don’t even know if I’m ranked at all, actually.”
Since my race was classified as Archdemon, I was positive that I was a demon, if nothing else. This world had all the same monsters in it that every other fantasy world did. On top of demons like my current self, nonhuman species like elves and dwarves existed, as well as humanoid ones with animal ears and tails. If I ever met one of those animal hybrids, I definitely wanted to pet them. And I sure wouldn’t mind nibbling on an elf’s ear to get them all embarrassed.
God, I’m a freak. I gotta calm the hell down. I’m losing my grip on reality.
“Hm? What a peculiar manner of speech. But that is neither here nor there. Now then, pray tell why a high demon loiters in these parts?”
I knew it didn’t really matter, but the dragon’s voice was a lot prettier than I ever would have guessed. I kind of had the feeling it was a girl dragon.
“Why? I’m, uh...exploring?”
“What a strange demon you are.”
I could hear a little bit of surprise in the dragon’s voice, but nothing that made it feel like she was on the verge of attacking me. Not at the moment, anyway. Maybe, just maybe, this world’s demons weren’t particularly hostile toward others? The only reason that thought even crossed my mind was that the dragon talked to me way more casually than I was expecting.
The truth was, the information the dungeon implanted in me didn’t include anything detailed about my surroundings. I only had very basic knowledge about living things, like the fact that there were both wild beasts and intelligent species like humans and demi-humans here. But even though the dungeon understood the difference in that sense, it still lumped all living things together and thought of every single one of them as a nasty creature out to destroy it. Hence I didn’t actually know anything about the life-forms of this world.
Between that hole in my knowledge and what I knew from Earth, I automatically assumed that other species here viewed demons as enemies. But standing here now, in front of this humongous dragon, I seriously hoped that the saying about “when you assume” was true. I was totally fine with being an ass if it meant I got to live.
“Hmph. It matters not. All that you see before you is my domain, and I do not suffer trespassers. Your tale ends here, demon.”
Goddammit. The one time I wanted to be wrong. The moment my sliver of hope was completely destroyed, a thick aura of bloodlust started to fill the air. I could feel the killing intent instantly, even though I’d never been in a real fight. A cold sweat ran down my forehead. No ifs, ands, or buts about it—this was bad. An absolute freaking nightmare.