Chapter 120. Can I Be A Vegetarian Dragon?
After Cedric sent Helion on a journey to seek several apprentices and built his own force to study magic, he observed his journey while occasionally checking the hero he summoned or experimenting with creating creatures to be created during his world's next upgrade process.
Helion, who had gained a new lease on life, became energetic and began to take some elves and dwarves who were interested in magic as his disciples.
He didn’t immediately go to the human territory in case there was still a capture order from the Temple.
Although he's already a powerful Level 3 blessed, Helion isn't too sure he could escape if the Temple seriously wanted to capture him.
In case he died, Helion didn't want his lifelong research to disappear or fall into some unknown person's hands. That's why he decided to first teach his knowledge to some elves and dwarves.
Because teaching the knowledge about magic took a long time, even after more than half a year, he still hasn't finished and went to the human territory.
***
In the Divine Space. While Cedric watched Helion teaching some elves about theory on how to process magical plants into casting materials for magic. He felt something and moved his mental power to observe another place.
To be exact, his mental power observed a cave located in the mountain range that separated the continent.
Inside the cave, a baby dragon hatched from an egg.
Amidst the darkness, the dragon looked around and realized it was currently inside a cave.
For a few hours after being born, it wobbled around trying to sit.
Once it successfully sat, the dragon opened its mouth and tried to spew fire. But even after a few minutes, fire didn't come out of its mouth. Instead, the dragon accidentally spat some saliva.
Next, it tried to roar. But instead of a domineering roar, only some growls and whimpers came out.
Moving around with its stout leg, the dragon soon arrived at a small puddle close to the cave entrance. Thanks to some light that shone from the cave's entrance a distance away, it saw its current appearance.
Scally faces that's slightly soft to the touch, four limbs, and a pair of bat-like wings.
It froze for a moment before dancing erratically.
The dragon seems to be happy and does a little dance. But because it's just born and hasn't gotten used to its body, the dance looks like twitching instead.
***
'My name is Catherina Thomson, nineteen years old. My parent are always busy working, and the last time I saw them was almost ten years ago. I usually lived together with my grandma until she died last year. My hobby is playing games. Especially RPGs and otome games.'
'After so long, the chance for me to become the main character has arrived! I've met a god who sent me to another world as a hero and a dragon! With this, I shall start a harem of handsome men while traveling to save the world.'
While doing a weird pose, Catherina, who had turned into a dragon, once again looked at her reflection in the puddle.
Suddenly, the puddle slightly rippled.
With the ripple, the cave's silence is also broken as Catherina hears some faint roars.
The more time passes, the louder the roars become.
Hearing the loud roar, Catherina panicked and tried to find a hiding spot in the cave.
In case the one arriving is a predator, she hopes she won't get eaten. Otherwise, her adventure would've ended before it even began.
From her hiding spot, she could slightly see the cave entrance. Outside, she saw several massive dragons flying by. All of them held at least one animal that looked like a mix of cow and buffalo on their mouth or claws.
While most simply flew by the cave, one of them entered and placed a dead buffalo in one part of the cave.
After placing the dead buffalo, Catherina saw the dragon walk toward the place where she had hatched. There, a few eggshells remained on the ground.
The dragon saw the eggshell and began looking around the cave. Then, it slowly placed its head close to the ground.
Soon, it walked away from the eggshells and came to Catherina's hiding location.
At this point, Catherina has realized that this dragon should've been her new family.
She walked out of her hiding spot and walked toward the dragon.
Upon seeing Catherina, the dragon coiled its tail around Catherina and placed her on its shoulder.
The dragon walked toward Catherina's hatching place and gobbled her eggshells.
Watching the dragon eat her eggshells, Catherina felt extremely confused, 'So.. is it right to call this dragon my mother in this life? I've heard somewhere that some reptile and bird species will eat the eggshell from their young after it hatches, but seeing my own eggshell getting eaten still feels weird.'
While gobbling the eggshell, the dragon stopped for a moment and placed a piece of the eggshell in front of Catherina.
Catherina froze in confusion, but soon she understood the dragon wanted her to eat that piece of eggshell too.
Initially, she felt a bit disgusted, but seeing the dragon eat the eggshell happily, curiosity struck her.
She picked up the eggshell with her stout forelimb and jumped from her new mother’s shoulder. She brought the eggshell to the puddle she saw before. After cleaning it of dirt and weird liquid, she put it into her mouth.
‘Mmhm. It’s not exactly delicious, but the crunchy texture is pretty okay. It kind of feels like bland cereal. So it’ll probably taste better with milk,’ Catherina commented while chewing the eggshell.
After she's done, Catherina still feels hungry. But when she looks into where her new mother dragon is, it has already finished eating the eggshell.
The mother dragon saw her look and somehow seemed to understand she was still hungry.
The dragon moved toward the buffalo corpse and cut a small, bloody piece from it. Finally, she placed the bloody piece in front of Catherina.
Seeing the torn meat from the buffalo corpse in front of her, Catherina raised her head to look at the dragon in front of her.
'Is it asking me to eat this meat?' When she thought of this, Catherina instantly felt regret.
'If I knew, I would've rather reincarnate as an elf and eat leaves! I only think of kidnapping handsome princes in towers when I choose to reincarnate as a dragon.' With tears in her eyes, Catherina forces herself to eat the buffalo meat.
At first, she gagged and stopped eating. Seeing her stop eating, the dragon shows a concerned look and flies away.
Soon, the dragon returned while holding a tree in its claw.
Catherina looked at the tree and saw several fruits on it.
She became speechless at the sight, 'Did it pluck a whole tree just to give me some fruit to eat?'
Nevertheless, Catherina still moved her body to eat the fruit.
After eating five fruits, Catherina looked at the bloodied buffalo meat in thought, 'Should I eat it? If I don't eat it, I might not have enough nutrients to grow up. Though I don't know whether dragons need enough nutrients to grow up, let's not bet on this chance.'
While holding her disgust, Catherina picked the buffalo meat and brought it to the puddle inside the cave.
The blood from the buffalo meat spread toward the puddle, coloring it bright red. 'Yeah, this puddle is no longer usable.'
Biting into the relatively clean raw meat, she felt tears stream down her face.
Not because the meat is delicious, but because she instantly felt regret. 'Ahhh… I missed cooked food already.'
As Catherina bit into the raw meat while holding her urge to vomit, a screen suddenly appeared in front of her.
[Basic System Screen has been successfully installed.]
[Life Level: Lower Level 0
Exp: 1%
Potential: Lower Level 5.]
Catherina quickly read the information and thought, 'What's this?'
After thinking of that question, Catherina thought of a possible answer, 'Is this screen something like a screen to show stats? This is pretty game-like.'
'If this is a game screen, there should be something else here.' Catherina tried to move the screen, but nothing changed.
With disbelief written on her scaly face, Catherina shouted in her mind, 'Status screen!'
When the screen didn't change, she thought of several other words, 'Skill! Upgrade! Status Assignment! Class! Check Status!'
But no matter what she does, the screen in front of her doesn't change.
'Even if I couldn't allocate my stats, shouldn't there be a screen showing my current strength, agility, and other things?'
'Even if my detailed stats aren't shown, at least give me some information. Is Lower Level 5 potential good enough or too low?'
When she was getting angry with her halfhearted cheat, the screen suddenly changed.
Yet, instead of a page detailing her stats like strength, intelligence, magic, or other screens she expected. A simple greeting appeared on the screen.
[Hello there.]
'Who?' Catherina's mind blanked for a moment before she asked, "Are you the god who sent me?"
Of course, because she now possessed a dragon, what came out of her mouth was just some growling.
Luckily, the god understood her words as a new message appeared.
[Indeed. Congratulations on your successful reincarnation.]
[As a gift, I’ve given you knowledge of the dwarven, elven, and human languages. I’ve also given you a basic system screen to let you check your current life level. Soon, I’ll also give you something to upgrade your vocal cords and let you speak.]
“So, this Basic System Screen is only used to check my progress?”
[Yes.]
“I can’t use this to level up from killing monsters, nor allocate my stats every time I level up?”
[You indeed can’t allocate stats every time you level up. It seems I forgot to mention it, but you can level up by killing demons. It’s not due to the system screen, though.]
“I can level up by killing?”
[Only by killing demons. There’s also a limit to the level you could gain from killing, which is your potential level.]
“So, is Lower Level 5 potential good?”
[Lower Level 5 is an incredibly high potential. For note, the current strongest being in my world is at Level 4. Meanwhile, the demon king you need to fight will be at Upper Level 4 or Peak Level 4.]
“Then, am I chosen because of my potential?” After Catherina asked this, the god did not immediately reply. There were a few seconds of silence before a screen replied to her question.
[Indeed. And I shall give my all to support you on your journey.]
“Then, can you do something about this raw meat? I simply can’t handle both the taste and smell.” Catherina complained, “I might die from starvation before starting my journey.”
When he heard Catherina’s request, Cedric recalled two items he had seen in the store.
[Level 1 Divine Item, I Want A Chocolate Flavoured Meat
Cost: 100 GP
Details: A tongue rubber cover that allows the user to distort their sense of taste to a certain extent. The taste is distorted based on the user’s wish. It can be turned off or on anytime without unequipping the item. Upon usage, the tongue cover will fit the user’s tongue to the point it is impossible to distinguish. Includes an automatic tongue-cleaning function to keep the tongue healthy.
[Level 1 Divine Item, Every Transmigrator’s Dream Nose Plug.
Cost: 100 GP
Description: Are you constantly tortured by smells in a medieval-era world? Do streets filled with rubbish and waste utterly destroy your sense of smell? Look no more and purchase this nose plug. An invisible nose plug that can fit all manner of noses, our product allows you to manipulate any smell entering your nose into one to your liking. The nose plug comes in pairs. For races with more than two nostrils, please purchase more than one set.
Please note, this item won't change the composition of the air the user breathed in.]
The store is filled to the brim with this kind of weird item that’s only useful in extremely specific situations. So, although the items there are all encompassing, finding useful items is like finding a needle in a haystack.