1 This... is definitely not normal

Kouki, a japanese normal salary workman had just finished his work near midnight. He is a 35 year old normal, average guy.

"This peaceful world is boring... The routine on my schedule barely never changes after getting this work. All of this hard work, just to have a minimum wages in life."

He monologues in the car by himself. He also arrived at a traffic light, with a red light.

"Maybe it would be more fun if there is always something extraordinary popping up left and right... It would be cool to have some crazy strength and powers so that people would fawn at me. They'll looked at me with admirable eyes, relied on me more and having high hopes towards me. THAT, is a life that I'm willing to work hard for."

He let out a huge sigh before continuing on. The traffic light signalled green, so he continue to drive forward.

"Welp, nothing I can do to stop no- hey...Hey HEY!!"

A car that sped up from the side interception didn't stop on time and thus hitting Kouki with a loud crash noise.

That noise was the last thing he heard before dying an instant death.

The moment he open his eyes again, he saw an enormous cave. It's a dark and lonely cave that doesn't have a single soul near him.

(Hm..? What's this? did I die? No, wait, if I was dead, then shouldn't I have some interview with a god or goddess on whether to go to hell or heaven?? Aghh.. I'm so confused... For now, I'll just look around here for a while..)

He tried to stand up, but as soon as he press his hands on the floor, he heard loud "BANG!" noise as if someone is shooting a shotgun. Because of the sound, he instantly laid back down on his belly.

(...What's that? Is someone shooting here? judging by the echoing sound, this is probably a cave... Did I got kidnapped when I was in the accident and the police is fending of the kidnappers?? outside the cave? No, no that sound is definitely from inside the cave. But as far as I can see, there's not a single person here... Should I try standing back up...?)

He tried to stand up once more but then the same noise repeated loudly and he laid back again.

(That sound is way too close to me for comfort...!! Are the kidnappers shooting besides me to warn me not the get up? Ugh... even if I don't stand up now, I'm definitely going to be bisected by them to get my kidneys... I'm a middle aged man, why are they doing this to me?! I don't care anymore, if I die, then I guess I'll just die here. There's no way out..)

He stands up quickly and shut his eyes and the "BANG!" noise follows every movement he made. His heart races everytime he heard the sound. A few seconds later, the echoing died down more and more before having a total silence.

He quietly open his eyes and sees the ground is way far from his point of view than normal.

(H-Huh? Why is the ground so low? Am I on a high platform...? Hmmm... now that I look around clearly, there really is no humans around here... Then, what made the sounds??)

Since he is still convinced on getting kidnapped, he looks around slowly and cautiously to not miss any kidnapping equipments around.

(The more I look at this place, the more confused I get. This place is dark without any light in it. There's no way the kidnappers can see here. The smell here... is just full of rocks and no gunpowder. Does that mean the shooting before was a false alarm?)

He walks around the cave trying to get down from the platform that he was talking about earlier but no matter how long he walks around, he's still no close on getting close to the ground.

"Ha... Just what is this place...?!"

The voice he let out surprises himself. It is far different from he's own voice based on what he remembers.

(Is this really my voice?!!)

"My... voice? No way, this is not possible. How did my voice turns out like this?!"

His voice echoes and shakes the whole cave. Due to this, he tries to regain his calm and talk slowly and quietly for the fear of getting cave in alive.

He looks around his body and realizes that his body was big enough to be the reason for him to think that he was on a high platform. His hands have claws and and after looking at himself into more detail his mouth was like the shape of a crocodile's.

"What is this monstrosity?!!?!"

While he was yelling that, his mouth let out fires towards the ceiling, which then suddenly brightens the cave.

"What is that..? Looks like a chandelier made of fire.. Did I do that or was it a tool that light up when lighted with fire?"

The chandelier was fully made of fire with no traces of any substances acts as a base. It's beautiful yet horrifying from Kouki's point of view who still don't know where or what he is anymore.

"Is this really just a normal cave? Am I... some kind of dragon. In that case, doesn't that mean that I was reincarnated? So I guess, I really did died in the accident... No use crying on spilt milk anymore. I've already had the resolve to accept death so I should be grateful that I'm alive."

Once the cave was lit, he saw a pond at the edge of the cave. He went straight to the pond to check how he looked like.

"Huh... I really did turn into a dragon. Hmm.. How about... This!"

He opens his wings to it's max extension to see how beautiful he look. And sure enough it looks majestic even from a thousand miles away.

"Now that I'm a dragon, doesn't that mean I'm super overpowered now? Hmm, let's see here, how did I breath fire again? Was it like this?"

He opens his mouth and try to breath out hoping for fires to come out but it didn't.

"I guess it won't be that easy..."

From that point on, he heard a loud growl by his stomach aching to have some food.

"Uhh, wow, I was panicking so much that I forgot about the hunger I felt. Still, how long did this dragon didn't eat? I feel like I'm gonna die. Is hunting without license legal in this world?"

He closes his eyes for a second before deciding on what he's going to do next.

"Alright then! Since this is probably another world, I doubt there's laws from earth to here.. Then again, as a dragon, I doubt hunting for my own food is illegal... Thus, I'll go and catch some foods!!"

Ever since he was small, he always wanted to venture into the forest and discover many things, but his parents denied it because it's too dangerous.

(Though, I understand why they don't want their son to go alone in the forest because I don't have much experience and strength to camp out. But now that I'm a creature from the myths, there's no way I don't have enough strength!)

After walking around the caves for a moment, he finally found the exit and try to go through it.

(Ack! What..?)

Since he was in a standing position, his built was too tall to go through.

(I guess, I have act like a dragon properly so that the world won't laugh at me....)

He stand on all fours before going through.

The land beyond the cave is vast, even if he is a dragon. He could run around as much as he like on the lands before him.

"Hmm, so my house, or cave is at the bottom of this mountain? There's full of trees near the entrance, did the original owner never mow?"

For a dragon like his size, the trees around just looks like twigs sticking on the ground. His height far surpasses the trees around him.

"Now then, let's see if I can fly."

He open his wings and flapped as hard as he can to try to soar into the sky but what he did was fly backwards back towards the cave.

He tried multiple attempts but he still failed to fly straight up.

"Ugh, this is way harder than it looks. Whatever, I'll just walk."

While walking for sometimes, he realizes one thing that gives him the advantage on his hunt.

(The trees' leaves are blocking my view on the ground. Wait, will there even be animals from earth that I can eat here? If this is another world, there's bound to have some or all of them are new species... If there are no humans in this world, I'll be really lonely not being able to chat... Then again, I'm talking to myself...)

He shakes his head.

"Hm? what's that?"

He saw some trees got pushed forcefully in the distance not far away from him. He can barely identified the huge figure running in the distance.

"Isn't that... A cow?! It looks like it's chasing something... Is it a human? Either way, I better catch up to that cow, else I won't have anything else to eat and if it's chasing is a human, then maybe I can build a trust relationship with humans... Hehe, two birds in one stone!"

He ran towards the cow with full speed. He catched up to the cow within a glimpse of a second. When he got closer, the cow change it's target towards him.

(Crap...!)

Since he didn't react in time, the cow charges full speed towards his abdomen. He closes his eyes to brace for impact.

(...Huh?)

When he looked down at the cow that strike him, it's sharp horn was broken after colliding with the scales on his abdomen.

(Wow.... Being a dragon sure is awesome!!)

The cow backed up a little further to catch it's breath before striking again. But this time, Kouki take this opportunity to counter.

"Sorry little one, I've gotta eat something at least!"

He grabs both horns and twists the cow's neck, killing it in an instant. The sound of the neck being twisted can be heard throughout the forest.

(Fuhh... Though I kill something, I didn't feel the slightest sympathy for it. Is it because I'm too hungry to think about that? I'll think that later, anyhow, should I eat this raw or should I try to cook it with fire? I mean, I still don't know how to breath it but should I try to do it on this meat?)

While he was thinking about that, he hears something in the bushes near him. When, he fought the cow on a head-on battle, he destroyed many surroundings tree. Because of that, he can see the ground very clearly and can definitely see the moving bushes.

(Oh right! I was supposed to check if the humans the cow chased was alright.... Hmm, then again, it may not be humans and some random animals or monsters. Can humans even outrun this cow? For now let's try talking, if they respond, then they're definitely humanoid type species.)

"Umm... Can you guys talk?"

Two heads came out from the bush, a boy and a girl, around the age of 10-11. They have something that differs them from normal humans.

(Pointy ears like a wolf and a long ears like a bunny? They're so tiny, I can barely see them from up here. Should I lower my head? If I did that, they might run away...)

"Hmm...First things first, from where did you came from?"

The girl talked to the boy after hearing his question, but the boy shakes his head and made gestures indicating that he will do it.

(Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, aren't they pretty fast themselves if the cow didn't catch up to him? I having difficulties understanding this world's power value...)

After the children were done with their conversation, the boy spoke up.

"We're from a beastmen village called Arahanka!"

(Beastmen...?)