3 A Weird Dream

Once he got home and entered his room, he untied his short ponytail which let his left bangs loose. His fringe could reach his eyes, but strangely it didn't cover his vision much.

"Now, let's see, how do I use a spatial ring?" said Leo, as he tapped on his star-link.

A panel appeared, revealing a search engine not too different from Google. He tapped on the search bar and a new panel formed, it was a neon keyboard. 

A few moments later, he found a few things connected to spatial rings. Be it their historical relevance, their price, or even what they were made of, it spoke about it all. He wasn't here to buy one, nor was he here for a history lesson, so he just skimmed through it.

When he found the answer to his question, he asked himself, "So you need a drop of your... blood? Is this some kind of blood demon? Still, that's what all of these sites say so there should be some truth to it."

Once he confirmed that they all said the same thing, he swiped every panel out of existence. 

He took the black ring out of his pocket and placed it on his desk, then he rummaged his desk for a cutter. He was about to cut himself with it, but then thought, 'Wouldn't it be painful if I cut myself with a cutter? I don't even need to cut a large portion, maybe I should just scratch myself till I bleed…'

He scratched his head and said, "Nevermind, I'll just use a needle."

Minutes later, with a needle on his hand, he poked his left index finger. He felt a slight amount of pain, like he was bitten by an ant, before he pressed on his finger and gently smeared his blood on the ring.

The ring unsurprisingly absorbed the blood, and as it did, a vague connection began to form between him and the ring. It felt quite strange yet comfortable.

He glanced at the ring and with a confused expression he mumbled, "They said that I need to place my consciousness inside the ring, but how do I do that? Do I imagine myself entering the ring?"

He thought that there was no harm in trying, but he suddenly felt that his heart was burning. He clutched his chest, above his heart, looking like he was going to collapse any second now. 

He screamed like there was no tomorrow, he felt like the pain was spreading to his whole body and he was being cooked alive.

What he felt was actually not that far off. If a normal person saw him in his current state, they would have immediately looked for a fire extinguisher. 

His body was blanketed in a pale rosy flame, it brought about a chilly atmosphere. The flame strangely dropped the room temperature to the negatives, but it wasn't freezing anything around it.

Later, the rosy flames turned into a royal purple fire. Like the first flame, it was quite peculiar but this one was more normal. Looking at it can make anyone feel chills down their spine, it was like a time bomb that could explode at any moment and claim their lives.

Minutes later, it changed yet again. This time it morphed into a bright yellow flame, it constantly released electric sparks for each second that passed.

~~~~~

A few minutes earlier, outside his house, in front of his window was a floating purple-eyed demon. When the purple-eyed demon saw him in pain, the whites of his eyes turned black and a transparent barrier-like substance covered Leo's whole room. 

The demon said, "That looks very painful, but as much as I wish to help you. I can't. Not with my current strength but even if I could, why should I? The current you doesn't even have the resolve to…"

Before he could continue, Leo's body blazed into a rosy red flame but the demon knew that he would not die. In fact, not only will he not die, he would even benefit from it.

~~~~~

A few minutes later, as if the flames were doused by water, it steamed away and revealed a humanoid-figure clad in red hot scales. Its tightly knitted eyes opened, exposing his icy blue eyes that had vertical slits for pupils. His eyes released a chilly aura that froze everything around him.

Aside from the scales, which covered nearly his whole body, it also had two formidable black horns growing from his forehead. He had a pair of dragon claws, a scaly tail below his marrow, and a pair of unextended dragon wings on his back.

The scaled human raised his chin and opened its mouth, releasing a sonorous dragon roar that caused the barriers around him to tremble in fear.

The demon clutched his head in pain, but he continued to cover the room with the barrier. 

Half an hour later, everything was back to normal as if he never even transformed to begin with. The teen's consciousness on the other hand, was already long gone. When he first burst into flames, he fainted due to the pain that came with it. 

A red tattoo slowly formed on Leo's back, it was a western dragon with a golden crown, it bore a striking resemblance to the dragon on the ring. One could even say that they were depicting the same dragon.

The golden crown had a crystal embedded in the middle. It was a relaxing light shade of purple.

The demon sighed in relief and swiped the sweat on his face away. He smiled and thought, 'That was pretty scary'. Although he knew that Leo would benefit from it, he still thought of the possibility of it killing the teen. He glanced at Leo, who was currently frowning as if he was having a very odd dream.

~~~~~

"Haish!"

A red-haired man sighed as a he laid on a king-sized bed. He thought, 'Why can't I level up?' as he gazed at a half transparent panel. This was a panel that was quite different from the panel that was generated by Leo's star-link, both in terms of design and purpose.

Floating above the man was a foggy figure, on his face was a frown. He seemed to be wondering where he was, but his confusion instantly became curiosity. He thought, 'I must be dreaming, but why am I dreaming of a dragon-person playing an RPG Game?' as he curiously gazed at the panel.

[Name: $:#+-"-2+

Level: 200

Species: Red */@#+$;$ Dragon

Class: ÷¶{|°∆

Health: 200°¥×|¶¢[}¥

Strength: :^)9¥=€

Defense: :`\8$

Agility: {°/

Dexterity: =×3

Intelligence: £∆€

Aura: Q^Q ]

When he noticed how broken the panel was, he knew that he truly was in a dream. 

He pondered, 'What's with that broken status screen?' but when he was about to investigate, he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

~~~~~

Soon Leo woke up from his odd dream. He held his aching head as he looked around his room, trying to guess where he was. It was a simple blue themed room with one eye-catching illustration on the wall above the bed.

The poster was depicting a man slashing with his one-edged sword. The sword seemed to have slashed out a crescent moon-like blade, which cut the moon in half.

He asked in a low voice, "What happened?"

He felt like he was full of energy and that his body got stronger, despite staying awake after midnight.

He glanced at his "watch" and thought, 'I did sleep for an hour... Wait! Why would I sleep on the floor?'

Memories of what happened before he passed out flowed into his brain. Once he remembered everything, except for anything after he burst into flames, he decided to proceed with his plan before that painful event occured. He wanted to know what happened earlier, and thought that the best way was to enter the ring.

He stood up and was about raise his arm, but he felt something weird. It felt like something crucial was missing, he looked down and a wave of shame hit him.

He exclaimed, "Why am I naked‽"

After thinking about it again, he remembered the feeling of exploding. He looked around to see if there was anything else that was burnt, but to his surprise, everything was safe. Well everything except his clothes, which was part of the reason why he didn't notice it at first.