1 ch 1: It begins

Out in the woods of worlod, there stood a village with a population of around 2 thousand people. Most of the villagers were farmers and craftsmen, and most died farmers and craftsmen. But, for some odd reason, starting a few decades ago, a very strange rumour started being spread around like butter and toast.

This rumour said that in one of the surrounding caves around the village, there laid hidden a weapon so powerful that whoever owned it would rule the world.

But, where did such a rumour spring up from? I tried asking the previous watcher of this little section of the world, and he himself could not trace it's origins. I suppose we could speculate all day, but to me i think it's simply one of the fancies of the people; especially those of male peasants who wish to gain all riches and obtain all power.

I suppose some would think it's a strange rumour for those of the peasant class to think much about ,but as an as an historian for the gods, i am mostly commissioned to simply watch the worlds, and watch what happens therein ,and for that reason i can say that at least once in their lifetime every men will dream of ruling the world.

But, dear mortal, you might wonder why i am telling you any of this to begin with, but it's necessary preparation so we can follow the main character of this story and follow him to this exact moment in time. A very real story, as our character of this tale simply inhabits a dimension parallel to yours, and whom you might perhaps even meet one day.

For you see, our main character is a loser. Usually, my courteous tact would have never have allowed me to utter such a "not well-meaning" statement, but it is the truth!

Leo is his name, and losing is his game. Sorry for the puny rhyme, but that utterance, became his most common insult throughout the village. Leo wasn't heavily disliked or liked, but no man ever escapes from the chance of indulging in banter or veiled mockery, and Leo was the perfect target one hundred percent of the time. If he played a football game, he would trip as soon as he got the ball. In love, he would squeeze up so much from shyness that he wouldn't even say a single word to a girl. In friendship, his mind was to busy dreaming about chivalry and knighthood and epic conquests to even care about bargaining for who was going to pay for the pack of gum this time amongst his friends. If he practised alchemy his entire lab would be set on fire. Once he even almost burnt his entire uncles house!

Our dear little Leo stat sheet is horrendous ,he doesn't know anything about magic(for the most part), his alchemy is...it exists ;his sword fighting is equally horrendous for he can grab a sword, but his feeble and short body cannot move the sword fast enough, neither can he grab it for long as his muscles tire out easily. And Leo is also...

The truth is i can write an entire novel on how Leo just doesn't make the cut. But, i suppose that doesn't matter. In the end Leo is a kind kid. He isn't just very good at anything. But he did hear the rumour. In fact, every kid in his village heard the rumour. And what do all kids and teens do when they hear of hidden treasures right next door? They get drun- explore at hidden caves. And today was one such day.

"You sure it's this one?" Asked Jimmy. Jimmy is one of Leo only friends, and he is rather decent at magic. Making him the perfect fit for treasure hunting. Sort of.

"Yeah, i am sure. I have been exploring the surrounding caves lately, and i haven't explored this one yet, so that already makes it the most promising one so far." said Leo.

"Huh."

Jimmy and Leo were standing on this little hill staring at a cave which Leo thinks might be the cave which contains the mythical weapon.

"How do you know the caved hasn't caved in after all these years?" asked Leo whilst flicking his hair back.He needs to look impressive in case any of the girls go by...

"I don't."

"Very reassuring."

"There might some dangerous monsters down there." said Jimmy with a hint of fear in his voice.

"Only boars and deers have ever been found around here, and we know we can take them."

"You mean i can take it."

"sure..."Said Leo with a half ashamed tone. Leo could barely use a sword, so he often struggled with boars. Especially the more vicious ones.Till this day he only killed two boars and that's because they had achieved "enlightenment" after consuming some of the local herbs.

"Did you bring your sword?" Asked jimmy.

"Obviously" Leo showed the only sword he could afford to get today, and that was a half rusty sword stol-i mean "borrowed" from the local blacksmith. Don't worry; he always returns it later.

[Rusty sword G-]

Jimmy rolled his eyes and said ,"Okay. Don't forget the formation."

"I got it."

By formation Jimmy meant the basic four party formation .A tank, a damage dealer, a healer, and a wizard. Generally, tanks and damage dealers would always go first and wizards and healers would stay behind being protected by them .It was the most classic of party formation, and a tried and tested method of organizing a party. The party would be both safe since each class complemented each other weaknesses, and by allowed each class to do what they do best.

But, there is a problem. Leo doesn't even have a class. Generally, once a man achieves a certain threshold he is offered by the world a chance to specialize or choose a class of which they wish to be. Generally this threshold means killing a few beasts, or attempts at learning magic or archery. To some the threshold is harder to get, and no understands why the gods had designed the world in such a way, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Leo was never offered such a chance. Half of the village laughed that the gods truly hated leo, and the other half felt pity for Leo and even gave him some bbq meat as a soothing gift upon hearing his misfortune.

Two is better than one though, so they trudged on to the cave .Trudged being a harsh word i suppose, for the cave was only 50 meters away.

"It's dark." Said Jimmy when they reached the entrance of the cave.

"Can you cast it?" asked Leo while trying to pier into the abyss that is the cave

"Sure."

Jimmy raised his hands and clasped them together before uttering a sentence.

[cast of light{inferior}] ACTIVATE!

And just like that a beam of light shot out from his hands and from it spawned this light blue orb that orbited Jimmy, illuminating the cave as they went on .Jimmy did not need to speak out loud to cast his spell, but his ability to cast them was his pride and joy. Leo felt a hint of envy; for there was nothing more he wanted than to be normal.

"It looks deep." said Jimmy whilst looking around.

"Let's just walk slowly."

They started walking. Drops of water could be heard echoing through the cave. The temperature was dropping bit by bit and they soon forgot the scorching heat that was outside. All they had now was shivering cold, the buzzing light and and the dark abyss that laid in front of them.

"Hey, what is that?" said Jimmy.

"Huh?" Leo asked with this confusing look on his face. Jimmy pointed at the roof.

A drawing.

"Wow" said Leo. The corners of his eyes were shining and he felt like he could stare at the drawing all day. The drawing showed the strange depiction of dragons and humans seemingly living together.

"Why the wow. A child probably drew it!" Jimmy said it in a loud voice which made Leo a bit more apprehensive.

"It could be ancient. You don't know." said Leo

"Of course i know. It looks like a child drew it."

"whatever."

Leo didn't want an argument to happen ,nor did he desire to be left alone here without a light. Leo remembered back when he grabbed a book from this travelling merchant and saw that it detailed ancient treasures and paintings. He thought about how similar they looked to the cave paintings that he saw just now.

"Have dragons ever lived with humans?" asked Leo.

"Of course not." expressed Jimmy with all the confidence of an annoying kid, he continued," There is not time in history that dragons did more to humans then eating and hunting us down.", he paused and then talked much more quietly, "They are just beasts. No worse then animals".

Leo pondered that for a bit. He heard dragons were an incredibly rare species of monsters out in the world and that only a few thousand existed. Leo doubted that statistic was true ,since how could anyone ever know, The world was so large and unexplored that it was hard to say. But what came more to his mind was how powerful they were known to be. Some have been said to be able to obliterate entire armies by themselves. Some of the dragons were so powerful to easily rival the worlds best warriors. Some are even rumoured to be stronger then some of the gods...

"AAAAHHHHH"

A shout was heard. Leo turned back. A boar had knocked Jimmy face down. Leo unsheathed his sword and took two steps in before the boar jumped at him, but luckily Leo was able to dodge. Leo was in a tough position. Jimmy wasn't moving at all and Leo doubted he could take care of the boar. Not only that, the light was flickering as Jimmy couldn't control his mana out of consciousness like many wizards could.

Damn it!

There is only one way to save Jimmy. Leo sheathed his weapon and bolted down the cave. He could hear the screaming boar steps coming from behind so he knew he was being followed. The cave started splinting into several corridors, but he just kept going down the one in the middle, hoping that somehow he would be able to save himself from this situation.

Leo didn't want to die .Despite all the unluckiness he has had so far, he had dreams. And no one could steals his dreams and his hopes. He still hoped to be a great knight. He still hoped to be a hero one day. He one day hoped to love. Leo right now is just hoping those desires didn't lead him to his own untimely inglorious death...

Darkness

Leo now couldn't see anything as he was so far down the cave that Jimmy light could no longer be seen. His stamina was about to go out. He only had 4 points left. He shouldn't have been sword training before coming here.

Thump!

Leo felt his body falling down; colliding against the air and gravity and his screams that would be so loud to the common ear, were nothing to his adrenaline fuelled mind.

Leo could still hear the screams of the boar, but soon he heard a tumble and imagined the animal fell just as he did. Time seemed to have stopped for Leo, and he kept falling down and down until it seemed that he was simply floating in the air, as if someone was slowly gliding him down a dark passageway. Leo foot hit the ground, and he couldn't hear anything. He stretched his arms trying to feel something but he couldn't.

Wait.

Leo could hear something. He could hear faint breathing and whistling.

"Jimmy?" Leo shouted and shouted but he couldn't hear or see anything. Leo decided to walk towards that faint breathing. As Leo kept walking, the faint sound started to become stronger and stronger, and the whistling and breathing started to mix together into an indescribable sound. It sounded like air pressure but instead of a high whistling sound, it sounded deeper. Sort of like snoring.

Oh no.

"Why do you disturb my sleep?" A deep voice asked. The voice permeated the entire room and it sounded like it was coming from every side at once.

A flicker of flames. But then those flames weren't flickers no more and were burning profusely. Leo could finally see who was behind that voice. And he shuddered.

It was a tall, large red dragon. It looked majestic and splendid in all the right ways, but it's splendidness just made Leo even more afraid. He choked up and neither could he utter any words or think any words. His mind had gone blank.

"I see. You are are afraid human. You ought to be; but unfortunately he gods have shackled me. I cannot harm you even if it was my desire." the voiced spoke and each utterance resonated and reverberated through the entire room.

"I can see the truths which lie in your heart. If it is power that you desire reach out your hand and it shall be yours."

As soon as Leo heard power, he remembered Jimmy. Pangs of regret, sadness and despair rumbled in his heart. if only i was stronger, i could have saved him. If only i was stronger ,i wouldn't be so pathetic. If only i was stronger i wouldn't have been so alone and lonely in my life. If i had power ,i could have become a knight. If i had power i could have become a hero.

Alex raised him arms and opened his hand and reached out as the dragon said.

His mind blacked out.