Ch.1 — Struggling to Survive (Updated)

A/N: As promised, a remake of Saint Dragon God's rise. The setting of this book is a bit different, and the cultivation system as a whole has been changed to be a bit more standard and less absurd. The artifact/treasure system has also been changed. So, by all means, I hope you enjoy it.

Also, on a side note, the early chapters will be a bit dark. Unlike the last book, the MC can't just fly out from day one. There's also the fact he doesn't have his memories, amongst other things. Just pay attention, everything will be slowly explained and resolved over time.

Also, this will be more of a kingdom-building type novel in the early chapters and will not really focus on Alex/Zane.

…

Alex Forbes, aged 25, was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 23. For as long as he could remember, he has had a fascination with dragons and phoenixes. He has studied many different forms of these mythological creatures that appeared throughout history. Due to this fascination, he has written and read many books with dragons and phoenixes of some sort in them. It's gotten to the point he unconsciously imitated them personality-wise. Today, he was taking his last breath.

Alex smiled bitterly… 'I've fought this disease for as long as I can. I've bared with mind-crippling pain for my loved ones, I've gone through countless treatments and put myself into crippling debt. Yet… life still escapes me. So be it, if there's a next life I won't lose again… never again. That is my wish… To live as a proud dragon.'

With that, Alex closed his eyes never to open them again in this world.

[As you wish, M'Lord.] A voice rang out in his now dormant mind.

…

Somewhere in the ancient moonlight world, a chasm could be seen in the middle of a desert of black sand. At the bottom of this chasm, the nest of a clan of dragons could be seen. 12 grand palaces could be seen in this chasm as well. But something was seriously wrong, all the dragons were limp. They were dead. Many of the eggs were broken or rendered nonviable for life. The chasm was full of scorch marks as far as the eye could see.

However, some of them did indeed survive. 5 eggs survived the mysterious calamity, all of them put on a large pedestal with their own egg holders. The biggest one amongst them was actually shaking and cracking. This process took over an hour as the baby black dragon inside the egg desperately clawed its way out with a fierce expression.

Finally, at dawn, it crawled out and attempted to roar to announce its presence. Unfortunately, its vocal cords weren't fully developed yet so it failed to create a roar and instead came out like a cute squeak. Looking around it noticed all the dead dragons and began tearing up. Even if it didn't know what death was yet, it innately understood they were all gone.

Struggling to stand and balance the baby dragon the size of a large rock desperately tried to move. Amongst the hundreds of dragon corpses, it could feel one, in particular, calling to it. Its instincts screamed at it to get there no matter the cost. It desperately tried to stand but kept falling flat on its belly. Realizing it couldn't stand, it resorted to crawling. Bit by bit, it made its way to the ledge of the pedestal before falling off and hitting its head.

The baby struggled to flip back over onto its belly to continue struggling toward one of its kin. The dragon it was crawling towards was in fact one of its parents, more specifically its mother. It could innately feel she was a close relative of it.

It struggled for over half an hour to cross even a tenth of the distance between it and its dead mother. It was then it began being able to make baby steps with its 4 feet. It stumbled and fell several times but kept getting back up again and again. Slowly, it began being able to walk, and quickly that walk turned into a trot. That trot evolved into a canter soon enough before arriving in front of its mother within a few minutes.

Exhausted from its struggle, it nudged her limp wing with its nose and crawled under before falling asleep. Although she was dead, she could be used as shelter from the inevitable rain.

It woke up the next morning starving. It bitterly opened its eyes, it knew that it would have to eat… However, there was only one thing to eat in this chasm after whatever calamity happened… Dragons.

Worse, its teeth and claws had yet to grow. So it would be very difficult to get through the scales of these dragons. Still, it began walking away from its dead mother. No matter how hungry it was it wouldn't eat its mother.

It went to the nearest dead dragon and began gnawing at its scales with its gums. Despite the pain in its gums it kept nibbling at the scale for an hour. Finally, it managed to loosen the scale enough for it to be pulled off. Unfortunately, there was a scale partially underneath the other scale. It had to remove this scale as well as a few others for it to be able to get easy access to the flesh underneath. This took 4 hours so it wouldn't be long until noon.

With access to the flesh underneath it tried to pull some out with its maw but it failed miserably… It pouted as it was getting frustrated. It continued trying, but it simply couldn't get the flesh to separate. It pouted and curled up on the ground to try and nap again. Unfortunately, its hunger was eating away at it. It only managed to last as long as it did because of the remaining nourishment from its egg.

However, it knew it couldn't do anything. Its jaw was too weak, it only managed to get the scales off because they were already beginning to fall off. Even then it stool took it a few hours to remove enough to get access.

Over the past couple of hours, the fog above the canyon had been growing darker and now it was also starting to rain. Reluctantly it began walking back over to its mother who despite being dead made him feel safe. It crawled under her wing once more and curled up into a little ball to preserve its heat.

The baby looked at his mother in sadness with tears before closing its eyes. He might not be able to think much right now, but he still knew his situation wasn't normal.

...

A/N: I hope everyone likes this book, it's got a dragon MC, a solid cultivation system, unique geography, kingdom/clan building, etc.

This book is also taking part in the fantasy carnival, so please send some power stones my way.

Also, to celebrate the new year and the release of this book, for every 75 power stones this book gets starting today until January 10th, I will post 1 additional bonus chapter at the end of the month.

please add this book to your library to get notified of releases and give it some reviews. For every 50 genuine reviews received from January 1st to January 10th, I will also post an additional bonus chapter at the end of the month (If not next month in case this book blows up). No poor reviews like 'Oh, this is good, 5/5', etc, will be counted toward this goal. In fact, I will actively try to delete such poor reviews as they are useless.

Good luck, and may you dragons and phoenixes soar high! (While I ride your tailcoats to glory.)