Tale of the Red Dragon Without Dragon's Might

Sulphur and the smell of floating stone.

Thin and vertical pupils, like a cat's eyes.

Nostrils that occasionally spew smoke, rear-swept double horns, and a thorny crown.

Wei An closed his eyes and shook his head, ignoring the somewhat heavy head that felt like wearing a helmet, and upon focusing, the ferocious head of the Red Dragon not only didn't disappear but became even clearer, and the dark red scales with scratches became distinctly visible.

Next, without waiting for Wei An to act, the Red Dragon lifted its enormous paw and poked him.

Under the incomparable strength of the Red Dragon, Wei An stumbled to the ground, his head smashing on the broken eggshells.

It hurts, so it's not a dream?

Lying down where he fell, Wei An's thoughts were in disarray.

But wasn't I working overtime at the company? For the project, I did overtime for a month; during the busiest times, I ate and drank in the office, curled up sleeping at my workstation, and finally, unable to endure it, I leaned back in my chair after solving a tough problem and squinted my eyes.

Wei An clumsily got up, and at that moment suddenly realized his hands were gone, replaced by small limbs covered with bright scarlet scales.

Dragon, he had turned into a dragon. Wei An suddenly realized, lifting up his disproportionately large head, only to see the Red Dragon quietly observing him, its throat rolling, emitting an indistinct grunt.

Why are you staring at me like that?

That dragon... judging by appearance, unquestionably a Red Dragon from D&D, so is this the D&D world?

Forgotten Realms, Klein World, or Greyhawk World? Or perhaps it's none of these worlds but a unique world created by some author? After all, D&D has countless worlds, each with its own settings, or rather, there are no D&D worlds, only worlds under D&D rules.

No, my head is getting fuzzy.

Wei An quickly thought of a severe problem: according to the settings, he should now receive the Dragon Inheritance, then loudly proclaim his true name, or else he would be seen as flawed merchandise by the Mother Dragon and cruelly killed, at best abandoned... as written in those novels.

Wait, wait, the vast memories will soon flood into his brain, get ready, don't freeze up.

Wei An had never felt time pass so slowly, and in the end, it turns out he didn't receive the Dragon Inheritance, couldn't shout his true name, and might die before accomplishing anything.

What to do?

I'm going to die, going to die.

The next moment, in a desperate bid for cleverness, the baby dragon carefully coughed, making ummm and ahhh sounds to adapt to his new vocal organs, and then opened his mouth to blurt out a hoarse shout: "Le-, Leo... Leon Ansur... Leon Ansurte."

The baby dragon nodded to itself, thinking from now on, Wei An is history; the future him is Leon Ansurte, the most powerful among the Five-Colored Dragons.

Leon gave himself a name that seemed proper, eagerly looking at the Mother Dragon—surely his mother now—hoping she would move her gaze away in satisfaction. To his surprise, the Mother Dragon showed no reaction and after a moment got closer to his face... that look seemed like she was staring at a fool.

As a matter of fact, the Mother Dragon was also confused. It was her first time being a mother, yes, but she had never heard of such a weird hatchling. It didn't immediately seek food, eat the roast beef she had prepared, or even settle for eggshells, then claim a corner or crevice in her nest as its own... but instead insisted on making eye contact, a stare-off, then shouting some strange words.

How did she end up giving birth to such an idiotic thing?

She might be a bit silly, but the important thing is her hatchling.

Lick it.

Mother Dragon only needs to think about how to raise her hatchling, but Leon has more to consider.

He fell again under the forked tongue of Mother Dragon, the sticky saliva was uncomfortable, seeing the mocking expression on Mother Dragon's face it was hard to imagine a big lizard could display such complex, rich emotions, a pang of fear hit him, thinking maybe this wasn't going to work?

Yes, apart from the intelligence of White Dragon being somewhat lower, True Dragons generally surpass Humans.

Mother Dragon opened her huge mouth, revealing sharp white teeth. Was she about to start eating?

Just as Leon prepared to accept his fate, he suddenly noticed Mother Dragon moved her head away, following her glance, he saw another Dragon Egg was about to hatch.

Now's the moment!

While Mother Dragon was distracted, Leon quickly took the chance to flee, to avoid being killed as a defective product by Mother Dragon because he lacked the Dragon Inheritance. Biting his teeth, Leon moved his short legs towards the cave entrance.

Human infants can't do much when they are born, but Dragons are clearly different. Even newborn baby dragons have enough strength and tools; they possess brute force strong enough to break out of their eggshells and have the Spit Weapon at their disposal. Given about an hour, they could be ready for flying, fighting, and reasoning.

In any case, Leon started running.

Run, baby dragon.

Mother Dragon looked back, Leon quickly pretended nothing happened, looking innocently around as if surveying his territory, making grunting noises and rolling around on the ground, rolling back and forth until he felt somewhat foolish, foolish enough to intensify Mother Dragon's suspicions, and he silently stopped.

Young dragons can mate, often driven purely by physiological impulses, but very few of them are prepared for raising offspring, and they might leave a whole nest of eggs in any place that seems likely to support survival.

By adulthood, even evil or selfish dragons develop a certain degree of parental instinct. They keep their eggs in the nest, watching over them to ensure safety during incubation. But that's it, they don't care for their offspring as painstakingly as humans do, holding them in their palms afraid of dropping them, or keeping them in their mouths afraid they'd dissolve.

Seeing that being foolish was not risky, merely foolishly rolling around, Mother Dragon turned her head away again, and then Leon had run once more. Now he was far away from Mother Dragon.

Dragon Nest was located within the ruins of a temple, at this moment the bright light shining into Dragon Nest from the main door was somewhat blinding, the exit was within reach,

Leon decided to give it his all, controlling his short legs to run for his life, running and flapping his wings.

The baby dragon saw the blazing fire, smoke, and the glittering sky outside the smoke, further off the rugged ground, the continuous low hills...so how come there was a cliff?

Leon wanted to slam the brakes, but his body wasn't quite following his commands, there was a bit of a delay.

The last moment before falling off the cliff, Leon remembered the newly hatched baby dragon, not knowing whether it was his brother or sister, the baby dragon did not shout out its name, remembering the dumb look in Mother Dragon's eyes, the dumb look in the eyes of the newly hatched baby dragon...perhaps, maybe Dragon Inheritance wasn't necessary after all.

Now it was too late for anything, he tumbled down the steep slope like a rubber ball, a rolling stone, causing a splash and sending countless droplets flying as he hit the water.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle—

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle—

Golden dragons, bronze dragons, Green dragons, Black dragons… many dragons possess underwater breathing abilities, however, Red dragons do not.

Fortunately, before crossing over, Leon was a southerner who could swim; he learned to swim with friends in the river during primary school, never understanding why swimming required lessons, now he just needed a bit of time to figure it out.