Chapter 1: Remnant’s One and Only Dragon Tamer

"I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril."

― J.R.R. Tolkien

---

My shoes crumpled the fallen leaves, sticks, and the smaller flora as I weakly pushed a low-hanging branch in front of me.

The forest was… quiet. Too quiet.

I had heard forests were littered with all sorts of creatures, from big ones to tiny critters. And quite a few of them tended to make sounds. But this forest had no such sounds. I wasn't a professional survivalist or wildlife expert, but it felt odd even to me.

But this was still my secondary concern. My primary concern was that I had been walking in this forest for a while now. I didn't know how long exactly, but I could hazard a guess that it had been a couple hours.

And yet, there were no signs of civilization; nothing to hint that this place was touched by something with rhyme or reason.

What I did find were footprints— and claw marks. Large claw marks.

I made sure to leave those places as fast as humanly possible.

'So much for my so-called adventure… I should have known that things wouldn't be as exciting or easy in real life. Damn me for taking this as a videogame or fictional story.'

I mentally muttered, glancing at the map sitting at the bottom left of my vision as the next region was 'unlocked' as I passed a certain grid on the map.

Woe was me for thinking this would be easy. Nature was never easy.

I had been walking in a straight line—well, almost a straight line—towards the southeast.

Why southeast?

No particular reason, other than it was the opposite of where the howling seemed to have come from.

Speaking of howling, it had finally died down a while back. That was a relief, at least.

Seeing the forest thinning further ahead, I quickened my pace.

'Please… Please let there be a road or something…'

Alas, my pleas fell on deaf ears; as I passed the threshold, I was greeted by a small clearing and a large rock formation.

I sighed and looked around, wondering if I should try climbing the rocks to get a better view of the region. Walking around almost blind was clearly not working out for me, so I had to do something.

But unfortunately for me, the formation happened to be quite steep. I couldn't spot a safe way to climb up to the top. Instead, my attention was drawn to something else– a small cavity at the bottom where two rocks had created a triangular space. Surprisingly, it was spacious enough for a person to camp comfortably.

Being in the clearing, I also noticed the sky, which started to worry me a little. It was gradually darkening. Well, not entirely yet, but the sun seemed to be casting long shadows, and the sky, though still bright, would undoubtedly darken soon.

'Damn. It's going to get dark soon. And I am still lost.'

Sighing deeply, I looked around the rocky area.

I hadn't found any rivers, so I had no source of clean water. I had yet to be thirsty, curiously, but I knew sooner or later I would need water.

But seeing I had no such survivalists' luck on my side, I decided to camp here for the night.

'Like hell I'll traverse an unknown forest in the nighttime! That's a sure-fire way to die.'

Too bad I had nothing but the clothes on my person. I became aware of this distressing fact shortly after deciding to walk away from my 'spawn point'.

Looking around, I found broken twigs and dried leaves on the forest floor.

'Hmm. Time for me to try that, I guess.'

Going around, I picked up all the dried and dead flora I could gather, placing it in my inventory for ease.

By simply touching them I could store them in my inventory. Interestingly, I could store multiple leaves and sticks at a time. They automatically sorted themselves into the grids, consuming two cells.

[Dried Whisperwood Leaves x24]

[Small Whisperwood branch x9]

Neat. It was quite similar to a video game inventory.

However, I noted that it seemed to not distinguish between different shapes and sizes of the leaves and branches, as long as they're from the same source and a certain size range. To test it, I tried adding leaves from a different tree, larger fallen branches, and green leaves from the same Whisperwood tree. All of them occupied a different space. And all of them were labeled.

I had discovered a new use for my inventory. I could use it to know the names of items, it seemed. Useful, seeing I had no Appraisal skills.

Reaching the medium-sized cavity and checking it for signs of wildlife or insect life, I was pleased to see it looked untouched and safe to reside. No signs of anything living in this space, big or small.

I quickly gathered some rocks and placed them near the left corner of the entrance, a bit further away to avoid suffocating the small space with smoke. It'll be my fire pit, providing me with light and hopefully some comfort in the dark.

… of course, that is assuming I managed to light up a fire.

As I said, my survival skills were practically non-existent. I had to think very hard to remember even the most basic stuff.

'Phew. Time to light a fire.'

***

Sitting in the stone cavity, I watched somberly as the sky turned from dark blue to greyish-blue and then black.

It had taken me an infuriating amount of time to light up the fire.

I had tried multiple methods, alternatively repeating them– using another when I was tired and frustrated from the current one not working.

It was a nigh-impossible difficulty quest to produce enough friction using primitive items to light the tinder.

It had been the most strenuous thing I had done recently, and I had trekked in a forest for hours. So that's saying something. My hands were sore and my palms were beet red.

But now I had a fire, and I had sworn I would kill anything that tried to blow it out, even if it was the wild. I'll kill the wind. I'll find a way to vanquish it.…

That declaration might have been a result of my frustration reaching its peak and exploding in the process of lighting a fire. The extreme relief and euphoria I felt when it finally ignited enough to create fire was better than anything I had felt in a long while.

…

Coming back from that, the sky in this world was… beautiful. It was a clear sky littered with twinkling stars. I couldn't see the cloudy line of the Milky Way Galaxy that was commonplace in the skies from Earth, further emphasizing the fact that this world was not Earth. I had known already, but seeing more visible proof made me much more authentic. It also made me feel lonely. I was starting to miss my family. My only remaining family was my aunt, uncle, and my cousin sister. And now I couldn't even see them.

If only I could tell them what happened. I had to forcefully stop myself from imagining their reaction to my sudden disappearance. It wasn't pretty. They were nice people, my second family. They deserved better. They deserved to know the truth.

'Ugh.'

Shaking my head off the depressing thoughts, I instead focused back on the sky.

There was also no sign of a moon yet, but I had a feeling it was hidden behind the mountain range in the north. The sky was clear and there was dim light coming from the mountain range, so, I would eventually see the moon once it traveled from that part of the sky to a more visible one.

I was now lying on the stone floor of the cavity, observing the beautiful sky to calm my nerves.

Heaving a sigh, I shifted my attention and opened the System interface. Just a thought was enough to do it.

'Let's see… Out of the list, I only have 3 left to explore… '

[–Logs–]

[The Logs tab contains all the system messages and notifications you've received until now.]

[Logs] contained a list of all the notices and notifications I had received until now. Handy. There was no way I would remember all of the notifications, so this was a useful little functionality.

I had expected to learn about dragons and dragon-related things from the [Dragon Codex], but it was a lot less impressive and helpful than I assumed.

[—Dragon Codex—]

[The Dragon Codex contains some helpful information about your Dragons and the other items from the System and its Shop.]

It only had two tabs: [Dragons], which contained a grid of greyed-out cards. I guessed that those cards were information about the various dragons. Too bad everything was greyed out and texts were blank. However, I did notice that there was a total number on top.

[0/1,023]

If what I was reading was correct, there were 1,023 dragons for me to collect. Or they could be types of dragons as well.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn't curious about the various types of Dragons.

The next tab was [Items]. It contained cards that contained an image and labels of various items.

There, I found the cards of the structures and berries I had gotten from my VIP Beginner's pack.

Seeing I had nothing else to do, I began reading the description of all the items.

Inside this tab, I found out that there was also a card for the Dragon egg currently sitting inside my inventory.

[—Fire Dragon Egg—]

Element: Fire

Rarity: Common

Description: A glowing and fiery egg that possesses the potential to hatch into a powerful Fire Dragon. Can be hatched inside a Dragon Hatchery or near fire.

'Ah!'

I had found a way to hatch the egg.

I opened my inventory and found the thing in question sitting within.

I willed to retrieve it on my open palms and was now holding on to a large egg that was bigger than my head and weighed a little. Not enough to cause strain, but enough for me to feel its weight in my hands.

"Whoa…"

It felt warm and was indeed glowing a bit like the description said.

"Will it really hatch a real Dragon?"

I murmured in awe as I observed the smooth wavy texture. It wasn't like any other egg I had seen.

After another re-read of the description, I put the dragon egg near the fire pit.

I had wondered if I should place it inside the pit but decided against it since the description said "near the fire" and not "inside the fire". Also, I didn't want it to accidentally kill the fire. That would be devastating, to say the least.

Once the egg was placed safely(?) near the fire pit, I received a new notification.

[Attention!]

[Your Dragon Egg has started the process of hatching!

Hatch Time Remaining: 30 minutes]

'Ooh! Nice.'

Seeing as I had nothing else to do but wait while the dragon egg hatched, I checked the last remaining tab.

[—Feedback/Bug Report—]

[This tab is a provisional addition to your System to allow you to send manual Feedback and/or Bug Reports to the developer while it is in its Beta stage.

Warning: Only use it to send actual Feedback and Bug Reports.]

'Hmm.'

I didn't really know what Feedback to share, so I decided to leave it be for the time being. I hadn't encountered any bugs as far as I could tell. Plus, that warning was a little foreboding. I didn't want to bother a being capable of sending me to another world in my sleep and making a freaking System.

Closing the tab, I sighed and closed my eyes.

'What a bizarre day.'

I opened my eyes again as I heard a ping from a new notification.

***