Chapter 3: A Dragon’s Safe Haven

"We men dream dreams, we work magic, we do good, we do evil. The dragons do not dream. They are dreams. They do not work magic: it is their substance, their being. They do not do; they are."

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

---

[Congratulations! Your dragon ? is now Level 5!]

[?'s Fire Affinity has been boosted!]

[You've unlocked ?'s first ability!]

[Due to the [Supreme Dragon Goddess's Blessing] Perk, you've gained Fire Affinity(Minor) and Fire Resistance(Minor) from your dragon ?.]

In the past couple of minutes, I'd come to a rather baffling conclusion: Dragons were bullshit.

They didn't make any sense.

The little thing ate 60 berries. Sixty! That filled its XP bar 4 times in total, leveling it from Level 1 to 5, each level-up doubling the XP requirement from the looks of it. But I digress. The amount of berries it ate was enough to create a mound quite bigger than the baby dragon in both size and volume. And yet it ate it all.

Nonsense. It was utter nonsense.

I stopped feeding it after the notifications came up both to read them and because I just couldn't bring myself to feed it anymore without losing my mind.

By all logic, it should've been bloated right now, but there wasn't even a tiny bump on its stomach.

"… Do you have a black hole in your stomach or something? What kind of black magic is this?"

I finally asked in exasperation, unable to stop myself after witnessing the absurdity.

Of course, the little dragon just tilted its head innocently and said nothing. Not like it could talk in the first place.

After getting over that bizarreness, I sighed and wondered.

'Should I keep feeding it? It's been eating for a while now. I should probably take a break. Even if it can just eat an infinite amount of these berries and there doesn't seem to be any immediate negative side effects, it's simply taking too long. I feel like I've been feeding it for the past hour…'

I looked at it and wondered if it would ask for more like it did before, but the hatchling dragon seemed satisfied with it. Which was good, because I was tired of feeding it.

'Maybe dragons just have an incredible appetite. Yeah, that's probably it.'

Seemingly satisfied, it yawned and paddled its way to my lap, and then before I could say anything, it fell asleep instantly.

'Huh… cute.'

Seeing I had nothing else to do and the drowsiness in me was gone for the time being, I checked my Status page, finding a new tab that now listed my affinities.

I only had one that I had just received from one of my perks. [Fire Affinity].

'Does that mean I can shoot fireballs and stuff now? Or… Wait, ugh, it requires Mana, so it's useless to me right now… Welp, at least one of us can shoot fireballs. Probably.'

Looking at the peacefully sleeping creature on my lap, I sighed.

'I'll test it out in the morning. I don't even know how to train it to do that. But my gut feeling is telling me it will work out somehow. Again, some information on that would be very helpful right about now… Like, a guide to how to train your dragon… heh.'

Speaking of the little dragon, I decided to check its full [Status] since I had nothing else to do right now.

[?]

[Fire Dragon

Rarity: Common

Level: 5

HP: 300

MP: 2000

Abilities unlocked: [Ignite]]

Mentally clicking on the [Ignite] popped out a new window.

[Ignite]

Cost: 20 MP

[Description: The Fire Dragon sets its target ablaze, inflicting damage over time and causing a burning effect that weakens the enemy's defenses.]

I was expecting to see something like Fireball listed as its first ability, but this was pretty interesting too. I idly wondered what other abilities it might get.

'Something like an AOE attack might be nice for a more spread-out attack. And maybe a fire shield? A wall of fire, perhaps? Anyhow, this is yet another reason why I should level up the little guy.'

But that was mostly the gamer inside me talking. In reality, I wasn't planning to get involved in battles so soon. If possible, I would've liked to avoid it as much as possible since I wasn't sure how I would handle one in real life. I was never much of a fighter, nor was I particularly interested in fighting. In a way, I was much suited for this kind of System than a Gamer system which was all about fighting and leveling up. It was a fun concept in fiction, one that I quite enjoyed, but realizing that there was a risk of getting severely wounded, and in the worst case death, I was apprehensive about it.

I yawned, the sleep finally coming back to me at long last.

But before I could close my eyes after closing the window, I noticed the moonlight now lighting up the area.

On instinct, I looked up to see the moon but what I saw left my mouth agape.

The moon… was shattered. A chunk of it was shattered off looking like something had punched it from the right side…

"… Holy shit."

It took me a while to get myself out of the stupor, though I was still confused and surprised to see the shattered moon. In a strange and twisted way, it was beautiful.

"Seriously, what world am I in?! The moon is shattered and it's called Remnant… I swear I've heard about it before…. but I can't remember if there were any worlds with such a theme."

Furrowing my brows in confusion, I was deep in my thoughts, trying to remember. But I was once again pulled out of my thoughts when I heard the ping of a new notification. It was a reply from the Admin regarding my feedback.

I immediately opened it and read.

[Admin: Thanks for the feedback! I'll work on it to make things more beginner-friendly. But it'll take some time. For the time being, I'm sending a data packet that you can download and 'absorb' to know the basics. It'll include the method to open the portal as well. I don't know why it didn't give you the knowledge automatically like it was supposed to. I'll release a patch in the near future with the improvements in the tutorial and the bug fix. Make it more clear and descriptive. But I won't make you re-do the tutorial for that. Thus, the data packet.]

[System: [CLICK HERE!] to install the data packet from Admin.]

[Admin: Accept the prompt after clicking on the button.]

[Admin: PS: I'm sorry I can't help much with regard to your other request. I'll try to talk to my superiors and see if they accept. But don't get your hopes up. Meddling with your universe is kinda forbidden and I broke some serious laws when I kidnapped you. (For very good reasons, I swear! You're an ideal host for the DTS.) I'm currently in a bit of a pickle right now, dealing with the higher beings from your dimension who are raging and demanding compensation. Fucking interdimensional politics. They don't even care about your well-being even though you are the victim here. Anyway, I'm really sorry. I know what I did was awful and yet you're surprisingly calm about it. But I do feel bad about doing what I did. I'll try my best to do what you asked, I promise. Will let you know if there are any updates on that in the future. Good luck! :)]

The last message was a bit disheartening and slightly worrisome due to what it implied but I was honestly not expecting anything at all from this. So the little hope that my request might go through was more than enough for me for the time being.

Sighing, I clicked on the [Click Here!] button on the screen and accepted the prompt asking if I wanted to install the packet in my memory—spoiler alert, I did want that, yes— and my perception seemed to lag out as new memories and information flooded in my head.

…

It was a painless process. I didn't feel anything other than the weird lag that made me pause for an unknown amount of time. When I came to, I suddenly had a much better understanding of things. Including the world I was currently in.

"I remember now! Remnant. The Shattered Moon. The Grimm. It makes sense now. It's RWBY. That American animation series with 4 girls as the protagonist. One of them wielded a scythe, I think."

It was one of the shows I had seen but didn't really care for for various reasons that were mostly irrelevant now. So, my memories of the show were hazy at best. Unfortunate; but I didn't let it get to me. With the newfound knowledge I had received, I was growing much more nervous with every passing moment as I started to recall things from the show that I did remember. Namely, the Grimm.

'Oh, shit. I've been out in the wilds where the Grimm are. How have I not encountered one yet? How the heck am I still alive?!'

It was either some sort of protagonist luck—not that I considered myself one—or my 10 Luck stats working overtime to prevent any deadly encounters. Heck, it might have been the Admin's doing for all I knew.

Though I had no way of knowing what was the reason I was still alive, I knew for a fact that now that I was aware of it, it was only a matter of time before shit hit the fan. That's how it usually went in the stories I read. And while I wasn't going to assume my life was fiction, at the time it felt very close to it given my bizarre circumstances.

And I was NOT ready for a fight.

So, I immediately decided on the best course of action.

'I can't stay here. I need to get the fuck out of this dangerous forest.'

Luckily for me, I had just the way. Among the new knowledge I had received.

With a thought, I willed for it and a moment later, a circular translucent blue portal came to life in front of me, showing me a limited view of an open grassland on the other side.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled the sleeping baby dragon into my hands and walked through it, my mind trying its best not to break down from the absurdity of it all.

And it was a good decision I made at the time because if I had stayed, my luck would've run out.

***

-Salem-

She observed from her castle's window as the mysterious surge of energy in the distance began to lose its intensity, fading away slowly but surely.

A few hours ago, while discussing her plans with her minions, Salem had felt an inexplicable surge of energy she'd never felt in her life. Not ever since the two brother gods left this world— and her— to rot after her rebellion against them.

For a moment she had wondered if one or both gods had, for some reason, returned. Perhaps Ozma had somehow brought the 4 relics together under her nose and called upon the God of Light. If true, it was a very hasty and foolish decision on his part given what she knew about the requirements for bringing the gods back to this world. Both she and Ozma knew very well that if the gods descended upon this world, it would be judged harshly and possibly eradicated if they were unsatisfied with its denizens.

Not that she cared much about the well-being of these ignorant people. If anything, it was a chance for her to get her revenge on the gods who made her like this.

But after she spent some time studying the nature of this strange energy that could be felt in the Evernight castle even though it was coming from much further away, in the direction of the southeastern region of the Dragon Continent, she came to the conclusion that it wasn't them. It couldn't be. The gods had a very distinct aura. Even after so many a millennium, she still vividly remembered them. And the energy she felt wasn't similar to any of the two brothers.

So, if it wasn't their advent to the mortal realm, what else could it be?

It wasn't Ozma's powers either. She knew Ozma was incapable of such feats. Nowadays, his magic was fleeting at best. And it only faded as the decades passed. He really shouldn't have given away his powers to those young girls.

Even in his prime, he couldn't produce such a large amount of energy. So, it was impossible for him now.

So now, she very much wanted to know what had caused this surge of energy and if it was something that could be used for her goals.

Thinking so, she had sent two of her subordinates, Hazel and Arthur, to learn more about this phenomenon. Those two were the most fitted for this task as Cinder was tasked with an important mission currently and was occupied with it and Tyrian was not suited for this type of mission. Arthur was good at information gathering with his little machines he adored so much and Hazel was primarily acting as his bodyguard since she knew very well this phenomenon was felt by Ozma as well and he wouldn't sit still either.

But as she felt the energy slowly fading, she began to wonder if they would be able to get any result. She was already searching for any signs of its origin using her Grimms in that region but for some reason, there was a distinct lack of them near the area where she suspected was the source of the energy.

Regardless, she wasn't going to sit still until she discovered the source of it. There weren't many things that caught the Grimm Queen's attention, and this incident was unlike anything she had experienced in her long lifespan.

This was new. This was interesting. Very, very interesting.

***

Traveling through a portal was a weird experience.

One moment I was in a stony clearing inside a forest in the middle of a starry night and the next moment, I was standing in what looked like a grassy plain region in the middle of the day.

The sudden change in light made me squint my eyes, but once it adjusted, I could see the place better.

Much to my surprise, it was an island. Standing on top of a stone pedestal where the portal was located behind me and in front of me lay a small set of stairs that led to the grassy field, I could see the vast ocean surrounding this landmass from where I stood.

[Welcome to ?, the safe haven of the Dragons! This place was once home to a myriad of dragons but now lays barren of any. Use this empty and unoccupied land to build sanctuaries for your Dragons and provide them with their needs. In turn, you are sure to gain your Dragons' Affection and Obedience, along with a hefty amount of Gold.

Did you know? Happy Dragons can earn you Gold? Well, now you do! So, make sure to keep them as happy as possible, and in turn, you'll be flooded with Gold. It's a win-win!

Now, without further ado, let's get building!]

[Notice! You've unlocked the Build Mode!]

[—Build Mode—]

[This menu allows you to plan your structures in this realm, saving you both time and energy. Add structures from the Build Mode menu and let the Construction Golems do their job. It's hassle-free and there are options to edit, upgrade, and replace structures or modify the positions of pre-built structures on the Build Mode menu map.]

After reading them, I dismissed the notifications. The Build Menu was definitely interesting and made more sense of the buildings and farms I had received at the beginning from the VIP Beginner's Kit. I had wondered how I would go about building them. This made things seemingly very easy.

But first things first, I had to learn more about my new surroundings.

Turning around to get the lay of the land, I found in the distance a small grove of trees in the northeast of my location, spread out but not quite large enough to be called a forest, surrounding the singular mountain on this landmass that despite being not that tall had snow on top of it. A part of the mountain top was also flattened and on it stood a stone statue that vaguely resembled a parched western dragon. I could also barely make out a pathway curled around the mountain that seemed to lead to the mountaintop where the statue lay.

In terms of structures, there wasn't much. However, I could notice two structures not too far away. One near the coast and one hidden in the tree grove. The latter seemed man-made.

'Something to check out, then. Alright, seems like I have some work to do. Ah, and I didn't even get a sleep. Ugh, the time shift is making my head hurt. Is this what jet lag feels like?'

With a load of work in front of me, I pumped myself and immediately got started… right after I closed the portal behind me.

I kinda forgot to do that before. Whoops. Not that there were any risks in doing so since nobody else other than I, my dragons, and those I allowed could see it. But leaving it on didn't sit well with me.

***

"Hnngh~"

Stretching my body to get the fatigue out of my system, I looked around at the progress I had made.

… There were no new additions to the land.

Okay, so maybe I didn't make any actual progress in the past half an hour or so I had been here, but that was for very good reasons!

I moved around and checked out the near vicinity of the land, trying to get myself familiar with this place and see if I could find anything new that I missed in my cursory inspection of the land earlier. Something told me I was going to be living here for a long time. After all, I had no intention of leaving here until I had a hoard of level 100 dragons just as a precaution. I was not taking any chances. This was my life we're talking about. I was not going to die… again…

In my rather short-lived travel, I found boulders, large patches of light green grass, and some thick trees with light brown stems and spherical tops of light green leaves, which I couldn't recognize—though, I couldn't recognize most trees other than one or two I was overly familiar with and could recognize. My knowledge of the subject was simply non-existent.

… In conclusion, I didn't really find anything interesting in the grassland. So, I went near the shore, where the first structure was also located.

The structure turned out to be some kind of cave jutting out from the size of a small cliff, with an entrance bordered by two leaf-less and branch-less tree stems arching around the stoney entrance and covered in vines. Nearby, I could see shrubs of different sizes spread around the area.

Inside the shallow cave—as I soon discovered— was a large patch of dried bushes and a miniature pond which seemed to be getting water from a small fissure in the wall. It would have taken me some time to figure out what it was if it weren't for the helpful notifications from the system once I reached the cave.

[Congratulations! You've discovered the Breeding Den!]

[—Breeding Den—]

[This place is where the magic happens! Bring two willing and breedable adult dragons and let them spend some time alone. Soon, you'll find the product of their— ahem, hard work laying around.

The process may take time ranging from a few hours to a couple of days depending on the mood, type, breed, and rarity of the two dragons.

Note: Once eggs are produced, you can either take them to the Hatchery to hatch. Alternatively, you can keep them near their respective elements, but the hatching process will take longer in that case.]

'Hmm, I guess that makes sense.'

"So, this is where I'll breed my dragons… wait, that sounds very wrong somehow when I say that out loud. Let's burn that memory and never bring that up again. Yeah… Ahem, anyway, I don't see any Hatchery."

I wondered out loud.

'Was that dilapidated-looking man-made structure Hatchery? Why would it be so far away from this though?'

The Breeding Den was located near the southeastern corner of the square shape island from what I could tell. Whereas the other structure was near the western border, surrounded by trees. The walk from here to there was a fair distance away.

'Guess I should head there next and see what it is.'

So, I headed there after I was done inspecting the Breeding Den… or Dragon Fuck-cave, as my brain registered it.

The walk took a decent amount of time—not too long, but it was certainly a fair distance away as I had surmised.

Reaching the small thicket of trees, I could see the place much better, and from just a glance I could tell one thing.

"I don't think this is a Hatchery…"

Thankfully, the System helped me identify the place.

[Congratulations! You've discovered the trainer's hut!]

[—Trainer's Hut—]

[This is where the previous Dragon Tamer lived once upon a time. Known to many a world as the Legendary Dragon Tamer, this place was what he called home, living in seclusion along with his hundreds of dragons.

But he died of old age and this place was abandoned.

Hint: Repair his home and you can call it your own.]

This also prompted a new Quest.

[Title: Legacy of the previous Dragon Tamer

Description: You've discovered the hut of the legendary Dragon Tamer of the past. And as a Dragon Tamer yourself—and needing a place to live—you can repair this place and claim it as your own abode.

Objectives:

- Repair the Trainer's Hut

Rewards:

- Book on Dragon Taming and Training by the previous Dragon Tamer.

- XP

- 30000 Gold

Failure:

None]

[Accept?]

[Yes / No]

Hitting the 'Yes' button, I immediately pulled up the newly added Build Mode and confirmed my guess. Indeed, I could repair structures from the Build Mode. This was going to make my job way easier. And did I say how much I like easy and simple things? I love them!

On the menu displaying an isometric 2D map of the square island, I found the dilapidated structure located between the trees. Clicking on it opened a small menu with a single option available for the time being aptly named [Repair] along with a cost of 20000 Gold.

"Damn."

I sighed, seeing the amount. I only had 15200 Gold with me. I couldn't repair it.

I still tried to click on it, just to see what happens. I expected it to show an error or message saying I didn't have enough money. And it did, though there was something else that I hadn't thought about.

[Warning!]

[You don't have enough Gold for this!

Need 4800 G more.

Do you wish to use DP to cover the remaining cost?

Cost: 5 DP]

[ Accept / Refuse ]

"Oh. Right, DP was an alternate currency for Gold. I forgot."

Though this reminded me of that fact, it also brought forth more questions. Like what was the conversion rate between Gold and DP. Clearly, DP was much more valuable.

'And if I had to hazard a guess based on this prompt, I would say 1 DP is about 1000 Gold, more or less— Wait, I already know the rate. What am I doing? It's in the memories I received.'

I facepalmed.

The newly gained information was something I had to consciously focus on to remember. It hadn't quite "settled in", so to speak. But in it was the conversion rate I needed.

1 DP = 1000 Gold

Once that was confirmed, I clicked on 'Refuse' and decided to come back to this place later. Even if I needed a place to stay and would be gaining more money than I would spend on this repair job, I would have to use my DP— and DP, from my newly instilled memories, was a rare currency. Something like special gems or tokens in certain Strategy or RPG games that were only earned through special means.

And the DP to Gold conversion was a one-way conversion, meaning I couldn't convert Gold back to DP.

So, as a hoarder in video games, I was of course going to preserve this rare and special currency as much as I could and see if it would be useful in buying items or things that can't be bought from just Gold. I mean, surely there must be a reason why there's another form of currency given to me when Gold seemed to be working perfectly fine.

Anyhow, with that settled, I gave one last look at the said "hut" and left the place, promising myself to come back to fix it once I had enough Gold in my reserves.

***

And that brings us back to the present where I was standing in the open grassland, marking the foundation for my structures.

Now, let it be known that I had played quite a few strategy town-building games, and this felt similar to that. However, here I was building things related to Dragons rather than houses and malls for humans.

But it was similar in feel, so I didn't have trouble navigating the Build Mode's menu.

"Alright! Let's get this started, shall we?"

I asked my fiery little red companion who had now woken up from its nap and was sitting on my shoulders, with me holding its tiny legs just in case it slipped and fell. I got a small 'Kuu' in reply.

Also, it might have been my imagination, but it looked slightly bigger than it did earlier. And heavier. Though, it was hard to tell. The tutorial did say berries made them grow, so maybe it was already happening, but I didn't expect the growth to be so… quick. Something to look out for in the future. Not now though.

Looking in the tab that listed the structures I owned, I found the three I had received.

[Instant Fire Dragon Habitat x1

Tier: 1

A habitat for Fire Dragons.

Builds instantaneously upon placement and requires no Construction Golems.

Can hold 1 Fire Dragon once built.

Earns 200 Gold/hour.

Upgrade to higher tiers to gain more Gold and hold more Dragons.]

[Instant Dragon Berry Farm x1

Tier: 1

A farm that automatically produces delicious Dragon Berries for your Dragons and requires no care from the user.

Builds instantaneously upon placement and requires no Construction Golems.

Produces 100 Berries/hour once built.

Upgrade to produce more Berries.]

[Fire Dragon's Temple

Tier: 1

A temple that has a mystical power inside it.

Boosts the Fire Dragons in a certain radius, allowing them to reach new heights in power.

Increases Level cap for Fire Dragons from 10 to 20.

Requirements to build: 5 Construction Golems of Tier 1 or higher.

Time to build: 1 day]

Among the three, only the Fire Dragon Temple required both time and resources— namely, the Construction Golems—to build while the others were instantaneous and didn't require anything to build.

This also led to me learning something new. That my Dragons had a soft Level cap, apparently.

Now that was an annoying but eye-opening piece of information. What it meant was that I couldn't just power-level my Dragons by constantly feeding them berries. A precaution for such power leveling tactics, perhaps. If I wasn't mildly annoyed by it posing as an obstacle in my path to infinite power, I would call it a good game design.

It made sense from a developer's perspective. If a noob could power level his dragons so easily, it would mess up the progression and make certain elements too easy and thus boring. Well, at least from a game's point of view.

'Well, that changes things. But I'm definitely setting it up near my Fire Dragon's Habitat.'

With that learned, I put my plans into action.

In the next minute or so, I placed the structures I owned and watched in fascination as the System did its magic, and right in front of my eyes new things spawned from thin air with little fanfare.

"Woah."

I muttered in awe.

The empty plain, between the Breeding Den and the portal, was where I had decided to build them.

Seeing as I was just starting out, I chose the area with the most open space. I had learned while working with the Build Mode that trees, mountains, and even the occasional boulders lying here and there were considered obstacles and required me to spend Construction Golems to remove them first before I could build in that region. So, the area I chose was clean of these obstacles. In the future, I was likely going to change things and make them more orderly, remove some of those obstacles, and arrange things neatly, but for now, this chaotic and organic placement was fine.

I had placed both the Fire Temple and Fire Dragon's Habitat fairly nearby, though there was plenty of space between them for a pathway.

The Berry Farm was placed a bit further away from them both mostly because I didn't want to place the food production so close to the living habitats. Yes, I was a little wary that my dragon might end up getting attracted to the farm and crumpling the farmland in pursuit of some snacks. Also, both the fire-related places lived up to their name, seeing the Habitat's floor was solidified molten igneous-looking rocks and hints of Magma present from a miniature mountain with an open top that was in the center of the habitat and was giving of steams and heat. The temple had a strange design that looked more like a single-storied stone house sitting on top of light grey stones, almost seemed to be carved out of the very stone as its walls were made from the same stone. It had a slanted rooftop forming a cross in the middle and an upside-down V near the ends, though the top middle of the roof had a very large chimney-like structure that had lava inside. All in all, it was a strange design for what was supposed to be a temple. I didn't get how it was considered a temple, but I chalked it up to the developer trying something unique. Though…

'Great, a mini-volcano and a temple with lava on top of it. Just what I needed on my peaceful island. I feel so safe now.'

I quipped sarcastically in my head, not sure about new additions to what I was hoping would be my safe abode.

For understandable reasons, I was unwilling to approach the two places, especially the habitat. But I still did, even though my instincts warned me against it. Mostly because ever since the habitat was spawned, my little red rider had grown curious and impatient, wanting to leave my shoulder and seemingly move there. It kept chomping on my head and pointing towards the habitat.

I picked it down from my shoulder before it could fit my entire head in its maw—not that it could… yet— and walking up to the place, placed it near the habitat where the light green grass abruptly disappeared and, in its place, blackish rocks took over the ground.

It was a bizarre contrast to the whole peaceful and greenish island vibe. But my fire dragon seemed to love it. It bounced and flapped its wings, starting to roam the place, seemingly happy.

I also received a new notification when I let it enter the habitat.

[Would you like to assign this habitat to this Fire Dragon?]

[Yes / No]

I clicked on 'Yes' and just like that it was done. My dragon had a new home, apparently. One it seemed to quite enjoy, even though there wasn't much I could find that looked inviting and comfy. Maybe it was a Fire Dragon thing. Maybe they liked hot places. It made sense to me.

"I should probably name it. Flamie? Oh hell no— that's horrible! Scorch? No. Kindle, Flare, Torch? No those are no good. Pyra? Cinder? Wait, those names seem familiar. Wasn't there a character with each of these names in the show? That redhead dressed like Amazon or Wonder Woman was called Pyra or something and the hot one who wore a red dress was called Cinder… too bad she was crazy."

I didn't want to name my dragon after characters that may be living in this show turned reality. However, I decided to keep Pyra as a backup name just in case nothing else came to my mind. I liked that name despite it being similar to a living character's name.

I tried to brainstorm a couple dozen more names before I narrowed the already meager list I had mentally constructed down to just two names. In the end, it was between Pyra and Ember. That's the best my mind could come up with.

I honestly didn't know whether my dragon had a gender. It wasn't shown on its Status page. Did dragons even have a gender? How do they, you know, make babies if there was no distinction. This required some scientific study in the future which may or may not involve me spying on the two dragons I might end up breeding together for more eggs. But that was for later.

Finally deciding on it, I pulled out a Gold coin. My new memories taught me that I could pull out coins just like I would pull out things from my Inventory.

One side had a dragon's head and the other was blank. Deciding that the head side was Pyra and the tail side was Ember, I flipped the coin.

… And the result came out to be head.

"Guess Pyra it is, then."

I opened the menu and pulled up my dragon's Status page where the name had a pen icon after it. Clicking on it, I used the ethereal keyboard to set its name to Pyra.

[Would you like to name your dragon "Pyra"?]

[Yes / No]

"Hope you like the name, little one."

I said out loud as I clicked on the 'Yes' button.

I observed the dragon for any change, but it seemed busy and content with roaming in the habitat, its new home. Or was it a she now that I gave it a feminine name?

Hmm… it'll take time for me to come to terms with the gender—or lack thereof— issue with dragons.

***