2.Hatching

Year 1,000/100,000

*crack*

A resounding snap suddenly echoed throughout the mellow forest canopy, like the first rumble of thunder on a quiet night before a storm, sending nearby birds and small animals fleeing for seemingly an insignificant reason.

The surrounding landscape was one of thick tall trees towering into the sky, while below on the ground where various flora and fauna brightening the land up with their various colors and shapes.

However, with that snap came a deep black aura with hints of red that oozed out what looked like a large boulder-sized mana stone that for whatever reason seemed to be drained of all energy and luster of ordinary mana stones you would find in the wild.

*bang*

With another resounding noise, what was before a small trickle became almost a flood as the aura washed out into the surrounding trees and forest life.

With the aura came a large dragon paw, adorned with razor sharp claws reminiscent of large shards of obsidian, punching out of the large egg.

As the arm receded back, if a lesser creature were to look into that hole the claw made, their entire being would freeze with trepidation and fright at the sight of a singular eyeball.

With a slit pupil akin to a fierce viper, it's iris a fierce red with tints of yellow and orange reminiscent of a wildfire, however what was truly captivating was its iris seemed to be animated, as if it truly was on fire, eternally blazing ready to burn whoever stared long enough into their depths.

As the eye caught the sight of daylight, the echoes of the robust shell splintering resounded with even more fervor, as if the warmth of the sun motivated whatever creature was within the egg to fight and struggle with even more ambition.

Eventually the egg couldn't withstand the fierce onslaught and buckled from the pressure within, the top half of the egg exploding, sending chunks of shell flying within a radius of a couple tens of feet around the base of the egg.

With the obstruction now gone, stretched out a majestic head of a dragon adorned with a moderately sized pair of black newborn horns that were a similar color shade to its claws, which looked surprisingly well developed for a newborn.

"Hmmm, according to the dragon inheritance stored within my mind, a newborn should only have stubs atop their heads when they first hatch".

Said a deep masculine voice, his language currently that of dragon tongue only spoken within the dragon clan, to others it would sound like a jumble of low guttural growls and the eerie hissing like that of a snake.

He was Osiris.

Every race seemed to have their own unique language spoken within their respective tribes and clans, except the humans, who seemed to mainly use the 'common' language of the realms known as English.

Osiris then proceeded to step out of the confines of what remained of the egg and bathed within a large beam of sunlight that shone through a large hole in the massive canopy of trees, while checking himself out.

His body large and robust, 15ft long from nose to tail and 10ft tall when standing up on all four legs, his body covered in abyssal black scales that seemed to soak in sunlight like a drop of water into a large desert that hasn't seen rain in decades.

On his back were a pair of massive muscular black wings reminiscent of sails on a boat, that left no doubt of their ability to take flight.

"Huh, it seems as though I've developed much quicker and fuller than most dragons after hatching".

"Though I can't seem to figure out why, let's see what's going on currently and where I am".

He said as he delved within the inheritance to figure out what situation he was currently in, and quickly came to an understanding.

"So I'm in what is essentially a trial, within a sub-dimension created by the dragon clan, to test and forge new hatchlings into future leaders and warriors".

While learning the new information he found, a leaderboard-like structure appeared within his mind.

-Current dragon rankings-

1. Osiris

2.

3.

4.

5. .....

.....

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"Huh it seems like I'm the first one to hatch".

"Though i'm not too sure what the rankings are based on, its still too early to even care about its worth when i dont even know my current survival chances".

"I'll put more intrest into it when there are more dragons to compete against in the future".

He said with indifference, though it did please him to see his name in first place and a silent promise took hold within him to keep it there.

Even though his newborn ego and pride where just beginning to form with the awakening of his consciousness, they too seemed to have grown and developed quite a bit while he was incubating.

*snap*

Suddenly his sensitive hearing picked up on the breaking of a nearby tree branch on the forest floor and turned his head to see a large brown bear that was quite smaller than himself, around half his size, but the aura of strength on it gave off was intimidating to any nearby prey.

But that didn't affect him at all as they both made eye contact and Osiris felt his stomach rumble, it was only now that he could feel how his stomach was absolutely empty.

"It seems as though I've been provided a meal even before I've had the chance to think of food".

He didn't even consider the fact that he was born not 10 minutes ago as he already knew that this was an ordinary brown bear from his inheritance, and that the maximum they could cultivate was only the peak of the first order which he felt he could easily take on with his current physical body.

He charged at the bear which seemed stunned for a moment at it felt an even stronger aura and killing intent radiating off of Osiris lock onto it.

And a moment was all Osiris needed as he clamped his jaws around the bears neck and chomped down with such devastating force and speed that the bear truly didn't realize what was going on until its neck was already snapped and it head hanged low and lifeless.

Afterwards Osiris held nothing back as he chowed down and ate everything, including the bones, and left only a pool of blood in the grass.