The First Dragon of Marble

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

“PUUHHAAA” I finally break through the shell of the egg sliding on the ground due to the fluids spilling out. Coming to a stop about ten meters from the remnants of the egg. Breathing heavily, I get on all fours and take in my surroundings. Looking from the egg and around me, it seems I am inside a crater about twenty meters in circumference. I slowly get onto my feet still feeling dizzy and nauseous. “What the hell happened? Did they just fling me from space or something?” I look up to see that in order to get out of this crater I am going to have to climb up quite a way to get to the top.

Not wanting to be a sitting duck I make way to the edge of the crater and begin my ascent up a steep incline using both my hands and feet to grip the ground so as not fall back to where I started. Once I reach the top of the crater, I notice trees uprooted from the impact of the egg. “They really did fling from the fucking sky! I am glad that egg held up on impact.” I look back at the egg to see that the shells had dissolved and disappeared into the ground. “Whoa that was quick…must be magic or something about the composition of the egg,” I say out loud to nobody in particular.

Still not feeling 100% I decide to sit on a fallen tree to keep the world from spinning. When I sit down, I immediately get back up because I noticed that my bare bottom touched the very uncomfortable bark of the tree. I look down and notice that I am bare naked for all the world to see my glory. “Oh, come on Tiamat, for fucks sake.” I complain to my new Goddess of a mother for not having the foresight to at least give me some clothes though thinking about it I was just born so I guess this makes sense. “Haa” I sigh at the fact that I am going to have go around with no clothes for a while. Not thinking of how I look until I find a mirror or water to see my reflection, I decide to gather some leaves and pine needles to sit on the ground to recover from just being born and to check this system that Odin mentioned.

 I close my eyes and think the words “Invoke Personal Scroll” to see a parchment scroll unravelling in my mind’s eye only to be covered by another parchment unraveling with a message from my mother.

[Dear Son,

            When you see this, that means you have invoked your personal scroll. We didn’t have the time to go over it, but it is all self-explanatory especially since you liked games. The real reason I wrote this for you is to welcome you back to Marble and to let you know that we love you and will be watching over you. It seems that you have landed in the Whispering Woods close to a small city called Melcox in the Akan kingdom. You will have to travel about a day east to reach the city. Before you head out, a warning, there are different monsters in the forest mostly goblins who are aggressive towards the races of the gods. You are your mother’s and father’s son so we know you will be okay. Struggle a little to become second to none my son.

Love Mom & Dad]

Once I finished reading the message it disappeared. “Great, I am in a forest full of monsters that I have no combat experience in fighting, nor do I have any weapons. I guess my training from the army is going to be put to the test in this new world. Fuck gods do not have the same common sense as I do, I’ll have to remember that, or I’ll die from their expectations. Haa.” Just before I was going to take a look at my personal scroll, I hear a rustling close by, opposite from the crater. I shoot my eyes open and look in the direction of the noise. I stay still not making any sudden moves to see…something come out of the fallen foliage from the uprooted trees.

It is bipetal and about a meter in height. Its hands and feet had sharp looking claws with four digits on each. It has a stick sharpen into a spear which was pointing at me. I look into its face to see the ugliest face I had ever seen. The nose is long and drooped down at the end, its eyes were yellow and small suggesting poor vision. Warts cover its face and body making its nude dark brown body look even more grotesque.

“Whoa.” I shout as I dodge a thrust from the spear its wielding. “Can you understand me? We don’t have to fight let’s be reasonable and talk!” I shout hoping to communicate with ugly creature while dodging its spear thrusts and claws. Failing to fully dodge a thrust from the spear I gain a graze on my right thigh from it and feel the burning sting of my skin breaking. It lifts it arms in the air making a screeching sound in confidence of its coming victory “Gurakk craarkk.”

I look down at my thigh and see a small amount of blood and furrow my brow. Looking at the creature again and start thinking “Fuck, I tried communicating with this thing since it looks like it has some intelligence. I’m guessing this is a monster or a hostile primitive race from the gods. It can make tools and if there are more around…” I take a deep breath and calm my mind and recite the same quote I say to survive day to day, “Do what you have to do.” I take a stance to get ready for the creature to assault again with the spear.

It charges again with the spear in both hands aiming for my chest. I time it right and grab the spear shifting it to the side and flinging the creature into a fallen tree. With the spear in my hands now I rush the creature and pin it down with my foot and the spear tip pressed to its throat. Before finishing it off I ask, “Can you speak, can you understand me?” All I get back is more screeching and thrashing of the creature trying to escape. I sigh coming to grip with the reality that this thing wants nothing more than to kill me. “Haa…I tried not to shed blood for no reason, but you give me no choice. No reason to let enemies live especially in this world. Odin said Marble is as unforgiving as when it was Earth even more so than back then.” I thrust the spear into its throat reaching its spinal cord and twist for good measure to make sure it dies.

I see the life drain from its eyes and move away from the corpse to not draw more attention or get caught up with any scavengers seeking a meal. Soon after I see a small sliver of parchment in the corner of my eye. I ignore until I find a small space between the fallen trees to hide in to fully check my personal scroll. I focus on the parchment in my vision first and it enlarges to give me a notification.

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

I blink a couple times as the parchment fades away. Speechless I stay silent for a few moments before whispering, “What the hell does that mean? So many questions not enough answers. I know my time was short with Tiamat and Odin, but they could have mentioned this.” Shaking away the absurdity of the world I collect myself and close my eyes. “Invoke Personal Scroll.” Once again, a parchment unravels in my mind’s eye and I finally see my personal status.

“Yep, pretty, self-explanatory. Though I’ll have to get some clarification on how to level up and improve my stats. I think my training helped from the army to defeat that globin. Seems like I really was just born. My age is 0. Haha…how does that make sense…ah right magic and the gods. Just leave it at that Ad…Ladon. Why does it say Human/??? for my race? That is a little concerning.” As I lay there thinking and observing my scroll, I get an idea on how to level up. That notification may have something to do with increasing my level.

“Alright laying here isn’t getting me any answers or closer to civilization.” I stand up and look up to see the sun starting to wane to the west in the ever-blue sky. Deciding that only a few hours are left in the day I start moving east into the forest. Once inside the forest I start hearing small animals and birds breathing life into the surroundings. With the few glimpses that I see of the creatures I notice differences compared to before mana destroyed most of the Cosmos. I see a rabbit with antlers, a squirrel with wings on its back, and other variations of animals with mutations from mana. “Earth really has changed and turn into a fantasy world. Man, this is a little much for my mind to warp around.” I whisper to myself trying to process my new surroundings. “Acckkk” I hear a piercing grunt from ahead and duck down to a crouch.

With caution I move forward keeping to the shadows cast by the foliage of the forest canopy and tree trunks to see what or who made the sound. I come to a small clearing while hiding behind some bushes to see a group of goblins surrounding a man lying on the ground. One of the goblins stab down with its spear made of a long branch with a sharpened stone at the end into the man’s arm. Looking closely at the man I see serval puncture wounds. “Shit, I don’t know if I’ll be able to help with his wounds if I kill the goblins. Looks like he has already lost a lot of blood.” I look around for a rock and find one the size of a baseball by my foot. I pick it up and throw it to other side of the clearing hoping that will draw away some of the goblins long enough to reach the man. The rock hit some brush making enough sound to replicate something moving around not far from the clearing.

Three goblins look up towards the direction of the noise and points to two other goblins and they both nod. The three who looked towards the noise turn around and head towards the brush leaving the two who were pointed at behind with their backs facing my direction. With my training of moving silently through the woods I move with the spear I took from the dead goblin that attacked me earlier in hand towards the two goblins with their backs to me. Setting the spear at the level of the neck of the goblin on the right I thrust through its neck with all my arm strength piercing it all the way through leaving him making gurgling sounds and gripping at his throat as blood trinkles out. Not having much time to think I tackle the remaining goblin and cover its mouth so that it wouldn’t alert the three remaining goblins in the forest checking out my diversion. We struggle and grapple with each other for a few seconds before I get behind it and wrap my arm around its neck and squeeze. It claws at my arm leaving scratches, but I persevere and eventually suffocate it knocking it out.

I roll it off my body and stand up quickly take a quick look at the one with my spear through its throat. Noticing it not moving I turned back to the passed out one and stomp on its throat crushing it and breaking its spinal cord. Breathing heavily, I go to the man and drag him to safety to where I came from grabbing his small bag on the way. Setting him in a sitting position I look him over and notice multiple stab wounds and way too much blood. “He is going to die. Fuck…I’ll still try stuffing his wounds with cloth and torniquet where I can, but I doubt he’ll make it.” I look in his bag to see if there are any bandages and find that there isn’t any, so I rip his cloths to make some. I do the best I can for now worried about the remaining goblins, before I take the knife on his belt and head back to the clearing to finish the rest of the goblins. “I can’t leave them alive, or they might gather more goblins and start hunting me down. I can at least buy time before they are discovered missing. Of course, this is assuming they have a community and the intelligence to rid a threat to themselves.”

Hiding in a different location when I reach the clearing, I notice the last goblins enter the clearing confused at the disappearance of their prey and their dead comrades on the ground. Throwing a rock at a different location to see if they are dumb enough to fall for the same trick twice and to my surprise they are. They seem more on alert and head towards the sound. I circle around and come up behind them. Using the knife, I grab the one at the back of the rest and slice his throat and throw him to the side quickly switching to the next one stabbing him in the back. With two down I search for the last one only to be met with a rock tip spear head coming towards my throat. I use the knife to barely hit the spear to drive its course where it grazes my shoulder leaving a nice scratch. Leaping out of the range of the spear I go into a defensive stance. The goblin eyes me cautiously as we circle each other. “This one seems smarter than the others. He has the range with the spear while I have to get in close with my knife.” While thinking this I notice him coming closer with small thrusts to keep me back. I fake losing my balance to draw him in which he takes as an opening. I parry the crude spear with my knife while spinning and bringing the knife straight through the side of his throat through the jugular.

With a bewildered face the goblin looks up at me in the eyes while I twist and pull the knife out of his throat making sure to do as much damage as possible. The goblin fell to the ground bleeding out. I breathe heavily with adrenaline still pumping looking around ready to continue fighting. Finally seeing that no other foes are around I keep up my guard while picking up the crude weapons of the goblins. I walk back to where I left the human. I look down at him and notice he had no pulse and passed away from blood loss. I sigh, “Haa…fuck man. I’m sorry, I did what I could.”

I look up at the sky to see the sun getting lower. “I have to move. I’m sure the blood will attract more monsters and beasts. I do not want to be around to fight again so soon I’m exhausted. I hate to leave him here for the beasts but I’m not going to risk being slowed down by a corpse. I’ll take his bag and knife and a few pieces of his clothes to make bandages for myself. Not exactly clean but it will do for now.” I pick up his bag and cut off some unsoiled clothes from what he was wearing and jogged carefully to not draw attention to myself in the direction of east. After about thirty minutes of jogging, I slow down and look around making sure the area was secure. I empty the contents of the drawstring bag onto the ground and notice brown dyed cotton clothes. Excited I tried them on and sighed happily to finally not having my junk flopping everywhere and instead secured. “Oh yeah, the little things in life though a bit itchy. If technology has back tracked, then I guess I’ll have to get used to it.”

The remaining contents on the ground was dried meat for rations, a small leather pouch with coins, and a metal plate shaped like my dog tags from the army. It has the name, Tye, and the letter ‘E’ below it. More writing was written on the back saying ‘Property of Melcox Adventures Guild.’ “Hmm…I’ll turn this in at the Adventure’s Guild when I get to Melcox.” After putting everything back in the drawstring bag I set out again towards the east to gain more ground before night fell.

After about three hours of walking, it was getting to dark in the forest to see so I found a nook in a tree to rest for the night. Making sure the area was secure enough that I could sleep for a few hours, I sit down in the nook and closed my eyes. As I closed my eyes, I noticed little scrolls at the side of my vision. I focused on them, and they revealed more notifications like when I killed that first goblin.

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

{Level up}

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

{Level up}

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

{Feat claimed. One against Many. Raises Endurance by 1 permanently}

The scrolls slowly disappeared so I invoked my personal scroll.

“So, I leveled up twice and it seems killing monsters is a way to increase it. I’m guessing the soul essence is what makes it go up. If this is for everyone then I can see how it could be a fairer world than my last. It gives everyone a fair chance to get stronger, but I have a feeling the powerful and ruling classes don’t make that easy. Before I make my own judgement, I guess I’ll just have to see it for myself I suppose. I’ll withhold assumptions for now and seek out someone more knowledge when I get to Melcox.”

After checking my status and thinking about the changes I decided to eat some of the rations the man had and then rest to recover my strength before moving out again.