Damn, I spit on the floor, my saliva hitting the concrete floor beneath me, I clenched my fist until my knuckles whitened.
Was this an overreaction? I didn't think so. My face turned to look at the lottery winning numbers, a single digit off my ticket.
My fingers fumbled about in my pockets, pulling out a cigarette and a lighter. The sound of my metallic lighter opening and closing rang in my ear as I lit my cigarette.
My head tilted backwards as I exhaled through my mouth, long drags of smoke joining the atmosphere above.
That empty feeling inside my stomach refused to vanish, and the thought that my last chance at survival was felled by a single digit haunted me. It wasn't completely unexpected, Lady Luck seemed to hate me.
Another drag of smoke escaped my lips as I shrugged my shoulders, oh well, the devastating debt wasn't going to solve itself, it was one thing to be abandoned by your parents, it was another to be abandoned and left with crippling debt, unfortunately I was the latter.
I looked at a puddle reflecting my appearance, a haggard man, with long hair, bags under his eyes, clothes that were in tatters, and a frown permanently etched on his face. I touched my hollowed cheeks.
"Ah, where did the time go?"
Some lady on my left hid her kid and scurried away.
Tad bit dramatic, I slicked back my hair with my hand and looked at both sides of the street before I glanced at the Pedestrian Crossing sign, its robotic voice repeating like a mantra.
"Pedestrians may cross"
I crossed the street, heading over to my bike.
Honk!
Honk!
The sound of tires burning their rubber in an attempt to frantically stop, echoed in my ears, I turned to face the noise, a truck was speeding in my direction, its headlights blinding my eyes.
"Get out of the way"
Some poor bloke screamed in a useless attempt to help me.
Unfortunately, the truck was already kissing my cranium.
F----
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When I woke up, I expected to see the fiery pits of hell, or rather not wake up at all, but what awaited my gaze surprised me; it wasn't so much the grand visage of God, or the majestic pearly gates what truly surprised me was the lack of visuals in general the dark was suffocating, like it was surrounding me like a snake coiled around its prey, by any means I was not a claustrophobic person, nor was I scared of the Dark, yet the encroaching darkness terrified me, maybe it was the thought of an eternity in a void.
I tried to move, but failed no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't feel a single thing. Knowing my fortune, I wouldn't be surprised if this was my final resting place, eternally damned to a solitude in darkness. The sound of something cracking took me out of my stupor, cracks formed in what I thought was the eternal abyss, light seeped out as what seemed to be surrounding me fell apart, command over my body returning, I frantically moved my hands and legs clawing out of my prison a sudden overwhelming urge to eat my tomb overcoming me.
I started eating, not bothering to use my hands, the eggshell tasting great, yes, my tomb, the great walls surrounding me were an egg, and I seemed to be a small lizard-like creature.
It was something I instinctively realized, I could also feel extra appendages that no known lizards had.
I let out a satisfied growl as I finished eating my eggshells, a certain warmth escaped my lips, flames followed my growl as they erupted in front of my eyes.
From my limited knowledge of creatures, I knew none that breathed fire, but that alone confirmed that even if I was reborn into an animal, it was not of the world I was originally from.
[Congratulations! You have eaten a Dragon's eggshell.]
[You have Leveled up!]
A Dragon? How could something as small as me be a dragon? For reference, my height was no taller than ten inches. Yet as strange as suddenly becoming a dragon was, the fire that erupted from my breath seemed to all but confirm it.
Cool, was I finally being rewarded by Lady Tyche? Knowing my luck, a Dragon Slayer would arrive at any second and drive a sword through my heart and lie in a puddle of my blood.
I shook my head, dispelling that thought. I was a mighty dragon; I tried to smile with my reptilian face.
I was a Dragon, but what exactly did that entail? I had no time to read anything about fantasy, the most I knew about Dragons was from an episode of those silver-haired inbred people, and in that show, they were just big lizards that could breathe fire.
My brow furrowed. What was a Dragon? Better yet, what was that voice inside my head? Level up? Like a game? I was too poor to even afford the cheapest, the only one I ever played was a Moba.
Thanks, crippling Debt.
Even ruining my new chance at life, I clicked my tongue, or I did whatever I could as a 'Dragon.'
At level six, would I unlock my ultimate? Would I cry for my mother to come and save me?
My eyes narrowed as I looked around, I never thought I'd be able to see life, how short people would. I was born in a mine surrounded by minerals that seemed to be platinum or some silver type of metal. I looked up to where the only source of light came from.
It was the only way out of this little underground mine; the hole, however was only the size of a rabbit. How could any grown animal lay me here?
As stupid as it sounded, I stretched my limbs, if I were a dragon, I should have wings right? The extra appendages started to make sense, so I felt where my wings would be and tried my best to flap them, I couldn't even get off the floor, no matter how hard I flapped.
[Interference Detected!]
[Dragon Inheritance Received]
A flood of information entered my head, and all the knowledge a baby dragon needed to survive was instilled deep inside my mind.
The knowledge that was put in my head was fragmented; something innately told me that at each stage of life, I would receive an even greater inheritance
The corners of my lips unconsciously curled; this was a far better situation than I had thought. First off, I didn't have parents, that knowledge was strangely blocked off, second, the eggshell was enough to keep me from going hungry for the day, third this world lacked humans, fortunately I was born in a realm adjacent to the Overworld one filled with creatures that could provide enough nutrients for me to grow strong. It also helped me understand that I would naturally figure out how to fly in a day or two.
With that in mind, I glanced around, my surroundings hadn't changed and with the knowledge that I had inherited I ascertained that this was indeed a platinum mine.
A dragon's lair or burrow was indicative of what type of dragon they were, a red dragon would be born in a volcano, a white one in a snowy biome, and so forth. what the hell did platinum indicate? The knowledge I received never mentioned a Platinum Dragon.
I shrugged my dragon shoulders, and walked around, I stopped when I spotted another egg beside my broken one.
Before I could get excited about having a sibling, the egg started to shake, cracks formed around it, and a breath of poison mixed with Ice, fire, lightning, and acid broke through.
A little extra, don't you think?
I gave it a side glance.
A small little red lizard with wings and horns crawled out and started to eat the eggshells. The platinum mine, no longer resembled a mine, instead it turned into a hellish landscape with a plethora of the elements imbued with her breath, leaving a bit untouched.
After it finished eating, it burped and did a little roar, it breathed out with all the elements present, creating a pretty light show.
I looked at it with disdain, as if I hadn't done the same thing earlier, it looked at me with its cute little round eyes, its face tilted slightly.
As the elder sibling, I had to display my dominance, and smacked the little dragon on the face, while it rubbed its forehead with its little hands and looked at me with an annoyed expression, I spoke in Draconic tongue.
A dragon's name is usually bestowed upon it by its parents in the inheritance, but as a Dragon without parents, I held the solemn duty.
[Your name is Tiamat.] My cute voice squeaked out.
The name came from a build component from the only game I played, just like the Item requirement that was necessary in a plethora of Legendary items.
My sibling too, had a plethora of elements that they could use.
A multi-facetted name, the corner of my cheeks threatened to curl up, I the mighty dragon, resisted the impulse to smile.
Plus, my little sibling looked like it would deal great amount of Aoe damage.
It looked at me growling a bit, and then nodded before lowering its head, accepting its name. I patted its head like one would do to a dog.
It squeaked out in protest before accepting it, rubbing its head into my Dragon hand.
Don't worry little Lizard, this big brother will take care of you. I solemnly swore it in my heart. After all, there were very few things that could pose a threat to us, even from the fragmented knowledge, it was clear that we were a pinnacle, if not the pinnacle race.
I tried to do my best to give it a warm smile, its face freezing in horror.
Did I scare it? I poked it with one of my claws. After five seconds of unresponsiveness, I stopped; that's when the light in its eyes returned.
It opened its mouth to speak.
Oh, right inheritance.
For a second there, I thought I scared it to death, I scratched my dragon forehead.
[Brother, where are we?] The little cute shit spoke, with a feminine draconic voice.
A sister, I stroked my nonexistent beard. She wasn't asking where we were, as she probably received the same inheritance that I did. She was asking why we were in a hole.
I looked at the little Lizard, who did its best to appear noble.
I rolled my eyes at it trying so hard to stand straight, its wing clutched to its side, its attempt to appear regal somehow irked me, I had half a mind to just smack it again.
I pointed up at the hole with a claw. The little lizard looked up.
[There must be a reason, we are in a hole instead of a majestic lair, as disgraceful as it is. The reason, however is lost to me.] The inherent arrogance of a dragon was seeped in my voice, a trait that was instilled into a dragon, as distasteful as it was, I was in no mood to correct it.
[At sunrise tomorrow, we will fly out and claim a lair of our own.]
From the knowledge that I had gained, dragons would only live together until they were young, then they were forced to find a lair for themselves.
Of course. I wasn't going to kick out my cute younger sibling, I would care for it as long as it needed.
It nodded gracefully, still trying to appear regal. It neatly folded its wings, the smaller dragon broke eye contact, probably tired of straining its neck to look up. It looked down cutely and glanced around, getting used to its surroundings.
Seeing as there wasn't much to do in the small mine, I decided to fall asleep until sunrise tomorrow. As I closed my eyes, my younger sibling turned and walked around me like a dog before lying down next to me, nuzzling into my chest before falling asleep.