Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling Vol. 1 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Color Inserts

  Table of Contents Page

  Title Page

  Copyrights and Credits

  Chapter 1: A Walking Egg

  Chapter 2: The Girl and the Dragon

  Interlude: The Girl’s Story

  Chapter 3: The Venomous Spider Taranturouge

  Chapter 4: Iron-Walled Potortoise

  Interlude: The Girl’s Adventure

  Chapter 5: Claybear

  Chapter 6: Venom Princess Lacerta

  Chapter 7: The Double-Headed Monster Twinheads

  Bonus Story 1: A Day with the Black Lizard

  Bonus Story 2: A Day in the Life of the Girl

  Afterword

  Newsletter

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  Chapter 1:

  A Walking Egg

  PART 1

  I WOKE UP IN THE DARK, feeling dazed and hot like my head was on fire. I couldn’t think straight. I felt trapped and lonely. Despite those awful feelings, an inexplicable sense of relief washed over me.

  Then something split with a crack. A single beam of light entered my stuffy, pitch-black world. I peered through to take a look outside.

  Seeing through the narrow hole was difficult, but I could faintly make out sunlight filtering through tree branches.

  So…I guess I’m in a forest or something?

  I tried to stand up, but another cracking sound came from beneath my feet. At first I thought I’d stepped on something. Then I realized I’d actually stepped through something.

  I tried to look down at my feet to check, but for some reason my neck was stuck. I couldn’t budge it at all.

  What the heck happened to me?

  As soon as I wondered that, a display that reminded me of a video game screen popped into my head.

  Species: Dragon Egg

  Status: Normal

  Lv: 1/5

  HP: 5/5

  MP: 1/1

  Attack: 1

  Defense: 3

  Magic: 1

  Agility: 10

  Rank: F

  Special Skills:

  Eggshell: Lv —

  Divine Voice: Lv 1

  Resistance Skills:

  Physical Resistance: Lv 1

  Normal Skills:

  Roll: Lv 1

  View Status: Lv 1

  Title Skills:

  Dragon King’s Son: Lv —

  Walking Egg: Lv —

  Um…isn’t this just like that thing that always pops up in RPGs?

  Next, a line of text appeared inside my head.

  Status Screen has been opened.

  Huh? A status screen? What’s going on? What does this mean?

  Status Screen displays the numerical value of ***’s abilities in a simplified text box.

  Wait, did you just answer me?

  Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is an ability which explains status attributes and items. It can also provide information regarding changes in status.

  What? I really have no idea what’s going on. Hang on—is this a game or something?

  Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is unable to provide that explanation.

  Huh? You keep saying “Lv 1.” Does that mean you can provide the explanation if I level up this “Divine Voice” thing or whatever? Also, who’s speaking to me right now?

  Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is unable to provide that explanation.

  Who are you? And more importantly, where am I?

  Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is unable to provide that explanation.

  This conversation was beginning to feel pointless, like trying to play catch with yourself by throwing a baseball against the wall. The voice kept evading the important questions with canned phrases. I doubted that I was talking to an actual person—it seemed more like a machine. I decided to give up on getting answers from the weird voice inside my head and instead look for someone I could actually understand.

  I peered through the crack again.

  It’s so hard to see, though. Can’t I do something about this? Not being able to see my feet is especially dangerous—Whoa, I lost my footing! Ouch! I definitely fell from something tall just now!

  Apparently I’d been nestled up in a tree. I somehow survived the fall, even though it felt like I fell from pretty high up.

  Gained Resistance Skill “Fall Resistance” Lv 1.

  Resistance skill… Does that mean surviving the fall powered me up? Oh! My HP decreased from 5 to 3 on the Status Screen! If it gets to zero, do I die? Oh no! This is a dream, right? This has to be a dream!

  Gained Special Skill “Klutz” Lv 1.

  Now that’s just rude! What’s your problem, Divine Voice? What gives you the right to spy on me and make fun of me in the first place, huh?! Why even bother to call it a special skill when it’s literally just an insult?

  Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is unable to provide that explanation.

  You irritating little… You’re doing this on purpose just to aggravate me, aren’t you? Whatever. I’ll just get stressed out if I let this stupid voice get to me.

  I wanted to check out the tree I just fell out of, but I couldn’t look that far up. The crack was too small for me to see much through it and, more importantly, I still couldn’t move my neck.

  What the heck is wrong with it, anyway? Oh, hey! There’s a pool of water over there. I’ll go look at my reflection to see what’s up.

  I somehow managed to waddle over to the water and look down.

  Instead of my reflection, I saw a big egg. It had two small holes for the eyes and two more for the stubby feet. The shell was covered in hairline cracks. By any standards, this was just an incredibly peculiar egg.

  Huh? What is that? I was expecting my reflection, not some monster in the water waiting to attack me! Scared the shell outta me… Is this a joke or something? Wait…it’s still there. And when I shift to look, it moves. Is that…me? That’s really me? I’m an egg?! No way! What the heck is going on here?! Answer me, Divine Voice!

  Dragon Egg: F Rank Monster. A baby dragon that is sentient even in its unhatched state. Since it is not yet fully developed, it will die if the egg breaks.

  This has gotta be some kinda weird yolk…I mean joke. I can’t believe that’s me. This is about as bad as letting a little fetus walk around and think on its own!

  It is alert but powerless. Its brain is underdeveloped, and its only ability is rolling.

  Hey! Whose brain is underdeveloped? I’m thinking all kinds of things right now, in case you weren’t aware!!

  Although quite dangerous when grown, the developing embryo is prized as a delicacy due to its rarity and delicious flavor.

  Now you’re calling me delicious? You’re the absolute worst, Divine Voice!

  Therefore, it is common practice among adventurers to kill it on sight and take the egg. This is not advised, however, because the parent dragon may be nearby and can follow the egg’s scent.

  No! What?! You’re kidding, right? Kill it on sight? I’m an egg, not a cockroach!! And what do you mean, adventurers and dragons? What is going on?!

  PART 2

  TWO WILD DAYS PASSED, as I ran away from progressively weirder and weirder monsters: hungry black crocodiles and gigantic mean bugs. All I knew for certain was that I woke up in some kind of crazy forest, and I was an egg.

  This forest couldn’t be in Japan. I was definitely in some other country. I wasn’t sure which one, but there had to be plenty of places out there filled with hungry black crocodiles and gigantic mean bugs, not to mention klutzy walking eggs and scary four-armed bears.

&nbs
p; Okay, so I didn’t really know that much about the world outside Japan. I should’ve studied more. I had no idea things were so terrible overseas. It made me want to cry.

  During all this, I gained two more skills: Hunger Resistance and Poison Resistance. I unlocked both of them when I got so hungry I ate a random mushroom I found. I got a terrible stomachache. And I mean terrible. I was totally at death’s door.

  It hurt so bad that my whole life flashed before my eyes. Well, all two days of it so far. Afterward, though, getting new skills made the pain worth it. I decided to try practicing my skills, starting with Roll. All I had to do was focus, and then I just instinctively began to move. Before long I was rolling all over the woods. Zoom!

  Rolling was so fun that I kept it up. Before I knew it, Roll hit Lv 2. Then I rolled off a cliff and Fall Resistance was Lv 2, too! Nice! The impact of the fall widened the crack in my shell, so I could even see better!

  The trade-off was that I almost died.

  Hey, Divine Voice? I’m really tired… I just wanna go home, take a shower, and eat a bag of chips. How do I do that?

  Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is unable to provide that explanation.

  Can I really level with you for a sec? I’m so lonely that I feel like I’m gonna die. I really think I’m about to start crying. Can eggs cry?

  Gained Resistance Skill “Loneliness Resistance” Lv 1.

  Oh, hey. Thanks, I guess. You really don’t have to go to all that trouble.

  I appreciated the gesture, but that wasn’t what I actually wanted. I wanted to feel someone else’s warmth. I didn’t want to be strong, I wanted to live my life as a man—no, an egg—who acknowledged his own weaknesses. It sounded ridiculous when I phrased it like that.

  What was I even doing before I wound up here, anyway? I couldn’t remember at all. I knew I was Japanese, and I was pretty sure that monsters didn’t exist. What’s more, I wasn’t even sure if I was a guy or a girl. I felt like a guy, but how could I know?

  Did I get kidnapped and taken to some secret lab where they messed with my body and shipped me off to some other country to fight four-armed bears?! Well, Divine Voice? What’s your guess?

  Gained Title Skill “Just an Idiot” Lv 1.

  Cut it out. This is starting to actually hurt my feelings. Also, can you stop being so…clinical? Just talk to me normally. Or wait—don’t tell me you’re secretly shy or something.

  Since I kept accumulating all these strange skills, I decided to check the Status Screen again. Over the past two days I’d learned that, the same as it worked with Roll, if I focused hard enough, I could make that display pop up in my head whenever I wanted. Useful, right?

  Species: Dragon Egg

  Status: Normal

  Lv: 1/5

  HP: 5/5

  MP: 1/1

  Attack: 1

  Defense: 3

  Magic: 1

  Agility: 10

  Rank: F

  Special Skills:

  Eggshell: Lv —

  Divine Voice: Lv 1

  Resistance Skills:

  Physical Resistance: Lv 1

  Fall Resistance: Lv 2

  Hunger Resistance: Lv 1

  Poison Resistance: Lv 1

  Loneliness Resistance: Lv 1

  Normal Skills:

  Roll: Lv 2

  View Status: Lv 1

  Title Skills:

  Dragon King’s Son: Lv —

  Walking Egg: Lv —

  Klutz: Lv 2

  Just an Idiot: Lv 1

  Hey, my Klutz skill leveled up, too! Not that I needed the reminder… This Status thing is pretty useful, though.

  My HP seemed to recover with sleep. After the fall, I’d been extra careful not to get hurt over the past two days. I stayed far away from monsters and satisfied my hunger with fallen fruit and small bugs. When I got thirsty, I drank the water from a cool spring, and when I ate suspicious mushrooms, I writhed in unbearable agony. In other words, I did my best to survive.

  I resisted the bugs at first, but eventually I got hungry enough to give in to desperation. Better than the mushrooms, at least.

  To be real for a second, I felt kind of pathetic that I’d only held out two days on my staunch no-eating-bugs line before I gave in. But who could blame me? This hunger was way worse than any I remembered experiencing as a human. Maybe I was going through a growth spurt? I was an egg, after all. If I wasn’t going through a growth spurt now, when would I be?

  The Divine Voice kept saying stuff about me being a baby dragon, but I sure didn’t feel like one. Was I growing at all? Did I have to level up before I could get bigger? How, though? By fighting monsters? There was no way I could do that! I was an egg!

  Wait, eggs hatch in nests, don’t they? I thought I fell out of a tree, but what if I had actually fallen out of a dragon’s nest in the tree? I should go back and check. I think it’s over there—oh, no!

  A grotesque caterpillar thing had crawled out from between the trees. I’d been too deep in this whole “thinking” business to notice.

  This gigantic gross bug was a darkwyrm, and it had been playing hide and seek with me ever since the day I got here. To be clear, I was the one who was hiding.

  Besides the darkwyrm, the forest’s monsters mostly politely ignored me. And as long as I stayed still, most of the animals would just walk right past me, too. The Divine Voice mentioned that dragon parents attacked anyone who touched a dragon egg. Maybe the other animals knew about that, too.

  But then why did this stupid darkwyrm keep coming after me?!

  I squinted at it, bringing up my View Status skill.

  Species: Darkwyrm

  Status: Normal

  Lv: 3/8

  HP: 8/12

  MP: 3/5

  Attack: 5

  Defense: 2

  Magic: 3

  Agility: 8

  Rank: F

  Special Skills:

  Caterpillar: Lv —

  Resistance Skills:

  Poison Resistance: Lv 1

  Normal Skills:

  Bite: Lv 1

  Call Allies: Lv 2

  Title Skills:

  Egg Eater: Lv 1

  Uh-oh, that wasn’t good. Its stats were nearly all higher than mine. I had slightly better agility, which was probably how I’d accidentally managed to outrun it so far. And I definitely didn’t love the look of that Title Skill, Egg Eater: Lv 1.

  That must have been why this creep was following me. It definitely earned that skill by eating, although I didn’t even want to imagine it. We weren’t going to be friends. There would be no mutual understanding between me and the darkwyrm. And even if I got away for a while, it totally had the vibe of a jerk who’d ambush me in my sleep.

  But I also noticed that its HP was pretty low. Should I fight it now, before it has a chance to attack? It was a higher level than me, but I had better defense and agility. I was pretty confident I could take it in a single hit. Yeah! I’m gonna go for it! If I won, I could probably level up, and maybe even hatch. That would be the end of this egg life where all I could do was roll around. Get ready to meet your maker, darkwyrm!

  PART 3

  THE DARKWYRM wiggled towards me, drooling. It thought the game was over, and now it was dinnertime.

  Bring it on, wormy jerk! I’ll lure you out to better terrain and kick your tail. I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life as an egg. This game of cat and mouse is over!

  The Status Screen told me that I had better defense and agility than the wyrm, but it had me beat in all its other stats. Most notably, its attack power was far better than mine. Its HP was low, but mine was way lower. If this nasty guy landed just one hit on me, I was done.

  Should I use my agility to strike first? That would give me an advantage, but all it would take was one counterattack and my egg life would be cut short. That was why my plan was to move to more favorable terrain, get the first strike, and deplete its HP before it could attack me back. I had no idea what
attack I should use or how much damage I would do—but I thought it was a pretty good plan, considering the circumstances.

  “Ssshhk!” the darkwyrm hissed.

  Okay! I gotta get away from it! Just keep running!

  I rolled up a hill, quickly scanning my surroundings for a good place to make my stand. I wanted to find a place with a small drop—just a few meters, so that even if I fell it wouldn’t break my shell. I spotted a small bluff and rolled alongside it.

  All right, it’s still following me. That’s a good darkwyrm. Just keep it up!

  I slowed down a little, drawing the darkwyrm in closer.

  “Ssshhk!” It must have seen that my stamina was dropping, because its cries were growing distinctly pleased. It was probably thinking, “Oooh, now I’ll finally get to eat a delicious egg!”

  Ha! Pretty cocky for a wyrm. It probably thought that I was an idiot since I was just an egg. Well, I’d show it! This fight was as good as over. I’d slow it down, and then circle around as fast as I could. Since the darkwyrm’s body was so long, it’d take it a while to turn itself all the way around.

  Putting my plan into action, I pulled my legs up into my shell and used Roll. The skill was Lv 2 now, so I could use it without slowing down, and even accelerate abruptly. My plan worked. The darkwyrm couldn’t keep up with how fast I was rolling. I took the opportunity to pick up speed and crash into its flank.

  “Gchkkk!”

  The friction of me spinning against the darkwyrm’s skin started to rub it away. I threw my weight against it and charged forward with all my might.

  This wouldn’t be enough to drain its stamina, of course, but that was where the cliff came in.

  I used my momentum to wrap the darkwyrm up around my spherical surface, and dove off the edge. We hurtled toward the ground, the centrifugal force of my spins combining with gravity to ensure the wyrm hit the ground first. I had Fall Resistance Lv 2, and it had Fall Resistance Lv nothing.

  Please be enough. If this doesn’t do it, I’m out of ideas.