A cowboy and a warlock walk into a diner—there’s a cheesy joke in there somewhere….

I felt weightless, feather-light even—in fact, I felt bodiless. Like a stream of consciousness floating in a vast emptiness, unmoved, unguided, and unsettled. Yeah, being dead was definitely unsettling. A silvery nebulous haze shrouded my formless self, a cosmic joke of light and shadow playing out in the infinite blackness around me.

I could no longer hear the screech of moving tables and chairs at the diner, or hear Gertrude shouting at her hubby to hit the deck. I couldn’t see the blinding light from that nuke stick, or feel the intensity of its heat eating at my skin. I was drifting now, drowned in silent oblivion. My thoughts seemed to echo into infinity, reverberating through the dark expanse of nothingness that had swallowed me whole.

In this intangible state, memory was all I had. Images flashed by of my childhood home, long-forgotten faces, mom and dad… hell, even horny as sin Captain Reginald. I should have been more upset, I guess. But strangely enough, I wasn’t….

Maybe I was coming to terms with death. It was quiet, lonely, but also simple and undemanding….

Unfortunately, things wouldn’t be simple for long.

A stats sheet suddenly appeared in front of me. Startled, my mind quickly tried to skim over everything at the same time:

Codex

Hold on—why was I seeing this?

Wait, now that I thought about it, I’d seen something like this before, when the diner was attacked. Right… that mysterious voice in my head. I thought I was going crazy, but it had called me a ‘Child of the Dark,’ among other things.

-You have been reincarnated as a dragon-

Yeah, that. It called me a dragon.… Wait a minute, a what?!

Reincarnated?!

The voice from earlier was back, and it came with some troubling news. I was hit with a double whammy, and I didn’t know how to cope! It was outrageous enough that I was reincarnated, but as a dragon?!

The source of the voice was still unknown, until something opened up in front of me. It looked like a black hole with a white pulsating ring in the center of it. Great, more mysterious powerful energy. At least this one didn’t seem like it wanted to hurt me.

‘What are you, anyway?’ I asked it curiously, and for some reason, it didn’t answer.

In fact, for a daunting ten seconds, it didn’t say anything.

Why was it trying to be intimidating all of a sudden? Was it reconsidering its agenda? Had I offended it?

Codex Overview: Present Skills

[Multiverse Adaptation]

Instant expertise of languages both written and oral. Required for intergalactic communications.

So, did I just have to accept this?

Wait a minute, did it just say intergalactic? Was I expected to talk to aliens? Where the hell was I going?!

[Inspect]

Identify the species and level of another creature.

Okay, so we are really sticking with the RPG route, huh?

[Natural Magic Affinity]

As a dragon, you have a strong connection to the elements. Skill scrolls are not compatible.

Hmm, that sounded like a good thing, but I had a vague idea of what skill scrolls were.

My stats screen was still open, so I browsed over the skill and then looked up at the skill locker section more carefully this time. My guess was that races who didn’t inherently have magic affinity would need to use these lockers.

[Thrall Count]

Exact your dominance and build your servitude

Your codex keeps track of your thrall count. In the path of necromancy, you will forge souls and reanimate bodies. This will slowly form your army. Undead thralls are preferred over living thralls, and therefore have perks.

‘Huh? Army?! Who am I fighting? Who is my enemy?!’

[Soul Count]

Harvest and Forge

Your codex keeps track of your soul count. In the path of necromancy, you will harvest souls and forge reanimated bodies with them. Souls ready for forging will remain in the domain you’ll create.

‘I’m sorry, my what?’

[Spatial Domain Durability]

Properly house your slaves for summoning

Your codex keeps track of the durability of your domain. In the path of necromancy, you must maintain the expansion of your sub realm. Otherwise, it will leak.

‘Leak where, exactly?!’

Predestined Path:

Dark Dragon Mage

Specialty: Necromancy

Your codex will assign quests that align with your predestined path

This is unreal….

This voice in the void was ignoring me. Not only that, it didn’t bother explaining nearly half of the things I needed to know about what the hell was going on right now! Necromancy? As in, raising things from the dead? That’s a lot to drop on someone without giving any context! And what was this Infernal Bloodline? Why did someone like me have it?

If I had a body, I’d be hyperventilating right now. This mass of celestial energy was talking utter nonsense!

I demanded answers!

Quest 1

Level Up

Time: 6 hours

‘Um, hello? Was this mic on?’

I refused to be ignored! For the next 30 seconds, I gave this black hole a piece of my mind! I wasn’t the patient type, nor did I appreciate this one-sided and confusing exchange! Despite my protest, the voice in the void said nothing. For an entire 30 seconds, it said absolutely nothing! It was like screaming at a brick wall, only worse, because this brick wall had the answers to my fate and refused to share it with me!

Why the obscurity? Did it get its kicks from being mysteriously condescending?

I could hear my own frustration buzzing around me. At some point, I was too tense and too tired to continue barking at it. But as soon as I stopped venting, it continued to speak:

Chosen one…

‘No!’ I protested. ‘Don’t call me that! Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on, and frankly, I don’t care! You got the wrong girl! There’s nothing special about me that merits any of this! A dark dragon mage? Seriously? You’re talking about a basic, unimpressive, near-blind, Hunger Games obsessed college drop out. I refuse to take on this title! What kind of sick twisted joke is this, anyway? I want no part of this nonsense, and the fact that you had the gall to pick me is down-right insulting! Insane! Improbable! Indescribable! Just let me die in peace!’

Do you accept your predestined path?

[Y] [N]

‘So NOW I have a choice in all of this?’

First Note: Failure to do so will result in Etheryn and its sister planet Earth being auctioned in the Tournament of Champions, where enslavement is inevitable.

…Enslavement?

I paused, then sighed defeatedly.

I might have been a recluse, socially awkward, page-sniffing, Chaos Divide mogul back on Earth, but I wasn’t heartless. The notion of this extreme consequence dawned on me, and for once, I remained as quiet as a church mouse. I needed some time to process everything that was said thus far. I might not have all of the pieces to the puzzle together, but one thing was for sure: this was actually happening, and I had a difficult decision to make.

Time was an illusion here. It had no rhythm or cadence. All I had was the blinding darkness and the voice in the void. It waited now, silent for once, giving me the space I needed to answer its question. I chewed on this impossible task, and then asked myself—why was this happening to me? Me out of all people? Was I actually about to shoulder my tiny world’s fate? And what was Etheryn? I had no connection to this place, so the empathy for it wasn’t there. Even so, I had to believe it was some type of fantasy world if I were being reincarnated as a dragon.

Second Note: Your mother resides in Etheryn. Reevaluate first note.

…What? My mom was where?!

I froze at the thought of her even being alive!

‘Well, where is she?!’ I cried. ‘Where can I find her?!’

Again, silence.

‘Come on, this isn’t right! If you’re gonna dangle a carrot in front of my face, you can’t half-ass it! Tell me where she is!’

Do you accept your predestined path?

[Y] [N]

Crap!

This stupid codex was ignoring me again! There was no point in even yelling at it. But I was desperate, so I tried begging. Still, nothing. I was getting so rowdy that I was wasting time, and suddenly, a timer of 30 seconds popped up. Great.

I tried to deflate my emotions.

For the longest time, seeing Mom again was my biggest dream. Those dumb kids at the orphanage were ruthless, trying to make me feel stupid for holding onto her the way I did. There was no way she’d survived an accident like that, especially if they couldn’t find her body–I’d been told this more times than I could count, until it got to me. I stopped believing and lost faith, but now, after being told that she’d been reincarnated too….

My life back on Earth wasn’t the best, but I’d made friends and had family. Even though my inner circle was small, I cared a lot for the people I kept close. That being said, I knew what suffering felt like, and I didn’t want that for them. I didn’t want that for Mom on Etheryn, either.

The responsibility was unfair, the consequences unimaginable, but if there was anything I’d taken from my mom, it was her sense of curiosity. That, and her unwavering stubborn resolve. She never backed down when things got tough, and always said that people were their best when they were needed—

And right now, I was needed.

If I could start over in a second life, a place where I could actually do something meaningful for a change….

For a nobody like me, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity.

The two options continued to flash before me, suspended in the celestial ether. I drifted, my spiritual essence leaning to one choice to touch [Y], for yes.

Path Accepted

This concludes your Codex overview. Crafting grid…

Processing In-World Transfer…

‘No wait! I still have questions! Like, why am I a dark mage? Was I considered bad in my past life? Would that explain the Infernal Bloodline? And why a dragon? Why not a goblin?’ I asked, trying to poke fun out of my unbelievable situation. Even though the notion of being a badass dragon easily surpassed being a tiny goblin. The thought of being my Chaos Divide character crossed my mind, as if I could be reborn with her impressive stats and armor. ‘Come on, don’t go!’

Follow the path. Your new life starts now.

The black hole expanded, before suddenly shrinking into nothingness. My thoughts fled, and so did my essence. It felt like I was being torn through a different plane of existence. By the time I became conscious again, I was in another setting. This time, I was surrounded by something other than an endless void. The area was wet, the sensation of water rolling along my skin. It felt like I had a body this time, with little arms and legs that… didn’t quite feel right?

I got that I was being reincarnated into a dragon, as wild of a reality that was. But why did I feel so damn small?

A dragon was supposed to be fierce! A dragon was supposed to be large and intimidating! A dragon was supposed to be—

“Grezzly, I caught somethin’!” I heard a nasally voice above me muffled by bouts of buoying water. My body twitched, and my claws curled. I tried to stir myself awake, all of my sensations hitting me at the same time. I tasted salt on my tongue, and a stiffness along my scales. When I opened my eyes, I saw a blurry reflection over me— a full moon in a dark starry sky with streaks of black along the foreground.

Streaks of black… was that rope?

Wait a minute, I was in a net, being wrangled to shore!

Just like that, I panicked, snapping my eyes wider to see a greasy looking goblin with missing teeth, grinning down at me from ear to ear.

“Hey there, dinner!”

Huh?!

“We are gonna’ eat like kings tonight!”