“Pain!”
“It hurts so much!”
Chu Xia felt as if his head had been kicked by a donkey.
Under the intense, stinging pain, he opened his eyes.
What met his gaze was no longer a restroom stall door plastered with tiny advertisements.
Instead, there was only pitch-black darkness.
His body felt sticky, covered in a viscous fluid that resembled raw egg whites.
The cramped space compressed him, forcing him to curl his body tightly.
It was incredibly suffocating.
And deeply depressing.
“Why am I here?”
Although his head still throbbed with a dull ache, Chu Xia had no time to worry about it.
He clearly remembered working at the office just a second ago.
And then...
He went to use the restroom on the company's dime...
And then after that...
The toilet collapsed...
Chu Xia’s eyes snapped wide open.
“Fuck!
I knew the company's toilets were cheap, and that stingy boss still refused to replace them!”
Cursing under his breath, he kicked out with all his might.
“Crack!”
Amidst the crisp sound of shattering, a crack appeared in the darkness before him.
A soft light filtered in through the fissure.
“Huh?”
Before Chu Xia could react, the cracks multiplied rapidly.
“Clatter—”
The eggshell finally shattered completely, and the viscous egg fluid spilled everywhere.
A rancid, decaying stench washed over him!
Chu Xia looked at the scene before him in confusion.
This was a dark, damp cave.
On one side of the cave, piles of gold coins and gemstones were heaped together.
The light they emitted barely illuminated most of the cavern.
Four massive pillars covered in black scales stood in the center of the cave.
They looked like some sort of load-bearing pillars.
Wait, no! The pillars moved!
Chu Xia tremblingly raised his head.
A pair of golden eyes was staring right down at him!
This was a colossal beast, a monster as massive as a high-rise building!
Chu Xia finally understood.
The four pillars before him were not load-bearing structures at all.
They were the limbs of this monstrous beast!
Chu Xia’s gaze trembled as he sized up the terrifying beast before him.
Its entire body was covered in black scale armor.
Its head was hideously ferocious, sporting two horns resembling those of a ram.
But they weren't as curved.
Its mouth, filled with teeth gleaming with a cold light, looked incredibly sharp.
The beast seemed quite interested in Chu Xia.
It leaned down, its massive head almost pressing against Chu Xia's face.
At such close proximity, every breath the beast took brought a foul, pungent stench of rotting acidity.
Despite how terrifying the scene was, not a single trace of fear arose in Chu Xia's heart.
Instead, he felt a deep, instinctual awe toward the beast!
It was as if some switch had been flipped in his mind.
His throbbing brain calmed down completely.
Massive torrents of unfamiliar information materialized out of thin air!
“You are a black dragon, a noble chromatic dragon.”
“You are the ruler of the swamps, the most powerful race in this world...”
“You are...”
“An evil dragon!”
This was... the Draconic Inheritance!
Subconsciously, she bellowed out a string of unfamiliar words in her loudest voice:
“Irene Afra Christina!”
After she shouted the long string of names, the giant beast seemed satisfied.
It raised its head, turned around, and walked toward the other side of the cave.
It lay down on the hoard of gold coins and various gemstones, slowly closing its eyes.
It seemed to be thoroughly enjoying itself.
Meanwhile, Chu Xia could not calm down for a long time.
She shook her head, feeling as if a hundred thousand goblins were stampeding through her mind.
“I... I transmigrated?!”
The information in her head was somewhat jumbled, and it took Chu Xia a long while to sort through it and understand her current situation.
She had indeed transmigrated.
Apparently, because she was pooping on company time, she ended up falling into the toilet.
And thus, she transmigrated to this otherworldly realm called Arlesk.
Becoming a female black dragon hatchling with an exceptionally long name.
In other words, one of those flying giant lizards from Western legends that could fly and kidnap princesses.
After pinching herself to confirm this wasn't a dream, Chu Xia accepted her reality with a bit of helplessness.
After all, she had only been an orphan in her previous life.
Having grown up in an orphanage, she had graduated from university with their financial support, only to live a grueling 007 lifestyle every day.
She didn't have any attachments.
In comparison, becoming a dragon at the very top of the food chain wasn't such a bad thing.
At least now, she could just eat and sleep.
Sleep and eat.
Of course,
that was assuming she wouldn't run into those dragon-slaying parties shouting about the power of friendship and bonds.
“Well, from now on, I am Irene Afra Christina.”
“Hmm... I'll just go by Irene for short.”
Irene turned her gaze toward the black dragon sleeping on the pile of treasure.
Through their bloodline connection, she knew that this was her dragon mother in this life.
A female black dragon over a hundred years old.
Although that sounded quite old,
in the eyes of long-lived species like dragons, she was merely a young dragon who had only recently reached adulthood.
As for her dragon father, heaven only knew where he was!
Chromatic dragons were different from other intelligent creatures.
Their mating was purely a matter of the mating season arriving, so they reproduced out of sheer instinct.
Once the mating was complete, the two parties had absolutely no relationship whatsoever.
If other races reproduced this way, it might lead to some ethical dilemmas.
For example, when mating season came, a half-brother and half-sister who had never met and didn't know each other might cross paths.
And then, sparks of love would fly.
In that case, they'd be heading straight for an incestuous mess.
In contrast, dragons never worried about such things.
Draconic genes were incredibly dominant.
There was no such thing as inbreeding depression or genetic defects among them.
They could even mate across species with other creatures and successfully impregnate them.
It was ridiculously overbearing.
Irene looked down at her current body as a hatchling.
Sharp claws, a slender tail, and black scales.
Aside from her underdeveloped horns, she looked like a miniature version of her dragon mother.
Or rather, a chibi version.
Compared to her dragon mother, who had well-proportioned muscle lines and looked quite “slender,”
she, as a hatchling, looked rather chubby.
“Grumble...”
The waves of hunger rumbling from her belly pulled Irene's thoughts back to reality.
She patted her pale belly and looked at her shattered eggshell scattered across the ground.
According to the Draconic Inheritance, a hatchling's first meal was its own eggshell.
Eating the eggshell would replenish the various minerals needed for the hatchling's early growth.
It would make her scales develop to be even harder.
Grabbing a piece of eggshell, Irene took a hard bite.
“Crunch!”
The hard eggshell was like a potato chip in the hatchling's mouth.
It was easily crushed and chewed.
“Hmm... not bad. Crunchy, with a seaweed flavor.”
As she ate her eggshell, Irene sorted through the information in her mind.
The Prime Material Plane of Arlesk was different from her previous world; this was a world of swords and magic.
All kinds of fantasy creatures lived and multiplied in this world.
Although dragons were among the select few at the very top of the food chain,
that only applied to adult dragons.
Before reaching adulthood, young dragons did not have it easy.
Since their entire bodies were filled with valuable treasures, they were easily targeted by other races.
Among them, the most dangerous were human adventurers.
These guys were no different from bounty hunters, shouting all day about becoming dragon-slaying heroes.
Then, they would search the entire continent for isolated young dragons and drakes.
Having sorted this out, Irene took a fierce bite of eggshell, forming a clear plan for her future.
Grow stronger! She had to grow stronger!
Only by being strong enough could she survive in this cruel world!
And the first step to growing stronger was to eat!
Turning her grief and indignation into an appetite, Irene wolfed down the eggshell in her hands in a few bites. She then grabbed another relatively intact piece of eggshell and was about to stuff it into her mouth.
“Crack—”
A crisp sound drew her attention.
Irene turned her head and saw another dragon egg cracking open nearby.
Her dragon mother had laid a total of two dragon eggs this time. It seemed her brother or sister was about to be born.
Rate on N.U.
