Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

I woke up and immediately felt like my head was being split into two as my mind was assaulted with a sharp pain second to only the pain I felt when I died. It was so bad I didn't even feel my body until a couple minutes later when I began to get used to it a little.

I was in what looked like an altar made out of wood and there were wooden structures around me that resembled houses. There were humanoid figures walking about and some of them were close enough for me to actually see them, as my vision was blurry and could only see the shapes and color of the things a few meters away from me.

Around me, on the ground around the wooden altar, were human-sized lizard people with green scales. Or were they smaller? I didn't have a proper sense of scale at the time as I didn't even know how big or small my actual body was, for all I know I could be the size of a dog or a car. In any way, if I was the size of a small dog, then those lizards were human-sized, which would make more sense than if they were bigger than an entire car.

"Kanami!" One of the lizards said, his voice was rough and had a kind of accent that one would imagine when they think of snake people talking. As the others heard the one who spoke, they looked up to me and began talking as well.

"Kanami"

"Kanami ka"

"Mi kanami koala kama" They said in words I didn't understand. I looked at them as they looked back at me with wide sparkling eyes. One of them ran off as the rest continued to look at me, and the ones that were walking through began to approach and begin to speak with the ones that were already there and then staring at me like I was some kind of celebrity.

A few minutes later, the splitting headache was starting to wear off and my mind was starting to clear. I began to feel embarrassed with so many eyes on me, but it continued for only a few more moments as another lizard approached, together with the one who ran earlier. This lizard was old, his scales had begun to lose their colors, his left arm was missing and his face was full of scars. He walked up to the altar using the bone of an unknown creature as a crutch.

"Kanami ma si. Kala oh tai ko nas" He said as he closed his eyes and looked down. The other lizards all closed their eyes and looked down as they pressed their hands together in some sort of prayer.

They kept it like this for a while and before I could think of doing anything, The old one snapped his eyes open and shouted at a younger lizard something I couldn't understand and it ran off before coming back with another one carrying a giant bowl full of all sorts of food. It had a lot of meat, it was 70% meat to be honest, and a few fruits. They placed the bowl in front of me and blacked away while bowing to me.

What the hell is happening? I asked myself and my skill.

[Kobolds are a species of lizard-like monsters that are rumored to be of draconian descent. Although they are not intelligent enough to be classified as one of the Therian species, their camps are organized enough to be mistaken for an actual settlement. Kobolds have been recorded to worship those in possession of a draconic bloodline, be they actual dragons, wyverns or dragonborn]

So I'm being worshiped here? That's it? I thought. Honestly it was a bit unsettling having all those people, or should I say beings, looking at me like I was some kind of god.

A rumble from my stomach as the smell of meat entered my nostrils blew away all concerns and made me forget everything else. I looked at the bowl of food with saliva dripping from my mouth and, without a second thought, I plunged my head into the bowl and began eating away at the food. It was raw and honestly a bit underwhelming in the flavor, but I didn't care, I was so hungry at the moment that I couldn't care less about the flavor, just that it was edible.

The kobolds began making sounds, but I ignored them to eat. It didn't take long for me to empty the bowl, and only then I looked up, only to see more bowls with food being placed in front of me by rather energetic kobolds before falling back. I didn't see where they went because I went straight to the next bowl and began eating it as well.

After eating three bowls full of food I was finally full and stopped eating. The bowls weren't small by any means, each one was a third of my size, and I ate three of them, meaning I probably ate my own weight in food, where it all went I had no idea.

Before I could look around again, I was hit with a sudden dizziness and my eyes grew heavy. The world seemed to slow down as I fell on the wood altar and closed my eyes. I had fallen into a small slumber.

I didn't know for how long I slept, but when I woke up the sun was still rising in the sky instead of being already high, meaning that I had slept for at least a day.

What happened? I asked mentally to my skill which answered.

[Draconic biology dictates that when a draconic species, with the sole exceptions being dragonborns and kobolds, consumes its own mass or more of food it will enter a growth slumber, where their bodies will digest the food and add it to their own mass]

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As my skill explained things to me I noticed the wood altar was smaller, meaning I really had grown up, not by much, but at least I doubled my size. I also noticed white scales loose on the altar, meaning that I had also changed skin like the reptiles of Earth do. I got up, limbs a bit wobbly as I had just woken up and was not used to their new length yet.

It took me a few seconds of feeling and flexing all my limbs, even my wings, to get a proper hold of them, and, even though I never actually took flight I felt that I was close to be able to, it was a weird sensation to be honest, but it felt so natural I didn't think twice about it.

I walked to the edge of the altar and jumped to the ground. There was no one nearby, meaning the kobolds were sleeping as it was what? five in the morning?

[It is 04:35 in the Darnas Forest time-zone]

Close enough. I thought.

I caught that my skill named the forest I was in as Darnas, now at least I knew where I was… Who am I kidding? knowing the name of a random forest in another world doesn't help me at all.

With a sigh I pondered what to do now. I was inside this kobold village, somewhere I could take shelter and, judging by how I was worshiped by them yesterday, was going to be served food and water, that took care of basically everything I needed to survive so I could use the time to think about my current situation with more attention.

First, what happened in my classroom?

[Information not available]

…I should have imagined it wouldn't be so easy. I thought.

Anyway, what happened in my classroom? Lines were drawn and then- I shuddered on the thought. It was a memory I very much didn't want going back to. I had died

Yes, I died. It was the truth, even though a voice in my mind screamed at me that it was impossible, that I was alive right now, and it was true, I was alive, but I wasn't human anymore, was I?

I looked at myself again. My white scales shimmered in the cold light of the morning, as if they were jewels. It was a strange thing to accept, and even more strange at how easily I accepted it, but my time as a human had ended in that classroom. Still, I wasn't going to throw 18 years of my life in the trash just because I wasn't the same species anymore. So what if I wasn't a Homo Sapiens anymore? I was still me and that's what mattered. I could be a slime and it wouldn't be different.

Now that what happened to me was out of the way, the next question I needed to know was: What happened to my friends and classmates?

[Information not available]

Already counting with my skill failing to tell me, I kept going.

Before I died I saw lines being drawn into the entire classroom except where I was, and it was probably because of the lack of those exact lines that I died, meaning that everyone else should be safe, I hope. But even if they were alive, what had happened to them? No, that's not the right question. What were those lines?

[Spatial Tier ritual magic, Theo's Bridge]

…What? I blurted inside my mind and as a strange noise out of my snout. Come again?

[Spatial Tier ritual magic, Theo's Bridge]

Apparently my skill did know what those lines were. So, naturally I had to ask now. What is Theo's Bridge?

[Spatial Tier ritual magic, Theo's Bridge is a ritual magic with the purpose to reach out into the Void and summon creatures from outside the current universe while transforming them to conform to the rules of the new universe the summoned will find themselves]

We've been kidnapped, in other words. Yes, I was well aware of the isekai genre and how much it involves the summoning of people to other words, but that doesn't mean it wasn't kidnapping on a whole other level, and, should I add, murder as well if I could add my fate to it as well.

My mind flashed back to my own family and the family of my friends. If they have been kidnapped (I'm not changing my mind that they've been kidnaped and I murdered), then our families would be at a loss. My mom would probably enter a blind rage marching up to the police station demanding that I be found.

The scene made my chest hurt from worry and loss. I wasn't sure if I would ever meet them again. The ground getting wet was the only thing that made me notice that I was crying.

I sat on the ground and wiped my tears with my front leg, but to no avail as they kept coming, now accompanied by a sob. I couldn't stop, I didn't want to stop. Those isekai novels were so wrong, or had the most unstable protagonists ever. Why would the person who got whisked away from their world, their lives and families never think about them and the weight that they might never return?

Sadness turned to grief and then to anger. How dare anyone kidnap people on a whim, to strip them of their lives and throw them into a strange world with not one of their friends, their family, to help them, and to what? To become a hero like the isekai novels like to do? No, that couldn't stay like that. I wanted to march to the person who did it and strangle them until they returned us to our own world.

Finally, anger turned to depression. How would I do it, if I couldn't even defeat a slime to save my life. I wouldn't stand a chance with someone that was so powerful they could punch a hole into two universes and kidnap people from there. I was sure that if I were to try, I would be killed in sight, I was a dragon after all, and if those isekai novels, and the whole game industry taught me something, is that dragons were usually the enemies the hero and their team had to defeat to save the world.

I was only brought back to reality when I heard a shout of alarm of a kobold, which made me lift my head and see the old kobold running to me with a worried expression, saying something I didn't understand.

After seeing the kobold running to me I had settled on my objective. I had to find my friends and classmates and try to find a way to return home… No, I would find a way back home or make one myself.