A New Life

When Caleb finally woke up, he was surprised that he actually fainted in real life. He was also surprised by the fact that he was still in the game. He tried to log out because he had a splitting headache and had no idea what happened.

He couldn't even open his game menu though! He tried all the different ways. He tried to will it to open with his mind, do the hand movement required, and tried to voice command. He even tried to take off his VR helment, only to find it wasn't there! Nothing worked.

He was able to open his stat menu though. When he opened it, he saw he was at level one again. He only had one piece of armor on which was the dragon skull, and he was no longer a fairy.

Now his race was something called a "dragonoid," he tried to inspect it further, but nothing happened. His name remained as "Haedre," but his appearance was changed and looked exactly like he did in the real world!

Completely freaked out, Caleb didn't know what to do. He even tried to contact customer support by yelling "customer support," but that didn't work either. Since he had no other option, and he wasn't one to cower in fear for long, he decided to explore.

He determined that he was still in the room with the dragon skull. The inscriptions on the floor lit up, and they revealed a door that wasn't there before. The door was open and led into a dark room.

Caleb was about to cast fairy light to see in the room, but he noticed that the dragon skull was still giving off the golden light. Inside the room, there was nothing except a chest in the middle of it.

Caleb walked up to the chest and examined it for a while. He made sure there were no traps on it, but it was hard to tell without his trap detecting skill from the fairy race.

After spending a few minutes on contemplating on whether to open it or not, he finally decided to take the risk. Inside the chest were three items. A full set of armor, a spell scroll, and an item bag.

Caleb first investigated the spell scroll. After looking at it, he instantly learned the spell and the scroll turned to dust. This aspect remained the same from the game Caleb noted.

The spell he learned was called "Analyze." This spell would allow him to look at a object or living being and learn facts about them.

In The Timeless Realm, there were different qualities of spells, they were: simple, common, uncommon, intelligent, complex, legendary, and masterwork spells. The analyze spell was an intelligent level spell!

Usually you'd have to reach level 60 before you could learn an intelligent level spell, but this one had no level requirement! Spell qualities were also determined on the age of a spell.

Simple spells were between 0-10 years old, Common were between 11-100 years, uncommon were between 101-1,000 years, and it continues, with masterwork spells being at least 1 million years old. The analyze spell was at least 1,000 years old!

Caleb used analyze at once on the set of armor. The set of armor was called "dragonbone armor" and was of superb quality. It offered 5 points to defense for each piece, and had a full set bonus of plus 15 points. It also had an enchantment that increased the user's agility and endurance by 7 points.

Armor had a quality ranking system similar to spell. There was: trash, common, uncommon, superb, extraordinary, legendary, and perfect armor. Armor also had the same aging process as the spells, and the same level requirements. Caleb had just received armor that should have a level 60 requirement!

The last item, was the item bag. Caleb used analyze on it as well and saw it was called a "spatial bag." The description of the bag states that it can open a pocket dimension to hold item. The bag was superb quality as well. Currently the bag was empty.

After Caleb viewed all the items and equipped his dragon armor, he investigated the chest one last time. It wasn't unusual for chests to have hidden compartments in The Timeless Realm, and Caleb was glad he checked.

Along the top of the chest was a thin opening. He searched around the chest for a lever, and found that one of the side handles pushed into the chest and opened the hidden compartment.

Inside the hidden compartment was a sword. Caleb used analyze on it, but couldn't see any information about it, everything was a question mark except for the name. It was called "Dragon's Breath."

Caleb tried to unsheath the sword, but it wouldn't budge. It seemed the sword was enchanted and wouldn't open. Seeing no other option, Caleb put the sword on his back.

Caleb spent another hour in the room, he was looking for more hidden compartments or doors, but found nothing. He finally decided to leave the strange building.

When he was outside, it was almost dark. Waiting outside for him was his dragon he tamed, apparently she was still his companion even though he was now level one. Her name was "Cornelia," after his mother. She was a poison dragon that could also use fire.

At that moment Caleb heard a voice in his head 'master Haedre you're back!' Cornelia exclaimed excitedly.

Caleb was taken aback and spoke out loud "Who's there?" He proceeded to draw his weapon, but he still couldn't.

'It's me master!' Cornelia exclaimed inside his mind again. 'Cornelia, I can communicate with you now that you have become a dragonoid.' Caleb was still surprised, but he let his guard down some.

He thought back 'Cornelia, what is a dragonoid? I don't understand. I can't even log out.' He didn't really expect Cornelia to answer him, after all she was just an NPC (Non-playable Character).

'A dragonoid is a human who can transform into a dragon. You are no longer playing the game, you are living it. My master Qydom has summoned many humans from your world so he can restore the dragon race to what it once was. He calls you the dragon seeds.'

Caleb took a minute to process this and replied. 'A dragon seed? I don't understand anything, why me? why couldn't I keep my fairy race?' Caleb was starting to lose his mind.

Cornelia said, 'you chose this when you put on the dragon skull, you read the inscriptions. You couldn't be a fairy anymore because you needed chaos from the humans and their free will. When that is fused with a dragon's power, it creates a dragonoid. A fairy would perish if it tried to fuse with a dragon.'

Cornelia continued, 'you are the strongest of your race, you were the first to complete all of the quests, and even found our source code. It was us dragons who made this game. We chose you, because we knew you would be the one to usher in the age of the dragons.'

Caleb was very upset at this moment. Although there was nothing he could do about it. He ultimately decided to go back to the guild and learn more about Dragon's Breath. 'Cornelia, I need more time to think about this. It's getting late, could you fly me back to Fairy's Domain?'

Fairy's Domain was about 50 miles from his current position and flying was the quickest way to get there. Cornelia thought for a moment and then said, 'master, you can fly yourself you're a dragonoid now!'

'How do I do that?' He asked.

'Just think about your body growing scales, wings, talons, and other dragon properties.' Cornelia replied. And that is exactly what he did.

It felt like his body was being torn apart. It felt like his skin was being ripped from his body. He screamed in agonizing pain while the transformation happened, his body stayed the same height, but he grew wings, scales, talons, and a snout. 'you didn't tell me it'd hurt like hell!' Caleb exclaimed, he was clearly irritated.

'Sorry master, but I didn't know either. Even if I did, would you have tried it if you knew it would hurt?' Cornelia replied with snarkiness in her voice.

Caleb thought about it for a moment and quietly uttered 'no,' like he was embarrassed. Then he thought, 'lets go.' And off they went flying towards the guild.