Chapter 9: A True High-Level Dragon

"...Well... I kind of have the freedom to do whatever I want, don’t I?" Nio says, lying on her bed and rubbing her tail with her hands — a tail she discovered is strangely soft despite its rigid scales.

"It’s not like I need to let anyone know I’m going out, much less do I need bodyguards since I’ve confirmed the teleportation works... that’s right, I have freedom..." Nio uses the teleportation from her palace to go outside, determined to head to a village she found using magic.

She takes flight, cutting through the skies and generating sonic booms as her wings slice through the air.

"My appearance might be a problem... I’ll use the basic magic [Disguise]."

[Disguise] — Perception Alteration Magic that hides body parts or appearance, as well as allowing the creation of illusions of a different appearance.

The moment Nio activates this magic, her wings, horns, and tail seem to vanish. Even though they’re still there and she can see them, to other people she’ll look like nothing more than a normal human girl, though her slightly pointed ears weren’t hidden because Nio forgot about them.

"People at level 40 would already see through the disguise... I hope there isn’t anyone who can tell I’m a dragon... in the game, dragons were a dangerous monster race, enemies to many other races."

"Considering this new world, there’s a good chance dragons are still everyone’s enemy..." Although Nio feels like she took her time, the speed at which she left the plains is absurd, and soon she arrives near a village.

"..." Nio stares at the village down below, thinking calmly.

"In the game, I was evil-aligned, and Nio was described as an evil dragon too, and I can feel that in my way of thinking, which has changed... I don’t plan on changing that, I’ll accept the role of being a villain... but am I capable of being evil?" Nio wasn’t necessarily an evil character in terms of attitude.

But rather in actions — massacres, a high PK rate, and a Roleplay style based on the premise of being a villain. That influences part of her current personality, but the human part of her mind still exists, and that creates this unease about whether or not she can truly be evil.

"..." Nio points her hand toward the village and thinks about what it would be like to destroy everything with magic — what the sound of screams would be like, the sensation of burning flesh, the chaotic smell of destruction.

And to her surprise, she feels nothing, and feeling nothing unsettles her. As a human in the past, she wasn’t really brave; she wouldn’t have had the courage to think about taking lives on a mass scale without feeling bad.

But now, that same perspective, and the chance of it happening, makes her feel like it’s almost routine to do so.

"Is it because I’m a dragon? Which was a very destructive race... or is my brain just completely fucked from having become Nio?" She asks herself in a somewhat strange way, as if she can’t figure out the reason behind it.

"Let’s... go for a less extreme angle..." Nio keeps watching the village, looking for a bandit, a criminal, a thief, a murderer, or any "evil" person — not because she wants to do something good, but because killing someone bad would make her feel less bad in case she feels remorse from killing.

"...Found one..." Nio spots a pickpocket. She knows nothing about him, doesn’t know his motives, and doesn’t know if he steals to pay for something for loved ones or out of greed. She only focuses on the observable reality.

And the reality is obvious: he’s stealing. Immediately, Nio points a finger at the criminal. Nearly two kilometers up in the sky, she isn’t visible, and no one in the small village notices the magic forming in the air.

"[Low-Level Magic: Amber Arrow]." At the tip of Nio’s finger, a kind of segmented arrow with four ridges forms, with an extremely sharp tip, entirely orange in color.

"That was a low-level magic. In the game, it was really weak and, honestly, it was beginner magic... better than me throwing something dangerous at the village." She aims directly at the pickpocket, and when he steps into an alley, she fires.

To her surprise, instead of the arrow simply hitting the enemy and some kind of HP bar appearing and going down, the arrow travels at extreme speed, piercing through his head from the top all the way down through his legs, bursting the body apart in a grotesque display.

Literally from top to bottom, it pierced through while the air pressure expanded, turning the body into a pool of blood and flesh, while the arrow continued forward, opening a 40-centimeter hole in the ground like a small tunnel, as the walls around it suffered damage.

"...Ah... right... that makes sense. In the game, the physics didn’t allow magic to deal complex damage to the environment; only certain magics dealt damage to the scenery for functionality reasons and to prevent mass server destruction..." Nio looks at her hands and realizes.

She paid more attention to the damage the arrow caused than to the death she inflicted. She lets out a cold sigh, realizing that yes, she can’t feel anything — not because she doesn’t want to feel.

But because to her body, to her biology, and to her new existence, that life was the same as a mere ant. No human cares about stepping on an ant, so a dragon also doesn’t care about stepping on a human.

"At least it’s not fun..." Nio is at least satisfied that she didn’t enjoy it. She is, as her Lore stated, neutral — she prefers not to be bothered and not to kill for fun, preferring tranquility.

"If I didn’t feel anything for the pickpocket, I doubt I’d feel anything for an innocent, children, the elderly, or women... it’s so... strange to realize that I’m really, biologically, a monster."

"...I had only thought about how strange it was not to feel attraction to either gender, but I forgot that being a dragon means low interest in inferior lives, greater interest in treasures, greater interest in the tranquility of isolated places, and... an inherently high aggressiveness toward enemies..."

"Wait!! Wait, wait, wait a second!! So if I’m acting like a dragon... did I inherit the base racial abilities?" Nio suddenly thinks about the game, ignoring the screams of some people who find the pool of blood and the hole. ℯℯ𝑙.

In the game, there were base racial abilities — something useless, just a description of a skill that no one could use, because they were only there to add fidelity and realism to the races, like, for example, the ability to fly with your wings if you were an angel or a demon.

The reality is that despite having that ability, you were forced to learn a flight skill, because you couldn’t fly just with your wings, even though they reduced the magic cost of flight magic — something done to limit unfair advantages among beginners.

"That ability..." Nio thinks of a specific ability of reptile-based races like hers.

[Parthenogenesis] — The user is capable of performing automictic parthenogenesis. The egg duplicates its genetic material, producing an almost identical offspring, with the egg beginning to be produced in the user’s womb and being expelled after its formation. Naturally, the egg, charged with Mana, can also be used as a battery, energy source, or an extremely useful food for recovery.

’I-I lay eggs? Ugh... that’s disgusting...’ Nio shudders. Even with her mind focused on strategy, she prefers not to think about this ability that she could now use.

"Even if it’s a useful item, which theoretically would be like a super multi-use recovery potion, I’d rather not think about it." Nio returns her focus to other abilities she might have.

"Flight... that’s right, I’m flying with my wings instead of needing flight magic — less magic cost... that’s good. I should also have the natural armor ability." She thinks about the positive aspects of this.

"So can I spit fire? In the game, dragons of my type could, but there was no ability for it; it was just a description." Nio opens her mouth for a moment, curious and wanting to test it without thinking about the implications.

But what forms in her mouth, instead of a small flame, is a purple sphere with a silvery glow, as if the sphere were made of liquid. Soon the sphere shifts into a thick, black shell, which she fires.

"...?!!!" When the sphere hits the village, an immense explosion happens. Purple, white, and black flames spread, consuming everything. There isn’t even a span of time for suffering — everything is incinerated instantly.

People, animals, houses, rocks, and the ground turn to ash, forming a small crater.

"..." Nio looks at her status.

[Nightmare Flames: Flames that shift between shades of purple, silver, and black. They possess the ability to consume organic matter and vitality to increase their size. Especially strong against living things. Instead of a jet of flames, they are actually gathered as condensed spheres that explode upon contact. Strength depends on the user’s level.]

"Shit... I... I really am a fucking high-level dragon." Nio looks at the village she destroyed by accident. She doesn’t feel guilt, but she doesn’t feel comfortable either.

"...I feel like a kid who kicked a ball inside the house and broke an expensive TV..." She starts flying away from the scene, as if she hadn’t just evaporated dozens to hundreds of people.

"I-I’ll find another village. I’ll try to talk to people and find out information myself... no more spitting fire!"