Reborn As A Dragon Girl With A System

As the changing of seasons passed, Kana finally arrived outside a sea of trees that were encased in a thick black fog.  The trees themselves did not look normal as everything about them was grey, from the bark to the leaves, but they did seem hanging on to life. Kana took a deep breath and slapped her cheeks as she took her first step into the forest. "Let's just find out what the word death means to me."

There were no words to describe the place she was in now. It was just dark and silent. Not a single sound could be heard. The thick fog made it hard to see ahead of her. But as far as she could tell from the dry ground under her bare feet that there had been no rain in this place for a long time.

The deeper she continued on, the more she wondered just what caused this forest to end up the way it had. After a day of traveling, the once grey lifeless looking trees became even more lifeless as they looked completely dead. She had not detected a single ounce of life within this forest besides the trees at the beginning that seemed to be just hanging on. 

"Hmmm… It seems to be getting dark. I should find a place to sleep for the night… " At this point, Kana was not worried about being attacked by anything, so she did not really care where she slept. But as she looked around for a spot that might be comfortable, she spotted something that was not a dead tree in this lifeless, dry landscape. 

"A skeleton?" Kana pursed her lips and walked over to it. It was indeed a skeleton. From the looks of the teeth, it may have been a vampire as well. She looked it over and spotted a note in the skeleton's hand. And a pen in its other hand. Just from these clues alone, Kana could tell this person must have been writing something before it died. Kana reached down and pulled the note from the boney hand and opened it up.

"To the one who finds this. This forest is cursed. Since entering the forest I felt as if my energy was being drained. As if something was slowly sucking the life out of me. I had come here to investigate why the trees were grey. But the further I went in, I found the trees were slowly dying the closer I got to the center of the forest.  The thick fog that engulfs this place makes it hard to see where I am going, but I know I am getting closer to whatever is causing this place to suck the life out of every living thing. But sadly, now, I will never know. 

"I pushed myself to my limits, and all the blood I had with me to rejuvenate my body is now gone. This place is truly cursed to have even me a pureblood vampire at death's door. I write this for any of my kind who make it this far and find my remains, quickly turn back. This is not a place for any living being. It is a place that sucks the life out of anything that enters. If I had one regret about this journey of mine… It would be that I never found the source that was sucking the life out of everything around it…."

The note stopped there, and it seemed he had died as he was trying to write his next line with how the ink was scribbled across the page. Kana held the note in her hand and tilted her head to the side, and wondered what this person meant by their energy being drained. She had not felt like anything was being drained from her. In fact, she felt very comfortable here. A little too comfortable. "Strange..."

  Kana scratched her head and placed the not back in the skeleton's hands. She figured no sense in taking a note meant to warn people. As for the skeleton regretting not seeing the source of what was causing this. Kana pondered for a moment before reaching down and pulling the skull off the skeleton's body and holding it in her hand. "Since you want to see, I will bring you with me." 

If anyone was here to see her actions, they would have facepalmed and asked why she would do such a thing. But Kana didn't care. She figured when she found the source, she could then put the skull down facing it so that the eye sockets were looking at the source. In a way, her logic was… Understandable….

But this did not help Kana find a place to sleep and another thing she had come to realize was that she had no food. She had all the water she wanted but no food. No food was a big deal to Kana. "What should I do… Well, maybe let's have a bath while I think about it…." 

With the thought of a bath in mind, Kana used earth magic to create a large hole in the ground, then filled with water magic. After that, she sent a bunch of fireballs into it until it was nice and hot. She then placed the skull down with its eye sockets facing away from the bath, stripped down, and jumped in. She leaned back against the edge of her bath and looked up at the stars that were shining down from above. 

With her hand, she reached out and grasped at them. She began to wonder if she was even from this world at all… It was a strange idea that popped into her mind, but she felt that maybe just maybe, this was not the world she belonged to. "Hah! What am I saying… How is it possible to jump between worlds… But then again, I can already do so much with magic. What if…. Well… I guess after I find the source of this place, I can at least test it out, right?"

She did not know if it would be possible, but she decided to at least give it a try once she finished up here. After a bath, she set a flame down and used her shorts as a towel as she sat naked in front of the fire to dry off. She was not really afraid of anyone making its way out this far as she was by no means in a place people could reach easily. Even the vampire skeleton said he had to drink a lot of blood to make it this far. She had no idea how much, but from what she knew, this place was basically a forbidden zone that no one entered. 

After about an hour, Kana put her clothes back on and waved her hand, building a house out of earth. She did not want to resort to this, but she couldn't see anything worth using as a bed. Plus, it was much easier to get comfortable if she had a roof over her head. 

The next day Kana continued her journey. With skull in hand, she headed deeper into the forest. The dead trees that were still standing were now gone. There was nothing but dried crack ground. An area was devoid of any resemblance of life. And in the middle of this desolate place was a dome sticking out of the ground. Kana found the closer she got to this dome, the more she felt energized. She had no idea why but she did. 

"This thing is very strange..." Kana was now standing in front of the dome that was made out of some kind of black stone. The whole structure was very large. It towered over her as she stood in front of it. "Entrance?" Kana looked around but did not see any windows or doors on the side of the dome she was on. Frowning, she decided to circle the place. But even after spending a good hour walking around the structure, she found that there was not a single entrance to be found.

"What is this place for?" Kana walked up to it and placed her hand on the black stone. As she did, the whole thing began to vibrate, and a door suddenly appeared next to her.  "Oh!?" 

Kana poked her head in to see that it was pitch black inside. She lit a flame in her hand and stepped into the entrance. Once her tail cleared the threshold, the entrance suddenly sealed up. Kana quickly turned around and placed her hand on the wall, but unfortunately, no door appeared. "This…. Am I trapped!?"

Kana felt a little scared. She looked around, but she was surrounded by black walls on all sides except for one which seemed to lead further inside this strange place. It was when he went to take a step forward that Kana felt her stomach rumble, reminding her that she still had not eaten anything yet. This caused her to look at the skull hanging from her side… "I wonder how old vampire bones taste...."