Manifold. Origin Realm.

This weightless feeling... I'm back to my realm, again.

However, this time, it's no longer an endless empty space of blackness. Now it's filled with countless dots of light, glowing in the different colors of eight elements. "Filled" might not be a good word to describe it, as they only float near me, but their number was enough to block half of my vision.

They simply float there, unmoving. I'm tempted to touch them, but remember the last thing before I blacked out, I could more or less guess what they are.

["You don't seem to be surprised."] Vitae's voice echoes in my mind, again.

"These are.. the people of Mirage Lake Town, right?" I immediately state my hypothesis.

["As expected of you. Yes, those are their souls."]

"So it's Primal Soul magic.. Why did you let him cast something catastrophic like this?" I ask without any hint of emotion in my voice. After all, I don't care about these people, I'm just curious how 'kind' the deities are.

["Well, I didn't. For us Deities to grant the usage of Primal Magic, the first requirement is the caster's element being neutral."]

"That man was someone with Holy element.." I mumble.

["Yes. He simply starts the formation. Without praying to a Life Deity, the formation of a Life Magic can't be activated."]

"And I accidentally activated it... Why did you let me do it, then?"

["Actually..."] Although I can't see her, I could feel the hesitation in her voice.

"Nevermind that.." I say then reach my claw over, grabbing a dot of white light in the midst of colorful sea of light. Although I can grab it, I can't feel anything nor there is any change with my scale's color. "Hey! Talk! Why did you do this?" I raise my voice a bit to ask the dot, my claw squeezing it down a bit.

"wHeRe.. Am.. I?" Some broken sound comes from the dot.

"This is..." Now that I think about it, I can't describe this place to him. Apparently, no one knows the existence of this place.

"wHo.. ArE.. yOu?" The dot, without caring about the answer to the first question, asks again with its broken voice.

"Don't worry about it. Won't matter soon anyway." Recalling his words earlier, I say it in sarcastic tone.

Hearing that, the white dot starts making incomprehensible sounds, some of those sounds like he is cursing at me.

Without caring about it anymore, I squeeze my hand into a punch, trying to dissipate him.

"Wait wait! I will talk!" The dot suddenly speaks fluently. Judging from its voice, it's the same man who started the formation.

"Oh, so you can talk." I say with a hint of annoyance in my voice. Opening my palm, I poke the dot with my claw tip. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I feel like the dot just shiver.

"I was afraid that you won't absorb me if you knew I plotted against you.."

"So you pretended to be.. unintelligent?" I close my palm again. "I won't do it anyway, so good bye."

"..." Instead of begging, the dot stays quiet. That makes me wonder if killing him is actually doing him a favor.

"Answer my question, why did you do this?"

"I want to be a part..."

"STOP!" I squeeze it down as hard as I can in reflex, trying to silent the fanatic dot. Fortunately for it, it stops right away, so I open my palm again.

"Why did you want to drag all these people with you?" Not like I care about them.

"They are a bunch of heretic! They refused to worship you!" The dot suddenly shakes in my hand and it speaks in anger. "I simply do what I should and sacrifice them."

"And send them to heaven?~" Instead of explaining that it was me who refuse to be worshiped in the first place, I tease the dot.

"..." The dot stays quiet this time. However, that makes me realize something else.

"Speak! What is your real reason?" This time, my interrogation question carries a growl.

"I will tell! I will tell!" Immediately, the dot frantically shakes. "In the town, I hid the corpses of my comrade that that wolf killed before becoming your servant!!"

"What?!" Unable to comprehend the sudden mention of that day, I blurt out. However, a second after that, I recall my first day in this world. The Holy Knights who helped me bind Glutton to me.. I spared two of them...

After a few questions, I finally understand the man's motif. Two of his comrades died uselessly, and I spared them despite their high hope. He thought that it was their punishment for attacking me, but he couldn't accept it, so he decided to revenge.

However, if there is only his squad, they might get found out. Thus he used dragon blood ink to create a giant formation surrounding the town and waited for when the escorts (those Lv60 Holy Knights) return me from the capital.

Seeing me entering the town without the Holy Knights surprised him a bit, but he decided to trigger the formation anyway.

"It was a good trick. Making me activate the formation my self." I honestly praise him. If instead of chanting a counter spell, I wait for someone to dispel it, the formation would have failed.

"I thought that..." The dot named Vind says. "...you, as the Origin Dragon, could trigger any Primal Magic on your own..."

["No! How can that be? Ha ha..."] Suddenly Vitae's voice echoes in my mind.

"You are very bad at lying." I grumble.

"Lying to the Origin Dragon is a huge sin! How could I do that!" The dot says. It seems that Vitae didn't talk to it.

"Anyway, sorry for breaking it to you. There is no other Holy element in this place." I take another look around to confirm it. "Your comrades' souls have left their corpse long ago."

"You can tell the element with a look?"

"You can't? I see a sea of colorful souls."

"I can only faintly sense the existence of other souls... So my comrades..."

"Are you dumb? My servant killed them, so their souls merged with him."

"That... is good..." The dot says then stop talking.

Seeing the dot staying quiet for a while, I simply sigh and toss it into my maw.

"Hey Vitae!" I call out while sorting the souls around me by color.

["You shouldn't yell a Goddess's name like that..."]

"I thought we are friend?" I blurt out then hold my muzzle shut with my claws. "Um, you didn't hear that.. right?"

She simply chuckles in my mind. Oh well, I hope all other deities are friendly like this.

"Anyway, can I keep all of these souls?" I ask while picking some soul out from the sea, one for each color except for Purple. Somehow, Dark and Holy are rare elements.

["Whatever you want. Their physical bodies were destroyed anyway."]

I simply shrug then drag a blue colored soul close to my face.

"Hello!" I greet it, but there wasn't any reply for a while. How rude.

["All of them are unconscious."]

That reminds me, when the formation started, all of them except for my party and Vind fainted. That's weird, they fainted before the spell even started.

["A ha? You think so? It's not your fault. A ha ha..."] Vitae awkwardly says.

"You read my mind?" I grumble.

["Why are you keeping these souls? I thought you would ask me to revive them."] She immediately changes the topic.

"I like shinies..." I blurt out, then hold my muzzle shut with my claws, again.

["How dragon of you!"] She chuckles in my mind. ["Are you going to collect people's soul? There are golds in this world too, so you don't have to be a Soul Collector."]

"Soul... That reminds me, can you grant me a Class from here? I don't want to enter a temple."

["Didn't you always try to do things on your own?"]

"Well, I will try when I reach Lv10."

["You are already Lv10..."]

...

"What?! A whole town only raised my Level by two?! Just how many more towns I have to wipe out to reach Lv60?"

["That formation only convert corpses into Exp. The rest of the town are alive."]

"I guess I will have to massacre the entire town first before... Nevermind." I don't really feel like going genocide...

["I don't mind it. There are many genocides in the past. Many races, for example the dwalf race, went extinct from it..."] Hearing my growl, she chances the topic. ["Now, do you want me to grant you a Class?"]

I take a deep breath to calm myself from the word 'extinct'. I'm always 'allergic' to it. Also, taking a deep breath makes a few soul get sucked into my nostril, then I sneeze them out. That's so gross.

"I want to try doing it myself first." I say then try to summon the Class window, but nothing appears. Well, I didn't think a Class window existed in the first place. "Um.. how do I do this?"

["Well, normally you have to pray to a god..."]

"Not gonna happen." I interrupt her. "That's why I asked you."

["You could try.. asking yourself..."] She says then starts laughing in my mind.

"Not funny." I growl again. However she keeps laughing non-stop. "Shut up, Vitae!!"

...

"You..." Argon stares at me, his eyes filled with.. horror?

Ah darn, I always wake up when I say something like that.

I look around the mess left behind by Vind. A yard filled with remnants like clothes and other goods they were selling. A town full of people suddenly become quiet. It's so sad... Why am I feeling sad for them? Just earlier, I treated their soul as collections.

"Are you alright?" Rector carries the angel kid on his back and the Toothpick in his hand, walking over and asks me.

"Seeing your Level and what you said when you woke up, I suppose it's alright." Argon says then turns away. Did I disrespect his Goddess too much?

Speaking of Level, I take a look at my Status...

[tbody]Name: Origo ΔεμιντικαAge: 12000Level: 10 ©Race: DragonHP: 100/100MP: ∞STR: 3SPI: 4VIT: 6AGI: 3DEX: 12LUK: 3

Oh, this is easier than expected. I reach my claws over and poke the © symbol.. but nothing happened.

"©I hope I don't have to chant those embarrassing words or yell the spell name.©" I mumble to myself.

"What are you doing?" Rector frowns as he sees me poke something in mid air.

"©In Status, there is a symbol next to my level. I thought I could grant Class to myself by pressing it.©"

"You only cared about your Class?" Argon turns back and points at the ground.. filled with people's remnants.

"©What am I supposed to do? To be honest, I feel a bit sad about it.. but.. I've lived for longer than you could even imagine. I've seen more deaths than you could ever count in your entire life...©"

"Can you at least mourn them?"

His words.. triggered my Conscience. However, it doesn't hurt my chest. Rather, my chest feels heavy. I close my eyes. It makes me think deeply about my sense of value... To gain respect, I must respect others. Although these people annoy me, their worship didn't mean disrespect...

These lives was wasted for nothing. Their family and friends would sad. I should do.. something for them... Should I say something? Should I...? I'm really bad at saying these kinds of stuff at a funeral-like event.

Speaking of funeral... I decided to hum the song they played at my last incarnation's funeral. I had never heard that before.. but it was sad...

The moment I finish the tune, the anonymous system's voice ring in my mind.

[©lass Trial Finished!]

Huh? Hahhhhh?!

I open my eyes.. only to see the whole world glowing in white light.. Even my scale turns white due to the Holy element in the air. Argon and Rector are hanging their head low. It doesn't look like they notice the light though.

At first I thought this was my Class change effect. However, I could see the light encompass the entire town. The remnants littered on the floor are shining the brightest. Soon, one by one, they dissipate into colorful light and disappear without a trace. Even the ground and the building do the same...

The light slowly dies out, leaving an empty grass land next to the lake. The town is gone, but there are still colorful light particles float here and there.

[♪Requiem♪]

The moment this single word appears in my mind, I know what just happened.. and also my Class.

I'm a Minstrel. A freaking Singing Dragon!! This is a TRAGEDY!