A sea of infinite void engulfed me; I found myself falling, descending the heavens of the eternal darkness.

Heavy stuff.

But I also found myself wiggling, struggling as I pushed myself closer and closer to the edge of the dome that encapsulated my very world. It was a strange sensation, but one so familiar it did not bother me in the least. It was weird.

I had thought it would be hard to break. But, in truth, I knew it wouldn't have been nearly as bad if, like them, I broke one of my ex-girlfriend's boyfriend's car windshields. Each one felt like breaking free from the shackles of my own fate, though perhaps that was more than a little pretentious for someone who just wanted to live out his life in peace with some beer pong and an Xbox. And my exes asked me to smash up their limp boyfriend's cars, but it wasn't easy.

And yet, I broke through the surface so easily that I didn't even realize I was finally free. Only the words that filled my head made me realize I was finally alive. They were a roar—a wall of sound that crashed over everything else like a wave of thundering waves. It shook my mind and body alike, crushing every thought and feeling into dust. It felt like a living thing trying to force its way out of a shell, and I didn't want it to stay in this at all anymore.

[Congratulations, you completed the tutorial.]

Rewards:

- Skill book

- 100 EXP

- 5 stat points

[You gained a level.]

Name: Gazei

Race: Wu Hatchling

Condition: Normal

Lv: 2/25

Evolution Stage: Draconic 1 (64%)

Title: 【Dragon Queen's Son: Lv 1】【Dragon King's Son: Lv 1】【Reincarnated Human: Lv 1】

HP: 200/200

MP: 3000/3000

Attack: 6

Defence: 10

Magic: 20

Agility: 10

Rank: D-

Special Skills:

【Gamer: Lv-】【Sin of Pride: Lv 1】【Vergence in the Abyss: Lv 1】【Feathers: Lv 1】

Resistance Skills:

【Fire Resistance: Lv 1】

Normal Skills:

【Dragon Breath: Lv 1】【Dragon (Status) View: Lv 1】【Dragon Bite: Lv 1】

Huh, I completely forgot about the tutorial. And I gained a level, that's nice. Now how to get rid of the blue box?

I spent another few minutes trying to stand up on my talons, and I can proudly announce that moving with them was easier than I thought. Still, I am getting rid of them as fast as I can.

Next, I tried to open my wings and use them to swipe the message away... Wait wings?!

I didn't have the time to think about that when another appeared right after I managed to swipe the other one away.

[New Quest acquired.]

Take to the skies and stop being useless. Really, you are a bird dino dragon thing and can't fly—what a joke.

Rewards:

- Skill book

- 1 Evolution Point

-100 EXP

-5 stat points

Failure: You will be stuck in the Ashen Ironbark Forset for the rest of your pitiful life.

Well, aren't you still a jackass…

But whatever, I guess I will see what the skill book contains. So I again tapped the book with my beak and waited for a notification.

[You obtained a skill book. Do you want to use it?]

Yes/No: Yes

I blinked at the screen. Was there something wrong with my answer? Would it hurt to say yes? Well, no harm in trying. Let's see what this new skill does.

【Blessing of the Fire God: Lv 1】 Any spell or skills using the Fire element reduces the MP use by 25%.

That's not too bad. But the message wasn't done yet.

【Pyro Absorption (Passive/Active): Lv 1】

As the creature of Wu lands, you are drawn to the element of fire. Thanks to the system, you can now feed off them to gain experience. The more fire, the more EXP you get. You can only absorb fire from creatures with a fire element.

Passively absorbs kindle energy. Radius: 50 feet | EXP gained: 1 to 10 per day

Active: Sense the fire core of monsters around you. Radius: 1 mile | Cost: 10 MP/min]

Alright, well, at least this is interesting. Free exp is free exp.

I can already tell this Quest is going to be a pain in the ass.

I take a look at myself in a nearby water hole... that was boiling before looking back at the screen. My eyes widen; I can't believe it!

I look like a baby Utahraptor! A genus of large dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Early Cretaceous period. It was a heavy-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore. My feathers are red, and I have a bright yellow crest!

My mother must have been so proud of her son because she had gifted me with the most beautiful coat in all of the land.

Well, isn't that arrogant of me to assume that I am the most beautiful in all the lands. Maybe I should be a little less self-centred and check out what I look like compared to the others.

Now on to work!

A few hours later

Learning how to fly is not easy!

No, definitely no. At first, I thought it would be like learning how to ride a bike. You know, I try to move my body a few feet into the air and then slowly make my way up.

It didn't work like that. I couldn't even get off the ground for the first few hours. It appears that flapping my wings arbitrarily is not the way to fly. I only managed to fall multiple times. At least I gained something out of it.

I was somewhat right about my species, except in this world, I can fly!

【Fall Resistance (Passive: Lv 3】

Your body becomes more durable, and you take less damage from fall damage.

3% decrease in damage taken by falls.]

I swear this game system loves being an ass... Or my friends are in charge of this shit. Anyway, after some practice, I finally managed to get myself a few feet in the air. Thankfully I was never scared of heights, so when I lost control of my flight and punched to the ground, I was fine. Well, mostly, I lost about 50 HP, but it would regenerate in a few minutes after I ate this rat lizard thing when I flew over to my egg.

From there, it was a bit easier as I already knew the basics. So here I am, standing on one of the crystals I managed to climb using my talons and clawed fingers on my wings. I decided that if I could fly from here to a nearby hill, then I should be fine, and hopefully, the Quest would complete itself.

"Alright, you can do this, just focus," Sure, all that came out was shrieking bird noises, but I didn't care one bit. My wings were strong enough to carry me now; I could feel the wind flowing under them and around them. The air rushed past me at an alarming rate as I pushed myself up into the sky with the crystal in front of me.

With a leap of faith, I spread my wings and began gaining altitude. That was the easy part; now, I needed to remain in control of my flight and move towards the designated target.

It took me a while to get there because I kept trying to steer away from the wind, which made for some pretty bad landings, but eventually, I came down onto what looked like a large rock in the middle of nowhere.

It was going so good that when I heard a ping accompanied by the pop out of another blue box, I lost my control and crash-landed into the rocks below me. I really needed to work on my landing.

I groaned and pulled myself to my feet- or talons- I needed to get rid of those pop-outs. They would kill me one day.

Getting up from the ground, I check to see what I got

[Due to hours of training, you increased your ATT, DEF, and AGI by 1.]

Bitchin! Next!

[Thanks to learning how to fly, you created a skill]

【Flight Mastery Lv: 1】

Let's you move in the air more efficiently. Your speed increases, every manoeuvre becomes more straightforward, and maybe, just maybe, you won't fail the landing.

2% increase in movement speed when in the air

1% increase to AGI when in the air]

Huh, I will be honest and say that I didn't expect this. And the bonuses on this thing are great. Well, maybe not that great, but still good. Fights in the air, travelling, and dodging will be much easier.

Now with the last notification.

[Quest completed.]

You learned how to fly. As a raptor... Nice!

Rewards:

- Skill book

- 1 Evolution Point

-100 EXP

-5 stat points

Great, another skill book for me. Alright, what did I get?

[You obtained a skill book. Do you want to use it?]

Yes/No: Yes

Again I clicked yes and waited for the book to disintegrate.

[Skill obtained!]

【Feather Daggers: Lv 1】

Fire dagger-like feathers from your wings at your enemy. It is one of the basic abilities of Avian Wu Hatchlings.

-Cost: MP per projectile

-Damage based on your ATT

-It cannot penetrate even the weakest armour]

Not what I wanted, but still lovely. At least now I have something to defend myself with.

After I recovered from my surprise, I focused on the skill I wanted to use and aimed at the nearest rock. Then I flapped my wings a bit more forcefully and released ten small feathers in the rock's direction.

I missed a few of them, but the rest managed to hit the target. One of them embedded itself in the rock. It didn't even leave a mark, and I was a bit confused by this. I quickly pulled out the skill description once more and read it carefully.

'It cannot penetrate even the weakest armour,' Alright, not the best news. Hopefully, that will change as I level up my skill and become stronger. I was about to release another volley when I realized that the MP cost was higher than expected. That was a big deal for me since I barely had any MP left.

Crap, I guess that my MP regen is terrible, and I was using Feather Daggers poorly. And I here I thought it was an instant mastery attack. I want a new gamer system.

It is what it is; I'll just have to fly over to the next hill and recharge.

Now though, I would like to rest a bit; I don't think I need to sleep anymore, but I did a lot today, and I deserve some time to relax.

With that, I took off into that air and searched for a spot that would grant me a semblance of safety.

It took me some time, but I finally managed to find a small crack in the rocks where I could hide. I got as comfortable as I could inside and closed my eyes. Maybe it wasn't the best, but it would work for now. Tomorrow I will decide what to do next.

I will probably hunt.