I sat, staring down from the ledge jutting out from the cliff.
'I am currently in a mountain range covered in forests. And west... I'll eventually hit the coast. Then I'll figure out how to cross the ocean I guess.'
I sighed. Honestly... what kinda irresponsible higher being actually interacts with a mere human just to shove them into a random ass dimension and leave them stranded and confused?
I'm supposed to do SOMETHING apparently, by 'karma' or whatever bullshit.
I think I should establish a goal.
Goal #1: Survive. Get to the land of dragons, alive.
Goal #2: Thrive. Learn magic, get stronger, and at the very least be able to defend myself, even if I don't become a god or some other power-fantasy crap.
Goal #3... huh.
...I don't know? Should I live my life here happy and die naturally as I go? Should I try to find a way home?
What's waiting for me if I return home? A dragon in a land of nuclear weapons, Godzilla movies, and very bigoted humans?
...yeeeeeah. Not my thing.
But I also don't want to just... live here obediently. The idea of just lying here is annoying.
So should I just shove my nose into other's business?
Uh... no. You know what? I think for now I'm just gonna handle one thing at a time until I can even fly. When I'm more mobile, I'll get more options.
I looked back at my wings as I stretched them, flexing them a bit, and thought.
Can I... exercise my wings?
I tried flapping them, basically just pushing as hard as I could while standing still, and kept doing it, counting wing beats.
1, 2, 3, 4... 12... 47... 63...
By 70 my wings were like rubber, weak and shaky. I wasn't just flapping my wings or stretching them like when I glided between trees.
I was intentionally curving them to trap air and PUSHING the air down, flexing against the pressure.
It's the difference between lifting your arm and lifting your arm with weights I guess.
Then I ran light magic through my eyes, looking at how my view of the world changed.
I know light is how we see, it's how our eyes register things.
Light magic? Well, rather than sense magic, I could actually SEE it for one. For two, I could see life as energy, beating and pulsing through every tree, the dirt and the animals around me.
Air magic when pushed through myself seemed to make me faster? Lighter?
...I need to figure out how people divide magic in this world. Do they consider everything as being part of distinct elements? I'm pretty sure magic is it's own system of science and with its own laws as it kinda breaks the physics of my world.
Note for goal #2: find out what the laws of magic are. Is this a 4 elements like air, water, earth and fire type world? Need to find out.
Also do elements negate one another? Like I have the energies of fire, ice, light and wind in me, but stuff like my icefire and the lightning are just effects of the source energies. I don't have actual lightning magic in me, I can just create lightning through a fusing of the magical energies I have.
Moving through my body...
I stood up, going further back onto the ledge.
Wind energy!
My muscles relaxed subconsciously, a breeze floating through me, my weight dropping away. I was lighter than a bird, free as can be, and I felt like I could run as fast as a gale!
Pulling the magic back into my core I shivered in the sudden loss of energy as my weight settled back onto me.
'Wind is agility. That's a pretty big "duh". But it's still good to check I guess?'
Now... fire.
Fire filled me, and with it came Strength. I felt I could crush wood between my claws even as an infant, that I was mighty, strong, indomitable.
I felt like a dragon.
'Aaaaand now I understand why fire dragons are so strong. Or at least I assume they're known as the strong ones while wind/air dragons are known for being swift.'
What about cold?
After pushing the cold magic through my body things felt... clear?
My vision sharpened, like putting on glasses that brought out detail.
The already incredible smells of the world became distinct, easy to tell apart and compare instead of blended together.
Every noise was picked apart, clearly from a specific direction.
Temperature was clear, hot and cold no longer blended in the environment, the edges between them more distinct and sharp.
Cold brought... clarity?
Everything was slower, more defined, more clear.
'...yeah I dunno how to put this... if wind is agility, and fire is strength, then cold is... perception.'
Now, only one was left.
What would light-based enhancement do to my body?
It poured in, like a flowing stream, a gentle creek's trickle of water.
Light was... gentle. The wind poured in like an uplighting gale, full of energy, while fire was raging and powerful. Cold was sharp, like breathing dry air in winter, daggers of cool and clarity cutting through me.
But light was gentle, a soothing caress, a gentle movement, and it filled me with comfort.
My fatigue faded as strength returned to my wings, not the overwhelming power fire had given, but simply recovered to what it had normally been.
Light was healing. It recovered my body to a peak condition.
With light enhancement one never got tired, cause it melted away fatigue.
And more to the point... my body was alive. I mean obvious, right?
But do you ever think about why you can't feel yourself? Like... you have all these nerves inside you. You can feel when you're cut, right? So why can't you feel what your own organs feel like, your heart in your chest as it beats?
Well I can't answer that exactly, but I'd guess it probably had something to do with being too used to the sensations you've felt your whole life that they don't register.
But with light fusion... they did.
I was aware of EXACTLY how strong every muscle in me was, where I was growing, how much nutrition I lacked or needed, how healthy I was.
I knew every bit of my own current health.
And then I let it go.
I shuddered, taking a few half steps back as I fell from that heightened state.
'Whoah... I...'
I coughed, trying not to fall over.
What the actual heck?
That was... intense.
Maybe for now I don't go too deep into light... enhancement? Light fusion?
Whatever it was, that was intense as fuck-well actually I don't know how intense sex is.
Oh crap I totally died a Virgin!
Wait that's not important.
Point is! If I use light magic on my body, don't go too deep into it, cause I don't think I could focus on anything else for awhile.
I'd probably bet that earth magic increases durability. Toughness. Whatever.