It was a dragon...?!
Even though it was a dragon, it looked weird. For some reason, the dragon looked like it was in pain, and after taking a closer look, even though it was a dragon, I could just barely see gigantic dark green vines wrapped around it. 'How the heck did a dragon get trapped by vines?' I thought to myself as I stared at the dragon before being startled. The dragon was gigantic, and because it was extremely dark, I could barely notice any features about it.
"Hall of Flames," I said as I cast [Hall of Flames]. Even though I noticed a while ago that I don't need to call out the name, I couldn't help it. But after lighting my surroundings with the fire, I could finally see the dragon. I quickly noticed the gigantic horns on its head and the vines wrapped around them. After inspecting its entire body, I realized the vines were basically entangling every part of its body. The vines also had gigantic thorns that pierced their way into the dragon's body, which was even more surprising. Back in my previous world, as a teenager, I often read isekai manga and noticed that a dragon's scales were extremely hard in the mangas. Maybe that wasn't true though.
"Excuse me..."
"A-Ah yes!" I responded to the dragon almost immediately after it spoke.
"Can you...move...back 10 steps..." The dragon spoke tiredly, it sounded as if it was on the verge of falling asleep. After hearing its request, I quickly walked backward 10 steps without turning around. Even though the dragon was restrained by the vines, I didn't dare to turn my back.
"Th...ere!" The dragon said tiredly.
"Repeat...after me..." It spoke again.
"O-Okay..." I responded. While walking backward 10 steps, I tried looking at its stats but was only left with intense curiosity and fear. Everything except its rank was labeled "???". As I walked back, I questioned myself, "Does that mean that it's too strong for me?" I quickly stopped the raging thoughts in my head as I stared at the rank, with cold sweat rolling down my neck.
[Rank: Monster King(A+)]
I decided to stop trying to find anything about it and just followed its requests.
After stepping back 10 steps, it told me to repeat after its words.
"Antrumin...ke zeluntra...Dive...in...lerekrinarek nunk..."
"Antrumin ke zeluntra, Dive in lerekrinarek nunk..."
As I finished reciting the sentence that the dragon spoke, I felt like something had impaled my chest, leaving a giant gaping hole, so I quickly put my hands on my chest to check if what I felt had actually happened. To my surprise, nothing had happened, so I blew a sigh of relief.
"That's just the..tip...of the iceberg for...the pain that's yet to...come..." The dragon suddenly spoke with a humorous tone in its voice. As I heard its words, I felt my stomach drop in fear. Just as it finished saying that, I felt like someone began drilling into my eye, I was sure that blood was coming out. Then, suddenly, I felt my legs crack over and over and over again, then they started to contort in all types of weird and disturbing ways which brought me both fear and curiosity. Then my heart felt like it was splitting in two...it was unbearably painful, and it hurt every time I tried to move any part of my body.
After trying to move my hands, my wrists became paralyzed, after trying to move my legs, my knees and ankles became paralyzed. After trying to turn my head, my neck became paralyzed, after trying to speak, my jaw became paralyzed. After trying to look around, I lost control over my eyes as they started to dart from corner to corner. I soon fell onto the ground twitching uncontrollably without a chance to rest. My throat soon became dry, so I tried to swallow my saliva, but my throat became even drier while even more saliva built up. I then began to itch all over, but I couldn't scratch myself because of my now paralyzed body.
After what felt like forever, the pain alleviated all at once. Finally, as I got up, my entire body felt different.
"It seems that...my thoughts...didn't...deceive...me..." The dragon said as its eyes slowly closed.
"What did you do to me?" I shouted in both anger and fear. Even though I was mad, I still had to remember the fact that I was talking to a dragon, which was already crazy.
"Since...you're not...a resident of...this world...like my late...master...after repeating those...words...your soul...was tied to this...planet's core..." The dragon said wile trying to remain awake. It looked like if he were to close his eyes, he would never open them again.
"Why would you even do that?! What's going to happen to me now!" I shouted. I was furious. "Even if it noticed that I wasn't born in this world, so what? That doesn't mean you can just trick people into tying their so-" I was soon cut off while speaking.
"Hush...even though...you've been...alive longer than me...you still act...childish?" The dragon mused as he listened to my response.
"Don't...worry about...your soul...actually since it became tied to this world...you should check your...status..." The dragon said in a calm but slow tone.
"Fine." I said as I opened my status. When I looked at the numbers next to the labels, I started to think that those I recited made me hallucinate.
Mind of the Ocean(Passive), Beast Transformation Lvl 7, Nature's Gift(Passive), Mana Forming Lvl 20 [See More], Fireball Lvl 13 Flame Pillar Lvl 11, Magic Tool Creation Lvl 1, Hyper Flash Lvl 6, Ring of Darkness Lvl 1, Dark Magic [See More], Eye of The World Artisan's Glove [Stat Points: 260] As I checked my stats, I really couldn't believe my eyes. I was very curious of why my stats suddenly spiked. After recalling what happened a few seconds ago, I quickly remembered that the dragon said that my soul was 'tied' to this world now. "Hey, what does it mean if my soul is tied to this world?" I asked curiously while I was also still afraid of the dragon saying something horrible. Because the dragon didn't respond, I looked up to see what had happened and noticed its eyes were about to completely shut. "Hey! Hey, wake up!" I shouted in front of the dragon trying to wake it up. "Ah...before...before I go...you have...to go... to the roots...the root of...this...world...get to "The Roots"..." The dragon said mysteriously before finally closing his eyes completely. After that, the dragon stopped moving completely like it had turned to stone. After seeing this, even though I felt a little bad, I was also concerned on how I was supposed to get out of here. After checking around for a while, I heard another *click* which made me jump high in the air out of reflex. As I jumped up, instead of a hole forming beneath me, part of the ground came up, pushing my up, so I immediately tried to find where the tiny hole I fell through was located. Before I was turned into mincemeat, I just barely made it over to the hole, while it also looked like it grew in size. Today was a very weird day...