Many years have passed since I first became aware of my new body and life in this world. I had learned a great deal and seemed to have a perfect memory for everything I already knew from Earth and the many things I was able to learn here. The planet was called Neiva and all the inhabitants could use magic to a certain extent. Everyone could fortify themselves with it and live longer than anyone I'd heard of on Earth. Those that could actively use it as a boost to physical abilities or through a means called aura tended to be the more physically inclined in profession or job. These jobs could range from Arcane smith, cook, and similarly "mundane" jobs to knights, Dragonair's (Knights with draconic strength even if having no blood relation), and various other jobs depending on what weapon or abilities they trained in. Those that could affect the world around them were generally called mages though the extent of affect determined their level and strength.
The rare ones could use both aura and magic and tended to have rare or odd jobs like Enhancers that could not only create gear but enhance it to the extreme when they reach the pinnacle of their abilities. Necromancer's as well fell into this category, the reason being that the undead that occurred naturally would sometimes challenge those with this profession and need to be bested by purely physical means. The name of the one who managed this first is lost to time due to the many eons that have passed but apparently the Necromancers could only summon or enhance undead that took a liking to them. Anyway, I had lived and learned a lot and the following day was looking to be a pretty normal one to be followed by the coming-of-age ceremony that would assign my job.
I woke up bright and early on the eve of my 21st birthday. Ready to have another nice and normal day. Afterall, I have memories of my past life and as a result of what I grew up doing and learning found the everyday without a bunch of technology to be very nice. I am Leon Stillspring now and once was known as Sol Arcturus. I am the son of an adventuring couple Soran Still and Luna Spring so named for their abilities. Soran was a well-known scout and assassin when needed while my mother was a strong Wizard with great affinity towards Ice, Water, and Fire, of course the Fire is a cold burning one.
Unbeknownst to us, all things were going to change drastically on this day. After I woke up and ate a wonderful breakfast of eggs and bacon. Enjoying some morning conversation with my parents I then started heading into the woods like I usually do to gather dead wood, various berries, and other foodstuffs as well as to practice utilizing magic and aura. Most were unable to learn how till after they received their class. Though I was a slight oddball in that I hadn't received a class till now. The earliest would be at the age of 16 and most of the time the rest would receive theirs at the age of 18. I, however, was hoping to receive it by the age of 21 otherwise life could be difficult. This time though while wandering the forest. It is silent, no natural chirping of birds, creaking of branches from wind or even random sounds of creatures moving through the undergrowth. There was an earie and expectant silence.
It was suddenly punctuated by a sound. It made me think of a waterfall, for in my previous life I had the opportunity to see and hear a couple of those. Though this sound was rougher and seemingly angry. Followed by a sudden silence as if whatever made the noise was stopped abruptly. I knew the direction and had actually ventured to just outside of the territory of a beast living that way. I even saw it a few times from a distance, it was a majestic Draco Wolf. Sleek blue scales that are like fur, with dark shadowy areas that seem to move even when there is no wind. I had never heard the Draco Wolf make a noise and had seen it look at me a few times without any expression on its face. Though I made sure to stay outside of its territory as there were trees marked by its claws at the edge of where it resided.
Wondering why there was such a loud sound that was being punctuated by almost deafening silence. I moved to the edge of the forest to drop off my items close to where I live. I decided to go to the outskirts of that territory again to see if I could understand what had occurred. It took me a short period of time and I'd made sure to mask my presence through a combination of aura and magic using what my parents had taught me without knowing my ability to utilize the two. Once I reached the edge of the Draco Wolf's territory, I started to smell iron, wet iron and knew something or a group of people were badly injured or dead. This caused me to pause my steps and feel like it would be better to head home.
Sadly, after a short internal debate and being about to turn around I caught sight of movement. This prompted me to hide behind a nearby tree and pay all of my attention to where the movement was coming from. I saw a silhouette slowly stumbling into view. It wasn't very large and due to evening's shadows'; I couldn't make out any specifics. That is until a slant of sunlight coming through the canopy illuminated the figure. It was the Draco Wolf, though much smaller than I remembered it being. What I recalled was it being about 6 feet tall and 8 feet in length from snout to tail tip. It was now about 3 ft tall and 5 ft in length. The colors were also a little bit different. Sleek black scales that are like fur with shadowy blue areas moving without any breeze.
Of course, the most striking thing was how badly injured it was, with bad scratches on its flank, a deep looking cut on its back right leg and its fur-like scales being marred with blood. Shortly after it was bathed in that bit of sunlight though it stopped and looked at me. I'd unknowingly moved out of my hiding spot and was no longer using aura or magic to hide my presence actively. I was a bit stunned by this fact and before I could properly think of anything the wolf had made a sudden sprint at me. I raised my arms to hopefully ward off any attack and reinforced them with aura and magic. It made no difference and the target of the wolf ended up being my hand, my right hand to be exact. The bite, oddly enough, had no pain associated with it. Due to this strangeness, I opened my eyes to see what had happened, only to be greeted with first a pair of bright purple eyes staring into my own eyes. Then I realized that I was bleeding slightly on my hand, but it was overshadowed by the strange pattern that had materialized. Scales of a rose gold color were covering my hand; I'd also realized that the wolf was simply holding my hand firmly without any more strength than what it had initially used. Then its tongue licked my blood and I noticed that its tongue was also bloody before that.
I remembered a short lecture from my parents at that moment. 'Leon, make sure that any creature which initiates a blood contract by both licking your own while giving you some of its own is considered an equal. This is especially true of those that are born in the wild as they are giving up a lot of the freedom they're familiar with for one reason or another.' With that memory came some unexpected notifications.
*Ding: Ignis Obscurum has initiated a blood contract!
*Ding: Leon Stillspring has decided on a contract of equals!
*Ding: Contract is formalized between Leon Stillspring and Ignis Obscurum!
*Ding: Successful contracting with A Dark Flame Draco Wolf has been recorded, rewards will be made available at Job Assigning ceremony!
As soon as the contract was finished, she disappeared into my mind sea. After all the notifications had finished, I ended up learning 3 things. The first being that I seem to have a dormant system of some sort. Second, why Ignis was so badly hurt which was due to their father being hunted and protecting her from the dark robed and masked hunters. Third, I seem to have dragon blood within me. After registering all of this in a few seconds I realized I needed to get out of there immediately. So, I activated the aura and magic abilities I could in order to hide myself by fully becoming invisible. Hid my signature of magic/aura, cleaned up my blood that had fallen to the ground and floated above the ground and covered my tracks to hide as much of my presence as possible. Once all of that was done to the best of my abilities, I high tailed it to where I had left the items I'd gathered.
After picking it all up and undoing my concealments I moved quickly back home. Soon as I arrived and found my parents, I recounted exactly what had happened in full detail. Even included the fact I could wield both aura and magic. After I had finished, they sat in silence for a good long while looking at me and each other in turn. Finally, my mother stood up and said, "We're going to stay in the village proper tonight. We also need to let the Village Head Soren know that the guardian of the forest has been hunted by unsavory folks." My father nodded to this while standing up and moving quickly through various rooms in the house. I could hear things being packed, very quickly, grabbed and such. However, soon as he returned to where we were I only saw a ring on his finger that wasn't there before as well as a short sword on his hip, and a pair of daggers on the back of his pants…well belt.
My mom grabbed her staff that never seemed to be far from where she was, be it in the kitchen, lounge, or such. Then after they motioned for me to follow, I stood up and joined them in leaving the house. We also made sure to take the horses that were used by my parents for either fieldwork in our neighbors' farms or for requests they'd receive from the adventurer guild when specific things needed to be done or required their help. Right after that we were well on our way to the village and could see the wood and stone walls that surrounded it. I glanced back at that point due to curiosity and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Save maybe…some smoke?