Nikolai puffed loudly as he fell back from the draconic form into that of the same man from earlier. The animal's body was disfigured and burnt so badly that the small claws of the animal had melted together, and it was a sickly ash-grey in color, like the fire had tainted it with a plague.
Upon further examination, it was only the skin that was crispy. Much of the meat was still raw, so he needed a controlled flame yo cook it. Not something a dragon could create.
But there were no sticks or moss,which is the issue. Without anything to burn, you can't start a fire. And Nikolai wasn't about to set this vast sea of grass ablaze to cook a little animal.
He looked around a bit more for anything else, and didn't for a good while until he saw something red. Upon further analysis he found out it was a juvenile Wooded Crab.
Taking the crab, he began to strategize on what to do. He didn't need more meat, but a fire to cook the meat on. Defeated, he punched the shell in anger. But unexpectedly, his hand bounced off the shell, recoiling in pain.
An idea then came to his head. Using the shell of the crab, he dug a small pit and put a small amount of grass into the pit. He then grabbed the crab and bit into its shell as hard as he could.
Thankfully, due to draconic bite force, he bit right into the wood. Its solidness prevented it from splitting, but a huge amount of energy poured into the wood. It was hot enough to set fire to the wood.
Being careful not to get spit onto the flaming crab, he spit it into the pit, which set the grass alight. He then threw the meat onto the fire without any pan as there was no iron to make one. Now that's a direct sear!
He waited about three minutes and flipped the meat onto the other side, which crisped up just as the last one. He grabbed the meat and surprisingly enough, didn't feel any pain from the heat. He then grabbed the crab, de-shelled it, and ate it whole.
Draconic hunger is much like that of a snake, it takes a while to build but when you're hungry you could devour almost anything, we're talking kcals vs. Calories. However, unlike snakes, it is possible to sustain yourself on smaller meals.
Nikolai then opened up the stats menu again and checked again.
[Name: Nikolai]
[Race: Weredragon]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: 1]
[Abilities: 25% Fire Resistance, Burn Res. Up to 3rd Degree, Draconic Hunger]
[Spells: N/A]
Hmm, he thought. Simple stats for simple folk such as him. There's only one issue with his stats though, where's his Cultivation?
Desperate, he plopped down in the lotus position and waited. He kept waiting and waiting, seconds to minutes passing which eventually led to the first hour of his meditation.
He felt no energies flowing through him at any point of his cultivation session and no markers popped up to tell him of anything. But worse yet, it was nightfall. As a dragon, he'd likely be safe from any enemies, but it's best not to get pneumonia or trench foot.
He dug a pit of dirt, then stacked the dirt on top of a bed of grass. Picking the furthest reeds he could find, which reminded him greatly of cattails, he laid them on the dirt. Finally, he collapsed asleep about thirty minutes later and drifted off to a world of dreams.
A similar dream appeared this time. He pictured himself as a ruler of a kingdom; though its heraldry didn't tell him much. His court did not look like a dead giveaway for any type of people either.
Then, the Fourth Divine Jade Beauty Di Yue appeared in front of him and grabbed his hand. As the leader of this realm, he assumed things like this might just happen to royalty. She lead him into a similar bedchamber as last time, and Nikolai began to hesitate.
But he trusted the maiden and followed her to the four-poster bed of bamboo until it again faded into a concrete room and Olga appeared before him, this time only decreasing 10.9/10.
"Hello, Nikolai. You seemed frustrated today in why you can't cultivate... Well, here's why. You chose being a Weredragon. That gives you Westerner systems, not those in the Cultivation world." She laughed at him.
"Would've been nice if you told me, you grumpy old bastard." Nikolai snapped angrily.
"Hey, there. Cool it on the namecalling!" Olga acted weak this time.
"Then how about you cool it on your demonic cackling?" Nikolai half-asked half-commanded.
With a last snicker, Olga said "Oh, alright. If you've read western style fantasy, you'll have to get used to that. If not, sorry."
She then left in the same carriage as was in Bryansk, and Nikolai awoke to an all-too-familiar sea of green and yellow grass with the occasional reed dotting the area.