Starting from Zero

Book 2, Chapter 1

Golden Dragon

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Note: The dragon's species appeared three times in the title/main story, and each time they're very different.

I don't know how to amend that. I'll just convert what the author originally wrote.

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My goodness!

Why is this happening to me?!

I've been wandering around this god forsaken forest for a whole day! I finished my side class registration yesterday, and decided to come to this forest to dig some minerals. Then I realized I didn't bring any town portal scrolls. Now I either find my way back, or find a monster and get killed to get back.

But in [Zero], death will result in a level penalty. You lose 1 level for each death.

And I definitely don't want that!

In my thoughts, the trees ahead are getting fewer, which usually means the edge is near. Looks like I found the way out! I rushed outside in joy, I'm saved!

BAM!

The instant I'm out of the forest, I bumped into something head-on. In [Zero], before something reaches lethal level, the feeling of pain will only reflect 50% of the real deal. But I still feel like I was rammed by a container truck!

Ah, I see stars around me... And why is the ground sloped? I fell down again when I tried to get up!

*Whoosh!*

A noise like when a locomotive is releasing steam dragged me out of my dizziness. I shook my head, and saw I'm facing the forest again. I'm in the wrong direction because of what just happened. I turned around, drew my sword and decided to punish whatever just hit me.

Clang!

Ah you don't have to wonder, that was my Rookie Sword dropped on the ground. Do you know why I, a true fighter, dropped my sword? Have a look at what is in front of me. Really.

"DRAGON!" I stumbled back while screaming. The thing ahead of me is at least the size of a bus, it's blue-white toned scales glimmering with light like the water wave when it moves.

"Don--don't you come closer! I--I'm a warrior, I--I'm not afraid o ya!" I tried to convince myself with something I barely believed while picking up my rookie sword, though this stuff seems useless against a dragon.

*Whine*

This thing made a sound like when a puppy is scared.

I stepped back to the edge of the forest until I'm backed against a tree. This thing didn't attack me, it just looked at me and kept grunting. Slowly, my mind is able to think again. I remembered, there are like billions of different monsters in [Zero], but they actually introduced some of the most powerful ones, and I've seen some about dragons.

I tried to recall it. Dragon is the strongest species in [Zero], and the only level-1000 boss. An adult dragon is usually more than 100 meters in length, it can use human language and other monster languages at ease. Every one is able to use all spells that belong to the same element of the dragon itself, plus all other non-ultimate spells of other categories. The Physical Attack of an adult dragon would usually exceed 10k, and they ignore Defense with a 75% chance. Even a new born whelp would have a physical attack beyond 300!

With these in thought, I'm both happy and sad. I'm happy about the fact the the 10 meter one in front of me is obviously a child. The sad part is, even if it can't use magic, it probably have 300+ normal attack power. Even a level-100 tank warrior wearing the best gear wouldn't need several hits from this thing before he gets killed, without a chance to heal up!

I'm dead meat!

Sigh. Such a bad day. The top guy on the ranking list has reached level 54, I was planning to catch up, now I've lost my way and will get killed. It's hopeless!

Never mind. I need to die to get back anyway, it doesn't matter what kills me. With this in mind, I'm not scared anymore.

"Hey Mr dragon, I don't have anything on me. I have two Lightning Beasts here (level 18 minion), I was going to snack on them tonight (you won't starve in [Zero], but eating will grant you HP & MP regen speed for a while, can be considered as potions). Here, you can have them. But promise me to make it quick! Don't chomp me in half or something and let me hurt!"

I threw the beasts over, and the dragon swallowed them in one go. I closed my eyes, waiting for my demise.

But why am I feeling something cold on my face?

I looked. It's licking at my face. Ha ha, this guy isn't going to kill me is it? Maybe I can ask it to lead me out of here!

While I'm thinking, the dragon's head twitched, and let out a "CHOOOOWWW!" My sight went blurry. My body is pushed flying by a strong force and hit against a tree, and I think several of my bones aren't in the right positions.

That thing sneezed at me! What kind of genius wrote the program? Oww ow ow my waist!! Crap, my HP is 930 and I'm left with 3! How strong was that thing? A sneeze almost one-shot me, dragons are powerful but they are THIS powerful?!

I tried to get up, but found myself frozen. Oh god please no!

I waited for seven full seconds to get free. I wonder what this dragonling will be like when it grows up! If only I could keep one as companion...

And it came to me. I have nothing else to do about it anyway, why not just try to capture it? Ha!

I slowly walked up to this "little guy". "Good boy!" And quickly used my Breeder skill: Capture.

The dragon jumped and stepped back, then stared me with hostility. The elf girl was right. Trying to capture a high level monster will only provoke it! Well I'm not planning to live anyway, I used Capture again when I still have the chance.

*Ding* I heard the system notice. "Player Ziri has successfully captured boss monster, Ice-blood Dragon Lord!

Player Ziri is the first player to capture a companion, and will receive a random treasure as reward."

Ching! I saw a ring fall on the ground. It's blackish, the status only reads one word [Ring], it looks a lot like that ring from the Lord of the Rings.

The system prompted again. "Player Ziri has become the first player to defeat a level-1000 boss monster. Receives 5 skill points and a treasure."

Ching. Another ring dropped down. This one looks a bit strange, a black bat standing on top of a black gem. The eye sockets of the bat are embedded with red gems, shining with a feeling of temptation.

This skill point is nice stuff. Attribute point raises your basic attack and defense, but skill point is used to level up your skills. Normally, a player needs to use the skill often and gain experience to level it up. In this way, each skill can reach level 100. Plus, after level 20, a character can obtain 1 skill point for every 10 levels. Each point can raise a skill by one level. And now I just got 5 points. I'm blessed! They're hard to come by. I decided to save them later for those hard-to-grind skills.

The system notice is still coming. "Player Ziri's Capture skill has reached level 2, Player Ziri's Capture skill has reached level 3, Player Ziri......" "......has reached level 13."

Hell yeah! Woohoo! Top prize!

During my insane laughter I realized my dear dragon disappeared. I searched anxiously and finally found a white colored ball. Wait, is this a dragon egg? I examined the egg for quite a while and found nothing to do about it. I gave up, and put it into my inventory.

Now I can't just sit here, I started to check my surroundings. This is an open area, a cliff is behind. I ran over and saw a big cave on the cliff. This must be a dragon cave!

Ha! Dragons collect treasures right? Just maybe...!

I rushed to the depth to the cave like a maniac. Bingo! There really are something here. ...The heck is all these stuff?! They are all junk. Not much better than my rookie equipment. I guess the game didn't run for much time and they haven't accumulated much here! I dug around for a while, and found a Common one-handed heavy sword with an attack of 5-10; A darksteel armor, 9 defense, also Common; A Superior Leg Guard of Glory, 4 defense, with a bonus 5% movement speed; A pair of leather boots, 1 defense and 1 speed, not bad; A pair of gauntlet, 2 defense, increases attack speed by 5%; A buckler, 7 defense, block rate 25%. (In [Zero], the rarity of equipments from low to high are: Common, Superior, Golden, Elite, Sacred, Artifact) They are not good, but at this moment when almost everyone is wearing starter gear, they'll suffice.

When I left the dragon cave, I remembered there is a "Help" function in the system. I opened the chat window to find it being the first option. I heard the sound like when you're making a phone call after I chose it.

"Hello! This is customer service system, Operator 2237 at your service!"

"Hi there, I want to ask, I just captured a monster, but it disappeared!"

"Did you see a white egg around you?"

"Egg? Ah Yes! I found a white ball where it happened!"

"That's the pet egg! In this game, companions will become level 0 and turn into an egg when captured. Players need to drop their blood on the egg to claim mastership. Of course, you can choose to sell it too. The egg will hatch when mastership is determined, and it will become level 1. Later, players can fight alongside their companion to level it up, until it reaches its peak level. Every companion has different peak level. Some companions have a chance to over-evolve which allows them to exceed their peak level, but the chance is slim and dependent on players' Luck.

Please keep it in mind, once mastership is decided, a companion's master will never change. Players cannot just find a temporary companion and change for a better one as they like. Companions will resurrect upon death, but you cannot summon them again within 20 minutes. Also, they'll lose a level as well."

"Got it. Many thanks!" Now I know this white ball is an unclaimed pet egg. I can either sell it or use it myself.

But there is no doubt on this one! To sell is a one-off, done, over. But if I keep it to help with my grinding, I'll get tons of gold! "I'm claiming it to be my Companion."

I cut my finger using my sword and dripped my blood on the egg. The system immediately said: "Player Ziri confirmed mastership toward companion. Please give it a name."

"A name?" Now I think about it, this guy brought my a lot of good fortune. One heck of a lucky star!

"Lucky. I'll call it Lucky!" I do hope it can bring me even more surprises in later days.

"Confirmed. Player Ziri is now the master of Companion, Dark Dragon Lord, Lucky."

Crack! The egg cracked open, a blackish little creature crawled out of it. It climbed onto my body and started rubbing against my face.

YES! I'm going to attract a lot of oohs and ahhs if I carry a dragon around!

Ha! Aaahahaha! I just can't help feeling overjoyed.

But wait a second. Black? Wasn't it a blue dragon when I bumped into it? Is it because of my class is "dark"?

Nothing to worry about though. A black dragon is cool!

Oh right, I haven't checked Lucky's status. I brought up its status window.

Physical Attack 100-200

Defense 150

Speed 200

HP 1500

Mana ∞

There are other notes below. Ignore Defense, HP regen + 10/s, attacks have a 25% chance of freezing the target for 7 seconds, Magic Resistance 75%. Holy mother of Jesus. I got lucky to catch this one, if I met another dragon in the future I better run fast! Insane attacks, resist magic, fast heal. I need to put this into my mind: Dragons = Dangerous = Death = Drop level and equipment. However I just can't believe that status belongs to Lucky, who is barely one feet in length!

I discovered that there are actually inventory slots on Lucky. It can wear equipment too?

I called:"Lucky's equip and item window."

Bingo. A window popped up. I saw Lucky wearing a headwear and a collar. That collar is my reward, the Collar of Protection. The headpiece is called the Headwear of Dragon Lord, there's only one attribute: Attack and Defense are doubled when battling against dragons. Holy--Lucky is a dragon lord?

Below, I saw Lucky got 300 inventory slots and without weight limit.

But I got only 120 slots myself! Haha! Lucky can be my mobile storage from now on!

I also obtained two rewarded rings back there. I took one out. The black ring is just an iron hoop, there is no design nor decorations. I spammed Identify on it until my Mana is empty. I got the skill to level 4 but the ring remained unidentified. Defeated, I asked Lucky to bring me out of the forest. It got tiny but it's still intelligent, it seems. I waited for my Mana to recover while walking. I tried to Identify the ring whenever I got enough MP.

Finally I was able to identify the ring when we left the forest. The ring turned from black into dark red. It's called the Hermit's Ring, Luck +1, plus two additional bonuses. One is a special skill called "Hindsight", it belongs to the equipment so the skill cannot level up. The effect is EXP obtained +5%. Nice! (My eyes turned into dollar marks) The other bonus is to erase a player's name from the level ranking list, the player's weapon from the weapon ranking list, and the companion, from the companion ranking list. Now I see why it's called the Hermit's Ring. That's some nice hiding. Lastly, as long as you have this ring on, other players will not be able to Identify your status regardless of how many levels their skill is at. This ring doesn't have class or level restriction. Anyone can wear it. Ha haha! Now I feel like someone living in the legend! Pity, I never managed to Identify the other ring.