Chương 5: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 5 - Depending on Each Other for Survival

[Ding! Host has killed elk x1, second-tier Silvermoon Wolf x3. As targets were merely hostile, system points are halved. Congratulations, host has obtained 16 system points.] The notification didn't make Su Nian feel any better. Anna's face was flushed a deep, angry red. She was already running a fever. In an environment like this, what exactly could one dragon do? Go back out and hunt for medicine now? Su Nian dug through his inherited memories. Basic killing techniques. Dragon breath usage.

What was edible, what wasn't. And then, filling almost everything else, an inexplicable mountain of storybooks — princess and evil dragon romance novels — and memories of sleeping. The Haughty Princess and Her Overbearing Dragon King. The Soft and Adorable Princess's Black Dragon Groom. Tsundere Princess Training Plan (Dragon Edition).... What the hell? What kind of useless dragon was this? What about magic? Not a single spell? Su Nian was losing his mind. [Ding! Host's first system points have been detected. System sub-function shop is now open. Based on host's current situation, it is recommended that host spend 10 system points to exchange for the Chinese medicinal herb Baikal Skullcap at a special discounted price.] [Note: This is a limited special-price exchange. After purchase, Baikal Skullcap will revert to its standard price of 100 points.]"Baikal Skullcap?" Su Nian murmured.

"Grandpa mentioned it once — something about it reducing fevers." His grandfather had lived out in the countryside, occasionally hiking into the hills to dig up wild herbs and sell them at market. Every summer when Su Nian came to visit, the old man's greatest joy was dragging him over to look at his herb collection. Su Nian had absorbed more than he'd ever expected. But Baikal Skullcap was a plant from Earth. Could this Western fantasy continent actually have it? Now wasn't the time for that question.

He pushed the thought aside.

"System. Exchange the Baikal Skullcap." [Ding! Item has materialized.] A flash of white light, visible only to Su Nian, and then a small bundle of herbs simply appeared on the cave floor. Emerald green stems. Purple flowers still in bloom. They looked freshly pulled from the soil, roots still damp, nothing like the sun-dried bundles his grandfather kept. Su Nian was certain. This was it. Now the next problem: how was he supposed to get it into Anna's mouth? He looked around the cave. Searched every corner.

After a thorough sweep, his findings were: one pile of useless romance novels, and two gold coins. Absolutely bare. A complete disgrace to evil dragons everywhere. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The seconds kept slipping past. Su Nian stopped hesitating. She might be dying, this was not the moment to be fussy. He crawled to the pool at the back of the cave and rinsed his mouth out, clearing away every trace of blood and raw meat.

Then he picked up the herbs, put them between his teeth, and started chewing. His teeth were dense and razor-sharp. Mixed with dragon saliva, they made a surprisingly effective grinding mill. Within minutes the herbs had been reduced to a thick, sticky paste. He muttered a silent apology. Then he used the back of one dragon claw to gently tilt Anna's face up. The other claw carefully pried her lips apart. He pressed his mouth to hers. Herb juice and pulp flowed slowly from his mouth into hers.

Anna was unconscious, but her throat still moved. She swallowed, instinctively, and the medicine made its way into her body. Since he was already doing this, Su Nian went the rest of the way. He chewed up the berries he'd gathered and fed those to her the same way. Do everything possible. Leave the rest to fate. There was nothing more he could do. He curled up beside her and pressed close, pushing what warmth he had left into her small body.

His wings, already enormous by any reasonable measure, were vast compared to her. He spread them out and let them settle over both of them like a tent, sealing out the cold air pouring in from the cave entrance. PITTER-PATTER. Rain. A heavy downpour, by the sound of it. Half an hour passed in an instant. Pain came for him from every direction at once, sharper than when he'd first woken up in this body, deeper, more insistent. A bone-deep exhaustion began eating through him. He was running out of time.

He glanced at Anna's status panel. The coma debuff in the status column was shifting, bleeding from red toward something lighter. Getting better. It was actually getting better.

"You have to wake up," he thought.

"Whether I make it out of this depends entirely on you, my SSR." That was his last coherent thought. Then the darkness took him....

"So hot... so thirsty..." Anna staggered through an endless sea of yellow sand. Her fair skin had been scorched red by a merciless sun. Her whole body was soaked through as if she'd been dragged from deep water, even her fox tail matted and stuck together. Heat and thirst and sickness ground at her from every direction. She knew this was a dream. That didn't make any of it hurt less. Just moments ago, she'd been running through the Elven Forest with a fire demon at her heels. It had caught her.

Crushed the breath out of her before she'd managed a single scream. And then she was here, in this featureless desert, with no idea how.

"Someone... help me..." She tried to call out. What came from her throat was a dry, broken rasp. Anna's legs gave out. She collapsed to her knees in the sand. She thought she might actually be dying. Her thoughts scattered. Her parents drifted up from somewhere. The faces of everyone back in the Elven Forest. All those warm memories spread out like a painted scroll, and then curled at the edges, caught fire, turned to ash. Cut apart by human swords and demon flames until nothing was left. The world went dark.

Absolute black, in every direction. Then a cool breeze touched her face. Rain tapped gently somewhere close. Something bitter reached her mouth, cool liquid, flowing slowly down her throat, settling into her stomach. The burning began to ease, degree by degree. What is that? Before she could make sense of it, the bitterness was replaced by sweetness. A fresh, clean fragrance spread across her tongue. Berries. She recognized them instantly. The hollow ache in her stomach surged up.

She swallowed greedily, chasing every drop of it. Was she imagining this? She didn't know. But if she got to taste berries one last time before the end, berries she hadn't had in so long, maybe that wasn't such a terrible way to go. Her thoughts drifted, untethered. Mr. Dragon surfaced in her mind. Her fate had never really been in her own hands. If she hadn't fallen ill, she probably would have been sold to some nobleman in one of the great kingdoms, to live out her days as his amusement.

Instead, she'd gotten sick, and the king of this little country had bought her cheap, not out of mercy, but to use her as bait. Either way, she was always going to die. But Mr. Dragon had taken her, and he hadn't eaten her. When she was cold, he'd covered her with a bear skin without a word. He had given her warmth at the very end. That wasn't how the stories went. Not the ones her elders had told her, not the ones her lost family had whispered to her when she was small. But then, maybe the Mr.

Dragon she'd ended up with was just gentle. It was a shame she wasn't going to get the chance to thank him. Anna's thoughts scattered and faded. Her consciousness sank, slowly, into the dark. ➤ Next: Basic Devour