The last thing I remembered was the searing heat of a sun-god's spear piercing my chest, my glacial scales cracking like porcelain, and the triumphant roar of my divine enemy echoing across the frozen plains of my domain. My name was Boreas, the Frost Wyrm of the Northern Wastes, an Ancient Ice Dragon who had ruled for millennia. And I had died.
Then, a sensation colder than the void between stars.
PING!
[Soul Transference Initiated...]
[Scanning compatible vessel...]
[Vessel found: Frost Drake Egg. Genetic Anomaly Detected.]
[Initiating Rebirth Protocol...]
A consciousness that was not my own, a voice of pure information, echoed in the darkness that was me. I had no form, no senses, only this... system.
Rebirth? An egg? The indignity of it was colder than the grave. I, Boreas, reduced to a hatchling? But the will to live, a dragon's most fundamental instinct, burned brighter than pride. I accepted.
Time became meaningless. I felt energy—my energy—coalesce and grow within a fragile shell. I could feel the faint, familiar chill of a glacial cave, the resonant hum of deep earth magic. Then, the pressure became too much.
With a crack that sounded like a mountain splitting, I broke free.
Light, dim and blue, assaulted new eyes. I pushed myself up on wobbly limbs, my body small, frail, and utterly alien. I looked at my claws—tiny, sharp, and pale blue. I tried to spread wings that were mere leathery stubs. A pathetic mewl escaped my throat instead of the earth-shaking roar I intended.
PING!
[Welcome to the World of Atheria, Host!]
[Rebirth Successful!]
[You have been reborn as: Frost Drake (Unique Variant)]
[The Dragon God System has been successfully integrated.]
A translucent blue screen materialized before my eyes, hovering in the air without substance.
Name: Unnamed
Species: Frost Drake (Unique - Ice Dragon Bloodline Awakening 0.1%)
Title: Reborn One
Level: 0
HP: 10/10
MP: 50/50 (Mana Core Forming)
Attributes:
Strength: 2
Vitality: 3
Agility: 4
Intelligence: 15 (Anomaly Detected)
Wisdom: 18 (Anomaly Detected)
Skills:
[Basic Claw Attack Lv. 1]
[Cold Resistance Lv. Max]
[Mana Perception Lv. 1]
Unique Skill: [Primordial Ice Dragon Soul: Lv. ???] - A fragment of your past life slumbers within. Grants immense potential. Growth conditions: ???
The screen was an insult. My Strength was 2? My Vitality a mere 3? But my Intelligence and Wisdom, carryovers from my ancient soul, were already high. And there it was—the proof. Ice Dragon Bloodline Awakening. This was not an end; it was a chrysalis.
A new screen popped up.
[New Quest Available: First Breath of Winter]
Objective: Channel mana and exhale a cone of frost.
Reward: 50 XP, Skill: [Frost Breath Lv. 1]
Mana. I knew mana. I was once a master of it. I closed my eyes, ignoring the weakness of my new body, and reached inward. There, in my core, was a tiny, spinning diamond of ice—a nascent Mana Core. It was infinitesimal compared to the continent-sized well of power I once commanded, but it was pure, undiluted winter.
I drew from it, feeling the energy flow through unfamiliar channels, into lungs too small, towards a throat that had never known true power. I opened my maw and pushed.
What emerged wasn't the cataclysmic blizzard that could flash-freeze an ocean. It was a puff of mist, a chilly exhalation that coated the floor of the cave in a thin layer of rime. It was pathetic.
But it was magic.
PING!
[Quest Complete: First Breath of Winter]
Reward: 50 XP, Skill: [Frost Breath Lv. 1] awarded.
[Congratulations! You are now Level 1!]
[You have 5 Attribute Points to allocate.]
A wave of warmth—no, not warmth, a surge of potential—flooded my body. I felt slightly larger, my claws slightly sharper, my connection to the mana around me slightly clearer.
I allocated all five points into Intelligence without a second thought. Power was nothing without the wisdom to wield it and the intellect to master greater magic.
A sudden skittering sound echoed from a tunnel. My new, sensitive ears twitched. A moment later, a creature emerged—a large, six-legged insect with a carapace of stone and glowing red eyes. A [Deep Cave Creeper - Lv. 3].
It saw me, a vulnerable-looking hatchling, and saw food. It charged, its mandibles clicking.
Fear, an emotion I hadn't felt in ten thousand years, spiked through me. But it was quickly smothered by a rising, furious arrogance. This insect dared threaten me?
I backpedaled, my clumsy limbs failing me. I tumbled over. The Creeper lunged, its mandible scraping against my side.
[-2 HP]
A sharp pain, both physical and to my immense pride. The screen flashed the damage notification. Rage, pure and absolute, consumed me. I wasn't a weak drake. I WAS BOREAS!
I didn't think. I inhaled, drawing not just from my core, but from the very air of the cave, from the ancient ice around me, from the fragment of my primordial soul. The system screamed warnings about mana depletion, but I ignored them.
My body glowed with an ethereal blue light. The Creeper hesitated, sensing a danger its primitive mind couldn't comprehend.
I exhaled.
It wasn't a puff of mist. It was a concentrated lance of hyper-cold, a beam of blue-white energy that hit the Creeper square in the chest. The creature didn't just freeze; it crystallized instantly into a statue of pure ice, its horrified expression captured forever. A micro-fissure ran through it, and then it shattered into a thousand glittering pieces.
[Defeated Deep Cave Creeper - Lv. 3. XP gained.]
[Frost Breath has leveled up! Lv. 1 -> Lv. 3!]
[You are now Level 2!]
I lay on the cold stone, panting, my entire body trembling from mana exhaustion. But I was alive. And I was victorious.
PING!
[Bloodline Awakening Conditions Met: Extreme Emotion and Mana Exhaustion.]
[Ice Dragon Bloodline Awakening: 0.1% -> 0.5%]
A deeper, more profound coldness seeped into my bones, a comforting, powerful cold. A single scale on my chest molted away, and in its place, a new one grew, slightly larger, with a complex, fractal pattern that shimmered with inner light.
I looked at the scattered ice shards that were my enemy and then at my own tiny, but changing, form.
My journey was just beginning. This world had gods who feared the cold, heroes who slew dragons, and kingdoms built on warm, fragile foundations. They had killed the Frost Wyrm of the North.
But they had not accounted for the System. They had not accounted for my return.
I, Boreas, was reborn. And I would not be a drake for long. I would cultivate this bloodline, master this system, and reclaim my title. My breath would once again herald an eternal winter, and my shadow would be the last thing the sun-god's champions ever saw.
This was not a second life. It was an era. The Epic of the Ice Dragon had merely reached its first, frozen chapter.