Deep inside a long-extinct volcano.
Kaisar lowered his head and stared at his reflection on the surface of the molten lava.
What looked back at him was a red dragon.
His body stretched well over ten meters, resembling a small hill. Curving, vicious fangs lined his maw, a pair of rugged, spiraling horns crowned his head, and his two pupils blazed like twin burning suns. Deep-crimson scales covered him tightly, each one gleaming like a jewel while clusters of red flame danced across them.
His breath was scorching.
The heavy scent of sulfur clung to him, and his massive, muscular frame radiated overwhelming power.
Slowly, Kaisar came to understand everything.
He had transmigrated.
One moment he'd been lying comfortably in bed, reading a novel and reaching for his phone charger; the next, a shower of sparks and lightning had ripped him from his world and dropped him here.
He had become a red dragon.
More precisely, an adolescent red dragon, currently twenty-eight years old.
Kaisar Olearian Astra Yaktos Gatanjeer Akmund Kil'jaeden Manolos… Sagras. In short, his true name was absurdly long.
After a long sleep, he had accidentally awakened memories of his previous life. It took him half a day to fully process them.
"Thank the fates I reincarnated as a red dragon!"
Relief welled up inside him. To be reborn as a dragon, and a powerful red dragon at that, instead of something pathetic like a slime or a goblin, was already an enormous stroke of luck.
Dragons.
Intelligent apex magical creatures, the undisputed top of the food chain. In addition to their innate draconic language, they could speak nearly every tongue in existence.
And red dragons, in particular, stood at the very pinnacle of the five chromatic dragons, the undisputed leaders of evil dragons. Across the infinite worlds of the multiverse, they were one of the mightiest races from the moment they hatched, synonymous with raw power and malevolence.
Kaisar's current body length was roughly twelve meters.
Dragons had clear size categories: six to ten meters counted as medium, ten to eighteen meters as large, and eighteen to thirty meters as huge.
He was still only in his adolescent phase, yet he already qualified as a large dragon. That alone demonstrated how exceptional red dragons were. Once he reached fifty years of age and entered the young adult stage, becoming a huge dragon would be all but guaranteed.
Such was the privilege of being the foremost of the five chromatic dragons.
Among ordinary dragons, red dragons possessed the largest physiques and the greatest strength.
The other four chromatic species couldn't reach huge size before the age of one hundred and full adulthood, unless they were rare variants. Under normal circumstances, none could compare to a red dragon.
Yet even a great red dragon like Kaisar had his share of troubles.
In a world filled with dragons, elves, spellcasters, elementals, giants, demons, angels, the Abyss, and even gods, his situation was far from comfortable.
Most chromatic dragons were pure evil.
They took pride in committing atrocities and considered kindness shameful.
For chromatic dragons, the moment they reached the equivalent of a human two- or three-year-old, in the hatchling stage, their mothers kicked them out. With no parental protection, they were forced to survive alone in the wild.
Kaisar's start had been even worse.
He had hatched from an abandoned egg.
The wilds were full of magical creatures capable of threatening even adult dragons, let alone a mere hatchling red dragon. In desperation, the young Kaisar had signed a vassal contract with a much stronger member of his own kind.
That had been a ninety-something-year-old female red dragon, on the cusp of adulthood.
Not long ago, that same female had grown too greedy while extorting human kingdoms. Several kingdoms, fed up with her demands, hired silver dragons to deal with the evil red dragon.
Among metallic and chromatic dragons, silver dragons and red dragons were mortal enemies.
At the same age and power level, they were roughly equal in strength.
Silver dragons embodied law and goodness; they despised the wickedness of red dragons and often intervened on behalf of kingdoms terrorized by them, driving the reds away. Red dragons, in turn, loathed the sanctimonious "justice" of silver dragons and mocked them for sticking their noses where they didn't belong.
If a lone red dragon stumbled across a weaker silver dragon in the wild, the silver could expect a merciless beating, just for the satisfaction of it.
Such one-on-one encounters, however, were rare.
Silver dragons had countless friends and loved to gang up. If one couldn't win alone, it would simply call in reinforcements and swarm the red dragon. Most of the time, red dragons were the ones at a disadvantage.
Infighting among dragons was constant.
They despised one another, but unless there was true blood-debt hatred, they rarely killed. Usually it ended with one side thoroughly thrashed.
That was exactly what had happened to Kaisar's former liege.
She had managed to defeat an adult silver dragon and had strutted around Kaisar's lair for days, boasting about her superiority. But the next time she tangled with silver dragons, her opponent returned with allies, several adult metallic dragons in tow. They beat her senseless until she fled in disgrace.
Even her territory had been overrun by the human kingdoms.
Most of her followers were slaughtered.
The female red dragon herself had vanished without a trace. She was probably off somewhere licking her wounds, waiting for the day she could return and take revenge on those kingdoms.
Kaisar let out a sigh.
That female red dragon had been thoroughly unpleasant, but she had also been genuinely powerful. While serving under her, life had been easy. He never had to hunt; he could simply lounge in the lair while her minions delivered food. Sleeping all day in comfort had been wonderful.
For dragons, most of their incredibly long lives were spent asleep. As long-lived beings, they grew stronger simply by reaching the proper age.
Kaisar glanced around the new lair he had claimed.
His stomach growled faintly.
True, a dragon's digestion was so powerful he could probably develop normally even eating dirt, but what self-respecting red dragon would ever stoop that low? No proper dragon ate soil.
Another day of missing that female red dragon.
"I'm an adolescent dragon now," Kaisar told himself. "I can't keep living like this. The glory of dragonkind must be restored, and it falls to me to do it!"
At that very moment, a string of mechanical sounds rang inside his mind.
"Host's determination to rise up detected. System activation in progress…"
"Matching compatibility…"
"Binding the 'Many Children, Many Blessings' System!"
"Binding successful!"
"Notice: For every offspring produced, the system will grant a corresponding reward. The higher the quality of the offspring, the greater and more generous the reward!"
Immediately afterward, a translucent panel appeared before his eyes.
Host: Kaisar Olearian Astra Yaktos Gatanjeer Akmund Kil'jaeden Manolos… Sagras
Age: 28 (Adolescent)
Bloodline: Red Dragon
Abilities: Flame Breath, Draconic Majesty, Fire Magic (Mastery up to 4th-circle)
Kaisar froze for a second.
Then it hit him: this was the standard transmigrator cheat, a system!
His golden finger had finally arrived!
Suppressing the surge of excitement, Kaisar began carefully studying his new golden finger.
It didn't take long for him to grasp how the system worked.
Every time he sired offspring, the system would grant a reward: rare treasures, magical equipment, bloodline enhancements, anything was possible…
This was going to be absurdly overpowered!
P.S.: Dragon age categories: Hatchling (0–5), Young (6–15), Juvenile (16–25), Adolescent (26–50), Young Adult (51–100), Adult (101–200), Mature Adult (201–400), Old (401–600), Very Old (601–800), Ancient (801–1000), Wyrm (1001–1200), Great Wyrm (1201+).