The night air was heavy with rain, thick clouds blotting out the moon. In the middle of a narrow alleyway lit only by a flickering streetlamp, a young man stumbled, clutching his stomach where the knife had pierced.
Blood seeped through his fingers, warm and sticky. His breaths grew ragged as he staggered against the cold brick wall. The world around him blurred.
"This… is how it ends?" he whispered, his voice hoarse.
His name was Aiden Lee, twenty-three years old. A university student with no real future, no wealth, and no power. He had lived an ordinary life — books, classes, dull part-time jobs. There had been nothing glorious, nothing particularly tragic about him.
And yet, in this narrow alley, struck down by a mugger's knife, everything ended.
The thief had long since fled, leaving him to bleed alone. The sound of raindrops striking pavement filled his ears, mixing with the coppery taste in his mouth.
He collapsed to his knees. Aiden's vision swam, dimming with every passing second. His mind, however, remained strangely clear in those final moments. He thought of his regrets — dreams of joining the military, of rising to something greater than himself, of becoming more than a nameless figure lost to time.
He wanted strength. Not for wealth, not for fame — but to live freely, to stand without fear.
As his head hit the cold ground, consciousness began to slip.
Yet, instead of the void of death, something else stirred.
The world around him froze. The rain stopped midair. The streetlamp's flickering light stretched unnaturally, frozen in motion.
A black expanse spread before him, endless and suffocating.
"…Where am I?" Aiden muttered, though his lips hadn't moved. His body felt weightless.
The darkness pulsed as though it were alive, and from within its depths came a voice — ancient, distant, echoing with both power and indifference.
"You… desire strength."
The words weren't a question. They were a statement.
Aiden's chest tightened. He wanted to deny it, but he couldn't. More than anything, he had always wanted to be strong. To carve his path without being trampled.
"Yes," he answered, his voice steady despite his fear.
The darkness rippled again. "Strength demands sacrifice. Will you give up your humanity? Your comfort? Your weakness?"
The weight of the words pressed into his very soul. For the first time, Aiden wondered if this was death, or something far beyond it.
And yet, there was no hesitation. He had been weak once, and it had led to this meaningless death.
"I will," he whispered.
The voice thundered, resonating inside his skull. "Then devour. Grow. Surpass."
In that instant, searing heat spread across his chest, as if something had been etched into his very being. His consciousness wavered, and before he could speak again, the void shattered like glass.
Light poured in, blinding. His lungs burned, his body ached, and he gasped for breath.
When his eyes opened, he was no longer in the alley.
He lay on a straw mattress inside a wooden room. The ceiling above him was rough, beams carved from thick logs. The air smelled of earth and smoke from a dying hearth.
"…What?" His voice was different — younger, lighter.
He sat up slowly, his small hands trembling. A mirror shard lay on a nearby table. He stumbled to it, his reflection staring back at him.
A boy's face. Pale skin, messy black hair, sharp eyes that glimmered with something cold. He couldn't have been older than twelve.
"This… isn't me," Aiden muttered, his voice shaking.
Memories surged suddenly, crashing into him like waves. The name of this boy — Aiden Elhar, son of a farmer, born in the remote Blackwood Village under the Dominion of Cindralis. A quiet life, until tragedy struck. His parents had died when he was nine, leaving him alone.
The boy's memories meshed painfully with Aiden's own, threading together until they became inseparable. His body convulsed, his vision blurring as the torrent of memories settled into place.
He gasped, gripping his chest. His heartbeat pounded unnaturally strong, as though something immense slumbered beneath his ribs.
"…Devour. Surpass." The voice from before echoed faintly, then faded.
The boy's body was weak, fragile, yet within it lay a slumbering storm. A dormant power.
Aiden collapsed back onto the mattress, sweat soaking through his thin shirt.
"…I really… reincarnated."
For hours he lay there, staring at the wooden ceiling, his mind torn between disbelief and acceptance. The sorrow of his old life's end still lingered, but so too did a strange anticipation.
This new world was different. A world where swords and magic existed, where knights and mages rose through ranks of power. A world where strength wasn't a dream but a reality one could seize.
And he had been given another chance.
The next morning, sunlight streamed through the cracks in the shutters. Aiden rose, his body stiff but alive. He dressed in simple village clothes and stepped outside.
Blackwood Village stretched before him — a humble settlement of wooden houses, dirt paths, and farmland bordered by dense, dark trees. The Blackwood Forest loomed to the north, its canopy swallowing the horizon.
Villagers bustled about, carrying baskets of grain, tending livestock, repairing tools. Children laughed as they ran along the paths. It was peaceful, ordinary… yet Aiden could sense an undercurrent, something hidden.
His memories told him the forest wasn't ordinary. Creatures lurked within — beasts of Rank 1 to Rank 5, and beyond. Dangerous, but also vital to the hunters who protected the village.
And deep within, long forgotten, lay a seal. A presence that even now faintly stirred, though the villagers had no knowledge of it.
Aiden exhaled slowly.
"This is where I begin," he whispered to himself.
No longer the helpless man dying in an alley. No longer the powerless boy abandoned by fate.
He clenched his fists. His new life would not be wasted.
Somewhere within him, his dormant talents — the Dragon Mind, Dragon Heart, Dragon Body, Dragon Bloodline — slumbered, waiting to awaken. He couldn't yet sense them, but he knew. The heartbeat he felt in the void was still there, deep in his chest, faint but undeniable.
And alongside them, a new gift — the Devour talent. The power to consume and grow.
Aiden did not yet understand how to use it, but instinct whispered that his path would not be ordinary.
As he stood in the center of Blackwood Village, watching the sunlight filter through the trees, Aiden felt the weight of destiny press upon him.
This was not the end of his story. It was only the beginning.
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