I heard voices, but couldn’t understand them. As I opened my eyes, I saw a giant pair of white eyes staring back at me, mere centimeters away from me.

  Time slowed down as I assessed the situation. I could barely see with the pair of eyes staring right at me, slowly blinking. I could feel something very heavy on top of me. I wouldn’t be able to get up like this.

  I tried to make time flow backwards, but time was too erratic. Whatever the sensation I felt when I first came here only intensified. At the same time, I could feel that whatever it was, it needed to happen. It was a fixed point.

  With no other choice, I wrapped myself in a tight bubble of space and warped myself to a few meters to my right, adjusting my position so that my belly wasn’t upwards.

  As I reappeared and looked at where I was, I froze. The heavy object on top of me was a silvery dragon, still floating in the air as time barely moved. And the owner of the huge pair of white eyes was another dragon, this one was white with blue patterns around its body. The two of them were the same size as me.

  I stood there, staring at them, not sure how to react.

  I knew there were dragons here. I had seen one flying before I entered this place, but it was different having one a few meters from you than seeing it flying way above your head.

  Was this how people usually felt when dealing with me?

  I knew I shouldn’t be feeling like this. I was a dragon, after all. But since I reincarnated in this world, the only dragon I ever met was myself, quite literally, with the stunts I’ve pulled with time. Starting to realize why the Gods said the God of Time was being lenient with me.

  Still, I shouldn’t be anxious and just talk with them, I guess. Maybe they were waiting to talk with Athorisnamor as well.

  That didn’t explain why the silver dragon was sent flying out of the room, though. I tried to look inside the room, but my view was blocked by the door.

  Time sped back up. The silver dragon, now suddenly without me behind it, fell to the ground, while the white dragon looked around until it found me again.

  “Hi-” I started to speak, but was cut off by the white dragon.

  “Kitana mira. Lokay rataha.”

  Time slowed down again.

  Oh boy. I couldn’t understand a thing they were saying. It would be a thing if we just talked, but I didn’t understand their language at all.

  I knew [Knowledge Library] was downloading something, but I wasn’t sure what it was. And I couldn’t know how long it would take.

  …

  …

  I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I honestly didn’t know why I was acting like this. This would be just like the first time I met people I couldn’t understand. No, not like that, cause I doubt I would be thrown inside a cage or something like that.

  Time resumed, and I heard a grunt from the silver dragon. It was starting to move. The white dragon, meanwhile, came near me and started speaking.

  I think I heard a question intonation on some of the phrases, but I couldn’t answer.

  I stared at it for a while. I decided to play dumb and just not react to anything they said. Worst-case scenario, I reinforced my barriers and had a metaphorical finger on the trigger for stopping time.

  I couldn’t reverse time, but I could at least stop it for a while.

  The white dragon furrowed its brows and looked towards the door, shouting something, and then two more dragons, a black one and a grey one, came out of the room. Both of them were the same size as me as well. I struggled not to grimace at the situation.

  I didn’t know how strong they were. And [Magicule Detection] became fuzzy near their bodies. I didn’t want to risk a reaction from [Appraisal]. If I angered them, I honestly didn’t know what they could do.

  I knew that each of them was of a different species; that much was obvious. And I also knew that each species had a specific thing going on for them, at least that’s what I thought, so based on what I saw on my first evolution.

  The two newcomers started speaking. I wasn’t sure if it was at me or between themselves. One thing I did notice was that the grey dragon was holding itself a few centimeters above the ground using some version of [Spatial Manipulation].

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The silver one finally got up and looked around. After seeing me, it said something, and the white one answered. Whatever it had said had angered the silver one, because it frowned and walked towards me, saying something with a low growl.

  The two other dragons groaned in frustration and said something, but the silver one ignored them and stopped right in front of me.

  He was saying something, but I couldn’t even dream of understanding them.

  A wave of magicules came out from him, got scrambled on my barriers, and reflected off my own scales.

  Did- did it just try to use [Appraise] on me?

  I was pretty sure that I was frowning, because its eyes widened a bit.

  Well, if he could use it on me, then I sure as hell could use it on it.

  [Species: Metallic Dragon]

  [Level: 10]

  I felt some resistance from his scales, but my skill overpowered it and gave me the results. Honestly, I thought it would be stronger.

  The metallic dragon apparently didn’t like that I appraised it one bit and tried to claw my face. My mind accelerated, and I really considered my options.

  I could hit it and be done with it, or let it try to hit me. [Mathematical Cortex] was calculating the possible force behind his strike, and it wouldn’t be able to break past my barrier. Or just teleport back and let it hit nothing.

  The only problem with the last option was that the grey dragon. I knew it could control space. If it could disrupt my teleportation… I wouldn’t want to end up mangled on the floor.

  Eventually, I decided to let it hit my barrier. I kept the mind acceleration and observed the strike. I wasn’t going to be dumb and let it hit me without being able to counter. What if it had a skill that bypassed barriers?

  Thankfully, I didn’t end up needing to do anything. His strike bounced off my barrier. I didn’t even flinch.

  I let the acceleration fade and observed their reactions.

  The metallic dragon was incredulous that his attack didn’t do anything to me, while the others seemed to snicker at their friend.

  They said something to him, then turned to me and said something as well, then returned to the room.

  The metallic one grumbled and walked back to the room. I followed them inside.

  The room itself was gigantic. In the middle of it was a crystal that seemed to create a type of barrier around itself, and it divided the room into several spaces. The barrier itself was weak enough that I could poke my finger through it, but strong enough that it kept magicules contained.

  On the other side of the room, there was another dragon, a red one that had fire dancing around it. The floor inside the barrier it was on was burning. It eyed the metallic dragon and me suspiciously. The metallic, in turn, looked at it angrily and then went to one of the fields that the barrier creates.

  A few seconds after the metallic dragon entered that barriered area, the ground changed, and metal spikes grew out of the floor. [Magicule Detection] only worked inside the area I was in, so I had no idea what was happening inside each barriered space.

  The grey dragon came next to me and started speaking. I let it speak for a few moments. It asked something, and when I didn’t answer, it extended one of its wings in my direction without opening it.

  I looked at the wing, then at its face, and tilted my head. I hope it would understand I wasn’t sure what it wanted me to do.

  It said something else and then pushed its wings on mine, hitting the tip of it.

  Was that the dragonic version of a high-five?

  I adjusted my stance and extended my hand to it, closed. It was their time to tilt their head. It sat down and showed me its hand, except it wasn’t a hand like mine was; it was more of a paw than mine.

  No matter. I fist bumped their paw and nodded. The dragon looked at me, then at their paw, then back at me, and then started laughing.

  The black dragon and the white dragon came, asking something. The grey one answered them and made movements that seemed to repeat what had just happened.

  Oh great. The only thing worse than not understanding what was being said was doing something, and then the other person laughs, and you don’t know why.

  I felt embarrassed and frustrated. I had no way of knowing what they were saying, only to judge based on what I saw.

  And now, the grey dragon was doing fist bumps with the other two dragons, and they were laughing as well. I wondered if I created a spell to open a hole in the ground, if it would work and let me crawl inside it.

  The three dragons started walking towards the center of the room. The grey one made a gesture with its head that I interpreted as a ‘follow me’. So, I did.

  Walking to the center of the room allowed me to observe the room itself a bit more. Besides the various sectioned areas with the barrier that seemed to only block magicules, there were a lot of other things inside the room.

  There was an area with what looked like five bean bags, neatly adjusted around a table made out of crystal. Another area with a giant table with five of those lying chairs I had used back on Brostin, just way fancier.

  There was even a large pool on the side, with some waterfalls falling from above. When I looked upwards, I felt dizzy. Several platforms and rings were floating in space. The ceiling itself was at least two hundred meters from the ground. The waterfalls that came from above even twisted and made some sort of obstacle as well, before just falling straight down into the pool.

  The black dragon said something. I looked at him and then at the… flying obstacle course? What the hell was I even looking at?

  I heard it snicker at my lack of response, but I didn’t mind. One thing was clear: this was not the waiting room for me to talk with Athorisnamor.

  Where the hell did that person leave me? Where was Amity? Wasn’t she supposed to make sure I held my end of the deal? And I’m ignoring the fact that she also stole that sword I had picked up from the dungeon, not like I would use it anyway.

  “Fuck,” I sighed. The sound louder than I intended for it to be.