Apparently, humans existed in this world, as well as nonhumans, species close to humans, but not quite, like elves, dwarves, hobbits, and fairies and the like. You could also count races like goblins, orcs, lizardman, and so on among those, but they tended to be hostile toward mankind, and were considered to be monsters as a result. This wasn't a genetic thing, though, so crossbreeding was entirely possible.
Then there were beings like me and the white slime beside me, monsters who spontaneously came into being from magic and then suddenly mutated somehow to gain sentience. They could also be evolved from animals or magical beasts. They were intelligent, and could reproduce within their own subspecies, for the most part. When you got to the top there, you found vampires, giants, devils, and other long-lived species, though they only rarely reproduced, thanks to their nigh-immortal lifespans.
These beings were called magic-born, collectively. Apparently, humans feared or coveted their power, and they weren't exactly treated great among human circles, due to this fact. Magic-born tended to be classified by levels of danger, with the upper levels capable of leveling a human town solo if they ever felt like it.
Apparently, this was the category that my new companion fell under. He droned on about his fights against upper level magic born for quite some time before the slime beside me told him that she didn't care, eliciting a 'GUH!' from him.
Then, he dropped a bombshell. 'As I mentioned before, I don't need to produce offspring. I am one of only four True Dragons in the world, the most perfect of my kind. As long as my will remains intact, I live forever! Unkillable in every sense! You will hereby know me as Veldora, the Storm Dragon!'
He began to laugh maniacally once more, while the slime beside me whispered 'Cool!' through our strange mental link.
'. . .' The Storm… Dragon? Using my knowledge of Earth, I tried to conjure a mental picture of the… likely giant and stupid strong… dragon in front of me. And immediately made an excuse and attempted to flee.
But naturally, he stopped me, asking about who I was. Technically, it was only polite that I answer him, so I explained everything. If he didn't believe me, then I'd deal with that later.
…
'So, yeah!' I finished.
'I Just Slime!' The slime beside me added her story. I could just imagine sparkling eyes, for some reason.
Honestly, even prudently ignoring the topic of my skills, my story actually didn't seem that rough. In fact, recounting it, the only really terrible part of it was the fact that I was literally operating blind the entire way. As for the slime beside me, from their extremely childish introduction, they'd apparently been stalking me for quite some time, since I'd been essentially stealing her food. Had I been any weaker, she mentioned something about wanting to eat me, but Veldora scolded her harshly for wanting to eat someone as 'interesting' as me, making her cry.
I felt a little uneasy about the fact that she'd been wanting to eat me, but apparently that was how life went. And since she revered Veldora as 'Mr. Magic Man,' I didn't need to worry about her trying anything later.
I'd actually ended up feeling rather bad for her, being scolded so much that she cried. She was basically just a little kid, after all.
As For Veldora, apparently he had prior experience with 'transmigrants' as he called them. Apparently, they weren't exactly unheard of, though they weren't common, either. Normally, though, Transmigrants were either summoned, or simply wandered into this world of their own accord, surviving the process due to an unusually strong will Each acquire some sort of special power, like my Predator or Great Sage, upon successfully transmigrating.
Apparently, I was an unusual case not for transmigrating, but for getting reborn into a monster body. Most transmigrants were reincarnated as humans, apparently.
That didn't mean that they all came from the same planet as me, but I still wanted to find some and chat with them. The best thing for my sanity would be to have some sort of goal while I was here. I didn't mind taking care of the little slime beside me while I traveled, but…
As I headed off to find some otherworlders, Veldora stopped me once more, though.
'Wait. You said you cannot see, yes? Let me help you see, then.'
'Uh… really?'
'Indeed. On one condition, however. What do you say?'
I didn't like the sound of that, but what the hell. 'What kind of condition?'
To sum it up, I agreed to his terms. He'd been sealed in this place for three hundred years, apparently, incredibly bored the whole time, and he knew that once I could see him, I'd probably fear him. After all, he was a dragon, though he really didn't act like one at all. In fact, I started to suspect that dragons in this world weren't all that strong, and he was just talking himself up.
'Very well. I trust that you will hold up your end of the bargain. There is a skill known as Magic Sense. Can you use it?'
'No. What kinda skill is that?' More walls for me to climb. Yay.
'That's the skill that the talky lady gave me! It let me feel the magic stuff that I eat better!' The slime beside me interjected.
'That 'talky lady' was the World Language. The skill is a simple one, despite being considerably powerful. It provides a visual reference of the world around you via the magic particles in the air. It should not be difficult to learn.' Veldora explained that magic operated similarly to light and sound, as both a wave and a particle that covered the entire planet. He explained how the skill worked in detail, before going on to talk up its usefulness in battle.
Before long, I'd acquired the Extra skill, Magic Sense. The amount of data that the skill gave me nearly fried my slime brain at first, as I suddenly gained 360 degree vision, but Master Great Sage almost immediately took it under its control, opening my vision even further and getting rid of the accompanying headache completely.
The skill allowed me to finally see everything around me. The water, the rocks, that was it for the scenery… the white slime beside me, roughly the same size as me.
Aand Veldora. Definitely not pet-sized at all. He was a huge, western-style dragon who absolutely radiated strength.
But he still acted like an incredibly lonely person, so the fear I felt for him quickly faded, replaced by pity as we spoke. I asked him about his seal, and apparently he'd been sealed by a 'Summoned Hero' after an incredibly intense battle. He almost seemed proud of losing to the Hero, in fact. He even added that it was entirely possible that she came from the same place as me.
Apparently, the summoning process was rather harsh, but so was the harshness of this world. Thirty mages would work together in a ritual that lasted three days, with a success rate that differed depending on the requirements of the summon. If successful, the summon would be bound by a powerful curse. They'd be unable to betray their summoner.
Normal otherworlders were treated perfectly well, though. Veldora didn't know too much, though. He was a dragon after all. In fact, for a dragon, he seemed to know a little bit too much about human culture. It was fun to talk with him, though the slime beside me quickly grew bored of any part of the conversation not involving fighting or magic.