Chapter 1

## 프롤로그

**Chapter 1** is the first chapter of the Karsearin: Adventures of a Red Dragon (Web Novel).

## Plot

A cold, dark cave appears. A cave isn't a very suitable place to lead a life. It was so dark that not even a single point of light came in. It's cut off from the warmth of the sun, and only the coldness of the cold always lingers. However, even this harsh environment isn't an obstacle at all for the dragon, a huge being who made this place their home. The dragons weren't a human being, but a race that reached the closest to perfection among mortals, and it's the only living being that belongs to the earth and has a body and is equal to God.

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The cavity inside the cave is too wide to be considered a natural occurrence. A huge dragon, reminiscent of a small garden, is crouched inside. The dragon looks like a lizard, but it's so huge that you can't even see it all at a glance. The dragon's whole body was covered with shiny red horny scales, and on its back were two wings made of a huge dark-red film that supported its body. The dragon is said to be the strongest among the red dragons, along with the silver dragons, and is the most vicious among dragons. The dragon begins to exhale harshly. The dragon takes a deep breath and slowly straightens its crouched body. Golden eyes gleam eerily. The dragon roars in rage. A roar fills the cavity. The atmosphere vibrates, and stone dust falls from various places. The dragon repeats its words that it's annoyed, but its dignity is lowered. The bright Red Dragon repeatedly shouted “Aw”. And after a while, the dragon suddenly stares at its front toe to see if it has calmed down a bit. The dragon shouts that's so small. The dragon front toes are roughly the size of the thighs of a strong adult, and indeed the size of a Red Dragon, the largest among dragons with the largest body on earth. What the dragon complained about was a booklet caught between the toes in front of it. The book's name is 《The Book of Terold Croword, the Archmage》, and because it was held in the hands of an incredibly large dragon, it looked only half the size of a fingernail, but in fact it was almost the size of a shield. The dragon is a clan of Red Dragons, and was given the full name Karsearin, but everyone calls it Arin, but it's only 300 years old. Arin struggles to calm its excitement. Arin says calmly and flips through the pages of a book the size of a shield the size of his claws. Of course, it doesn't go over easily. If Arin was a human, that would try to apply saliva, but the dragon's saliva was just too strong a material for paper. Arin eventually screams cheers after struggling for a while.

Arin shouts that it's a success. On the open page, the title Polymorph's Law is visible, and a long sentence is written underneath it. Soon Arin begins to memorize the spell in a loud voice. Arin utters the incantation, O natural form of race, I now amend the law with the power of the law and apply the will to what has been determined, let the will become the force and freely change the rigid form. Arin's face as it memorizes the spell is full of joy and strong self-esteem. Finally, after six months, Arin succeeds in finding what it wants in this book. In fact, the small print doesn't really matter to Arin. This is because the original dragon's eyesight is incredibly good. If you look at the old adventure stories, dragons can say, 'Are you from the XX royal family?', 'You are a knight of the OO kingdom. You dare to challenge me?' Considering a human, Arin could even see the eye of a needle 5 meters away, so even the magic book it was holding could be read with a dragon's eyes. So, Arin thought that no matter how small the text, it could read it without any problem, so it peeked at this book from Karstein, the ancient red dragons who lives far beyond the Lartead Mountains. Indeed, this spell book didn't disappoint Arin's expectations. The book contained the laws of Polymorph, and it wasn't written in any obscure ancient script, nor was it a magical code. The problem was that Arin couldn't turn the bookshelf. Arin thinks that the material is really weak for such a small subject, and what the heck do people who make books with these fragile materials live, and only then can they last 10,000 years and crumble. Of course, human books have to endure for 10,000 years before they can be used. Anyway, when Arin first opened the book, it tore about 100 pages. Fortunately, the torn part wasn't on the side of Polymorph Magic. Otherwise, Arin would have borrowed it at all (technically, it was stolen, but Arin itself thought it was thoroughly borrowed). After that, Arin was careful, but it wasn't easy. It's quoted in a proverb as an expression of thinness even among humans on a single sheet of paper, but dragon's nails are sharp. Moreover, Arin was a Red Dragons clan famous for being impatient among dragons. Arin doesn't have patience, so it can't sit really long no matter what it does. So, the annoyance only increases day by day. Six months after Arin stole the book, the Orcs, Trolls, Ogres, Griffins, etc., who live nearby, are called monsters and feared among humans, and these creatures, which are delicious meals to Arin, have been able to sleep properly at night. The monsters couldn't sleep and had to be vigilant. They have no choice but to wonder when that filthy baby dragon will come to avenge their anger. At last, Arin found what it was looking for in the booklet. If the surrounding monsters find out about this, they might hold a festival and spend three days and three nights drinking alcohol and singing. Arin shouts that it's just starting, then pours its emotions into it and shouts its magic starter. When Arin shouts out the shapeshifting magic spell, Polymorph Self, the huge dragon's body begins to shrink rapidly with the light.

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Shapeshifting magic spell, polymorph, is a fairly high-level magic in the human world, but it's not exactly the same for dragons. When a dragon reaches its adulthood at the age of 700, it instinctively learns to transform its form into another race. For dragons who are magical, it's just one of the free actions such as moving their limbs. Afterwards, it acquires the ancient knowledge and wisdom accumulated by its ancestors, but in fact, this was the original purpose of the polymorph. Dragon's knowledge is vast. And there's still no foolish dragon who keeps that vast knowledge in a booklet that fits the dragon's size. If the colors were made to match the size of the dragon, perhaps a third of the continent's forests would be barren only for paper making, and if the bookshelf was opened, humans would be able to run 100 meters in it. So, once the dragons are made into a small booklet, they become polymorphs in the form of other races to acquire knowledge. In other words, it was a magic that Arin would learn by itself if it had to wait 400 years. There was no need to learn to be so nervous. For reference, dragons have a lifespan of about 10,000 years, reaching adulthood at about 700 years old, reaching 5,000 years of youth, and reaching 5,000 years of age. For humans, 400 years is a long time, but for dragons, it's just a little bit of time. Arin couldn't stand it for only 400 years and was suffering that hardship. It can be said that Arin inherited the blood of the Red clan, who were really quick-tempered. Anyway, this was Arin's first impression of becoming the human it had dreamed of.

Arin's eyes darkened. Arin is surprised that it can't see any of them. And Arin is terribly cold, and its bewildered that it's going to freeze to death. Arin apparently succeeded in polymorph. However, when Arin succeeded, something was different from what it had expected. Even though it was clear that Arin's eyes were open, it was thick darkness that couldn't see an inch ahead. The cold appeared as if Arin was in the Silver Mountains that it visited 50 years ago. Arin argued that this wasn't its home and went back and forth in the dark, eventually memorizing Polymorph's spell again and returning to the dragon. Arin was bright and warm by dragon standards. Arin complains that it'll go out tomorrow morning and do it again, saying that being a human is terribly inconvenient. Even after transforming at the best, Arin goes to sleep without seeing itself once.

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A beautiful boy stood on the edge of a calm lake, where the bright sun shone through the thick forest and a breeze blew through the leaves. He's delicate and beautiful enough to be recognized by anyone with flaming red hair that hangs neatly up to his waist, pale skin exposed in the sunlight, and clear facial features. As he occasionally patted his frizzy hair with his hand as if cumbersome, the boy stretched his face over his water surface. He says this is an arm, this is a leg, but the tail is missing. He has an innocent look, not wearing any of his yarn, and looking at his whole body in wonder with a cute face like a girl. If the perverts had seen him, it was highly likely that he would have drooled and ran away. However, since this is the realm of the red dragon Karsearin, fortunately nothing happened as there were no perverts that dared to invade there. He says he must have gotten it right since he looked a lot like her. Arin continues to mirror himself, telling him that he looks so much like his mother. Arin's present human form was perfectly that of a girl. Even though Arin is a boy, he has long hair that falls to his waist, big eyes, a high nose, and red lips and an innocent look. Even though Arin is naked, he's still a bit confused, so if he puts on clothes, he looks really good to be mistaken for a girl. There was some reason. At first, there wasn't a single 'human' that Arin saw in person. The only thing he saw in human form was that of his mother, Karsenian. Since there's only one sample, of course, the image also hardens in that direction.

Arin says to himself that it doesn't matter and doesn't care. He thinks that there'll be no problem because he has become a human anyway. Arin looked at his body for a long time and was enjoying the pleasure of his success, when suddenly a rustling sound came from the thicket behind him. Arin turns his head in surprise. A group of monsters come out walking through the thicket. They were Orcs, chubby monsters with boar heads and a little over 1 meter tall. Orcs would be in big trouble if they thought they were cute because they were plump. Orcs have a ferocious habit, and have developed quite a bit of intelligence to attack as a monster. Naturally, the Orcs know how to use human weapons too, so the nearby guards are quite troubled by them. When the Orcs see Arin, they start arguing that it's a pretty human. Arin reassured that they were just Orcs. But Arin is puzzled as to why the Orcs are so big. Orcs were the monsters on Arin's palm, and they weren't at eye level like this. A dozen orcs surround Arin at once, chattering one word at a time, saying a pretty human turn into money, good money turns into good food, and good food makes for good satiety. Arin's words are a bit bizarre because the Orcs are clumsy in learning human language, but he's sure the intent is there anyway. Orcs wield wooden clubs and attack Arin. Arin is bewildered and bewildered at the same time. Arin is absurd that the Orcs dare to attack him on the subject of his meal, and is embarrassed by the fact that they have grown so big that they are at eye level. Arin shouts that they dare, and involuntarily behaves as usual, expressing the wrath of the great red dragon, and roars. However, it sounded a little different from what he expected, "Aaaah!". The Orcs said it was a good scream and hit Arin in the head with a club. The sound of hitting the club resounds with ease. The head of the group of Orcs nodded in satisfaction. Like boss, he's able to use advanced vocabulary. He says it's a good windfall. Carrying Arin, who had fainted in one shot, the Orcs happily headed to the village.

## Characters

1. Karsearin (debut)
2. Silver Dragons *(mention)*
3. Red Dragons *(mention)*
4. Terold Croword *(mention)*
5. Karstein *(mention)*
6. Trolls *(mention)*
7. Ogres *(mention)*
8. Griffins *(mention)*
9. Karsenian *(mention)*
10. Orcs (debut)
11. Head of the group of Orcs (debut)

## Ability Used

* Karsearin
	+ Western Dragon Physiology
		- Cave Adaptation
			* Darkness Adaptation
			* Cold Immunity
		- Enhanced/Supernatural Vision
		- Acidic Saliva
	+ Polymorph
		- Polymorph Self
			* Human Disguise
			* Base Form

## Adaptation Difference

### Web Novel

* In internet novel, it reveals that the lifespan of dragons is about 7~8000 years, and adulthood begins between 5~600 years of age, youth reaches 3000 years old, and old age begins with passing 5000 years of age. But in web novel, it changes that dragons have a lifespan of about 10,000 years, reaching adulthood at about 700 years old, reaching 5,000 years of youth, and reaching 5,000 years of age.

## See Also

* Karsearin: The Biography of the Super Dragon - Part 1
* Karsearin: Adventures of a Red Dragon (Webtoon) - Episode 1

## Derivative Work

Fan art of the cartoon version (Korean) (October 7, 2001)Fan art of the cartoon version (Korean) (October 7, 2001)