Chapter 1505: We Can Work Towards The Egg Hatching
I returned back to the ’real’ world and opened my eyes, looking around and feeling slightly dazed from the sudden change in my vision where I had been in an empty space earlier and now I’m back in the forest again.
Director Fetra was standing at the side and she immediately jumped over to me when she saw me stir.
"Welcome back, my apprentice! Mmm... I like that~ I’ll be calling you that from now on~" She giggled before looking at me again. "So... How did it go? I assume you managed to connect with the egg with how long you’ve been out~"
I nodded, "I did... You were right, the egg is... Alive... Alive and possessing a consciousness."
She nodded, "I thought as much. So what kind of creature are we dealing with here?"
I gestured at it, "I mean... It’s a dragon egg."
She giggled, "Ehehe~ I meant what kind of dragon, apprentice?"
"Ah... Ummm... I’m not sure actually..."
She tilted her head at me, "Didn’t you talk to it?"
"I did... But it said that it was my child when I asked what exactly it was..."
The Director blinked at me a few times before turning to look at the egg, "It said that... It was your child? You gave birth to that?"
I grimaced, "No, Director... I did not give birth to that egg... I said before that I found it in a Dungeon..."
"Ehehehe~ I know, I was just teasing~ Well, this is interesting though~ A dragon egg that recognises you as its parent..."
I blinked at her, "Is that unusual?"
"Hmm... By what I know from how dragon hatchlings work, yes. Usually, a newly born dragon will imprint on the one that has fed it the most mana. But they would only recognise the ’parent’ after they hatch... You said that it has already recognised you and has declared itself your child?"
I nodded, "I asked what it was and it directly responded with claiming that it was my child."
"That is certainly interesting... Maybe... It has something to do with your own lineage as a Meslatar? Hmm... No, there have been Meslatars who have tamed dragons before and that did not happen to them... Very interesting."
"I’m assuming that it might also be tied to its species and.. The fact that I got it as a Dungeon drop?" I suggested.
Truthfully, I’m now figuring out that it most likely had something to do with the Monster Girl stone which probably affected the dragon to turn out like this.
But well... I’m not sure how well that fact would be received so I wasn’t going to volunteer that information either.
She tapped the side of her cheek thoughtfully, "Hmm... How interesting... I suppose that could be possible. The species of dragon... We are still not completely familiar with what types of dragons there are and how each species behaves so it would be a great chance to study yours, my apprentice. Would you accept being studied?"
I blinked at her, "Err... I don’t really feel good being treated like a test subject..."
"Oh no, no, it’s not that serious, my apprentice. I’m just asking to be allowed to see how you interact with your dragon once the dragon hatches. We might even understand more about its species!"
Somehow... I have a feeling it might not go the way she thinks it would go but...
I cleared my throat, "I... Can I make a decision for that after it hatches?"
"Ah, of course. That is not a problem, my apprentice. Now... I suppose we should continue with your current issue... Do you know how long before the egg will hatch?"
Oh, right. The dragon said that it was assigning all of my mana to growing within the egg the entire time, which was why it hadn’t hatched in so long. So now it would start putting all of my mana I fed it into allowing it to hatch so I should give it a try again.
I went to the centre of the magic circle and picked up the egg, feeding some of my mana into the egg.
This time, instead of feeling like I was pouring my mana into a deep, endless void, it felt like I was actually filling up a container.
A really, really, really big container.
Like the size of a swimming pool kind of big...
Even with my mana, it’s going to take quite a bit to fill up...
"I think... It might take a while..." I admitted after feeling the pool barely fill up after I poured quite a bit of my mana into the egg.
"That’s interesting... Now you are able to tell? You said you weren’t before?"
"Unn... The dragon told me... That it didn’t want to hatch at first because it thought I would chase it away after it hatched..."
She blinked at me for a moment before she came up to me and started sniffing me.
Unexpectedly, she recoiled back like she smelt something bad which almost made me panic before she looked up at me with wide eyes.
"How do you smell so good, Aster?" She asked, her voice suggesting that this was a serious question.
I almost asked her what she was talking about until I remembered I had taken the [Roses] boon which makes me smell nice to the people around me.
"It’s... Just my normal smell?" I answered her a little lamely.
"Hmm... Sniff, sniff... If you smell like that normally... Hmm, hmm... I suppose I can understand why the egg got so attached to you."
"I’m pretty sure the egg can’t smell me," I pointed out.
"It might just instinctually know that you smell nice."
That literally doesn’t make sense but... Hey, I’m not the expert here so what do I know? Maybe my [Rose] boon is the real reason why the dragon in the egg is acting like this?
Director Fetra brought out a rather messy looking, leather wrapped notebook that was filled with papers slotted in between the pages to start scribbling on it.
"How interesting... A dragon who did not want to hatch because it thought that you might abandon it after hatching... I’m not sure I have heard of a species like that before though. Could it actually be a new species of dragon? What did it feel like when you talked to it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Ah, I suppose it’s hard for you to understand when you don’t have a frame of reference. After all... I did just drop you into doing something that only Kalomancers who have at least mastered the basics would know. And you are, by all means and purposes, not even at that level yet. No offense."
"None taken. That’s why I’m here to begin with, right? So... What do you mean by what it felt like?"
"Hmm... Like what is the feeling you got when talking to the dragon inside the egg? Was it commanding you? Was it acting standoffish? Was it challenging you? And what form did it take to speak to you? Was it big? Small? Or the same size as you?" She asked, leaning closer to me while her pen hovered over an empty page.
I wasn’t really sure what was the significance of all those questions but I just went ahead to answer her as best as I could, figuring that it was probably a good idea to just tell her the truth about what I saw inside that space instead.
She recorded everything down in her notebook and asked a few more clarifying questions like what the dragon’s tone sounded like and whether it tried to attack me at all while inside that space.
I answered all her questions and she seemed quite satisfied with what I told her about my encounter with the dragon.
"Hmm~ Hmm~ Very interesting indeed~ This really does sound like a new dragon species that we’ve never seen before~ I wonder if it might even be the first of its kind as well!"
"Do new species just pop out like that?" I asked.
"Ahahaha~ There are dragons out there where they are the only one of their kind. I suppose calling it a new ’species’ isn’t technically correct since they are all dragons... Calling them subspecies would be more accurate. For example, the type of breath a dragon can use would determine its subspecies."
Ah... So it’s like a fire dragon or a water dragon being different subspecies but they are both still dragons at the end of the day.
Well... I guess the subspecies of my dragon would most likely be ’Hell Dragon’ or something... Considering that was its original form after all...
But err... I guess that was also probably information that I shouldn’t share... Especially since there were already rumours around saying that I was trying to use this dragon to destroy the school or something.
It would be quite problematic if people start spreading rumours that I was actually carrying the egg of a Hell Dragon around and cause some kind of panic or something.
Anyway... I guess at least this was one mystery about my egg solved~