After resting for a few minutes, Arthur decided to go up to the highest point on the ship to have a look at his surroundings again. He couldn’t rest easy knowing that monsters could attack them at any given moment.
The situation was calm but very bad as there was nothing protecting them from a monster attack. That large hand could easily split the ship in half it wished to and Arthur doubted he could do anything about it. My Virtual Library Empire
‘We’re completely vulnerable while surrounded by enemies we can’t see. I doubt there is anything worse than this.’ He thought to himself with a sigh. “How long will it take for us to reach the settlement, man, and when the hell is the sun rising?! It feels like it’s taking ages!”
Staring at the horizon, Arthur saw glimpses of light emerging into the world. He almost believed that the sun was deliberately delaying just to make it harder for them to see their surroundings and feel the threat before it appeared.
The glimpses of the sun made Arthur exhale a small breath of relief before he looked down again.
“It’s morning, finally! Keep an eye on your surroundings! The monsters are very much still around!”
His instructions made the mercenaries even more alert to the water around them. They didn’t want to die like their fellow comrade. Meanwhile, two were working on the ship damage, trying to close the holes with some wood and other materials they had in store for such emergencies.
“Hm, hm, hm…” Arthur hummed silently as he watched the area around him like a quiet hawk, ready to locate his next prey. His eyes had grown way stronger after his sudden leap in stats earlier that day.
He could see far clearer and far longer without much effort. With each evolution he goes through, his senses gain a new dimension to them that makes him feel as if he was blind beforehand. It was as if layers upon layers of restrictions fell off as he got stronger, making the world seem different in his eyes.
‘I can see more colors and more details. The world feels a lot more alive now.’ He mused as he swung his legs back and forth. ‘I wonder what the limit I could reach is. Could I at some point start seeing things that shouldn’t be seen? Like looking through walls or maybe even see mana rather than feeling it.’
The possibilities were simply endless and Arthur couldn’t wait to discover them all. His only limit was the sky and beyond.
“Hm?”
At that moment, to the corner of his vision, Arthur saw something rather odd. Looking up curiously, he squinted his eyes at the distant object floating on the water. It was slowly coming his way as it danced left and right.
‘What’s that?’
The object wasn’t a living creature as it looked very rounded and polished which was not something he would link to a living being. But, then again, he had already seen far weirder things in the Divine Realm, a monster that looks like that is not going to be too surprising.
Still, out of curiosity, Arthur jumped down and approached the edge, looking down at the water. As the object finally got close enough, Arthur quickly recognized it.
‘Is that… an egg?’ He frowned.
The object looked very similar to an egg, with a white shiny surface and an oval shape that kept spinning in the water. The egg was at least the size of his head from what he could see which made him even more intrigued.
“Hey, you,” Arthur said as he snapped his finger, still looking at the approaching egg. “Grab me that wooden stick.”
“What?”
“Hurry!”
“O-OK!”
Quickly, the man grabbed a large wooden stick and handed it to Arthur who took it and dangled it from the ship to pull the egg closer to him.
“I hope this isn’t some kind of terrifying monster.” He muttered. “I have to check either way.”
Slowly, he pulled the egg to the near side of the ship. Then, he pulled his sword out and channeled his mana before swinging the sword, creating a floating piece of ice under the egg that lifted it up. Then, he swung the sword again and made it lift up even more.
“Come on, just get here.” He said to himself as he slowly made the egg ascend till it reached him and then he grabbed it.
“What is that?”
“Did you find something, sir?”
The mercenaries saw what Arthur was doing and they asked him curiously. However, the latter didn’t reply as he stared intently at the egg. It didn’t look irregular or weird, it was simply a large-sized egg through and through.
“I wonder what kind of species this belongs to.” Tapping on it with his knuckles, he tried to listen for anything inside. He put his ear next to the egg to listen and much to his surprise, he could hear a clear and loud heartbeat coming from inside the egg.
“It’s… It’s alive.” He muttered under his breath as he stared weirdly at the object. He didn’t think the creature would be alive after floating in this river for God knows how long.
That completely changed Arthur’s idea. He wasn’t intending to keep the egg as he didn’t want to know what could be inside of it. But, at the same time, he would be lying if he said that he didn’t want to know what kind of creature would hatch from it.
“I mean… It shouldn’t be a problem to just keep it in my inventory till it hatches, no?” Arthur rubbed his chin. ‘It’s a very dumb idea. But, it’s an egg for god’s sake, what if the creature inside is very cute and can be my new pet?’
Arthur knew that pets were a thing in the Divine Realm as he could see them being sold in some places. There was no ‘Bond System’ set up yet in the game so he didn’t know if the developers had plans to expand on that.
‘If they do, then getting an egg right now could be a good investment for the future.’ He thought to himself.
“Sir?”
“What?”
“Mm… What is that egg?”
“I don’t know. I just saw it from afar. It doesn’t seem to be dangerous so I will get rid of it.” He said as he turned around and walked to the edge of the ship again before he pretended like he was throwing it into the water.
But, in reality, he threw it inside his inventory with a small grin on his face. ‘I might regret this in the future, but eh, one can only experience stuff to learn. It will be a good lesson if it comes out badly. But, if it does work and I get a pet, then that’s a huge win.’
Thinking that to himself, he turned to the group and said. “I will keep an eye on the egg till it drifts far away. Everyone, get back to work, we can’t let the ship stay unsupervised.”
“Yes, sir!”
The mercenaries then scattered away, completely forgetting about the egg. They trusted that Arthur would deal with the matter and they honestly didn’t want any more headaches. They had enough bizarre encounters and they subconsciously wanted to avoid more of them.
Arthur knew that and he used it to his advantage. He could keep the egg to himself without alerting them or making them think he was tricking them.
‘Easy to manipulate, I dare say.’ He scoffed as he turned around to return to his spot, only to suddenly stop as he received a notification out of nowhere.
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets, and PS. Let’s keep it up!