Luna's face had an extremely pained expression and her body turned bright green. A few drops of blood as well started leaking out of her eyes.
Liam's expression became grim and he looked up to see Seraphina. Unexpectedly, she also had a blank stare. She was looking at the fox as if she had no idea what was going on.
This only made Liam more worried. "What is happening? Say something. Is she ok?"
"My Lord." Seraphina snapped out of her trance and quickly started tending to the fox.
A bright glow covered her hands but as she tried to touch the beast, an invisible barrier repelled her. "My Lord… I don't think there is anything we can do now."
She looked helplessly at the barrier which was now becoming brighter and brighter with a green glow, same as the fox's fur.
It did not stop there and the barrier even started to solidify. The next second, Luna completely disappeared, and now a hard green shell covered her small body.
This looked round and oval in shape and resembled an egg. The green color as well became a dark purple with a single white spot on the egg.
"My Lord… this…" Seraphina carefully took the egg in her hands and observed it from all angles. She had never seen an evolution like this before.
More importantly, the nine-colored divinity gemstone was still inside this egg!
This was the first time she was seeing one being completely gobbled up by a beast.
When the egg eventually breaks… she had no idea if any part of that gemstone will remain.
Watching her stare at the egg dumbfoundedly, Liam worriedly asked. "Is she alright?"
"Ah." Seraphina shook her head.
While she was only thinking about the gemstone, Liam was obviously more concerned about the little fox.
"My Lord, typically a small amount of essence from either of the two items should have been enough for Luna to evolve and unlock its potential."
"Though I don't really know what exactly is happening here… My guess is that your fox wants to absorb all the essence from both the gemstone and the flame fragment."
"This is the first time I am seeing a beast behave like this. Even for an intelligent spirit beast, she seems to be very peculiar."
"Especially for her age."
"Only battle experienced beasts will have the thirst to evolve themselves and make themselves more powerful than they are."
"They will try their hardest to become the best that they possibly could."
"So for a young beast like her, this kind of pride and desire is very unusual," Seraphina muttered, explaining whatever she could to Liam.
In the end, she also understood only so much.
"So this is a good thing, right?" Liam did not understand.
"No, my Lord. Not necessarily." Seraphina shook her head. "It is, unfortunately, the worst case possible."
"Since Luna is trying to overreach beyond her capability, there is a high chance that she might suffer some terrible injuries."
"She is also evolving too fast. It is not good at all. She will not have a good foundation. Only beasts with very special bloodlines have the ability to grow exponentially like this."
"But Luna's bloodline is a normal one. She is just an ordinary spirit beast. So this type of speedy growth is not good for her."
"I wish I could have stopped it or helped her slow down but everything happened too suddenly."
"Is there any way I can help her now?" Liam asked, taking the egg back from her.
"No, my Lord," Seraphina replied. "Perhaps taking her to fire essence rich places might help, though I am not sure how much."
"Ok." Liam nodded. He mentally began to think about all fire-type locations in the Gresh Kingdom and other neighboring kingdoms.
Breaking his thought, Seraphina further added. "Ummm… My Lord, if you don't mind, please visit the beast in two months. Grand Master Herald will be visiting the royal city at that time."
"He will definitely be able to help you better. He has a lot more experience dealing with unique beasts like Luna."
"Oh." Liam nodded and then thanked her. He carefully placed the egg in his inventory and then bid farewell to the beast trainer.
Seraphina could only bite her tongue and bow humbly in response.
She had originally wanted to obtain the nine-colored divinity gemstone, but now not only had she lost the gemstone but she had also lost a lot of precious items that she used to help the fox evolve.
She couldn't help but feel as if this new Duke and his mysterious fox had scammed her through and through.
The only consolation was that if that egg ever cracked, she would perhaps come to witness something extraordinary, perhaps even the birth of a terrifying beast.
Knowing that she also played a part in this might be enough to push her status to the grandmaster level.
However, the chances of that happening were extremely slim.
She looked at Liam's disappearing figure and let out a long sigh. What a wasted opportunity!
Liam, on the other hand, silently walked out of the royal city engrossed in his thoughts.
While he was worried about Luna, and the little fox's hasty greedy actions, he also had a feeling that she was very special.
Not to mention that he had pried her egg away from a dragon!
So he had a small hope that her bloodline was perhaps not that ordinary. Maybe she knew what she was doing?
Irrespectively, his knowledge was useless when it came to the little fox. He did not know anything about spirit beasts to help her.
He could now only rely on Seraphina and the Grandmaster she had mentioned to help the little fox.
In the meantime, he could visit fire essence rich places whenever possible and help her as much as he could.
Other than that, this matter was really out of his hands.
Liam clenched his fists tightly as he still remembered the vivid painful expression on the fox's face. He took out the egg and rubbed it gently.
"Hang in there. You can do it."
With a tired and lonely sigh, he kept the egg back into the inventory space and continued walking out.
A short distance away from him, three figures stopped moving so as to put sufficient distance between themselves and the target who was none other than Liam.
"Even that bastard can show such an expression?" Alex muttered, watching Liam talking so lovingly to an egg.
"I am also surprised," Mia replied.
"Fucking asshole. Treats an egg better than he treats other human beings!" Alex spat out.
Just for him, they had left a scout outside the royal city to keep an eye out for the wind ripper mount.
So as soon as the information arrived, the three of them prepared themselves and started following Liam.
This time not even Mia was against settling their scores. They had touched a snake and now he had to be killed.
Just when they thought that their troubles were over, all of a sudden their guild members were being hunted down left and right by other guild members.
When finally got a chance to find the reason for this, they came to know that Liam was behind everything. He did not even lift his finger and yet they were suffering insane losses.
If this went on, they might not even play the game and just quit it.
So Mia as well came to the conclusion that they had to fight an all-out battle and finish this issue once and for all. They simply could not afford to suffer any more losses.
In between their argument, a small voice sounded. "Great supreme goddesses, the two of you… please listen to me…"
Rey clapped his hands, bowed his head, and muttered in exasperation. "It is not too late. we can stop here. I will talk to big brother and smooth things over."
His voice cracked and he sounded like he was very close to crying.
"The fuck? You are still calling him big brother? Aren't you angry at him? That bastard literally put out a hit order on us and our fucking guild almost disbanded."
"Did you forget how they chased you and killed you repeatedly?"
"Didn't you die like 20 times?"
Earlier it was just Alex but now that both Mia and Alex were against him, Rey could only helplessly back off.
"How could I forget! How could I forget! You both fight and I am the one paying the price!" Rey wryly replied.
The unfortunate thing was that both his sisters were extremely skilled. Alex and Mia were both very talented and had a wide set of skills.
They had the ability to singlehandedly fight back and wreak havoc on any group that pursued them and wanted to hunt them down.
However, Rey was not like that.
In the end, he was the one who was constantly losing levels and suffering.
Because of his relation to these two and his high position in the guild, he had inadvertently become everyone's favorite target.
So the guilds kept on repeatedly killing him so that they could buy potions from Liam.
At one point, someone camped on the graveyard and brought his level down all the way to 0.
Because of this, he was always feeling down these days, very sad and depressed. He did not even like playing this stupid game anymore.
Who would want to if any time they step out of the city, they are hunted down and killed like a rare elite!
Rey cursed his miserable plight. This was all because of this unnecessary fight that was going on.
He hoped that his sisters would apologize to Liam and end this insanity, but…
It looked like things were only going to become worse… just how were these two going to defeat a monster like him?
Did they really think this through?
Should I just message big brother and smooth things over without telling these two? Maybe I should log off and come back next week?
Rey sighed and followed his two sisters as they followed Liam out of the royal city.