“As for the rest…” the prince manifested his second beast.
The wolverine that emerged was massive. Its fur had an earthy tone and its body seemed to partially merge with the ground beneath its paws. Crystals and minerals sprouted from its skin like natural armor, each one catching and reflecting the Qilin’s light.
“Watch,” Julius commanded his beast.
The wolverine approached the hydra’s corpse and, to Ren’s surprise, began to devour it systematically. But something was weird, the pieces it swallowed seemed to disappear into some kind of internal space.
“It has a special cavity,” the prince explained upon seeing Ren’s expression. “It can store objects without digesting them. Quite useful for transporting things… or eliminating evidence.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed with fascination while observing the wolverine methodically consume the hydra’s remains. When it finished, the beast simply vanished, returning to Julius’s body.
“Are… are the remains inside you now?” Ren couldn’t help but ask.
“In a way,” Julius smiled. “Though I prefer not to think too much about the details. Do you have everything you need?”
Ren nodded, carefully securing his bounty.
‘A beast that can store objects,’ he thought as they advanced. ‘Would be really convenient…’
His mushrooms pulsed, reminding him there were more immediate things to worry about.
♢♢♢♢
“Now,” the prince resumed their path, “since I’ve answered your questions, how about you tell me more about that spore of yours?”
“Well…” Ren began, but stopped abruptly. His mushrooms pulsed with a different rhythm.
“What’s wrong?”
“We’re close,” Ren pointed ahead. “The vein is just past that ‘bridge’ turn.”
Julius noticed the topic change but decided not to press. For now. The boy was more skilled than he appeared at handling difficult conversations.
Before Julius could ask more, his mushrooms pulsed with intensity.
“It’s here,” he pointed to the large chamber as they exited the tunnel.
The vein revealed itself as a crystal bowl that glowed with pure energy. The mana pressure was considerable, for someone with a common spore, it should be almost unbearable to approach the flow.
Ren knew he still had about ten minutes before really needing the medicine, but…
His mushrooms pulsed erratically while he pretended to stagger slightly.
“The mana…” he murmured, taking out the vial the prince had given him. “At this depth…”
Julius observed how Ren drank the medicine, his eyes studying every movement. The boy seemed genuinely affected by the pressure, which was consistent with someone bearing a simple spore.
And yet…
“Better?” he asked while Ren recovered his “balance.”
“Yes, thank you,” Ren nodded, hoping his performance was convincing. If the prince thought he could barely handle himself at this depth, maybe he wouldn’t insist on exploring further down, filling him to the brim with potions.
“The vein is impressive, it’s rare to have them at this low depth,” Julius approached to examine the crystals. “Is this what you were looking for that day?”
“Something like that,” Ren responded vaguely, his mushrooms pulsing while searching for the mantis core.
The dangling core should be here, oscillating right where he had left it, but…
‘Disappeared,’ he thought with a touch of sadness. At least he still had the hydra egg as backup.
“Interesting location,” Julius commented while descending to examine the geyser more closely. “You were right, it’s not particularly inaccessible. Though with recent… problems… It’s not worth the effort to come here to…”
“To create more random eggs for the kingdom?” Ren completed the thought.
His mushrooms pulsed while considering something. “Is that how… how you make the random colored eggs, using the veins?”
Julius stopped mid-inspection.
He turned slowly toward Ren, a smile forming on his lips.
“You know, I really should kill you for asking such perceptive questions.”
Julius observed the boy. His knowledge was too precise to be coincidence, too specific to be just reading… but it also didn’t fit the profile of a spy… Perhaps it was even worse.
It was as if Ren was a mystery that grew deeper with each answer.
‘Every time I learn more,’ thought Julius. ‘I understand this boy less and less.’
Ren tensed for a moment before noticing the gleam of amusement in the prince’s eyes.
“I realize,” Julius continued, “that it’s quite difficult to hide things from you. You’ve probably already deduced most of it…”
He approached to examine a particular crystal formation. “Yes, the kingdom has a massive mana vein. That’s where we get the eggs we distribute.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed with interest while absorbing this confirmation of his suspicions.
“The problem,” Julius sighed, “is that we can barely control what type of eggs form there. Most methods for obtaining specific beasts require a dragon brooding or at least a platinum rank beast, and we don’t have…”
He stopped, but Ren had already caught the implication. The King’s platinum Qilin probably had played a crucial role in producing eggs for the royal family, but that wasn’t a detail that needed mentioning.
‘Too late to hide it… Though it was obvious to me.’
“This vein is too small,” Julius continued, apparently oblivious to Ren’s thoughts. “There is a method to revive cores using concentrated mana, but here we could barely produce one egg per month. Maybe one every ten days if we found a creature willing to brood but few could live at this depth. Oh, the hydra perhaps…”
“But it’s not worth the effort, right…?” Ren left the question hanging so the prince wouldn’t follow the conversation thread that would lead back to why the hydra had followed him up.
“Exactly. The gold rank beasts that can survive here can’t brood, or aren’t strong enough to make the effort worthwhile…”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed while looking around.
“Anyway,” Julius straightened, “I’ll discuss the possibilities with the Director. Though small, a pure mana vein always has its uses.”
Ren nodded, his mind working quickly. If the kingdom had a massive vein somewhere it must be in…
“Don’t bother trying to find the big one we have,” Julius smiled, reading his expression. “The main vein is very well protected. Though,” he added with a wink, “I have the feeling you’d find a way to get there if you really tried.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed with what might have been embarrassment or amusement.
“After all,” the prince continued, “you seem to have a special talent for finding trouble and things that are supposed to be well hidden.”
‘If you knew I already know where it is… maybe you would actually kill me…’ thought Ren.