Chapter 97: The Strange Magical Beast

Darkya watched as Kent sat directly on the scorching ground beside the magma river.

The magical beast egg had already begun absorbing the dense fire-element magical energy contained within the molten rock. Half-solidified chunks of magma were constantly being swept downstream by the powerful current.

The volume of magma flowing through this place was enormous, yet even so, dark slabs of hardened rock could now be seen floating across the surface of the once-crimson stream.

Darkya found the entire environment deeply uncomfortable.

She was a dark-element magic archer, and a place saturated with such intense fire-element energy was naturally ill-suited to her.

Still, curiosity kept her from leaving.

She desperately wanted to know what kind of strange magical beast could possibly be hiding inside that egg.

Kent, meanwhile, carefully continued communicating with the faint thread of spiritual energy within it.

At first, the presence inside the egg was extremely timid.

Whenever Kent attempted to reach out with his spiritual power, it would instinctively withdraw.

But Kent remained patient.

Again and again, he sent gentle waves of reassurance toward it, never forcing the contact.

Eventually, after his persistent efforts, the tiny consciousness inside finally began responding to him.

The moment it did, Kent could clearly sense its excitement.

It was almost like a starving child who had suddenly been given the most delicious meal imaginable.

The creature seemed utterly delighted by the vast amount of fire-element energy pouring into the egg.

Kent continued sending feelings of warmth and care through his spiritual power.

The longer he communicated with it, the stronger his impression became.

The little consciousness inside the egg truly felt like that of a child.

As time passed, the egg itself gradually began to change.

Its shell, which had originally been completely black, now carried a faint reddish glow.

The spiritual fluctuations coming from within also grew steadily stronger.

There was no longer any doubt.

The egg had begun to hatch.

And judging by the rate at which the consciousness inside was strengthening, the moment of hatching probably was not far away.

If its spiritual presence had remained unchanged, then the incubation might still have required a very long time.

But now, everything was progressing rapidly.

Roughly four hours passed.

In the distance, the once-bustling sounds of Muan City had gradually faded into silence.

Night had clearly fallen, and most of the city had gone to sleep.

By then, Kent had begun to feel hungry.

He turned toward Darkya, who had remained some distance away, and waved her over.

Because she could not tolerate the fire-rich environment for long, Darkya had spent most of the past several hours watching from afar.

The instant she saw Kent beckoning to her, however, her eyes brightened.

She assumed the magical beast egg had finally hatched.

With obvious excitement, she hurried over.

“What did you call me over for?”

When Darkya arrived, however, she quickly realized that the egg had not hatched at all.

Most of its shell had already turned a glowing crimson, but judging by the current rate of change, it would probably still take several more hours before the creature emerged.

She looked at Kent in confusion.

Kent pointed toward a rocky cliff not far away.

Several caves had been carved into the stone there. That was one of the places where Muan City cultivated figs.

“I’m getting hungry,” Kent said. “Could you go over there and pick some figs for me?”

“Hand it over.”

Darkya immediately held out one pale, delicate hand toward him.

Kent stared at it.

He had to admit that Darkya’s hand was remarkably beautiful.

Her fingers were long and slender, her skin smooth and almost translucent beneath the fiery glow of the magma, and her fingernails had even been painted a soft green.

Still, Kent had absolutely no idea what she wanted.

He frowned.

“Hand what over?”

“Money, of course.”

Darkya gave him an aggrieved look.

“Those figs belong to Muan City, you know. I already feel guilty enough going there to pick them for you. If you don’t compensate me for it, I’m going to feel terribly bad about myself.”

“Uh...?”

Kent almost toppled over from the sheer force of her reasoning.

For several long moments, he simply stared at her.

Then he carefully looked Darkya up and down.

She looked exactly the same as always.

Same face.

Same expression.

Definitely still Darkya.

And yet, an extremely unpleasant suspicion suddenly began forming in Kent’s mind.

Darkya’s eyes rolled slightly as another thought occurred to her.

Then she smiled sweetly.

“How about this? I could go home and bring you something to eat instead.”

Kent’s expression immediately became serious.

He stared directly into her eyes.

Then, very slowly, he recited,

“Bright moonlight before my bed.”

Darkya froze.

“What?”

She stared at him in complete confusion.

What was that supposed to mean?

Was it some kind of magical incantation?

But she had not sensed even the slightest fluctuation of magical energy.

Unable to make sense of it, she asked curiously,

“What was that?”

Hearing Darkya’s confused response, Kent finally relaxed.

For a moment, he had genuinely wondered whether some other transmigrator had somehow taken over Darkya’s body.

That was the reason he had suddenly recited a line she could not possibly understand.

Since Darkya’s reaction had been completely natural, his suspicion vanished.

Kent reached into his clothes and took out forty diamond coins.

“It’s nothing,” he said. “Here. Take these forty diamond coins.”

It was not that Kent objected to Darkya going home to fetch food.

The problem was that Muan City was crowded at the moment. With so many outsiders around, there was always a chance that someone might wander into the area by accident.

If anyone discovered such a strange magical beast egg, there was no telling what sort of greedy thoughts might arise.

That would only create unnecessary trouble.

Besides, Darkya was a young woman. She undoubtedly had a few personal things she wanted to buy for herself.

With that in mind, Kent simply handed her the money.

“Oh! I’ll go right now!”

Darkya had only been teasing him in the first place.

She had never expected Kent to actually give her the money.

The moment the forty diamond coins landed in her hand, she nearly jumped for joy.

Of course, she seemed to have completely forgotten just how many diamond coins Kent had already taken from her before.

“Still such a child,” Kent muttered as he watched her disappear into the distance.

Several more hours passed.

By now, three pairs of eyes were fixed intently on the egg lying beside the magma.

Kent.

Darkya.

And the Violet-Gold Rat King.

The magical beast egg had changed dramatically.

Its shell was now half black and half crimson, and countless tiny cracks had begun spreading across its surface like a dense spiderweb.

At the same time, it had finally stopped absorbing fire-element magical energy.

Seeing this, Kent carefully lifted the egg out of the magma and placed it on the ground nearby.

No one could guarantee that whatever emerged from the shell would be able to withstand the terrifying heat of molten rock.

Besides, newly hatched magical beasts would normally devour their own eggshells.

Those shells were composed of highly concentrated elemental energy and provided enormous benefits to newborn magical beasts.

“Crack... crack... crack...”

A series of crisp sounds echoed through the air.

The shell finally began to break apart.

Kent, Darkya, and the Violet-Gold Rat King all leaned forward, staring without blinking.

At last, the creature inside emerged.

Both Kent and Darkya froze.

Because the magical beast that had hatched from the egg was...

A Saluo Beast.

Or at least, it looked something like one.

There were still obvious differences between this creature and the Saluo Beasts commonly found in this world.

In fact, to Kent, it looked far more like a piglet from Earth.

Its tail, however, was strangely shaped like a chrysanthemum.

Across the entire Twin Star Continent, more than ten thousand species of magical beasts had been recorded, yet Kent had never heard of anything quite like this.

The little creature was pink from head to toe, except for its four hooves, which were completely black.

Not a single hair grew anywhere on its body.

It was plump, round, and ridiculously well-fed-looking, with soft rolls of flesh that made it seem almost like a ball.

“What terrible luck!”

“It’s so adorable!”

Kent and Darkya shouted at exactly the same time.

Kent was devastated.

After such an extraordinary incubation process, he had imagined that the egg would contain something impressive.

A black dragon, perhaps.

Or at the very least, some powerful high-ranking magical beast.

Instead...

He got a pig.

Worse still, judging by the magical fluctuations coming from its body, the creature could barely even be considered a proper magical beast.

Its magical aura was so weak that it was hardly stronger than that of a novice magic apprentice.

Darkya, on the other hand, was completely enchanted.

Her eyes practically sparkled.

Pink skin.

A chubby little body.

A round belly.

Tiny, stubby legs.

And enormous, glossy black eyes.

For a young woman, the little creature was almost impossibly adorable.

“Grunt... grunt...”

As the piglet began eating the broken pieces of its own shell, it even made exactly the same grunting noises as an ordinary pig.

Kent felt as though his emotions had been thrown onto a wild ride.

One moment he had been soaring with anticipation.

The next, he had plunged straight into disappointment.

The longer he stared at the piglet, the gloomier he became.

This thing was simply embarrassing.

After finishing the last piece of eggshell, the piglet suddenly raised its head.

Then, without warning, it leapt straight into Kent’s arms.

Kent had been standing several meters away.

Yet before he could even react, the little creature had already crossed the distance and landed securely against his chest.

Kent barely had time to register what had happened before the piglet opened its mouth.

And spoke.

“Papa? Mama? Why don’t you two look the same?”

Darkya and Kent stared at each other in stunned silence.

Even the Violet-Gold Rat King looked as though it might faint.

There was no mistaking what the little piglet had meant.

“Papa” was Kent.

And “Mama” was Darkya.

When neither of them answered, the piglet blinked in confusion. Then, in a single bound, it leapt from Kent’s arms straight into Darkya’s embrace.

The Violet-Gold Rat King happened to be there as well.

With one careless shove of its snout, the piglet sent the Rat King tumbling onto the ground.

Then it nudged forward again.

Rip!

A large hole appeared instantly in Darkya’s expensive enchanted leather armor.

“Ahhh!”

“Ahhh!”

Darkya and Kent screamed at the same time.

Startled beyond thought, Darkya instinctively flung the piglet away.

Unfortunately, she threw it straight into the magma.

Kent reacted immediately and lunged forward, reaching out to catch it.

But he was still half a step too slow.

The little piglet vanished beneath the surface of the molten rock.

“Waaah... waaah...”

Kent had been about to scold Darkya, but the words died in his throat.

She had already crouched on the ground, crying loudly.

Seeing her like that, Kent could hardly bring himself to blame her.

Anyone in Darkya’s position probably would have reacted the same way.

He wanted to comfort her, but for a moment, he had no idea what to say.

And beneath his concern for Darkya was an even stronger sense of loss.

A magical beast that could speak the moment it hatched—

just how high-ranking would something like that have to be?

Even newly hatched dragons could not speak.

Then Kent tried to console himself.

“Then again, parrots aren’t magical beasts at all, and Red Orioles are only Level One magical beasts, yet they can still imitate human speech. Maybe that little pig was simply something like that.”

Red Orioles were beautiful Level One magical beasts capable of learning human words.

Among noble families, they were especially popular as pets for young ladies.

“Darkya, stop crying.”

After standing there awkwardly for a while, Kent finally walked over and tried to comfort her.

Then a childish voice suddenly sounded beside him.

“Oh... it was so comfortable in there. Papa, what’s wrong with Mama?”

Kent froze.

Slowly, he turned his head.

The little piglet was standing right beside him.

Kent had no idea when it had climbed out of the magma.

Its large, glossy black eyes were filled with innocent confusion as it looked from him to Darkya.

Kent felt as though he were about to faint.

A magical beast that could bathe in magma as though it were warm water...

Could something like that even still be called a magical beast?

His heartbeat began to race.

His throat went dry.

And for the first time, Kent realized that the strange little creature before him might be far more extraordinary than he had imagined.