A strange egg

Alice’s POV:

After our wonderful love making process, I was finally satisfied. That aching pain disappeared from my crotch, and I’m not craving Hiro so terribly, for now. Since all of our energies, clones and everything else have recovered over this wonderful, and long ‘event’, we can enter the last floor without any worries. I don’t believe that we can’t kill this shitty monster. Upon stepping through the door, the whole place around us has changed, turning into a huge world of desert and dunes. The place was creepily silent, and the boss was nowhere to be seen.

Considering what is the name of this dungeon, I’m quite sure of the origin of the boss on this floor. We walked for a while in this creepy world. Suddenly we felt a slight vibration from under us so we quickly jumped to the side. No, we actually flew to the side?

[Hoho! So we can fly once again! I was really annoyed with that restriction.] I said to Hiro, feeling happy.

[Yes, but think about it. If we could have flown then this whole dungeon would have become a joke.]

A thirty meters tall and fifty meters long scorpion appeared in the place we stood, with sharp, tough pincers, and I wouldn’t want to get hit by its tail either. Unexpectedly, this monster was at the early eighth stage. Which meant trouble for us. But we aren’t going to back off just because it is much stronger than us. It flew into the air as its whole body was rotating like a driller. If that would have hit us… I dare not think of the consequences. This stupid monster wanted to sneak attack us.

We activated our battle forms and our skin turned into that green jelly layer, and scales started growing on our bodies, covering us completely. This all has happened in a single moment, and the scorpion didn’t even stop as it charged at us. In the resting room we have renewed our scaly clothes or armors, so they are much tougher than they were before, making our defenses stronger. Unfortunately, not even this would be enough to take an attack head on from this scorpion. It quickly reached us and used its pincers to catch me. Although we can fly but however I think about it, it’s worse for us because this thing can fly faster than us.

I flew downwards, towards the ground and made a clone with Hiro in tow. The scorpion flew towards me, without slowing down. I barely had enough time to jump to the side and it was only possible because Hiro used the Binding Clock on it. Unfortunately, it can’t stop the monster for too long because it’s way above us in strength. The scorpion drilled into the sand under us, since I dodged its attack, but we didn’t intend to play this game. Using our magical powers, we quickly raised this whole world of sand into the air in five kilometers of us. Over us was a huge sand mountain while under us was the stupid scorpion.

I’m sure that it didn’t expect that we are going to do such a thing. Using our magical powers, we controlled the sand to make a big arena around us, as we landed on the hard ground which was under the sand. This time we were the ones to attack. I pulled out my bow and filled it with arrows which had the form of a dragon. My blonde hair was shining as the sun was showering us in its warmness. I and my clone released our arrows towards the scorpion, only one at a time as shooting more would weaken their power.

Hiro also made five clones which were his maximum for now. The scorpion swung its tail in an arc to swipe him away. Three of his clones took it on together, making the incoming tail stop. My arrows also arrived at their destination and it penetrated the tail of the scorpion, but to my dismay, it wasn’t able to tear it off. I’d have to shoot about twice more if not for Hiro and two of his clones jumping over its pincers to cut down its tail. Though Hiro’s spear wasn’t exactly good for that purpose but one of his clones had a nice and long katana in its hands exactly out of that reason.

I used our dear curse, called Ethereal Delusion on the monster, coupled with Hydro Mind to interrupt the monster’s movements for a moment. It worked just fine because Hiro was able to cut off its tail. The monster recovered quickly and caught one of Hiro’s clone, cutting it in two with its pincers. The clone quickly turned into liquid and flew back into Hiro’s body as he jumped back with his remaining four clones in tow. The scorpion looked at me with displeasure, indicating that it’s going to charge at me.

It was indeed like that because it jumped over Hiro and flew straight towards me through the air as its whole body rotated like a driller. Its flight speed was way too fast so my original body was shredded into pieces. It turned into liquid just like Hiro’s and flowed back into my new original body… I made another clone, and sent it farther away, just in case. Hiro didn’t idle by as he used Space Breath. The scorpion didn’t have time to dodge it completely. The space opened up right beside its body. It was able to resist the suction force slightly, but even like that, its left pincer was pulled into the broken space.

The monster screamed out as the space quickly recovered, but the scorpion was left with a single pincer. Since it charged at me, it was easy to imagine its destination, so Hiro immediately used Space Breath. The monster turned towards us angrily. I’m sure that it’s not happy… After a huge roar, it charged at Hiro. Hiro also ran towards it, with one of his clones. When they were about to arrive Hiro rolled under it, while his clone jumped over it with a somersault. Since it didn’t have a tail, it wasn’t able to defend against the one from above.

It quickly smashed its lower body into the ground, wanting to crush Hiro. This might have worked on a normal human but not on us who were covered in tough and hard scales. I felt that it caused some pain for Hiro but nothing serious. His clone from above also arrived at its destination and thrust its spear towards the supposed place of its core, while Hiro did the same from below. Thanks to the powerful runes both of them -or him?- were able to penetrate it, but unexpectedly nothing happened. Meanwhile, I also released three arrows towards the scorpion.

One of its eyes on the right was pierced, while the other two penetrated its right shoulder. I wanted to tear off its other pincer but it wasn’t such an easy thing. It swung its right pincer towards Hiro who was originally under it, but the monster backed off to hit him. Hiro was hit by the swing and he flew about a kilometer before landing with a loud thud, breaking the ground under him. He had a slight dent on his chest but after a cracking and popping sound, it jumped back into its right place. Thanks to our scales and jelly layer, the smashing attacks were very ineffective against us. Or to be more clear every kind of attack was ineffective against us in their own ways, but by all means, the penetrating kind had the most chance to damage us.

That’s also the reason why we cut off its tail. Hiro ran towards it and this time I used Dragon’s Descent as an arrow. A tremendous aura fell on the place. The scorpion knew that my next shot is going to be dangerous.

[Let’s sacrifice one of my clones.] Advised Hiro through our bond.

[My heart is bleeding you know?] I remarked. Although they were clones, but all of them were a piece of my dear Hiro! How could I look at them being destroyed!? Of course, I’m not going to whine at such a moment, and I know that they are more like means for us to fight. The original one is always going to be the one which is controlled by our main mind.

Hiro’s clone jumped in the scorpion’s face, with a shield in its hand. What was really weird that we didn’t find a core where it was supposed to be, and this monster was bleeding. Something is fishy here. It’s as if it would be alive. Whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore. It grabbed onto Hiro’s clone or else its face would have been cut up into slices by Hiro’s clone’s sword. I shot my arrow exactly at that moment. Hiro’s clone was crushed in the scorpion’s pincer, and it turned into liquid and flowed back into Hiro’s body. But at that time, Hiro also used everything he had on the monster.

Before shooting, we also used our mind-reading ability on it, and what we found, caused great surprise for us, but it didn’t matter anymore. As the scorpion was stuck in place thanks to the Binding Clock, Ethereal Curse, and numerous Hydro Minds, my Dragon’s Descent arrived in its face. As my attack struck, the monster flew into the air from the force and rotated in the air, then it fell on its back with its face crushed. The ground was covered in blood, in a very short time after it landed. Hiro quickly ran over to it and stabbed his spear into its chest.

At this time it finally talked. Yes. It was the dungeon. We don’t know why but it made a body for itself and made it into the last boss. Its voice was coming from all around us and the whole place started trembling and shaking.

“Haah- *sigh* you two have once again won over me. I don’t get you. Why won’t you betray each other like everyone else have done? You monsters are weird.” It said with a laughing and happy voice.

“What are you talking about? We aren’t weird! We just love each other more than anything. There is no treasure in the world which can tear us apart. Once you find your other half, you can find out what true happiness is, right my dear little dragoness?” Hiro answered the dungeon happily as he looked at me with a loving face.

“Without doubt~” I said to him as I went up to him and gave him a light kiss on the lips.

“Hmm~ What can I say? At least I’ve got my answer before dying. I always wondered if there are people who could really die for each other, who wouldn’t betray each other no matter what. I can die peacefully like this. Now I know that there are. Although rare, but there are.” The dungeon had a peaceful voice. Its voice was weakening with every word it said. After saying so it continued.

“Alright. Now it’s time for you to get your presents before leaving. Since you love each other so much, I hope that you won’t mind that I give only one to you. You can share it anyway…” It said as a strange black egg appeared with green stripes on it.

“How nice! I love its color!” Hiro stupidly answered the dungeon, with such words.

“This thing is worth more than its colors… Whatever, I’m not going to try understanding you anymore. Damned weirdos.” Said the dungeon. I bet that if he would have a head, he would have facepalmed.

“So what is it?” I questioned the dungeon but all I got was.

“You shall learn it in the future. But take good care of it. It’s really rare. Considering that you were able to kill me even though you are only at the third stage, and I was at the early eighth stage, you are really worthy of it. Now go, take care of it in my place! Oh, I almost forgot. Don’t forget to bind it with your blood! Both of you can do it.” The dungeon answered me in such a way, as he told us to leave in a hurried tone.

The whole place was shaking and trembling. I’m sure that it was about to collapse. A portal opened up right next to us and after taking the egg we left the dungeon. We appeared outside of the huge sand castle. We saw as it crumbled down, falling into itself making a huge pile of sand. Such a thing also caused a huge sandstorm. I’m sure that this thing is going to cover an enormous area. We quickly flew into the air, to escape from the sand because we didn’t want to be covered in it. We saw how such a great and mighty dungeon turned into nothing more than a big pile of sand and dust.

We rolled our fingers into fists. Is this what lies at the end? Death? I’m sure that this dungeon was really old, yet it met its end in such a way. That’s not going to be true for us! We shall beat everyone and everything in our ways, and reach the top so that nothing can hurt us! Let’s see what lies at the end of our road! After seeing the sandstorm spread, we boarded our spaceship. Pat and Wilhelm surely is back long before, since they too had spaceships, though slower than ours but not by much. Our spaceship sped us and we sat down inside it and took out the egg.

“Interesting. It has a really rough surface and it’s very hard. I’m quite sure that it wouldn’t break from simply falling to the ground.” I said as I touched its surface.

“Yes. I’m really wondering what’s inside it, and how long it takes for it to hatch?” Hiro answered and then couldn’t stop himself from remarking that: “I wonder if your eggs are going to be like that too. Or how do you give birth?”

My face became red upon hearing him ask such a question. “W- What the hell are you asking me? I- I’m not going to lay eggs! I’m not a bird!” I yelped, but he didn’t back off, saying with a sadistic face: “Are you sure? In my memories, dragons are laying eggs.”

“But I won’t! I’ll give birth, not lay eggs! Stupid Hiro!” I shouted as I turned my back towards him. The truth was that I had no idea about this either… Hearing my answer he laughed at me and then embraced me from behind, then kissed my neck, then my ears, making me aroused. This is really unfair. I can become aroused just from him, touching me, not to mention if he does something like that. Feeling hotness overflowing in my body, he attacked me once again. After a few hours of pleasure, we realized that we forgot to bind the egg with our blood.

We cut our fingers and poured our blood on it. The egg sucked it in, then it started trembling slightly and its surface was becoming reddish. When it became completely red, it suddenly sucked in the widespread blood, making the egg once again black, and its trembling also stopped and then it stayed silent. Out of curiosity, we spilled our blood on it once again, but this time it simply flowed down on the side of the egg. I have a feeling that if we would have spilled our blood on it, at two different points in time, then only the first would have worked. Probably, it sucked in the blood to identify its master in the future.

“This is strange. Though considering my past life’s memories, I have an idea what this might be, but we are going to find out about it in the future anyway.” Hiro said with a helpless face.

We soon reached Posnoth and went back to school only to find a horrendous amount of work. Luckily, the number of weapons we had, greatly lessened the burden on us because we only had to enchant and inscribe them. When we entered the faction building, Foalin came running towards us with a crying face, shouting that we have left her with too much work and that everyone is asking her non-stop about when will be their weapons or armors completed.

“Don’t worry Foalin, now everything is going to be alright! As an apology, we are willing to increase your payment to five hundred pills per month.” I said to her with a glorious smile on my face and even the shining, yellow sun, made my blonde hair radiating light, making my whole image more glorious. Seeing me in such a light and hearing the number ‘five hundred’ she immediately forgot about her suffering and jumped on me in happiness.

[You actor. What was that? Now seriously…] Hiro laughed at my antics through our bond.

“W- Will you really give me so much? But, but that’s really too much!” Foaling answered, but she couldn’t hide her happiness. Getting five hundred a month was more than what the ‘geniuses’ get in this school.

“Don’t question us. It’s going to be like that. Now we are leaving because we still have a lot of work to do.” I told her, then we turned around and left the place. After going back to our little house and sleeping a good one in our bed we’ve got to work. We didn’t forget to announce the increase in price which likely caused many people to become enraged, but it didn’t matter to us because all they could do was to go up to Radcliff and complain to him. They knew only him, not us. Having a proxy sure is great!

We were making new weapons when Radcliff came in, smashing our door, with an enraged face. He started shouting at us: “Hey! This isn’t what we talked about!?! I know that you are my masters and I respect you for that very much. I also know that I’m indebted to you! BUT! Making such an ugly move, and sending hordes of cultivators at my doorstep was VERY unfair! Do you know what I went through!? In these last days, I had to fight back hundreds, no, thousands of cultivators at the ninth stage!! You aren’t making weapons only for low level, weak cultivators, you know?”

“There were numerous cultivators who could have beaten me if not for my new…” - he shouted but his voice weakened upon reaching that part, and I grabbed the chance to refute him, making Hiro laugh - “for your new? Weapon? You should be happy that you’ve got the chance to acquire such a weapon, right? You shouldn’t complain about a little work!” Hearing me say that he wasn’t able to refute, as he hung his head down.

“Don’t be so sad Radcliff.” Hiro said to him, seeing his sadness, but what he answered surprised me… “But- But Alice is always refuting me so harshly! Does she hate me or what!? I didn’t do anything bad!” was what he said to Hiro, then looked at me. We looked at each other and this might be terrible but we couldn’t help but chuckle at his words.

“Haha- no, don’t be stupid Radcliff. I’m just saying it jokingly. Did you really not hear how I spoke? If I’d hate you, then I would be much colder to you.” I answered his question. Realizing that he has got it all wrong, all this time, he felt awkward, which was visible on his face.

“E- Ehm… I’m sorry.” Was what he said. I couldn’t help myself from reading his mind for now.

Waaah, I screwed up! I’m sure that she is thinking that I’m a loser. Now how should I ever face her? But I can’t help it. It makes me really sad, how she always retorts to my words. Though I mustn’t let Hiro know about my feelings for her. I- I’ll have to suppress my feelings! I don’t want to make her sad and I’m really grateful for Hiro too. I don’t intend to betray their expectations for me. Although I love her beautiful smile, but I’ll sacrifice my feelings for their happiness. If only she wouldn’t be so beautiful. *sigh* I wonder if I can ever find such a woman.

I didn’t listen in on his thoughts any longer. This too was more than I was supposed to hear… Since we are connected Hiro too heard everything. Ehm… I don’t know what to say. So this is why he was so stressed out from my joking retorts?

[I shouldn’t have heard this… Now what am I supposed to do with him?] I asked Hiro through our bond.

[Don’t ask me. I have no idea. I’ve never met such a case before.] He said. He didn’t worry about my loyalty or such things. Why would he? It would NEVER get in my head to think of such things. I’d rather die than to fall victim for someone’s trap. To begin with, I don’t like to talk with other men, other than Hiro. Thinking for a bit he answered my question. [I guess you should simply ignore what you have heard. I’d say that you should confront him head on and state that you aren’t interested in him, but since you aren’t supposed to know about his feelings, I can only say that you should ignore it. Or you can reveal this little ability of ours and tell him, but I’m quite sure that we would rarely meet in that case.]

What Hiro said indeed made sense. Seriously now… we have barely met, yet he fell in love with me? And now I feel evil because I’ve read his thoughts… Hiro wasn’t angry at him because he didn’t have lustful thoughts. We don’t know if he likes me, my looks or my personality or all of them, but it didn’t matter. Hiro only hates when someone starts looking lustfully at me, not even caring about me. Of course, I’m not saying that he was happy with others loving me. He wasn’t happy about Radcliff either, but at least he wouldn’t kill him or have visible enmity with him. Though if he would have thought of things like killing Hiro to get me… That would be a completely different case, which would cause his downfall.

Not even if he loves me, or helped us, can he think of such plans or conspire against my mate! For now, I decided to ignore his ‘unknown’ feelings. He soon left and we continued to work. After a whole month of work, we were finally done with every order we had. We had to make millions of weapons, armors and we didn’t even dare to count the number of pills that flowed through our hands. What was the worst is that we had to give a lot of them away! But luckily for us, the bigger part of it was still in our hands!

We also made weapons for our clones of each kind, and all of them were made from the highest grade metals like Durinium or Tritanium. We collected hundreds of millions of Energy Converting pills. After a week of cultivation, we reached seventy percent of conversion from the amount we have gained which kind of… made us invincible at this level as long as we aren’t overrun by armies, though… I’m quite sure that we could manage to kill or escape from an army too. (AN: Strength: 7,6; 8,3; 9,5 [normal; Battleform; Monster form])

The problem was from this point on because we would need as many pills for a single percent as much we have consumed up till now. The late stages of this level were really terrible.

“What should we do now?” Hiro questioned me.

“I don’t know… Should we look at that Societal Cross? Maybe we can find something good like Wilhelm.” Hearing me say that with an expectant face, made him remember Wilhelm. “Ugh. Don’t make me remember him. That bastard. As soon as he learned that we have come back, he came knocking on our doors with a stupidly bright smile, asking for a weapon, which only a first-grade member could have. He even had the face to ask for an armor and some pills! I felt like kicking his face!” Hiro grumbled angrily.

Not to mention Wilhelm, even Pat called us out to make ‘some’ equipment after she started telling us how she saved our lives, and that we are indebted to her, and that such little things as making weapons or armors were nothing for us. But at least she hadn’t got away without any payment. She had to pay with her body! I patted her for a really long time… After reaching the societal cross, we went inside the building which was filled to the brim with cultivators, and there were long lines before the receptionists too.

[What the hell is going on here?] I questioned Hiro. We were embracing each other tightly, feeling a lot of happiness and fluffiness from doing so.

[I have no idea. I came with you. Remember? Haha] He just had to answer like that, but I didn’t mind it. He only said it jokingly and I’m not one who is going to get offended by such stupid things.

The egg still didn’t make a movement, even after a month. We moved to the bulletin board to look at the forthcoming events. One of them caught our eyes. It said:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Championship of the three schools!

At the start of the next month, the next championship among the three school on planet Posnoth is going to take place. We are welcoming every student to the arena.

The rewards are going to be great this time as well because the three directors once again are going to descend to bring back wonderful treasures for the top three. But fear not, because those who achieve lower rankings can also gain great benefits!

Let’s show to everyone who is the best among the best!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[I- I can’t refuse this invitation! I want to crush their best! Look! This is clearly to invite a dragon like me! They want to be crushed!] I said to Hiro as flame was coming out of my nostrils. I was really fired up to beat up the geniuses, I can’t wait! [Hey, Hiro~ Can’t we go now!?] I added jokingly.

[You are really as childish as me. Great! Why would we want to become serious and grown up? Being playful and childish is also necessary for a happy life! I too am interested in it. But no, we can’t go now because there would be no one…] Hiro answered both of my questions with a happy and then sad face. I can’t help this feeling welling up in me. I don’t know if it’s because of my instincts of me, being a sadistic dragon or if it’s because of other reasons, but I really want to play around with the humans.

It’s really bad if I become the strongest in a realm… but I can’t deny my instincts! Yes. Let’s blame it all on my instincts! Hmph… these dragons are so cruel and evil. It has nothing to do with my personality alright?!

[For now, we should join and then go to the guild to do some quests and such things in the meantime. We have nothing to do for now anyway.] Advised Hiro as he thought about what should we do.

We stood in line but like always there were people who didn’t know their places and walked past the whole line. The guy was at the early ninth stage and there wasn’t any cultivator in our line who was at such a high stage. Since our sadism was awakened we quickly went after him.

“I apologize for interrupting your ‘business’, but I’ve noticed that you have gone past us, in the waiting line.” Hiro said as he pulled on his clothes, with a smiling face. The others around as started mumbling.

“What is he doing?”

“Does he want to die?”

“He is really stupid. That person is at the ninth stage! I heard that he is really powerful, his name is called Xie Chun.”

The guy turned towards us with a raised eyebrow, and his face soon turned into an evil smile. He also looked at me with a smirking face and after sizing up my body he nodded once. “Not bad, you are a real beauty. Come, you can stand beside me, but your little friend should leave before I break his neck.” ‘Xie Chun’ said as he was extending his arm towards me. Hiro grabbed onto it and broke it in a single move. The stupid guy wasn’t able to evade my mate’s hand, fufu, loser!

“AARGH! What are you doing? Do you have a death wish!? You bastard!” He took out his weapon which was made by us! Hahaha, he has no idea what he has got himself into. Although this was a secret, but we made every weapon in a different way. There was an additional enchantment on all of them, making its core owner into us. This meant that we could call any of the weapons we have made into our hands. Hiro has done so with a smiling face.

The guy’s staff flew into Hiro’s hand and then Hiro swung it at his head, but with a strength which wouldn’t kill him. He didn’t have enough time to move so he got smashed in the face. His teeth flew out of his mouth as he flew in the air and smashed into the wall, breaking it in the process. To my happiness, Hiro was as ridiculous as always as he said: “He is going to pay for the damage!”

Unexpectedly, the others stood to the side to let us apply to the championship. I’m not going to deny that this felt good! We were quickly done with it and left the Societal Cross. Now all that was left, was to waste our times somehow.