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Chapter 73: So Could This Be a Trick?

“When Amber rebounded earlier, weak signs of life appeared inside the ball,” Pittman repeated while carefully moving closer to the sphere. He took out a dried and crumpled piece of leaf. While twisting the leaf stalk, he went on. “But the signs disappeared after a split second… I’ve never seen such an unusual phenomenon…”

Amber rubbed her butt while staring at the rock ball in disbelief. “What the hell…? Could this thing really be alive?”

The three soldiers still stuck on the rock ball instantly looked more nervous.

Gawain, however, was more focused on suspecting the professional skills of a certain druid. “You couldn’t have sensed wrongly, could you?”

Pittman promptly glared. “Impossible! I am a true druid, a professional from the Nature and Soul faction. How could I make a mistake in such a basic domain!”

“… Aren’t you from the Forest Heart faction?”

Pittman was stunned. “Was that what I said the previous time?”

Then he immediately looked towards Amber. “Which faction did you tell people I was from the last time?”

“…”

“In any case, my senses are not wrong.” Noticing that the atmosphere was really awkward, even with Pittman’s thick skin, he could no longer sustain it. He could only change the topic stiffly. “Regardless of factions, sensing for signs of life is the foundation for all druids. Without this foundation, one wouldn’t be able to cast any druid spells… Moreover, look, this is proof!”

While he spoke, he showed the originally dried and crumpled leaf in his hand to Gawain. The piece of a leaf had become healthy and fresh; now, it was a bright verdant green as if it had just been plucked from the tree branch.

“Although it looks to be lifeless on the surface, there is a certain form of sign of life internally…,” Pittman said very solemnly and professionally while circling the rock ball. “It seems to be in a very deep, heavy sleep. Or could it also be because it has yet to develop into its complete form?”

Amber batted her eyes. No one knew what thought went through that mind when she suddenly let out, “Hold on. This couldn’t be an egg, could it?!”

“Egg?” Gawain faltered and thought to himself, ‘if the thing that the group of Gondor researchers had been studying for such a long time in the mountains was really an egg, this matter would be exceptionally interesting’. However, he soon grew even more puzzled. “What living thing’s egg would be this big?”

The moment he finished, he jolted and the thought appeared in his mind. He himself answered, “Could it be a dragon’s egg?”

Amber and Pittman instantly went silent. The two of them watched the big rock ball in the middle of the tent with fear and nervousness. Meanwhile, Gawain had entered a troubled state as he rubbed his chin. What development of an ancient joke was this? Obtaining a dragon egg after transmigrating, such a cliché had gone out of trend several years before he’d transmigrated. Had such a prehistoric plot landed on him in the end?

However, he soon thought of another aspect. So what if this was a dragon egg? Heavens knew how long it would take to hatch. Judging by the gigantic dragon’s rumored lifespan of tens of thousands of years, the hatching of an egg itself might take thousands of years. Picking up a dragon’s egg might mean brooding it for his entire life, and his own lifetime might not even be enough. They’d have to brood it for generations, and when it finally hatched, the dragon papa and mama could just come and take it away. And they might not even say thank you before leaving… Perhaps this was the gigantic dragon’s usual trick?

However, if he really were to calculate by the millennium, this ‘egg’ was brought out of remnants that had a thousand years of history. Who knew? Maybe it would be hatching soon?

Probably because the sudden memory of such a familiar trick had triggered some recollections deep in his mind, Gawain simply stood there and entered a greatly dazed state. Amber got no reaction even after calling to him several times. Finally, the half-elf girl jumped and crashed her head onto Gawain’s chest. “Wake up!!”

“Oomph—”

Gawain wasn’t wearing his armor and was almost left breathless then and there. When he returned to his senses, he immediately reached out to pull Amber’s ear. “Do you have a screw loose? How could you use your head to knock someone?!”

“Duh, you had me remove all the metal items on me before coming in. If I had a hammer in hand, would I need to use my head?” Amber nimbly dodged Gawain’s claws this time and retorted boldly, “Why were you suddenly dazed earlier?”

Although he was really tempted to question what exactly she would do if she had a hammer in hand, Gawain still directed his attention back to the rock ball. “I was wondering if this really was a dragon egg… How should I switch off this damn ‘energy field’.”

There were three soldiers still stuck and unable to move.

“An ability that can control metals and affect the flow of magical power. In the legends, a subspecies of gigantic dragons known as metallic dragons or ‘dragons of the land’ do possess such abilities.” As a semi scholar (his other half was chef, bandit, appraiser, and fortune teller), Pittman rubbed his chin and began, in his mind, to toy with the knowledge whose truthfulness was unknown. “If we’re thinking of it as an egg of some kind, then it’s highly likely that this thing is a dragon’s egg.”

Gawain did not expect this old man to actually have some ability. He revealed an interested look. “Oh? Then, do you know how to stop the energy field?”

“That I do not.” Pittman shrugged and rushed to go on before Gawain gave him a beating. “And it’s useless even if I do. If this really is a dragon egg, how could the ability of a low-level druid like me be enough to handle it? Gigantic dragons are a legendary species. This might just be an egg, but gigantic dragons have magical power equivalent to intermediate human mages when they’re still an egg.”

Gawain gaped. What did this absurd, nature-defying setup mean? So after working hard for half their lives, humans couldn’t even compare to a zygote of theirs?

At this time, Amber suddenly looked over. “Aren’t you a legendary hero? You chop up Master Mages like you’re chopping long beans. Can’t you take care of it?”

“The abilities of knights and mages are different,” Gawain said with furrowed brows. He knew how fake of a ‘legend’ he was. Although he had been getting more adapted to this body and learning how to grasp the abilities in his body and memories, the long sleep had taken too much after all. Moreover, the combat experience wasn’t his own, and it was rather difficult to fuse with his true self; hence, the power that he could truly muster in battle might have to be discounted further. Perhaps he could be the champion in his current territory, but if he were to leave the ‘starter village’, he’d probably die on the way…

Besides, this egg (assuming it really was an egg) was totally out of the domain that a knight’s abilities could handle.

However, after some careful thought, Gawain still decided to give it a try. “Let me try.”

A knight’s abilities were indeed not as varied and convenient as a mage’s. The majority of the skills in Gawain’s memories involved using a knife to hack at someone, totally unlike how mages could come up with seven to eight variations in a mere water creation spell. However, to deal with this egg… Perhaps some basic abilities could come in handy.

Since this egg showed signs of life and could interact with magical power, he’d use magical power to attempt to communicate with it?

In this world where all kinds of things were driven by magical power, all supernatural occupations learned the basic use of it. Knights used magical power too, only in a different way from mages.

However, in the most fundamental levels of sensing, guiding, and more, there wasn’t much difference between the use of a knight’s and a mage’s magical power.

Gawain walked over to the rock and pressed a hand on its rough surface. The three soldiers anchored to the rock ball instantly turned their heads over nervously. They did not know what method their Lord planned to use to engage with this ‘rock’; moreover, they were unsure whether their lives would become sacrifices in this process. Although the lives and deaths of almost all civilians were held by the aristocrats in this era, when it really came to the point, they could not help but feel tense.

Gawain noticed the soldiers’ gazes and reassured them with a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m very steady.”

Following that, he became indifferent to their reactions and focused on sensing the flow of magical power.

An additional ‘field of vision’ emerged in his mind.

This was the distribution of magical power within a certain range of himself. Though he wasn’t ‘seeing’ as clearly as mages in meditation did, it was enough to point out the flow of magical power. He saw that there seemed to be an extremely thin layer of mist shrouding the inside of the tent, and within the mist, there vaguely seemed to be a subtle flow. There were several more obvious ‘convergence points’ inside the mist; the two slightly stronger ones were Amber and Pittman standing nearby, with another three extremely weak balls of magical power gathered together, clearly the three layman soldiers.

What about the ‘rock ball’ that was supposed to be a dragon’s egg?

It was a group of pitch-black holes.

In the ‘vision’ of his magic senses, the center of the tent presented an absolute black color as if space had simply been dug away. It was a darkness that showed absolutely no light, no details. There were only two possibilities: either this rock ball was something that by no means should exist in this word — matter that didn’t have any magical power at all — or the rock ball had absorbed all magical effects targeted at it.

The first reason could be eliminated because Heidi had once sensed magical power coming from the inside of the rock ball. Though the power was very strange and unlike the known forms of magic, it did exist.

So, this rock ball had probably entered a kind of ‘self-protection’?

Gawain guessed while cautiously guiding his consciousness to draw closer to that darkness.

Amber’s unguarded probing of peril had proven the strength of this ‘self-protection’. An excessively violent prodding would very likely cause himself to be ‘rebounded’ like Amber had been; hence, he had to be careful and more careful.

Just like that, after engaging extremely cautiously, he realized that he hadn’t triggered a ‘rebound’ from the rock ball.

Not knowing whether a dragon’s egg had the ability to communicate, Gawain could only constantly push forward the thought of communicating and interacting with the attitude of just giving it a try.

At first, there was no response.

But after sustaining it for a few seconds, he heard some buzzing sounds reverberating in his mind. And he was sure it wasn’t just his imagination.

This rock ball was grumbling softly to him.

Gawain’s spirit was instantly revived, and he almost lost the link because of the turbulence in his feelings. But he soon stabilized this fragile connection and sent his first greeting. “Hello, I mean no harm. You can call me Gawain.”

The mental fluctuations coming from the ball were becoming clearer and clearer. Finally, the soft buzzing grumbles became words that he could hear clearly. It was a voice with a metallic tone and an indistinguishable gender. “Is the outside safe now?”

Gawain suppressed the agitation in his heart and did his best to transmit his sincerity. “It is very safe here. You can be completely assured.”

“I don’t believe you. Scram.”

“…”