BXBX NOVEL Chapter 92 - Nicholas Egg
Chapter 92: Nicholas Egg
“We’d always thought you were a dragon egg…” Rebecca circled the metal ball here and there like a curious cat. She would even boldly poke it with her staff from time to time (the amazing thing was the ball had no reaction to this). “Who would’ve known you’d still be an egg after hatching out of the egg… Isn’t an egg’s egg called Egg Egg?”
The metal ball vibrated with a buzz; its voice sounded exasperated. “You’re the one who hatched to be an egg! Your whole family is called Egg Egg! I’ve always been like this. Our whole tribe looks like this after we grow up!”
Gawain put in all his energy to suppress the twitching on his face. He forcibly used the countless years of cultivation of a satellite spirit to repress the inclination of his values collapsing. It was difficult as he maintained his rationality and composure and attempted to communicate with this metal egg before him. “You mentioned your whole tribe? Are there many other… living beings like you? What… exactly are you? Why have I never seen odd lifeforms like you?”
Regardless of what this egg was, it was quite unlikely to be a dragon. Old Gawain could confirm that he had never heard of such strange lifeforms in this world — assuming it was really a life form. The shape of this metal round ball was entirely different from all the lifeforms in this world. If it really had been something from natural evolution on this land, then it and its tribe could not have been concealed from Gawain’s pair of eyes that had hung in the sky for uncountable years.
Unless it had appeared in those periods of time where Gawain had ‘blacked out’.
The round ball heard Gawain’s question but wasn’t too cooperative. “This involves my secret. I am still unsure whether I can trust you bunch of barbarians. Besides, we have to first get the name clear no matter what. I won’t be called Egg Egg even if it kills me…”
“Do you have your own name?” Heidi curiously chimed in from the side. This question finally hit the nail on the head.
“Name… huh, right. I should have a name.” The metal egg came to a standstill in midair as it worked hard to recall. “Damn it… I’ve forgotten.”
Everyone: “…”
Gawain exclaimed, “You don’t even remember your own name yourself. What’s wrong with others giving you one?!”
The metal ball’s tone suddenly became especially deserving of a beating. “Then, in any case, I don’t want to be called Egg Egg.”
The veins in Gawain’s forehead could not help but bulge out again. “Do I have to call you Saint Nicholas Egg for you to be fine with it?”
The metal ball faltered instantly; then it actually began to sway happily from side to side. “Oh? This name is not bad…”
Gawain felt that interacting with this ball was essentially wearing out his longevity at a speed three times faster. Moreover, he’d recalled there was still a pile of troublesome matters outside that required him to handle. Hence, he shook his head. “Alright, to sum up, stay here obediently for one more day. We’ve just undergone an assault by monsters. There’s a big heap of troublesome follow-up matters that I have to attend to. I do not wish for you to create even more messes for me in this period of time.”
The metal egg landed leisurely, lying back into the pit where it had sat. “Sure, sure, sure, go ahead with your stuff. I can’t be bothered to run everywhere. Today’s hassle almost had me dead from exhaustion…”
Gawain glanced at this silver ‘giant egg’ with slight suspicion. He highly suspected whether this fellow could really sit still and not create trouble. But considering the fact that it had just experienced a hair-raising and utterly unsuccessful ‘escape’. He reckoned that it wouldn’t attempt it a second time anytime soon, so he would trust it for now.
There was no way out even if it didn’t trust him. There were still lots to be handled in the camp, and he could not waste all his time arguing with a ball.
The group left the tent. Before leaving, Heidi could not help but look back at the portieres that had been re-tied up. “Are we just going to leave the ball like that?”
Although it sounded like she was worried the ball would cause trouble, what was twinkling in her eyes was the glow of sheer curiosity and outburst of exploration. As a mage, a researcher, Heidi had a boundless interest towards ‘the unknown’, and a metal round ball that could float and speak was more ‘unknown’ than any of the ‘unknowns’ she had encountered in her life. Honestly, if it wasn’t because she shouldered responsibilities and that the ball would most likely be unwilling to cooperate, she would really want to transport that big ball to her own laboratory then and there. She could study it for a good half a month in one go.
Let’s not mention slicing it up; at the least, she had to drill a hole and see what its filling inside was…
At present, Gawain also knew Heidi quite well. Just by her expression, he knew what this granddaughter of his was thinking, but he didn’t reveal it anyway. He only shook his head. “It is no longer a rock ball that remains unmoving in the same spot. It is able to move, able to think, and its motility appears to be pretty good. It also has the talent to control metals and magical power. Nothing good might come out of forcefully controlling it. — We might not even be able to control it. So, we’d better have it take the initiative to cooperate.”
With that, he glanced at the soldiers standing guard not too far out.
These soldiers were still keeping guard at the barrier line set at more than ten meters from the tent, according to previous orders. Although they could not confirm whether this distance was outside of the metal control range of that Nicholas Egg, it gave the soldiers a bit more peace of mind.
“Of course, we still have to strengthen the security,” Gawain said. “Change the militiamen to clan soldiers, but keep supervisory control from a distance as the principal thing. Tell those soldiers in advance that the sphere in the tent is a magical equipment that stores an ancient soul. Tell them not to have too much contact and interaction with the sphere. If the ball really does run free, have them report it immediately. Don’t get into a conflict with it. Though that ball is rather cowardly, when it bounces up and smashes people, even the aberrations were killed instantly with one strike. Ordinary soldiers won’t be able to stop it at all.”
“What exactly do you think the ball is?” Heidi asked with a frown. “Could it… really be a magic creation of the ancient Gondor Empire?”
After the ‘dragon egg hypothesis’ was eliminated, Heidi couldn’t help but think in this direction. In this world, the Gondor heritage shared many similarities with the legend of the gigantic dragons. For example, both were very suited to be used as an explanation for the inexplicable. Their role was very similar to ‘metaphysics’ on Earth…
“The Gondor Empire isn’t omnipotent either.” Gawain shook his head. “Even if it’s the arcanist and puppet mages from the Meteoric Era, they wouldn’t have been able to create a magical creation of such a level, something that possessed intelligence.”
Yet he had another half of his sentence that he hadn’t vocalized: Don’t mention the magic artificial intelligence experts of the Gondor Empire; even before the Gondor Empire, every kingdom, every civilization, every race that had lived on this continent had never seen intelligent creations of such level.
Gawain still didn’t dare to completely eliminate the possibility that the ball was a ‘man-made object’, but at the least, he could certainly confirm that the ball wasn’t a creation of any race on this continent.
In actuality, he was leaning more towards the belief that the ball really came from some strange intelligent race outside of human knowledge.
The only unknown was how it had arrived at this continent…
Upon hearing Gawain’s reply, Heidi’s head bowed slightly as she sank into deep thought. Meanwhile, the druid Pittman beside them remained silent. In fact, he had already stopped talking all of a sudden earlier in the tent. Till now, he still looked extremely troubled and dejected. This had Gawain sparing him a few more glances. “You’ve got questions too?”
“Why is that egg still an egg after hatching…?” The old druid’s eyebrows were about to be tangled together. “Why is it not a dragon egg?”
Even Amber couldn’t watch on. “Why are you still so attached to the ‘dragon egg’!”
The little old man scratched his own neck. “It’s a dragon egg! When hatched, it’d be a dragon! Even just a random scale or some blood— Do you know how much money they could be exchanged for? Even if they can’t be sold for money, if I directly carry a baby dragon to the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, I can at the very least exchange for an Earl position on the spot!”
“For just that thought of yours, you should, at the least, be hung more than forty times when you’re thrown to Sacred Dragon Kingdom.” Gawain glared at the little old man. “If you have the time and effort to indulge in foolish ideas, tell me how the wounded are doing.”
The little old man twiddled his own beard with force and then finally let go of that topic with a sigh. “Alright, it’s not a dragon egg if it says so. You don’t have to worry about the wounded. I have already sent the best potions that I could produce. Those with more severe injuries have also had them tended to with magic. I can confirm there won’t be any more cases of death from severe injuries. To be honest, this is a miracle. I initially thought that even if those bold plans of yours were successful, we would still have a considerable number of dead soldiers. Unexpectedly — essentially — all are wounded. There actually wasn’t one death at all.”
“You’ve underestimated the equipment of the Gondor Empire.” Gawain shook his head. “For soldiers in that era, it was very difficult to die.”
The little old man glanced at Gawain and then commented flatly, “Then you’d better have some sense of crisis. I overheard your two knights chatting. Most of the armors and battle crystals have been damaged, and it seems like there’s still no way to repair and recharge those items. Though they’ve preserved the soldiers’ lives, the equipment themselves could not be preserved. Given this rate of consumption, you’d be wearing even a mountain away in no time.”
“No need to worry. We already have even better weapons.” Gawain looked in the direction of camp with a smile. “More importantly, we have even better ideas.”
Amber was the one who spoke this time, “Are you referring to those explosive crystals that you used to blow up the cliff and create traps?”
Gawain nodded lightly.
“Alright, the might of those crystals are indeed rather substantial, but it’s not quite realistic if you want to solve all your problems with just them.” Amber shook her head. “The restrictions on their usage are too big, and they lack a safe way to detonate. Let me tell you, when Heidi detonated them at that point in time, I was almost scared out of my wits. I was already hiding in the Shadow Realm but still somersaulted several times from the force of the blast. This I’ve got to complain about. That bimbo granddaughter of yours only created a shield for her-self…
Heidi who was following behind Gawain instantly glowered at Amber.
Yet Gawain did not notice the small sparks between the half-elf and his great-great-great-great… great granddaughter. He only smiled as he looked out into the distance. On the horizon, the massive sun was slowly setting. The rosy clouds at the skyline and the rays dispersed from around the sun added radiance and beauty to each other; the sight was exceptionally resplendent.
Anything would be flawed when it first emerged.
Since the crisis of aberrations had subsided for now, they should focus their energy on resolving these flaws.