Chương 101: An Egg Hatches

"The egg is stirring," I told Healer Melon. I would have to miss classes today, but that is fine. The plain gray egg was far more important than one day of classes. Most of my classes were auxiliary classes, anyway. While I would lose out on the money I had spent to reserve a couple of them, that was fine.

"Just stay near it and keep a small trickle of Mana to the egg. It will strengthen your bond with the monster and have it recognize you as its parent," he said, repeating information I knew. I had reviewed similar information from the texts he had gotten me, but it was good to get a reminder to avoid making a mistake. Healer Melon stayed back as I kept my hands just above the surface of the head-sized egg. I released my Mana into the air and focused on keeping it around the egg.

In the past, I had released much more Mana in the mornings and evenings every day than I was currently releasing. Now I was keeping the amount of Mana to a small trickle. I could feel the monster stirring inside and slowly trying to break free. The egg was too small, and it had grown frail as the monster absorbed its nutrition. An egg was a natural treasure of the dungeon because monsters rarely remained alive long enough to have offspring, since the dungeon created monsters.

To have an egg was a very rare occurrence. It happened since there were a few adventurers with pets. But most adventurers sold them as curiosities to the rich. Someone like my father might have had a guard monster as a status symbol if it weren't for my mother. She was incredibly intolerant of monsters, even tamed ones. Showing her a monster was a quick way to have a dead monster and an upset Warlady. Even knowing that, I was going to tame this monster to assist me.

Teaching it healing would come with some complications, but after spending so much time with healers, I knew how useful they were. While I wasn't planning to adventure alone, finding trustworthy teammates was not simple. The only friend I had made so far was Judy, the beastkin. Everyone focused too much on getting ahead and improving their skills to care about friendship or teamwork. Perhaps that would change in later years, but my first year so far showed that the competition was all that mattered.

The monster inside the egg moved, causing the surface of the egg to crack. Its movement increased in intensity. It wanted to break free. I kept my Mana consistent around the egg as it slowly broke apart. A snake snout emerged from a small hole. I did nothing except what I was already doing, a monster needed to break free of the egg on its own. Interfering with the process carried the risk of making it think I was attacking it.

The monster struggled once more, larger pieces broke away, and a black-scaled snake head poked its way entirely out of the egg. Over the next couple of minutes, the monster struggled more in bursts and slowly freed its two wings. It was a Winged Serpent. Black scales and bright red eyes. Its feathered wings were dark gray. As it emerged from the egg, it flapped its wings twice and flew around me. I kept my Mana focused on the monster with a bit of difficulty. While my Mana points were getting low, that was fine.

The bonding steps requiring Mana were almost completed. The Winged Serpent landed on my head, messing up my brown hair, which was fine. I didn't react negatively and focused on the bond skill between us. The thoughts of a parent and the role of a powerful protector were my focus. I could feel the small and fragile mind of the Winged Serpent reaching out. It was happy, excited, and hungry. I had a small tray of finely cut monster meat ready and removed the metal lid from the tray.

The Winged Serpent floated down and began eating the meat. I could feel it accepting that I was in charge and that it recognized me. While a bonded monster wouldn't easily turn, it still could. If the monster was abused or its partner was too weak, then it could rebel and try to dominate the relationship. The trick in the books that Healer Melon had gotten me to read was not to have the monster question the relationship for as long as possible. That way, the relationship became more ingrained in the monster's mind.

By the time it became dangerous, it would be too used to listening to me to think any differently. Now for the real challenge, what was I going to name it? Not it, but him. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Healer Melon, despite being helpful recently, didn't have good ideas for a name. He had suggested Danger Noodle, Snek, and Hiss Von Scale. His bald head was letting his brain cook, and not in a good way if he thought those names were good.

"A good name would be after the legendary staff from history, which had a snake design. The staff of kings, Ozymandius. You can be Ozy for short." Ozy looked up at me and gave a nod. It was just agreeing, even if it didn't fully understand the agreement or the motion it made. He then slithered over and came to rest on my shoulders while digesting his meal.

"Congratulations, you now have a tamed monster," Healer Melon said.

"At least it is small enough to keep with me."

"Winged Serpents can grow quite large, based on my understanding. Eventually, you should be able to ride it."

"That is a long way away. The main growth mechanism for monsters is stats, which means leveling. That will be slow while we are out of the dungeon. I would prefer him to remain small for now and focus on skills instead."

"It won't be easy teaching it with how monsters learn through their innate skills and abilities."

"I know, but the answer is Alchemic products, specifically, skills taken from other monsters. The College has a collection of monster skills that one can purchase. By giving Ozy one new skill every three months, he should improve in a specific direction," I said while running my hand over his back. I felt his contentment at my action.

"I am glad you are on top of things since I only know a bit. A pet is an immense responsibility and expense. Does the College even have healing skills from monsters, with how rare they are?"

"Yes. They aren't cheap and require a certain standing here at the College. Thankfully, I meet the requirements with my class rank as number one, and my background is more than enough. I am thinking of the skills Anatomy Insight, Healing Insight, Health Sense, Stamina Sense, Cure, Greater Cure, Purify, Greater Purify, Refresh, and Greater Refresh."

"Did they extract those skills from monsters?" Healer Melon asked with a bit of surprise.

"Yes. They are very rare, but there are healing monsters in the dungeon. I wanted Greater Respite instead of Greater Refresh, since the former handles physical exhaustion and stamina points."

"That is true, but Refresh offers greater stamina recovery. They are good choices, but I am afraid to ask how much these skills will cost."

"Because of their rarity from monsters, I am looking at a maximum price of 1, 000 gold per skill. The College has agreed to allow me to borrow the money on credit."

"That is more than enough money for a long lifetime and could be used to get some useful skills for yourself when you graduate," Healer Melon pointed out. It was something I had contemplated, but if I was going to have a pet, I was going to invest in it to be the best, just like me. Ozy was going to be a teammate I could fully count on. Otherwise, a pet would be a waste of gold and time. It hurt to go into that much debt. That was the cost of about two red soul fruits. But Ozy was going to be amazing.

Having a pet that could heal and perform combat Alchemy was priceless. I could trust my pet to have my back and train him to support me in combat. While my mother and other people might see that as a weakness, I saw it as expanding the number of skills I had access to. I would never learn healing. I might learn Cure as a spell skill, like my mother, but there were too many supporting skills needed to be a proper healer. Insight skills were skills that only monsters could learn and progress.

A human would have serious issues if they tried to learn an innate skill from a monster. Of the serious issues, death was one of the better outcomes. Instead of a bunch of support skills, a monster would have Weapon Insight and know how to wield any weapon naturally. It was utterly unfair, but for all their natural advantages, monsters couldn't choose how to progress or their skills. Only the thinking races could, which is what separated us from monsters.

Monster skills could only be acquired through their innate nature or through an Alchemic process. I could try to teach Ozy various skills, but he wouldn't be able to pick them up naturally, unlike humans. That contributed to pets' lack of popularity. Money spent on monster skills meant less for weapons or armor. That is the reason pets were often used to demonstrate status as guard creatures for the wealthy.

"Are you going to check on the monster's status?" I smiled a bit at the trick question.

"No, Ozy just hatched and needs time to rest and recover. While a monster is born with its status active, rushing to check it could cause soul damage. It's better to let it rest and build up strength for a while. When it is time to check my status at the end of the semester, I will check his status as well in a couple of weeks," I replied and scratched a part of his scales that were bothering him. Ozy was going to be amazing. While others might look down on having a pet, it was the best way forward for me.

I knew it in my heart. And the risk of removing a Tier 4 skill was incredibly high with how unstable my soul was. Even if I had wanted to get rid of Ozy in the past, getting rid of the skill wouldn't have been easy. I would also have to train him to respond to my thoughts and to support me in combat. That would be tricky. At least monsters could improve through their skills from consuming Mana and through training. They couldn't gain new skills through training, nor could they improve their stats.

Their level directly affected their stats. Monsters were more Mana than flesh, even if they had physical bodies. Mana held them together. Many people speculated that this was because the dungeon created them directly from Mana, another mystery of the world.