Crackle!
The purple ball-like object started glowing as soon as it touched my hand, while sparks of lightning started crackling around it.
{As expected, this was the right decision to make. Mhmmm.}
The closest thing this ball could resemble would be an attribute orb. However, it was more of a miniature version of it.
Even though I didn't know the benefit of attribute orbs, I knew that they were quite expensive and having more of them would only be better. Thus, if you looked at this from any angle possible, it would normally be something that I might receive for doing his part of the trade, not the other way around.
Yet, the lion had already mentioned that it was related to the his request. Leaving me, who had little knowledge about this world confused.
{Alright, seeing that you are still thinking about it deeply by yourself rather than asking. I will explain my request first.}
'Sigh….. I really need to work out on my social skills.'
Thinking thoroughly about something that I don't understand instead of asking the people around me, that was the habit I developed due to my introversion.
Still, since all the obstacles in my life were lifted for as long as I lived for the next ten years. As I decided to lead a normal life unlike my old self, I had to remove the rest of the obstacles contained within myself first.
{Hey, make sure you are listening well. I will only say this once.}
Snapping out of it once more, I pushed my thoughts aside. The matter at hand was still the most important.
{To put it around simply, my kind has went semi-extinct. I'm the last one alive, while my partner died long ago when I wasn't powerful enough to protect her….}
{However, that's not the end. Before her death, I still received her last gift. The fruit of our life together.}
'Wait a sec, semi-extinct, fruit….. Could it be?!'
{Yes, that's right, what you are holding in your hand, is nothing else but my only descendant!}
I was easily seen through once again. However, that wasn't shocking anymore. As there was another shock coming my way.
That guy wasn't even one of the Aves(1). Yet, why was his child in an egg? Then again, was that even an egg? According to him, it has already been a long time since the mother's death. Why was it still in its egg?!
"Okay, you have more explaining to do, right?"
{Eh? you should have got the gist of it by now….. Oh right, I forgot that I was talking to a human. This is toddler-level knowledge for our kind.}
{As an extraordinary species, Thunder lions need the help of lightning source to be truly born. That form is simply the elementary form of a monster core or what you humans call it as an attribute orb.}
{Since the very beginning of our species' existence, we always lived in lightning filled zones. Which is like the paradise of our species. It is simply a land with an overflowing lightning source at its core.}
{Unlike other species of the monster race, the monster core emerges first, which is then left to bath in lightning till it reaches its true birth. However, as lightning sources started running dry due to the rareness of the lightning attribute, our numbers dwindled till the destruction of my last tribe's lightning source.}
{All the other tribe members were hunted by the more powerful lightning practitioners for our rare monster core. Leaving us at their mercy, as our growth was hindered by the absence of our tribe lightning source.}
{Weak as we were unlike our ancestors who lived in even more rich lightning sources, we were hunted to extinction. However, as I was almost on the verge of being hunted just as my wife lost her life. I was saved by another lightning attributed human, who then left me with a silver of his own lightning source. Which lead to my current strength err…. Or let's say my now deceased strength.}
"Then why didn't you do the same thing, shouldn't you have just let the core bath in your own lightning?"
{That's where you are wrong. Once we absorbed a lightning source, we merge with it to the point of no separation. while bathing in my lightning could strengthen the core, it wouldn't allow its true birth as it isn't a true lightning source. It is just lightning generated from the lightning source that's merged with my own core.}
{That's why although you didn't even develop your own attribute, you are the only one I could entrust my child to as I'm technically already dead. An even if I wasn't, I had already searched thoroughly for lightning attributed creatures that I could convince to help me but to no avail.}
{Lightning users of the monster race were either weak due to similar reasons like our species or too strong to have avoided these troubles, they wouldn't even bother about my request of help. And even so 99% of the lightning attributed monsters face the same problem, they couldn't separate with their lightning sources once absorbed, unlike that human was capable of.}
{Thus, the possible answer would be only one, the human race! The only race that could mostly develop their own attribute and in turn their own attribute source!}
{Yet, lightning attributed humans were even more rare, and they would mostly hunt me and even use my child's core as a rare treasure…let alone help me.}
"Even so, you want to entrust it to me?"
After all that happened to his species, he should be hating humans who hunted their whole tribe to extinction. However, now he wanted me, a human, to take care of his child.
{Well, I could feel that your essence is somewhat different from regular humans. But most importantly don't forget about this being my part of the bargain. My request is to form a contract of equal terms with my child's core using my own blood essence!}