Alexander sighed as he checked Victor's condition.
If not for Devil's Rose, timely thrown to him by Alexander, he would've died from overtaxing his just awakened bloodline's energy reserves.
He stabilized his condition with life flame and went towards the dismembered Moon Tryq.
"Oh, still alive? That's some frightening vitality…" – With a wave of hand, he burned to ashes the remaining, still struggling, pieces. - "Hmm?"
He didn't get some new powers but the acquired earlier [Moon I] transformed into [Sea Moon I]. 'I still don't know what it does...' He decided to leave this for later and picked up the only thing that didn't burned. Mature Tryq's heart was at least four times bigger than the ones they get before.
"Bone will be happy." – He mumbled looking around. – "By the way. BONE WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"…clack!"
Alexander follower the sound and found his skeleton. – "…no…Not another time!" – Some helplessness assaulted him as he saw many small scattered bones. – "I won't reconstruct you!"
"Clack! Clack, clack clack!!!"
Alexander could only sigh. Bone was right. – "Ok…but for now I will store you…your pieces…well, everything inside my Boundless Map and rebuild you later!"
The furious clacking was interrupted only when Alexander stored him.
[Life IV]
He touched Victor's shoulder and started slowly injecting his bloodline life energy. He never healed someone else apart, so now he was extra careful. It took him an entire hour to completely repair Victor's body. – "Done! Hmmm? Wake up!"
Victor mumbled something but remained unconscious. Alexander raised his hand. '[Water I]'
A lump of purple liquid fell on Victor's face. – "AAAAH! MARTIN!"
He stood up but immediately fell back. He was still too weak.
Alexander looked at him for a second. – "I'm sorry for you friend."
Victor didn't answer. He silently looked the sky. Alexander patiently waited.
At the end he finally spoke. – "You told us that is would be dangerous, and someone could die but…I thought that it would be me. Martin was better than me at anything."
Alexander pondered for a second. – "Now that you've awakened your bloodline you have many ways to improve. Martin will live in your memories as long you're alive."
Victor was surprised by these words and after thinking for a moment seriously nodded. – "You're right!"
Alexander stood up. – "Now, there're are no beast who can threaten you in this forest, so, rest for a bit and return to the city."
"You won't be coming?"
Alexander slightly shook his head. – "No, I wanted to explore a bit more." – He was about to go away then a sudden thought made him stop. – "Go to the city and look for the Ocean Lord Blake. He's a temporal governor of Gemini. Your bloodline can be very useful to reconstruct the city. Tell Captain…Lord Blake that it was me who sent you…maybe it will be useful."
Victor looked at Alexander as if he was some sort of god. Without waiting for his reply Alexander went inside the forest.
"THANK YOU!" – A sudden roar made him smile.
[…]
"…They like to live…" – He was reading the bestiary as he went forward. A part of his mind was controlling the Boundless Map, so he wasn't afraid of ambushes or dangerous unknown creatures. – "Underground…caverns…moist and cold places…" – On his map there was such a place. – 'A cliff! I bet that there is a cavern there…'
Strictly speaking he wasn't so convinced but it was still worth checking, since the other possibility implied that he would have to check the whole forest looking for an underground lair.
[…]
Some unknown to Alexander birds were singing, floating on the ocean breeze. Some of them dived to catch some fish.
But he didn't care as he extended the Boundless Energy and covered the whole cliff. A huge smile suddenly illuminated his face. – "Nice!"
Indeed, there was a cave not too far from him. It was some meters down on the cliff: a distance easy to cross if you have tentacles. Alexander nearly fell down a few times before he finally managed to jump inside.
"Damn! I want to have tentacles…" – Suddenly a thought appeared in his head. He took out his dagger and injected a bit of his energy inside. – "?"
He felt a massive consciousness lazily transmitting him an intention. Something like "what do you want?". There was another part, but it seemed as some generic insult.
'Can I use your tentacles to climb o something similar…Hmm?'
The connection was directly cut from the other side. – "Jerk."
Finally, he decided to look around. He was in the middle of a small cave. *Cruch*
As he stepped forward immediately a cracking sound under his foot attracted his attention. The floor was covered with bones. – "He sure had a huge appetite…"
Some bones were clearly human but there were no valuables which could have appertained to the Tryq's victims.
"And what is this?" – As he went deeper inside the cave, he saw a big round object. – "An…egg?"
He carefully examined it. When he covered it with Boundless Energy, he was shocked to discover that he could not penetrate inside with it. This ignited even more his curiosity.
He summoned a wisp of purple flame. – "Let's try to burn it!"
But as he tried to execute this plan suddenly the flame was absorbed inside the egg. – "WHAT?!"
Alexander felt as the connection he had with the energy was directly severed and suddenly a very primitive and simple thought appeared in his mind. 'I'm…happy? No…' He looked on the egg. 'It is happy!'
To confirm this idea, he fed a few more lumps of fire to the egg and every time felt its emotions. *Toc*
*Toc* *Toc * *Toc*
Some cracks appeared on the eggshell. – "Its hatching? Right now? Did I feed it too much…" – While Alexander was in thoughts suddenly a piece of eggshell fell on the ground followed by many others.
Soon a somehow big hole appeared but even after a few moments nothing emerged from it…
Abandoning any sort of carefulness Alexander leaned forward to look inside.
Suddenly something jumped towards him. – "WHIIIIII" – He was about to kill the creature but the complete absence of bloodlust of malice stopped him.
He felt something cold as stone wiggling in his hands. It was a small snake. As soon as some light touched its small scales, they shined with a rainbow-like color.
As he carefully observed the wiggling creature, Alexander could clearly feel the simple emotions that the small snake had.
Happiness and hunger.
It was as if a strange connection was formed between them. Recalling how the egg absorber his bloodline energy he created a purple flame and the snake greedily pounced on it and swallowed it whole. After that it pleadingly looked at Alexander. It was asking for more. He sighed. – "Whatever…"
He fed it until it was full.
'Just what are you, little snake…'
He could not explain many things. For example, why inside a Moon Tryq's lair there was an egg with a snake inside?
Alexander decided to ask about it to someone on the ship. As he was thinking about how to transport the creature with another "whiiii" it coiled around his wrist and fell asleep.
The little snake now was more like a very exquisite bracelet that to a living creature.
Before going away he took out Bone's head. – "Do you see something useful to you here?"
Skeleton started frenetically "claking" as soon as he saw the remaining eggshell. – "You want to eat it?" – Asked Alexander.
"Clack!"
Surprised he started moving the skull so he could bite the egg. In the end only a few small pieces remained only because Alexander wanted to burn them later. – "Clack…" – The flame in the skull became pure-white in color.
"Time to return to the ship!"
[…]
He entered the city in the evening. On the way back, since it was very boring, he attached Bone's legs directly to his head and made him run the whole way.
Two new gate guards looked weirdly at the strange pet but didn't ask him anything.
Despite the late hour the city was extremely lively. The streets were filled with people. Someone was transporting building materials while many others were simply talking among themselves or going somewhere.
Alexander stored Bone inside the Boundless Map and went directly towards the dock.
[…]
Captain John was frowning. In front of him was placed an opened book. He was quickly turning pages and mumbling something. – "Deer…Crowned deer…"
He was looking for the same image he saw carved on the token which the Sixth Prince used to escape.
But until now he found nothing.
Now he was looking for the emblems of powerful clans and families from different known worlds. It a very particular book generally called "Universe Index". There were many copies of it, not only in the Broken Ocean but literally in every known world.
The owners of it could add new information about new influences and powers from the whole universe.
Nobody knew who created these books, but since it was impossible to write down a false piece of information inside, many people used them as convenient free source of credible information.
One of these people was Lord Blake.
Suddenly something attracted his attention.