A serene silence befell between Seven and the mystic egg. It was an awkward silence between human and a shell.
'What the hell should I do?'
It was only by intuition but she placed the Divine Mana and egg next to each other in hopes that the magic happens by itself.
'Am I suppose to pour the Divine Mana into this thing?'
Seven was skeptical with the idea, the mana inside the flask was moving so disorderly that it seemed like the contents would break out at any moment and miss to feed the mysterious object if she dared do something so basic.
A single mistake could possibly ruin the plan.
She didn't want to ask Alric for another since that would be too much.
"Ugh... Fine..."
A risk came with a result, and alas, it's not like the egg will hatch just by standing there staring at it, otherwise it would have hatched hundreds of years ago.
With eyes full of anxiety, Seven looked at the egg with uncertainty before finding the resolve to open the flask.
The divine mana circulating inside whirred with the sound of an unknown cry for a moment as if urging Seven to remove the lid.
Seven pulled out the cork sealing the container and almost immediately, the whole room's temperature shot through the roof and became boiling hot.
"What?!—"
The packed divine mana inside the flask escaped it's containment in an instant and occupied the whole room.
Seven's perception of the place was temporarily dyed in a blue and yellow haze.
"Shit."
Afraid of dispersing the mana, Seven didn't dare cast a cooling spell on herself even though she was sweating profusely already.
Especially when something was happening.
Shuuuup! Shuuuup!
The egg's artistic shell was hungrily sucking in the scattered divine mana present in the environment. Like a gluttonous sponge in a lake, the irresistible temperature in the room was gradually decreasing and transferring into the egg.
In the whole ordeal, Seven cared more about Estel's plants dying from the heat than herself.
The heat earlier was so intense, there was no way Estel's plants would have survived that. They could have dried up.
And they did.
Most of them looked withered and lifeless, the flowers were shriveled and facing downwards, the mushrooms looked like skinny sticks and Estel's lampshroom met the same fate, with the exception that blue fluids were escaping from it's stalk, like blood from a living person.
That did nothing but make Seven almost cry. Her heart ached from the mess she'd caused, it felt like she committed an actual homicide.
Forget about the egg, what was more important was reviving these plants.
Seven was desperate, not only did she want to revive the plants she also was worried that Estel would see this massacre against her lovely friends.
Would healing magic work?
In the first place, Seven was very inept when it came to healing spells so the usual method for recovery were potions, Rewrite Destiny or being treated by a specialist.
The first plan is automatically out, the third would consume too much time since she has to find an expert before the room's owner arrives and who knows how long it would take. Which leaves her with the conclusion that using her cheat was unavoidable.
'Damn it. I should have enclosed myself and the egg in a barrier before opening the flask.'
Seven realized soon after, that she could have boiled like an egg if she did that.
With no regret of cheating her way out in life again, Seven forked out a quill and parchment from her storage ring and began writing.
"The Plants Estel Warden
Raised shall come back
To life in their former
Glory."
"[Rewrite Destiny]!"
Estel's plants were abruptly coated in green light.
The panicked Seven waited for the parchment to burn in red fire with a look that doubted the power of her own cheat although perfectly aware that it wouldn't fail her.
The moment no ashes was left of the parchment, she didn't spare a second to check on the flowers and herbs.
The plants were all back in good shape once the green light enveloping them subsided.
'Phew... thankfully they're all in one piece now.'
Seven sighed in relief.
In the end, she had to use that skill again.
'Now then, the egg.'
When Seven's attention was finally diverted to the main object, it was apparent that divine mana was no longer present in the room. It had all been absorbed by the egg with it's phenomenal suction force.
'Since it's probably full, it should be hatching by now.'
Crack.
'Yes! It's working!'
Fissures were starting to form on the shell and steam started escaping from the apertures.
'No way, it didn't get cooked instead did it? If that's so, then I should just eat it.'
Creak.
'Maybe that's too soon to decide..."
The shell finally broke down. Showing a slight glimpse of the monster that slumbered within.
'It's coming...'
A tail waved the air softly which almost brushed against Seven's nose for being too close.
'What is it? Is it a cat? A dog? A wolf?'
The one thing that Seven was sure of was that it wasn't a squirrel but something looking similar to domesticated pets and a wild one in between. And she couldn't make out what it was from this angle since the first thing facing her was it's behind.
"So what are you?"
Unable to hold her curiosity any longer, Seven made an attempt to look at it's head up front but before she could, it moved on it's own.
It had a long snout with a pink fur across it's belly, chin, face and tail. It's back, sides and throat was painted in the color of perfect white, it's color was so pure that milk looked filthy in it's presence. While it wasn't easy to spot, with careful observation, one could see that it had retracted claws.
There was no doubt that it was,
"A fox. You're a fox?"
Seven spoke to the cub as if waiting for an answer which it obviously failed to hand in.
Foxes. They were quite the adorable canidae to most humans back on Earth despite being horridly slaughtered by huntsman. Seven was one of those people who don't understand why foxes were being killed so mercilessly.
"Wow, it's my first time seeing one in person. It certainly looks harmless, it's cute and even looks like a puppy or kitten. Alright, up you go."
Seven tried to lift the animal and it was surprisingly light and showed no resistance.
"Now this reminds me, foxes are being hunted down back on Earth for preying on farmers' livestock and calling it pest control, right? Well they have quite the audacity as mass murderers to say that they're not the pests of Earth. I've seen what those men do and how they kill for profit. Don't you agree, Two?"
Without a second thought, Seven already thought of a name for her second pet. The fox on the other hand seemed to be cluelessly fond of it.
It was sticking it's tongue out. This puppy wasn't too young, it already had some fur and intelligence.
"Now then, it should be showing up by now."
>>
Level: 1
Name: Two
Race: Heavenly Golden Beast
Master: Seven Clavery
Nature: Mischievous
Attribute: All Attributes
STR: 56
AGI: 17
DEF: 43
DEX: 31
EXP: 50%
Skills: Qi Dispersion Lv3, Heavenly Intervention Lv1, Defensive Array Lv1, Beneficiary Of Yin Lv1
>>
This was it, the pet system. It's been a while since Seven obtained One so adding a new companion to the team would be truly worth the gains.
Whirr...
A second status window came to place next to Two's, it was One's status which caught Seven by surprise, as for why it appeared, it became apparent with a short observation.
>>
Level: 67
Name: One
Race: Recon Sendar
Master: Seven Clavery
Nature: Calm
Attribute: Wind
STR: 100
AGI: 150
DEF: 73
DEX: 65
EXP: 100%
Skills: Stealth Lv10, Sense Transfer Lv7, Scouting Lv10, Drifting Streak Lv4, Intuition Lv3, Wind Armor Lv4, Glide Lv5, Eavesdrop Lv3, Cognition Lv6, Delusion Waves Lv2
>>
Taking all this to pleasing sight, Seven nodded in mild contentment.
"They both have quite nice skills. Anyway, I'm sorry for what I'm going to do next, Two. It's just a necessity that you'd need in order to accompany me, if you don't meet this criteria then you can't join me on my adventures even if you're a heavenly beast."
After saying this to the fox, Seven held the beast cub from it's side and held it from the front to examine the crotch.
"To put it bluntly, you should not be a guy."
Seven ogled the fox's crotch attentively, this made it uncomfortable for a reason it didn't know of but Seven smiled satisfyingly afterwards. So all is well.
"Phew, so you're a girl. It would have been a loss if you were a guy, I'd prefer not to have a guy sticking so close to me all the time unless they're gay or didn't see me lavishly from the start. Well it's good that so far most men wouldn't dare do that sort of thing, I don't know about the people I'm about to meet here though."
If Seven was going to travel together with a guy all her life until she decides to settle down, what would happen? The most visible outcome would be living in constant worry about being assaulted especially during sleep. But now Seven doesn't have to worry about those kinds of probabilities due to One's 19 hours of active reconnaissance.
"Looking at you again, aren't you a cutie?"
The fox tried it's best to reach Seven trying to lick her face so Seven simply embraced it to feel the fluffy creature.
The fox's clicketing resounded across the whole room. Seven couldn't help but titter while cuddling this fox cub.
Since the pup isn't showing any signs of rejection towards her actions, Seven couldn't stop herself from rubbing it's soft coat from it's head to back as if to playfully groom it.
While Seven was cheerfully messing around, the sound of a high-pitched titter responded to her playfulness and incredibly bewildered her. But that wasn't enough reason for her to suddenly throw the young puppy away out of fright, it would be unpleasant if it were hurt so staying still would be a good option.
"Uh, was that you?"
The beast continued giggling in delight as Seven gave it some soft rubs especially around it's belly.
"Woah this is strange patting a laughing fox, but it feels like it's having fun at the same time. That's good, I hope I'm not misunderstanding it's reaction or anything though."
Ignoring the fox's laughter, Seven resumed her joyful teasing of Two as if nothing strange happened. The pet and owner continued their frolicking until the atmosphere dispersed out of a sudden character's entrance to the room.
Seven and Two looked at the door's direction nonchalantly.
"I'm back."
Estel came in holding two wooden cups of fruit juice, from it's yellow color, Seven could tell it was lemon flavored.
"Welcome back."
Two clung on Seven's back with her claws digging through Seven's armor when Seven received the lemon juice from Estel.
For a while, Estel looked indifferently at Seven and the fox and sipped her cup of juice. But since she couldn't hold her curiosity, she asked Seven.
"Seven, what is that?"
"Owh, it's a heavenly beast. I got it earlier as an egg from father-in-law."
"I see, so you got it from dad."
Once again, Estel airily took a sip from the news. But to Seven's horror, a streak of lemon juice went flying to her face after Estel sprayed it out from her mouth.
Seven and Two became wet from lemon flavored juice but this sight didn't stop Estel from saying her remark.
"A heavenly beast!?"
"Yeah... Was I not supposed to say that?"
Seven seemed reluctant of telling this but since it's Estel and the pet reward was from her dad himself then it didn't need to be a secret.
"Heavenly beasts went extinct thousands of years ago during the Age Of Heroes! Do you even know what that thing is!?"
Seven and Two licked the lemon juice on their faces coolly. But Seven acted worried afterwards to appease Estel's hype.
"I'm sure it's a heavenly beast though. What if it is one? Is it bad?"
"That's a god! Clinging on to you is something that could end this continent!"