19 Betrayal and Cowardice
The bird gazed at Roman as Roman left the nest. Roman could feel the emotions radiating from the gray bird telling him that it was up to him now to carry its legacy forward.
Roman vowed to never let it down. As Roman's conjecture proved correct, the path to exit the islet once again before the gray bird sunk deeper into the nest for eternal rest.
—-
Robert kept screwing up.
First, he came back with a story he had cooked up about Matthew's mysterious disappearance.
Now, the constantly twitched and checked over his shoulder as if he needed was worried over something.
In actuality, Robert wanted Crid to return to the scene that he had seen so that something about be done about it.
Robert was confident in his evaluation of the situation.
Crid, on the other hand, acted as if nothing had happened, but with Robert's quirks popping up every now and then, it set him on edge.
Just then, Robert had bumped into Crid while his thoughts were occupied with Matthew and didn't noticed that Crid had stopped in front.
As Crid was shoved forward slight, he quickly stuck his foot out to catch his balance.
This time Crid couldn't hold it in any longer.
He spun around and punched the tree Robert was standing under, yelling at him.
"Snap out of it! What the hell is wrong with you, huh?" Crid shouted.
"Boss, I'm seriously worried for Matthew. You have to see what I saw!" Robert claimed in defense.
"One more word —-"
Just as Crid was beginning to reprimand Robert, Robert's eyes reflected deep fear. He then began shivering.
Crid saw the remorse in Robert's eyes, and believed that Robert had finally learned from his ways.
Crid very much liked the look of people cowering under his authority and might, even if those people were the ones that supported him through thick and thin. Robert was one of his own, but Crid got the same satisfaction out of dominating them nonetheless.
"Like I was saying. No means no. I've got the bigger picture in my head. Matthew can fend for himself, I'm sure he had chanced upon a worthy nest on his way back to us and needed to take some time to capture his egg. He'll come meet us before the day is over."
Crid firmly concluded.
"Now, enough of this nonsense. Let's move on, I still need my egg."
After Crid concluded his statement, he noticed that Robert's expression hadn't recovered. Instead, Robert looked more distraught.
Crid was about to blow his top thinking that Robert was still resisting his ideas. Just then, Robert mustered the courage to point forwards.
Following the direction Robert was pointing at, Crid gradually turned his head around as his anxiety kicked in. Right above the tree that Crid had punched were twelve pairs of eyes glaring at him.
Twelve bronze ranked Blue-Tipped Bolt Macaques resting in the tree had been disrupted by Crid's punch and began to bare their teeth at him. Realizing the danger ahead of him, Crid shoved Robert to the ground and ran towards the edge of the forest with his final companion.
Thee three of them would not be able to face up to the horde themselves.
In that moment, Crid had actually displayed cowardice in his betrayal of Robert. He pushed Robert down hoping to use Robert as a means to slow down the horde.
Very quickly, Crid's plan worked out and Robert was overwhelmed by the Blue-Tipped Silver Macaques.
Just as Crid was running through the forest, he made sure to pay greater attention to his surroundings so that the previous situation would not repeat itself.
Just as he was crossing out of the forest, he noticed a nest lodged between two rocks. In it, lay a sleeping Blue-Tipped Bolt Macaque and her egg. She must have belonged to the troupe that attacked Robert.
Since the troupe wasn't too far behind, Crid had to act fast.
He rushed forward, grabbed the egg, and quickly escaped. Now he finally had an back-up egg and could comfortably scour the mountains area next to increase his options.
—-
Roman's trek home was a lot smoother than his journey towards finding the egg. He was confident that he had succeeded in his mission once he saw the gates of Branch Village before him.
However, Roman was a little puzzled. He was sure that the bird species that he had fought alongside was a silver ranked beast, but his [Gold Search Token] was supposed to take him to a gold ranked egg.
What was up with that discrepancy?
Before Roman could continue his thoughts, he noticed his father smiling and waiting for him at the gates. But his eyes betrayed his emotions.
Roman nodded to his father to indicate success in the Egg Hunt.
"I knew you could do it, son." Carl was genuinely happy for his son. To be quite honest, he wasn't sure if Roman could do it, but now that he had proven himself, the doubt he originally had would be a mere afterthought.
"Let's head home."
Carl began to lead the way.
When the two got home, Roman immediately brought out his egg for his father to see, only to receive a frown.
"Do you know what species it is?" Roman questioned his father.
Carl, who was deep in thought, shook his head.
"Let me check through the reference book in the town hall tomorrow and we'll come up with a good plan." Carl concluded.
"That's alright, Dad. This is my responsibility, I'll take care of it. I'll head over to the town hall myself tomorrow."
Roman reassured his father. In fact, Roman hadn't intended to head to the town hall the following day.
Who needed a town hall reference book when he had the system?
Carl had prepared a second round of rabbit meat stew for Roman to celebrate his success in the hunt. After the quick celebration, Roman excused himself after expressing his exhaustion from the day.
The moment Roman got to his room, he set down his Incubator Sack beside his bed and immediate activated the system.
—-
"Hey system! How do I get my egg into the domain and how do I identify the species of the egg?"
Roman asked the system as he paced his fields and watered his crops.
[Host only needs to visualize entering the domain with the egg or sending the egg into the domain. The egg will then appear within one of the pens since they are all equipped with incubators to mirror the sack.]
"What, then, is the purpose of the sack if I had incubators in the first place?"
[Simple. The incubators of the system are built around the highest level of incubation technology that the host possesses. In this case, it would be the sack. However, should the Host begin research and development or obtain greater technologies in this area, the incubators within the domain will thereby be upgraded.]
Roman was honestly quite pleased with the turn of events and perks that came with the system so far.
"Well, what about the species of the egg?"
[Naturally, there are ways to go about figuring this out, some easier than others, but the host has to discover that himself.]
The system was big on giving minute rewards but also presenting viable challenges for Roman. It wasn't going to hold his hands through everything all the time.
Roman quickly turned to his attention to the next thing at hand. He had been waiting to return home safely before checking out the rewards from the first sub-mission. In fact, Roman was already notified by the system the moment he came into possession of the egg, but Roman couldn't be too sure that the coast was clear.
He needed to securely get out of the weeds and back into a secure space like the village before he would be confident to check his yields.
Roman quickly opened his inventory and inspected the [Basic Beast Evolution Token].
—-
[Basic Beast Evolution Token] x1
Description: Increases the rank of Black Gold or below ranked beasts by ONE rank stage. The token can be used on a beast in any developmental form, including as an egg.
—-
After reading the description of the token, Roman quickly whipped out the token to use it on his egg.
Just then, gold and silver runes of a language he wasn't able to completely identify began to stream out of the token, wrapping around the egg as the egg began to levitate itself.
The evolution process had began.
------
Note from Author:
Hi all,
I have a bit of news to share with you lot. I have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and won't be able to continue writing this novel.
This has come at a really inopportune time but if I can push through this, I promise I'll come back stronger and better, both as a person and as an author. But for now, this is goodbye.
I want to leave with a few notes.
1. To those who supported me and my first writing project (this novel,) a very big thank you. You are the reason I kept pushing out chapters despite the nay-sayers.
2. To those who were highly critical of both my writing and my planning as an author, I thank you too. Your words, despite how untactful and immature they may have been, have had a profound impact on my journey here. If I do come back from this new hell, please be poised and ready because if I can, I'd like to show you more of what my writing is capable of and gradually give you a reason to accept the way I write.
3. To people who liked the concept of this novel and are disappointed to see it go, I want to say this. No ideas on this platform are so special that it can't be replicated or improved upon. You should write a novel of your own, even do a continuation of where I'm leaving off. It'll bring you more joy and frustration than you can imagine, but it's certainly rewarding.
Till next time, folks. I wish you all the best, adios.
