An Egg?

[Obtained 11 stat points, 1 in Senses and 10 in Mind stat.]

'What? My Mind stat finally received some stat points! Did it finally unlock?'

With expectations, I flicked my pinky finger and opened my status window. Everything else was the same so I focused on my Stats' panel.

[

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STATS:

Health Points (HP): 210/210

Mind Power (MP): 0/100 [Locked]

Strength: 0(+22) = 22

Defense: 0(+19) = 19

Senses: 4(+18) = 22

Health: 9(+12) = 21

Mind: 0(+10) = 10 [Locked]

Free Stat Points: 0

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]

'I don't understand! Eventhough it is still locked, I gained ten whole points!'

Rumble! Rumble!

Just as I was thinking about the Mind stat, I suddenly heard a strange sound coming from my back as the structure of the cave started to shake.

As the dust started to fall from the curved ceiling, I quickly closed the screen and picked up the black dagger which was lying on the floor. As soon as I placed the dagger in the inventory, my legs started to retreat back the way I came from.

Before I could even start to move, the rumbling stopped and the dark room got filled with a dim light. As my shadow landed on the table on which the extinguished lamp was resting, I realized that the light was actually coming from behind me.

Turning around, I noticed that the light was coming from an opening. The wall at my back had suddenly opened up. It was as if the curved roof had moved upwards, like how someone opens their maw!

'Is this room the mouth of a snake? Did it just open to make me leave from its mouth? Wait! Did I just enter from the tip of its tail? That's disgusting!'

As I contemplated on the strange structure of the cave, I looked at the opening, thinking it would leave me to the outside forest. However, the opening lead into another room!

This room had a small pond at its center. There was a big leaf floating in the middle of the surface of the puddle. On that leaf, a lone and colorfully patched egg was resting. The whole room was lightened by strange glowing mosses covering all over the surface inside the room.

'What is this? Is it a reward I can take or is it a curse I should avoid? Hmm…Let's carefully check out the room first.'

Ending my thoughts, I moved towards the 'mouth' of the room to enter it. My heart was beating loudly with anticipation. However, as soon as I stepped inside the room, I started to feel very light headed and also I felt as if I was flying!

My vision swirled as I felt myself rapidly moving forward. Moments later, I stopped and noticed that I was actually in midair! I looked at my hands and my figure and it was all translucent! As soon as I turned back, what I saw really surprised me!

Infront of me was a boy who, despite being 15 years of age, looked mature and older. He was facing the door as if intending to enter it but was frozen in time. His pupils had gone completely blank as he looked upwards. The whole scene was rather creepy.

'Has my soul left Alex's body? Can only the soul enter this room? Am I dead?'

Despite the situation being very strange and creepy, I was still calm. My emotions were in control and the only logical way was to first check my body and the room.

As I looked more at my new body, I noticed how much it had changed. The bony and skinny face was now filled with fats and muscles to bring out the handsomeness and the sharpness in the boy's face. His skin was not completely pale anymore; it was now pink as it was flushed with blood.

His toned muscles have now gained mass and looked more natural. He had also gained a lot more height, taking him to probably around 5 feet and 9 inches tall (180 centimeter). The clothes he had 'received' from Carlo earlier now seem to perfectly fit his stature and heighten his looks. His dark black messy hair with his shining brown eyes only complemented his handsomeness.

'Atleast I now look handsome in this life. However, what use is being handsome when I couldn't even meet a lady! Sigh…'

As I gave an internal sigh, I turned around and moved towards the egg. I needed to check if I could even pick up the egg in this form. There was nothing more I wanted to do except to go back into the body and find out whether I was actually dead or not.

As soon as I willed myself to turn around, my soul immediately turned. I was worried that I wouldn't know how to fly in this state but it all just felt instinctual.

Just when I turned around, the light from all the mosses suddenly started to grow brighter. It then left the mosses in the form of very familiar glowing particles and started to move towards me!

For a moment I panicked, then subsiding down my fear, I rapidly moved forward to grab the egg. To my relief, I was able to grab hold of the egg. The egg was the same size as the Candela Clock, perfectly fitting into my left hand's grab. It also felt warm to the touch.

Right after grabbing the egg, I swiftly moved back to the entrance. The particles were approaching me rapidly. However, I turned out to be slower and the particles grabbed a hold of me.

I was just a few inches from the gate when suddenly an extremely euphoric sensation started to fill me as soon as the glowing particles touched me. All my limbs became relaxed in midair as the egg fell onto the ground.

Despite falling from a pretty good height, the egg didn't break as it rolled outwards and stopped at the feet of my stationary body. I wasn't able to focus much on anything going around me as I only saw the glowing particles entering my soul.

'No way are they harming the soul itself! Am I going to be crippled? But why does this feel so good! I feel like I'm in heaven!'

My thoughts slowly started to fade as more and more particles entered inside my soul. It was as if I was on some high quality drug which would only feel good now but eventually end up harming me. I was feeling so much pleasure that I might not have felt my entire life!

The whole shenanigan only lasted for only a couple of seconds when all the particles had entered my soul. Right as it was done, I was immediately thrown out of the room, back into my body.

Fwoosh!

Thud!

Rumble! Rumble!

My soul flew out of the room and entered the body; the momentum threw it at the opposite end of the room, away from the entrance. As soon as I hit the wall with my back, the room rapidly closed itself by lowering the curved roof, as if the snake monster had now closed its maw.

Without minding the closing entrance and the dimming light, I carefully looked at my body. There were no signs of damage, be it external or internal. The only difference was that I felt more invigorated.

As the door closed, I got up and moved towards the egg that was lying on the floor of the room. Although the egg didn't break from such a fall, I was still cautious while picking it up. I tried to put it into the inventory but nothing happened. No matter what I commanded the black vortex, it just hovered over the egg.

'Did my inventory get filled up? That's impossible!'

As soon as I thought that, I called upon the status window and checked the inventory section.

[------

INVENTORY: LEVEL 1

Space 1: (0.59m³/1m³)

• Slot 1 - □ (0.01m³)

• Slot 2 - □ (0.02m³)

…

Space 2: (0.14m³/0.25 m³)

• Slot 1 - □ (0.11m³)

]

'Although my inventory now has much more free space, it is mostly because of the 'nourishing realm' where all of my food and other stocks got consumed. Maybe it is because the egg is living and cannot be stored like the time when I tried it on the Lakéqus.'

Since I wasn't able to store the egg in the inventory, I closed the light green window. Then, I flushed out a small rope and a piece of my old clothes that I was using as rags. I coiled the rope around the egg and then secured it with the cloth before placing it in my jacket's lower right inner pocket.

After I was done with everything, I looked around and my eyes landed on the table and the lamp resting over it. The oil in the lamp was almost already used up and the table looked very old. However, I still stored them in the Slot 9 of Space 1. I didn't want to leave anything behind.

Right after emptying the room, I started to return back the way I came. I didn't want to spend even a single second in this creepy room! To lighten up my way, I took out the Candela Clock and noticed that it was glowing rather brightly.

'So the time is 3 am. I wonder how many days have actually passed while I was here.'

As I moved outside the room, back into the meandering tunnel, I whispered into the air, "Delta?"