CHAPTER 153: SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT

Something Is Not Right

’Oh yeah!’ Osho suddenly remembered something as Veronica’s words registered.

It was a mandatory procedure for new students to be granted a new Beat Egg to hatch whenever they entered a Beast Tamer college, and this procedure applied to all Tamer Colleges without exception. However, it usually only came into effect when the student was in the next rank, allowing them to hatch and bind another beast.

Her words also caught the attention of others as they leaned forward, clearly intrigued.

Veronica smiled and waved her hand. A table then somehow appeared filled with about two dozen eggs of differing affinities and appearances. It was like the egg selection back in Bright Spark Academy, but on a far smaller scale. However, Osho had a feeling that it wouldn’t be so simple.

He caught the gazes of the others, and they all seemed to share his sentiment.

"Now, while it is extremely difficult to tell what rank of beast is within an egg. Or the potential they have anyway, we can say we are 80% certain that no egg here is below the Adept rank in terms of raw potential." Veronica said with genuine pride, as though it were an impressive feat.

And in reality, it was.

One has to remember that there was no effective way to ascertain the potential a beast had while they were still inside their egg, which is why the only reasonable way for anyone to hatch a half-decent beast was to acquire a lot of funds and essentially sift through different eggs, hatching and disposing until they found a beast of satisfactory quality.

And again, simply stealing the beast eggs of a powerful beast didn’t always work as having powerful parents didn’t exactly translate into talented children. This was still an odd phenomenon that couldn’t be explained properly, but was seen as one of those inviolable rules that could only be worked around.

So the fact that they could guarantee 80% of these eggs had at least Adept Rank Potential was truly nothing to scoff at.

"These eggs were procured after looking into the affinities you currently have, so you should be able to find eggs you have a high compatibility with." Mateo explained as the group inspected the eggs curiously. Not just them as their beasts also went over to the eggs to inspect them, with Gale tapping his beak into one curiously.

’These feel weird.’ Gale said and Osho blinked.

’What do you mean?’ He asked and Gale tilted his head as he tried to put his feelings into words.

’It feels like... they were tampered with.’ He explained, and Osho resisted the urge to frown.

He got off the sofa and approached the table while activating his ability, something he hadn’t done due to the large number of beasts around to prevent himself from getting overwhelmed, and when he did, he almost recoiled slightly.

He knew Mateo and Veronica were watching them intently, and he refused to give any indication of a problem.

As for what he saw that almost made him react? Well, the eggs had the ribbons of differing colors, indicating the various affinities between each one as they stretched towards wherever the resource needed to evolve the beast in the egg was.

However, what he noticed was that most of the ribbons looked... cracked.

Unnatural fractures could be seen along multiple ribbons for each egg, and the ribbons themselves seemed unstable, like they were on the verge of shattering.

’What happened?’ Osho wondered as he placed his hand on the closest egg and sent a wisp of his Mana into it before making a show of grimacing and moving to the next one. Terrible compatibility.

As he went through the motions, his mind spun.

Ever since he got his ability, he hadn’t once observed broken ribbons for a beast or the egg. Sure, some beasts and eggs had fewer ribbons than others, but that just meant the items needed to evolve them were fewer. Not... broken.

’Gale, when you said that the eggs felt tampered with, can you describe that feeling in detail?’ He asked, and the bird, wholly unbothered by the ordeal as he hopped from one egg to the other, simply replied.

’Well, usually, whenever I look at an egg, I feel a sense of familiarity. Not in the sense of it being another bird, but from knowing it’s another beast,’ He explained, and Osho nodded inwardly. It had long been established that beasts could sort of know if they were staring at a beast egg.

This discovery was made when humans tried tricking a beast by swapping out its eggs with identical fakes. They failed.

’But when I look at these ones, I feel the same sense of familiarity, but it feels... off, somehow. Not like corruption, but like something was taken out... or forced in? Something along those lines. It just feels off.’ Gale explained to the best of his ability, and Osho hummed inwardly as he looked at the ribbons again.

He didn’t make it obvious that they were what he was staring at, but he inspected more closely this time and on second thought, the fractures on the ribbons looked a bit like stress fractures.

’But why? How does that work?’ He had to stop himself from frowning before he had a thought.

’Hey, Gale. What about when I evolve beast eggs? Do they feel a specific way?’ He asked.

’Nope.’ The bird replied instantly.

’Guess that theory is down.’ He mused.

’Does that mean all the eggs in this place are like this? If so, why? Is there someone behind it? Or is it something that happens to eggs brought here?’ He wondered.

"Your beasts must have alerted you to the wrongness they feel from the eggs, right?" Mateo’s voice made everyone freeze.

"No need to be so uptight, it’s no secret." Veronica continued with a wave of her hand, and they slowly looked up at her. She seemed unbothered, and Mateo seemed hardly to care, while Indo wasn’t even paying attention.

"I won’t go into details, but the process that goes into making sure the beast has isn’t just useless when it hatches places some strain on the beast inside, however, it is something that fades with time, typically after the egg hatches, and it doesn’t have any long-term consequences on the one inside." She gave a brief explanation, and Ellie and the other three had looks of realization while Osho just rubbed his chin.

He wasn’t convinced.

"I’m sorry, but I’m a bit skeptical." Osho shook his head. "These beasts with heightened potential, have they ever gone beyond the Adept Rank?" He asked, and Veronica scoffed.

"Of course. It’s just rare, as is with every beast with good potential. If you think we’re stunting the growth of Beasts just to do this, then no. Beasts with potential beyond the Adept rank still appear from this process." She effectively shut down the idea, clearly seeing his thought process as preposterous.

Osho simply nodded, however, he wasn’t convinced in his heart.

’Those fractures don’t look light, and they don’t look like they will disappear soon either. Yeah, I’ll be damned if I believe it’s nothing to worry about’ He noted.

As he had that thought, he sent his Mana into the next egg and paused as he looked down at it with some intrigue as he fekt a familiar response.

The two Masters noticed this with Veronica smiling.

"Oh? Compatible?" She asked, and Osho nodded as he gingerly picked up the egg.

75% compatibility.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Hatch the little bugger." Veronica said with a teasing smile, and Osho immediately shook his head.

"We just got here. I am not in the state of mind to hatch a new beast. Not right away anyway." He explained, and to his relief, the two Masters nodded.

As for the true reason Osho didn’t want to immediately hatch the egg? Well, he didn’t think for a second that there were no issues with the eggs, so he intended to have his way with them later. Perhaps he truly was looking too much into it and the fractures he saw would vanish with time, but it was better to be safe rather than sorry.

Also, he truly wasn’t in his right mind to hatch a new beast right away. He’d rather not do anything hastily just for the sake of it.

"I suppose that’s fair. Hatching and second beast after being so attached to your first one is like getting a second child, you can’t do it hastily." Mateo nodded.

"Good thinking, my little junior." Veronica winked, and Osho thought he heard Ellie’s teeth grind next to him. Must be his imagination.

Everyone then fell silent as the others quickly went through the eggs and found eggs of suitable compatibility soon enough.

"With that out of the way," Veronica waved her hand, and all the eggs and the table vanished. "How about we start talking about your lectures?"

***

A/N: I Am a DUMBASS. THE NEXT Chapter ISNT FOR THIS BOOK! SKIP IT PLEASE