CHAPTER 161: BEDROCK

Bedrock

Osho exhaled and turned off his watch.

He had no idea if his words were taken to heart, or if they even had the desired effect. Since the conversation happened over text, Osho had no idea if Ellie took his words well or found them insulting in one way or the other.

He sighed. There was a chance he should have had this conversation with her in person, but while Osho prides himself in his general intelligence, he sucked at articulating his thoughts and turning them into words when he actually spoke out, and he had an easier time just writing them out.

Then again, there was a chance Ellie would know what he meant no matter what medium he used to communicate, but he did it for himself as much as he did it for her, as he hated it when situations like this arose, and he wasn’t able to say what he meant properly.

’I guess I’ll have to wait and see.’ He sighed, deciding that he would see if Ellie took his words well when they met in person again.

For what it was worth, everything he said was genuine, and he hoped Ellie could see that.

He then stood up and approached the egg that was on the table in front of him. Gale was prodding at the egg curiously, as Osho had invited the bird into the lab after the successful evolution of the egg, with Gale being highly interested in seeing what had become of the ’off’ egg.

He pecked it a few times before turning to Osho with big eyes.

’What did you do?’ He asked with genuine curiosity, and Osho smiled a little.

"I fixed the problem. What feeling does it give you now when you look at it?" Osho answered and Gale tilted his head.

’It’s weird... but in a good way? Like the opposite of what I explained before, it doesn’t feel off. It feels... more? Like, even better than normal eggs.’ Gale gave an extremely vague explanation, but Osho more or less understood what he meant as he could sense Gale’s feelings through their bond.

"So it’s weird in a good way?" Osho confirmed and Gale nodded as he gave the egg a few more pecks.

"Alright. Are you ready to meet your new sibling?" Osho asked, and Gale glanced at him. If he had eyebrows, one of them would be raised.

’How can it be my sibling? We don’t know if it will be a goshawk, and it’s rare for avian-type beasts to have the earth Affinity.’ Gale shot back, and Osho audibly laughed.

"By that logic, I’m not really your dad since I’m not a goshawk." He retorted playfully, and Gale’s feathers puffed up in agitation.

’H-Hey! That’s not what I meant!’ Gale said with indignation, which only made Osho laugh even more.

Indeed, despite everything, Gale more or less saw Osho as his parent, and Osho didn’t mind it as he too saw Gale as his kid to an extent.

’Hmph... Fine... I guess I’m ready...’ Gale grumbled, but his curiosity couldn’t be hidden as he kept glancing at the egg.

Osho also decided to stop dallying as he exhaled and placed his hand on the surface of the egg. It was rough, but also durable, with an odd, almost metaphysical weight to it.

Osho closed his eyes and sent in his Mana.

Just like when he hatched Gale, he sensed something within and sent forth his desire to form a connection. The response he got was curiosity, caution, and an odd sense of stalwartness.

Osho was calm as he transmitted his intentions, ensuring he was more or less transparent, but adding in lots of care and love to show the creature inside that it would be treated well.

There was a lot of hesitation at first, but after some coaxing, there was a spark of interest, which soon bloomed into desire under Osho’s efforts.

When it reached that point, he sensed the desire to form a bond, and he quickly caught on to that as he transmitted his desire for the same thing, and the two met, creating a thread.

CRACK

A crack appeared on the surface of the egg, and Osho smiled as he felt the connection form between himself and the creation inside.

He removed his hand just as more cracks formed on the egg, and soon enough, pieces of the shell started falling off.

He and Gale watched with bated breaths as what was inside was gradually revealed. Finally, the egg fell apart, and what showed was...

’A monkey?’ Osho tilted his head as he inspected the creature in front of him.

It was slightly humanoid with brown fur all over its body. Despite having just hatched, it didn’t look like a newborn, but like it had been alive for a bit under a year.

’No, that’s not right. It’s a gorilla.’ Osho realized as the baby gorilla looked at him and Gale, then opened its mouth to make a high-pitched sound that was a bit reminiscent of screaming.

However, Osho understood what it–he–said perfectly.

"Well then, my name is Osho, and I am your Tamer." Osho introduced himself, and the small creature blinked at tilted his head as he considered Osho’s words, surprising him a bit.

’He seems pretty smart already.’ Osho thought as the gorilla just shrugged, turned towards its broken shell, and grabbed the pieces as he started eating them, something all beasts did when they hatched.

Osho and Gale didn’t bother interrupting him as they spoke through the bond which now had an additional connection. It was weak, but it was there.

’What do you think?’ Osho asked as he saw Gale giving the small primate the side eye.

’He has a bloodline.’ Gale said flatly, and Osho blinked as he stared at the gorilla again.

’... How did you know?’ Osho asked with a small frown.

’I just do.’ Gale gave the bird equivalent of a shrug, and Osho was mildly tempted to flick his head but refrained from doing so.

’Anything else?’ He asked, and Gale looked at the baby directly.

’I’m not exactly sure what it is, but his bloodline seems intrinsically connected to a certain concept, one not much worse than mine.’ Now this surprised Osho.

He’d long known about the concept tied to Gale’s bloodline, and how it was determined to make him ’free’ of all perceived influences, even from other concepts.

It was extremely powerful and had come in clutch in numerous situations. So if this little guy had something of a similar scale...

Osho felt something tug on his sleeve, and he looked down to see his new beast staring up at him with big eyes, done with his ’meal’.

Osho was confused at first, but he soon realized what he wanted through their bond, making him smile and nod.

He got a toothy grin in response as the little gorilla that was barely as tall as his calf crawled up his arm expertly and sat on his shoulder with a satisfied noise.

Osho found the ordeal amusing, but from how Gale puffed up on the table, he didn’t take such a display lightly.

Gale flapped his 4 wings and landed on Osho’s head, causing him to be placed slightly higher than his new sibling.

He made a chirping sound which carried a lot of pride. But to his shock, his junior just shrugged and looked at Osho expectantly.

"What’s... oh, you want a name?" Osho realized what he wanted, and smiled as he thought a bit. He’d thought about a bunch of names before this, and he was genuinely tempted to just name him Saxum as that meant rock in Latin, however, he settled for something else.

In the same way he’d named Gale, he was gonna name him something that actually existed but had meaning behind it.

"Your name is Bedrock." He said with a smile, and he sensed genuine glee from the gorilla... from Bedrock as he’d gotten a name from the person he’d more pr less dedicated his entire life to.

Osho sensed a bit of dissatisfaction from Gale, likely due to his attempts at showing superiority to Bedrock being ignored.

Osho was about to suggest they go test his potential when Bedrock suddenly perfect up and made a sound as he tugged at Osho’s hair.

"Huh? What’s up?" Osho raised a brow as Bedrock stood on his shoulder and pointed in a certain direction in the lab.

Gale looked down while Osho glanced up, the two of them briefly meeting eyes as they wondered what the gorilla wanted, but Osho just shrugged his free shoulder and went over, and soon enough, he saw where Bedrock wanted him to go.

It was the area where the rare and durable ores were located, the same place where Osho had gotten the Golem’s Heartstone.

As soon as he got close, Bedrock hopped off his shoulder and opened the closest container which had a label that said ’Bronze Allacite.’

Bedrock opened the container, and Osho frowned a bit.

’Allacite is extremely dense and rigid, causing it to have few uses when crafting things like weapons wielded by people, and is mostly used in heavy machinery and armor for large armaments. What does he–’ Osho’s thoughts were cut off when he saw Bedrock pop a piece of the stuff into his mouth like candy and swallow it.

He was about to panic. There’s no way a newly born beast could digest something like tha–

He froze, not just him, but Gale as well. The reason being?

Well, just seconds after swallowing it, a faint layer of a brown material started to grow on the surface of Bedrock’s skin, and it looked a lot like the Bronw Allacite he just swallowed.