CHAPTER 95: BLACK PYTHONS

I’m walking to the room where Veritus kept the Black Python’s egg. He kept it in a special room for me to take when I thought it was necessary.

The Black Python’s eggs "feed" on mana for their generation, so I must provide the missing mana for the egg. Fortunately, the egg’s mother had already provided the 97% amount the egg needs to hatch.

And Veritus did everything possible to leave this percentage at 99.5% so that I could supply the last part. The moment I do that, a Black Python will be born from the egg.

The delay Veritus had in leaving it at this percentage shows how exaggerated and the amount of mana this egg needs.

So now it’s my turn. As soon as the Black Python hatches, it will define the first thing it sees as its mother, so it’s in an isolated room in the basement precisely to avoid the risk of failure.

"...I think I’ve been having too many animals that think I’m their mom lately." First Shogo, and now the Black Python. Although they are both monsters, it’s not that different.

I descend the stairs until I find a magic steel door. I open it with the key Veritus gave me and enter the place, soon seeing the egg on an obsidian magical pedestal.

"Ok...let’s see how I can do this..." I approach the large egg and touch the shell.

’It seems bigger up close...’ The shell is rough and appears very hard, although it seems less dense than the shell of the egg I was born from. I can easily break the Black Python’s egg.

I start putting mana into the egg, it quickly absorbs my mana. I continue this somewhat tedious process for what seems like an eternity, my mana dropping to around 30% after a long time.

’It never ends, does it?’ My mana is practically depleted, and soon it’s only 10%. I can barely believe this egg is taking so much mana to fill just 0.5%.

No wonder the Black Python takes so long to care for the egg, since it has to constantly provide mana while guarding mana to protect its offspring.

At a normal rate, filling this must take many years, that is, in nature, a lot of time passes before the egg’s mana can be completed, not to mention the mana that has to be replaced because too much time has passed and it has dissipated a little.

"Finally." I wipe the sweat from my forehead, exhausted. My mana is now less than 5%.

"Now what do I do? Wait?" I decide to sit on the floor and wait for something to happen.

"..."

And so hours pass, me watching this egg that never cracks. I’m almost breaking it myself.

"I can’t leave..." If the Black Python hatches and sees no one, it will become wild, and at this point, I’ll have to kill it.

Crack!

I hear a cracking sound, I get up excitedly. I start looking around the egg, trying to find where it broke. Soon I find a crack on the right side of the egg.

I stand anxiously in front of it, the idea of having something so powerful as a pet is exciting, but it also seems laborious.

Crack!

The crack increases.

"That’s it, come to your new owner," I say excitedly as the crack doubles in size. I feel like a Pokémon player waiting for a shiny Pokémon to hatch from the egg.

Crack! Crack!!

The sound of cracking increases as the visible cracks become even larger. I hold myself back from helping; the Black Python must break on its own.

CRACK!!!

"..." My smile fades as a shell the size of a stop sign hits me in the face, but this does not reduce my excitement, which surpasses the anger.

Soon I see a hole in the cracks where the piece that hit me came from. I think about putting my face to see more, but I give up on the idea, not wanting to receive another blow to the face.

CRACK!!!!

Soon a large piece breaks off, falling to the floor while a black serpent slides out. It has completely black scales and silver eyes.

There are intricate silver details on its scales, making it a captivating sight.

It soon slithers up to me, wrapping itself around my body. Since it has no malicious intent, I let it. Soon its face is in front of mine.

"..."

"..."

We stare at each other for a while. I look into its silver eyes with golden scleras, and it looks into my red eyes with spiral pupils.

The silence makes the scene a bit strange. Soon the snake gives my face several excited licks. I sigh in relief, we almost got into a fight here.

"Looks like everything went well...now comes the hard part..." It’s useless for now, a level 1 baby that barely knows how to do anything, its potential is reserved for the future.

"Here for you." I take out many dead monsters from my shadow and hand them to the baby Black Python. It unwinds from me and eagerly eats the dead monsters.

’How do I make it evolve?’ It seems to be male. I wonder how I can use my [Ruler of Monsters] ability to make it evolve, in the case of Shogo, I did it because the system activated.

"Hey..." I don’t know what to call it yet, so I just say "Hey" to get its attention.

"Do you want to evolve?" The snake tilts its head, not understanding.

’How do I explain this? I don’t know how to speak to irrational monsters...’ Each race in this world speaks and writes a different language, as the Demon King, I have the benefit of knowing how to speak and read any language that is used in the present or ancient times.

However, monsters don’t have a specific language. They usually rely on strength or fighting, with roars, bites, or punches. Of course, magic is also in this area.

’Maybe if I use [Abyssal Authority] I can make it understand.’ I activate my passive.

"I, the Demon King, order you to accept evolution right now." I give the order, and the snake stirs slightly, but nothing happens.

’What are the conditions?’ I have no idea, I think I’ll just leave it like that. Anyway, I don’t really need to be taking care of it; monsters are used to living alone.

As long as it’s fed, it won’t cause any trouble. I just need to visit it occasionally. Besides, I’ll leave it to live in the Demon Realm until I know how to evolve it.

It seems to understand when I speak using an order through the ability.

"Listen, you’ll live in my realm, and in my realm, you can only attack those who attack you. There, you’ll have food and a safe place to stay, but you must obey some orders, understand?" The snake nods its head since I used my ability to give an order.

"These are the people you must obey." I create images of Elena, Thalor, Lilith, Kaelith, Freya, and Calypso so the snake knows who it should obey.

’That’s right, I’ll throw the responsibility on them.’ I’ll send a letter along with the Black Python.

I start writing a letter with paper I took from my shadow, providing information about it and the orders I gave to the Black Python.

’I think that’s good enough.’ I hug the snake and give it a command to understand what I’m saying.

"Take care of yourself, I’ll visit you occasionally, okay? So behave." I release it while making shadows to send it to the Demon Realm, right to my room. It takes a while because it’s very far.

Soon it enters my shadow and disappears, along with the letter that was sent directly to Elena.

’Now it’s not my responsibility... If it causes problems, Elena can kill it as specified in the letter.’ It’s not like I really need this Black Python. Having it is useful, but not having it won’t make a big difference to me, unless it evolves, then it will truly be valuable.

I start to leave the basement room, climbing the stairs while thinking about the tournament at the academy.

’It’ll be great to test my new martial arts technique.’ I learned it along with the spatial fencing technique. This fighting style was widely used by vampires, but due to its complexity, it is currently little used.

However, it still has an incredible specific effect that I will take full advantage of.

I soon reach the upper part of the mansion. Honestly, I was disappointed with the egg, I expected much more. I think the snake not having evolved was what really made it disappointing.

If I at least knew the conditions I need to be able to evolve the monsters, it would be much easier.

I soon arrive in the main hall of the mansion. I see Veritus talking to Duke D’Auberon. As soon as the duke sees me, he makes a serious face.

’I bet it’s about Liona.’ I don’t care much about that. I see Shogo coming with Liona to the main hall, where I said we would meet when it was time to leave.

I descend the stairs, and soon Duke D’Auberon comes up to me.

"Good evening, Grand Duchess, I’ve come here to resolve some... matters." His gaze is clearly negative.

"I understand, I hope you have success." I try to move on, but he blocks my way.

"Is there a problem, Duke?"

"Yes, I do. My son has gone missing, and I’m very worried about him."

I already understand the line of reasoning; he’s accusing me of something, obviously, he’s accusing me of kidnapping his son.

"That’s too bad, truly regrettable news. I hope you find him." I say indirectly for him to go look somewhere else.

"Yes, and I think I already know who kidnapped him."

"Oh? Really? I wonder who such a person would be to kidnap a duke’s son."

"Well... it’s a sneaky and dangerous animal, or perhaps more of a brazen monster."

"..."

"I hope your son is alive." A vein appears on his face, no one told him to call me that.

"Yes... I hope so too." He speaks through gritted teeth, angry.

Soon Shogo arrives at my side with Liona. I wonder what Liona will do in front of her father.

The duke looks at the two who just arrived. Shogo and Liona bow slightly.

I hold back the urge to laugh; he’s not even capable of recognizing his own son, of course, he could recognize him if Liona’s mana wasn’t a mess because of Shogo’s mana.

"I think we’re done here. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going." I try to leave again, but when I pass by him, he grabs my wrist and squeezes.

"Is there a problem?" I say with slight irritation.

"Yes, I do have a problem." We look into each other’s eyes, the anger is visible in both our gazes, as if we’re about to attack each other at any moment.

Soon Veritus interrupts.

"Duke, your business here is over. Release my daughter, or I’ll have to take rather drastic measures."

He releases my wrist after a second.

"Liona, Shogo, come." I say as I leave through the door, ignoring the look of hatred the duke gives me. If he has a problem with me, let him come at me with everything; I’ll retaliate in kind.