Slowly, he reached down and wrapped both hands around it.
The mont his fingers fully gripped the surface, he could feel just how solid it was.
Then he pulled.
The object slid free from the loosened soil with little resistance.
Noah lifted it out of the hole completely, bringing it up in front of his face.
Now that it was no longer half-buried, he could properly examine it.
The thing was small enough for him to hold comfortably with one hand.
Under the faint forest light filtering through the branches above, the surface reflected a subtle sheen.
It looked strangely pristine despite having been buried beneath the soil monts earlier.
Noah slowly rotated it in his hands.
As he continued staring at the strange sphere in his hands, the odd sensation he had been feeling earlier suddenly grew stronger.
Much stronger.
The faint connection he sensed before was now almost impossible to ignore.
It pulsed faintly through his senses.
Noah’s breathing slowed slightly.
For a brief mont, it felt almost as if the sphere in his hands was responding to him.
And then sothing even stranger happened.
As he focused on it more closely...
He could almost hear sothing.
Not with his ears.
But through his senses.
A rhythmic pulse.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
His eyes widened slightly.
It felt eerily similar to his own heartbeat.
But the sensation wasn’t coming from his chest.
It was coming from the sphere.
Noah gulped.
The realization struck him almost instantly.
’This isn’t just a sphere...’ he thought, his grip on the object tightening slightly. ’It’s an egg...’
His eyes remained fixed on the smooth black surface.
’A mana beast’s egg.’
The conclusion made sense.
The faint life-like pulse.
The strange connection he was feeling.
And the way mana in the surrounding area had been subtly flowing toward it.
All of those signs pointed to a living organism developing within.
But despite reaching that conclusion, Noah’s expression didn’t relax.
Instead, his brows furrowed deeper.
Because sothing about this egg was... wrong.
Or at the very least, unfamiliar.
He had read quite a lot about mana beasts before.
During his studies, he had spent ti learning about their behaviors, habitats, and even their thods of reproduction.
Many mana beasts reproduced through eggs.
Others gave birth directly.
There were many variations depending on the species.
But through all that knowledge...
He had never once co across a mana beast that laid a black egg.
Not a single one.
Mana beast eggs usually reflected the nature of the creature within.
Ice beasts often laid pale blue or crystal-like eggs.
Fire beasts sotis produced eggs with faint red or orange hues.
Even wind or earth aligned creatures had their own distinctive colors.
But black?
That wasn’t sothing he had ever read about.
This realization imdiately made Noah skeptical.
His gaze narrowed slightly as he continued examining the object.
There was also the possibility that his earlier assumption was simply wrong.
Maybe this wasn’t an egg at all.
Maybe it was sothing completely different.
A magical artifact.
A strange mana crystal.
Or sothing else entirely.
Noah frowned slightly as he thought about it.
And then—
A faint ringing sensation suddenly echoed inside his head.
"Ugh..."
A low grunt escaped his lips.
The sound wasn’t painful.
But it was unexpected.
He blinked once before focusing his attention back on the object in his hands.
The strange connection was still there.
Stronger than before.
Noah stared at the egg silently for a mont.
Then a strange realization slowly surfaced in his mind.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
’I can feel its will...’
The thought felt absurd even as it ford.
But the sensation was unmistakable.
The thing inside the egg...
It was alive.
And more than that—
It felt like it was reaching out.
A faint emotional pulse drifted through the strange connection between them.
It was weak and felt more instinctibe, but was still there.
Noah’s lips parted slightly as disbelief crept into his expression.
’...to live?’ he mumbled inwardly, feeling the intent behind the strange sensation he had been feeling.
The creature inside the egg didn’t want to be left alone here.
Noah stared at the black egg again, confusion flickering across his face.
How was that even possible?
He had never heard of anything like this.
Mana beast eggs weren’t supposed to communicate like this.
Not with soone outside.
Yet the connection felt real.
Noah clicked his tongue softly.
"Tch."
His grip on the egg tightened slightly as he looked down at it one more ti.
After a few seconds of silence, he exhaled slowly.
’I’m taking this with .’ he thought.
There was simply too much about this egg that he didn’t understand.
Leaving it behind would an abandoning a potential opportunity.
Or a mystery worth investigating.
Of course...
There was also a chance that bringing it with him might turn out to be a terrible idea.
His lips curved slightly in a wry smile.
’I just hope this doesn’t turn out to be a mistake.’
Whatever it was, standing here forever wouldn’t give him answers.
Carefully, he crouched slightly and pulled the small bag he carried closer.
The bag already contained the knife he had used earlier along with the beast cores he had gathered during the hunt.
Slowly, he opened the flap.
His movents beca noticeably more careful.
If his guess was correct and this was truly a mana beast egg, then dropping it or damaging it could easily destroy whatever creature was developing inside.
And for so reason, the thought of that happening made him hesitate slightly.
Noah gently lowered the egg into the bag.
The black surface caught a bit of the forest light before disappearing inside.
He then adjusted the contents inside the bag slightly, making sure the egg rested securely between the folds of cloth and the other items.
It wouldn’t roll around too much that way.
Once he was satisfied that it was stable, he closed the bag again and tightened the strap.
Only then did he straighten his back and stand up fully.
His gaze swept around the strange clearing once more.
The area still felt unusually quiet.
The strange pull he had been sensing earlier was gone now, probably because he had now taken the egg.
Noah rested a hand on the strap of the bag for a mont before turning around.
Without lingering any longer, he began walking away from the tree.
*
Several minutes after Noah left.
The forest returned to complete silence.
The dug-up patch of soil beneath the large tree remained undisturbed.
Loose dirt still surrounded the hole Noah had created earlier.
For a while, nothing happened.
Then suddenly—
Crk!
A faint cracking sound echoed through the air, few ters away from where he dug out.
At first, it looked like nothing more than a thin line appearing in the air.
A small crack.
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