Chapter 144: Fish Egg?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was a blue bead about the size of a fist.
After hitting a bull’s-eye on Benjamin’s forehead, it bounced and fell to the side, click-clacking as it bounced a few times. Until now only did it gradually slow down, no longer rolling.
After some thought, Benjamin walked over and picked it up.
"This thing ... flew out of the fissure?" He frowned and asked.
"Mhmm, just like that." The System recovered and replied, "After the explosion occurred in the fissure, and shortly thereafter, this blue bead flew out from the fissure. Eight or nine out of ten of this was blasted out from the red gemstone."
Blasted out?
Benjamin could not help raising his eyebrows in surprise.
He attentively scrutinized the round bead- it weighed very little; had cold surface and a hard texture. Color-wise, it was not purely blue, and instead had two color tones. The inside layer was the same shade of blue as the Pure Blue Space, while the outside layer was transparent.
Judging from the color on the inside layer, this was most probably something that came from that Pure Blue World. Since it originated from that world, then this item was probably quite something.
How should he use it?
Benjamin used his damaged spiritual energy to feel it, but he could only feel water vapor blown in his face and a simple, faint breath of life. He felt that this stuff was probably formed by water particles, but was different from water elemental crystals; there was something else in its composition and it had a unique internal structure.
"My spiritual energy isn’t really working right now; I can’t really feel much from it." Suddenly, Benjamin said to the System, "You can detect elemental crystal’s oscillations, right? You try detecting what in the world is this thing for."
"So much work ... I’ll try I guess." The System seemed reluctant, but still agreed.
Unexpectedly, the moment the System’s voice fell, in less than two seconds, the internal blue layer of the bead suddenly shone, just like an unlit light bulb which was suddenly connected to electricity.
This …..
Not only that, Benjamin suddenly felt weight disappearing from his hand; it was like the whole bead lost its weight, even the hard, transparent outer layer softened up. Then, as if influenced by some buoyancy force, the bead actually started slowly floating by itself.
It floated approximately to the level of Benjamin’s head and stopped. However, it did not hover like the other magic runes. It was like an air bubble in the water, gently floating according to the water particles in the air.
That feeling, it was like ... it had life.
"Hey, what kind of situation is this?" Benjamin hurriedly asked the System.
"I…I don’t know either." The System answered, a little panicked.
Benjamin was astonished upon hearing the System’s repose.
It was not due to the content of the System’s reply, but because the System’s strongly humanized machine voice, actually came from the floating bead in that moment.
Every time the System spoke, its voice would hover from unidentifiable directions, so it also sounded rather annoying. But this time, the voice came directly from the bead, and sounded very solid; it was a very unfamiliar hearing experience for Benjamin.
What was the situation?
Recovering from his astonishment, he stretched out his hand and curiously felt the transparent and bouncy outer layer of the bead.
"You ...… Did you enter this?"
"I-I don’t know." The System sounded very frantic, frantic to the point of crying, "I was just beginning to investigate this bead, and somehow, I got sucked in. Now all my energy units are trapped in here and I can’t even get out."
Benjamin showed an expression of delight upon hearing that, like he had just discovered new land.
"Now this is interesting ...."
He used his spiritual energy to feel the bead once again, but the results this time were completely different from the last time. The feeling of water particles had completely disappeared. The bead now was full of life force, as if there was a fetus growing in it.
Fetus …...
Thinking along this line, Benjamin suddenly felt that the form of this bead was actually highly similar to a fish egg.
"Oh, so, you didn’t just go in, you’re actually going into labor?"
Hearing that, the System fell silent, and then, in a reluctant tone, said, "It seems like it. I don’t know why but I feel like I’m …... breathing."
Benjamin could not help but be amazed.
The truth was, ever since he started learning magic, he had always been curious about the existence of the System. Was it merely a consciousness? But if it was just a body of consciousness, then why did it have such bizarre functions?
And now, it had entered this odd bead from the Pure Blue Space, even melding into one with it, and capable of becoming some sort of an existence of life form?
"Will you be hatched?" Benjamin could not help asking.
"It feels like it ... Yes."
"What will you become? A fish? Or a tadpole? Jellyfish? Squid?"
"I don’t know …..."
"When will you be hatched?"
"I want to know too."
"..."
He asked quite a number of questions but Benjamin’s curiosity was still unsatisfied.
He still had too many sought after answers regarding the weird "fish egg". Unfortunately, the System also seemed pretty puzzled. It knew nothing and felt lost and scared with its current situation. Thus, Benjamin would not be able to get answers out of it.
What a waste …...
Something which came bursting out of the Pure Blue World was probably quite an item of caliber, but now, it had merged with the System.
But, for Benjamin, it would not be a bad thing. At least with the System having a solid form, if it ever decided to be cheeky in the future, Benjamin could just beat it up straight away.
After thinking for awhile, he said, "Then, if I throw this thing into the fissure right now, does that mean I wouldn’t have to hear your voice ever again?"
"…..."
Benjamin could clearly see that after he finished his sentence, the floating "fish egg", in a very human way, shuddered a little.
"Boss, I’m at fault." The System’s voice emanated from the bead.
Benjamin nodded satisfactorily.
Looking at things now, this bead was not just useful- it returned peace to the world, which was worth it.
Just like this, just like kicking a football, Benjamin kicked the bead a few times and felt a sense of ease running through his body and heart. Then, he happily left the Space of Consciousness and returned to the cave in reality.
But, the moment he returned to reality, he once again found that things were not right.
The chamber seemed to have undergone some changes; it was different from before he entered the Space of Consciousness.
Benjamin could not help but raise his eyebrows.
There was a time difference between the Space of Consciousness and reality. Although he spent so much time in the Space of Consciousness, in actual reality, time had not passed a minute. But in this time of less than a minute, he discovered that the faint glow from above suddenly gave off a questionable shimmer.
He looked up, and saw that on the rock walls above, huge patches of densely-packed moss started withering at a speed observable by the human eye, just like a balloon losing air, and the faint glow which lit up the chamber was also fading.
What was going on?
Benjamin suddenly remembered the red gemstone he threw into the fissure. Could it be, all these glowing mosses were under the influence of the red gemstone? Once the red gemstone disappeared, they would wither immediately?
Benjamin did not have time to do anything and soon enough, all the mosses withered in masses; even a leftover dot of light had vanished. He was trapped in darkness.
At the same time, a wave of dizziness struck him. He felt a little odd, closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. Fortunately, the dizziness went away quickly. However, when he opened his eyes once more, he was dumbfounded again.
The chamber in front of him had changed again.
It was not just plain darkness anymore; faint light came from a cave opening in front of him, which also allowed one to barely see one’s surroundings. But the extraordinary part of this matter was that during Benjamin’s previous investigation of his surrounding, there was no hole like the one in front of him, nor was there any form of light from the cave opening in front of him.
An extra hole just appearing out of thin air- how could he not be surprised?
A trap? Or a distraction?
Benjamin turned behind again. The opening he came in from was still there but without the clinging mosses; nothing else changed.
Weird and weirder …...
But, this was not the strangest matter.
The strangest thing was, when Benjamin turned around, to the left of the ground, he accidentally stumbled upon a dried up corpse.