I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 208

The pressure increased with every step we took, a heaviness in the air like the whole cave system was sinking on top of us. Fate walked beside me; her face pinched in discomfort. We hadn’t spoken in a while, the tension building between us both from our earlier intimacy and the unnatural atmosphere pressing in around us. Still, I moved forward, drawn by the voice calling my name.

Fate shifted beside me, gritting her teeth as she loosened her blouse. “I can’t breathe… It’s getting too hot in here.”

I frowned as I looked around. The path slanted up, so we were heading higher up on the peak. This also wasn’t an active volcano, so I didn’t know why it was getting hotter. I couldn’t help but compare the feeling to the thermal vent I had encountered with Destiny some time ago. As for the pressure, I had a feeling that it was something else causing the pressure to rise.

Fate unbuttoned her blouse to cool herself off, but she only managed a few buttons before the fabric, already straining against her breasts, finally gave out with a sharp rip. The blouse burst open, exposing a generous amount of cleavage. Fate gasped and slapped her hands over her chest.

I paused and glanced over, unable to stop my eyes. “Uh.”

She flushed scarlet and jabbed a finger at me. “Y-you did this on purpose, didn’t you? Dragging me deeper just to ogle me!”

She usually wasn’t so flustered. It was a cute side of her. However, she did have a nasty habit of blaming other people.

I raised an eyebrow. “You ruined the blouse I gave you.”

“Aren’t you hot?” she scowled and then tried to change the conversation when she realized she was wrong. “Why aren’t you affected by the pressure?”

“Just lucky,” I replied smoothly, “Just keep alert, we’re close.”

Of course, I knew why I wasn’t affected. My form had evolved far beyond a normal human. My cells could handle heat and pressures many times greater than this. Where she struggled to walk and had to use mana to protect her body, I barely noticed with my stats alone.

“Close to what, even?” she grumbled, fanning herself as she trudged behind.

Then, we turned a bend and emerged into a colossal cavern, bathed in an eerie orange glow. Lava trickled through veins in the stone like glowing blood, and atop a rocky ledge, perched magnificently, was a creature with crimson scales and vast, leathery wings. Its eyes shimmered with intelligence and power. It was about as large as a small house. While this was impressive, I had seen larger.

Fate gasped. “A wyvern!”

She reached for her sword, but I grabbed her wrist. “Wait. This is the one who was calling us.”

As if to confirm my words, the creature lifted its head and looked at us. Its mouth didn’t move, but I heard it clearly, directly in my mind. It was the same feminine voice that had been speaking to me from before.

“You are correct, Spirit. I am the one who called for you. I’ve been watching the two of you since you entered my territory.”

“Is that how you know our names?”

“Yes,” The wyvern’s eyes flickered oddly. “I overheard you saying each other’s name. This one spoke your name quite enthusiastically. Even if I wasn’t paying attention, I likely still would have heard your name.”

“You don’t mean…?” Fate’s face turned from wariness to horror. “Y-you saw everything?”

“Indeed,” the wyvern responded with an amused purr. “You are very passionate about humans. If you keep at it, you should have many babies.”

“Babies!” Fate buried her face in her hands, mortified.

“It’s unlikely.” I coughed. “Why did you choose to call us humans over? Aren’t sage beasts naturally mistrustful of humans?”

I might not understand the idiosyncrasies between navigating the complex relationships between the paragon families, but I had read enough about this world to understand this much at least.

“Come now, Spirit…” The wyvern’s eyes grew soft. “I think we both know you are not entirely human.”

My eyes widened, and I couldn’t help but glance at Fate, who was still covering her face and muttering to herself.

“You need not worry.” Its voice sounded again. “I can choose who hears me. As for your question, it isn’t too complicated. I can sense the aura of a dragon on you.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Every wyvern dreams of one day becoming a dragon. It is the highest evolution. We worship dragons, treating them as paragons might treat a god. If a dragon has taken the effort to mark you, then it means you are certainly worthy of my attention.”

I felt a bit complex. I couldn’t help but admire the immortal who left their legacy behind in the Schrodinger’s box. I had never truly encountered a dragon, but within one of the trials was the soul fragment of a dragon, which watched over the dragon’s egg. That alone was already powerful enough to mark me in ways I didn’t even realize. I wondered just how powerful a true dragon would be.

By this point, Fate had finally managed to compose herself.

She asked, “Why did you want us to come? Is it because of your illness? We can’t cure that.”

I shifted slightly, and the wyvern’s gaze flickered to me. “I suspect that you already know the reason, correct?”

Fate gave me a confused look, and I sighed. “The wyvern is dying. It’s pregnant. It’s about to give birth.”

She blinked. “What?”

“This is partially true,” the wyvern responded, lowering its head slightly. “In truth, as I was looking for a spot to lay my legs, I was suddenly attacked by another sage beast. I managed to escape, but my life force has already been damaged.”

“If you abandoned the pregnancy, there is a chance you’d survive.”

“It is only a small chance. I have already lived a long life for a wyvern and have reached the peak of my evolutionary potential. I managed to find a particularly good mate, a peak prestiged, by human assessment. It is time that I passed on my genes to the next generation and gave my children a chance to reach further down their evolutionary path than I could go.

“So, you’re going to sacrifice your life?” Fate asked, her voice now quieter.

“My life is already forfeit. I will be laying my eggs soon, and when this happens, I will be at my most vulnerable. Sage beasts and paragons alike are circling this mountain like vultures, waiting for my death. I fear that some may not wait and will try to interrupt the process. This is why I need guardians, not for me, but for my eggs.”

“That is…” Fate’s eyes were a bit wet with emotion. “We’ll do-”

“What’s in it for us?” I interrupted her.

“Eh?” Fate made a noise and then looked at me in disbelief.

Rather than getting angry, the wyvern laughed softly. “By the time I lay the fifth egg, I will be dead. The sage beasts will come to feast on my body, hoping to gain the energy necessary to evolve. Paragons will come for my treasures, looking to strike rich. The eggs I leave behind will be unguarded and will be consumed or sold. Since this is an inevitability, I would like to decide the fate of my children.”

“You don’t mean…” Fate gasped.

“Yes, I will pass my children onto you, as well as the necessary information to hatch and raise them. If you protect them, they will bond with you as caretakers. My children will be loyal to you.”

“Five wyverns…” Fate turned to me. “Spirit, if the Lou family were to raise five loyal wyverns, it would change everything. Each adult wyvern would have the strength of a prestiged with a possibility of growing stronger. If you combine that with paragons, they’d be an unstoppable military force. Grandpa could stabilize the border. No, far more than that. We’d have enough power in ten years to become a great family. Plus, we’d be the only family in this province with wyvern knights.”

I could see the excitement and desire in her eyes. It didn’t stem from a place of greed, but from a place of hope. She wanted to pave a future for her family. As for me, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Was I going to get stuck with another egg? If we split up these spoils, I’d get one of the five eggs. Not only would we have to raise it, but it would take years before it even became strong enough to be useful. Besides, I already had the red dragon’s egg. Was I running a hatchery?

“It is not just the eggs I will leave you,” the wyvern added, her voice reaching only me. “I can also show you everything I know about hatching the red dragon’s egg.”

My heart stopped. She had even deduced that I was caring for the red dragon’s egg. It looked like a prestiged sage beast was not something I could look down on. Plus, if her knowledge did allow me to hatch it…

“I’m willing to help, but I need to contact my family,” Fate declared. “I’m afraid the two of us won’t be enough.”

“There isn’t enough time.” The wyvern sighed. “The eggs will be coming tonight.”

“Tonight!” Her eyes widened. “Okay, maybe, with uncle…”

“I’m sorry, but it will just have to be the two of you. However, I feel like you should be enough.” As she said that, her eyes fell to me.

Fate’s eyes followed her toward me, a questioning look in her eyes. It looked like I’d be the deciding factor here.

“… Fine. I’ll do it.”