novelraw Chapter 122: Don't Become a...
Chapter 122: Don't Become a...
"Are you about to hatch?" I asked as I placed my hand on the black egg.
It's been months since I won this egg. I never missed a day and consistently fed it mana until it was full.
I thought that it would be a few more months or even a year before it would hatch, but recently, it's been shaking whenever I feed it as if it were excited to eat. I could sense the mana inside the shell but was unable to determine what kind it was.
A while back, I had asked Vivian, the teacher who had handed me this egg, where she had gotten it. But she just smirked and told me that that was something she couldn't reveal.
As a matter of fact, other than the classes and courses that I needed to take, I had put myself in her class again because I was hoping that there would be another reward to win.
The egg was absorbing more mana than normal.
"You aren't full yet? Okay, keep eating as much as you need," I said as I popped open a mana potion with my other hand and chugged it. My mana was plentiful, but this was just in case the egg would consume more than what I had in my mana pool.
The more I fed it mana, the more the egg vibrated.
It was vibrating so profusely that even the incubator it was in was shaking.
As I closed my eyes, I began to feel the connection between the magical beast inside the egg and myself get stronger and stronger.
"I can feel you. You… you're feeling me as well, aren't you?" I asked as I increased the input of mana.
In the back of my eyelids, I could see a pair of eyes. The iris was a light purple color that covered the entire hole. And there were these keyhole-shaped black pupils.
"...Are you…" I had a feeling I knew what creature might be inside the egg.
"You want more mana?" I asked. I was starting to understand what they were feeling, even if I couldn't hear their thoughts. "Then eat to your heart's content."
Increasing my input, it rose and rose and rose until I had reached my limits.
My mana pool had reached its halfway point. I emptied another mana potion and chugged it. Then another. Then another. Then another.
"You're one hungry boy… or girl," I uttered.
I could sense that it was beginning to get full, and it wanted me to slow down so that it could digest everything.
"If you don't hatch after all this, I'll be very sad," I chuckled.
Then once the beast was completely full, I removed my hand. The egg had stopped vibrating. It remained completely still and for a minute, I watched it in silence.
Then—
Crack.
A line that resembled a lightning bolt traveled from the top of the egg down to the middle.
Crack. Crack.
From where the line was, more lines branched out.
"You're finally hatching," I said as I watched more cracks begin to form. After half a minute, the entire egg was covered in cracks. But the egg didn't hatch. At least, not yet.
It remained still for a moment.
Then as a burst of light blinded the room, I squinted my eyes and had my hand in front of my face.
"What a grand entrance."
As the light began to die off, I was able to open my eyes again. Lowering my hand, I saw my magical beast, my new pet, for the first time.
Perched atop the shattered shell was a tiny snake.
No. Tiny didn't even feel like the right word. It was barely longer than my hand and if it was to coil in on itself, I reckon it would fit in my palm with little effort.
Its scales were a soft, pearly white. They weren't glossy or sharp-looking but instead, smooth, almost plush-like.
Its head was small and round, more adorable than intimidating, with those same light-purple eyes that I had seen earlier. They were huge in comparison to the total surface area of its face. Its keyhole-shaped pupils blinked slowly as it looked around the room.
Then it looked at me.
Before I could even react, the little snake sprang off the broken shell.
"Hey," I giggled as it landed against my arm. Immediately, it began to slither upward, wrapping itself around my forearm with gentle coils. It was so short that it couldn't even wrap my entire forearm and there was no pressure or constriction.
It was just warm and familiar, like a plushie I've been sleeping with every night.
"Wow," I muttered. "You're one energetic fella."
Its tongue flicked out and it was short that it was almost comically short.
Instead of the long, intimidating forked tongue that you would expect from a snake, it was this tiny little pink flick that was barely visible when it was stuck out.
It tasted the air a few times, then continued to climb up my arm.
It stopped once it reached my shoulder.
"Hey," I said as I looked at it with the corner of my eye.
Before I could react, the snake poked its head near my face and it gave me a soft tap. Something warm brushed my cheek.
"Did you just kiss me?" I asked.
It did it again. Then again.
I was being bombarded with these little affectionate nuzzles, its head bumping softly against my cheek while its tongue flicked in these quick and excited motions.
I froze for a moment, then I laughed.
"You'd better like me. I gave you so much mana that I'm basically empty by this point," I said as I ran my index finger along the top of its head.
The snake chirped and rubbed its head along my finger.
Staring at it, I asked, "How are you supposed to be a threat to anyone? What are you supposed to grow up to?"
"Chirp~ Chirp~"
I giggled. "Why are you chirping? You're a snake, not a bird. You're supposed to hiss."
I offered it my palm and it slithered its way onto it. I brought my hand closer to my face and it "stood" up. Pressing its forehead against mine, the connection between us got stronger and I began to hear its voice.
'Hi!' a squeaky, high-pitched voice said to me.
"Hi," I smiled as I pulled my hand away to get a better look at my pet.
'What's my name?' it asked as it tilted its head.
I could sense that the snake was female.
Please don't grow up to become a loli.
'What's a loli?' it asked me.
For a second, I forgot that it could read my mind.
"...Nothing. Ignore what I just said," I said. "A name… hmm…"
Admittedly, my naming sense wasn't the best. A part of me felt like plagiarizing something from my old world but it felt like that would be hypocritical since I had left numerous hate comments on the shitty god's novel because he did this.
"You're white. Whitey?"
The snake shook its head so fast that I had to let out an awkward cough.
'Master, please take your time,' Kimi said. 'Look how cute it is. If it has an ugly name…'
"Alright, alright. I get it."
Taking a seat on my bed, the snake slithered around the room, checking out everything while I began jotting down ideas in my mind.
Each one I came up with felt either too generic or too cringeworthy.
"Bob? No… no."
The snake overheard the name and it quaked.
"...Relax. I'll give you a good name. Give me some time."
It chirped and nodded.
"If only I had an AI website in this world that would provide me with terrible answers that are stolen from the internet. What a shame that it doesn't exist in this world," I muttered with sarcasm.
The snake had white scales, purple eyes, and was female.
What would an appropriate name be once I put all of their features together? One that made sense.
"Your scales are white… like snow. Purple eyes. Violet? Violet Snow?" I asked the snake.
It paused its slithering for a second, turned around, then it leaped into the air, landing on my foot before making its way up to my shoulder. It bounced a few times.
'Violet! That's my new name! Violet Snow!' it cheered.
"I'm glad you liked it," I chuckled as I wiped sweat from my brow. I had spent almost ten minutes thinking of names and was about to run out of ideas very soon.
If Violet had told me that she didn't like that name, I might've resorted to calling it quits and naming my new magical pet something like "White Snake with Purple Eyes".
Once I introduced Violet to the rest of the family, at least those who were home, their reactions were as expected.
Rubi was a little scared at first but once she saw how cute and nonhostile it was, she immediately began treating it like it was the most precious thing in the world.
Eloise showed no fear when Violet landed on the ground and began slithering towards them. She approached it, crouched, and began running her small hands along the scales. It was as if she knew that the creature in front of her had no evil in it.
My mother knew that I had been incubating an egg in my bedroom for some time now, so when she saw the snake, she just raised an eyebrow and asked what ability it had.
We began talking while the two children played with Violet.
"I'm not sure," I answered. "I… I can't sense anything special about Violet other than her large pool of mana."
"From what I can see, there doesn't seem to be any signs of what element your snake seems to possess."
I began to wonder if Violet was a dud but after all the mana that it had just eaten a while ago, if it wasn't special in some way, I would have no choice but to call upon the wrath of a thousand incels who are convinced that a woman has it out for them.
"Are you able to communicate with it?" Mother asked me.
"Yes. But when I asked what its ability was, it also had no clue."
"So… at least for the moment, it is useless?"
Violet could hear us talking and I could see her head slouching and although it had no eyebrows, if it did, they would be making an upside-down "V" shape.
"On the bright side, it is cute," Mother chuckled as she joined her daughters to play with the snake. Violet was a little hesitant to play with her after being insulted, but after a few seconds of playing hard to get, she began wrapping her body around Mother's hand.
If I follow the logic of most novels, Violet will grow to become a large snake, then either transform into a dragon or a… or become humanoid. I'm okay with it being human. Just please… PLEASE, don't become a loli.