Chương 19: Chapter 18 – A Forked Path

Cade stared down at the Primordial Bead Dewdrop, its aquamarine glow faint but steady. [Identify] returned no information just like with the Flake of the Obsidian Keystone. But he didn't need the System to feel the subtle but undeniable pressure bleeding off the crystal. A similar but distinctly different weight than the flake carried. Not just power but a presence all its own. This wasn't just a random artifact. This was Tegziran's treasure, just as the flake had belonged to N'zhal.

Cade set his axe down, keeping the egg cradled in his left hand, and reached out with his right. His fingers closed around the dewdrop's cool surface— A sudden pulse of aquamarine light surged up his arm, across his chest, and into the egg like a living river. It didn't hurt, rather it restored. His breath hitched as energy washed through every fiber of his body. The ache in his legs dissolved. The tension in his shoulders loosened.

He felt as if he'd just woken from ten perfect hours of sleep, eaten a rich breakfast, and chased it with strong coffee—all in a single heartbeat. He felt alive and alert, for the first time in days he was clear-headed and sharp. The light faded from view and was replaced by a screen popping up in his vision. Hidden Tutorial Quest: Viscount of the Swamp Progress: Disrupt the conduit-lines — Complete Objective: Destroy the egg and kill the unhatched Viscount before it has a chance to hatch.

Cade stared at the quest window. Then dismissed it with a blink.

"No," he muttered under his breath.

"Still not doing that." He gently tucked the dewdrop into a pocket. Then pulled out Tegziran's core. With the dewdrop gone the core was his only source of light in the burrow. He slotted his axe back into the leather strap at his side. One hand now held the egg, the other the core. He turned his back and left the chamber. Even with the core in hand, the path seemed darker than before, like the burrow knew it had been violated.

Cade paused once, near the upper tunnel, debating whether to camp in the safety of the hollow. But after that pulse went through him, sleep felt impossible. His blood hummed with energy as it pumped through his veins. So he stepped out into the open air. Night had fallen fully while he'd been below. Cool wind kissed his skin. Mist clung low to the ground, curling around the once vibrant flowers. The stars overhead blinked between veils of clouds. He didn't know where he was going yet—but he couldn't stay here.

Cade moved west. The wetlands stretched out beneath a blanket of night, quiet but not dead. Insects buzzed low in the reeds. Far-off creatures chirped in pulsing rhythms. Mist coiled above the shallow water, thick enough to distort shapes in the distance but not enough to slow his pace. The soft glow of Tegziran's core lit his path in muted mint green, but Cade didn't need to see far. Nothing approached him. Not a single beast or bloated insect hissed from the underbrush.

No low growls or rustling of hidden predators. He didn't like it. The lack of resistance felt unnatural compared to the last few days. It wasn't just the quiet—but like the creatures out here were deliberately avoiding him. He cradled the egg close to his chest now, wrapped in the crook of his arms like a precious bundle. Warmth radiated from it in soft pulses, and every so often, he felt a subtle shift within. Something was definitely alive in there as it squirmed and wriggled.

Cade's thumb brushed against the curved shell. Smooth and crisscrossed by thin aquamarine lines that no longer glowed, but still seemed to thrum faintly beneath the surface. As he walked, westward into the unknown, the hours passed without event. The air remained cool and damp. With no obstacles, Cade made good distance before dawn's first light broke behind him. He welcomed the return of visibility. The colors of the world reasserted themselves after a long night in monochrome.

Even after walking all night, he wasn't tired and that realization made him pause, frowning slightly. Every time fatigue should have slowed him—muscles sore, hunger gnawing, thirst rising—it simply didn't. Like something inside him had reset. A subtle refresh that bloomed from his chest and rippled outward. And then he felt it happen again. A barely perceptible pulse. The dewdrop, secure in his pocket, activated once more.

Cade felt it hum against his body as the sensation moved through him—like warm wind under his skin, brushing away all weariness. It rolled into the egg as well, and for a moment he felt something strange: a mirrored response, like the life inside the egg acknowledged it.

"The dewdrop must still be feeding into the egg through me" Cade murmured. There was no answer but he could feel it now. The Primordial Bead Dewdrop was alive, in its own way—or at least active, and it was immensely powerful. Maybe too powerful.

"If this one item can remove my fatigue and satisfy my hunger and thirst then it is easily the most broken item in the whole Tutorial," Cade smiled wryly.

"Not that I'm complaining." By midday, the sun was high and warm. Cade spotted movement multiple times during the morning but every time something noticed him, it fled. Not just fled. It ran, panicked. Like prey sensing a predator they didn't dare challenge. He narrowed his eyes. The egg was still tucked safely in his arms. His axe hadn't been drawn in hours as he felt no aggression or threat approach.

And yet, even a wide-backed crawler three times his size had turned and skittered into the marsh rather than stand its ground. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Is this your doing?" he asked the egg quietly, not expecting a response. The creature inside softly twitched but Cade brushed it off as coincidence. He kept moving, adjusting the egg in his arms now and then. He walked until the second night fell. And still, he felt no need for food or sleep. The dewdrop pulsed with unfailing rhythm, each beat rushing through him like a revitalizing wind. But not all was unchanged. Cade could feel over the course of the day the pressure from the obsidian flake had shifted.

At first, it was almost imperceptible. A fluctuation in the air around his hip where the axe rested. The usual outward pulse of sharpness and dominance had grown more focused. As if it had stopped broadcasting its pressure in a sphere around him and instead started focusing. Focusing on the egg. Cade dismissed it during the day but as the night deepened and he kept walking, the feeling intensified, refined. Like the flake recognized and reacted to the egg. He let it be.

Whatever reaction was happening between the items hadn't harmed or helped the egg, at least not that he could tell. He walked through that second night in solitude, mist curling low and the moon's faint light filtering through tangled trees. He still saw no predators and felt no fatigue. By the time the fifth dawn of the Tutorial broke and sunlight crept across the swamp's eastern horizon, something changed. The egg stirred. It twitched, hard enough for Cade to stop mid-step and look down.

A tremor passed through it, then another, and another.

"... Oh no," Cade said softly. He crouched beside a broad, flat stone, stamped down the moss with his foot, and carefully set the egg down on the surface. Tiny cracks spread across the aquamarine lines, and Cade slowly reached for his axe. The egg twitched again, more violently this time. A shiver passed through the shell, and faint lines of aquamarine light flickered along the surface—brief sparks of glow returning to the old cracks like veins recharging with blood.

Cade stepped back a pace, axe held low but ready.

"This is it," he whispered. The once-dormant lines then blazed to life. They lit up like rivers of aquamarine—thin, elegant, and beautiful. The aquamarine pulsed outward from the center of the shell, tracing every fracture as it split wider. Light spilled through the cracks in rhythmic bursts, timed with the beating of something alive inside. The Primordial Bead Dewdrop stirred in Cade's pouch. He didn't touch it, but he felt it activate—a surge of energy radiating from it like a sympathetic heartbeat.

In the same instant, the pressure from the obsidian flake inside his axe spiked. The two forces didn't harmonize. They collided. Cade stumbled back, grimacing as the air around him thickened. Invisible tension rippled across the clearing—pressure and power clashing like opposing tides. One cold and sharp, the other warm and hungry. He squinted at the egg while bearing down at the pressure exuded by the two items he carried.

"Are they affecting the egg as it hatches?" he managed to mutter. He had no answer—only the sensation of a delicate equilibrium unraveling, two ancient predators circling the same prey. The egg cracked again. Louder this time. Hairline fractures burst outward, dividing the surface in jagged segments. From within came a sound—not a roar or a cry but a soft hiss. Then silence. Cade held his breath. A small snout pushed through the cracks. Black, sleek, shiny and definitely reptilian.

The snout wiggled slightly, then pushed harder, breaking through the shell with deliberate force. A second crack split the top of the egg. A shard of shell popped loose, and then— With a wet shuck, the creature's head emerged. Gleaming jet-black scales covered its face, smooth and wet. Tracing along its black skin were veins of aquamarine light, glowing faintly beneath the surface. The eyes opened next. Two large, radiant aquamarine orbs, wide and round with vertically slitted pupils focused directly on Cade.

For a long moment, they just stared at each other. Cade's axe remained in his hand, but his fingers loosened around the handle. He felt no threat. Nothing of the hostile creature the System had tried to warn him about. The only thing he saw in the little creature's eyes was an intense curiosity. The creature blinked slowly, then wiggled forward, dragging the rest of its small body free of the cracked shell. Limbs stubby but coordinated, tail thick and twitching. It was a baby alligator.

Its entire body shimmered with slick scales so dark they seemed to drink the light. Glowing aquamarine veins traced along its back and tail like natural runes, and its claws clicked faintly on the moss covered stone as it crawled forward—then turned and began eating the eggshell, crunching it with adorable effort. Cade blinked and the axe dropped from his hand.

"You've got to be fucking with me," he muttered. The alligator paused mid-bite, lifted its little snout, and looked at him again. Then it gave a tiny huff, like a sneeze, and continued munching on the shell. Without hesitation Cade used [Identify]. Aquelion, Viscount of the Swamp — Level 1 Infant alligator scion. Cade exhaled slowly.

"Scion," he murmured. The word struck something in his memory. A scion wasn't just any offspring. It was a successor. A being born to inherit a legacy. This tiny gator, freshly hatched, had a destiny carved ahead. But it was so freaking adorable. Small jaws. Wide eyes. Scales like obsidian glass. And when he finished devouring the last of his shell, he turned and waddled toward Cade with an eager, lopsided gait.

"You don't look like the engine of humanity's doom," Cade said to the little gator. Aquelion tilted his head and made a sound halfway between a squeak and a chirp. Against every instinct, Cade extended one hand.

"Easy, now…" The baby gator shuffled forward and butted his snout gently into Cade's palm. It was soft and surprisingly warm. Not the cold and damp he'd expected of a newly born gator. Cade gave him a few slow head pats, and Aquelion leaned into it, his tail wagging back and forth. Then, without warning, he spun in a tiny excited circle, nearly tripping over his own feet, and gave a triumphant little growl like a cub trying to roar. Cade chuckled.

"I can't kill you," he said aloud.

"I really can't. It would be like murdering a puppy and what kind of monster could do that." In that moment he knew that killing Aquelion wasn't just morally wrong. It would be like snuffing out a spark that hadn't even had the chance to ignite. Ding. Hidden Tutorial Quest Updated: Viscount of the Swamp — A Forked Path By negligence or choice you have allowed the Viscount of the Swamp to hatch. If allowed to mature alone, it will become an engine of hunger and ruin against humanity. You stand at a crossroads.

End its life now and buy humanity time, or side with the beastkin and shepherd the scion to its ancestral training grounds. Objective (choose one): Cull the scion by killing the infant Viscount. Shepherd the scion and lead the infant Viscount to its ancestral training grounds. Reward: Culling the scion will guarantee a System Core and Class (rare) assignment. Shepherding the scion will grant access to the training dungeon Cynthia's Legacy.

Cade stared at the prompt for a brief moment but this time, he didn't hesitate. He looked at Aquelion, who had rolled over on his back and was now chewing on one of his own claws in open wonder. The little gator stopped, looked up at Cade with those bright eyes, and made a content chirping sound. Cade smiled faintly.

"Let's go find your training grounds."