Chapter 90 Flame of Life (6) (1/2)
With a blank look, Yeon-woo and the Phoenix stared at the egg for a long time to confirm whether it would hatch or not.
However, no matter how long they waited, nothing happened.
A slight furrow formed between Yeon-woo’s brows.
In contrast, stuck right next to the egg was Chirpy, chirping ever so merrily at the thought of not having to say goodbye to her friend just yet.
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『Hmm… I have never witnessed such a strange phenomenon myself. I do not understand why your egg is not hatching.』
“What do you think the problem is?”
『Well, to be precise, there is no ‘problem’. I would know if there was any.』
The Phoenix’s voice sounded a little offended.
The Holy Flame the Phoenix had granted Yeon-woo was not just a random creation of hers, it also was part of the Phoenix’s own soul. In other words, saying that there was a problem with the Holy Flame was practically saying there was a problem with the Phoenix’s soul.
Realizing his mistake, Yeon-woo quickly bowed down to apologize.
“Oh… I’m so sorry for my slip of tongue.”
『It is alright. I understand that humans view things from a different perspective than us beasts.』
The Phoenix then focused back on the egg.
『However, I must admit, this surely is abnormal. I can see the beast inside the egg has already completely developed, but I am afraid I cannot put my wing on the reason why it is refusing to come out.』
And neither did Yeon-woo have any clue about this, as the diary didn’t mention anything similar.
『Let us take some time and observe the egg. It will come out soon, I believe.』
Yeon-woo had no choice but to comply with the Phoenix’s suggestion.
* * *
After that, Yeon-woo once again started wandering around the Dream World in order to collect more materials.
It was because the Phoenix had suggested that the egg might require more of her Flame of Life to hatch.
『I cannot grant you another flame of high quality, but it is not particularly hard to create a flame of normal quality. So, let us give it one more try』
Complaints about the scarcity of the materials could be heard from other players everywhere, but Yeon-woo, who had no time to care about others, proceeded to once again sweep through the already hard-to-find ingredients.
After having gathered the required materials a second time, the egg absorbed the second Flame of Life, growing another meter and becoming three meters tall.
A three-meter-tall egg. While it didn’t sound too shocking when described with words, the egg was almost twice as big as Yeon-woo.
Knowing that the beast inside the egg was in a fetal position, Yeon-woo couldn’t imagine how big it would be once it broke out of its shell.
“Haha….”
『This is just unbelievable.』
Yeon-woo couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at this endlessly growing egg.
『I have never seen an egg growing this big before hatching. It seems like my flame will run out before it stops growing.』
Of course, the Phoenix’s flame wouldn’t deplete even if she continued creating Flames of Life, but that showed how frustrated she was.
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Only Chipy was still chattering joyously. It looked like a child bragging about her friend, ‘Mom, Mom! Look how big my friend is!’.
But Yeon-woo was so deep in thought that nothing reached his ears.
‘This is almost like shoveling sand against the tide.’
Despite this deadlock, he could feel without a doubt that his connection with the egg was growing stronger. He could clearly feel the egg’s happiness being transmitted to himself.
The problem was that he could only feel its emotions, but not its thoughts.
As if it was intentionally hiding from Yeon-woo. Not because it was afraid of him, but just to play pranks on him.
‘Can it really be doing this as a joke?’
But he knew the situation couldn’t be that simple. Because Mythical Beasts were beings so simple in nature, yet so profound at the same time.
‘I’ll be stuck on this floor for a long time if this continues.’
Though the bartender had said that the war’s first battle would most likely take place on the 11th floor, that wasn’t completely certain.
There were still a large number of variables that could upset his calculations.
‘Even if the war does take place on this floor, I have to finish the trial before it happens. .’
Meanwhile, the Phoenix carefully voiced her opinion about the egg after a long time of organizing her thoughts.
『Perhaps… This could be the reason….』
Yeon-woo’s head jerked up at the Phoenix’s murmuring.
“What is it?”
『Motivation.』
Yeon-woo put on a puzzled look.
“Motivation?”
『Yes. As you know, dreams are paramount to all Mythical Beasts. They feed off of dreams and are always in pursuit of them. And I have heard that in places where there are no dreams at all, they refuse to be born.』
Yeon-woo’s eyes started to shake slightly as he could already see where the Phoenix was going with this.
『And to my knowledge, most humans have dreams, whether they are big or small.』
And he felt as if the Phoenix’s two eyes were staring into his very soul.
『But human, do you have a dream?』
“….”
Yeon-woo was struck dumb at her question.
『It looks like you do not.』
He let out a bitter laugh.
‘Dream….’
Just as the Phoenix presumed, he didn’t have a dream.
If anything, it would be his revenge.
But that wasn’t exactly a dream. Rather, it was more like an objective, or a goal he had set for himself.
Players climbing up The Tower usually had dreams like gaining power or becoming a god, but that did not apply to Yeon-woo.
Power was merely a means to achieve his mission, and he didn’t even wish to become a god.
In fact, Yeon-woo thought that dreams were nothing but trivial and rather cumbersome things to have.
‘That’s what’s causing this?’
Yeon-woo was running into difficulties he had never expected to encounter.
He had no idea how to solve such a problem.
‘I guess a trial’s still a trial.’
A trial that brought him physical adversities as well as mental anguish.
Yeon-woo glanced at his egg with a slight frown on his face.
But the egg’s pleased emotion was still being conveyed through the connection.