Now that she was no longer in a do-or-die scenario, Elizabeth took a deep and long gander at the two choices of meat she could prepare; she felt her stomach turn as her expression soured. Apparently, she would keep looking at the two dead carca.s.ses before her until the pain overwhelmed her again. But, yet another heart-stopping moment threatened to end Elizabeth"s life as she watched with horror… as an egg fell out of the snake"s slashed up midsection…Elizabeth didn"t know it was an egg until it rolled completely out of the snake"s gut. She could only see the engulfed area shoot the egg out as if by force. But the egg, wasn"t "spat" out, rather, it had somehow moved by its own free will and had now begun rolling over to Elizabeth.
Without missing a beat, Elizabeth jumped from her sitting position over to her loaded Dawnbringer and aimed at the egg as her blade pointed in its direction as well. When for the first time in hours, P"s voice rang out in Elizabeth"s mind "NO NO NO NO!!! STOP!" She was halfway happy at Elizabeth lack of hesitation as this was the correct way to respond to the unknown, at least by her books; with unprecedented caution and her life being priority number one. But at the same time, she felt this opportunity would go to waste because of Elizabeth"s overt caution.
Elizabeth almost ended up slashing at the egg as it kept rolling up to her, but with P"s voice hitting her, she recalled how P had previous words of caution had ended up with her forgetting to use the core in the Tartare meal. It was with the totality of her consciousness, that Elizabeth managed to stop her attack mid slash and instead jump away as she started screaming with her soul "WHAT?! WHY!?!?!?"
"f.u.c.k! It"s safe, it"s friendly! Don"t harm the egg!! Please for the love of G.o.d… Stand. The. f.u.c.k. DOWN!!!"
"Mhmm…" Elizabeth didn"t like this… Here a supposed G.o.d was cursing and yelling at her to stand down as if her actions were completely out of her control. "What the f.u.c.k?" she thought. Shouldn"t they be able to force her to stop? How could these G.o.ds not be able to manipulate her actions? She was just a barely able Level 4 Mortal Stage Pract.i.tioner and even deities could not stop her? That didn"t sound like divine power to her. But given her ingrained fear of the consequences from ignoring these ent.i.ties who were powerful enough to make her life a game, Elizabeth cooled off after running around the cave for a while, with the egg still chasing her.
When Elizabeth felt like she was safe, both from the request and acknowledgment P gave her, and from the fact that the egg had only been rolling behind her this entire time, Elizabeth slowed down her running speed and lowered her weapons. She kept moving away from the egg as she asked P "What do you want me to do with it? Eat it?" It was the only idea Elizabeth could think of when confronting the foreign egg.
Little did she know that her words would spark a deathening tone as P responded with "Eat it? Mortherf.u.c.ker! No!!! Grab it. Hold the egg in her hands, for f.u.c.k"s sake..."
A startling chill crept up Elizabeth"s spine as P"s voice died down from a seething yell to a careless whisper. She dropped her weapons and stopped moving, letting the egg roll up to her legs. Letting it ram at her legs as it appeared to be trying to climb up her body, before wearily catching and lifting the egg up.
When the egg was held in her arms, a frightening flash of weariness took hold of Elizabeth"s body as half her Inner Strength was sucked away. Elizabeth almost dropped the egg from that feeble feeling it had inspired, but she managed to grip it back before losing control. After the egg stole half her reserves of energy, it began to glow auspiciously before dying back down to a completely static and normal looking egg.
Elizabeth looked at the egg which now would not move an inch and felt confused. What was she to do now? Thankfully, now that she was not at the verge of a panic attack, the notifications for her functions started working again, and more specifically, her quest functions began to clue her in as to what she was supposed to do.
[Contract Established!
Hidden Quest: Soulbound Contract (Complete)
Difficulty: Incomprehensible to the user
Objective: Establish a Soulbound Contract with any Demonic Beast
Description: Upon drinking the blood of the user, the unborn "beast egg" before you has agreed to form a Soulbound Contract. Good luck nurturing your first life long beast companion.
Reward: Basic Beast Rearing Manual
**********: Holy f.u.c.k! What great luck you have… Finding and contracting a Demonic Beast at the mere Level of 4? Granted it"s just an egg, it"s still pretty f.u.c.king ridiculous… Huh? What"s this? ********? Why… How… Congrats kid, you"ve managed to be the second person in history that managed to find a ******** tier beast this early on into their run! Hahaha, and I thought that other guy would breeze his way through the Cataclysm with complete ease! HA! Continue onward with your absurd luck and keep acc.u.mulating strength. I want to see a good show~
Pending…
Battle Summaries…
Side Quests…
Choice Quests…
Hidden Quests...]
"What are these pending…" Elizabeth asked, but stopped as she looked through her status overview.
[Status
Quests:
...
Side Quests:
...
*New) Side Quest 5: Queen Of The Forest (Incomplete)
Hidden Quests:
…
*New) Hidden Quest: First Blood/Demon Dawn (Complete)
*New) Hidden Quest: Smith Milestone #1 (Complete)
Choice Quests:
...
*New) Choice Quest 2: Comeuppance (Incomplete)
Battle Summaries:
Forest Of Beginnings:
1) VS 3 Mid-Phase p.a.w.n "Dog" Beasts
2) VS 1 Late-Phase "Snake" Beast.
Side Quest 5: Queen Of The Forest (Incomplete)
Difficulty: D/C
Objective) Outrank all the other ent.i.ties native to the "Forest of Beginnings."
Optional Objective) Defeat the current ruler of the Forest of Beginnings before surpa.s.sing its rank.
Description: Ay~ You made it to the Shadow Realm. Good for you… Now… Go out there and become the best of the best. Start small. As in… at one of the weakest zones in the Shadow Realm Dimension.
Deadline: None
Hidden Quest: First Blood/Demon Dawn (Complete)
Difficulty: F
Objective) Kill something, anything (at Level 1 or higher) for the first time.
Description: Oof, I know it can be tough. You know, killing something when you"ve been raised in a world that admonishes such actions. But hey, you know what? You"ll be killing a lot now that you"re destined to take part in the Cataclysm. Better get used to the action as it surely won"t be the last time you"ll be required to reap a life. Else, it"ll be likely that you"ll be the one to die when the time comes…
Alternate Description: Heh, We all knew you would get around to doing the deed sooner rather than later… You, a demon, obviously wouldn"t waste much time before finding an eyesore needing to be extinguished. Careful not to let your ruthlessness get in the way of your goals, as it would be a shame to see you fall before blossoming into the calamity your path is set for.
Deadline: None
Reward: Situational Augmentation; whatever the outcome of your first killing, what you need the most will be given.
Situation Augmentation: The user has been damaged quite severely as a result of her first battle, thus, the following bonus will be granted to their next meal: Yin Suppression. Yin Suppression provides a gentle yet powerful cold healing effect that heavily suppressed the pain a person experiences; lasts until the effects of the meal wear off.
Hidden Quest: Smith Milestone #1 (Complete)
Difficulty: F
Objective: Forge any armament or piece of ammunition of Low-tier Mortal Grade✔
Description: Dirt Bullet? Nice choice~ Unfortunately, you already have all Mortal Grade Bullet Crafting Recipes in existence, so… What will we do for your reward? Oh! I know just the thing~
Reward: Beginner Forging Kit
Choice Quest 2: Comeuppance (Incomplete)
Difficulty: Varies
Choice 1) Kill just the one that got away.
Choice 2) Make an entire species go extinct.
Description: One does not simply ambush a demon and hope to get away with it; especially if they fail to kill the demon swiftly and surely. As an Apathetic Demon, it is your right to deal with this blatant impudence however you see fit. Sure, you could just let the dog that f.u.c.ked off live the rest of its life in peace; or whatever is closest to peace for a single-digit level mutt as itself. But, you and I both know that s.h.i.t ain"t going to fly… You almost died, and though it was definitely your fault, it still stands that those failures instigated their demise. This is just a test to see how committed to the Demon path you are. Either way, it"s just another day to a demon like you...
Rewards:
Choice 1) Neutral Demon: Good, you chose to return the favor. Though this obviously being an easier task to fulfill when compared to annihilating an entire species, the reward will obviously match the effort you put into your decision.
Choice 1) Reserved until the end~
Choice 2) Ruthless Demon: Good, f.u.c.k them all till their legacy is cut and their heritage lost to the sands of time. Heh, this will be quite the task for a newbie demon such as yourself, but hey they"re all pretty weak. It might take a bit more time to actually follow through with this choice, but I promise you, the rewards will be worth it...
Choice 2) Reserved until the end~
**********: Che! Don"t look so unhappy just cause I won"t let you in on the rewards now! I wouldn"t want to sway your morality — if ever you were to deign possessing one that is… — by incentivizing you to pick either option. Heh, just take it as another detriment to neither belonging to the path of G.o.d nor Devil and be happy that your choices can still be decided not by your path, but by yourself…
Battle Summaries:
1) VS 3 Mid-Phase p.a.w.n "Dog" Beasts
Description: Caught unaware, because of sheer stupidity, young Elizabeth was ambushed by three "dog" beasts and heavily wounded before she managed to kill two of her enemies and caused the third to flee.
Outcome: +.02 Strenght +.05 Speed +.02 Defense
2) VS 1 Late-Phase "Snake" Beast.
Description: After successfully sneaking up before a struggling "snake" beast embroiled in its own special kind of battle, young Elizabeth managed to easily take advantage of the situation and not only kill the snake without sustaining any wounds herself, she also managed to pick up a special egg, which seemed to have been the cause of the snake"s previous troubles…
Outcome: +.01 Strenght +.03 Speed]