What Is Honey? (2)

For starters, the item’s grade is Ancient.

Considering that the Ancient Black Dragon was clearly the same grade before, it’s presumed to be immensely valuable.

But the problem is….

‘I haven’t heard anything about this, and there’s no supplemental explanation on how to use a soulstone or the like.’

That’s right.

Eat a soulstone? What if it shatters my mind?

Or what, attach a soulstone to a weapon or armor?

Just in case, I grabbed the soulstone and used the identify command, but no recipe came up.

It’s a good item, but since I don’t know how to use it I’ll just have to keep it until I meet Ludicer.

“Tsk.”

Clicking my tongue lightly, I put it in my inventory with the box; the gardener stepped up and stood one step behind me, as if to say he was ready.

With that, we moved to the next destination.

The dungeon we entered the same way as before was a maze.

A simplified maze. It was clearly a dungeon of Spatium.

I have the talent ‘Space Domination’, Guardian’s Battlefield Analysis, and crucially the necklace gave me a rough direction to go, so it didn’t take long to get through the maze.

“I’ve heard tales of many Messengers of the gods, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone as versatile as Kim Han. Truly impressive.”

I gave a small smile at the gardener’s excited words, felt embarrassed, and hurried along.

A room arranged as if someone had lived there until yesterday. At the end of the maze was a room that could be mistaken for an office.

“Oh!”

Watching the gardener find the Creator even in the smallest things, I let out a barely audible sigh and approached the office desk.

On the desk were a small jewelry box and a book.

An explanation that it cannot be made into a skill book.

I picked up the thick book and opened the first page, and an unexpected name appeared.

I, the master of the battlefield, Spatium, write this.

‘Master of the battlefield. And the book’s title is “Never Losing”… So is this a book about military strategy?’

As expected, when I turned the first page it detailed the ally and enemy situations in battle, troop numbers, the number of superhumans, and explained in detail how the battle was fought and why.

‘This book… I’ll read it carefully and then hand it to Lee Hyo-ju. Speaking of which, Spatium and Lee Hyo-ju…’

A certain phrase popped into my head, and I couldn’t help but let out a wry laugh in disbelief.

‘The timing of heaven is not as good as the advantage of the land, and the advantage of the land is not as good as the harmony of people.’

It’s a saying from Mencius; in my previous life Lee Hyo-ju said it summarizes time, space, and military morale.

Time, space, and those who wage war. Perhaps all expressions of war.

Did Spatium become the god of space because of such deep meaning?

Putting aside idle thoughts, I moved toward the final dungeon.

Mors’s and Spatium’s dungeons were clearly marked, and since the Blue Dragon Heart had been dealt with by Aetas in the first dungeon, the remaining one should be Genesis’s dungeon. Besides, Genesis’s dungeon was said to have an egg.

I walked a little faster toward where the necklace pointed, thinking about the conversation I had with Genesis as I went.

“By the way, Genesis, what reward do you have in your dungeon?”

“Ah…! An egg, an egg!”

“What? That thing… whew… what kind of egg?”

“Hehe. You’ll know when you see it. But you won’t be disappointed!”

At the time I almost seriously hit her.

Of course I still didn’t much like her, but having gotten more than expected from the other three gods’ dungeons, I was full of anticipation heading to Genesis’s dungeon.

The necklace guiding us finally pointed to a lake.

I wondered if it meant we should go into the lake; looking at the necklace, it trembled and pointed to the middle of the lake.

“…It seems we have to go inside.”

“Yes. Don’t worry about me.”

With the gardener answering readily, the decision was made: we’d go in.

As I put the necklace on and was about to dip a foot into the lake, the calm surface violently rippled, the lake split, and stairs appeared.

“Whoa?”

“Oh… just as I thought…!”

With the gardener’s exclamation, we stepped onto the revealed stairs and slowly descended into the lake.

A tall curtain rising beside the stairs kept the water out, but the damp steps made it clear we were entering beneath the lake.

The passageway we entered was spotless as if someone had been maintaining it, and the magic lamps were functioning normally.

A place so orderly it felt like walking a hallway in a mansion in Exorsus existed beneath a lake?

Beyond being strange, I felt Genesis’s dungeon might be a bit over the top compared to other gods’ arranged opportunity dungeons.

It’s not just on the lakebed; it’s a place where a divine object like the necklace you’re wearing is required to open the door.

While entertaining that silly thought about bias, we finally arrived at the room with the last treasure.

There were no guardians protecting the treasure. No traps.

On a small altar glittering stones were placed, and on top of them sat a truly large purple egg.

No—can that even be called an egg? It’s half my body size.

I slowly approached the altar. Just in case, I gathered a lot of divine power in my hand as usual and picked up the purple egg.

Crack—crinkle—gloooow—

The moment I grabbed the egg a small spark flew, and as if nothing had happened it began absorbing the divine power surrounding my hand.

Before I even had time to panic, I adjusted the amount of divine power leaking out to avoid overloading the divine power core, and after a while the purple egg trembled as if it had eaten its fill.

At that moment I seriously considered whether to eat it soft-boiled or not….

Clicking my tongue, I used identify, and unexpectedly a rush of item information popped up.

“How many minutes?”

It still said 15 minutes.

I wondered what was going on; lifting the egg from the altar I was surprised at how light it was, and even more startled by the ‘crack’ sound coming from it.

“Uh, ugh!”

The gigantic egg began to crack from the top.

Unable to set it down and hesitating whether to keep holding it, I stood awkwardly and broke out in a cold sweat.

Whether an egg hatches, an animal gives birth, or a person, in my fifty-five-year life across lifetimes I had never seen anything like this happen before my eyes, and certainly not on my own hands.

Lack of experience. That made me even more flustered.

Actually, there wasn’t much I could do.

With the egg cracking, the only thing an inexperienced person like me could do was to endure a stable fifteen minutes as best as possible.

And pray.

Hurry up and let fifteen minutes pass so whatever it is comes out already.

Fifteen minutes that felt like fifteen hours passed, and the thing that smashed out, scattering the egg everywhere, was wriggling with its eyes not yet fully open.

It had a body that was overall purple, like a miniature dragon.

No wonder the egg felt light 6the creature inside was that small.

Curled up, the creature was the size of a bowling ball.

It writhed on my palms for a long time as if feeling my body heat, and finally opened its eyes.

“…Gya?”

“……”

I felt embarrassed and awkward to the point of not knowing what to do at the stare of a creature I couldn’t communicate with.

The creature straightened up and stared at me with eyes huge for its face.

It still wore shards of the broken shell like a hat on its head, and looked up at me with watery, pitiful eyes.

Curled up it was only the size of a bowling ball or slightly larger. Far too small to be called a ruler of the skies or a wielder of breath.

Feeling inexplicably sorry, I supported it with one hand and stroked its forehead with a finger; seeming pleased, it closed its eyes and smiled.

“Hooh?”

The gardener, who came over curious, seemed not to know what a Purple Dragon was and just stared in wonder.

He tried to get its attention from the side, but the Purple Dragon’s gaze was fixed solely on me.

Only then, in the bright light, did I manage to properly examine its body.

After a quick cleansing spell to tidy it up, I saw it had skin a shade darker than purple.

“Ugh… You want me to raise this?”

“Gyaa?”

“No. What did you do wrong? Let’s go together.”

“Gyaa, gyaa!”

Though absurdly smaller than other dragons, it’s not so tiny that it would flail wildly on my palms.

But with its short legs it expressed joy by trying to hop around, so I had to be careful it didn’t fall.

The creature leapt about for a long time and then flapped its small wings for a while 6Guardian even performed trajectory analysis.

Of course, its heavy body was too much for those little wings to lift.

But soon strength returned to its marble-sized pupils, and it began to clamber up my arm with little grunts.

“…Where are you trying to go?”

“Gyaa! Gyaa!”

It seemed to be saying not to question it.

It seemed to be heading for my shoulder, so I grabbed its tail and placed it there; the tiny thing let out a big sigh.

“Oh-ho!”

Even the gardener clapped and called it cute, but apparently the shoulder wasn’t its destination after all.

It got up again and began squirming, grabbing at my hair.

I didn’t want to put this big thing on top of my head.

But it whined so much I had no choice; placing it on my head, it stretched out its limbs, flattened its belly, and made itself comfortable as if it owned my hat.

The gardener laughed for a long time at how cute and funny it looked, then handed over an apple.

Feeling embarrassed, I took out a robe and put it on, flipped the hood over my head, and covered the creature on my head with the robe in case it was cold.

“Gyaa~”

It smiled like an innocent infant and then settled down comfortably to sleep on my head.

Feeling its rumbling breaths, I couldn’t help but smile. An unexpected little family member had grown by one.

“By the way, what does this thing eat to grow?”

Moving in a way that wouldn’t disturb it, I put the remaining top-grade attribute stones and the Holy Power Core into my inventory.

After a final look around and leaving the dungeon, it had been less than ten minutes since the Purple Dragon hatched.