The Gene Gamer

Following the first crack, it spread like a spider web as from the tiny crack only a few millimeters size, it spread to the whole egg. It went from a few millimeters to hundreds of meters in a matter of minutes! 

This speed was fast. 

But considering it had probably existed for hundreds of years and just needed the spiritual energy to develop and hatch, it was reasonable.

So with a crack, the cracks spread all over the egg and as soon, it began to collapse. First, just a piece fell off. From its size, nothing beyond it could be seen; however, as more pieces started to fall off, Cylius could slightly see the internal structure. 

The egg contained a kind of blue liquid along with slightly darker blue vessels inside. Just like the inside of a bird egg except that it was only the liquid and the vessels and their colors were blue. 

From what he perceived, the vessels carried the nutrition from outside, to deliver them to the creature inside while the liquid was preserving the state of the baby, protecting it from getting polluted or getting into a bad state. 

As more and more pieces fell off, the whole structure was gradually revealed to Cylius. These vessels connected to a single creature; a tiny creature. This creature wasn't big, only the size of a palm at most yet, it still absorbed all of the nutrients thrown into it. 

Just imagine, that such a creature was contained in a mountain-sized egg. Just like an ant compared to an elephant.

The sight of hundreds of thousands, millions of vessels connecting to this single creature was unique. Well, the vessels combined with each other before they connected to the creature so the baby wasn't fully covered by it; the combined vessel's size didn't get larger even if the vessels were the same size as it. 

All of the liquid along with the vessels was also losing energy, as they were becoming drier by the second. 

In the end, when all of the pieces had fallen off, all of the liquid had dried and the vessels fell to the ground, looking just liked dried leaves. 

Along with the vessels was the tiny creature. The pile of dried up vessels covered it now, making people not see it. 

'It may be in a weak state' thinking of this, he slowly walked up to it before starting to remove the vessels. "Rustle rustle" the sound continuously echoes within the cave as the vessels faded upon touch.

Within a few seconds, Cylius had succeeded in removing the dried up vessels and was currently holding the creature within his hands. Holding the little creature, he analyzed it closely. 

The creature had a snake body that was now lying motionlessly along with a pair of bat wings. In other words, a winged serpent; a common creature. Maybe there were some mutations resulting in it not having legs and horns like its mother.

Going into its body with his perception, he analyzed its bloodline; the result shocked him.

This creature didn't have the bloodline of a dragon or any special thing that would result in it becoming a high-tier runic existence. Just it not having the bloodline of a dragon was a huge difference. 

The creature he had picked, a winged serpent; it was just a serpent that could fly. It didn't have anything special or unique about it while dragons were mythical creatures that were considered the lord of creatures. 

Creatures of a noble bloodline.

Each and every dragon, they were masters and lords in the elements they have. For example, fire dragons could incinerate a whole mountain while just being a child while newborn water dragons would always have the large body of waters fawning upon them, following its orders. 

Thinking now, it felt somehow reasonable now. Its mother, a mighty second stage third-tier creature, might have been the guardian of this planet. If so, things could be reasoned. 

When a creature is chosen by the planet as the guardian, the planet will give it strength and also form a bond with it. A bond, also a contract. Just like a puppet, it will bear the planet's consciousness and be bound by countless shackles and rules. 

It couldn't have its own free will; it was like its body was shared by it and the planet. 

But at the cost of this, it would be able to gain immense strength, a thing that most creatures desired of. Cylius also desired immense strength but definitely wouldn't do something as foolish as this. 

The reason he desired strength was so that he could enjoy his time later. If the cost was his free will, he wouldn't want the strength at all. 

So, since the body was robbed by the planet consciousness, its bloodline would also disappear. 

So this creature not having any bloodlines was reasonable. In fact, it was a wonder how it even had this creature. 

But since this false domain being gave birth to this, its descendant gotta be extraordinary. Although it didn't have any bloodline that could help it reach a certain realm, it had a unique body that could absorb the surrounding spiritual energy and even rune strings to strengthen itself. 

Since it didn't have any bloodline too, it would also be the origin of its own bloodline and advance endlessly without being shackled by it. 

But weren't humans like that too? It was just slightly special from humans because it could absorb rune strings. Well, it had a somehow strange body too. A body that consisted of energy and blood and flesh.

It also didn't have any affiliated element; he guessed it might have the water element as the main, but it didn't. 

There were good and bad sides, this was true. But the good wasn't enough for him to raise it. He was going to sell it off later. Might just fetch him quite an amount of money; creatures like these were rare after all. 

*Sigh* 

All those expectations, what were those for? 

Anyway, he had to move on. He can't dwelve on every single matter. There were bound to be ups and downs in life. This time, the hope he carried just turned out to be false. 

Just as he was thinking about this, the creature awakened. 

As its closed eyes opened up, a pair of blank eyes welcomed him. It was devoid of color, with only the faint yet clear outline of the thin vertical pupil.

After looking at him for a while, its blank eyes suddenly brightened up. Its eyes were now clear, looking at him in a somehow strange way. Did it recognize him as its mother? 

Well, no matter. He could just erase the memory later anyway. 

While still lying on his palm, the wings suddenly twitched. Contracting his skin, it felt strange and it made a slight noise as if rubbing two things together.

After a good three minutes, it had finally familiarised itself with its whole body as it had stood up on its four legs. 

With its slithering snake body, its head jerked up. Looking around the skeleton of its dead mother, an unknown glint flashed through its eyes as it got ready to soar. The next moment, its wings flapped as its tiny body suddenly got up in the cave. 

With a woosh, it created a strong wind as it got up into the cave. It was quite talented in using and distributing its force as it managed to swiftly control its body with just a few flaps. 

Not only did it become incredibly familiar in using its body, but it also seemed to be very sensitive to various kinds of energy. Not just spiritual energy or rune strings alone, it was able to locate the elements and then pinpoint the core locations and go there. 

Wherever he went, the energy there would also decline rapidly; this one had absorbed them all. Through absorbing them, although small, it was able to slightly increase in size. 

Just a bit though. 

Just then, his pupils shrank as his heartbeat suddenly stopped. 

The winged serpent was now on one of the rib bones of its dead mother. The domain protection didn't do a thing at all! 

Maybe its mother wanted it to devour her remains and grow up or it had a special ability that could disregard certain forcefields... 

"Crap" In both cases, this was a bad thing. He had to stop it. 

With the thought in mind, his body jerked up as he immediately went to open a new dimensional passage. Yet, due to the effect of the domain, his powers had weakened and the dimension and other forces were also suppressed to the limit. 

He couldn't open them at all.

He couldn't even use them right now. The difference between a second stage third-tier and a semi converted second-tier was huge after all. If not for his Thousand Eyed Ghost bloodline and his already runified body, he would even be uncertain of whether he would be able to see the dimension.

So he could only go through the brute way of flying. But, the distance was a few kilometers, with his current state it would at least take ten minutes to reach there. 

He can't get in time to stop it. 

So, with a reluctant gaze, he could only view as this serpent absorbed all of the energy within its mother's body. 

He was shocked seeing this, not going to lie. He witnessed every single rune string and spiritual energy contained within this dragon's body. He even saw the domain moving strangely, as it entered the snake's body.

The skeleton covering several kilometers were now useless.

Its protection had been taken away from it and the mighty aura it exuded had now faded. It seemed like just with a little wind, it would break down and turn into dust. 

The winged serpent didn't seem to hold any thought about its actions at all. It just stood there as its body enlargened to a large size. It was now the size of a mountain and had reached the peak limit break stage.

It was just a hair away from reaching the second-tier but this distance also represented an unsurpassable line that can't be crossed unless one comprehended a rune. 

Although it seemed like it would reach the realm not long after. Maybe a few minutes.

As the force that was suppressing him was now gone, he immediately teleported to where it was and caught it fiercely. 

It didn't struggle. 

Its mountain-sized body wasn't of any use as it was locked in the air, grabbed by an invisible hand of Cylius.

The benefits were huge but it was now gone, all absorbed by this little creature. 

Looking at the creature with a cold gaze, a thought emerged in his mind. 

Should he kill it?

He had no qualm killing it. He killed before and he could do the same to do this one no matter how affectionate it was to him.

But once this thought emerged, it was immediately denied. Previously, he thought that it was useless to him but now that it had absorbed the remains of a false domain existence, it might just have a chance to advance to the third-tier. 

Since it didn't have any bloodline limit, he could keep it as his pet or companion creature. 

Also, he can't get the domain and rune strings from it now. He suspected it had already been turned into nutrition to it. The nutrition might just be only beneficial to this creature, not to him. So even if he killed it and got it, it might have no use. 

Then, he would've lost a potential third-tier and got nothing. He could only regret it then. 

Anyway, this creature was now far too valuable to be sold. The price of it would be immensely little compared to what it had devoured. Since it had this strange ability to devour the remains of such a powerful creature, it was worth investing in.

With this thought, he looked directly at the serpent, their eyes meeting. 

Through this, he was able to discern that this creature thought of him as its mother since it first saw him. Since it was loyal, he would keep it. 

Upon deciding, his grasp suddenly weakened as the serpent moved closer to him. 

"Shree" Just as it was flying, the screech of the mermaid came out. And what came flying was the serpent. 

Its mountain-sized body came close to him as its giant head rubbed against him. In return, he also caressed the head of the serpent before deciding on a name. 

"You would be Fey from now on"