Chapter 1203: Chapter 1202: Warning Signs

Today seemed destined to bring a lot of unexpected events.

Hearing Betty’s delighted voice, Gawain’s first reaction was to freeze for a second, then he subconsciously looked at Melita Ponia beside him, only to see this blue dragon lady also staring at him in bewilderment. The two of them stared at each other for several seconds before reacting at the same time. Melita Ponia was the first to speak in excitement: "It’s hatched?! It’s already hatched?"

Gawain immediately followed up: "Is it a boy egg or a gi... is it a boy or a girl?"

Betty shook her head so hard it whooshed: "Not yet, it’s about to hatch. The shell has already cracked—Lady Enya said it’ll come out very soon, so she told me to hurry and inform you..."

"Then let’s go, hurry, hurry," as soon as Gawain heard this he immediately started walking quickly, calling for Melita Ponia to keep up at the same time, "Come on—this is an egg you brought over, after all. The little one can’t not see you after it breaks out of the shell..."

Melita Ponia had already started forward even before Gawain reminded her. At the same time she quickly traced a few magic symbols in the air, speaking rapidly as she matched Gawain’s pace: "I’ll send a message to Nuoletta first, she doesn’t know about this yet..."

The three of them (including one dragon in human form) hurried down the not-so-long corridor, and before long they arrived at the door of the Hatching Room. Before they could push the door open, Gawain heard faint sounds from inside—he seemed to hear some sort of cheerful cry like a young beast’s squeal, along with the flapping of wings or the pitter-patter of wet feet running on the floor, interspersed with Enya’s helpless soothing voice. These sounds immediately made him and Melita Ponia, standing at the door, widen their eyes.

"Already out of the shell?!" Gawain and Melita Ponia exchanged a glance, then simultaneously stepped forward to push the door open—sturdy dragon hatchlings weren’t going to worry about a little cool draft when the door opened.

They stepped into the bright and warm Hatching Room, and the scene inside unfolded before Gawain’s eyes. The first thing he saw was Enya standing in the center of the room, and then he saw a little mini flying dragon covered in fine blue scales perched unsteadily atop Enya’s golden eggshell, baring its tiny fangs and claws. The little one was constantly trying to spread its wings to keep its balance while curiously looking around, carrying that particular sort of cuteness and liveliness that only "younglings" possess.

A smile appeared on Melita Ponia’s face and she subconsciously took a step forward, but before she could actually move, a sharp cry came from under her feet—she and Gawain both looked down in surprise, and saw another blue hatchling, still a bit wet, lying on the floor. The little one raised its head to look at the figures appearing in the doorway, spread its wings and gave them a flap, letting out a series of excited, curious, and smug cries.

Gawain: "?"

Melita Ponia: "?"

Behind them, Betty finally managed to squeeze her head in past the doorframe. The little maid craned her neck to look into the Hatching Room, and after reacting for two seconds, she let out a surprised exclamation: "Wow—"

"Ah, Gawain, and Melita Ponia—you’re here," Enya finally noticed the commotion at the door at this moment. A gentle, smiling voice came from within the golden eggshell, "Welcome—as you can see, things are a bit busy here right now..."

"Why are there two..." Melita Ponia only then processed what she was seeing, muttering in shock, "I remember only bringing one egg..."

The magic symbols on the surface of the golden giant egg flickered faintly, and Enya spoke with a slightly odd tone: "The egg you brought... was a double-yolk one."

"A double-yolk egg can hatch two young dragons?" Gawain immediately felt that something was off the moment he heard this. His mind started working quickly, mulling it over as he muttered, "As far as I remember, double-yolk eggs are practically impossible to hatch because of nutritional supply issues. Let alone hatching two, under normal circumstances you can’t even hatch one..."

Melita Ponia blinked and looked at Gawain curiously: "Are you talking about dragons?"

Gawain thought for a moment: "...I might have been talking about chicken eggs..."

Melita Ponia’s gaze immediately turned strange: "...Are you serious?"

"...We can change the subject." Gawain awkwardly rubbed the bridge of his nose. After quickly gauging the gap between chickens and dragons in his mind, he wisely dropped the topic. But Enya, at the side, spoke up again: "Under normal circumstances, this kind of dragon egg is also very difficult to hatch—even if it isn’t as close to impossible as the double-yolk eggs of... other oviparous creatures, its survival rate is still far lower than that of a normal dragon egg. So back in the old days of Talronde, this kind of egg would be culled before entering the hatching workshops. Of course, the hatching factories are gone now, Talronde urgently needs to restore the Dragonkin population, and these ’special dragon eggs’ that are hard to hatch are not actually impossible to hatch. They are also a precious source of young dragons, so these eggs are still worth incubating..."

As Enya gave her serious explanation, the two energetic young dragons were not idle for even a moment. The little one that had been perched on Enya’s eggshell looking around had already jumped down, and together with the one on the floor, it ran up to the strangers’ feet. They first ran in circles around Gawain and Melita Ponia several times, then dashed off again to gallop around Enya, chasing each other and letting out sharp, high-pitched cries—the strength of dragons was evident even in their childhood; these hatchlings had only just broken out of their shells and their mobility was already astonishing.

After hearing Enya’s explanation, Melita Ponia suddenly showed a somewhat worried expression—as a "Customized Dragon Race" individual born from a biotech company, her level of knowledge in this area was about the same as that of her peers: "Then... there shouldn’t be any health problems with these two little ones that just hatched, right?"

As she spoke, she couldn’t help but lean closer to the young dragon nearest to her—even though nominally she was that hatchling’s "mother," her current demeanor was clumsy and nervous like that of a child.

She carefully took two steps forward, and just as she was about to reach out her hand, the young dragon spread its wings and screeched at her. Melita Ponia immediately tensed up and pulled her arm back.

But the hatchling’s screech wasn’t a threat; it sounded more like a greeting. Seeing Melita Ponia retreat, the little one instead hopped forward two more steps and stretched out its neck—seeing this, Melita Ponia finally mustered up the courage to reach out again, as if touching a fragile porcelain piece, lightly tapping the little one’s head. She felt a layer of warm, fine scales under her fingers. This entirely new sensation made her eyes widen slightly in surprise, and the next moment, she gently smiled.

And right at that moment, she suddenly noticed something unusual about the little one—between a short section of scales from the hatchling’s neck to its back, she saw pale blue streams of light like blood faintly flowing and shimmering. It was a tangible Magic Aurora, flowing along the skin in the gaps between the scales. In the hatchling’s large eyes full of curiosity, she also saw a faint magical gleam, and within that gleam, countless tiny specks of light twinkling like stars.

A normal dragon, even one born with an exceptionally high magical talent, would not show this kind of obvious Magic Power–corrosion mutation right after hatching.

Lady Enya’s voice came from within the golden giant egg at this moment: "Both little ones are very healthy, as you can see—full of life—but you must have noticed those abnormal parts as well."

"What’s going on with these Magic Power corrosion marks?" Melita Ponia gently stroked the neck of one of the Young dragons, a hint of tension in her voice as she looked up at Enya. The other Young dragon was hopping curiously nearby and, after several moments of hesitation, also squeezed under Melita Ponia’s arm. "And in their eyes... is that a physiological mutation?"

"It is indeed Magic Power corrosion, and they were already subjected to it during the dragon egg stage," Enya said slowly. "But you don’t need to be so nervous for now—I’ve already examined both little ones. This corrosion won’t affect their health. In fact, in the long run, this kind of innate Magic Power brand is even somewhat beneficial."

Listening to the conversation between Enya and Melita Ponia, Gawain realized something might have happened. He immediately stepped forward, squatted down beside the two Young dragons, and said, "Melita Ponia, is there a problem—uh, by the way, are these two little ones boys or girls?"

He only now realized he still hadn’t figured out this very crucial question: in the eyes of a human being, the gender of a Dragonkin’s true form was practically impossible to distinguish. In fact, let alone gender—if he didn’t listen to their voices, he couldn’t even tell their faces apart. Once Melita Ponia transformed into her true form and flew into the Dragon Herd, he could never pick her out...

Melita Ponia glanced at Gawain in surprise when she heard this, her tone utterly matter-of-fact: "Two beautiful little girls—can’t you tell?"

Gawain was completely candid: "How could I possibly tell—every dragon looks the same to me, at most the color’s a bit different..."

"This... all right, I suppose that’s understandable," Melita Ponia seemed about to make some snarky comment, but she sighed helplessly before the words came out, then shifted her focus back to the two Young dragons. "It doesn’t seem to be a big problem. The two little ones were probably affected by drastic changes in their environment during the dragon egg stage, so they were born with some Magic Power corrosion marks..."

She hadn’t finished speaking when Enya, at the side, calmly added, "Dragonkin are a race extremely sensitive to the Magic-pervasive environment. Changes in the surroundings during the dragon egg stage easily leave marks on them. In the Ancient Era, this kind of hypersensitive reaction led to the emergence of many Dragonkin sub-species or ’special individuals,’ such as Crystal Dragons, Wind Dragons, Thunder Dragons, and Mountain Dragons. These changes could be good or bad—some gave rise to extraordinarily powerful dragons, while others resulted in severe deformities and very short lifespans.

"But later, with the advent of intelligent incubation technology and factory-style management, this situation gradually disappeared—newborn Dragonkin were uniformly ’standard healthy individuals,’ carefully protected and strictly selected under controlled conditions."

"Now that Omega and the hatching factories are gone, this kind of ’sub-species variation’ that only appeared in ancient times is resurfacing, is that what you mean?" Gawain raised his eyebrows, feeling he had just gained another utterly useless trivia fact. "Then the administrators of Talronde will have to pay attention in the future. It seems traditional incubation really is less reliable than factory methods. Coupled with how complex the environment in Talronde is now, who knows what kind of influence the newborn Young dragons and the unhatched dragon eggs might be subjected to..."

Enya responded with a casual "mm." Whether it was his imagination or not, Gawain felt there was a hint of distraction in that response. This former Dragon God seemed to have recalled something worth worrying about and was weighing and considering it.

Very soon, Gawain’s feeling was confirmed.

"I... might be overthinking, but the Magic Power marks appearing on these two Young dragons do make me somewhat uneasy," a slightly hesitant voice came from within the golden giant egg. "Of course, I’m not worried about their health. They look very healthy—I’m worried about the cause behind this change..."

"The cause behind it?" Gawain spoke without thinking. "Isn’t it just because Talronde’s environment has been filled with all sorts of chaotic magic after that great war..."

"On the contrary, only pure Magic Power, close to the very source, could have triggered the kind of mutation seen on these two Young dragons," Enya cut in before Gawain could finish. "The chaotic magic environment after the war could never produce this kind of ’Magic Power brand’ with such an affinity nature."

From Enya’s tone, Gawain sensed something unusual, and his expression grew serious. "Only stimulation from pure Magic Power close to the source can cause this kind of mutation? You mean..."

"In my memory, something similar has only ever happened in an extremely, extremely ancient age... almost two million years ago now, long before the Voyager visited this planet, back when dragons were still just one of many ordinary races on this world," Enya’s voice sank. One of the Young dragons was using all four limbs and its wings to cling to her eggshell, and she gently swept it down with invisible Magic Power. "Back then, the Dragonkin were still preserving and incubating dragon eggs by primitive means. For a period of time, the northern parts of the mountain range saw a concentrated emergence of many Young dragons similar to these two little ones..."

Gawain frowned, instinctively exchanged a glance with Melita Ponia, then turned to look at Enya: "What happened then?"

"Nothing happened at the time—but not long after, we discovered a massive surge within the ’The Deep Blue Webway’ that runs through this planet. Pure Magic Power surged and leaked between various realms, and afterward it had a far-reaching impact on the global climate. A worldwide rise in Magic Power and extreme climate anomalies lasted for a full ten years."

The Hatching Room fell quiet for a moment. Gawain’s expression became unusually grave, and after a few seconds of contemplation he spoke softly: "The Deep Blue Webway..."

This was a new concept that had only recently entered the sight of the scholars of the Mortal Nations, and one Gawain had heard not long ago from Veronica Moen/Ophelia. It referred to a vast Magic Power system that runs through the planet beneath Gawain’s feet and across multiple realms, like this planet’s "arteries" in the magical sense, supporting the operation of Magic energy on a global scale.

In Gawain’s understanding, it was somewhat like a "Planetary Power System" akin to ocean currents, monsoons, and the geomagnetic field—a "natural mega-structure" unique to this magical world—though it was entirely possible that similar things existed on other planets.

In the distant Gondor Era, the "Well of Deep Blue" that once supported human being civilization at its peak was, in fact, a "large-scale outlet" where this enormous system was exposed in the material world. Human beings drew directly from it the energy of planetary scale—even just a portion of it—enough to allow an entire civilization to stride to the summit.

For this reason, once he recalled how vast and astonishing a thing the "The Deep Blue Webway" was, Gawain instantly grew tense at what Enya had mentioned.

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