A Sinner’s Chance

Arya and I stayed hidden away for nearly a week testing various other things my Skill might allow. There wasn't much past the first day, but we did find out a few more interesting, yet somewhat disturbing uses. It took me some time to get used to producing eggs, it was a strange process that used a set of ovary-like organs to condense my mana into the eggs, if I really concentrated I could somewhat determine the direction the egg would take when it was born.

On the third day while Arya was making dinner, I had a bizarre thought that I blurted out carelessly. "Do you think they're edible?"

Arya froze as she processed my question, before turning to look at me, her face distorted with utter disbelief. "Come again?"

"The eggs. Do you think we could cook them like normal eggs? I mean, I know that the inside is slightly, okay, extremely bizarre, but it's still an egg, probably."

Arya was speechless at my words but I told her it was just a stray thought and forgot about it, until Arya brought it up in the morning. "Your question bothered me all night. Hand one over."

It took me a moment to remember what she was referring to, but once I did I couldn't help but be shocked as I waved a hand. "No, no, no. It was a hypothetical question. You know, like asking if you'd eat your best friend to live if the both of you were stranded on an inescapable island."

"That's strangely specific, and not a situation we'd ever run into, but testing your eggs is a different matter. Just because it came from your body doesn't make it any less of an egg. Just like when we Elves harvest and store breast milk for emergencies, or the death of a mother. Surely you wouldn't turn down the chance to drink my milk? Actually now that I think about it, most of the milk in the village comes from the women."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing coming from Arya's mouth, but it wasn't like she was wrong. The conventions of human society made me think it was wrong, but apparently Elves were all about recycling. It also solved the mystery of why the milk here had been so good when I usually didn't really have a taste for it, I'd simply thought it was just the way the Elves got it was better, or their cows were healthier.

It took some time for me to come to terms with what we were about to do, but I did eventually cave to Arya and gave her an egg which she promptly fried up. It took a surprisingly long amount of time to fry, all of which I spent pacing around wondering what I was doing with my life, until Arya called me over.

There was only one word to describe the sight before me. Unappetizing. Had it been a normal egg I think it would have been just fine, but with the dark purple egg-like thing that was in front of me, it was hard to think about it any other way. I gave Arya a dubious look as we both took a piece and put it in our mouths.

It was unbelievable, I had never tasted anything like it, so I did as anyone would and spit it out before I heaved whatever was in my stomach. There wasn't really a word to describe the foulness that had just been in my mouth. Arya seemed to think the same way as we looked at each other, it was not edible. In addition to being rubbery, any pressure that you exerted on it caused a jelly like ooze to seep out of it, neither of which were any good.

However, the worst thing about this was the fact that I could absorb sustenance from it, just as I did from blood, semen, and other bodily fluids. If I was somehow unable to access any other form of sustenance, I could convert mana into eggs and eat them to live, something I sincerely hoped would never occur.

After the incident with the inedible egg, Arya left any strange question I had alone, while I did my best not to suggest anything too bizarre. However, the final thing we found out about the Skill was both extremely useful, while being something I was unsure how to feel about. We knew that the eggs were basically inert, and it had taken quite some time to figure out the conditions to activate the egg.

Since the Skills description didn't specify anything we wanted to narrow down what could and couldn't be 'impregnated' so to speak. It turned out that when the Skill had said it would parasitize surrounding structure for an artificial womb, it meant what it said. It didn't matter if the material was alive, dead, organic, or inorganic, as long as there was a sufficiently tight space, an inch of material would be converted into a fleshy womb like area. The time it took to do so depended on the material, things with life force, such as plants, and presumably creatures, were the quickest, followed closely by undead, then dead organic material, with inorganic materials taking the longest.

The most interesting thing was that inorganic material such as stone, didn't actually produce a hatchling, rather, after a few hours the egg would shatter and would fuse into the stone, becoming a golem of sorts. It remained in whatever shape it started out in, but could be ordered to alter its shape, which it could do with great precision. It was when I saw this that I thought that I could use this method to make a factory, or even smaller enchantments, I wasn't able to test currently, and likely wouldn't be able to for awhile, but the prospect intrigued me.

It was also strange that the longer it took a material to create a womb, the quicker the egg would hatch. Dead creatures were much like inorganic material in that the egg didn't actually hatch but would fuse into the corpse, bringing it back to a semblance of life, though the missing flesh was replaced with purple flesh, and no skin or fur would be produced, so it looked more like a bizarre parasite had taken over dead creatures body more than anything.

Unfortunately, both the undead and living subjects took far too long to hatch, so we were unable to see what they made, but I had a feeling that it would have been a similar situation and created more golem like creatures. I couldn't be sure, but I felt that an important factor was the intelligence and strength of the host, but I wasn't willing to test that theory on anyone at the moment, but if I were to get my hands on some criminals, I wouldn't be against making them test subjects.

When we were packing up and cleaning the area as we planned on leaving, Arya called me over to look at her Status. "I think those hatchlings count as monsters, look, my Experience has increased, not massively, but still."

I was shocked to know that the hatchlings counted as monsters, but checking my Status revealed that it was likely since my Experience value had also risen. Though I also noticed I had gained two more ominous Titles, Kin Slayer and Kin Eater. I couldn't help but groan as I saw them and checked them with Seshat's Library.

'Kin Slayer: A heretical Title granted to those who willingly killed their own Kin without remorse or a righteous reason. Enhances overall strength when dealing with other Kin, and increases the effectiveness of intimidation against Kin."

"Kin Eater: A heretical Title granted to those who willingly ate a piece of their Kin. Increases the sustenance gained from consuming from Kin."

I didn't really treat the unintelligent and monstrous hatchlings I'd created as Kin, but it seemed that whatever System was in place here didn't particularly care, though the effects of the Titles wasn't actually that bad, in fact Kin Slayer sounded like it would be useful in the Forest of Darkness. We were going to talk to my biological father, who likely counted as my kin, since we were related.

I'd already gotten so used to gaining Titles and Skills that made me seem like a terrible being, so I just hid them from my Status Plate and continued on helping Arya clean the secluded area. We planned on staying a few more days before setting off, first hitting the clearing the hunter had told me about, and then making our way to the Forest of Darkness.