The next week passed in a blur for Cain. Most of his time was spent in the basement with Cyrene, who had become somehow more clingy than when she decided that she would be his belt, but who was also obsessively protective of her clutch of eggs.

The one most advanced Lamia of the batch was looking close to hatching already, and everyone who Cyrene had allowed in to visit had agreed that it would likely only be a few more days.

The Blood Dancers had actually started to calm down now that they had a steady daily exercise routine that burned off most of that excess energy. They were coming along well, reaching over level 100 already, and in discussions on what way they should go with their First Advancement class. They had a lot of options already, but they were torn between picking their species’ exclusive variant and diversifying their skills.

There were strong arguments to be made on both sides, but the others had left it to decide between themselves. They would keep gaining skill points that they could use after they picked, so it didn’t matter that their class was capped out for a little while, they just had to be sure that they were going to be happy with their option.

Jin, the dragonkin Mage, was also getting close to level 100, but that was mostly due to a Quest Reward that she had gotten from the tower. It had increased her quality level to Epic, which triggered the System to start passively granting her experience to help her level up. The rate of adaptation didn’t seem much, if any, slower than the Blood Dancers, despite the difference in quality, and the experience gear that Cain had given her had made a huge difference at the start.magic

That helped her close the gap with the ten Blood Dancers, who were her new rivals in the tower. The quest was a secondary concern for them all now, the real challenge was to beat each other and level up. Those few hours when one sister would level up before the others would allow them to brag all day about being the most talented and fastest progressing member of the group.

Jessica was further behind, but also much more relaxed. She spent her days wandering the valley looking for people to help and granting blessings to the travelers. Her blessings were no joke either. They were almost all fertility-related, or healing blessings, but the potency had turned out to be incredible.

She had a blessing that would shorten a pregnancy by over half if cast at the start, and the farmers loved it. Less time immobilized meant more time to take care of the other kids and the chores that needed doing around the house.The only issue she had found so far were those with nefarious intentions for her blessings. A few merchants had gotten the idea to head north to the Steppes between Skyview and the Demon Kingdom, where many of the migratory Clans still kept slaves, then use the Blessings of the Bunny God to help increase their numbers and restore failing tribes through the slave population.

Needless to say, that resulted in a thorough beating by the representative of the Bunny God and a repeat performance from everyone they passed on their way out of the valley. Most of them didn’t even know what the Merchants had asked, but if it was bad enough for a Bunny to beat them, they deserved what they got. At least in the mind of the villagers.

The situation on the Southern Continent was also getting strange, with random disappearances, unpredictable Monster Hordes, and assassination attempts. Cain was heading there very soon, he just had to wait for the Lamia eggs to hatch, so that he didn’t crush Cyrene’s delicate heart by rushing away to fight monsters when she really needed him.

Cain suspected that this was what it should have been like with Misha, during the later part of her pregnancy at least, if she had not been abducted by the Ancients. He had a feeling that she was still doing well, but without a way to contact her, there wasn’t anything to do about it yet.

“Why does everything need to happen all at once?” Cain asked Cyrene, petting her head as she relaxed in her nest of magical items.

“I have no idea. Things were so normal for so long, and everything was going to plan, then suddenly, I went into heat, new people started appearing everywhere, and chaos.” Cyrene agreed.

At least she hadn’t seen any disturbing visions of danger lately. She had been thinking ahead to the battles that might be necessary once they left the nest, but nothing had come into her visions that seemed threatening.

It was in the middle of lunch when they least expected it that that Ancient Quality egg decided that the time was right to begin to hatch. The sound of an egg cracking was soon joined by the sound of claws against steel and the rasping of scales on eggshells.

“Who made this Damnable thing so difficult to get out of? Is this some sort of extreme challenge? I swear by the Gods I am going to bite someone the moment I get out of here.” A tiny voice rose from the nest, making Cain laugh.

“So there is someone awake out there. Get me out of this egg, I’m stuck and it is stupidly hard. What did they even make this thing out of?” The voice asked again, and Cain reached past the shocked Cyrene to gently pluck the egg out of the nest.

With something for her four arms to grab onto, the tiny creature pulled herself free and Cain saw what the problem was. While shifting in the egg, she had gotten herself tangled, and the curled part of her body wouldn’t fit through the hole she had made.

Cain carefully laid her out on his palm, while he broke away the bits of egg, setting them aside for later inspection, and untangled the foul-mouthed child.She looked a lot like Cyrene, with alabaster skin, pink hair, and a long white body, but the patterns on her scales were golden instead of red.

“So, you actually survived and stuck around? I might not know much, but I am pretty sure that Lamia are supposed to kill their mates once they’ve drained them dry.” The young girl, no thicker than Cain’s index finger in his human form and shorter than his forearm, asked him with a confused look.

“Species memory? That’s impressive. But no, there is little to no chance of me being killed off.” Cain laughed, stroking her back and causing her to give off a contented purr.

“Put me back in the nest, I need to grab some weapons and deal with the competition.” She demanded, pointing back toward the other eggs.

“We don’t do that anymore either. There is more than enough to go around, so you will let your sisters grow up.” Cain informed her.

“Strange. Who are you then? Other than half of my genetic code that is.” She asked.

“I am the Ancient, Cain. I don’t know if your species memories tell you about my people.” Cain informed her, while Cyrene was still staring in awe.

Demons that could speak at birth were quite common, especially in the older and more powerful species, but the fact that she was staring and her and Cain’s child having a conversation with the man she loved was breaking her mind. It was too much for her to process today.

“Here, put this on. I will give you some armor and a weapon, so you don’t have to bite anyone that threatens you. It wouldn’t work well anyhow, most Lamia don’t have teeth.” Cain pointed out.

“I have fangs. Unlike Mother dearest, I’m half you, so I got a few benefits, like poison and extra arms. How about four short swords? I’m pretty sure it would work well.” She told Cain smugly.

“We should pick a name for you as well. Everyone needs a name.” Cain told her, moving her close enough to touch a piece of metal armor, assuming she could equip it.

“Huh? What does it mean I can’t use it until I have a name? I don’t need a name, I need a sword. Stupid voice in my head, understand that.” The girl muttered, finally snapping Cyrene from her stupor.

“How about we call you Luna? I think Luna would be an incredible name.” Cyrene suggested weakly.

“I like it. I will conquer everything from here to the Moon, so Luna is a perfect name.” Luna declared happily, making Cain smirk and Cyrene facepalm.

“She really is your daughter, isn’t she Cain? Well, my little warmonger, how about you pick a class so you can get started on your ambitions of world domination?” Cyrene laughed at the tiny girl’s optimism.