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Asking a flavour? More like a quest to test his ability, huh? AJ could tell from their expressions, the unbelieving, disdainful and rejectful sentiment in their eyes which were not unfamiliar. Nevertheless, he was AJ, who loves challenges and adventures. Grabbing some eggs from a steep mountain sounded exciting enough, he beamed and accepted the task, asked for the details and grabbed what might be useful but they didn't need. Something to hold the egg, ropes to assist the climbing job and some more he felt necessary, the boil set off.

The high mountain was visible when one looked up from the village, masked by a thin layer of fog. It took a while to get to the base, in the mid-way, he chatted with the head of what might be happened and the memory of he climbing a hill with a woman for stamina improvement.

There he saw a face he surprised to see, "Maple, why are you here?" he asked. He checked his phone, there was no messages. "Why you didn't call me?" If he were the witch and get lost in an unknown place, he would immediately check his friends' condition. In contrast, the monster who was naturally a loner won't do such a thing by himself. "Anyway, have the villagers asked you to climb the hill and get some eggs as well? We can go together." AJ suggested with his normal gentle smile.

When she took such a long time before she replied, AJ knew she must be either blaming herself or thinking something else. Thus he diverted her from drilling on the said topic. As if he was being asked for a dance, he was amused. "Sure~" he replied in delight.

His nails grew into claws, scales partially covered the forearm to harden and protect his skin. After examined the base, he found a steep slope which was better to climb. "Maple, follow behind me." He caught onto a protruding rock and pulled himself up, then landed his feet on a thin platform of stone. Though steep, the profile of the mountain were actually stair-like, so it allowed rest time before they climbed again. Climbing was an activity used up a lot of stamina as pushing your body up, stretching your arms and spring of your muscles, he was glad some breaks could be possible.

Sometimes, he looked back to check if the witch was having difficulty at some points. As the pioneer, he tried his best to pick the easiest route and carved into the smooth rock surfaces as to make space for their hands to grab. Maple was a witch, unlike him who can dig his claws into the rock, she had to move by catching the protruding parts of the rocks.

"Alright, Maple, let's take a short break here." He suggested when they reached a plain. "I've brought with me simple sandwiches, pick one." He put his bag in the middle between them and picked out some foods.

AJ had his eyes lit with impressiveness over the usage of the broom by Maple and then he laughed at himself for not remembering she could fly on her broom. While Head swallowed a few sandwiches, the boil slowly ate his and smiled at the compliment. "Thank you."

They took a short break after the snack before they continued. One-third they already climbed, the remaining won't be too hard. At one point, he had a thought to switch to his natural form. Yet, the witch not excel in her broom flight skill won't be able to catch him up and he was afraid there might be dangers like feral assaulting. After all they were invading their territories, wild animals have a strong possession on their territories and they better be careful.

They took another break when they reached two-third from the peak, it was important to restore energy in climbing a steep mountain like that. The break, however, was shorter than the first one. It didn't take long to reach their destination.



Securing his egg, he checked with Maple before they went down. As he expected, there were feral blocking their paths. One of them were a giant snake, it might be pissed off when they stepping into its boundary. It hissed and bounced its body at AJ. The boil swiftly evaded with a leap but the angry snake held its grudges. It swatted its tail at AJ's leg but the boil didn't fall.



EGG: 7/10
1/4

AJ had used a net made of rope to hold the egg and then he hung the net onto him with the egg placed in his bosom. Wyvern egg was vulnerable to attacks as they were big, about half of a creepson's body in height and your arms can barely wrap around its radius. "Don't get off from your broom, Maple." said AJ who kicked the snake off the mountain.

"I hope it can fly. Oops." He only realized that after he did it. "The more time we spent, the easier the egg will break, we'd better hurry up, Maple." He jumped down a slope as a short cut, grasping the egg firmly in his arm. A shorter path also meant less encounter with the wild creatures.



EGG: 7/10
2/4

AJ who heard Maple's scream swiftly picked up the snake's tail with both of his arms and swung it out, "So many snakes here, be careful." Maybe he should really switch to his natural form, he pondered. He saw from below, the witch closed her eyes when she jumped. It was dangerous for her to do so so he stepped forward and caught the falling witch within his arms.

"You don't need to jump with me as well." He softly said while letting the ghoul's shoes touching the ground. He snapped his head towards the side abruptly and gently shoved the witch aside. It was another snake who flew like a circle and lunged towards him. "Jeez. Even though my blood is partially serpent blood, this kind of welcoming is going too far......" He hit it like a baseball and it flew off the direction it came.

"Almost there." He checked on the egg with tiny cracks on, he wasn't a good material for bodyguard, he shrugged.



EGG: 4/10
3/4

He noticed her face red as apple but he was too dense to realize the reason, the first woman he approached besides his mother was that free spirited and passionate, like a flame. Therefore, he was oblivious of the intimacy that would make a shy ghoul blush. He just did what he think is the right thing to do, it might reveal a bit of another side of him, that he wasn't born as a gentleman as all.

Amused by the witch, AJ flashed a bright smile when he turned to her. "Isn't it? I guess I'm too charming, finally my popular time comes~" He chuckled happily at his light joke but halted when the sand lobster made an audible sound against her egg. "Is it alright?"

Suddenly the ground shook and noises seemed like footsteps of an army got louder towards their direction. AJ adopted a fighting stance out of instincts for whatever coming. "Maple, please hold my egg for a while," requested by the boil who lunged towards a group of something and began to punch and kick. It was a gang of velociraptors drooling, eyes fixed on their eggs while growling at AJ who attacked them. It was't a long fight as the sneaky minipets knew they had zero chance to steal the eggs from the fierce guy. They fled as one of them fell and flipped over onto the ground.

"Follow me, Maple." He left the words and chased after the velociraptors as if he was a predator. They split up for bigger chance to escape from the scary boil. He jumped up and let himself land on top of one of them with the help of the down going slope. The minipet struggled below him and cried. Only after it was exhausted, he let it go by release the pin-down. It ran for its life.

Turning around, he saw Maple who holding two eggs and beamed at her, "Mission accomplished, good job, Maple." He dusted himself and high-five with the ghoul, the eggs fell were caught by the coiled up tail head which nuzzled up to them affectionately.



EGG: 3/10
4/4

[ Quest Item Herbivore Egg Obtained~! ]

Boil was boil, in which they didn't think carefully and circumspective enough like ghouls do. As for AJ, he was only attentive on two things: battle and baking. Thus poor Maple who followed after AJ, he didn't pay attention or temporarily forget her existence nor the eggs.

When he noticed the scratch marks left on the eggs, he hissed, "Those sneaky little things, they attacked you behind me?" He put his hands on her shoulder and gently checked around her. "Are you hurt? Sorry I get distracted." He sounded like rarely embarrassed and might be blushing. "Forgive me, okay?"

Without waiting for the ghoul's answer, he picked up Maple's hand and interlaced with his. Their eggs - one coiled up by the tail head and another one held by AJ as they trotted back to the village. "Let's see if they will tell us anything."