Seeing the oval object on the table in front of him, Manilyn put on his glasses to get a better view. Suddenly he was startled to be faced with the complexity of that Egg in front of him.
"Oh! Do you know what kind of Egg this is, half-beast?"
"I don't know. Maybe you can tell me?"
"I'll do my best to do that."
Then Manilyn took out from one of the desk drawers a small magnifying loupe and began to analyze the surface of the Black Egg. At the same time as he was inspecting it, the old man gently ran his left hand over the shell and sometimes gave it small thuds, which resonated in a hollow sound.
On this occasion, Luke did not turn away from Manilyn as he did at the turn of the Elixirs of Flamel. He was really as curious about that Egg as it was possible to be.
"Have you been warned about the possibility that this is a Summoning Egg?" inquired Manilyn after finally finishing his first analysis with the magnifying glass.
"Yes, and in fact, I'm rooting for it to be precisely that." Luke revealed truthfully."I've been with it for a few weeks and it just came back into my possession."
"Well... the person who told you it might be a Summoning Egg is certainly very intelligent and has great knowledge. Because there are few people who believe in Summonings, and even fewer who know that a Summoning can be born from an egg also."
"Also? You mean there are other ways Invocations can be born?" Luke asked, confused.
Even though he never talked to Alexis about how she gained Koven, he naturally thought it was from an Egg, and he also deduced that she didn't comment on the Black Egg because of the mess they were in.
Manilyn took off his glasses and crouched down to open the lowest drawer of that table.
"Yes, there are two ways to obtain an Invocation. The first and most commonplace is how to gain a Pansperm Weapon, and the second is through an Egg found in the Dungeon, which can be either a monster Egg, which can be worth up to a dozen gold coins, or a Summoning Egg."
After that, the old man pulled a hammer out of the drawer he was digging in and placed it on the table.
"If we want to find out which it is, we'll have to try to open it. Is that all right with you?"
The half-wolf hesitated and pondered for a few seconds, but gave in when he realized he had no alternatives. "Fine, do whatever you need."
In this way, for the next few minutes, Manilyn tried various ways to penetrate the shell of the Black Egg without compromising everything. In case the Summoner was still a fetus, and they broke through the entire shell, the fetus would die within minutes.
Using small blades, chisels, pointers, and even a hammer, the old man tried to break a small part at the top of the Egg, but to no avail.
"That's definitely not a bird's Egg. There is still a test I can do, however, I didn't want to do it before because I thought it was better to try other tricks because of the risk of exploding the Egg."
Manilyn said as he turned to Luke and looked into his eyes.
"What kind of test is this?"
"I'll use an ability to try to see what's inside the Egg, but that ability doesn't always work out. There was one time when I blew up a whole sheep... That room was all covered in blood and guts."
Luke's eyes widened, and once again, he hesitated. "If you can't see what's inside without opening the shell, you want to see through the shell. Are you sure you can determine the difference between a summoning fetus and that of a monster?"
" Absolutely... I have not been the Director of Oukiwa Academy for twelve years without knowing about that sort of thing."
Luke nodded and turned away from the old man without expressing his surprise at the fact revealed. "You can take that test."
So the old man, whose beard was longer than the hair on his head, took a few steps back, held out his hands and muttered:
"<Avsl?rer Livet>."
From Manilyn's palms, a kind of energy surged out and gripped the Black Egg tightly. Concentrating, he tried to control the strength of the ability to avoid exploding the Egg while lifting the egg high into the air. Gradually, the orange energy enveloped the Egg and glowed brightly. The old man finally opened his eyes when he felt that he had managed to stabilize the strength of the skill.
"Look half-beast, it's about to happen." spoke Manilyn in a hopeful and anxious tone of voice.
Luke looked at the Black Egg and slowly saw its color change; in fact, the shell seemed to be disappearing, and the yellowish liquid inside came into emphasis. A few moments later, one could clearly see a tangle of blood rays and a large black dot for the most part.
Then Manilyn carefully returned the Egg to the table and deactivated his ability.
"It's a fertile egg, right?" Luke inquired.
Removing his glasses from his face, Manilyn approached the table again and touched the Egg. "I have no doubt that it is a fertile egg and that it is also a summoning egg that will hatch in the coming weeks. Congratulations, you are a very lucky man."
At that moment, Luke almost smiled with joy, but reminded himself that he would probably have to carry this thing from one corner to the other from now on. Manilyn returned the Black Egg to the half-wolf's hands and asked:
"Is that all you needed to know about?"
"No, because this was actually a secondary request... I don't want to abuse your generosity, but Ayumi said that maybe you could help, and I don't doubt that after what I saw you do just now."
"That's fine; you can ask anything. There's still half an hour left until my teatime." Manilyn spoke after looking at the time on his wristwatches.
Then, Luke commented about the buzzing sounds he heard, his dreams, and the sensations he felt. He did not spare any details and told about how his mind became foggy and that it was not the first time he felt this way.
Curious, Manilyn smoothed his beard as he listened and invited Luke to leave the Summoning Egg on the table and follow him.
Certainly, the half-beast obeyed the old man and followed him to the library in the basement, which was where they had met last time.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l