The mermaid frowned. "Huh? Didn't you say scaly eggs? I brought it just like you said."
Isaac handed the oranges in both hands to Alyna. Leaving one orange in his hand. The demonesse hissed, but she followed the game.
He entered the lake, approaching the mermaid. This time he examined the egg closely. His hands twirled them.
Isaac shook his head.
"This isn't the egg I meant, but I'll take it."
He gave the mermaid an orange. She quickly said yes, but the demon pulled her away. Of course, the half-fish woman monster was angry.
"Hey! You said you wanted to give me one!?"
Isaac clicked his tongue repeatedly as shaking his head. "I still haven't found the egg I asked for. So I want you to go diving again to get an egg. I know there are many monster eggs in this lake."
The mermaid snorted, her eyes squinting as if all suspicion was focused on Isaac. "You're trying to play me, huh?"
"Me?" Both eyebrows raised, then he chuckled. "Okay, let's put it this way. Every egg you pick up in the lake, if it's not what I expected, I'll exchange it for an orange. How's that?"
The mermaid didn't answer right away. She looked at Isaac with a grumpy look on her face. In her mind, she assumed that Isaac was a liar. At the same time, the mermaid really wanted that food called oranges.
Seeing the lake keeper looking doubtful, Isaac quickly persuaded her.
"Hey, listen to me. This fresh food, oranges, can only be found on land. Only I can give it to you. But, I am only be here for today. I don't know when I'll be back here again. I promise, if you bring me the egg that I want, I'll give you all the oranges you can eat for the next few months."
The mermaid seemed to seriously consider Isaac's words. If it was true that she would receive dozens of oranges, at least for the last three months she wouldn't have to eat gargle.
Finally, the half-fish woman nodded her head.
"Alright, I'll trust you."
She quickly dived back into the lake. Her tail splashed water into the demon's face.
Isaac could only sigh to vent his frustration.
"Hooo, you're sneaky. Trading one wyvern egg for an orange."
Words sounded behind him.
Looking at Isaac who had just tricked a mermaid, Alyna couldn't help but smile. She put the oranges in her hand into the inventory.
Alyna went down to the lake, approaching Isaac who was still standing in the shallow waters. Her hands held his shoulders.
Immediately, Isaac glanced at her while raising one of his eyebrows. For some reason, the duchess was acting familiar.
"So this is your plan, huh? Making a plain and stupid mermaid fetch the wyvern eggs in this lake for you. Now I understand why you collected so many oranges.."
Isaac didn't answer, just made a facial expression as if to say "yes".
Actually, he didn't think that far ahead. He didn't even care about wyvern eggs at all. The monster that was considered the second most terrible scourge in sky was quite difficult to take care of. One wyvern could at least wipe out one-eighth of the monster population on a floor in the dungeon.
Isaac might take one or two wyvern eggs, but not the entire lake. Because there were hundreds of eggs in this lake. He had no intention of breeding those troublesome monsters. He was only after the spiritual beast's eggs.
The real reason for collecting so many oranges was because Isaac knew that there was little chance of the mermaid getting a spiritual beast egg in one try.
The appearance of the spiritual beast egg he was after with the wyvern egg was not much different. It was just that the mystical egg emitted a divine aura. Mermaids could not sense it.
At the very least, she would need to dive and retrieve the egg hundreds of times within the lake before finding the spiritual beast egg.
Isaac would not tell Alyna this part. He left the duchess to make her own conclusions.
Alyna clicked her tongue repeatedly.
"By the way, how did you know there were wyvern eggs in this lake?"
"Dragon-type monsters have a tendency to put eggs into places where there are no predatory monsters. The lake is one of them," he replied.
Alyna nodded. "Smart."
The two of them waited by the lake. After waiting for a few minutes, the mermaid surfaced with a scaly egg. She handed it to Isaac, and the demon shook his head. Isaac gave her an orange and the mermaid dived back into the lake. Meanwhile, Alyna guarded the wyvern egg on lakeside.
The mermaid always brought the wrong egg, Isaac rejected it and told her to dive back into the lake. They did that over and over again. Until the lakeside was filled with wyvern eggs.
Because there were so many eggs, they attracted the attention of monsters who were looking for prey. There were at least twenty times that swarms of monsters came to the lake. Luckily, Alyna was there to kill them in an instant. Her scythe decapitated hundreds of monsters that were trying to prey on the wyvern eggs.
As the sun began to set, the sky turned dark and the cold air became bone-chilling. The lake reflected thousands of glittering stars.
The mermaid returned to the surface after hundreds of dives into the lake. She was still carrying the same egg, a brown scaly shell, a wyvern egg.
A gasp escaped the mermaid's mouth. A pair of gills on her chest, precisely on the collarbone, seemed to clench when it touched the air.
"Is this what you're looking for?" She extended her hand that held an egg the size of a human head.
Isaac took it. For the umpteenth time, he shook his head. The mermaid was annoyed as she slammed the surface of the water.
"Not again? I've picked dozens of eggs for you. But none of them. I don't want to dive anymore."
The mermaid crossed her arms and looked away. Her lips pursed, showing a look of annoyance. She was tired of diving back and forth into the lake.
Isaac was beginning to lose his cool. He had run out of oranges, but he hadn't found the spiritual beast eggs he was looking for. Alyna had also run out of oranges. Besides, the mermaid must also had a large stock of oranges. She had no reason or motivation to go back diving.
He already couldn't give the mermaid an orange.
"Alright, I'm going home. I want to eat my sweet oranges. Bye-bye."
She dived back in. Isaac was about to stop her from leaving, but the mermaid was already in the water.
From behind him, a woman's scream could be heard.
"If you go, you're missing out on a special orange."
Just as the mermaid dived, she surfaced again. She had a curious look on her face.
"Special," murmured the mermaid, curious.
Alyna walked to the lake with a nod. The woman accessed the inventory, then held a green orange in her hand.
The mermaid squinted.
"It doesn't look special. It's the colour of a leaf."
Alyna chuckled while shaking her head. "You idiot. Don't be fooled by appearances. This is the most delicious orange ever. Even the dozens of brightly coloured oranges you keep."
Hearing that, the half-fish monster was shocked. There were many things it did not know in the mainland world.
Meanwhile, Isaac just stood by and watched. Now it was his turn to follow Alyna's game.
"Really?" said the mermaid with a surprised look on her face.
The demonesse nodded. "Only poor creatures have never tasted it. Isn't that right, Lord Isaac?"
Isaac nodded. He justified the duchess's words. "That's right. I couldn't forget the taste, for years. I only ate it once. I didn't expect you to keep it, Lady Alyna."
"This fruit is too special. So I will eat it later when I am about to die."
Seeing the two people in front of her talking about the deliciousness of green orange, the mermaid wanted to taste it. The flavour of ordinary citrus fruits was so good, how about the special ones?
The mermaid was tempted.
"If you bring me one more egg, I'll give you this special orange."
Without hesitation, the mermaid replied, "Okay! I'll get you another egg."
She quickly dived into the lake.
Isaac looked at Alyna with a grateful expression. "Thank you, Lady Alyna."
The red-haired woman looked indeed flat-faced, as if her actions were nothing. "No thanks needed, I accidentally picked an unripe orange. After all, I also wanted to throw it away."
The two of them continued to waiting.
One hour.
Two hours.
Three hours.
The mermaid did not return yet. Isaac began to get restless. When the moon began to shine brightly, the mermaid finally surfaced.
Her beautiful face looked exhausted.
"This is the last egg. There are no more eggs in this lake."
The mermaid held out a scaly egg. However, the scales seemed brighter than other eggs. A powerful aura emanated from the egg. Isaac touched it, he got goosebumps.
A grin appeared on the demon's face.
"Spiritual beast egg!"
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