Excerpt

Upon reaching the nest, she landed her mecha on the edge of the tree where their hover ship had been at, and saw the Devourer fast asleep and a lot more dead creatures surrounding it. Naoko zoomed her camera in on the eggs that were almost completely hidden under the Devourer. Seeing how there were already hairline cracks on it, she knew that there was no time to waste.

She quickly made a harness out of a rope for herself, fastened one end to the mecha, then dropped down into the nest.

Immediately after she reached the bottom, she began inspecting the dead monstrous looking rat by her feet. Placing her hand on its body, she could sense a faint spiritual energy that was most similar to what she felt in the blue gemstones. 

Wanting to confirm it by holding a blue gemstone in her other hand, it was only now that she realised how the gemstones did not increase as much as the number of dead creatures did. In fact, there was no new red gemstones since they looted all the red ones they could earlier.

She also noted how the spiritual energy within the dead creatures was too weak for her to picture it clearly within her mind.

She then moved on to the next creature and the next. She could match what she felt in all of them to what she felt in either the blue or black gemstones. The only difference was the amount of spiritual energy left in the corpses. 

Is this an indication of how long they were alive for or how long they've been dead?

She looked at the exposed part of the egg for a short while before walking towards it. 

BaoBao was speechless. Just watching her made him feel scared for her, but there she was walking right up to that monster. He badly wanted to tell her to be careful but held back for fear that he would startle her and cause her to make a mistake. 

Naoko's eyes rounded the moment she placed her hand on the eggs. It was teeming with a kind of spiritual energy that did not match the green, black, blue, or red ones that they have come across thus far. 

Still feeling the strong sensation through her palm, she closed her eyes. This time, it was just like her experience with the tree. She could picture the threads of spiritual energy coursing the chick that was within the egg and picture how it looked like. As soon as she did, her eyes flew open and she swiftly but carefully made her way back to the dangling rope.

Noticing how hurried her movements were and how her thoughts were only about getting back to the mecha as fast as possible, he wondered about what she had found. He soon got his answer before he needed to ask. 

Naoko was not even halfway up the tree when the surface of the tree was suddenly illuminated by a yellow light. She could even see her faint shadow, proving that the source of light came from behind her.

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