Chapter 115: Second Baby Beast’s Gene

That night, Shani brushed off her exhaustion and pushed herself to maintain the resonance all the way until midnight, stopping only when Aster urgently needed a bathroom break. She even intended to keep going as soon as Aster returned.

But when she inquired about the egg’s progress with the System, Shani froze in her tracks.

[Baby Beast Progress: 16.4% (Egg Phase). Progress Speed: 1.5%/hour. Baby Beast Gene: Unidentified. Regulation Process: Fluctuating. Warning! If the regulation process remains unstable, the baby beast may suffer from physical or mental defects upon hatching.]

Shani knew she hadn’t been fully focused due to sheer exhaustion. Aster was likely feeling the same way, but he hadn’t said a word because she kept pushing forward.

Shani shook her head vigorously. She wouldn’t compromise her baby beast’s health just to speed up the hatching process.

She stood up, right as Aster stepped out of the bathroom mid-yawn.

"Let’s call it a night. We’ll pick this up tomorrow after getting some rest," Shani said firmly, cutting Aster’s yawn short.

He nodded. "Go ahead and get some rest, Shan."

Shani didn’t head straight to her room, choosing to use the bathroom first.

Meanwhile, Aster began adjusting his egg’s position, fluffing pillows around it to ensure it wouldn’t roll off.

He then grabbed a pillow and blanket for himself, arranging them neatly on the sofa.

Emerging from the bathroom, Shani was left speechless by the scene.

The night before, she had gone straight to her room, and Aster had woken up before her in the morning. She had no idea he had been building a literal pillow fortress for the egg.

"Aster, artificial eggs are impact-resistant. It takes specialized equipment just to crack one," she said, exasperated.

Aster bit his lower lip. Of course he knew that, but he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully otherwise.

Looking at the burly man standing there with his head lowered like a child being scolded by his mother, Shani felt a wave of tender exasperation.

"I just don’t want you going to all this trouble," Shani murmured.

"It’s no trouble at all, Shan," Aster insisted, shaking his head quickly.

Shani let out a soft sigh and gave a defeated nod.

Aster beamed, a cat-like grin spreading across his face. He gently stroked the egg. "Sleep tight, eggie."

Standing right at her bedroom door, Shani heard him and struggled to suppress a laugh.

’What’s with ’eggie’? He actually gave an artificial egg a nickname.’

Still, Shani knew that was just who Aster was, someone deeply affectionate and caring.

...

The next morning, Shani woke up fairly early. She ensured she was fully rested and ready to focus on the resonance before stepping out of her room.

It turned out Aster was up even earlier. He had already prepared fresh juice and toasted bread for breakfast.

"What time did you wake up, Aster?" Shani asked, glancing at her smartwatch, which read six in the morning.

"Around five. I feel completely refreshed and full of energy," Aster replied.

"You need to rest—"

Shani was about to lecture him when she noticed his healthy, glowing complexion. There wasn’t a single trace of fatigue on his face, a stark contrast to her own slightly groggy state.

’After ranking up to C-Rank with a Divine-Grade gene, does his body just produce an overabundance of stamina?’ Shani wondered, merely guessing since she hadn’t studied that far into beastman biology yet.

Dropping the subject, Shani quickly ate her breakfast, then they kicked off their morning resonance session.

They stopped at ten o’clock for Aster’s class.

Shani immediately checked the egg’s progress. She had to admit, back when she was regulating Nyx’s egg, she only needed to check it once a day.

[Baby Beast Progress: 19.9% (Egg Phase). Progress Speed: 1.5%/hour. Baby Beast Gene: Unidentified. Regulation Process: Stable.]

Shani breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that the regulation process had stabilized once more.

She then retreated to her room to practice, but made sure not to overexert herself so she could remain fully focused for their next resonance session.

...

Shani returned to the academy at nine o’clock that Sunday night. She couldn’t afford to push her return to Monday morning since the second monthly evaluation was scheduled for the next day.

Although they could only fit in two hours of resonance that night, they had spent five solid hours regulating earlier in the afternoon since Aster had no classes.

Those seven additional hours allowed the System to finally start identifying the baby beast’s gene:

[Baby Beast Progress: 30.1% (Egg Phase). Progress Speed: 1.5%/hour. Baby Beast Gene: Feline 35%, Ursine 35%, Avian 30%. Regulation Process: Stable.]

’Shouldn’t the Avian gene be the highest since both of us carry Avian genes? Just like with Jeryon, where the Feline gene was the highest, reaching 50%.’

’Why are Feline and Ursine tied at 35% instead?’

’Is the Avian gene naturally weaker? Or is the Avian gene in our bodies just weak?’

Shani was utterly dumbfounded, unable to wrap her head around why her baby beast with Aster turned out like this.

She made a mental note to ask Rowena at the first opportunity. Perhaps with her knowledge as a Nova City instructor, she could shed some light on Shani’s confusion.

The next day, the students spent the entire day undergoing tests, leaving Shani with no time to retrieve Nyx from Jeryon’s room.

Exhausted both mentally and physically, Shani dragged herself to the cafeteria. Her friends weren’t faring any better.

Silence hung over the table until they finished eating, looking like fish dumped back into water as energy slowly returned to them.

"When are the rank announcements coming out?" Kiran asked, breaking the silence.

"Should be any minute now." Sonny suddenly popped up behind her, nearly giving Kiran a heart attack.

Last month, the test results had been delayed until the next day due to the mechanical trouble during Jeryon’s beast energy measurement.

This month, however, the results were on schedule to drop tonight.

Sonny joined them, sliding into his usual spot next to Noella, with Eric sitting directly across from him this time.

While chewing his food, Sonny’s eyes remained glued to the forums and group chats, determined to be the first to catch the results.

"It’s out!" he squealed excitedly.

...