Chapter 480: A Hungry Egg

Lian looked at the buildings around him for a few seconds.

If there were no monsters, awakened weapons, and the constant smell of blood in the air, this place would look more like a city from a few centuries ago than a base in a world where a large part of its civilization had been destroyed.

But he had not come here to look around, first he needed to find out what there was to hunt around the base.

The Hunters’ Information Center was only a few streets away from the transfer platform.

After asking around for a while, he entered a two-story building whose stone walls were covered with dozens of maps, hunting notices, and pictures of monsters.

Several Awakened were standing in front of the mission boards.

Some had taken missions to collect materials, some were looking for specific monsters, and several groups were discussing their travel routes.

Lian walked directly to the information counter.

A middle-aged man was sitting behind it and writing something in a large notebook.

"I want a map of the discovered areas around the base." Then he said.

Without looking at him much, the man opened a drawer under the desk and took out a thin sheet of treated leather.

"This is the newest version. Safe areas, caravan routes, and confirmed hunting areas are marked. Don’t enter the red areas without a group unless you know what you’re doing."

The young Vorhelm put the money on the table and took the map.

When he opened it, a large part of the area around the base appeared in front of him.

Base #9 was almost in the center of the discovered area.

To the east, the Broken Plains were marked, a little lower was the Leafless Forest, the Bone Marsh was to the southwest, and in the north there was a large area with many warning marks.

[Wolfgrave Frontier.]

He kept his eyes on it for a few seconds.

A large part of the area was still empty and the lines on the map suddenly stopped at a certain distance from the base.

The information was not bad, but it was not complete either, however, it caught his attention the most because it was related to wolf-type monsters.

Lian closed the map.

There was no reason to try anything here, he left the information center and after finding a quiet corner in one of the side streets, he reached into his storage space.

Something small and old came out.

World Memory.

The artifact did not look very special, but as soon as he placed the map in front of it, its surface began to shine.

System notifications appeared.

[External map detected.]

[Synchronization with World Memory has begun.]

[Registered information is being matched.]

[Time differences detected.]

A white line came out of the artifact and moved across the map.

He silently watched as the first changes appeared, and they were roads.

Several narrow paths appeared in areas that were completely empty on the base’s map.

Then ruins, small towers, bridges that had collapsed a long time ago, and even an old river path appeared on the map, though its riverbed was now dry.

Parts of the forest also changed.

The base map showed the current locations, while World Memory added information from the past and even older information about these areas.

Two types of information were connected into one image, but not everything was recovered, and in several areas, only unclear lines could be seen.

[Damaged information.]

[Structure identified.]

[Current condition unknown.]

Lian gave a faint smile.

"This is much better."

But he had another tool, and this time he took a magnificent book out of his storage space.

Celestial Book of Treasure.

The book was still closed when it suddenly reacted, thin golden lines on its cover lit up, and then the pages began turning without his help.

One page.

Ten pages.

Several dozen pages.

Finally, the book stopped on an empty page, and light came out from between the paper and moved across the completed map like thin threads.

A few seconds later, the first mark appeared.

A weak white point not too far from the base.

Then two blue marks.

One was near the Leafless Forest and the other was beside the Bell Ruins, then a purple mark appeared deep inside the Wolfgrave Frontier.

Lian raised an eyebrow slightly, but the book was not finished yet, and much farther away, almost near the edge of the incomplete information on the map, a golden point lit up for a moment.

Only once, and then its light became weaker.

Lian kept his eyes on the golden mark for a few seconds, he realized that the book was showing treasures beyond its ten-kilometer limit.

This made him wonder if it was because he himself had become stronger? In other words, would the book’s limits become weaker as he became stronger?

But just like before, it did not give any information about the treasures, it seemed he needed to get close to them and touch them to find out what they were.

Interesting, there were many places to explore, but not for now and then his eyes returned to the purple mark.

The Wolfgrave Frontier.

Higher-level monsters that were also wolf-type monsters, which meant he could get Fragments by killing them, and more importantly, according to the Celestial Book of Treasure, there was also a treasure there.

Those were enough reasons.

He put the book and World Memory back into his storage space and left the alley.

His target was decided.

Lian left the base through the northern gate.

At first, he followed the main road, but after about one kilometer, he changed his path and entered an area where scattered ruins could be seen among the gray grass.

It was still not enough, several hunting groups could be seen in the distance.

He continued for about three more kilometers and then activated Predator’s Instincts.

There were no humans nearby, and he did not sense any suspicious presence either.

This place was enough.

He opened his storage space and then the first corpse fell onto the ground.

Boom.

A four-meter-tall monster.

Then the second.

The third.

The fifth.

The tenth.

But the stream of corpses did not stop, dozens of corpses appeared one after another among the ruins.

Small monsters, larger creatures, and a very large number of Cindari corpses that he had killed.

A few minutes later, what was in front of him looked more like a huge hill of flesh and bones.

Hundreds of corpses and the heavy smell of blood and dead flesh spread through the area.

"It was much more than I thought." Lian looked at the result for a few seconds, he knew he had many corpses in his storage space.

But he was not exactly sure how many there were, almost everything he had hunted in the Special Area was now here.

Then he called another presence from inside himself, dark particles formed in front of his body, slowly gathered together, and a few seconds later the Devourer Egg appeared on the ground.

As soon as it appeared, the surface of its shell shook slightly.

"You said you wanted food, here you go." The young Vorhelm pointed at the hill of corpses with his finger.

The Egg reacted quickly and several thin, dark threads came out from its lower part.

Plop!

They entered the nearest corpse, and the monster’s body tissue immediately began to change.

The color of its skin disappeared, the flesh slowly dried up, and several dark veins stretched from the corpse toward the Egg, while the biological matter left the monster’s body like an invisible liquid.

More threads grew.

To the second corpse.

The third.

The fifth.

The tenth.

[Large food source detected.]

[Feeding process started.]

Lian watched for a few moments, this thing really had no end to its appetite, and even after eating the living Womb, the Egg’s embryo formation process had only reached thirty-one percent, yet it looked even hungrier.

In any case, that Womb alone had caused a huge increase, and now there were hundreds of more corpses in front of it.

He did not know what the result would be, but he was really curious to know what this Egg would become when it was born.

"For now, eat."

Then he turned his attention to another matter, the Colony Link was activated.

[Special Colony member selected.]

[One.]

[Level: 19.]

[Condition: Healthy.]

[Summon special member?]

[Yes.]

The space in front of him twisted slightly and a huge creature came out through the Colony connection.

One landed on the ground.

Now it was time to deal with his only Colony member.