The Starting Line

The wooden box cracked and Creed finally got a good look at what was inside. The gray crystals were nowhere to be found and four muddy eggs were still expanding till they reached the size of double the box.

Creed was dumbfounded with this discovery as it was neither observed in actuality nor stated in any research paper, that crystal could ever change into eggs of a beast.

"What the hell happened here?" He slowly inched closer to the eggs.

After getting closer to the eggs, he touched one and felt a faint pulse from inside the egg, baffled by this he started touching all of them one by one and found out that every egg had different sizes but all of them were alive.

He had heard that the all beasts in glitches breed in unique environments and unfamiliar places so and the conditions for the birth of a beast were very complex and mysterious.

They had many theories, but most of them suggested that they come from their own beast nests, which hid in the deeper parts of glitches.

"Did the ring do it or something else triggered this?" Creed kept observing the eggs. "No, this definitely is the ring's work. No doubt about it!".

He then picked up the golden ring, which was lying down near the broken box. The fact that it was possible to turn the soul crystals into a living beast's eggs dumbfounded him? If he told this incident to anyone, they would think it was a joke and would laugh at the notion.

For many years people have been storing and using the soul crystals for simple things like solar cells and ornament, but they would have never imagined that they can transform soul crystals into beast themselves.

A supposedly non-living object transformed into living beast eggs. This could be a monumental discovery. But Creed knew that he could not just announce this to anyone, not before he gets to bottom of this and confirms it.

He was curious about the origins of the golden ring more than ever.

"Okay! Let's recall again," Creed began mulling over the entire scene."I put the crystals with the ring, then somehow overnight the crystals turned in the beast eggs. The eggs differ in sizes, but all of them have a crude similarity with the beasts I hunted yesterday,"

He kept counting on his fingers. "A purple-Mantis, purple-Horn beetle, purple-Steel bug, and a purple-Slime"

Creed kept on murmuring multiple theories in his head. "If these four beasts are born from the eggs, it will prove that the soul crystals somehow retain the DNA of the beasts I hunted yesterday."

"That means these eggs are technically the children of the beasts I hunted yesterday," Creed came up with a concrete evaluation. "But I also have to check if I can recreate this process. "

Abruptly a creepy grin appeared on his face.

"This ring has so many mysteries behind it. With this ring, I suppose I just might... have a chance!!" 

Numerous ideas were popping up inside his head. But he knew that he needed to make some preparation. After this, he took the beast carcass from the freezer and went to sell it for some essentials before he could start with his tests.

He bought 6 foldable cages to capture the beasts of various sizes from the money he gained by selling the carcass. Then he put the eggs inside the cages as he didn't want to be strangled by the baby beasts, in case the eggs hatch while he slept.

On the next day of scouting, he killed two more beasts in the purple-bushes and brought two more gray crystals with him.

"With these two crystals," Creed looked at the crystals with shiny eyes." I will try to recreate the breeding process."

He put the ring close to the two crystals inside a cage. Now all he had to do was wait.

Until the next day, he found out that the crystals were still the same, and the ring was still looking like an ordinary gold ring. His first Recreation process had failed miserably. And there were also no signs of the hatching of the eggs either.

"Is it not possible to do it again or am I doing something wrong?" Creed understood something was missing, and he really wasn't expecting success on the first try.

"Is it something to do with me wearing the ring at the time of the killing, maybe?" Creed thought something was missing. "Does this ring need to extract some kind of energy from me before it can morph the crystal into the eggs?"

He didn't know the actual reason for the failure... but the last thing he wanted to do was wearing the ring again. As he didn't trust the ring at all.

The ring was shrouded in so many mysteries, and it was fairly uncomfortable to walk around with a potential time bomb in his body.

"F*ck, I don't have a choice this time..." He started praying like a girl. "Listen to me, mister Ring, I going to wear you again. So please don't kill me this time either, our last acquaintance was very peaceful, please have mercy on me this time too. Please god!"

Creed prayed like a monk and then he wore the ring again, to which the ring again vanished inside his body like the last time.

What surprised Creed was that this time he could control the disappearing and reappearing of the ring from his thoughts. Its new feature wasn't useful, but this took a weight off his mind as the ring was heeding to his commands.

The next day, his superiors assigned him tasks and jobs like patrolling in the inner region. Since Glitches were not hidden from the public, so people also came inside for tourism and personal agendas as well.

They just need to qualify the tests associated with types of agendas in the glitch and the military would allow them to enter. In fact, they could also come here even without signing the tests. But then the military would offer no guidance or help to the individual or group and would take no responsibility for their lives.

So there were various motives and many people, however, the Akashik Glitches would offer something to all of them.

After an entire day of patrolling duty, he went back to his quarter and put the ring back inside the cage with the two soul crystals. And went to sleep again.

The next day he saw that there were still no signs of success, crystals were still the same and he was back to square one.

"Hmm... so it has nothing to do with the energy absorption from my body." A minor frustration was visible on his face. "I guess the ring doesn't seem to care about my chakra saturation at all." 

"How about I recall the entire process of that day and imitate it step by step? Wait a second ..." Creed's eyes widened like he found the missing piece. " hmm, this might... actually work".

He signed up for another scouting expedition in the base and went back to the purple-bushes again. This time he went with a comparatively smaller bag. He equipped the ring on his finger and went for the hunt again.

Within 5 hours he killed two beasts, a purple-centipede, and a purple-Horn beetle. He obtained the two soul-crystals and some chakra saturation. His tallies were around 14.5 points now.

After checking for everything he got, he packed and went back to the camp. This time he was a little hopeful. So without wasting much time, he went to put the older soul-crystal in another else.

He took the two new soul-crystals from his hunt and put the crystals in the cage along with the golden ring. And went back to sleep after dinner.

The next morning he saw the cages and went unusually quiet.

His heartbeats were racing like a stallion because there were 2 new beast eggs in his room now, making the total 6 eggs in his room. 

"I knew it!" Creed's eyes glimmered like stars."The Saturation Point is the key!"

"As I thought! After I wear the golden ring and kill the beasts, the Saturation points I gain somehow connect the soul-crystals to the golden ring..." Creed couldn't stop smiling "And then only, the ring can transform the soul-crystal into living eggs."

"Good, very good!"

"I think I've finally found my starting line !"