Can you help me out? part 3

Whatever I collided with was hard and warm. It was also soft and smooth under my touch.

That texture felt familiar under my hand and I had to touch the object again to confirm my thoughts.

I quickly wiped the blood from my face with my T-shirt to make sure I was seeing the object in front of me.

'Surely it is not that easy to come across a dragon's egg? Even if it is the dragon's nest, the egg could not be out in the open? Right?' but my thoughts did not change the reality.

The soft and warm presence beneath my hand belonged to the very dragon egg I had been looking for.

And since it was still warm, it was alive. There was a living, breathing dragon inside that egg.

"Alright. So what was written in the novel for such a situation? I am sure awakening the dragon involved a blood sacrifice. Or was it for another novel?"

This was the time my habit of reading a lot of novels came to bite me in the back.

You see, with so many novels having similar plot points and character progression, it often became difficult to be able to tell which plot point belonged to which novel.

They often overlapped with each other as well. And sometimes, the writing was even copied from another novel altogether.

That was why I, someone who claimed to have read this novel, was finding it difficult to remember how to wake the dragon egg.

And to make matter worse, the dragon egg had died even before it could be woken up. That must mean that the paragraph explaining the ceremony must be really small.

I guess there is no other choice but to try out every method I can. It would not matter in the end since I will likely not die anyway.

And if I did, then it was alright as well.

A nice thing about being in my present situation was that I had a lot of blood present on my body. I would not need to bleed anymore to supply the egg with my blood.

I smeared some of my precious blood on the egg but nothing happened. So blood was not the answer.

The next thing to try out was my magic.

From what I knew of Lawrance, his magic reserves were pathetic. They were almost non-existing and did not amount to much.

As such, I did not have enough confidence in my magic. But I still decided to try out this method anyway.

And if everything else failed, I had my ultimate weapon at my disposal - the protagonist. Surely the egg would hatch for him, even if it did not hatch for me?

"Come on, come on. It is working."

I could feel my magic leaving my body and entering the dragon egg. My blood on the eggshell made the process smoother.

This was a huge plus point for me. And it also solidified my belief that almost all novels borrowed from the similar source material.

The egg gave a cracking sound and I started to slow down.

But that proved to be a mistake.

The baby dragon was not likely conscious of his actions and started to suck my magic. I did not have enough resources to be able to sustain him.

My magic replenishment was not good as well.

And the lack of support from my magic was leaving me high and dry.

The lack of magic was making my appetite rise. My stomach decided to be a traitor as well and remind me that I had to eat.

It was the lack of energy that caused me to fall to my knees. The baby dragon was too greedy in its need for magic.

The only piece of good news was that the egg was finally hatching. I could spot the tiny egg hatching out of the egg and reptilian red eyes looking in my direction.

A huge body was moving toward me. Its shadow felt massive and soft palms landed on my chest.

Whatever air I had left inside my chest decided to leave me as well. My ribs felt like they were aching. The pressure of those baby paws would break them soon.

But the real question was, would it be enough to kill me?

Will I finally be free of my twisted fate?

The answer was no. Of course, things would not be that easy for me.

The baby dragon decided that it had enough of playing around. Now it was trying to move me.

The scales on his head were soft. Moonlight reflected from their black surface and the black blended in the night's darkness.

A dragon, even a baby, was a magnificent sight to behold. I had never seen anything more magnificent in my life.

The kit was waddling all over the place. It did not seem to possess the grace its race was known for.

But even still, the power and aura it excluded left me in awe of its strength.

Had I been able to move, I would have tried to pet it like a dog. The baby looked like it would enjoy such attention upon its shiny scales.

But the movement was a little difficult for now. And it will be until I recover.

I had a general idea of how long it would take for me to be able to walk after healing from physical injuries. But I had no experience with magical exhaustion.

I did not know what the design kit was doing. I just know that it is moving around the nest with its nose stuck to the ground.

To me, it almost looked like he was looking for something.

And my guess proved to be correct when the baby dragon returned with fruit in his mouth.

Its shape was not something I had seen before, but it looked like a normal enough fruit.

And it was not like poison was any real danger to him either.

"Is it for me? Should I eat it?"

Even if I asked that question, the dragon was a baby. It could not answer my question even if it knew what I was asking.

"Kyuuu~"

The dragon's cry was adorable but it did nothing to clear my doubts.

Still, I decided to take the fruit and eat it. Or I had a feeling that I would not be allowed to stand up.

It took so much effort to be able to raise my hand and bring that fruit to my mouth. It exhausted all my energy reserves and left me in a fragile state.

There was something familiar about the triangle-shaped berry but I could not make its shape out clearly.

Swallowing while lying down was also an experience I did not want to repeat. I was lucky enough to not choke on the berry juice.

I had expected the fruit to be sweet since it looked ripened enough but its spicy taste caused me to cough.

The taste was unlike anything I had ever eaten. And still, the feeling of familiarity tickled my mind.

===============

Congratulations on obtaining the legendary item: Sixth sense fruit.

Mana replenishing rate will be boosted according to the user's power level.

===============

No. This could not be happening to me. This fruit was bad news for me.

Anyone would be happy to have such a legendary item to boost their power but not me. I wanted to vomit the berry out.

And it was not like I did not try. I did try and force my body to get the berry out but it was too late.

The congratulatory message was already there and my body had already started to absorb the berry juice.

"Kyuuuu~"

Expecting blue eyes stared back at me from a reptilian face. The baby dragon had yet to move from its position on my left side.

"You know, it is all your fault. Why did you have to give me that berry?"

I wanted to curse the dragon baby but I knew I had no right to do that. I was the one that had broken the dragon's seal and slumber. So I had to pay the price for that.

"Kyuuuu~"

Did dragon babies imprint at birth? I had no idea.

But what I did know was that the dragon babies liked to cuddle. Or at least this one did.

Its head was as big as my fist and it rested on my chest. Its claws were placed in my arms and they looked cute when they were not trying to kill me.

'I'm too tired for this shit. Maybe I should close my eyes for some time and catch up on my sleep.' were my last thoughts before sleep claimed me.

I did not notice the tension rising in the air. Nor did I notice the baby dragon's eyes sharpen as it looked around the surroundings.

My mind was blank as a sheet till a loud noise and a hiss woke me up.

"Get away from him you beast. I will not allow you to kill prince Lowrance."

That voice sounded familiar to me but my brain was too sleep-deprived to make out who the speaker was.

But it was not too sleep-deprived to not notice the hissing sound over his body. A heavy body was covering his own in a protective hold.

"Hey, that's enough. Get up for a second and allow me to step out."

I patted the dragon's body on top of me. It was small, barely covering my torso but it was still a heavy and warm weight.

And I had a feeling that the dragon was holding me hostage. It would not allow me to move if it did not want to.

"Prince Lawrance, are you ok? Don't worry, I will help you out right now."

Ah, now I remembered how the speaker was. It was Cain, the protagonist of this novel world. I could feel his magic tugging at the tracker marks my body held.

"Don't bother. This baby is not in any danger. Allow me a second and I will pacify it for you."

Although I said that, I had no idea how to do that. How did one go about pacifying a pissed-off dragon baby?

All I knew about dragons was that they had incredible magic and were kind of like big dogs. But they were much less social and much more possessive of their things.

As such, I was not sure if the dragon baby would let me go easily.

"Come on, baby. Get off my body and I will give you a lot of pets as a reward."

To solidify what I meant, I raised my hand toward the dragon's head and scratched his head. The small body instantly leaped in my arms and let out a purr.

The sound looked to be a mixture between a purr and a hiss. But it did not sound dangerous to me.

"Cain, you can come closer now. But try to be quiet and not alarm the baby."

Cain had the blankest face I had ever seen. I could not even tell if he was pissed off or happy to see me alive.

All I knew was that he was coming closer and it was causing the baby dragon in my arms to tense.

I quickly resumed my petting motion to distract the baby dragon. All this time, Cain did not stop moving ahead and finally kneeled by my side.

"So, mind explaining how this happened?"

Cain was featuring the small baby dragon in my arms. His eyes made me believe that no lie would work on him.

"Ah, it's a funny story. You see, it was not my fault. I did not try to hatch the egg, it just happened."

I tried to lie my way out but Cain did not seem to be buying it.

"By the way, did you find anything in the forest? Like a small but spicy berry?"

I tried to distract him. But I was curious about the development of the plot as well. Especially since I could see that something seemed to have changed in the protagonists' aura.

"No. I did not. And do not try to change the subject on me. It will not work."

Cain caught me in my attempt. But he was not a good liar.

The novel had highlighted a big indicator to know when Cain was lying. All I had to do was to look at his red ears and I could safely say that Cain was lying about not finding the berry.

At least he could try harder if he did want to lie to me.

"The sun is about to rise. We have an hour to return to our location. We can have this talk later."

Cain did not look happy. But he did not protest against my suggestion either. He just sighed as if he had expected that to happen.

"Let's return. I should just be happy that you are alive and not hurt."

I just smiled my disarming smile. The baby dragon in my arms purred in contentment. It no longer seemed as tense as it had been before.

So maybe it was coming around to understand that Cain was not a danger to him or me. And right on time as well.

"By the way, can you tell me now why you wanted to get this dragon?"

Cain's question caused the smile on my face to widen. Things were finally falling in place as I had wanted them to.