Propped against the incline of a tree, I watched the scene of a couple dozen huge feline cats running around and playfully tumbling with each other, pleasantly enjoying their exuberance and carelessness. As a stray crimson petal floated down across my vision, I took a moment to look around.

Ursa's island had taken a drastic turn from its previously bleak and grey surroundings to one of serenity and flourishing life. Luna, the Jubokko tree had also grown immensely over the short time since she was planted here. She now cast her shadow from about thirty meters high into the air and had reached a mindboggling level forty-one since her recent evolution.

Of course, Luna had always grown at an unprecedented rate with not only my benefits helping her along the way, but also being fed a constant source of prey and potent blood that she would've otherwise spent years waiting for to come along.

Though now? Her growth had run even more rampant, but she simply claimed that it was partially the incredible nutrients caused by those thermite insects that this island held which allowed her such rapid increases in levels despite her already being a tier-4 monster.

-Codex!-

Appraisal - Jubokko Information Attributes Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 52 ⇒ 73 Skills 9 -Race- Jubokko "Blood Oak" VIT 133 ⇒ 178 Traits 6 -Sex- Female AGI 15 ⇒ 19 Titles 0 -Rank- D+ DEX 73 ⇒ 107 Resistances -Level- 41/50 INT 22 ⇒ 28 Health 1801/1801 CHR 21 ⇒ 30 Physical Resistance 36 ⇒ 45 Stamina 2124/2124 WILL 24 ⇒ 28 Magical Resistance 19 ⇒ 31 Mana 0/0 MAG 27 ⇒ 58 Mental Resistance 10 ⇒ 12

"Her name is still not recognized by the system." I thought a little grumpily.

But then again, with how names were given at other times, it was obvious that some name bestowals were initiated when a being went through a certain change or some big event in their life, so I couldn't really be all that disgruntled by that fact. It might also just be that the system doesn't entirely view her as an individual although she definitely is both sentient and sapient by now.

"Hmm - then at what point of her growth would she gain the name I gave her?" I wondered briefly.

"You really went all out yesterday, Master." A melodic voice said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

Looking to my side, I saw the petite form of Mia sauntering up to me.

I just smiled, invitingly lifting an arm to her. As she laid down in my embrace from my perch on the slanted ground leading up to Luna's trunk, we just laid there for a while.

I was happy that Luna no longer threw fits whenever Mia and Lily would be near the protective tree and me, but I still did feel a bit of discontent seething through the mental link between us. But surprisingly, it wasn't just Luna who accidentally let some emotions through the mental link, but I also felt a faint sense of hesitation coming from Mia as I stroked her hair from where she lay atop my chest.

Just letting the moment stretch out as we watched the M'goro Shades play in the sunlight of the midday suns, I didn't press for whatever it was Mia wanted to say, but I didn't need to either as she began talking after a few minutes.

"So, you're leaving again - to hunt?" She said, her words between both a statement and a question.

I sighed.

"I'm only staying for today and will head out this evening," I said. "I have quite a way to go with my power before those trials start, and I have no idea when they will."

"But are you sure it's necessary for so much hard work? You were gone for twenty days straight last time..." She countered.

"If I don't evolve before they start, I fear that I will be at a severe disadvantage," I hesitated. "You remember Asethh, the arachnid who beat me in the tournament - right? From what I gathered by listening to Nosferas, he was also a Sanctioned Lord, just like me. But even he barely qualified to be within the ranks of most Sanctioned Lords. That fact alone is enough to make me spent most of the time I have for training and growing stronger."

I released another heavy sigh, bordering on a groan - simply of what I had been putting my body and mind through that last month.

"And that's not even considering how much more powerful some of the Sanctioned Lords I will most likely be facing could potentially be in whatever these trials are supposed to be," I explained.

I frowned as I realized something odd about what Mia was saying. "Is something wrong?"

I wondered, before adding.

"While you've never encouraged me to risk my life when unnecessary, you've never objected to me going out to great lengths for growth," I paused. "Rather, you encourage that more than anything. To grow powerful enough so I can protect all that is and will be my home, clan, and family."

A long moment stretched out as Mia didn't speak, her small frame tensing slightly in my hold.

Just as I was about to ask, Mia broke the slight silence.

"I'm with child,"

For that instant, I froze, never that much at a loss for words in my entire life as I was at that moment.

As my mind picked up the three otherwise simple and straightforward words, it began picking up in an attempt to try and understand them properly.

"Child... you're... child," Was the only thing I managed.

With a hand on her belly over the thin cloth of her shirt, she lifted her head to meet my gaze with a hesitant smile.

My mind went through four emotions in order of - first joy, then fear, sudden excitement, and lastly horror. Then like an avalanche, every single one of those emotions hit me at the same time.

It must've shown on my face as Mia, despite her clearly wanting to beam with happiness, gave me a nervous chuckle.

Realizing that I was acting like a buffoon, I stuttered out a reply.

"I-I'm going to be a father?" I barely managed. "You s-sure?"

It was comical thinking back on how even the many cruel, unimaginably powerful, and intimidating monsters I've met since coming to this world had been unable to befuddle me as much as I was at this moment.

She nodded as she recognized my reaction, not for unhappiness, but rather stupefaction at how to handle this.

"I'm sure, I can tell." She said, a radiant smile slowly blooming on her lips as her trepidation was chased away by my clumsiness.

Just staring at the woman I loved, the words finally seeped into my head. And as they did, I felt the fear and apprehension of what this meant slowly melt away in the face of the now beaming smile of Mia.

I didn't have any words. I had never been good with them, to begin with. But I didn't need them as I pulled Mia up to kiss her deeply, the bond between our souls vividly told her everything that I felt of which I couldn't say.

As we simply sat laid there, Mia resting against my chest, looking at the large cats who had by now all fallen asleep in a massive heap of fur in the middle of the clearing, I found myself grinning like an idiot.

"Father, huh..." I muttered.

I found that word both absolutely terrifying - and fulfilling.

Like nothing, I had ever before.

***

Walking calmly side by side with Mia and the dozens of felines in tow, we closed in on the large raft used for transporting back and forth from the island and the coast.

As we walked, I kept finding it hard keeping my eyes off Mia's belly even though there was yet anything to be seen.

She had simply explained that it was normal for even goblins to know they were bearing children almost on conception. And especially so considering how much control and power Mia had over her own body, it wasn't all that unbelievable that she was actually pregnant.

But with those thoughts, my mind drifted to how this all happened.

Although the possibility of conceiving a child through the vigorous love-making that Mia and I always indulged ourselves in had always been a known possibility to me, it had actually never been something I actively sat down to think about. Maybe because I didn't want to face reality, or it just didn't occur to me that often because of all the things that kept happening to me since coming to this world.

I wasn't surprised that it hadn't happened before though, despite Mia and I never holding back when doing the deed. But that was mostly due to considering how child-conception between races and monsters worked in this world.

From what I had learned by Lily's teachings, enlightened interracial couplings, like human and elf or dwarf and gnome, were distinctly different from how they worked with monsters.

While a coupling between a human and elf for example would always result in offspring of mixed blood. So a half-elf or half-human depending on which bloodline is strongest. While some heritages could be so distant that the system identifies a human with faint elf blood that they're just humans, a hybrid is generally always what you end up with between two different races of enlightened.

But monsters differ in that regard, and quite oddly at that.

Although many monster couplings don't work from simply how much either individual is different from each other, most humanoid and sapient monsters are able to mate with each other and still produce offspring. But that there it differs from enlightened couplings.

Instead of generally always producing a hybrid, a halfling per se, monster offspring between different races almost always shift in direction of which mate supplied the strongest and most potent lineage. So a coupling between a great orc and a beastkin, the child would be of either race depending on which parent had been most influential in its conception.

While hybrids of monsters do exist, they're very rare from what I understood, and I have only seen a few in the whole of Ebongrave which could attest to that fact.

Actually, one of the major reasons as to why I hadn't worried about either Mia or Lily getting pregnant was most likely because of how much harder it was for monsters to conceive offspring through not only different races but also the strength of a monster played into the conception rate.

With that many walls barring pregnancy, I must've shut it into the back of my mind - not really thinking it likely to happen.

But here we were.

I was going to be a dad...

"So, have you told Lily about-?" I was about to ask as I helped Mia onto the raft with a hand but suddenly cut myself off as a prompt invaded my mind.

∼[Trial Announcement]∼

[An invitation to the trials have been appointed to the Lord of Gloom]

[Canditates qualified - Adequate]

[The Gates have opened!]

[Time remaining: 28-cycles]