Damn, I Have to Marry the Strongest Antagonist at the Start? - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Chapter52-Starting the Incubation!
After discussing with Leslie, Owen wasted no time and quickly returned to his room to make some preparations for his trip to the Border Mountains.

First, he took out Alfonso’s storage ring.

When he had defeated Alfonso on stage earlier, Owen had only conducted a brief inspection of the ring’s contents and had not yet had a chance to inventory it properly. Now was the perfect time.

Among the contents of the storage ring, what caught Owen’s attention the most was the brooding chamber. Brooding chambers were rare and extremely valuable.

As the storage ring glowed, the roughly three-meter brooding chamber slowly appeared before him. The brooding chamber looked like a delicate glass house, with a recessed groove in the center. Magical runes flowed along the surface of the groove, exuding a sense of profound mystery.

Owen channeled his mana to open the brooding chamber, and a rush of gentle, pure mana washed over him, akin to returning to a mother’s embrace, bringing an indescribable warmth and comfort.

Taking a deep breath, Owen carefully placed the snake egg, which he had kept in his bag, into the groove of the brooding chamber.

Instantly, the groove sank slightly, and the door of the brooding chamber slowly closed.

A denser concentration of mana began to swirl around the snake egg, gradually enveloping it.

Seeing this, Owen nodded in satisfaction and put the brooding chamber back into the storage ring.

He then started to inventory the other items Alfonso had stored in the ring.

Alfonso carried many things with him, and Owen spent nearly half an hour examining them.

From the collection, he found two particularly useful items.

One of them was a skill book designed for spellbeasts to learn new skills.

It’s worth noting that skill books allowing mages to learn new spells were already quite rare and could fetch high prices at major guilds and auctions.

However, skill books that enabled spellbeasts to acquire new skills were even rarer!

For a kingdom like Kyrik, which relies on enslaved spellbeasts for combat, such a skill book is even more precious.

As a prodigy of the Church, Alfonso had access to the most top-tier resources. This skill book was no exception.

It contained a gold-tier fire-type area-of-effect spell—Lava Blast! The power of this spell was incredibly formidable.

It seemed that Alfonso had intended this skill book for his Fire Dragon King, but he hadn’t anticipated being abruptly killed by Owen.

Based on Owen’s understanding of the snake egg, it would initially hatch as a spellbeast that could only cast water-type magic.

While it would have a high affinity for water magic, its combat effectiveness on land would be somewhat limited.

After the snake egg hatched, they would likely be in the interior, far from water sources, making it difficult for the snake to quickly become battle-ready.

However, the presence of this skill book gave Owen a different idea.

Teaching it some fire magic first would not only provide a means of self-defense but also enable it to master both water and fire magic in the future, achieving true invincibility among spellbeasts!

After all, fire and water spellbeasts typically counter each other. If a spellbeast could master both elements, it would not only be difficult to counter but the complementary nature of the two types of magic would make it even more powerful.

Moreover, Owen had already mastered the Order of Fire.

With proper cultivation, the spellbeast’s skills might grow infinitely powerful, approaching master-tier!

The intricacies of the Order could do much more than simply enhance a mage’s combat abilities.

Thinking of this, Owen felt a new wave of anticipation for the unhatched snake egg. He gently stroked the egg and said, “I haven’t given you a name yet. How about Seraphina?”

In the original anime, John used her mother’s name for her, but Owen did not do the same. “You are a child I have raised. To bestow upon you a name of my own choosing is our first bond,” he said.

The snake egg seemed to understand, moving slightly and rubbing against his hand. He smiled gently and then turned his attention to a secret letter.

This letter was about a future prophecy predicting that a snakefolk spellbeast would destroy Kyrik.

Although Owen had previously heard of this prophecy, he wasn’t very clear on the details. From this secret letter, he now saw the complete prophecy.

It stated that Kyrik would be destroyed by a giant serpent flying in the sky!

After reading it, Owen couldn’t help but feel amused.

Through the original anime, he knew that the spellbeast queen’s father was a divine beast from the Middle Earth seas, a prince of the corevore serpent clan.

Corevore serpents are special spellbeasts that can grow infinitely by devouring the cores of other spellbeasts. Their life cycle is divided into four stages: Serpent, Flood Serpent, Sea Serpent, and Celestial Serpent.

Normally, a corevore serpent can only take human form after reaching the Sea Serpent stage.

From the fragments of the original story he remembered, in ancient times, a powerful corevore serpent at the Celestial Serpent stage left his family and came to the continent, where he fell in love with a human woman.

This woman was the princess of Kyrik at that time.

They fell in love and gave birth to a half-human, half-serpent offspring.

When the king learned of this, he was furious and sent a supposed grandmaster-tier warrior to slay the Celestial Serpent.

He then exiled their child to the deep mountains in the west to fend for themselves.

The princess, heartbroken by these events, starved herself to death.

The exiled children survived in the mountains and eventually formed the snakefolk.

This history explains why Kyrik harbors such deep resentment and contempt for spellbeasts and enslaves them.

However, as time passed, the people of Kyrik gradually forgot about the existence of the corevore serpent clan.

Most of them believed the prophecy referred to the snakefolk, leading to their massacre.

The snake egg Owen possessed was the child of the snakefolk queen and a corevore serpent prince from the Middle Earth seas.

Owen did not know why the corevore serpent prince had come here or where he was now.

In the original anime, this story was only revealed to the protagonist John after the spellbeast queen took human form.

With this in mind, Owen placed the fire dragon core into the brooding chamber as nourishment for the snake egg.

The corevore serpent clan is unique in that they grow in tier by devouring beast cores.

The fire dragon core was excellent nourishment and would enhance its affinity for fire elements.

Such an opportunity never appeared in the original anime.

After completing these tasks, Owen glanced at the sky outside the window, packed his belongings, and headed towards the secret chamber marked on the map.

Meanwhile, in a courtyard not far from Owen, Charlotte appeared like a ghost beside Leslie and reported, “Miss, the crown prince of Kyrik is about to enter the mountains at the border. That place is well-suited for ambushes.”

Hearing this, Leslie’s beautiful eyes flashed with a sharp glint. “Understood. You may go.”

After Charlotte nodded and retreated, Leslie glanced at the distant horizon. Her figure then disappeared like drifting snow.

…

Thousand Peaks, located at the border between Kyrik and the Azure Kingdom, is a stretch of rolling mountains covered in lush trees and complex terrain.

This place used to be very quiet, a paradise for spellbeasts.

However, as the scorching sunlight, like golden needles, bathed the land, the sound of horses and wheels rolling over stones began to echo through the mountains.

A convoy from Kyrik heading straight to the Azure Kingdom moved steadily forward, tightly guarded by soldiers at both ends, resembling a long dragon winding through the jungle.

In the middle of this long convoy was a particularly luxurious carriage, its roof bearing the royal flag of Kyrik fluttering in the wind.

Inside the carriage sat a handsome and elegant young man, dressed lavishly, with an air of authority between his brows.

This was none other than the crown prince of Kyrik—Billy.

Opposite him sat an old man in a black robe, his hood covering his face, making it difficult to see his features.

His aura was entirely withdrawn, resembling an ordinary elderly man.

However, when Prince Billy’s usually disdainful gaze fell upon him, it rarely showed a hint of awe and respect.

“Thousand Peaks, endless and vast. We’ve been traveling for two hours and still haven’t reached the end. It truly lives up to its name,” Prince Billy remarked as he scanned the surrounding mountains. Then, as if remembering something, a glint of greed and disdain flashed in his eyes.

“The Azure Kingdom possesses such a vast mana stone mine, a rarity across the entire continent. Unfortunately, the Azure Kingdom’s royal family is a bunch of cowards, only selling the mines to Middle Earth. If our Kyrik controlled these mines, conquering the Azure Kingdom, annihilating the Moonspring Kingdom, and even challenging the strongest Cloud Empire to unify the continent would not be a problem!”

The more Prince Billy spoke, the more excited he became.

He knew well the precious and rare nature of mana stone mines, treasures that Kyrik dreamed of possessing.

Yet such a valuable treasure was in the hands of the Azure Kingdom’s royal family! It was a complete waste!

Only Kyrik could fully exploit the potential of these mana stone mines!