The buildings of the Monster District we've entered show plenty of signs of battle. Broken windows, scorched segments, collapsed walls… there are even a few buildings which have fallen over.

Throughout the ruins are signs of nature attempting to take over once more. Trees which survived destruction spreading their seeds so new ones sprout up here and there, vines and ivy growing up buildings and rubble, even a pond within view of here, formed where a battle destroyed a chunk of road and the land beneath it and to the side. Moss and algae coats quite a lot of the land as well.

Though the natural parts of the ruins aren't unscathed, either. A few of the trees within view are broken, burned, or even fell over entirely at some point.

"A lot of lower Ranks find this surreal," Ryan comments as we walk along the street. "Seeing something so modern also so ruined and overgrown. A place like this, within the great walls of the city. We of the higher ranks are more accepting."

"Anything can happen at any time," I say. "Though now that I know what causes someone to be a Rank 4 or 5, it's understandable. We have past lives to draw on from experience, and some are millions of years old."

Ryan's real self is about three million years old, while I'm not sure how old I am beyond "absolutely ancient".

"Yeah," he says. "This district's Monster Egg spawns a type of jaguar monster, though with the magic in the air here, some from decaying monsters and some leaked from spells in battles, has influenced the soil a bit as well. That's resulted in normal animals mutating into magical beasts or even monsters. While the bureau knows where a few of those nests are, they figured it's fine to leave them for harvesting a few reagents."

"Do you think they'll actually agree to this?" I ask. "All you told him was to meet you at the Monster Egg here, not the why of it. Monster Districts do cause some problems in that it reduces living space a little, but I doubt that's reason enough to want it gone."

The fifteen to twenty-five thousand people the district could house without being too crowded is less than a percent of the population of the city, as would be the total population which can be held by all three of the Monster Districts here. Restoring them won't really be a massive increase in space.

Monster Eggs aren't something I've researched too much. I know about them and Monster Districts, but the finer details about how they affect the area they form in aren't something I needed to know. Not beyond that they spawn monsters and reappear regularly. The memories I've regained so far didn't include more information than that.

I probably didn't really care too much to learn more about them.

With what I do know, however, it doesn't seem like they're a major concern.

"One concern that's held," Ryan says. "Is additional Monster Eggs forming nearby. That's happened in a few other cities in the past, where more eventually form close to others which already existed. Manhattan is one example of that – they have a Monster District with two Monster Eggs in it, formed around three hundred years apart.

"The first one spawned easy monsters," he says. "A type of lizard which can be found in Category 1-1 Dungeons. The second one spawns a type of floating fish that's about twice as strong. And normally, Monster Eggs won't spawn within around fifty miles of another, and a city can expect to have one spawn once every two or three centuries. The thing about the second one in that district in Manhattan is that it's only a mile from the first and it spawned forty years after one in another part of the city."

That's enough to figure out why he's confident the bureau will be fine with a Monster Egg being removed even if the district provides some useful materials.

"So the concern is that more will spawn because of its presence," I say. "And of stronger ones on top of that?"

"Right," he says. "That's also been consistent for all of the areas where a second one spawned close to another. It was outside of the usual pattern and they spawned stronger monsters. Both also spawn them about thirty percent faster than average."

"So if one normally spawns a monster every hundred days," I say. "And a second one spawns after, it's every seventy days after?"

"Correct," he says. "And it's a further thirty percent faster if more spawn, or every forty-nine days. London has three within three miles of each other. And the typical spawn time for a normal Monster Egg is just a few weeks at the most. And that third one? Also has stronger monsters than the last."

The fully tangled energy flows in an area must make it more susceptible to further tangling close by. That's probably why the Mythic Forests have so many of them so close to each other when combined with the fact that it seems to exist within its own time bubble.

Mythical beasts are taking care of the monsters throughout it, but they're still spawning fairly fast. That makes it all the more important I work on the Mythic Forest more. I want to see it flourishing again, but I also feel like I should relieve the burden on the beasts which have been trying to help it all these years.

"Even if it's hundreds of years later," I say. "They would prefer the Monster Eggs to be gone than to cause another to spawn near them."

"That's the thought," he says. "I know they want the Monster Eggs gone because of the concern another will spawn close by, with stronger monsters than the last. And that's not all."

"There's more?"

"There's more," he nods. "On a rare occasion, they can upgrade. There's one in Paris which, about two hundred years ago, went from spawning a Category 1-1 bulls to Category 3-2 elk. This isn't too common, but they can't figure out what causes the increased spawn. Some have done the upgrade after just a few years, some centuries, and some never."

From something which might have 11 as their highest stat to something with around 70 for their highest stat. That's a decent jump and would immediately make the normal hunters for the district unable to do so anymore.

Now I understand why he's so confident the bureau would prefer to get the Monster Eggs within the city eliminated. The chance is small, but a Monster Egg can start spawning stronger monsters. If it suddenly upgrades to one which can breach the internal barriers of the city… then around twenty million people will either die or need to do an emergency evacuation.

One thing that can be guaranteed with the bureau is that something higher on their priority list than performing research and acquiring materials is making sure powerful monsters do not come near the city. If a Monster Egg is able to upgrade its strength at any time without warning, then they'll want it gone regardless of the benefits.

The risk is too high even if the chance is too low.

The rest of our walk to the Monster Egg is performed in silence and when we arrive at the location, there's no one present so we sit on some rubble to wait. Ryan said the manager shouldn't be too long as he wasn't too much further away from here than we were when he made the call.

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As we wait, I check out the Monster Egg a little. The egg itself is currently invisible but the location it forms in is marked out with some small, bright orange posts and orange markings on the ground.

Apparently, being in the same spot as a Monster Egg when it forms is immediately lethal to most people. Marking out the zone it appears in ensures that people can avoid the spot in case it spawns while they're here. The actual spawn rate is varied, just within a certain range, according to Ryan.

I get up and walk around the location of the Monster Egg, examining it with my senses. It doesn't seem any different from the ones I've purged in the Mythic Forest. Roughly the same size and energy intensity, and it's just a tangled mess of energy flows. Clearing it is the same as clearing one in the Mythic Forest with no extra effort needed.

Finished, I return to sitting on the scorched and broken car we'd chosen for our seat. Things seem a bit too peaceful right now for us being in a zone filled with monsters, both natural and spawned.

"Odd that there aren't any monsters nearby," I look around. "Would expect more. Was it recently cleared?"

"No," Ryan answers. "I can sense some nearby, but they seem more cautious than usual. I've normally been attacked at least once or twice on the way here. Monsters don't have an instinct which lets them know someone can kill them. Normal ones don't, at any rate."

It could be a result of my leaking aether making them more cautious. Those in the Mythic Forest aren't, but they're also much stronger than the ones here. They probably don't have their instincts screaming at them to avoid me while the ones here might.

"Ah."

A few more minutes pass before someone approaches us, a man in his late forties with brown hair and flamingo-pink eyes, dressed in a suit.

"Frederick," Ryan stands and greets the man as he reaches us. "Thanks for coming out here."

"You said it was important?" Frederick looks at me. "And you brought Evan Rethe? I'd heard you begun dating him."

He's probably heard of me because of my Dungeon Baby status, though it's odd he'd know we're dating. Do Rank 5s gossip with government officials? Or it could be that the agents at the cafe across the street found out and reported it back for some reason.

"We're dating, yeah," Ryan says. "And no, that's not why I brought him here. He could handle himself even if something showed up. Old as you are, I'm sure you know about reincarnations of types other than yours?"

"So you finally learned?" Frederick asks. "Most gods usually take a little bit longer, if they even stay past their early twenties. Seems most decide to return to their true selves at around twenty-five or so."

"Don't blame 'em," Ryan says. "Evan is a reincarnation of a more rare being – and one which can eliminate Monster Eggs."

"Eliminate?" Frederick frowns as he looks at me. "And how can you do that? I've not heard of any being which can. Admittedly, there are plenty of gaps in knowledge held by those of us who've remembered more and shared, but I've never heard of such a being before. Not even the Celestials seem to be able to."

So he knows about the Celestials, then.

"I'm of a species rarer than the Celestials," I tell him. "Though inferior to them in many ways. I lack their infinite aether, for example, and their true immortality as well. Do you have some method to detect Monster Eggs even when they're not visible?"

That magitech surely exists.

"We can," he says.

"What do they read as when you detect them?" I ask. "A mass of energy?"

"They do," he confirms. "A large clump of an immense amount of it. When they're about to reappear and spawn more monsters, that level surges. The magitech for it in this district started malfunctioning a little bit ago, though, so they're attempting to repair it."

"Malfunctioning?" Ryan asks. "How?"

"Energy flows throughout the universe," I tell Frederick. "Permeating everything. There are many forms of it, all a subset of aether. I've only just begun remembering things so I'm not fully sure what causes it, but the energy streams can become contaminated with other energies. When that happens, they start to block up, which expands them. Sort of like a balloon. When they swell too much, they start tangling with others. That is what causes Monster Eggs."

Though I don't fully know the mechanics of the energy flows, as while they weaken after a Monster Egg, they do increase again as the streams continue. The energies are produced somehow, but I'm not sure how.

"What my species can do," I say. "Is destroy the contaminating energies, allowing the flows to occur as normal once again. Ryan seems confident that the bureau would prefer them to be gone. At least, the bureau for this city. With the Celestial who appeared having distracted the city, this is the best time for me to eliminate them and not have attention drawn to myself."

"We would," Frederick says. "One of the things we're researching is a way to eliminate them. If you really can do that, it would be appreciated, though we'll need to go to another Monster District for you to prove that you can. As I mentioned, the equipment for it began malfunctioning a short awhile ago, so we won't be able to verify whether or not what you claim is possible in this one."

"Malfunctioning how?" Ryan asks. "Isn't it just a specialized energy reader? Those generally don't malfunction."

"Excellent," I say. "As pay for eliminating the three of them within this city, there are a few thing I would like in return. I need clothes, scavenging gear, alchemy tools, and enchanting tools at Tier 124 as a minimum. I have access to a garden which is growing in strength and it'll eventually have reagents that strong."

I really don't think I'll have to worry about anything stronger than that, at least not for awhile.

"The scavenging gear and alchemy equipment is more important," I add. "The clothes can be ignored if that's asking too much."

"Let me make a call," Frederick says. "Though I'll need proof that you can do that before agreeing to anything."

He walks away and makes a phone call, and Ryan sits down beside me.

"It's odd that it's malfunctioning," Ryan mumbles. "What happened to it? Did Aster come here because of Ev and accidentally break it?"

I don't think he knows he's mumbling, and that's probably not a bad guess. It wouldn't surprise me for Aster to do something like that based on what I've seen of the pup. He does act a bit impulsively at times.

"Alright," Frederick returns. "We can authorize the equipment if you're able to clear the three. We'll need to go to another one first, then they'll move its scanners over to this location if you genuinely do remove it."

"How are the scanners malfunctioning?" Ryan asks. "Did something break them? Maybe a little pup?"

"At 11:46 AM today," I say. "They suddenly detected a drop in the energy clump before it vanished completely at 11:49 AM. Am I correct?"

"How did you know?" Frederick frowns. "No one should have spoken about it, much less to a civilian."

"It takes me about three minutes to fix them."

"Hold up!" Ryan holds back a laugh as he looks at me. "You mean that when you were examining the spot for the Monster Egg, that was you fixing it?"

"I figured that since we were waiting, I could get it out of the way," I tell him. "Whether they wanted it gone or not, I was going to remove it. With how powerful I am now, me being here for just a few minutes already weakened it enough it wasn't going to spawn monsters again for a long time."

The only reason the one at the Great Napping Spot did was because I had so little aether between those two Special Quests that it wasn't enough to weaken the Monster Egg enough to remove its spawning aspect, just slow it a bit. I'll probably go there and get rid of that one this afternoon since I have enough aether to manage it now.

With how powerful I've gotten while doing the river work, I've effectively rendered its Monster Eggs incapable of spawning again possibly for centuries. At least, the ones in the strip I've done the last few days. The earlier ones might regain their abilities to sooner than that, but that's not really a concern for me.

As I grow stronger and gain more capacity, my presence will influence further and further away. Just taking care of parts of my brother's garden near those ones will clear them up over time.

My ability to clear them directly has increased as well. That one seems influenced more by my magical strength than my aether capacity, extending how far out I can reach with it. When I did my first one, I could only clear the streams within twenty feet of me. When I cleared out this Monster Egg, I also cleared out all of the streams within about two thousand feet of it.

Even found a spot that may have been starting to develop into a Monster Egg, though I'm not sure how long it would be before that one actually formed. Could be days, could be centuries.

It won't anymore.

"Well… thank you," Frederick says.

"You're welcome," I tell him. "Should we leave? I don't want to wait around if it's not needed. There's other stuff I'd like to do today."