Reincarnated as a random race, of course I got goblin.

Chapter 92 - Co-parenting

Millibelles POV

Although we are nicely protected against the raging blizzard outside, I hadn't considered one thing: Both the Gyger and the female Goblins that are sheltering alongside my Servants are close to laying their eggs.

Keeping the eggs from being laid is as impossible as trying to stop your own heart through willpower alone. If they try, they'd risk the eggs fusing to their oviduct, becoming infected and rendering them sterile if not killing them outright. 

So, on the seventh day of the High Cold Event, I constructed a small side-room in the cave. Lining the wall with the same combination of Cold and Heat infused silk, this room is slightly warmer than the cave, creating the ideal environment for incubating goblinoid eggs.

I had originally made the room large enough to contain two nests made out of my silk, one for the Gyger and one for the Goblins, but at the insistence of both parties, the two nests were substituted with one large nest.

It seems that over the course of the stay in the cave, the Goblins have decided to join up with the Jotun and Gyger. Of course, neither the Servants or I am against this. I'm very fond of Goblins because of my time spent as one, and there's a kinship between goblinoids that make the stronger species favor taking in weaker ones.

With the strong goblinoids protection, the weaker species are able to thrive and become stronger, eventually evolving into the same species as their protectors, supplying the tribe as a whole with completely fresh blood. Everyone benefits.

As part of this arrangement, co-parenting becomes a thing. Most species of Goblinoid raise their young communaly, and where there's an alliance between a strong and a weak species, their eggs are reared together. This ensures that the offspring of both species are socialized towards cohabitation from birth.

On the tenth day of waiting out the blizzard, the eggs are laid. Oddly, contrary to my own experience, both types of egg are hard, with a calcified outer shell instead of the pliable, leathery kind I broke out of when I was reborn into this World. 

*Unlike in your World, where the developing young rely entirely on the yolk of the egg, many monsters in this World also take in the calcium in the eggshell itself. As the egg gets closer to hatching, it softens, becoming much akin to the snake-eggs of your World. However, species of monster that don't care for the nest once the eggs are laid do not do this, for obvious reasons.*

Hm, yes. If the egg gets easier to get open, and no-one is around to protect it, it's practically asking for it to be eaten. Although they're the same shape and color, the eggs are easily discernible from each other, since the ones the Gyger laid are nearly twice the size of the Goblin eggs.

Once they're laid, there's a brief period of about an hour where you can move the egg to position it in the pile, but after that, moving the egg can severely hurt the baby monster inside. This means all eggs are laid within this time period of the first egg. Once the eggs are all arranged, I sneak a peek at their description:

*Goblin Egg - Common - Contains the miracle of life. If kept still and warm, a baby Goblin will hatch from it in 64 days.*

*Fjone Egg - Uncommon - Contains the miracle of life. If kept still and warm, a baby Fjone will hatch from it in 64 days.*

... Fjone?

*Fjone*
*The adolescent form of either a Jotun or Gyger. Once it reaches sexual maturity, it will Evolve into its chosen gendered form. Small, fluffy and cute.*
*Rank: 1 Star*

Ah, I see. I suppose this is how the system handles it. Jotun are male Gyger, and Gyger are female Jotun, but their biology and Stats are quite different from each other despite being essentially the same species. I guess the eggs aren't equipped to handle that choice, so instead we get this in-between form that can Evolve into either kind.