Chapter 40
Chapter Forty – The Era of Monsters
This was Lin’s “army . ” Each of them was only ten centimeters long, and mostly shaped like a warhead . They could move by using the last pair of segmented limbs to spout water . Their second pair of limbs were used to aid movement while the first pair of segmented limbs were used to attack . Most of them had forelimbs shaped like blades, but some had openings to shoot exploding bombs .
There were thousands within this “army . ” Lin had dug a cavern in the big crystals and started to create them before its hibernation . However, once it had created a certain number, it stopped . The soldiers’s purpose were to explore this new world, to hunt and deconstruct anything interesting they found .
They swam quickly in one direction as the warhead shape meant they could swim quickly through the water . The water surface above the crystal land had been constantly covered in ice and never changed during the years . In the dark and cold water, the lanterns of the warheads found large numbers of strange organisms floating in the water .
These organisms with round shells and tentacles at the head were called “ammonites ” and extremely similar to the thunderstone except they had coiled their pointed cones [^1] . They were about half a meter or so and extremely hard outer shells . Lin did not feel the warheads would be a suitable attack on the ammonites . Also, Lin felt there was nothing worthy to learn from the ammonites … … However, interestingly, Lin did not know what the ammonites had evolved from . Maybe a kind of shell organism? The eyeballs had no information in their memories regarding this .
The ammonites were numerous and spread out through the water . The warheads swam along the enormous swarm of ammonites . They quickly left behind the darkness and came to an area illuminated by daylight .
This had originally been the sand beach of the giant trap worm . However, this strange and giant arthropod, which used its own body as a trap, had disappeared a long time ago . While Lin had not covered their “trap” when spreading the green carpet, the bodies of those monsters were not suited to this place . From the memories of the eyeballs, the last giant trap worm seemed to have frozen to death on the frozen pillar . Lin still could not explain how these pillars of ice, with their powerful ability to freeze, would appear randomly .
Right now, everything was covered in green, but not Lin’s green carpet … …
This patch of green danced along the seabed like tentacles . They had evolved from the green cells . The root parts were stuck on Lin’s green carpet, and they reproduced in high numbers to completely cover this area that originally were covered by the green carpet .
Lin’s green carpet had a certain setting . If it did not obtain light for a long time, it would digest itself . Consequently, this area was completely taken over by these evolved green cells called “algae” .
Lin did not feel this was a problem . It was more effective to obtain nutrients by eating algae rather than through slow photosynthesis using the green carpet . When the time came, Lin could just eat this patch of algae which the warheads were not responsible for . Lin was interested in some of the organisms living in the algae .
The warheads swam above this enormous patch of algae . It found some enormous organisms swimming through the algae . They were about two meters in size, and twisted their streamlined bodies as they chased smaller organisms through the water .
“Shark” . One of Lin’s new terms could describe this organism, which evolved from the flat fish . Once, the flat fishes had been similar to each other and small in size, but they had evolved into many different organisms .
This was a peculiar thing . Lin had thought that organisms who were similar but were separated by long distances could evolve differently . But this did not seem to be the case . Organisms that lived in one area could grow up looking different .
Why was this? Lin did not care so much .
One shark was hunting another kind of fish in the algae patch . This other fish was half a meter long, and had a thick pair of lobe-fins on the sides so Lin called it a “lobe-finned fish . ” This lobe-finned fish, that the shark was chasing, charged out of the algae and swam in the direction of the surface .
Sharks had evolved to hunt . This shark had a large mouth filled with teeth, and its flatter fins were more suited to swimming at fast speeds . It quickly caught up to the lobe-finned fish, and its powerful mouth immediately tore off a large piece of flesh .
The other sharks detected their fellow’s success and came over in order to share . Through evolution, the senses of these organisms grew stronger . Even though there were no vibrations in the water, some organisms would know the precise location of their target without even needing their eyes . Lin knew that this was an ability called “smell” but what was smell? Lin did not know . This had to be studied .
The the sharks had good vision but Lin learned from the memories of the observation eyeballs the smell of the sharks should be the best of all organisms .
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The evolution of the eye also occurred to some organisms . Lin had previously found some simple unicellular organisms that could detect light but could not analyze complex images . Even when multicellular organisms appeared, that had been the case . Only now did organisms that were able to decipher complex images appear .
Based on this, Lin should not have any vision in the past, but it obtained vision when the observer ate that crystal-like item . After that, the cells had copied the structure of that crystal in order to create eyes .
What was that crystal? This was still a riddle . Up until now, all the crystals Lin found were different from that crystal … …
Lin would consider this in the future . It would find this “vision crystal” sooner or later .
The shark swarm quickly finished dividing the lobe-finned fish before they scattered apart . Unlike the flat fish which liked to stay together, these sharks become organisms that distanced themselves from their counterparts over their evolution … …
After the sharks scattered, the warheads swam towards the nearest shark . This shark originally did not put much importance on the warheads who were just ten centimeters in length but they were wrong .
When this shark found it was surrounded, it was too late . The warheads charged and used their sharp forelimbs to cut apart the shark’s skin . Some of the warheads attacked the shark’s relatively soft underside .
The shark did not think to fight back, and twisted its body, desiring to flee away . It quickly swam out of the algae and fled towards the water surface .
The warheads followed closely . A large volume of cells continued to spill out of the wounds of the shark . This attracted its peers . Its peers did not come to help the shark, but wanted to consume the shark .
These organisms had become so individualized they would even eat their peers . Lin could not understand why sharks would evolve such a weird method of living … …
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Lin had a portion of the warheads drive away the chasing sharks . The remaining hundreds continued to chase the escapee until it was forced next to a floating piece of ice at the surface with nowhere else to go .
However, before the warheads could act, the enormous piece of ice next to the shark suddenly split . A sickle covered in curved hooks grabbed the shark .
This was … …
At this moment, the large ice floe slowly split open . Through the fragments of ice, a figure with shining crystal armor appeared .
This organism was longer than five meters . Lin was very familiar with this organism because it was the evolved form of the ice crystal monster … . .
Lin had not understood the habits of the ice crystal monster back at the start . Through years of observation, Lin discovered that mature ice crystal monsters would return to the land of crystal to reproduce . The young ice crystal monsters would grow to a certain degree and then leave .
The changes in the outer appearance of the ice crystal monster were minor but it had grown larger . It was still covered in crystal armor . Its forelimbs had evolved into long curved sickles . It had two enormous eyeballs on its head . This organism undoubtedly had the ability to kill a shark instantly .
In this era of hunts, Lin felt that its previous idle way of living was not suitable . Just now, it should have completely surrounded the shark . That way, no one would have been able to steal Lin’s food .
Right now, the warheads could not injure the ice crystal monster . This meant that Lin had to also activate the “trump card” that had hibernated with Lin … …
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The ice crystal monster’s mouth was a crack filled with blades and denticles . It could easily tear apart the shark . But even when covered in crystal armor, the enormous ice crystal monster had enemies . An enormous organism slowly swam over . It appeared this organism was also attracted by the corpse of the shark … …
Its ancestor was the flat fish, but it had evolved from the helmet fish which had evolved from the flat fish first . It was the biggest organism Lin had known up until now .
Ten meters long, this enormous fish’s head was covered in armor . Unlike the obtrusive head armor of the helmet fish, its head armor had enormous blade-like teeth . At the same time, the head armor was divided into an upper and low part which could open and close to chew on prey .
It charged directly at the ice crystal monster, biting tightly on the ice crystal monster’s armor . If it turned its head, it could easily tear off large pieces of the crystal armor .
This organism had the power to crush the armor of the ice crystal monster . The ice crystal monster abandoned the shark and used its powerful propulsion system to quickly flee .
The enormous fish was powerful, but it was slow . It could only give up on the ice crystal monster and eat the smaller shark .
Such an interesting environment … …
Lin felt as though it was watching a play from beginning to end . It had learned many things . Now, it should be serious, and come out to capture everything interesting!
[^1] The Chinese term for ammonite is weirdly Chrysanthemum – stone . I guess it came from the wrinkled and coiling shell . Ammonite comes from “horn of Ammon” .