Published at 8th of December 2020 10:49:11 AM
Chapter 45
Chapter Forty Five Monster Under The Ice
This enormous sea star was three meters in diameter, and its tentacles covered in suction pads stuck to Leviathan’s back . This kind of sea star had a strange name — Sunny Sea Star . Lin had once seen it before, but had not expected it could change color .
The seastar did not have five tentacles, but fifteen . Each tentacle had numerous suction pads . Suction pads were extremely useful in that they had such power an organism could pull something dozens of times heavier than itself .
Under this kind of force, once the sea star sucked onto something, it could not be pulled off . Even fish much bigger would die if the sea star caught them .
Then the Sunny Sea Star released dissolving fluid from its suction pads which corroded the outer shell of the Leviathan . But at the same time, Lin released ten smashers which swam to the back of the sea star and hammered away .
Crack …
The outer skin of the sea star was covered in chitin substances but not a thick layer . Under the attacks of the smashers, cracks immediately appeared . Blood flowed out of the cracked wounds, but the sea star still stuck to the Leviathan and did not plan on running away .
So troublesome .
The smasher continued their ferocious attack and created numerous wounds on the sea star . Due to its wounds, it released decreasing amounts of dissolving fluid but the suction pads were as strong as before .
After so many years, the sea star still hadn’t evolved a true brain . This may be why it was so stubborn .
It appeared Lin had to completely smash it? As Lin thought this, it suddenly felt the sea star surround a smasher .
There were numerous sea stars sticking underneath the ice layer . They appeared to be attracted by the wounded sunny sea star and started to fall off the ice layer . Most of them landed on the sunny sea star on the Leviathan’s back and a few coincidentally fell on the smashers .
If Lin did not leave, it feared it would be completely surrounded by large numbers of sea stars . While the Leviathan had the ability to kill all of them, Lin felt this had no meaning and would be troublesome .
Leviathan quickly recalled all of the smashers and suddenly sped up, swimming into the deeper waters, covered in sea stars .
Why did the sea stars stick to the ice layer? Usually, sea stars feared the cold .
Had they mutated? Or were there other reasons?
Lin once again sent out smashers to kill the sea stars on the Leviathan . At the same time, it created gatherers to collect the dead sunny sea stars still stuck to the Leviathan’s back .
When Lin managed to clean them up, it almost reached the ocean floor . This place was dark and cold . Under the lantern light, the seabed made up out of grey sand appeared in Leviathan’s vision .
This kind of environment was not suited for the green carpet .
Lin had the Leviathan stop on the sand and started to think .
Lin did not know where it should go next …
The ice layer would always inexplicably appear on the water . This was extremely troublesome . Lin could not explore by relying on the Leviathan alone . Right now, Lin could not idly travel idly like in the past, but it had to find a safe place suited for the green carpet’s growth in a year .
If … it could find more places like the one where it saw the jellyfish floating in the air . But how could Lin accomplish that? What kind of gas did it have to gather so it could float in the air?
There was no use in thinking about this . In any case, Lin had to find the place sooner .
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As Lin thought, Lin created a small eyeball for observation . This was one centimeter in diameter, with a clear transparent hard shell . It swam relying on small tentacles . It would shine in the darkness, and it had the ability to fend off predators — by releasing acid . However, it only had enough to release acid three times .
Leviathan created hundreds of eyeballs like this and had them swim in all directions . There were enough nutrients to last them for thirty days . If the time came, or they all died, Lin would create more .
This way, the search would be faster .
When Lin released those eyeballs, they scattered . But they did not travel far before Lin felt some eyeballs were crushed by unknown organisms .
This was too fast . Not even thirty meters?
Leviathan swam to where the eyeballs had died . Under the light of the lantern, the figure of the culprit appeared .
A pitch black Brontoscorpio with its small mouthparts still chewing on something with glowing fragments floating around .
The scorpion did not fear the acid in the eyeballs . Lin ignored it and then Leviathan turned to leave .
Boom …
As Leviathan turned around , it immediately saw a strong flow of water behind it . When Leviathan turned around, the scorpion was already gone .
Eaten? Lin found only a sand pit left where the scorpion had been . Had this been an ambush in the sand?
The Brontoscorpio was a large organism . Was it an instant kill?
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Such an interesting phrsae . Lin did not care so much .
This was a time of monsters . Even if terrifying organisms over ten meters long appeared, Lin would not be shocked .
Leviathan swam upwards, taking back the lanterns and relying on touch and smell to perceive the environment in the dark .
Lin chose a random direction . In the darkness, it felt many strange things . There was the movement of water, and unusual scents . Because it could not see them, it could only guess what these things were .
Leviathan once again reached the ice-covered water surface . The light passed through the thick ice . Here, there were no sea stars, just some jellyfish . These jellyfish … were completely different from the kind that could float in the air .
Leviathan swam among the jellyfish swarm . Some ammonites appeared ahead . They did not eat jellyfish, and did nothing except float there .
There was something big in the middle of the ammonite . Lin found an enormous ammonite two meters wide among a group of small ammonites . Its head was inside its shell which was tightly closed as it floated in the water .
What were they doing? The shell of the ammonite should be the hardest, just like a rock . Almost no organism could open it . Was that why they were so idle?
Leviathan swam over and used a tentacle to poke this enormous stone .
Suddenly, the operculum of the enormous ammonite suddenly opened . A powerful water jet shot out, and the enormous ammonite hurriedly rushed deeper into the water .
At this time, the surrounding ammonites who had been floating around seemed to be woken up . They also produced water jets to follow the enormous ammonite .
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What happened?
While Lin did not understand, it had the Leviathan follow immediately . It found that its curiosity was now much greater .
The ammonites had a thick and hard shell which appeared heavy but was actually filled with air . Due to this, they could swim quickly . However, the Leviathan managed to easily catch up to them .
The ammonite swam in a strange direction, sometimes up, and sometimes down . Just as Lin wondered why it swam like this, a strange vibration came from behind the Leviathan .
Leviathan”s eyeball antenna looked back and it immediately saw a monster chasing them .
This was a giant fish like the one Lin had seen before, only seven meters, not as long as the previous one, but clearly the same kind .
This fish had a name, called the “Dunkleosteus” . This was not an interesting name . Lin wanted to call it a crusher, or crushing monster as they were skilled in using powerful muscles to crush hard shells . Even the ammonites had to run away .
Lin did not know if it was targeting Leviathan as well . Escaping was better or maybe Lin could try to defeat it?
Just as Lin was thinking this, light appeared up ahead . The ammonite swarm had reached a wondrous place .
This was the cold water region under the ice . It should be dim and but for some reason, the seabed here flashed like the stars in the night sky .
Translator Ramblings: I thought I was on a roll with translating this and it turned out I missed a chapter . Going back to translate is not fun .
Here’s an ammonite swimming animation . Look at that water spout . That’s what I imagine Leviathan has .