Chapter 59

Enjoy the joy of victory...

As she watched the ice crystal monster sink into the darkness, Lin's thoughts were filled with this wonderful feeling.

Lin now finally understood that only by defeating such a powerful opponent could one experience this feeling.

In this battle, Leviathan suffered great losses; all the biting tentacles were killed by ultraviolet light, and even its own body was severely damaged. Only under such circumstances could victory bring joy and happiness.

Although she felt happy, Lin hoped that this battle was not in vain and that the monster, which looked like a living crystal, would bring something interesting.

Leviathan shed the dead tentacles and released the collectors to eat them, recycling all the nutrients. Lin would soon grow new tentacles.

After the recycling was complete, Leviathan swam in the direction where the ice crystal monster had sunk.

Because this area had a thick layer of ice, even during the daytime, the light in the deep water was as dark as night. Lin had to light up the lantern to see the surroundings clearly.

There it is.

The dark seabed was a white sandy beach, and the ice crystal monster lay quietly in a sand pit. Its crystalline armor still shone, but its life was long gone.

The explosive balls that entered its wounds probably hit its brain, causing it to die very quickly. Lin had been looking forward to seeing it struggle.

Leviathan swam close to the ice crystal monster's corpse and released a large number of exploration micro-eyes. They drilled into every crevice of the corpse, observing the secrets of this creature.

During this time, Lin slowly regrew Leviathan's tentacles.

The internal organs of the ice crystal monster were similar to those of most arthropods, but there were also many unique features.

For example, its last two pairs of appendages had both water absorption and water spraying capabilities, allowing it to move at high speeds and perform collisions. Additionally, Lin did not find its gills, so how did this creature absorb oxygen?

Most importantly, its brain was the largest Lin had ever seen. Even in proportion, it was larger than any other creature's brain, including flatfish.

Lin already understood that the main function of a creature's brain was to command its cells. To use the brain for thinking, one had to remove the part that commanded the cells. The larger this 'self-thinking' part, the smarter the creature would be.

This is why the ice crystal monster could come up with such strange tactics, like ramming other creatures into the ice.

The shell of the ice crystal monster was also quite unique. Lin discovered that it was not made of any known shell material but rather a crystalline substance. The skin of the ice crystal monster had many special gland cells, similar to small ice crystals, which secreted this material.

Lin had seen such cells a long time ago...

Yes, this is... crystal bacteria! A long time ago, during the single-cell era, Lin had a war with them.

Why were they mixed in the body of the ice crystal monster? Or was the ice crystal monster made up of them? But if so, they should be the basic cells, not the gland cells on the skin...

Lin also found that the brain of the ice crystal monster was not connected to the crystal bacteria. Were they not controlled by the brain? This was truly peculiar.

Additionally, the hardness of this crystalline shell was close to the hardest shell material Lin could currently produce. Although it was slightly less hard, it was much lighter, making the ice crystal monster very agile.

The crystalline shell had three layers. The outermost layer was the thickest and transparent, the middle layer was of medium thickness but white, which was probably used to block ultraviolet light, and the innermost layer was very thin, almost non-existent, with many cracks and small holes where the crystal bacteria were mostly concentrated.

Its appendages were also made of this crystalline shell, especially the curved blades on its front limbs, which were extremely sharp and could easily create a crack in Leviathan's armor.

It felt like a very good shell, but it had a flaw: it lacked an anti-corrosion coating, which is why Lin's explosive bombs could easily corrode it.

In summary, this was a creature that could move both in water and on land, was very intelligent, and had this strange armor.

Next, it was time to start the recycling. Lin wanted to create a set of crystalline armor, but the ice crystal monster's body was too large, so Lin needed to increase Leviathan's size first.

To increase its size, Leviathan had to start by dissolving its own shell from the inside. Lin found that other creatures would first shed their entire shell, then discard the old one and cover themselves with a new one.

This method seemed wasteful and time-consuming. Lin's method retained the shell material, although it consumed dissolving fluid, but the shell was much harder to obtain.

However, no matter which method, it would take a long time. Let's take it slowly.

While dissolving the shell, Lin slowly increased Leviathan's size, modified some internal structures, and simultaneously grew new tentacles and released collectors to eat the ice crystal monster.

This was a slow and uninteresting process, but when the collectors were eating the brain of the ice crystal monster, Lin discovered something interesting.

Most of the brain cells of the ice crystal monster were dead, but Lin found a small tentacle-like structure at the back of the brain, and this structure was still alive and slowly wriggling.

At the end of this tentacle-like structure was a small black stone. Lin was initially just curious and didn't think much about it, but when she had the collectors pull it out, she suddenly noticed that the end of the tentacle with the small stone always pointed in one direction. Even if Lin turned it, it would turn back.

Why would this thing do that?

Lin didn't know yet, but she would definitely go to the place it pointed to and see what was there. Maybe she could find the ice crystal monster's nest.

She needed to finish the current task quickly.

...

As the day slowly passed and night fell, Leviathan finally completed its transformation. Its appearance didn't change much, but Lin added ten biting tentacles, and its size increased by 200%, now roughly the same length as the ice crystal monster but much wider. The corpse had been completely decomposed and stored.

Lin tried to combine the ice crystal monster's shell. She could also have the cells ingest and dissolve it, then reassemble it. However, such materials were not commonly found in food or the environment, so to obtain them, she would need to find more creatures with crystalline shells or the original source of these crystals.

Perhaps the crystals Lin had seen before could be used to make crystalline shells, but she hadn't thought of it at the time.

So, it was time to go and see... what exactly was the small stone pointing to?

Leviathan released some eyes and lanterns and swam in the direction indicated.

That was...

In front of Leviathan, a shimmering glow appeared.

Crystals?

In the dark waters, only these things could respond to the light of the lanterns, but...

...there were too many?

Lin spread out the lanterns, and wherever their light reached, there were dense clusters of crystal fragments, with a few larger crystals standing out. These crystals were very similar to the ice crystal monster's shell, indicating that this was indeed the ice crystal monster's nest.

There were also many single-cell organisms on the crystals, all of which were crystal bacteria.

There didn't seem to be any other food here. Were the crystal bacteria eating the crystals?

Truly peculiar...

Regardless, a base seed needed to be placed here. Collecting these crystals would produce a powerful, shiny force.

At this moment, Lin noticed that the small stone in the ice crystal monster's brain was pointing to a direction that had not yet been reached, indicating a more distant direction...

...

Thank you~ to ~Da Wo Cheng~ and ~Yue Xia De Qiang Wei~ for your support~

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