Chapter Thirty Six Crystal Ecology

Why would this little stone inside the tentacle always point in one direction? Magnetic field? Magnet?

Strange terms appeared in Lin’s thoughts . It did not understand what they meant, but it knew that “magnet” represented attraction .

The stone was attracted to something?

Leviathan put away the base seed . Lin suddenly had a feeling that the destination of this stone would be more suitable to release the seed .

Lin continued to advance in this dark sea covered in crystals . As it followed the stone’s guidance Lin found the surrounding crystals increased in size . Some were not fragments, but complete pieces .

Not just the crystal bacteria lived here . Some flat fish also lived here but these flat fish were of strange appearance . Their heads were thicker and rounder than normal flat fish and the upper head was covered in a thin sh.e.l.l .

Why did they grow like that? Wouldn’t they swim slower? It wasn’t of much use in defense

Lin was only slightly puzzled . It pa.s.sed by the fish and continued to swim forward . The crystals here became bigger and bigger . The scattered fragments were almost completely absent . As Lin observed the surrounding environment, it sketched out the entire region’s appearance and size in its mind .

The perimeter of this region were cracked crystals, and the crystals became more complete as Lin went in . What had created this kind of environment?

Maybe an organism?

Many flat fish surrounded the Leviathan . They seemed extremely interested in Leviathan’s lanterns . Lin did not see their eyeb.a.l.l.s, but they seemed able to feel light .

Lin stretched out a tentacle to grab a few, tear them apart, and eat them . Lin found their bodies weren’t unique . However, their outer layer contained many rhombus crystal pieces, and large numbers of crystal bacteria squeezed within the cracks of these scales .

Leviathan reached the next area . These crystals were conical in shape and stood up from the stand . This could be called a “forest of crystals . ”

Another kind of organism appeared here . They had soft and small bodies but carried large sh.e.l.l . Organisms like this seemed to be called “snails . ”

Lin seemed to have known the word “snail” before but this was the first time Lin saw the snail organism . Its sh.e.l.l was made out of crystal, and there were many crystal bacteria within its body alongside its organs .

It seemed that every organism here seemed to have a relations.h.i.+p with the crystal bacteria . How did the crystal bacteria communicate with them?

This kind of relations.h.i.+p seemed to be called “symbiosis” but why did they come together?

Lin hadn’t seen even one ice crystal monster up until now . It was possible that this kind of organism was rare .

Lin continued to advance . The tentacle with the stone moved more violently and this meant that Lin was close to the destination .

Lin suddenly thought that it had only been paying attention to this side . It hadn’t advanced anything back at the main base . Lin had deconstructed the corps ball . The internal structure of this organism was special . It had a large sac for the small corps b.a.l.l.s to live in . Because the organism didn’t have a mouth, it relied on the small corps b.a.l.l.s to feed it food .

While interesting, Lin was more interested in this side of things so it put the matters of the main base to the side . Lin could have the warheads act automatically .

Suddenly, an enormous organism flashed through the light of the lantern .

Ice crystal monster?

Lin had the lanterns chase that organism . However, it swam quickly and Lin only saw the debris its tail brought up .

Lin retrieved the lanterns and grew out a lantern tentacle outside the Leviathan’s sh.e.l.l for illumination . Then Lin had the Leviathan move at full speed to chase this organism . It was swimming in the direction the stone was pointing in .

Leviathan used the water spouts to spin as it swam . This way, its speed could match other speedy organisms .

After chasing for a while, Lin saw the organism again . This was an ice crystal monster but it was much smaller . It swam quickly just using the spouts on its rear limbs . The Leviathan had a difficult time catching up .

Lin noticed at this time the surrounding environment had changed again . Some enormous crystals appeared . They stood up from the seabed like enormous stones . Many organisms were active around these crystal rocks . The small ice crystal monster suddenly accelerated . It charged to an enormous wall of crystal and then burrowed in .

This was … …

When Leviathan came close, Lin found that there was an opening just perfect for the ice crystal monster to climb in on this crystal wall .

Also, this crystal … … was extremely large, incredibly large .

Lin could only see an enormous barrier of crystal . It blocked the Leviathan completely and the light of the lantern could not reach the end . Then the Leviathan released a large number of lanterns to swim in three different directions to see how large this crystal was .

The lanterns and eyeb.a.l.l.s that went to the two sides swam for a long time before circling back to the Leviathan’s location . It seemed that this crystal was a cylindrical structure . It was wide enough to hold several hundred leviathans, but the eyeb.a.l.l.s and lanterns swimming upwards hadn’t reached the end of the crystal barrier … …

Was it … …

Leviathan had the lanterns stop . Then the Leviathan swam upwards following the crystal barrier . It found that the crystal continued to stretch upwards until Leviathan got close to the ice layer covering the water surface .

This icy barrier broke through the ice barrier and stretched above the water surface … …

So enormous … … this wasn’t any normal crystal, it was something that could be called a “mountain . ”

It reached from the dark abyss deep in the water to the region of air . This was a crystal mountain!

How was it able to grow so large? How did this form?

Lin found the more it saw, the more it understood, and the more questions it had .

There were no organisms on the crystal barrier, unlike the numerous organisms that gathered in the deep water . Lin was puzzled by this .

However, Lin felt it would be good to dig a hole in this and make a base . With so much crystals, it could create many units with sh.e.l.ls .

While food was lacking here, Lin had finished that experiment .

It was the last step of “eating light,” mixing water and certain gases with certain substances it obtained from the green cells . Lin could form something edible .

Lin completely mastered the ratios involved . At present, it could produce a new type of cell .

While the things that needed to be mixed together were many and complex, in actuality, they were few in number, and most of them were not edible to begin with . Adding on that these substances were everywhere in the water, Lin found it extremely profitable to use them to make food .

However, the efficiency of this process was not high . The green cells that Lin had caught and only fed on light as food reproduced slowly . Some other types of green cells reproduced quickly, but they would feed on other substances or single cell organisms .

While the efficiency wasn’t high, this was a source that was endless . Consequently, Lin felt that this study was extremely useful . It would be able to build bases in areas lacking food but rich in other resources .

Maybe Lin would call this “photosynthesis” and “chlorophyll . ”

Actually, organisms that could absorb light weren’t just the green ones . Lin had seen single cells of different color able to eat light . Some were red, others blue, and even black ones existed .

Lin planned to make a structure for photosynthesis at each base, but it would do the one here first .

Night was pa.s.sing by and day time was about to arrive . A layer of light pa.s.sed through the ice layer above . Lin ignored it . It had the Leviathan build “drillers . ” This type of cell were cone-shaped with denticles and at the end, they had three water spouts, allowing them to spin rapidly and drill into the crystal wall .

Then Lin had the gatherers collect the crystal debris scattered in the surroundings .

When the debris was dissolved, it could be made into armor . Dissolving fluid was divided into several types . Not every type could dissolve crystals . Some dissolving fluids would completely destroy the crystals to the point they could not be used again . As a result, making armor like this was slightly troublesome .

Daytime had arrived while Lin was making holes on the crystal wall . As the light from above grew brighter, the drillers in the crystal wall suddenly felt the surroundings grow hotter … …

Right, these crystals would absorb heat!

Lin suddenly thought of this but it was too late . The drillers had dug too deep and were unable to withdraw before they were killed by the high temperature .

The entire crystal seemed to absorb the light of day and become dazzling .

Such high temperature . Maybe Lin couldn’t build a base here . No wonder no organism remained close to the crystals .

Then … … what would it be like for the ones in the deep ocean?