Book 2: Chapter 42 “The Cracking Lava Smander”


    Last chapter recap: Lin fights a thunderstone and encounters an amphibian.


    Amphibian seemed to mean a certain group of organisms, and not the name of one organism. Lin found a more specific term in its vocabry to express this organism.


    Lava Smander.


    What was this? Such a strange name   this amphibian seemed to have evolved from some lobe-finned fish.While Lin had no memories of the evolution process, this organism really appeared simr to some types of fish.


    Theva smander clearly was a hunter. It swung its tail and opened its teeth-filled mouth to bite at the tail of the Leviathan.


    The Leviathan only had to speed up to dodge this. The smander was slower than the Leviathan, but Lin did not n on fleeing like this.


    The ughterer, who had just killed the thunderstone, had almost finished growing another new abdomen filled with toxic spikes. This new cell type the Leviathan had created could be used repeatedly. Also, it was unlike the other cell types as it had its ownplete set of organs.


    Lin had this ughterer sway in front of theva smander. As expected, the smander was attracted and bit the ughterer in half.


    This force was so great   it seemed the ughterer could not be used again. However, the toxic spikes inside the ughterer had spread and the other would not live for long.


    However, Lin was puzzled as thisva smander did not show any problems. It continued to consume the corpse of the ughterer and ate all of it.


    Strange, was it immune against the toxin?


    Lin suddenly found a bright red color had risen on the abdomen of theva smander after it ate the ughterer. It was as bright asva, and extremely simr to the color of the ughterers abdomen.


    So this was why it was called ava smander? Was it able to produce a simr toxin?


    After the smander consumed the ughterer, it turned and swam away, seemingly uninterested in the Leviathan.


    Lin immediately followed. At the same time, it looked at the Leviathans cell catalog for any cells that were suitable for defeating thisva smander.


    Leviathan had many unit types and Lin did not know which one to use. Therefore, it randomly chose one. This unit was called a smasher. and was to be used against heavy armored targets. While theva smander was not heavily armored, that was fine.


    Leviathan created a dozen smashers. This kind of unit was oval in shape, about thirteen centimeters long, and did not have any armor. A long t tail was used to swim, and it had a pair of segmented limbs on its head with hardened little hammers at the ends.


    This kind of method was very simr to the mothership of the past. But it was so small, which power did it have?


    After Lin carefully observed their inner structures, it found these small things were not simple.


    Lin had these smashers charge towards theva smander. At the beginning, the smander ignored them. Then Lin had one smasher go close to the smanders back and then suddenly swing its forelimbs.


    Snap


    It seemed to have just been an instant. Lins eyeballs were even unable to detect the hammer. The power of the small hammers caused the ectoderm of the smander to explode. The cells inside the blood vessels started to uncontrobly spurt out along with a strange red fluid as thoughva smander seemed to have put the toxin in the ectoderm at its back.


    Lin found an interesting term to describe this phenomenon, split skin andcerated flesh.


    Theva smander felt the pain and suddenly turned, opening its mouth and biting towards the smasher. Its numerous teeth and the pressure from the jaws crushed the smasher.


    But at this time, the other crushers attacked in unison. They created wounds on the smanders abdomen, tail,and head.


    The smander twisted its body in an attempt to flee. It had no desire to fight, but Lin would not spare it. The smashers gave chase, and attacked the uninjured parts of theva smander. Some attacks even exposed the muscr structures underneath the skin.


    The smanders blood continued to spray out under the ongoing attacks. The muscles of its limbs were damaged and it lost the ability to swim. It twisted its body as it sank down into the water.


    A feeling of great power   the smashers.


    The smashers attacking method was simr to the mothership, but the internal structures were different. They did not rely purely on the contraction of the muscles to deal their blows, but used an extremelyplex pressure system. In simple words, the limb used muscles to squeeze fluid to the forelimb, and then the blow would be dealt with the power of the muscles as well as the three hardenedyers of the hammer. This could cause great damage.


    No wonder this was a unit for heavy armor targets. But it was also effective against unarmored targets.


    Right now, relying on this power, Lin easily obtained prey. But in this era, it did not seem to be easy to eat in peace. The blood fluid and cells that theva smander had spilled attracted some organisms to this ce


    Sharks.


    They, who had the best scent of smell, could find injured organisms a thousand meters away. And they came in a group of a dozen. The Leviathan had to move back. Lin felt, even if the Leviathans units were so strong, it could not defeat so many sharks.


    This era was truly different   once upon a time, when Lin hunted, no organisms woulde to steal prey. However, Lin did not worry that the sharks would steal theva smander.


    A shark came close to the smanders corpse. After it took a bite, it seemed to experience great pain. The shark twisted and then fled madly.


    That was the toxin of theva smander. It stored the toxin in the ectoderm. When the smashers damaged the skin, the toxin was released inrge amounts.


    The remaining sharks saw this and lost interest in theva smander, swimming away.


    It seemed they had high intelligence. Lin thought that each of them would try once   now nothing would disturb Lin from feeding.


    The Leviathan itself did not have immunity against the toxin but the ughterers did. Simr to how theva smander did not fear the toxin of the ughterer, the ughterers could eat the blood and flesh of theva smander without any worries.


    Lin now knew why the ughterers had their ownplete set of organs. Maybe the ughterers were specialized in consuming the things that the Leviathan could not digest. They could also separate the nutrients and toxin, and also store the toxin in the spike cells in its abdomen.


    Why had the Leviathan evolved such a strange cell? This was so interesting


    Lin had only watched a small part of the Leviathans memories and information. If it started watching from the start, it would be too dull. Lin felt it would be more interesting if it tested the abilities by itself.


    Lin created some more ughterers and had them finish eating the body of theva smander. The interior structures of the smander wereplex. Just like its ancestors, the t fish, they had a spine. However, this spine was much more developed.


    Lin had no desire to learn from it. It would be more fun to test the new unit types of the Leviathan. Lin also should go look onnd and see what the state of oxygen was at present.


    Suddenly, Lin saw arge school of helmet fish in the distance. They formed long lines and swam in one direction.


    It was the helmet fishs breeding activity


    From the memory of the eyeballs, Lin knew what these helmet fish were doing. These helmet fish would all go to a special area to do an activity called spawning.


    This was why they were still so numerous in this ocean filled with predators even though they have such burdensome helmet armor.


    Lin knew where they were going so it followed them.


    The enormous helmet fish swarm swam to a ce where there was the shadow ofnd. They all swam towards that ce at the center of thend. There, an enormous crack appeared.


    There was a narrow flow of water at the crack that stretched into thend. Lin knew that this flow of water could be called a river.


    As the environment changed, the ocean was not the only thing to change. Even thend would split apart, and the water of the ocean would flow into the split in thend.


    However, Lin felt that the water in the river did not flow in from the ocean, and instead it was the water flowing out of thend as the water here   was slightly strange.


    The helmet fish swarmed into the river. At the entrance of the river, several dozen sharks were waiting in ambush. They seemed to have expected the helmet fish woulde here. This was a rare feast.


    The helmet fish ignored the sharks and continued to charge towards the river. Even as its neighboring fellows were torn apart by the sharks, they continued to advance. The sharks did not dare to chase after the helmet fish that sessfully made it into the river.


    The river watercked something called salinity. If organisms of the ocean entered the river, strange things would ur, such as their organs exploding.


    Lin had never entered the river. All of this knowledge came with the term of river.


    The helmet fish seemed able to switch the circtory system in their bodies so they could live in both the river and the ocean. Did the Leviathan have such an ability?


    Should it go in and try?


    Trantor Ramblings: Lin is like a baby learning new things about itself.