4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Book 2: Chapter 45 “Monster Under The Ice”

This enormous sea star was three meters in diameter, and its tentacles covered in suction pads stuck to Leviathans 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 hadnt 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 Leviathans 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 Leviathans 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 Leviathans 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 carpets 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.

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?

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.

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.

Leviathans 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.

Heres an ammonite swimming animation. Look at that water spout. Thats what I imagine Leviathan has.