I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature Chapter 102

Chapter 102. The Mother Nest

A light flickered on in the pitch-black world.

[Foreign substance detected in the outer periter of Route 6.]

Sothing with a somber presence, which had been standing still, snapped its fingers and projected a massive screen.

[Analysis result: Presud to be a small individual of a Deep Sea species located in the outer periter.]

The entity was about to close the screen as it was, but stopped.

[Second individual presud to be a Deep Sea jelly octopus.]

-Reanalyze.

[Why is the Deep Sea species not attacking the jelly octopus? Or why is the jelly octopus in this location? Unknown.]

-Reanalyze.

[The white Deep Sea species appears to have escaped the dominion of the so-called Mother Nest. An irregular individual.]

-Reanalyze.

[The jelly octopus differs from ordinary individuals. A jewel is embedded in its forehead, and it is clearly using a different technique.]

-Reanalyze.

[Analysis result: Using an ability called ‘Skill,’ derived from the rules newly designated in this millennium.]

-Reanalyze.

[Tracing the flow of fate. Tracking complete. The karma of ‘Heaven and Earth Resonance’ is felt from him. Also detecting karma entangled with Syrendron.]

-Syrendron? The destructive weapon those fools created still remains? But, if so, then perhaps.

The entity muttered so. A faint light flickered in his somber eyes.

* * *

-It’s this narrow?

-Yes, sir.

-It’s not difficult to pass through, but who made a passage like this?

The place Puyo pointed to was a crack so narrow it was almost invisible. A place only Sea Horror Parasites could barely pass through. But for Yul, who had Polymorphed into an octopus, it was a place he could enter with ease.

-Didn’t I tell you there was a dungeon here before the Mother Nest built its nest?

-Right.

-The Mother Nest expanded its nest by gradually absorbing the dungeon, but there were a few places it couldn’t dominate, even with its power. They called those places the Forbidden Zone.

-Is this the Forbidden Zone?

-Strictly speaking, it’s a narrow passage on the outskirts of the Forbidden Zone. It seems to be a passage where the internal heat escapes. To enter the Forbidden Zone itself, you have to pass through a massive ‘gate’ on one side of the Mother Nest’s nest.

-How do you know all this?

-After I realized one day that I had escaped the Mother Nest’s control, there wasn’t much I didn’t try. Smacking around other parasites and riding them for fun, slacking off on assigned duties, eavesdropping on the Knights’ conversations, searching for backdoors, and so on.

This guy talks like a veteran sergeant nearing discharge.

-Anyway, that’s when I found it. I learned there was a place called the Forbidden Zone in this Mother Nest by eavesdropping on the Knights’ chatter.

-Did you also perfect that unique way of speaking there?

-Oh. That’s a rather long story. Anyway, it wasn’t during that ti.

-Should we keep going?

-Ah, when the surroundings turn red, it becos a thermal vent zone, so be careful. It seems like they periodically release the heat that has built up inside the Forbidden Zone, but since this place is so cold, it cools down quickly.

Just as he said, the entire area suddenly turned red.

-Let’s move to the corner.

Ziiiiing. Clank. Fwoooooosh!

Seawater carrying an intense heat burst outward, and soon the thermal blast subsided.

-We’re almost there.

Following Puyo’s guidance straight ahead, Yul felt certain they had skipped several zones. Using echolocation by releasing ultrasonic waves and constructing a three-dinsional map in his mind, he realized they were definitely deeper now.

-We’ve co quite far without fighting.

-Hmm. Indeed. Thank you. It’s thanks to you.

-Excuse ?

Puyo stiffened like a goat that had suddenly sensed danger.

-Why?

-No, I an, do you even know how to say things like that? Have you been equipped with a warm heart, sir?

-Do I look like so kind of psychopath to you?

When Yul grabbed his head with telekinesis and lifted him up, Puyo flailed his four tentacles like limbs and shouted.

-Aaaack, I was wrong, sir! I’m sorry!! It hurts, sir!

-Stop fooling around and guide the way.

-Yes, sir! This is the floor above the final layer. This is the place I ntioned earlier where the Sea Horror Knights gather. I used to call it the Knights’ Lounge.

-What are Knights?

-Large-type individuals. The species called Sea Horror parasitizes and infects other lifeforms, from small creatures to large ones, and controls them. Even that enormous Mother Nest is a lifeform being parasitized. And the Knights infect even more powerful creatures and control them in different ways.

-How different are they from the Parasites?

-The difference is like heaven and earth. Each possesses a unique ‘individuality,’ and they modify the creatures they dominate in their own ways or acquire their traits.

It seed the Knights were incomparably stronger than the previous ones. Through Polymorph, Yul returned to his original form.

-You stay hidden quietly. I’ll go alone.

-Understood, sir! I should be ready to run away from the passage entrance at any ti, sir.

Yul strode confidently toward the entrance of the floor. Then he shoved it open with his body and broke the door.

In the pitch-black darkness, eyes glead. They are the Knights.

Each had a unique appearance. One of them stepped forward. It resembled a Stalker crawling on four legs, but its tail looked like a spine, segnted and bone-like.

-I’ll handle him.

‘So they can even transmit magic signals.’

-I heard there was an intruder in the upper levels. But I didn’t expect you to show up here.

The Knight lowered its stance and raised its tail.

When Yul thrust his horn forward, the creature evaded and stabbed back with its tail. He twisted his head and blocked it with his horn.

-Your movents are large. It looks as though you’re wielding an organ that wasn’t originally yours.

That was certainly true. The horn was rely a constructed organ. After several exchanges, Yul felt certain that his opponent was a true master of martial combat. It was stronger than Yalmuka, the Spear-horn Squid he had once fought alongside.

Clang, clang-clang, clang!

For now, he was responding with overwhelming physical ability, but it wasn’t just once or twice that the enemy’s strikes had nearly pierced him. Especially the tail. Covered in a carapace and appearing layered in segnts, it sotis thrust like a spear and sotis lashed like a whip.

And behind the enemy, the other Knights watched with interest. If the Stalker-like Knight before him fell, they would rush in one after another.

Let’s run a test.

He drew up his magic until his magic circuits overheated. Just as he had done before, he intended to compress powerful telekinesis into a single point and crush it.

-…Huh?

However, the Knight slipped through the gaps in the telekinetic force in an instant, as if tearing through the “flow.”

‘What did it just do?’

At first, he froze, unable to understand what had happened. Only after activating his telekinesis again did he realize.

The creature was clearly digging into the gaps.

‘That’s possible?’

Even telekinesis inevitably had openings sowhere.

It was impossible to apply telekinetic force perfectly evenly everywhere. That ant there were parts not being fully pressed down—and it had burrowed through those gaps to escape.

‘I learned sothing new.’

This kind of “compression” technique was only effective against enemies who lacked the ability to break it or whose physical capabilities had declined from exhaustion.

But there were many other thods.

He blocked the Knight as it lunged again. When the scorpion-like tail shot up and thrust toward him, he seized it with telekinesis.

If held like a grip for just a brief mont, the opponent loses the ti to react.

Imdiately, he pierced the Knight’s flank with his horn and shook his head to stir it.

-Kraaagh!

Blood must have burst from its body. He could sll iron in the seawater.

He followed up imdiately with a chain of attacks. A repetition of grabbing with telekinesis and thrusting with the horn.

The tattered Knight was slamd straight into the ground.

-Now, next.

One of the larger individuals that had been watching from behind stepped forward.

-Glory to the Mother Nest!

-All of you, co at all at once.

-Uooooo!

The massive one charged first at trendous speed and slamd into him.

Its main weapons seed to be two enormous fists.

‘If this weren’t the Deep Sea, that would have been incredible speed.’

Even here in the Deep Sea, its movents looked almost free from the water pressure.

Not only this huge Knight, but even the first Stalker-type Knight had seed unaffected by the crushing pressure of the Deep Sea.

‘And I’m free from the pressure too.’

As he exchanged blows at close range, Yul realized the water pressure was affecting him far less than expected.

Thud!

Receiving the impact head-on, Yul grabbed the giant Knight and lifted it.

-I told you to co at all at once.

Just as he was about to skewer it, he felt his side being sliced open.

Turning, he saw a Knight with two razor-like arms carve a long gash across his flank.

-Die!

-You die.

Rather than using crude techniques like compression ant for weaker foes, a more efficient thod was to “add force” to the enemy.

For example, if a Knight extended razor-like arms to kill him, then if he applied just a bit more “force” than the creature anticipated to those arms…

Shhk.

-Huh?

The Knight drove its own razor arms into itself. In the brief mont its movents halted, Yul thrust his horn into the torso of the giant Knight before him.

With telekinesis fueled by overwhelming magic, he subtly interfered with the enemy’s movents and then pierced it with his horn.

That was the answer to dealing with Knights.

The ones that followed were handled in similar fashion.

Those with sturdy armor were pierced through the gaps in their plating. The fast ones were tripped by adding just a bit more “force” with telekinesis. The ones that defended without the slightest opening were lted from within by ultrasonic waves, just as he had done to the Guardian.

If this hadn’t been the Deep Sea, his horn would have been drenched in their bodily fluids.

-A-amazing, sir. Those powerful ones…

Through the thickening scent of blood, Puyo suddenly appeared.

-You’re still alive?

-Y-yes, sir. Now! Let’s go inside! The Mother Nest’s main body will appear soon!

The grab-and-thrust combo consud more magic than he had expected, but thanks to the magic pouring from the Deep King Tribe’s Ultra-Fusion Heart, it quickly recovered.

Yul thought the most terrifying aspect of the Deep King Tribe’s body might be this very recovery ability.

‘The body recovers through regeneration, and magic recovers through the Ultra-Fusion Heart…. I could fight for three days and nights.’

In an instant, restored to peak condition, Yul stood before the place where the Mother Nest resided.

And he saw a ‘human girl’ standing at the entrance to the final chamber.

-…What is that?

-Pardon? What are you talking about, sir?

-Can’t you see that human girl?

A young girl who looked about ten years old stood there. A small child wearing a light, fluttering dress.

-Pardon? There’s nothing…! Th-the Mother Nest should be further inside, so why is it here?!

-That’s the Mother Nest?

-I-it can’t be here! The Mother Nest’s main body can’t move!

Yul realized that Puyo and he were seeing completely different things.

And in situations like this, either one of them was wrong—or both of them were.