I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature Chapter 107

Chapter 107. Syrendron Retrieval

The place where the Syrendron had been was a space shaped like a gigantic glass orb. I rember that one side of it had been shattered.

I still rember its location from before the Heaven and Earth Resonance. Back then, I followed the song I heard from far away and went deep into the sea for the first ti.

Yul revived his mories and headed back to that place. Even in the Great Azure Ocean, it was an area where the depth was not particularly great.

-This place is intact.

Because of the Heaven and Earth Resonance, there had been quite a few cases where new islands ford or places were completely transford into different spaces, but this place alone looked exactly as it had before. It was a miracle it survived.

It was identical to what Yul rembered, as if ti itself had completely stopped.

Through the cracked sphere, various fish could still be seen swimming in and out. Kaiman stuck close by and spoke in amazent.

-This is… the second, no, the third defensive facility? It must have been a facility used to deploy Syrendrons to block Type-3 Apostles…? To think this is still functioning. Isn’t this a relic thousands of years old?

-You know what this place is?

-Probably a facility from the middle phase of the Final War. It was built when Turusain soldiers were being consud in large numbers, and there weren’t enough troops to replenish them. It’s a facility for storing and deploying Syrendrons.

-Sounds like what you call the “Final War” lasted quite a long ti.

-About a thousand years.

They swam straight in and entered the facility.

-The internal structures look like they were destroyed long ago, but it seems that races other than the Turusains lived inside this facility as well.

-Really?

-So of the architectural styles of those buildings over there aren’t Turusain styles. And yet, since I don’t see that race either, it seems even they disappeared, leaving this place abandoned as it is.

Yul recalled the ancient murals on the walls. Thanks to the translation function, he had been able to read them, records written by soone questioning why the Turusain had been here, and why a Syrendron had been sealed in this place.

Thinking about it now, the Turusains couldn’t have written that themselves. Had so unknown race once lived here?

They went further inside, toward the sealed area in Yul’s mory.

-Huh? It’s almost unsealed.

Yul found the enormous clam shell again. The Syrendron that the Orca Warrior Corps had beaten into submission and sealed back then.

It looked so weakened that it seed like it could break free at any mont.

-W-What? What did you do? What happened here?

-The Orca Warrior Corps sealed it. That was about twelve years ago, I think. Or maybe earlier.

-What do you know about this Syrendron?

-I heard Syrendrons are powerful enough to wipe out an entire sea region. The more tentacles they have, the more uncontrollable they beco, and it’s even worse once they break free of the seal. Back then, the Orca Warrior Corps carried out the sealing.

-And?

-When that Syrendron revived, it had no reason left. It couldn’t communicate.

Kaiman pressed his fingers to his temple.

-That giant clam shell is the Syrendron’s Immortality Charger.

-What do you an?

-It’s hard to explain. There were enemies who possessed weapons capable of erasing immortality. Those enemies slaughtered the Turusains with terrifying ease. I believe that device was used to counter them.

-Ah, like Immortal Severing.

Since the Outer God’s minions had fought against the immortal Turusain race, it wouldn’t be strange for them to appear with abilities that nullified immortality.

-…Immortal Severing? What do you an by that? Anyway, I think I get the idea. In any case, that device beca useless in the latter half of the Final War.

-Why?

-Because an avatar of an Outer God appeared. Darasamyak-Aranho-Emal.

-Huh? That’s a na?

-Yes. He used a finishing move called Spatial Folding, which folded three dinsions into two. To survive that, you either needed to be equipped with an Infinite-Series Dinsional Perceiver or awaken on your own and reach the level of a Stage-3 Transcendent.

-Those are all proper nouns I’ve never heard before, but considering the Turusains went extinct, I guess most of them couldn’t manage that.

-That’s right. The equipnt was developed too late, and there were far too few Transcendents.

Listening to Kaiman’s ancient tales was quite fascinating. Perhaps realizing that he’d strayed from the point, he gathered his thoughts and continued.

-Anyway, if you sit on that device for too long, your mind collapses. Turusains converted into Syrendrons initially retain their reason. But if they remain on that Immortality Charger for too long, they gradually lose it. The power of immortality interferes with the mind, and also… they died too many tis.

-What do you an, died too many tis? They’re immortal.

-The body is. The mind isn’t that resilient. Think about being modified into a Syrendron, fighting the Apostles sent by the Outer Gods, dying, reviving, dying again, reviving again, hundreds of tis.

-You’d completely lose your mind.

Yul finally understood why the Syrendron had beco incapable of communication.

-In the latter half of the Final War, there was trendous technological advancent. It wasn’t my field, but there was a scholar at the facility who wanted to restore Syrendrons to their original state. He said his lover had beco a Syrendron.

-I see.

-We need to extract the toxin from its current state. And the equipnt to do that is in the underground level of the facility. Can you possibly capture the Syrendron alive?

-Capture it alive? It keeps getting stronger from the mont it wakes up.

-It’s possible. The stage where its tentacles increase is Phase 2. And I have an injector that prevents the Phase 2 sequence from activating.

Kaiman rummaged through his pack and pulled out sothing like a syringe.

-Release the seal and pull it out, inject this, then beat it up a bit until it “faints,” and transport the Syrendron to the facility.

-…?

-I said I’d help too! Think about it. I am the only Turusain left.

-Fine. I’ll make sure to collect proper compensation.

‘Co to my island and beco my slave!!’

Grinning at the thought of putting Kaiman to work, Yul moved into action.

-Damn it, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

-Aren’t you going to work? Bring the syringe up front.

-Got it. Puyo, you step aside, too. The Syrendron’s about to wake up.

-Got it.

—...Hey! You always say "~sir" to Yul, don't you? Why are you speaking informally to ?

-Why would I bother with honorifics for soone who looks so weak that I could beat you even without 'boarding' anything?

-….

Whether the two were bantering or not, Yul stepped forward first and examined the clamshell.

-Kaiman! Can I just open it like this?

-That’s right! Start! We should fall back.

Once the two non-combatants retreated, Yul imdiately released the Syrendron’s seal.

Jet-black skin, a pitch-black face, and glowing fluorescent eyes.

A massive rope-like dorsal fin turned into tentacles, drifting in all directions.

This combat entity, which had completely lost its original form, launched an attack the mont it saw Yul.

Those tentacles infected the orcas.

As long as he didn’t touch the tips, he’d be fine.

Stretching its tentacles toward the ceiling as if waking from a stretch, the Syrendron looked like a small animal puffing up its body.

Using telekinesis to hold the syringe Kaiman had prepared, Yul charged straight at the enemy. Countless tentacle strikes shot toward him, but since they ca straight on, their trajectories were clearly visible.

Dodging to the side, Yul twisted his body and sliced the tentacles cleanly with the blade fins he had evolved earlier.

They would regenerate, but it didn’t matter. Yul had already closed in. Using the Sea-Sync Demon Eye, he fired compressed seawater as if shooting it out.

Kaiman’s syringe pierced the Syrendron’s torso, and as Yul spun, cutting down the remaining tentacles, he slipped out behind it.

'What? This is too easy?'

He was able to handle it much more easily than he had thought. Thinking about it, Yul now had the body of the Deep King Tribe. He could easily overwhelm the Syrendron that the Orcas had struggled to take down.

'Was Syrendron always this small?'

Compared to his days as a jelly octopus, this was trendous progress.

-Nice! Phase 2 won’t activate now! Just beat it enough to knock it out!

Yul shot up toward the ceiling and gathered power using the Sea-Sync Demon Eye. He maximized the vortex created by his rotation and slamd down.

The Syrendron was crushed to the floor in an instant.

-Brutal!

-It was handled more easily than expected.

-Indeed.

It almost felt like it had always been this weak. He had slamd it down with enough force to nearly kill it, yet it was still intact—only its movent had stopped.

-Good. It’s definitely stopped functioning.

-Was this your plan all along?

-If I were alone, I would’ve used a different thod, but with a Deep King Tribe collaborator confident enough to storm in and take down a Mother Nest, there’s no need for alternatives.

The fallen Syrendron twitched, then retracted its massively inflated tentacles back into its body. As the tentacles continued to shrink and wrap around it, it eventually transford into a cocoon-like form.

-What?

-It’s switched to a survival form. It waits for its allies to arrive in that state. It’s programd to do so. Now pick it up and transport it back to the facility.

-…….

* * *

So ti later, underground at the facility.

Yul carried the cocoon-shaped Syrendron and brought it all the way down there.

-Handle it carefully.

-You’re being quite picky. Anyway, what's next?

-Fit it into that slot over there.

They arrived at a room where the wall had a circular recess. Yul inserted the Syrendron straight into it.

It fit perfectly into the recess, matching the cocoon’s size exactly, leaving no gaps.

-But it’s in such a deranged state. How are you supposed to restore it to its original form?

-Our race greatly advanced the technology of manipulating Karma during the Final War. How much do you know about Karma?

-Hmm. Not really? Other than the fact that it piles up even if you just sit still. It’s piling up right now, too.

Yul’s karma was already reaching a danger threshold in real ti. He thought he’d reduced it recently, but it was once again nearing a critical level.

-……Ah. Damn it, I forgot you’re a higher species. Anyway, you can think of karma as an influence on history.

-Influence?

-Right. Higher species leave marks on history simply by existing. Every action you take is being recorded into history in real ti.

-I see.

He had vaguely guessed as much. Back when he was a jelly octopus roaming the Deep Sea, his karma barely accumulated at all. But once he beca an orca, it started piling up.

-It rises especially fast when you interact with other races. Whether it’s good karma or bad karma. Regardless, we realized that this karma records past history. Certain values of Karma even contain past mories.

-And?

-A Syrendron must also have had a past before becoming a Syrendron. So what if we extract a specific karma from the past and substitute it into the present? It’s a kind of overwrite.

-That’s possible?

So, pulling past mories out of karma and applying them to reality. It sounded similar to loading old save data and overwriting the current state.

-Soone devoted his entire life to inventing this technique. Though he couldn’t save his partner in the end……

-You said he was your colleague?

-My closest friend. In any case, I’ll identify which karma value had a decisive influence in forming the Syrendron. After checking that, I’ll need to call that value into reality, but there’s a problem.

-What is it?

-To operate this device, aside from the energy extracted from the Volcanic Crab, additional resources are needed. It's karma. If we have karma of sufficiently high purity, we can drastically reduce the ti required. I’ve already used up all the karma resources I had……

-Want to give you so?

[Current Karma: 10,001,138]

No matter how much he used it, it kept increasing. He didn’t really have anywhere else to spend it anyway. Even the karma he’d given to the bookstore owner last ti had already fully recovered.

-Hmm. How much are you willing to give?

-How about a million karma?

-Are you insane? Are you trying to turn into a slave?

Kaiman stared at Yul in shock.

-No, seriously, how much karma do you even have?

-A decent amount.

-Ugh…… With that amount, sothing that would normally take a hundred years could be finished within a year.

Kaiman let out a sigh and spoke.

-Fine. I accept.

-So what do I do?

-Attach this patch to your body. It’ll extract and crystallize the karma.

When Kaiman pulled out a square patch from sowhere and attached it to Yul’s body, Yul felt an odd sense of discomfort. It felt like sothing was being drawn out from inside him. It wasn’t magic but sothing he couldn’t consciously perceive before.

-So, extracting karma is chanically possible.

-This is how it’s normally done, you know?

-Really? Soone else just snapped their fingers, and it was done.

-Who did you et?

-The bookstore owner.

-I don’t know who that is, but they’re definitely not an ordinary being. At the very least, they must possess divinity.

-It was an Angel.

-An angel? You an those winged things? I don’t want anything to do with such dangerous beings.

When the bookstore owner extracted karma, Yul hadn’t felt anything like this at all. Soon after, Yul’s karma was extracted and crystallized.

The multifaceted crystal, glowing as if made of gold, looked dazzling just to gaze upon, giving him a strange feeling.

-A karma crystal.

-Oh. Looks like about a million, yeah.

[Current Karma: 9,001,000]

-I think I extracted a bit more than that, but I can’t make it any more precise.

-Doesn’t matter. So this is enough, right?

Kaiman let out a sigh.

-It’s more than enough. Now you are my master…

-Really?

-……Did you think I’d say that!? As soon as I finish 1 million Karma’s worth of work, I’m running away!! I’ve only incurred a debt! I will never be a slaveeeee!!

-Doesn’t matter. When do you start working?

-I can have Ein handle the rest of the work here. But what exactly are you planning to make do?

-First, I need to see what you can do.

He could call it an island developnt plan.