Chapter 33: Strange Creatures
The composition of the rock in the depths of the cave is significantly different from that of the outside, and the gradual infiltration of groundwater has carried away the weathering parts over the years, leaving only the rock components that can effectively resist the flow of high-energy particles. As a result, the cave structure here is like a honeycomb in an irregular network.
Some strange creatures are attached to the mesh of the reticulated rocks, some resembling both animals and some plants, seemingly somewhere between animals and plants, and survive on the energy carried by the flow of high-energy particles.
The surface is covered in an unknown viscous gum, and the unknown components in the gum are impacted by a stream of high-energy particles that produce a photoelectric effect-like effect, which seems to be the way these seemingly harmless slime-like creatures live.
Arcs of electricity leap over the skin of these creatures, occasionally coupling with the ionic electromagnetic field that is free in space, erupting into a small spark. The two of them were stunned as they looked at this scene like a different dimensional world, and their hearts were shocked beyond words.
"It's hard to believe, it's incredible!" Nazanin exclaimed with his small mouth slightly open.
These strange little creatures are supposed to be extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields, and the creatures shrouded in the wizarding shroud of Bahrain began to slowly squirm their bodies, trying to get away from this extremely uncomfortable field.
There are so many honeycomb forks here that it's impossible to discern the direction. The two of them could only find a random direction to move forward. Bahrain was an academic wizard with a wealth of theoretical knowledge, but no experience in actual exploration, let alone Nazanin, who had no experience in the wilderness.
Two scarred rookies of the wild supported each other, limping through the high and low web-like ravines of the cave by the light of the wizard's shield.
Walking through the reticulated caverns, the beehive-like structure was full of forks in the road, and in less than ten minutes the two of them were completely disoriented.
Suddenly, Bahrain, who was walking in front, was pulled by Nazanin, and the wizard turned his head to look. Nazanin made a silent gesture with his index finger and pointed to her right.
Balin looked in the direction of his finger, and in the honeycomb-like crevice, a monster like a skinned frog slowly crawled among the glowing slimes, several slender esophagus forming mouthparts, piercing into the slime's body to suck the juice.
Skinned frogs also do not have light-sensing organs that resemble eyes, but instead have a tentacle with sarcoma on the top of their head that probes around in the air.
Suddenly, the monster's tentacles shook towards the two of Bahrain, and then attracted by the electromagnetic field of the wizard's will shield, several esophagus quickly retracted like the tentacles of a snail, and crawled quickly on all fours to approach the two of them. It seems to have taken the Wizard Hood of Bahrain as a giant glowing slime.
The sorcerer immediately condensed the sparkle of sorcery, but was stopped by Nazanin. At this time, the woman's expression was focused, and she raised her hand crossbow to aim at the skinned frog and pull the trigger.
The three crossbow arrows quickly pierced into the monster's body, and the skinned frog struggled in pain for a moment and gradually lost its vitality. The two waited on the side for more than ten minutes to observe, and then Nazanin condensed the Freezing Technique in advance, ready to be excited, and cautiously approached the monster.
The creatures here don't seem to be very vigorous, and may have been forced to give up many other abilities in order to evolve to adapt to the erosion of the stream of high-energy particles.
Nazanin endured his nausea and withdrew the bolt from the carcass of the foreskin frog. Balin also stepped forward, temporarily using the arrows of his crossbow arrows as scalpels, and began to slowly dissect the skinned frogs.
From a distance, the monster appears to be a skinned frog, but when it actually gets closer, it turns out that it is a body composed of some kind of organic gel, just like the glowing slime. It does not possess the musculature of animals commonly found in the wizarding world. Perhaps this organic gel, which can be rich in heavy metals, is the mystery of organisms living in such high-radiation areas.
From this, Bahrain can deduce that the outermost layer should be the area of the octopus, as it is clear that the spider is no longer entirely composed of gel, and such creatures cannot go close to the depths of the cavern, where the radiation is stronger. Predictably, in the middle of the cave, there is naturally an ecosystem of organisms composed of such gels. Further down the area, the temperature will inevitably increase significantly after entering a certain critical point in the range of the radiation source, and if there are organisms, they must be able to effectively resist high temperatures and high radiation.
"I'm afraid only elemental creatures from another dimension can survive!" Balin analyzed.
The two of them took another look at the monster corpse that had been broken down into many parts by Bahrain, and then randomly found a direction that looked pleasing to the eye and continued to explore.
In fact, Bahrain is very worried that if it keeps getting closer to the radiation source, will the chaotic electromagnetic field eventually cause its shield to completely break down?
Therefore, along the way, Bahrain became more and more careful, always paying attention to the stability of his wizard shield. And the tentacle that allowed the two to escape from the cave at the beginning was the construction of Damocles hovering over the heads of the two, and I don't know when the monster hidden in the unknown will suddenly appear again.
Along the way, the two were attacked again by several skinned frogs, which were slow to move due to their lack of effective musculature and were not in danger.
Finally, the two came to an underground river, and finally had some reference. Bahrain can only be sure that there must be some smaller and smaller mountain fissures in the upper reaches of the river, and although it seems to be getting closer and closer to the outside world, it should be a dead end in the end. After all, people can't reach the outside world through those tiny mountain cracks.
Therefore, the two of them could only continue to look for a possible way out of the river further downstream with the mentality of a gambler, after all, the Fisher region is not a place with abundant rainfall. Such a place cannot form an underground channel with this flow of water without a complete water circulation system. If there is a water cycle, there will naturally be a waterway to connect with the outside world. Otherwise, the groundwater cannot evaporate into the atmosphere, and there is no way to return upstream through rainfall.
Therefore, there must be a way to the outside of the underground river, most likely the heavy wells in the Fisher area. In fact, some wizards have long concluded that there may be a large radioactive source near the Fisher area, and that the radioactive erosion of Changna has caused Fisher's groundwater to become heavy water.
Unfortunately, the electromagnetic field here is so disordered that it is impossible to determine the direction by measuring the geomagnetic field.
The two of them cautiously walked along the bank of the underground river, and occasionally saw glowing slimes swimming from the underground river to the shore, and then slowly squirming on the rocks.
Moving along the underground river, even if they encounter a fork, the two can only resign themselves to fate and try to choose a tributary with a large water flow to move forward.
Gradually, an underground water pool appeared in the field of vision of the two of them. Tentacles dance freely in the air emerge from the waterhole. Officially, the tentacles that attacked the two were of the same species, but much smaller.
These tentacles grow in dark environments all year round and have a faint pink color. But the wriggling and telescopic appearance is like an earthworm, not to mention a woman in Nazanin, even Bahrain feels a tingling of scalp.
They weren't sure if it was an organ of a creature or a separate creature.
The tip of the tentacle has a mouthpiece-like suction cup, which slowly opens and closes with the tentacle body to probe information free of air.
Bahrain immediately raised his wand, and the tip of the burner was a sorcery glow. Fireballs coalesced in it, and Balin took small steps with a witch wand, leaning against the cave wall and walking around the waterhole little by little. Try to distance yourself from the tentacles as much as possible.
One of the closest tentacles suddenly paused in the air, and the suction cup began to probe in the direction where Bahrain was.