Chapter 368: One In A Hundred [Part 2]
When they passed through the mesopelagic zone and into the epipelagic zone, Cillin at last understood the purpose of the "stairs" beneath the coral reefs. Antioch was using them to walk up to sea surface. However, maybe it was because Antioch had grown bigger in the past millennium, but the stairs were unable to accommodate its massive feet completely. In the end, the overlord grew impatient and took matters into its own hands. It flattened them every time it took a step to make them wider.
The sea beasts and fishes in the epipelagic zone escaped the moment they detected the activity. The sea beasts resting on the coral reef were no exception. It was so empty you would think it had always been this way.
When Antioch finally emerged on the sea surface, the waters rose like a massive tsunami. It slowly walked toward the coral reef until it was around kilometer away from it and stopped. It was because it would destroy it if it went any closer.
Antioch then placed Lung’s spaceplane on the sea surface and gave it a small push. For a giant of indescribable proportions, it controlled its strength so well that the spaceplane ran aground at a suitable spot for landing perfectly.
Wheeze sprinted to its territory the moment Cillin had swam onto the coral reef. When it discovered that a couple of sea beasts had “foolishly” invaded its territory despite its scent, it wanted to give chase and teach them a lesson immediately. Unfortunately, Cillin seized it by the nape and threw it into the spaceplane before it could do anything.
The triphibian spaceplane was in a half-broken state due to punishment it suffered at the sea bed, but they had left behind some repair robots in the sky exactly for this type of situation. Lung instructed the robots to begin the repairs after the spaceplane was parked properly. Unfortunately, the planet remained a hazard to most machinery, so it took the robots almost a full day to progress the repairs by 10% or so.
10% was fine though. It wasn’t like they were relying on it to fly back home. It only needed to be secure enough to be flown back into their main spaceplane.
During this time, Wheeze worked hard to gather as many Guardian Hearts as possible. It even mobilized Cyrea and the other Moors to help it. This was the first time the youngsters—relatively speaking—ventured to the sea surface, so they were all too happy to carry out the work while exploring the coral reef. The thought of keeping Guardian Hearts themselves never crossed their minds because they lived on Sea Paradise. They could simply seek out another coral reef if they wanted to harvest them one day.
“Have you collected the seeds?” Cillin asked Czedow.
“I have.”
Cillin had asked Czedow to collect some seeds for Sigma. The plants here were special enough that even Cillin learned many new things just by observing them.
Czedow had also recorded everything that had happened during this journey not just for himself, but also because Moon had asked him to. Moon did not care who got the second God’s Tear; he simply wanted to learn more about the Xi Family such as the underwater city they built.
Antioch seemed reluctant to part ways with Lung. It was currently speaking with the human.
The Andrea Family was sure to visit Sea Paradise a lot more often than before after learning about Lung’s success and the underwater city. It should not cause any trouble—at least, not on the scale where it would seriously endanger either party—but Sea Paradise was definitely going to be a bit more crowded in the future. Furthermore, anyone who wasn’t part of Lung’s group was still going to face the wrath of the sea beasts. As mentioned before, sea creatures were very simple in a sense. Friends were friends, and food were food.
Before they left, Antioch spoke with Cillin and Wheeze with Lung acting as its translator. It was because the overlord was very curious about the snakeskin suit he was wearing. It could sense that it belonged to a powerful and ancient creature just like itself. The fact gladdened it even though they weren’t the same species.
To Wheeze, Antioch simply said, “Do come over and play when you have the time. I have a lot of ores at my place.”
It was all it took for Antioch’s place in Wheeze’s heart to skyrocket all the way to the top. Cillin was tempted to slap it a couple of times when its feigned dignity melted into a wide, silly grin in the blink of an eye.
In fact, Antioch managed to score so many affection points that Wheeze actually told Cillin to gift it one of the few scales of the Black Viper it had. Obviously, the scale was far, far too small for a giant like Antioch, but there was no denying the power contained inside of it. To countless creatures, this single scale could bring them in line like it was the edict of the universe itself.
Antioch was very happy to receive the gift. The two creatures engaged in a happy conversation for a very long time.
Not far away, Pascado gave Big Rock a poke and asked, “Say, why do I feel like Antioch is more friendly with that fatty that even our young master?”
The stern-faced man mulled over the question before answering, “It’s probably because they’re both animals, and not your average animal either. It’s only natural they found a kinship in one another.”
In reality, they did not need to be a tamer to know his answer didn’t really hold up to scrutiny. There were plenty of unusual animals out there who most definitely would not have received such a friendly treatment from either Antioch or Wheeze.
There was one other answer they could think of, but neither Pascado nor Big Rock had to courage to verbalize their thoughts.
Animals tend to respect equals, but that fatty can’t possibly be on the same level as Antioch… right?
Eventually, it was finally time to go home. When they came, they had been alone with no one but their machines and equipment to accompany them. But when they left, the Moors, the Guardians and what was possibly the biggest sea overlord of the entire planet had seen them off with much joy and fanfare.
This one trip had not just netted Lung the God’s Tear. It also guaranteed he would become a legend on par or greater than even his grandfather, Andrea Fergus.
Cillin had also gotten what he came here for. He had collected enough ores and materials he collected to strengthen the Eleventh Squadron further. He had no qualms seeing the planet behind him, but of course, he might visit it again to check out the underwater city again in the future. That day might not even be too far away.
At the bridge, Cillin was thinking about something and playing with a crystal in his hand. The crystal looked ordinary and poorly cut, but appearance could be deceiving. For starters, it was way harder than it seemed to be. Moreover, it would shine like a blooming flower when hit with a ray of light. This should not be possible because it hadn’t been processed.
“What’s that?” Pascado asked while passing by the hunter’s chair.
“A souvenir,” Cillin replied simply.
Pascado was uninterested in crystals, so he simply let out a yawn and gave Cillin a wave. He then went back to his room to catch some rest.
Lung’s subordinates and the man himself had all returned to their rooms to take a well-deserved sleep. They had been physically and mentally exhausted after the trip, and this was especially true for Lung. The young man had spoken with Antioch for an extended period of time despite not having fully mastered his second vocal cord, so he desperately needed some rest right now.
The spaceplane was on auto pilot, so there was no need to keep an eye on the controls. Cillin juggled with the crystal for a bit before looking at Czedow and asking, “Say, how do you think the Xi Family managed to freeze those massive sea beasts?”
Cillin had noticed that the expressions of the frozen creatures were too natural. Most of them did not even realize they had been frozen until the very end. Whatever the Xi Family did, it must have been near instantaneous.
Czedow was reading a book on another chair. He shut the book and replied, “I’m not sure. The crystal has a uniform structure and incredible hardness. Furthermore, over ninety percent of its composition are water molecules.”
The crystal Cillin was toying with was a shard he had cut off from the frozen specimens after considerable effort. Despite having analyzed the object many times up until this point, its composition continued to confound him even now.
Just what was the technology they used to freeze the sea beast?
It was just unimaginable.
On Cillin’s thighs, a dozing Wheeze let out a disgusting chuckle in its dreams.
……
The spaceplane did not fly back to the Andrea Family’s headquarters immediately. It landed on a planet first so they could drop off Cillin, Czedow and Wheeze.
“So like, I understand why we did it last time, but why are we boarding a passenger starship again?”
“Because it’s anonymous.”
Cillin understood why Wheeze was disgruntled, but even this was something even he did not have a solution to. According to Lung, the patrols had recently tightened their inspection toward private spaceplanes, and he was made known only because he was one of the few uniquely privileged people in the entire Sector H. He did not yet know why the regulations had been tightened all of the sudden, but he promised to tell Cillin as soon as he found out.
Cillin waved his ticket and said in a consoling tone, “The two of you will just make to make do with it.”
Cillin had bought only a single ticket as a matter of course. By the time the starship had taken flight, Wheeze and Czedow had already slipped onboard like a ghost.
Cillin had climbed into a sleep pod and fallen asleep. He was feeling a bit dizzy because he had wracked his brain too much recently.
The passenger starship jumped a few times until it had passed through a magnetic zone completely. After it returned to normal flight, Wheeze lay on top of the starship—yes, it was outside the ship right now—and watched the stars.
“Say, Czedow, do you think we’ll run into space bandits?” Wheeze asked suddenly with a hopeful look on its face.
Czedow was lying next to the gray cat while using its arm as a pillow. He replied, “According to the data I’ve collected so far, there’s a 99% chance it won’t happen. Although GAL is pretty chaotic right now, this particular area is known to have few to no bandits at all.”
As if on cue, an explosion happened inside one of the passenger cabins.
Wheeze’s ears twitched as it curled its tail into a circle. “I guess today’s our lucky day then.”