ALL NOVEL Book 3: Chapter 11 “Devour”
Last chapter recap: Lin gets vomited out of the worm by the lake.
Leviathan did not look at the fallen worm. Lin had it run quickly into the lake, and started to repair the damaged parts of the armor.
The flyer flew down and observed this enormous organism.
The flyer was almost insignificant next to the worm’s enormous body which was completely covered in armor. The worm had a powerful hunting ability and was able to travel through the desert. This was the strongest organism that Lin had ever met.
The worm had fallen to the ground, but its mouth was still opening and closing. It was not yet dead. But the damage done to it just now had been great and vomiting out the things in its body had taken a lot of energy.
Lin did not know if the worm would recover. This organism was a dangerous enemy but also represented a lot of nutrients.
Lin thought of some special plans….
Lin did not reinforce Leviathan’s armor but softened it until it was like a wall of cells. This was a softened state of “skin” with an inner net-like structure. This was like a skeleton used to support Leviathan’s weight. At the same time, Leviathan’s insides changed dramatically as Lin remade most of the internal structure of Leviathan.
Lin turned Leviathan into a special organism. Its body was filled with strong acid and water as well as sharp shell pieces. There were many small holes on the surface used to absorb air.
The present Leviathan was like an enormous bomb. If it exploded, all these things in the body would seriously injure their target.
Lin had most of the remaining cells degenerate back to a simpler state with stronger reproduction and aggressiveness. Lin was going to use them to devour the worm.
The new Leviathan walked out of the lake and came in front of the fallen worm.
The worm had not recovered yet and was close to dying. Lin was not sure if it could recover after vomiting so much water. However, this was not important now.
Leviathan got near the worm’s head, planning to use tentacles to open the worm’s mouth.
The dying worm suddenly went upright and bit towards the Leviathan.
It still had such strength?
Leviathan did not dodge. Just like before, Lin had Leviathan charg straight at the worm’s mouth. Once again, the worm had no time to close its mouth before Leviathan burrowed in. But this time, it was not the worm’s mistake, but because it was too weak.
Leviathan burrowed deep into the worm. This was just like Lin had thought. The acid-filled esophagus was now clean. Leviathan crawled to the place where there were corrosion marks before stopping.
The worm did not move. It did not have the strength to spit Leviathan out.
At this time, Leviathan absorbed the air inside the esophagus, expanding until it was almost double in size and then exploded. The dissolving fluid insideLeviathan sprayed out, splashing over the worm’s esophagus. The special sharp shell pieces Lin had created stabbed through the soft esophagus walls. Blood uncontrollably sprayed from the wounds.
But all this was secondary. The most important was that the large number of cells inside Leviathan were now scattered around the worm’s esophagus. They formed little troops, starting to destroy and consume the worm’s esophagus cells and reproducing.
Ordinary organisms would forget the abilities they once possessed as they evolved. They could not recover their ability. But Lin was different. Lin’s cells remembered everything from its birth to now. Lin could make cells from any time, create new types of cells which could fight like the newest multicellular organisms, while also creating the most primitive bacteria to invade the inner structures from the enemy, infecting the blood and organs.
Leviathan had evolved many new cells during the hundred million years, and many were suited to fighting. Lin could put them to good use now.
After doing as it pleased in the worm, Lin quickly encountered many immune cells. They swam through passages like blood vessels to stop Lin’s invasion. When normal cells fought, the win rate was usually half and half unless these were cells that had evolved to target the enemy.
But Lin did not have such a need. It could quickly create many small multicellular organisms. When multicellular organisms fought against single cells, this could be described as a “slaughter.”
Of cows, only the organisms that Lin had created to target single cells had such an ability. There were some highly evolved multicellular organisms who could lose to a group of primitive bacteria.
After the esophagus was destroyed, Lin started to invade the worm’s blood vessels and spread to other organs through the blood pumped by the heart. Lin created some round and hard-shelled units to block the blood vessels and cut off the flow of blood. Then it consumed the nutrients in the blood vessels to reproduce.
Finally, some of Lin’s troops reached the heart. Lin created some units with spikes here to attack, cutting the muscle cells of the heart and destroying the structure.
If the heart of ordinary organisms stopped beating and providing nutrients, the cells of the body would start to die. They were too reliant on the blood circulation system. But Lin was different. It could stop the heart beating for a long time to stop a toxin or other dangerous substance from spreading through the body.
Lin’s invasion continued to spread. Due to the constant reproduction, Lin’s cells finally spread all over the worm.
The pain spreading inside the body caused the enormous worm to fall to the desert again. This time, it did not climb back up…
Daytime slowly passed. The corpse of the worm was covered by the cold of the black night. On the surface, the enormous organism looked lifeless, but inside, there were great changes.
It was not an easy matter to invade a giant organism. It would take a long time for a single cell to make its way around the worm’s body. Lin only managed to start controlling the situation at night.
The structures inside the worm were all destroyed. Blood and other fluids filled the entire worm. Lin created a hard shell in the worm’s mouth to stop the fluid from flowing out. At the same time, Lin started to absorb most of the nutrients from the worm.
Lin found some interesting structures inside the worm. The worm’s shell was extremely thick and there was an insulation layer that could let it maintain its body temperature even under the heat of the daytime light.
Other than this, the muscle cells of the worm were very tough because they had to drive such a large body. If Lin learned all this, it could become much stronger.
There was nothing special about the other structures of the worm. The head was large but didn’t seem to have anything special. In reality, Lin wants to know more about the Aztec insect’s structures.
Lin absorbed most of the nutrients from the worm and started to reorganize the entire structure. Lin did not want to “revive” this organism like before, but use it as a base to create a large number of new units.
Lin stuck a layer of muscle structures on the worm’s mouth so it could be opened and closed.
The shell of the worm was water-proof and heat-resistant. It was suitable for being a desert base. If Lin found some way of obtaining water right now, maybe the entire desert would be covered in green carpet right now.
But first, Lin would take over this lake and see if there were lakes in other parts of the desert.
Lin first assembled units that were small but could fly. These were named “sowers.” They were like the meganeura. Their tails contained “green carpet seeds” that could be placed in suitable environments to grow into a green carpet.
Then Lin created a tentacle unit used to drill into the sand. Lin had these sand drillers go deep underground to see if water sources could be found.
The mouth of the worm opened and released large numbers of sowers. They were one-use units with low nutrients. In reality, Lin did not have much hope towards them and felt the sand drillers would find water more easily.
In the end, Lin formed the final organism inside the worm’s body.
…Leviathan.
Lin had hesitated about the composition of Leviathan.
If Lin wanted, it could create something like the worm, but Lin thought there was no need for such a large body. It would be inconvenient to move through the desert as it could not move quickly. Also, this was not in the water. In reality, the worm moved very slowly, about the same as the Leviathan when walking and this was not the same as attack speed.
… How big? As Lin thought, a question suddenly rose. It could not make the Leviathan too large because then the Leviathan could not come out. This was being made inside the worm. There was no problem with the length, but it could not be tall. But if this was just long and not tall, it felt strange…
Making the Leviathan took a lot of time. It took a day and night before this was finished.
The mouth of the worm slowly opened. A completely new Leviathan stepped on to the sand. Lin had increased it to 4.3 meters long and 1.6 meter tall. While the increase did not feel like a lot, this has much newer “equipment.” It was completely covered in the worm’s heat resistant shell, and now had the tough muscle cells.
Now, Leviathan possessed the capability to pass through the desert. Lin wanted to use it to find a region where it could truly live, and not this small lake.
But, where to go?