“The religious rituals still need to be maintained, otherwise these demi-humans will find it hard to stay at ease. We need to get back the Terasque they captured and send it back to the Smoke Mirror Company. If the demi-humans can no longer see a symbol of a god in their tribe all the time, they might become afraid.”
They have a lot to do now, but they should never forget why they came to the wasteland in the first place—Hayden came to find the missing Terasque!
“We’d better send this Terasque back immediately and settle this matter as soon as possible to avoid any unforeseen complications and to prevent Smoke Mirror Company from discovering the situation here.”
Hayden frowned as he said this.
"So we'll retrieve Terasque's heart first. I'll cut off some flesh and blood to take as experimental material, and you can heal it with your breath, otherwise we won't be able to take it back to report."
Although Terasque would regenerate no matter what, Hayden didn't know how long it would take for it to regenerate from just a heart. What if it took a whole day? On the other hand, Hayden couldn't very well send a large, blurry mass of flesh back to the assistant of the Smoke Mirrors company executive. Even if it didn't have any real impact, it still wouldn't look good.
So, it's better to just let Angela blow on it and cure it.
Angela nodded and replied, “I see, I understand. But I must remind you of something—I just treated those tribesmen and have gained some experience from it. Judging from the condition I just treated, if I blow on Terasque’s heart, it may not recover.”
……ah?
"What do you mean?"
Now it was Hayden's turn to be dumbfounded.
"Could it be that your aura is incompatible with Terasque's own regenerative abilities?"
“That’s not the case at all, quite the opposite.” Angela frowned and shook her head. “I mean, if I blew on it, it might grow a hundred eyes, fifty heads, or turn into a giant wheel, or something like that.”
what! ?
"Wait, why!?" Hayden was genuinely bewildered. "Your aura has this kind of side effect!?"
...However, when those Russians who signed contracts with Angela last month turned into wolves, they all seemed to have become something quite indescribable.
"My breath will make life healthy."
Angela tilted her head and said,
"But, Master, what exactly constitutes health? Does becoming a giant wheel burning with countless eyeballs mean it's not healthy?"
噫
Because he himself was someone who frequently studied the Old Gods and magical creatures, Hayden was momentarily speechless.
"...That makes sense."
If judged solely by the strength of life, then most monsters are clearly "healthier" than mortals, which is an undeniable fact.
Appearance? Looks? Those are just human standards! Even different human races that can interbreed have different aesthetic views, let alone completely isolated species!
"But this is still strange! Does it mean that if I eat your cooking every day, I'll one day turn into a giant four-headed wheel!?"
Now it was Hayden's turn to feel uneasy.
"Probably not. I don't think it's entirely because of that."
Angela shook her head, seemingly lost in thought, and said...
"Master, do you know why Terasque's flesh and blood can regenerate indefinitely?"
Hayden was taken aback at first, then shook his head as well: "This matter has always been an unsolved mystery in academia."
However, as he said this, he suddenly felt a little strange himself.
Terasque will never die. No matter what damage it suffers or how many parts are cut off, its body will regenerate completely at a relatively rapid pace.
Even if it has been starving for half a month and has not eaten anything, it will definitely regenerate perfectly.
This phenomenon is clearly abnormal. While monsters like trolls and werewolves possess super-regenerative abilities, they still die of natural starvation. In fact, their super-regeneration depends entirely on having sufficient nutrients. A troll that hasn't eaten for several days will simply lose its regenerative abilities due to hunger. Hunger, not combat, is the primary cause of death for the vast majority of trolls.
However, this was not the case with Terasque.
Although it's not that strong and can't extend beyond oneself, isn't it still similar to Angela's life force?
Essentially, these are all forms of boundless vitality.
unlimited
That's a truly chilling word.
"Although the differences are significant,"
Angela walked to Terasque in the middle of the village and gently patted the enormous mass of flesh and blood heart.
"But I think that perhaps I have a similar origin to this strange ancient dragon. That's why I feel that if I breathe on it, it might grow countless eyeballs and turn into a huge burning wheel."
A similar...source?
But then again, what exactly is the origin of Terasque?
Upon hearing this, Hayden suddenly realized that he had never considered or studied this issue before.
What is the origin of this ancient dragon that has been wandering across Eurasia for thousands of years?
First of all, it certainly couldn't have been created by the new gods. Rather, the new gods probably wanted to figure out how to create more Terasquists. This is essentially a perpetual motion machine!
So if it wasn't done by the new gods, then Terasque must be a creature related to the old gods.
Both Karen and the Peacock King once said that some of the ancient gods were "monsters that fell from the sky," and Angela may also be related to this type of ancient god.
Now that things had come to this, perhaps out of intuition, or perhaps based on the information he had accumulated beforehand, a strange answer suddenly flashed through Hayden's mind.
—Are those “monsters that fell from the sky” actually immortal beings like Terasque?
Terasque's intelligence is about the same as that of an ordinary animal, so no one regards it as an Old God. However, what if it is actually the same kind of Old God as those "heavenly" Old Gods?
However, neither the Peacock King nor Terasa possesses the inexhaustible energy of Angela. In fact, Terasa can be weakened to a very low level. It doesn't have inexhaustible energy; it simply cannot die completely.
It's almost as if... it has a safety net that it can never completely lose?
Why didn't the New Gods try to research and crack the secret of such immortality and use it for other purposes? Even if it can't compare to Angela, it's still a potential perpetual motion machine!
Or perhaps, the new capitalists have actually been doing something similar all along, but they are doing it in secret, so most people are completely unaware of it.
Hayden became increasingly confused, feeling that things couldn't get any better.
"Alright. If we can't figure it out, let's do an experiment!"
Finally, Hayden decisively pulled out his dagger and sliced off a fist-sized piece of flesh from Terasque's heart.
Such a piece of meat will not generate a new Terasque. Thinking about it now, this is actually quite strange—why not?
“Angela, blow a breath on this piece of meat.”
Hayden's instructions.
Angela did as she was told.
So soon they could only stare at what that small piece of flesh had turned into. Not to mention Hayden, even Angela looked incredibly surprised.
Because it was a small, fist-sized creature, crawling all over Hayden's hand.
Mini Tentacle Monster.
119: Limited but sufficient!
噫
This word is completely inadequate to describe how Hayden feels right now—but anyway, alas.
Oh my God.
This...this little monster crawling around in Hayden's hand, Hayden could hardly list any similar creatures. Nothing resembled it. If he had to give an example, it would probably be a hermit crab.
It's just a hermit crab that has a human face and hands, and even tentacles, and is slightly smaller than a fist.
It carries a small shell on its back, which shows the original features of Terasque and has small barbs—and a "face" and "hands and feet" grow from the "opening" part of the shell.
It has six black tentacles that form a circle around the lower half of its body, providing it with mobility; these are known as "pseudopods".
In addition, there are six tiny hands that look very much like human hands that are wrapped around the upper part of its body, as if they were just randomly stuck on after being cut off from a messy miniature human hand, and they keep twisting and turning.
Finally, of course, there's its face—a face that looks very much like a gorilla's.
Anyone could tell that this was not a human face, and that it had no hair or eyebrows, but it did have facial features that were very similar to those of a human, and it kept emitting rhythmic, small screams.
It is precisely because that face possesses such primate characteristics that, when combined with other parts, it creates an eerie atmosphere capable of inducing nausea.
This is truly an extremely terrifying and disgusting little monster.
Purely out of researcher's pride, Hayden didn't immediately scream and throw the hideous chunk of flesh from his hands.
Out of pride, and with a great deal of courage, Hayden was able to calmly take a crystal box from his backpack, a box specifically for storing wildlife specimens, and put the little monster inside.
Strangely enough, although the little monster's limbs looked deformed and atrophied, it could actually move freely, run very fast in the crystal box, and easily climb up the box walls.
"What the hell is this?!"
Hayden really wanted to scream.
Angela wasn't afraid at all. She was hardly afraid to begin with, and this little monster wasn't anything to be afraid of.
She simply poked the little tentacle monster with her finger, then nodded and said, "Master, this creature should be considered a clone of Terasque."
Upon hearing this, Hayden immediately launched into a full-blown critique: "A clone? Apart from this shell, how does it resemble Terasque at all?!"
Pseudo-foot? Human hand? Ape face?
Terasque doesn't have any of those things on him! And what exactly makes this little monster look like a dragon?!
“Master, life can change.” Angela tilted her head and explained helplessly, “Life changes itself to adapt to the environment, and sometimes it changes the environment. But obviously, this clone of Terasque doesn’t have the ability to change the environment. So it chooses to draw elements from the environment around it to create change.”
As she said this, she pointed to the little monster's six human hands.
"These human arms were clearly learned from the tribesmen who had formed a blood bond with Terasque. As for the ape's face, it was probably influenced by the life of the giant ape within the tribesmen's flesh and blood."
Upon hearing this, Hayden was speechless for a moment.
"Life is changing, and life makes choices."
As Angela spoke, she picked up the crystal box containing the little monster and examined it closely, seemingly quite interested.
"Telasque's clone... its 'offspring' chose a different appearance from itself. Overall, this is truly unexpected good news."
Hayden remained somewhat skeptical: "But no one has ever successfully cloned Terasque before, has he?"
However, after Hayden actually thought about it for a second, he remembered something else and then shut his mouth.
How do you know what you know? Do we really know what we think we know?
There is only one Terasque in the world, or at least everyone believes there is only one. If the official statement from a major company is that Terasque, this immortal ancient dragon, cannot be cloned, no one is going to verify it at home.
If a large company actually did manage to clone Terrasquie, the average person would never discover it—so how could anyone possibly know that cloning Terrasquie is impossible?
Ultimately—if you were a biologist in a large company's lab and discovered a way to clone an immortal ancient dragon—would the company let you run around telling the whole world?
No. The company would try to hide the discovery and then fabricate a cover-up to prevent anyone else from seeing it.
This was actually similar to what Hayden usually did. He and Karen were both trying to fabricate stories to prevent everyone from discovering Angela's secret.
"...Alright! Let's not worry about the details and just test it out first!"
Therefore, Hayden can switch modes very quickly.
He found a clearing in the deserted forest, had Angela clean it up, and then took out his simple experimental tools from his bag to begin a simple test on the little tentacle monster.
About ten minutes later, Hayden was surprised, but also breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Angela's guess was not wrong, but it wasn't entirely correct either.
First, this little tentacle monster does indeed "imitate" some of the characteristics of demi-humans. It has a high resistance to pollution, and although its limbs look bizarre, it is very agile and can hop around using its tentacle pseudo-legs.
Moreover, its intelligence should be slightly higher than that of the original Terasque. Although not as high as that of a human, Hayden conducted some simple experiments and found that this little monster at least had the intelligence and self-awareness to pass the mirror experiment and maze test, and also had the ability to quickly memorize and recognize objects.
Terasque has only canine-level intelligence, but this little monster is at least as good as an ape.
Needless to say, such a change is clearly abnormal. It's not something that would happen just because you cloned something randomly. Is it due to the uniqueness of Terasque? Or is it because Angela's aura has special characteristics? Or perhaps both, which is why such an inexplicable phenomenon occurs?
Hayden is still uncertain, but one thing has given him some relief.
That is, this little tentacle monster does not possess Terasque's super regeneration and immortality abilities.
Although it is incredibly resilient and can withstand environmental pollution, it doesn't possess the astonishing ability to regenerate even after being chopped into pieces. Hayden tried cutting off one of the little monster's tentacles. It immediately stopped the bleeding without losing any additional body tissue, but it couldn't regenerate a new limb from the wound like a real Terasque.
However, this is somewhat strange—this shouldn't be a self-selection made by the Terasque clone, right? How could a life form optimize away the power of immortality?
"...I'm afraid that's why those big companies announced that they couldn't clone Terrasquie."
Hayden pondered this for a moment and then had a slight realization.