Chapter 14
Deep-sea creatures also have their own preferences.
Some creatures like eyes.
Some prefer belly fat,
while others favor hard-shelled crustaceans.
But none of the deep-sea creatures Nereia had encountered so far had ever discarded its prey like this.
A creature that liked eyes didn’t just pick out and eat the eyes.
One that liked belly fat didn’t just tear off and eat the belly fat,
and one that liked hard-shelled crustaceans didn’t eat only crustaceans.
Of course, not every deep-sea creature was like that, but every one Nereia had encountered had been.
But the corpse before it was different.
‘It didn’t eat any of the other parts. Those wounds must have been made while searching for the biological core.’
At the same time, the creature clearly knew what a biological core was.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t hunt with the sole aim of getting its hands on a biological core.
The more Nereia observed the corpse,
the more it analyzed it,
the less it could deny the hypothesis it had first come up with.
In this canyon, there really was...
‘A being similar to me.’
In the end, Nereia had no choice but to accept the fact it wanted to deny.
And only after accepting it could Nereia face the fact it hadn’t noticed until now.
‘I want to study it. An individual exactly like me… no, a similar one. I want to study it. Observe it. Analyze it.’
Every scale. Every scrap of flesh. Every cell.
It wanted to tear it all apart, observe it, analyze it, and study it.
What made it so obsessed with biological cores?
Was it really true that it evolved by devouring biological cores?
Could it also gain unique traits by preying on other deep-sea creatures?
If it could gain traits, could it apply the traits it acquired, like Nereia?
And...
‘Does it have a system? Could it be a reincarnator like me?’
For a moment, Nereia was exhilarated by the questions that kept arising the more it thought about the creature whose identity it didn’t even know, but soon it realized one thing.
If the creature really did have the same mechanism as it,
if it really did have a system like Nereia and evolve by eating biological cores,
‘Could it be after an Intermediate Predator’s biological core too?’
Even if it was similar to Nereia, its evolution conditions wouldn’t necessarily be exactly the same.
But the fact that it targeted only biological cores meant that biological cores had to be just as important to its evolution.
In other words, if all the predation it had observed so far had been preparation for evolution...
‘I’m sure of it. No, I have to be. It’s after an Intermediate Predator’s biological core too.’
Certain of this, Nereia hurried into motion.
If the creature really was preparing to evolve, and the last ingredient it needed was an Intermediate Predator’s biological core...
‘I can’t let it take it. I won’t let it. The one who eats the Intermediate Predator’s biological core is…’
Me.
Nereia no longer thought of the creature only as a subject of research.
It had become both a creature Nereia wanted to study and a rival seeking an Intermediate Predator’s biological core to evolve.
* * *
Though Nereia was briefly excited by the appearance of a rival, it calmly followed the creature’s trail.
Even if it rushed ahead and found an Intermediate Predator first, there was no guarantee it would manage to hunt it before the creature showed up.
There was also a chance the creature might intervene while Nereia was hunting the Intermediate Predator it found.
‘For now, it’d be best to follow its trail backward and find it first. And once I find it…’
It would observe how strong the creature was.
What traits it had, what kind of fighting style it used, and so on—it would uncover everything.
If it found the creature fighting an Intermediate Predator in the process...
‘Then I’ll ambush it instead.’
It was a somewhat underhanded method, but so what?
This was nature in its rawest form. A place where you had to do anything to survive.
After all, it was perfectly natural for a weak predator to steal food from a stronger one, or wait for it to grow tired before attacking.
And so, Nereia awakened every sense it possessed and followed the creature’s trail.
The marks on the corpse.
The signs of battle in the surrounding area.
Faint traces of residual mana, and so on.
As Nereia carefully traced back every sign the creature had left behind, it thought:
‘Its body isn’t all that big, surprisingly.’
‘It might be faster than me.’
‘I probably have the advantage in strength.’
‘As for its defense… I still can’t tell.’
‘Does it use tentacles to attack? No, those aren’t tentacles.’
‘Those are… teeth and claws.’
Just as Nereia had studied countless deep-sea creatures when it was human, it was analyzing the creature by retracing its trail.
【Observing the biological traces of an unidentified entity.】
【Information on the unidentified entity observed thus far has been recorded in the 「Deep-Sea Compendium」.】
【The current analysis rate of the unidentified entity is 2.7%.】
Though it still didn’t know the creature’s name, simply observing and analyzing the traces it had left behind had raised its analysis rate in the Deep-Sea Compendium.
This made Nereia belatedly certain that the mechanism behind the Deep-Sea Compendium was similar to the observation journals it had written—or the deep-sea creature compendiums it had compiled—back when it was a deep-sea researcher.
As Nereia followed the creature’s trail backward and descended through the deep-sea canyon, it realized that the area had grown quite dark and that the number of deep-sea creatures nearby had dropped considerably.
The few deep-sea creatures it occasionally spotted were all Lesser Predators.
And much stronger than the Lesser Predators it had seen above.
‘The deeper I go, the more dangerous the deep-sea creatures become. Then…’
It wouldn’t be strange to start seeing Intermediate Predators soon.
Just as Nereia thought this to itself, something emerged from the darkness of the deep sea.
What emerged from the darkness was a deep-sea creature twice Nereia’s size.
Its overall appearance resembled an anglerfish, but it lacked the anglerfish’s characteristic bioluminescent organ.
In addition, enormous pincers, the sort you might see on crabs, lobsters, or shrimp, were attached to its body.
It probably used those pincers to hunt prey and fight other predators.
No sooner had Nereia discovered the new deep-sea creature than the system responded.
【You have discovered a new deep-sea creature.】
【Loading the target’s creature information.】
【Creature Information】
＊Species: Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish
＊Body Size: 1.98 m
＊Predation Rank: Intermediate Predator
＊Threat Level: Unable to Calculate
Nereia flinched as it read the creature information that appeared before its eyes.
‘An Intermediate Predator!’
It hadn’t expected to find an Intermediate Predator before the creature.
The moment it confirmed the creature’s Predation Rank, Nereia was about to move its four Predation Arms when it noticed something strange.
The Intermediate Predator called a Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish wasn’t moving.
Also...
‘Threat level unable to calculate? It’s only an Intermediate Predator.’
The system was giving it information it couldn’t understand.
Only after calmly observing the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish did Nereia realize.
This thing...
‘It’s already dead.’
Only after observing it closely, since it was hidden in the darkness, could Nereia make out a small hole in the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish’s back.
The mark looked as if a sharp-toothed beast had taken a bite out of it, and it resembled the predation marks Nereia had observed and analyzed on the creature so far.
Also, though Nereia had been too startled to notice when it first spotted it,
it couldn’t sense any mana from the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish.
In other words, the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish before it was already...
‘Dead.’
It was a corpse.
And one whose biological core had been eaten.
The corpse was still relatively intact, so it seemed it hadn’t been dead for long.
If enough time had passed, other deep-sea creatures would have torn it apart and left it in a wretched state.
In any case...
‘I can’t believe it’s already eaten an Intermediate Predator’s biological core.’
For a moment, Nereia wondered if another predator had hunted it, but it soon became certain that the creature before it had eaten the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish.
If another predator had hunted the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish, it wouldn’t have left the corpse intact like this,
and no matter how Nereia looked at it or thought about it, the only creature that came to mind as the one to leave only the biological core behind was that thing.
At that, Nereia hurried into motion.
Judging by the traces near the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish, the creature had to be somewhere nearby.
And if it really had eaten the Deep-Sea Ironclad Anglerfish’s biological core, it might start evolving soon.
It might even be evolving already.
If it really was in the middle of evolving...
‘This is practically like getting it for free…!’
Nereia, moving toward the creature by following its trail, suddenly stopped.
From within the darkness of the deep sea filling the canyon came a chilling sound, over and over: crunch! crunch!
Tensing, Nereia hid between the surrounding rocks and looked into the darkness where the eerie sound was echoing.
There was something in the darkness.
It was at most about 60 cm long.
It looked like a ragworm, and its entire body was covered in a black exoskeleton.
A harpoon-shaped horn jutted from its head, and dozens of tentacles were set all over its body.
Nereia focused its attention on the creature’s tentacles.
The tentacles it observed were more unusual than it had expected, and rather grotesque.
Unlike its own Predation Arms, their ends didn’t split apart. Nor did they have sharp needles or pointed protrusions growing from them.
Instead, what they had was...
‘Could those be… mouths?’
They were mouths.
One mouth on each tentacle. Sharp teeth filled those mouths, and it was using them to devour its prey.
It tore chunks of flesh from Lesser Predators with the mouths on its tentacles, pulled out the biological cores hidden inside, then chewed them with the mouths on its other tentacles.
Nereia was certain.
That was...
‘The creature I’ve been looking for.’
A creature with a mechanism similar to its own.
Perhaps it had a system like Nereia. Perhaps it was a reincarnator like Nereia.
Every scrap of flesh.
Every scale.
A creature Nereia had wanted to tear apart, down to every last cell, to observe, analyze, and study.
And a deep-sea creature Nereia had considered a rival, one that sought the biological cores of Intermediate Predators it needed to consume to evolve.
As Nereia hid in a crack between the rocks and continued observing, certain that this was the deep-sea creature it had been searching for, the system responded.
【You have discovered a unique entity.】
Unlike before, when it had called it a new deep-sea creature and so on, the system referred to it as a ‘unique entity.’
At the same time, Nereia checked the creature information that appeared in its field of vision, then...
‘Well, shit. I’m screwed.’
It let out a deep sigh and swore under its breath.
That was because...
‘It’s already finished evolving.’
The creature had already completed its evolution into an Intermediate Predator.