4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Last chapter recap: Lin makes defenses against ultraviolet light.

The ‘gland cells’ had completed their evolution. As the water level decreased, Lin had the cells quickly divide and combine with the ectoderm to create an shell for itself.

Lin found the food it usually ate, including all kinds of wild cells or multicellular organisms contained materials that could create shells. Lin didn’t have to go into the rock cracks to find materials.

These substances were thought of as trash before. Lin used to squeeze the trash which remained after digestion to the ectoderm and then expel them. Now it seemed that they should be stored for use.

There were many materials that could form shells but due to the urgency of the situation, Lin picked a random one.

The water was falling at an extremely slow rate but Lin’s cells were the opposite in their speed. A white shell slowly spread on the outside of the ectoderm. While it was not as strong as other hard-shelled organisms, this was enough to protect against the UV light. No matter how strong the ultraviolet light was, Lin would not feel pain.

The shell substance would slowly harden after secretion. Lin covered the mothership in this substance. As to the tentacles used for swimming and the hammered tentacles, Lin retracted them into the mothership. Lin did not want to add a shell to the tentacles. That would greatly decrease their flexibility.

After finishing this, Lin didn’t feel any pain at al. The shell effectively blocked the damage of the ultraviolet light.

But the water level still continued to fall. Lin’s danger had not yet been evaded. Lin didn’t want to be completely exposed to the water. Then Lin wouldn’t know what would happen.

As the water levels fell, the temperature at this place increased. This may be due the crystals. They absorbed heat from the light and affected this region of water.

The flat worms had been swimming around this place. They hunted for cells in the water which had died due to ultraviolet light. These cells had hid in the rock. As the water temperatures increased, the cells gradually swam out of the rock and became food for the flatworms.

Lin looked at them and suddenly had a thought.

Were they … … had the flat worms had been the ones to make this circle area?

Lin had been suspecting this previously. Normally, stones would not form such a shape. There definitely had been something going on.

As Lin thought this, Lin immediately activated the siphon behind the mothership and charged forward towards a rock in front of it!

The rocks shattered under the mothership’s attack. Lin created an enormous gap in the rocks.

As expected, Lin was right.

The flat worms could stick sand to their bodies, and could also stick other things together. These enormous rocks had been pasted together from countless smaller rocks!

Lin hadn’t observed carefully before, but now that it knew, it was extremely easy to escape.

Following this, Lin had the protector come forward. Its segmented limbs easily dug out a hole in this rock big enough to let the mothership pass through.

Lin finally successfully flee. Fortunately, the water had not lowered to such a level that the mothership couldn’t move.

After coming out of the rock circle, Lin saw a clear downward slope that led to deeper waters.

It seemed that it had unconsciously come to this position close to the water surface.

The water level would be extremely high at night, and when daytime came, the water level was extremely low. The flat worms should have made the rock circle during the night.

They created the enormous rock circle in order to prevent hunters, because the crystals easily heated up, or maybe to make a trap for large organisms like Lin would enter and be killed by the ultraviolet light. This way, they would have large amounts of food.

… … The third reason didn’t seem very possible.

Lin slowly waved its tentacle and flowed along the hill to deeper waters. It felt that it had gained many things in this journey. If not for this, Lin might not have ever tried to evolve a shell.

The shell was an unique thing. Lin found that food contained many materials that could form shells. Lin called them all “chitin substances.” Through changing the composition of the chitin, Lin could change the hardness of the shell, the flexibility, the time it took to harden, and other traits.

This was an extremely complex process Lin had to keep studying. But after one success at synthesis, it would be simpler in the future.

Originally, Lin’s hammers contained chitin, but at the time, Lin had just combined hardened cells. Lin hadn’t known how to separate the shell and the cells.

Now that Lin could successfully separate the cells and the shell. The shell hardness could be increased, and the cells would not be directly attacked.

As Lin thought about this, Lin swam back to the deeper and sandy waters. The cold water and the dim light made Lin feel safe.

However, Lin would not rest. It would return, it would revolve a perfect solution to the ultraviolet light.

Right now, Lin would eat more.

On this journey, Lin saw a variety of organisms and colonies. It would not worry any longer about the scarcity of food.

Lin observed the surrounding sand. There were great numbers of varied organisms here including the leaf worms Lin was familiar with and some organisms that Lin had never seen before.

Those unfamiliar organisms were of various shapes, but they had a similar trait … … they were very small.

Lin started to release devourers to hunt these organisms. The mothership and protector were responsible for larger organisms such as the leaf shaped worms.

Lin consumed these organisms as it increased the thickness of the mothership’s outer shell. Lin found many problems at this time. The thicker the outer shell, the greater the burden on the mothership. No wonder the oval worm with its thick shell could only crawl on the ground.

Also, if Lin wanted to have the hard shell cover its entire body, the shell could not change shape with the mothership, this situation was extremely complicated … …

How did organisms like the leaf worms and the oval worms maintain the growth of the shell along with their bodies?

Also, it was difficult to store the waste products used to make chitin.

When cells digested food, they would always produce some indigestible things. Lin would have the nutrient exchange system deliver these things to the outside of the ectoderm to be expelled into the water. However, it was difficult to expel through the shell.

In the end, Lin decided to only put a shell over the upper part of the mothership. The lower half would still be made out of hardened cells. The tentacles were not covered in any shell to maintain its nimbleness.

Of course, Lin only did this due to the mothership’s body. For new soldier types, Lin could create a terrifying thing completely covered in a hard shell.

Lin reinforced the rearers of the green cells, adding on two layers of shells around the transparent center that could open and was controlled by muscles on the inside.

As to other combinations with armor … … Lin would first wait for night.

Just like this, Lin hunted the food on the sand patch and slowly waited for night to come before Lin once again swam in the direction it came.

Lin called that place the “shallows.” This meant the ground that was close to the water surface.

While the surroundings hadn’t completely turned dark, Lin raised the lantern. It swam past the sand and the rock area. It quickly saw the enormous stones that formed a giant circle.

Lin had smashed a hole in one of the rocks. It could see the flat worm fixing the hole. They were gathering sand granules and pieces to repair the opening.

It appeared the repair work was slow. An entire daytime had passed, and they hadn’t even finished repairing half.

Now, they might never be able to fix this.

Lin charged toward and suddenly hammered the hole under repair into powder. Then it released large numbers of devourers to eat the surrounding flat worms.

The flat worms slowed down in their movement as the daytime left and the water turned cold. The devourer could easily capture them.

Lin’s mothership and protector destroyed the entire circle of rocks. The flat worms fled into the distance when they saw this.

Lin did not chase but had the mothership stop near a crystal. It started to think of new combinations to study.

Lin wanted to create a new cell type. They needed the ability to block ultraviolet light and also a hard shell. Lin wanted to use the cells to realize a special plan.

Exploring a new world.

Translator Ramblings: Here is a video of high to low tide. Imagine Lin trapped in one of those puddles. Also, the tides imply there is at least one moon-like structure circling this planet.