Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 6197: Soul Machine Arcadia (65)

Chapter 6197: Chapter 5208: Soul Machine Arcadia (65)

Transporting the Ancient One is a major project. Although they brought in engineering vehicles this time, it is quite challenging to keep the Ancient One insulated. This creature cannot withstand the cold at all, so human scientists wrapped it in several layers of thermal blankets, stuffed water bags into the gaps, and covered it with plastic film, turning the Ancient One into a ball before lifting it onto the engineering truck.

The vehicle drove all the way to the Weddell Sea, taking about half a day until they finally reached the seaside. This is where the seal colony resides, with most seals lazily lying on the shore. The previous feast of krill has kept them from needing to hunt actively for quite a while.

Before putting the Ancient One into the water, the scientists tested the water temperature, and the result was not very optimistic. The seawater here is still relatively cold. However, considering it’s a deep-sea creature, the insulation effect in the water might be better. To prevent the Ancient One from catching a cold, they took some seawater back to let it test the temperature.

The Ancient One naturally understood their intention. It tested the water temperature with its tentacle and lifted it to signal approval. Thus, the three of them worked together to push the Ancient One to the water’s edge with a small cart, and removed the coverings from its body. Almost instantly, the Ancient One vanished into the sea like a fish, disappearing completely.

“We might need to wait a bit.” Dexter said, “This is a deep-sea creature, it might need to descend to very deep places to restore its body temperature, or it might need to hunt. But I think it will return.”

The group waited in the engineering truck for another half day’s time, when suddenly a long tentacle appeared by the shore. They hurried over, and indeed it was the Ancient One floating on the sea surface, looking vastly different from when it was on land.

When it was on land, its head and tentacle skin were wrinkled and frightening. But after soaking in the seawater for a bit, its skin fully expanded, appearing quite smooth with some iridescent patterns. Most importantly, its barrel-like body, once extended, somewhat resembles a starfruit. From above, it appears like a pentagram, no wonder it uses a pentagram as the symbol for its race.

What’s even more astonishing to the group is that the tentacles aren’t just the mass beneath it; more tentacles extended from the center of the pentagram body, and possibly even more are hidden inside. This actually makes it look more similar to humans, because its limbs appear to be emerging from its torso.

If one must say, the current Ancient One resembles some kind of mysterious deep-sea plant, similar to sea lilies, but instead of being terrifying, it holds a strange beauty akin to being fit for display in a home aquarium for appreciation.

The Ancient One used one tentacle to drag up half of a seal from the water, curling its tentacle to offer it to the humans. The human scientists didn’t stand on ceremony, as they lacked supplies from consuming so much food. Seals have a lot of fat, which can be refined into oil.

Then the Ancient One began drawing, first painting several waves to indicate the ocean, below which it sketched a monster, and then above the monster, it depicted a pentagram.

Professor Dale’s face darkened, evidently having heard Dexter’s analysis of the previous painting. The abstract drawing it made likely represents the monster that annihilated the Ancient One’s race, and now the Ancient One implies that there’s probably such a creature in the sea, so it can only move in relatively shallow waters.

The human scientists scratched their heads: Is this something that even aliens couldn’t defeat, asking us to fight it? We’ve only evolved from bipedal apes for a few years!

But just then, the Ancient One drew several more pentagrams, pointing with a tentacle to the land and then to the monster. Professor Dale wondered aloud, “Are you saying you and your companions can deal with this monster?”

The Ancient One didn’t understand but seemed to guess the meaning, lifting a tentacle in affirmation. Shiller also realized that the Ancient Ones they encountered might be war veterans. Although the monster is formidable, it didn’t defeat them the first time, so they likely have the means to subdue it.

Moreover, the devolution of the Ancient Ones from 250 million years ago might not be very strong; their combat capabilities are likely superior compared to those from mere millions of years ago. Just judging by the length of its tentacles, if forming a combat team, it might not necessarily lose to the monster.

The scientists promptly prepared to rescue more Ancient Ones. Although they considered the possibility that the aliens might pose a threat to humans, they were more concerned about the presence of the monster. Communicable intelligent life, no matter how bad, is merely evil, but mindless, unspeakable monsters are truly terrifying.

Just as humans were about to leave, the Ancient One grabbed their ankles with its tentacles and drew a city-like illustration nearby, then sketched several strange shapes, which upon closer inspection seem to resemble clothing or something similar.

Seeing the humans didn’t understand, the Ancient One pointed to the equipment hanging around its neck that belongs to Bat Cat, making humans finally comprehend. Indeed, a race like the Ancient Ones wouldn’t be without equipment and weapons; it’s just that these things might have been buried along with their city, and finding them would significantly boost the Ancient Ones’ combat abilities.

But where are these things? While Dexter was pondering, the Ancient One drew a high mountain, connecting it with the city.

The scientists looked at each other: does this mean the city of the aliens they wanted to explore is within the mountains? Why were the Ancient Ones reluctant to go there before?

Sure enough, the Ancient Ones linked the city with the monsters. Dexter sighed: although there is equipment within the city, there are also monsters, no wonder the Ancient Ones were unwilling to go.

But this creates a problem, why are the Ancient Ones willing to deal with the underwater monsters but reluctant to deal with those in the city? Is it because they are more powerful underwater? Or is there a difference between the monsters in these two places?

The scientists believed both points could exist simultaneously. The monsters in the city might be more formidable, while those underwater are weaker. The Ancient Ones are not adept at land warfare but are better at fighting in the deep sea environment they are familiar with, so they opted to tackle the underwater ones first.

The next steps became clear: first, dig up the tomb, rescue the other Ancient Ones, then find a way to explore the mountains and see if they can retrieve some equipment from the edge, let the Ancient Ones deal with the underwater ones, develop a bit at the bottom of the deep sea, and then handle the big one in the mountains.

Dexter concisely outlined the plan on his end, the Ancient Ones raised their hands high, evidently expressing approval. So, they went to prepare; Dexter and Professor Dale stayed to dig the tomb, while Frank returned to fetch supplies, Shiller went with Frank to change shifts with Bat Cat.

Constantly gesturing with the Ancient Ones seems unbecoming; deciphering the language is necessary. It might not be feasible for humans to understand the buzzing sounds of the Ancient Ones, but teaching the Ancient Ones English shouldn’t be difficult, even if they can’t make sounds, writing a few letters should be doable. English letters are so simple, they could learn quite a bit through gestures.

Returning to the base, there was not the imagined calmness. Students gathered in one place, seemingly discussing something. Shiller went over to listen, but couldn’t quite understand. At this time, Peter came over and said, “The supply ship should have arrived two days ago, the first batch of sailors should have transported the supplies back, but they are already half a day late, no idea what’s going on.”

“What else could it be?” Shiller shook his head, “The sailors surely aren’t coming back.”

Peter seemed to have anticipated this outcome, the sailors lack vigilance, though the professors have subtly reminded them, people’s inherent thinking is hard to change. They’ve been preoccupied with guarding against bad weather, if suddenly attacked, they might make the wrong decision.

“We have to go find them,” Shiller said, “even if not to find out what happened, we need to get the equipment back.”

The other cats thought similarly, and Frank was preparing to organize a rescue. As the other professors were busy, this time it was the physics department’s Professor Atwood leading students on the rescue mission, while the cats, except for Bat Cat who went with Frank, all went along and brought Big Dog Tibbers.

Though Tibbers’ senses might not be so sharp in the blizzard, they are much better than humans, and possibly strengthened by mysterious power, Tibbers could indeed lead the way through the blizzard, even better than a compass.

Big Dog led a group of people and several cats towards the direction of the ship, walked for most of the day when the dog suddenly became alert, its nose constantly twitching like it smelled something. Humans couldn’t smell it, but the cats picked up a hint of blood scent.

Everyone drew their weapons, the dog lowered its body, slowed its pace, and crept forward. When the scarlet blood trail appeared on the ground, everyone became extremely tense.

Following the blood trail all the way forward, what came into view were bodies strewn about haphazardly.

At least a dozen people lay on the ground, most frozen stiff. Because the temperature was so low, the bodies hadn’t decayed, the scent of blood was barely detectable, apart from animals with keen senses, humans couldn’t smell much even up close.

The professor crouched down to inspect the bodies; most had their chest or abdomen pierced as if attacked by a spear. What was different was that in the central of the crime scene, one of the bodies held a shotgun, and from the firing marks, it hit something, forming a fan-shaped bloodstain, and left some chunks of flesh on the ground, apparently not human.

The blood trail extended far away; Tibbers chased after it, humans hesitated a bit, but still followed, the cats trailing behind them. After several more hours of walking, instead of nearing the sea, they returned to the edge of the mountains.

At the mountain’s edge, they found a few more bodies. People cautiously approached, and upon clearly seeing what was on the ground, everyone’s expression turned to horror. Because in the center among human bodies lay a monster’s corpse, a monster with a bulky body like a barrel and tentacles like a starfish.