Chapter 104: Wide-toothed Iron Worm
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After they put down the metal box, a few army soldiers stood up straight. They saluted Director Chen before turning around to leave.
Once the army soldiers got into the elevator and left, Director Chen instructed, “Everyone come here and help.”
Several researchers pushed the box over in a rush. As they pushed the box they occasionally felt a sense of gushing strength and force coming from within.
It was as if there was a tireless huge monster inside, constantly tackling the metal box.
Director Chen waved to the few people and said, “You should take two steps back first.”
The few people immediately retreated. Gao Peng hid in the laboratory and secretly observed from behind the glass door.
The sound of crawling came from the rock wall above Gao Peng. He was slightly familiar with that sort of sound because of the dense and intensive footsteps of Da Zi when it crawled. It sounded like countless fingers lightly tapping the wall, a clear and crisp sound.
The sound came closer.
Gao Peng raised his head, and above him was exposed rock. Only steel columns and steel mesh supported the space.
A dark shadow dropped from above with great speed.
It was very still on the ground, as if it had fainted from the fall. Then after a while it got up and shook its head. It was a monster that resembled the millipede; however, its size was several times larger than a normal millipede.
[Monster Name]: Wide-toothed Iron Worm
[Monster Level]: Level 29 (Commander)
[Monster Grade]: Perfect
[Monster Attribute]: Gold
[Monster Condition]: Healthy (Confused)
[Monster Weakness]: Fire
[Monster Skills]: Goldification Level one
[Requirements for Promotion to Epic Grade]: …
The Wide-toothed Iron Worm was at least 16 feet long. Four parts that looked like leaves formed its body, and every leaf-shaped body part had multiple sharp limbs. On its back was a green-yellow carapace filled with tree leaf patterns.
It seemed to have become confused in the fall. It stumbled twice in the same location and suddenly dashed towards Director Chen. It then sat on the ground like a spoiled child and rubbed its head on Director Chen.
Director Chen smiled and patted the head of his familiar. “Go and open that metal box. In the meantime, you can also make the monster inside it yield.”
The Wide-toothed Iron Worm nodded and crawled towards the metal box. Next, its entire body was on top. It lowered its head and began gnawing away at the metal, producing a grating, grinding sound. Hard steel only served as its food.
It did not take long before a large hole was created, and the Wide-toothed Iron Worm continued chewing at the metal box through the big hole.
A stream of yellow quicksand flowed out of the gaping hole secretly. It was soft and boneless, like jelly.
Just as it was about to get out, the Wide-toothed Iron Worm that sat silently on the metal box swung its tail, hitting the quicksand and putting it back in the box with a plop.
After a while, as it believed that the Wide-toothed Iron Worm had not discovered it, the quicksand changed direction and attempted to escape from there.
The Wide-toothed Iron Worm seemed a little impatient by now. It stopped moving and turned around. It half-stood like a cobra would and peered down to look at the monster beneath it.
It was only then that Gao Peng could clearly see the appearance of the sand monster.
It was a tiny monster five feet tall. It had a round head and was a little fat and was made of sand, but did not fall apart. It looked like a layer of fine sand was spread across the surface of a jelly.
The sand monster was a little muddled. It squirmed and continued to retreat and in the end, leaned towards the outer wall of the metal box.
Then it just stared blankly at the big boss while it ate metal.
The sand monster attempted to use its hands to touch the iron sheet, and then discovered that its hands were not as tough as iron.
Finally, after half the metal box was eaten, the Wide-toothed Iron Worm was full. Satisfied, it patted the sand monster with its tail to signal for it to follow.
The tiny sand monster had strong survival instincts. It quickly followed in the Wide-toothed Iron Worm’s footsteps, as it feared that the big boss would treat it as dessert and devour it in one bite if it was in a bad mood.
“This evolved from a millipede?” Gao Peng asked, a little stunned by the Wide-toothed Iron Worm.
Immediately after, he noticed that this was improper and immediately apologized to Director Chen. One did not simply let others know evolution information like this, normally.
“Yes, it evolved from a millipede,” Director Chen answered with a smile. He touched the head of the Wide-toothed Iron Worm as it got closer. “Before the Cataclysm I studied biology, and coincidentally, I was conducting research on millipedes. I never could have imagined our fates would be tied together after the Cataclysm.”
Although it was only level five, if there were no familiar at the scene, the tiny sand monster alone would have been enough to defeat everyone in the laboratory.
As such, nobody became complacent. They first placed the tiny sand monster on the experimental bench before locking its body in place with iron locks. Only then did they turn around to grab the experimental knives and tools from the toolkit bench.
After a while, it seemed like the tiny sand monster found everything fun and interesting, as it slowly slid out-and-in of the iron lock like a piece of jelly.
Suddenly researchers gathered into a group, and all of them looked at the tiny sand monster with an indifferent gaze.
It seems like you think that this is pretty fun, huh? they thought.
“It’s like this sand monster doesn’t have any bones,” Little Wang said with a furrowed brow and sighed. “Moreover, it’s not cooperating to let us experiment on it.
“But the interesting thing is that this sand monster hasn’t shown us any strong hostility. It is as if it doesn’t have a very strong desire to attack. It’s also uncertain whether this is a good thing. Perhaps we can deduce from its personality that the Desert Ruler also has a good temper?”
Another researcher touched the frame of his glasses and said in a suspicious tone, “Perhaps this creature type is not aggressive in nature?”
“Don’t be so willful. It is impossible to determine the habits and characteristics of an entire species with just one specimen alone,” Director Chen scolded them with a frown.
“Continue testing.”
This time, Director Chen brought the Wide-toothed Iron Worm over. The restless tiny sand monster finally quieted down.
…
“Miraculous. Truly miraculous,” a researcher mumbled to himself. In his hand was a pile of sand that moved around on its own.
The pile of sand was taken from the body of the sand monster, and it constantly struggled in his palm as if it had a life of its own. Upon contact, it had the coarseness of sand. The sand seemed to be one singular being, stuck together by a magnetic force.
The only thing was that the pile of sand did not have an active consciousness. Its movement was simply instinct.
Later, the researcher put the pile of sand on the surface of the sand monster. In a moment the surface of the skin sank in and and devoured the pile of sand. It also took the researcher’s hand with it.
The researcher’s expression changed as he attempted to pull his hand out, but a horrifyingly strong suction force made it so that he did not even have the strength to struggle.
The sounds flowing sand came from beside his ear.
The Wide-toothed Iron Worm made a low sound as a sign of warning. The sound of moving sand suddenly vanished, and along with it, the suction force. He immediately raised his right hand and looked at the sand monster on the experimental bench with lingering fear.