The Record of Unusual Creature

Noobie’s new talent was not a really big surprise. At least, Hao Ren thought so. There was nothing more incredible than Noobie’s existence. A muddleheaded Malevolence, having been schooled by Raven 12345 for over a month and having an inextricable relationship with Vivian, it seemed like Noobie had been prepped for big things. With that in mind, even if Noobie suddenly turned into a mouse that could discharge 100,000-volt lightning with its tail, it would not surprise Hao Ren anymore.

Hao Ren and Vivian had studied the nature of Noobie as a summoned unit and determined her three characteristics. The first characteristic was that Noobie was still Noobie. Her biggest trick was “biubiubiu”. The second characteristic was that she was brainless and would not follow any instructions except when she wanted to eat. The third characteristic was better than the first two; her energy would be obscured entirely when she coalesced into Vivian—a useless but less annoying setting, unlike the first and second characteristics.

“Hiak!” Noobie shrieked and returned into Vivian’s body. She had become impatient and resentful when she found out that Hao Ren was not giving her any food.

“She’s a little upset,” Vivian said with a shrug. “I can feel that she’s a little frustrated because she thought that she could scare you.”

“She has such complicated emotions already?” Hao Ren looked at Vivian in surprise. “You can feel her emotions too?”

“I can vaguely feel it when she is in my body as if it is some kind of shared emotions,” Vivian said with a frown. “It is a bit like having just absorbed those Malevolences minus the ‘digestion.’ Noobie is still an independent individual. It is incredible that she is growing up.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment. “I think it is a good thing. Maybe this little guy could already say good morning when we wake up the next morning.”

“I hope so.” Vivian smiled and shifted her attention back on the book in her hands.

She flipped through an old book that she took from a rack filled with a large volume of folklore titles. This book was about some heroic story, not well-documented and mostly a mix of myth and legend, and exaggeration and embellishment. But most of the time, a story such as this always had made a connection with those dangerous places that ordinary people had no access to. One such example was The Great Pit that Leah had mentioned.

Of course, there was a world of difference between what could be found in the book and the reality, and you could not seriously treat this book as a reliable source of information. But Hao Ren’s priority was not to find out what was the truth of the history but first figuring out what place like The Great Pit was all about.

It was already the seventh book of similar themes that Vivian had picked up. It mentioned many place names that were unheard of and also some seemingly well-known historical events. One such place was The Great Pit, which was found in many books in the library. Most historical, geographical, and heroic titles had records of the name.

It seemed to be something so famous that the historians and geographers had solemnly recorded it in their works, and a place that the heroes of the past and the present were particularly fond of exploring. Like the characters of most fantasy stories, they had to kill a dragon—recently, marrying the dragon had become an in-thing—before they could claim to the protagonists. In the legends of this world, it was the essential requirement to go to The Great Pit and come back alive to be qualified as the braves.

But Hao Ren could see through the phenomenon at the real faces.

The more vulnerable the thing in the novel, the more horrifying it was in the real world. It was as if nine out of ten brave men had become barbecues when challenging the dragon, no one was brave enough to go into the Great Pit. It must be a dangerous place.

“According to the records in these books,” Lily picked out all the classics about The Great Pit she could find and spread them on the table. Others had done the same, “it does not refer to mines or a specific underground cavern, but a group of underground caves that spread throughout the entire continent and may even extend into the endless ocean and throughout the world.”

Vivian also told of what she had found. “Under this continent, which is known as L’Haronne, there is a group of caves that looked like the beehive. That is The Great Pit. The cave distribution and depth are irregular. In the eastern part of the mainland, the Great Pit is deep underground and does not affect the locals. But in the northern territory within the ten ancient kingdoms, The Great Pit is very close to the surface. It is said that some shallow tunnels are linked to the mines. There were occasional horrible accidents where miners fell into the Great Pit when they inadvertently dug through the rock roof. Because of this, the northern part of the continent is now the most desolate place in this world: it is inhabitable.”

Y’zaks chimed in and said, “The Great Pit is a terrible world. There is not only toxic and corrosive gases but often there are also monsters lurking around. Sometimes, some strange beings that no one knows what they are nor could overcome would come out of the caves. I read folklore about a kingdom in the north, where people had to dig a shelter in the ground because of war. But they accidentally dug through the rock layer of The Great Pit and released a phantom. Following that, the night had swallowed the entire kingdom together with the invasion forces. When the next morning came, the kingdom had turned into a black forest. The place seems to be very famous now, and it is said that those who have entered the forest have never come out alive.”

Lily and Vivian’s stories reminded Hao Ren about the First Born living deep inside the planets. His brows knitted together and he was even more convinced of it when he heard about the black forest swallowing the kingdom, and the strange being that no one knew and could fight. “It sounds familiar: the big holes and the monsters. Could it be the First Born again?”

“I don’t think so,” Vivian said. “First of all, this is the Umbral Realm. It’s near the divine realm of the goddess of creation. Let’s not talk about why this place has become the way it is. The address can’t be wrong. According to what we know, the goddess of creation did not sow the Seed of Origin in such a place so close to the divine realm. She only used the seeds during her deep space exploration and sowed them far away from home. So, the First Born should not have existed in the Umbral Realm. Secondly, from all the materials we have found about the Great Pit, not one has mentioned about the First Born, whether it is the tentacles buried in the ground, the beating organ in the cave, or the lifeblood. If the First Born really exists here, it will move under the planet’s crust. It will leave behind many signs, and there is nowhere to hide.”

What Vivian said made sense. Hao Ren could not help but nod in agreement. “So, what else do you find? What about the Great Pit?”

“There is something else. A scholar named Ronzel wrote a book about the Great Pit. His works did not seem to gain recognition, but he had mentioned many interesting discoveries.” Nangong Sanba lifted an old book that he found. “This scholar claimed that he used to fallow a mysterious old man to practice Druidism. During communication with the spirit of nature, his soul left his body and entered the Great Pit. In there, he saw many human-made traces, ancient text, relics, and even magnificent ancient ruins. So, he believed that the Great Pit was actually a refuge built by the civilization of the last era to escape the disaster on the surface. The reason why the Great Pit spread all over the world was that the highly developed ancient civilization had built this miracle. The monsters that lunged from the Great Pit could be the guards of the ancient civilization, and might be the mutated humans that had gone crazy underground.”

Y’zaks laughed when he heard this. “The imaginative scholar had even estimated the scale of disasters on the surface based on the monsters and toxic substances rushed out from the Great Pit. In the second half of the book, he discussed in detail how a civilization dealt with the same disaster at the time.”

Lily’s ears stood erect and could not help but chime in, “Wow! It is so cool!”

“Cool does not mean it’s convincing.” Y’zaks shook his head. “The scholar might be imaginative, but unfortunately, four-fifths of his book is filled with guesswork and legends. He even quoted a fairy tale for the only citation in the book. This led to everyone attacking his theory and classifying his book as an absurd novel.”

“But by the intelligence at hand and our understanding, his stories are not entirely absurd.” Hao Ren’s eyes swept over them, and he spoke matter-of-factly, “This world plunged into this place together with the goddess of the creation. So, the ancient civilizations and the natural disasters on the surface that the scholar named Ronzel mentioned could be true, and the speculation of the Great Pit as an ancient civilization shelter may also be true. If that civilization had escaped the explosion of the divine realm with this underground facility and rebuilt the ecosystem, then many things would be explainable.”

Vivian nodded. “A lame scholar with a keen instinct is not uncommon. It could be just that Ronzel was not a persuasive writer.”

Lily picked up the book that Y’zaks brought and waved it in the air. “If what is written in the book is true, then the so-called Great Pit will be worth a visit.”