The Record of Unusual Creature

“Yes, yes, just like that. Focus all on your weapon, be one with it, it is the extension of your arm. Relax, relax…. Hey! Don’t eat it! Aim with it! And don’t eat your beltbuckle! Don’t eat your weapon case! My goodness why is this child…”

Nangong Sanba scrambled to save the crossbow and weapon case from Lil Pea’s jaws, but he only managed to save just that much. The wooden practice sword still stuck out like a toothpick from the little mermaid’s mouth as she dashed towards the adults with a silly grin while tapping her tail on the tea table. “More!”

This was Lil Pea’s second day of weapon practice. The little rascal seems to not really understand what the delicious things really are, but under the adult’s guidance, she finally could hold herself from biting her own equipment – for a few minutes at most. Hao Ren prodded Lil Pea’s tail with the tip of his finger. “Sanba, make her a set of real equipment. Honestly, this child here is much stronger than you in terms of demon hunting abilities. If a half-baked one like you won’t hurt yourself, she will be fine.”

Nangong Sanba carefully tidied up the weapon case which Lil Pea had messed up as he have Hao Ren a serious look, “Please call me by my full name or just Nangong, Sanba* itself will cause a lot of misunderstanding. That aside, I think you are right.”

Lil Pea hugged Hao Ren’s finger as she gave it a peck before bouncing on the tea table looking for food. The growing little mermaid was every hungry and yet no one knew where the wooden fibre that she ate had gone too as she showed no signs of getting fat. The demon hunting mermaid that is destinied to be someone great is still a mischevious little mermaid, but she had already shown that she had what it takes to be an excellent demon hunter: The little rascal was happily hopping amongst her new toys and worked hard to leave a bite mark on everything there.

Nangong Sanba had by then given up saving the wooden training equipments, he had decided to make a proper set for her.

“I’ll head over to Raven 12345’s place.” Hao Ren said as he grabbed the MDT that was playing some shows and stuffed it into his pocket. “I won’t be back for lunch.”

Lily was halfway through watching the channel as she leapt up. “Eh eh, Mr Landlord… I’m not done yet…”

“Stop watching those mindless dramas, and do something more productive.” Hao Ren said as he poked Lily’s forehead. “If I’m not back by then remember to bring the cat for a walk. Aerym would do, don’t let her run about here.”

Lily pouted, “It’s no fun walking a cat around, it does not understand the joy of running about the plains.”

Hao Ren shrugged, “Then let her walk you instead, you go do your running stuff while she watches you.”

Lily rolled her eyes immediately. “Ugh…why you… alright alright, I’ll bring the cat for a walk. Remember to get me some hot buns when you come back, the ones from Old Zhao at the back lane.”

Hao Ren checked the MDT and the sample inside his Dimensional Pocket before directly teleporting into Raven 12345’s turf.

Raven 12345 seemed to know that Hao Ren would look for her today and she was waiting for him before her mansion. The moment Hao Ren appeared she broke into a huge smile to welcome him. “You’re here. Have you eaten? Or you’ll be leaving after a while? You won’t be staying here for lunch right?”

“Boss, have some decency won’t hurt.” Hao Ren was already used to the crazy Goddess’ antics and he could not be bothered to play along. “I’ll be staying for lunch, not a big eater anyway. I’m here for…”

“I know, I’ve read your reports.” Raven 12345’s playful expression immediately gave way to a serious look. “Follow me, let me see the samples.”

Hao Ren was taken by Raven 12345 via teleportation into a place that he had never seen before. It was a wide area, with the crystalline floor having the etchings of the galatic map as a faint gold decorative pillars standing about hundred meters apart throughout the room. On the top part of the room stood a magnificent dome. All these decorations implied that this was a room-type dimesnion, yet Hao Ren could not see the edge of the place even after taking a good look, as if this place was an endless luxurious hall. Well, it either could be massively big, or this dimensional structure is not normal.

Hao Ren knew he was still inside Raven 12345’s mansion: With his repeated visits as his job demanded, he was getting familiar with the real face of this seemingly unorthodox ‘heaven’, yet he more he knew he more he realized that he doesn’t know the place at all. The building’s interior had many wondrous, illogical spatial structure, some other places could not even be described. The mansion too had inumerable rooms and countless of sights, everytime you open a door you would see continent open itself before you (according to Raven 12345 that’s her monitoring room), some other corridors lead right straight to the stars.

So the existance of an endless hall is nothing weird.

“This is my repository, basement, uh….I use it to store certain things.” Raven 12345 waved her hand, and as she waved, the pillars started vibrating as a screen started forming all along the pillars and it looked like many items were stored within. “Placing the sample here would be better, take it out and let me have a look.”

Hao Ren opened his Dimensional Pocket and put the two storage container before Raven 12345. One of the container was a square box that held the giant brain while another was a ten-meter long transparent crystalline container, and in it lay a giant’s body.

There were four of those, and Hao Ren kept three for himself to research and the last one was given to Raven 12345.

“Everything about Io’s in the report, so I don’t have to repeat that. Just say that the Siren’s issue is resolved and Io’s ecosystem had also restarted.” Hao Ren pointed towards the brain. “The problem is this… The monster that attacked Io, and it was the brain of the giants… a mutation…”

Raven 12345 nodded without a sound. She circled around the soulless brain that still maintained its biological functions before taking a curious glance at the floating corpse of the giant. With a wave of her hand, the giant was pulled out of the container, and floated about a meter from the ground.

“Frankly speaking, this mutation had really challenged how I see thing.” Hao Ren shrugged. “I thought I have seen aplenty… but for a living brain to detach from its body and live on, and then mutate into another being… The brain can feed using its tentacles, and have its own biological functions. If not for me seeing it myself, I would not have believed that this was just an organ of another living being.”

“Some races had abilities to manipulate flesh and body, but this only happens to races that choose such an evolution path.” Raven 12345 spoke slowly, as her hand swept slowly across the giant’s head, as minute electrical current jumped along her fingers. “But this giants… they clearly have both technical expertise and a very excellent biological evolution ability. The former would need their own race’s advancement, the latter…”

Raven 12345 touched the temple of the giant as a flash of light quickly spread throughout the body.

“The latter came from divine blessing. If they have such an excellent natural ability, and could maintain it despite using technologically advanced tools, its no surprise if they could create such an mutation that you have mentioned.”

“Y’zaks said that the giant’s physique is perfect, perfect till the point of unnatural, an undying body from birth.” Hao Ren vaguely knew where the key point of the problem lies. “You think this could happen in the natural world?”

Raven 12345 retracted her hand. “Possible, but very very miniscule chances. I don’t think we had stumbled upon one like that. The chances of you meeting me, the great Goddess herself is already a miniscule percentile. It’ll be unfair if you keep striking jackpot.”

“Boss, is it even okay for you to say that?”

“It’s FINE.” Raven 12345 snapped her fingers nonchalantly. “So all in all, the giant have a perfect physical body, and its genetical inprint has no defects or any useless information. So even if an organ were to mutate it will have enormous power. This attributes were akin to perfect first sample, and this means that this means they are very close to the Seed of Origin.”

In the Plane of Dreams, anything closer towards the Goddess’ bloodline, the stronger they are.

Hao Ren rubbed his chin as something dawned upon him. “So, is it possible that these giants are another form of the First Born? A form that forsook the tentacle monster form and took a humanoid superhuman form?”

Raven 12345’s eyes gleamed. “Who knows…”