The Record of Unusual Creatures

Unlike the version in the mythology, Nidhogg actually went mad in the process of gnawing the root of Yggdrasil. After that, the black dragon turned into a monster that only knew destruction and killing. What it bit was one of the First Born’s nerves, not anywhere else.

Its lair was located just above the nodes of part of the brain tissue of the First Born. This unfortunate fellow. It chose to build its lair on a super powerful mental energy transmitter, which doomed it from the very beginning to a painful end. Even if Nidhogg did not touch the vines and blood that spread from the underground, it would sooner or later become mad in dreams by listening to the whispers of the First Born.

Hao Ren left Anthony, Y’zaks, and Y’lisabet on the ground to stand by, and then led others into the vast cavern beneath Nidhogg’s body.

It was not the first time he had been in close contact with the internal organs of the First Born, so the strange and oppressive environment did not give him the discomfort that was as strong as it had been. As he walked in the cavern, he was able to calm down and explained his research on this super-demigod to Galazur while observing the surroundings.

“The large tentacles of the First Born can sometimes go up to several kilometers wide, but small tentacles such as nerve bundles may only be a few meters in diameter or even smaller. I guess this cavern leads directly to the brain tissue, so all of them are nerves,” Hao Ren said, pointing to the winding vines or tentacles on the walls, and at the same time, paying attention to the ground under his feet. “The nerve conduction of the First Born is very strange. It doesn’t fully follow the laws of the universe. Some of his nerve conduction is even faster than the speed of light. A nerve impulse can be sent to all the ends of the tentacles in an instant.”

Galazur nodded slightly and said, “Because it’s huge.”

“Yes, quite huge. A mature First Born can coexist with the planet. It can drill through the entire planet’s mantle and crust and immerse its core in the planet’s core to absorb nutrients. Such a huge body can’t think without superluminal neural activity,” Hao Ren said and shrugged. “But I would also like to say that, conventional First Borns cannot make hyperspace jumps with huge mass objects. Their mission is to maintain ecosystems. Yggdrasil is a rather strange individual.”

“Look around carefully,” Vivian warned loudly. She had smelled the blood rushing and felt the danger. “Say it if you find a tentacle moving.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard Nangong Wuyue yelled, “Ah! I feel that a tentacle beside me has just retracted back!”

The siren’s yell suddenly startled everyone. Nangong Sanba raised his crossbow immediately and asked, “Where is it…”

Nangong Wuyue already coiled up. After a few seconds of trembling, she suddenly loosened up and said, “Err, I think it’s a mistake. It was my tail just now…”

Hao Ren was angry and annoyed by the stupid siren. He slapped her on the tail and scolded, “I told you to stay alert, not to frighten yourself!”

The interrupt of the siren made the atmosphere even tenser. Walking in a closed crypt itself was suffocating enough, plus those tentacle-like plants and vines everywhere in this cave, which made the atmosphere even more depressing. To be honest, the only time Hao Ren had been frightened so far was when Wuyue screamed.

But soon he was frightened for a second time.

He found the ground under his feet suddenly cracked open, and the entire cavern collapsed. The rock layers below suddenly disappeared, and everyone fell into the abyss. At the end of the abyss was a molten core, glowing with heat!

Hao Ren could not think properly during this sudden change. He wanted to cry out, but at the moment when his body was out of balance, he felt a sudden rush of a clear stream through his mind. In the dim vision, he saw Raven 12345’s smile flashing by. The goddess grinned at him, gave him the thumbs up and said, “I back you up.”

All hallucinations vanished. Hao Ren felt like he was touching something. He turned and found himself clutching Lily’s tail.

Lily, on the other hand, was staring into space, and so did Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wuyue. Only Vivian turned her head slowly and looked this way and mumbled, “Hallucination.”

A growl suddenly sounded in the cavern. Galazur uttered two powerful words in dragon language, “Duva-Zada!”

The mighty dragon swept everything like a roller. Lily and the Nangong siblings wake up in an instant. Nangong Sanba was still a little confused when he woke up. He raised his hands and shouted, “Surrender now! I said now! Ah, why are you all back?”

“It was a hallucination,” Hao Ren said with a shudder. “The First Born might have mumbled something in his sleep… Luckily Galazur and I are demigods, we were able to withstand this wave of mental shock. It should be all right now.”

Lily tugged at Hao Ren’s sleeve and said, “Landlord, landlord…”

Hao Ren looked at the husky girl and asked, “Yes?”

“I think I’m still in the hallucination,” Lily said carefully, with tears in her eyes, “I don’t know why my tail hurts so much!”

“… That’s because you’re silly and the hallucination lasts longer. I’m sure it won’t hurt after a while!”

“Oh.”

Although this hallucination intrusion did not cause any real damage, they continued to move forward with heightened vigilance, and a sense of danger loomed in Hao Ren’s heart.

He understood part of the physiological characteristics of the First Born. He knew that while the First Born could interfere with the mortal mind with dominant mind power and drag ordinary people into its twisted dreams, it should be safe around its brain nucleus instead as the First Born had multiple brain nuclei. These brain nuclei cooperated with each other to work, and there was a precise and coordinated thought wave conduction between them. For the self-protection mechanisms shared by any creature, this vital and sophisticated organ should be completely closed, not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the First Born would never directly use its brain to check the outside world for mental attacks as this may disrupt the coordination between multiple brain nuclei. The primary way it released mental power was through the tentacles that extended from the big ganglions, which were specialized organs for releasing mental waves.

The hallucinations near the brain nucleus led Hao Ren to speculate that part of the organs of Yggdrasil seemed to be losing control.

Suddenly he thought: Is this the mechanism by which the normal First Born turns into a frenzied one?!

“This should be the cavity you’re talking about.” Galazur’s voice interrupted Hao Ren’s thinking. The team had come to an end in the deep vine cavern. In front of them was a large hemispherical void. “The biological tissue in front looks like some core. Is it a brain nucleus?”

Hao Ren looked up and saw a hollow structure in the center of the wide hemispherical cavity. Slow, creeping red liquid filled the empty area, and in this pool of lifeblood, there was a biological tissue of more than ten meters tall, emitting a faint red light and soaking in it. Numerous tentacles extended from around this tissue, all the way to the stone walls around the cavity.

This scene was familiar to him. He saw it in the crypt in Holletta.

“What you see here is not the nucleus itself, but a large node. However, part of the large node is the container of the brain nucleus. That organ’s hidden under the glowing red connective skin.”

Hao Ren said as he walked, and then stopped half a meter from the pool of lifeblood. He took a closer look and confirmed that there was indeed a brain nucleus inside the swollen node, at the base of the ball of biological tissues. An irregular connective grid was regularly flashing red light, under which a blurred spherical shadow was visible. And the data terminal read powerful mental signals from there.

“So this is the thing that controls the movement of Yggdrasil?” Galazur looked curiously at the strange organ known as the ‘brain nucleus.’ “It’s amazing…”

“This is one of the nuclei of the brain, and the First Born at maturity stage has several to a dozen or so. These nuclei are connected to form a complete brain, but each nucleus can carry out complete thinking activities independently.”

“So this is the source of decay?” Nangong Sanba touched his chin and asked. “How about surgical removal? Then other normal brain nuclei can take over the rotten part of the tentacles and Yggdrasil should be able to wake up.”

There was nothing wrong with Nangong Sanba’s analysis, but Hao Ren looked carefully, then shook his head and said, “No, there’s something wrong here—this is a healthy organ!”