Chapter 205. Eternatus's Carapace
At the end of the pit where Eternatus was embedded, the space was much larger than outside.
Natsume guessed that an explosion might have occurred when it was blasted here.
Afterward, the water flow filled the cavity, forming this small underground lake.
Natsume carefully examined the surroundings.
Most of the crystal clusters were concentrated here, and in the underground river extending from the lake, Natsume could also see clusters in the riverbed.
However, those red crystal clusters were dull in color and overly fragmented, so Natsume only gave them a glance before losing interest.
They were probably scoured from beneath the lake by the current over many years.
Natsume returned to the lake again, this time to the very center.
Under his flashlight, large clusters at the bottom refracted a red glow, and the heavy sheet of water beyond caught the light until the surface looked like a glass of smooth red wine.
After Natsume's careful survey, the reserves of crystal here were enormous.
The most obvious distributions were in two places.
One was overhead—the clusters drooping from the ceiling like stalactites.
The other was the mass of clusters buried deep under the lakebed, looking like coral reefs.
The reserves of the two seemed roughly evenly split.
Natsume used telekinesis to probe the lake's depth and finally nodded in satisfaction.
This was wonderfully challenging, a perfect chance to temper the League's construction crew.
Natsume resolutely gave up this chance to temper himself and left it to the League.
He flew toward the ceiling and began mining the clusters on the dome of the cavern.
Only after he reached the top did Natsume truly feel the vast scale of the cluster field.
Although he had probed it with telekinesis before, that sensation couldn't compare to the shock of being there in person.
Dense red-black clusters hung from the ceiling, each bunch massive, and Natsume felt as if he stood in an upside-down crystal forest.
Soon, clang—clang—clang rang out, and from time to time chunks of crystal fell and splashed into the water.
Natsume had no idea how many days he had been mining.
When he was hungry, he drank Moomoo Milk, and when he was thirsty, he also drank Moomoo Milk.
"I can't take it anymore."
Below, Natsume lay amid a pile of Moomoo Milk cartons, his eyes bloodshot.
Next time he went out, he would definitely stuff all kinds of emergency rations into the system space.
Overhead, hundreds of pickaxes, controlled by telekinesis, were digging like mad.
Some were even pickaxes Natsume had labored to condense from telekinetic force.
He had no choice—of the more than a thousand pickaxes he had in system storage, nearly half were already broken.
Fortunately, the clusters on the cliff face above had been almost completely mined out and stored in the system space.
As for the ones at the bottom of the lake, Natsume didn't have the energy for those and left them to the League.
As the sustained rumble from above continued, Natsume put all the pickaxes away and wiped the traces clean.
It was the roar of drilling machines, faintly audible since the day before yesterday, and much louder over the last two days.
"What a shame, I can't take this carapace back."
Natsume looked at Eternatus's remains with some disappointment.
Because of his mining, many fine crystal fragments had fallen over them, leaving a gray film.
Natsume clapped his hands, planning to brush off the dust and destroy the evidence.
He wrapped underground water with telekinesis and sluiced it over Eternatus's remains.
During the wiping, Natsume noticed something wrong.
"Why does this feel soft?"
Perplexed, Natsume stretched out his hand to experience it directly.
With a gentle poke of his finger, the armor plate dented inward as if he were poking flesh.
Natsume: "???"
It softened?
Why?
Water?
No.
Natsume quickly dismissed the idea.
Part of Eternatus's body had been submerged all along, and he still hadn't been able to cut that apart.
Looking at the gray film of fallen crystal fragments, a bold thought surged up in Natsume's mind.
From the mass of scarlet crystals in the system space, Natsume selected a large crystal shaped much like a machete.
Gripping the crystal, Natsume tested it against a large armor plate on Eternatus's chest.
Effortlessly, Natsume sliced off a broad section of carapace.
At the same time, the crystal in his hand melted away by more than half like ice and snow.
A few bloodlike lines appeared on the surface of the severed carapace.
Although he very much wanted to understand the principle, the roar above told Natsume he probably didn't have the time.
Crack—crack!
A fissure opened in the cliff overhead and widened continuously.
At last, the crack reached its limit and burst open into a large hole.
A group of people, wrapped in falling rocks, tumbled down one after another.
Fortunately, a cool blue light caught them.
"Ah—Natsume, it's you, you gave me a fright."
Professor Oak patted his chest, still shaken.
"Natsume, how goes your survey?"
Professor Magnolia looked, still shaken, at the underground river below, which, under the flashlight's beam, was shallow enough to see the stones on the bed.
If the water level had dropped lower, it might not have provided much of a cushion.
"About done, just about done."
As he spoke, Natsume supported the two with telekinesis and headed toward the lake where Eternatus lay.
"This environment is really peculiar."
Along the way, Professor Magnolia and Professor Oak naturally noticed the oddities in the different stretches of the river.
After passing the signature whirlpool and the bend, their view suddenly opened up.
Before them lay an even bigger underground chamber, and on the cliff face, embedded—
"Natsume, why is only a head of Eternatus's remains here?"
Professor Oak came to the base of the cliff, rubbed his chin, and then looked at Natsume with a suspicious expression.
Because there wasn't time to move the head, of course.
"Ahem, based on my study, its body was likely blasted apart.
You know how many carapace fragments can be mined from the overlying strata."
"But given Eternatus's size, those armor fragments are just a drop in the bucket."
Professor Magnolia spoke and then turned to look at Natsume as well.
Being stared at by the two elders, Natsume's expression suddenly tightened.
"Actually, I have another major discovery."
Natsume said this and led the two professors to the lakeside.
Under the flashlight's beam, they could easily see the vast lakebed, densely strewn with countless dark red crystals like coral reefs.
"What are those?"
Professor Oak murmured.
"These red crystal clusters contain a large amount of Dynamax energy, and the storage is excellent and very stable!"
Natsume emphasized his words.
"Stable!"
Professor Oak's eyes lit up.
If Dynamax energy was stable, they could build Pokémon Dens for Max Raid Battles, and the hardest part of rolling out the Dynamax system in the Kanto region would be solved!
"Yes, and not only that—these clusters also hold an enormous quantity of Dynamax energy."
As Natsume spoke, he pulled out a wet crystal and handed it to Professor Magnolia.
"I suspect these clusters are the missing body of Eternatus, buried under the lake and transformed over thousands of years into what we see now!"
Natsume spoke off the cuff, without the slightest blush.
"Is that so?"
Professor Oak and Professor Magnolia exchanged a look and couldn't help but nod slightly.
It did make some sense.
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