Wizard: Starting with Symbiosis with Algae

The increase in magic power made it easier for him to unleash his vine-entwining spells. Becoming stronger also brought him joy.

Lynn clutched his chest, came to the surface of the sea, and joyfully splashed in the water. Joy aside, it was still time to reflect.

Because he underestimated his opponent and wasn't adequately prepared, he wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state. Specifically, the sulfur algae didn't have enough toxins accumulated under normal circumstances. Its temporary growth and secretion consumed too many of its nutrients. Its condition suddenly deteriorated significantly.

Fortunately, this is also a hot spring, and the sulfur algae replenished some of the energy consumed.

[In the conversion of chemical energy substances into organic matter]

Lynn moved like a worm to the side of the already dead worm.

The flying stick devoured the hearts of three of them, and the other one died of fright. Lynn was so certain because the other one had no external injuries and did not react when touched.

So useless

Such creatures should be made into animal feed.

Adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, Lynn fished them out of the water, shook off the water droplets, and laid them out to dry on a protruding rock on the roundabout.

Then he immersed himself in the lake, rested the back of his head on a rock, and closed his eyes.

..

"panel"

Lynn silently recited

Strength and agility did not decrease, but the 0.88 stamina was still a blow to his confidence.

"Luckily, we were lucky. Those flying sticks didn't spot us."

He grabbed a rock on the shore with both hands, submerged his head in the water, and gazed at the receding rain clouds on the sea.

Weakness is not a sin. Survival is the greatest victory.

He soaked in the water for a while, until his heart stopped beating so hard, before standing up.

Stamina recovery +0.12

The short-term consumption was partially replenished by the photosynthesis of hot springs and blue-green algae.

The remaining damage will probably need to be soaked for another two days to fully recover.

From a certain perspective, Lynn's setup is quite scientific: the hot spring provides temperature and minerals, the blue-light algae provide oxygen and organic matter synthesis, and the sulfur algae convert geothermal energy into bioenergy. Each of the symbiotic organisms takes care of its own area, turning him into a mobile ecosphere.

He can get stronger anytime, as long as Ruby can keep Lynn's minimum standard, he can do whatever he wants without worry.

Because the exploration mission is almost complete.

Lynn pulled himself back onto the shore and walked to the rock wall where the worms had been burrowing, looking into the cave.

On the black cave wall, deep within the holes drilled by the worms, there were some small black dots, slightly larger than grains of rice, with smooth surfaces.

These are all worm eggs; even without farming them, they are a rare delicacy to eat.

Lynn reached in without much thought.

"Sizzle."

Lynn was stunned.

What the hell?

What pricked my hand?

It hurts quite a bit

He pulled his hand back; there was a tiny red dot on his fingertip, from which blood was seeping. He put his finger in his mouth and sucked on it.

"Is he a worm survivor?"

If it is a worm, then the worm that hides deepest must be very good at surviving.

Its behavior pattern allows it to reliably avoid flying sticks, which is very valuable.

Lynn faced the cave entrance and exerted a slight force; a miniature vine climbed up the rock wall and into the hole. The vine bypassed the worm egg, wrapped around the sharp thorn, and gently pulled it outwards.

The rock face itself remained still; only the sea sand filling it rustled as it fell.

Lynn saw it

A single egg case.

Smaller than a worm egg, with a translucent light amber shell.

It was swollen, like a cockroach's egg case, smaller, harder, and faintly glowing.

Moreover, it appears to have already hatched, as the inside is empty.

It is completely different from worm eggs.

So, this is the egg of a flying rod?

Lynn held the egg case between his fingertips.

The light color is exactly the same as the light on the surface of Flying Rod's body when he was alive.

Moreover, by directly parasitizing the worm's burrow, the hatched larvae can immediately consume the eggs and larvae of the electric worms in the same nest.

Some people are born in Rome, while others are born in a buffet restaurant.

"What a vicious yet efficient breeding strategy."

Lynn is a seasoned surfer and has some basic scientific knowledge.

For example, cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, and magpies lay their eggs in the nests of other magpies. But this bird in front of us is far worse than either of those birds.

Lynn wrapped the egg case in blue-green algae and placed it separately in a test tube bag.

It was cloudy on the way back, as if nothing had happened.

Incidentally, Lynn's favorite bird is the black-crowned night heron.

...

One kilometer outside the test station, a woman wearing a helmet was picking up her equipment and heading towards Lynn.

There were traces of frost on her helmet.

Anyone can see that.

This somewhat carefree wizard apprentice came to see Lynn.

She was also attacked, but she protected herself with freezing magic. Perhaps due to the distance, the battle here continued into the night.

Ruby saw Lynn arrive, took off her helmet, and smiled.

"Oh, I thought you were dead."

"That won't happen, ma'am."

"I'm so disappointed that I missed the chance to collect your body."

"I'm also very disappointed that you actually want me dead."

Both of them breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the experimental station.

Lynn sat down next to the hydrogen lamp, and Ruby lit the campfire.

She added a heat dissipation plate that she had taken from the airship's cabin wall, on which a few worms lay, hissing and oozing oil.

Lynn was roasting worms over the fire.

He also brought back the worms that had been scared to death by the flying sticks on the beach. After drying them, their body walls were hard, but now they are slowly softening on the cooling plate.

After carefully comparing the eggs of the two organisms,

As Ruby helped flip it over, she remarked, "It seems the flying rod is also a worm-like creature."

Lynn asked in surprise, "What's the basis for that?"

Ruby said slowly

"Worm-like creatures are a very common form in the evolution of magical creatures. Like the mandragora worm in the rainforest world and the mechanical worm in the mechanical world. This rudimentary bilaterally symmetrical form is very convenient for movement. It can occupy a high ecological niche even under low magical conditions."

"Judging from the shape of this myelin sheath, it's highly likely that worm eggs have this protective structure. Flying rods are worm-like creatures, which can actually explain their locomotion."

Worm-like organisms have completely degenerated their appendages, retaining only the elastic structures between their body segments, which is indeed well-suited for a linear mode of locomotion.

The worm grinder was humming.

Lynn very conscientiously picked the roasted worms off the heat exchange plate, tore some into strips and handed them to Ruby, and put the rest into his mouth.

The two ate something, and Ruby used a test strip to collect a small amount of the sample from the mine they had brought back, then added a drop of reagent.

Sorry, it didn't change color.

But that's not the point.

"It's strange, though," Ruby said. "The magic power of the Flying Rod is probably close to that of a second-level wizard apprentice. Creatures at this level of magic power should still have a relatively high reproductive rate. The worm samples I dissected before had an adult magic power exceeding 1, but they could lay five to thirty eggs at a time. Creatures with higher magic power reproduce less, but the Flying Rod's ratio is wrong. If the Flying Rod's magic power is dozens of times that of the worms, it's comparable to those samples. According to the normal ratio, its egg production should be in the tens. But look."

She pointed to the egg case Lynn had brought back. "This is just one from the nest. How many more egg cases are there in that burrow that you haven't collected yet?"

"No, I've looked all around, and after a thorough search, there's only one left."

"Based on the magic power ratio, the reproduction rate of flying sticks shouldn't be this low."

That's the truth.

"That's really strange; there must be some details we haven't noticed."

Lynn nodded.

In a world with scarce resources, it's perfectly fine to have fewer births and better birth rates.

But there were too few flying sticks.

...