Sam was really intrigued by these creatures. They have a clear advantage over sirens. The water elemental energy is not affecting them that much. The attacks might cause them trouble but the problem is the element of surprise. The normal spiritual sense couldn't even scan its presence and the energy waves.
They are merged with the rocks completely. If Sam didn't use the energy vision and the urchins are not using the energy and a weird method to conceal themselves, then it would have been different. They are not completely concealing their energy, they are more like manipulating it to be 'invisible'.
But energy vision worked its wonders.
Sam was really impressed by these things, they are extremely different and dangerous and that is not because of their massive size, or their intimidating aura with a lot of killing intent which is extremely common in most beasts.
Rather they are just dangerous for what they are.
"Let me take a closer look."
Sam asked and Varien nodded.
Sam started swimming towards the rock. There is only one urchin on it, so he is confident of dodging one spike at a time. And he did it. With water elemental fusion it is actually easy and before long he is already right beside the rock.
By now Sam could see the body of the urchin a bit clearer. The spikes bent flat and he could one of them standing right up and being shot at him. He dodged it once again and extended his hand towards the rock. But he noticed that all the spikes just stood at the same time pointing towards him.
Sam didn't wait a single second, he became alert and ducked down. But the sea urchin already shot all of them.
One spike hit the breathing device and destroyed the mask. While one of them hit him in the shoulder.
Varien became alert and was afraid Sam's arm would be lost, but Sam gestured him to stop right there.
Sam ducked down and threw the mask away before taking a new one. While wearing the new device with one hand, he used another hand to remove the spike.
The poison has a bit of burning sensation to it but that is because of something that Sam didn't expect.
Its potency didn't affect Sam. The burning sensation is because of the fire element and he is currently in the middle of water and using the water elemental energy.
This caused him a bit of surprise.
A water creature that is clearly surviving under the water and couldn't survive after if it was taken out had a fire element to it. Now he understood how that weird intricate formation within the spike can actually evaporate the liquid to gas. The heat is definitely not enough normally because of all the water here.
But the formation made it enough.
Sam ducked, he kicked the rock directly, but as soon as his leg touched the rock, it didn't give the impact he expected, it crumbled easily and what surprised him, even more, is that the rock is hollow.
The sea urchin that was stuck to one part of the rock is producing the spikes at a rapid pace and he could clearly see the rock that it was attached to being reduced in size.
Sam touched the rock carefully and turned it into the powder which made the sea urchin stop the spike production.
But the other end which was not visible to the outside until now still has spikes and he could sense that they were about to be launched.
Sam used his water elemental energy and froze the water around the sea urchin. The spikes that were very close to launching themselves stopped. But the heat from the spikes that come from the formation is trying to melt the ice. But the momentum is definitely gone.
Now the sea urchin is completely out of spikes.
He unfroze in and swam towards Varien.
"I would like to bring this back and study it a bit if you don't mind that is."
"Sure. We already arranged a residence. Let's go."
Sam went back with the sea urchin in hand. He didn't place it in the divine dimension forcefully, nor did he forcefully create a contract. He didn't want Varien to get too suspicious.
"You seem to have a remarkable resistance to the poison."
"I do actually. Most poisons unless they reached an extreme level of potency will not affect me. It is my body's natural gift."
"It's indeed a gift."
They returned to the city and Sam was indeed given a residence. He couldn't help but marvel at the dome created by them.
Even though they lived underwater and liked to be in it, they made the city under this large bubble enclosing it from the water.
All of it is just to do the work that is not really possible in the water.
He went to the residence he was given and started examining the sea urchin. He placed it in a small pool of water and the first thing it did is to search for the rocks under it. Unlike the normal sea urchins, it is rolling fast and it is moving clearly.
Once there are no individual rocks inside, it stuck itself to the wall of the pool and started absorbing it. The spike grew at a fast rate.
At this moment, Sam placed his hand near the wall of the lake from the surface and checked the rock carefully.
The rock is being slowly consumed by the sea urchin.
It is clearly using the method to absorb the rock. But Sam couldn't understand it. He pulled the sea urchin forcefully out of it, threw some lumps of metal inside the pool, and let it go once again. This time, the sea urchin searched for the rocks once again and when it came into contact with the metal, it seemed to be examining a bit more, before attaching to it.
It didn't go for the rock walls. Sam looked at the spikes that are being made at a rapid pace. This time they are different, there is a metallic sheen to it and Sam knew for a face if they are shot, then the situation would be worse than it is for the targets.
He used his water element to create fishes out of the water and surrounded the urchin, the urchin couldn't take it and threw all the spikes at them.
The spikes lodged themselves into the walls of the pool.
Sam took out one of the spikes and looked at it carefully. He couldn't help but marvel by the fact that the formation still stayed even in these metal ones. These sea urchins are really a gift for him. The spikes that are made are decent sized and once they are shot, they are not being damaged too much and they have an intricate formation carved inside along with a natural propellant network.
It is almost like it is unfair for the rest of the sea creatures for one creature to have such a gift. The worst of all is that it can negate most water elemental attacks.
Now, Sam took out the sea urchin and placed both rocks and metal pieces. This time, it went for the rocks directly. The problem might have been because the metal is taking a bit too much time.
He thought of something and created another hole in the rocky ground. This time, he placed some scrap metal inside and melted it and they cooled it down.
Now he filled it with water and forcefully took the sea urchin from the first pool and threw it into the second. There are no individual rocks or scrap metal, only the walls of the lake that are made of metal. As expected it stuck to it.
Now Sam placed his hand into the pool and turned the metal coating into the powder.
The sea urchin became a bit shaky and it pushed the metal powder away and stuck to the rock wall.
Sam did all kinds of experiments with this thing.
He created some pools and added different items, like plants, herbs, different metals of different affinities, rocks of different affinities, spirit stones, the used-up spirit stones, everything he could think of.
And there is one thing that came to his mind, by the time he was done with this.
He has to catch some of these things and take them back with him.
These things are natural weapon makers and those weapons also have great structural strength and they are all of equal size and shape without a minuscule difference.
But for that, he has to find a way to get into the middle of them, defend against the spikes and catch them all together.
And he can understand why the Sirens wanted him to come. Weapon making and other things are not these guys' specialty and even if they had ideas, they couldn't execute them. So, they want a person who can think out of the box and create something that can help them get by easily.
As for why they didn't ask the elves for help, Sam has a feeling that if he is an elf they wouldn't have let him come here and show this problem and thought of a different way to deal with it. It is because he is a human that they even tried to trust him.
