Conrad could not help but think more about this thing he discovered.
But thinking would not help in this case, and he knew it.
"Okay, for me to confirm the theory, I need to go down and discover a creature that would be weaker against these big bats."
Conrad took a deep breath and then kept on going down without thinking much, as there was no need to; right now he needed action and results.
After about four minutes, he nodded.
"I am at the 3500 meters..."
"A new creature should show itself around now or one minute later," he thought and continued going down.
While he went down, he always kept using En to be aware of his surroundings, both against the dangers and also to discover the creatures if there were any.
After about one minute later, he passed the four thousand meters and then stopped.
"Fuck!"
"The temperature should be around -55 around here."
At this point, Conrad knew for certain, if he did not use more nen to protect himself against the cold, he could not continue. A new user's simple tent is only able to protect him against the temperature down to -50 to -55 for about five to ten hours at the most, depending on the new user.
Here, if he did not go above the "ten," he would freeze to death.
Conrad closed his eyes for a moment, and then the fog surrounding him increased in thickness; about three to four centimeters thick was more than enough.
"Okay."
"It feels great now." Conrad thought and nodded.
"Let's see if there is any creature that would be scared of those bats," he said and then looked all around.
Not long after, he noticed a creature, then hundreds of them, and one second later, thousands of them.
"These are..."
"These are fruit flies, but they are big too," Conrad thought.
"The size is five centimeters; they are radiating such a small amount of cold energy..."
Conrad then laughed.
"Flies and Bats."
"Bats eat flies; these creatures are food for those bats."
The flies moved together in the darkness; thousands of them were easily covering about forty to fifty meters of area, about the half diameter of the Deep Point Area.
"Their speed is slow, much slower than those bats."
"With the speed of those bats, these are really food for those bats."
Conrad concluded.
"It seems like my theory is correct."
"Predatory Ladder..." Conrad murmured.
"Octopuses are predators to the eaglesnakes; eaglesnakes hunt down big bats, and big bats are hunted and more powerful than these big fruit flies..."
Conrad then noticed something too as he thought about the ladder.
"In a sense..."
"These fruit flies would be pretty effective against the 'eagle snakes,' as their rock-throwing capability would do nothing against them..."
When he thought about the octopuses, he nodded.
"They would be okay against the octopuses..."
Conrad then noticed something.
"So..."
"The level of the ladder does not necessarily say anything about the relative power of the creature but is only there to tell the looker that one in the upper predates one in the lower side."
"If I took those bats to fight against the octopuses, they would lose most likely but still be capable of fighting with their claws against two octopuses."
"But against eaglesnakes, they would be decimated!"
Conrad took a deep breath, and then flies noticed him.
"Oh."
"They do not attack like bats."
"So, in their eyes, I am no enemy or a hunting target."
"If I am right and these creatures abide by the rule of the Deep Point, for them to attack, I need to look like prey or be doing something that breaks the rule."
"If eaglesnakes attacked me because they thought I was trying to—"
Conrad stopped for a moment.
"One second..."
"What if eaglesnakes attacked me because I look like bats..."
"It is not the usual thought process of mine..."
"But it is also not wrong."
"Compared to all the creatures, I look similar to bats."
"Thirty centimeters of height difference, capable of flying, arms and legs, despite being longer, but still legs..."
"Head, like them..."
"So..."
"Other than the rule of stopping any creature trying to go up, leaving their environment, the creatures the Deep Point focuses on are killing the creatures that look like their prey, the creatures that live below..."
"If I think and conclude that Big Bats attacked me for any other reason than I looked like I tried to leave..."
"It should be true."
Conrad took a deep breath and touched his head for a moment.
"They may have also decided to attack me because I looked like them, but I was not one of them."
"Octopuses attacked the orb that tried to go up but did not attack me when I wanted to go down."
Conrad thought about many things, and then the flies, who were calm, started vibrating and then started swarming towards him.
"What is up with these guys?"
"They were calm just now!" Conrad thought while he dodged the swarm.
"Truth to be told, I am not that really great when it comes to fighting this kind of an enemy..."
"Compared to the bats, who have echolocation and some other abilities involving sound that were ineffective against me even when they tried to use them..."
Conrad noticed that big bats used echolocation to see, but after he killed the last one and examined it, he also connected two points together: while they attacked, they used small amounts of focused sound waves to attack. Such an attack is not something that his mind recognized as an attack.
But it would be deadly against these big fruit flies...
Conrad then dodged again, and his eyes got serious for a moment.
"I am not good when it comes to fighting with these flies..." As he thought about what he just thought about, these creatures.
Something that he wanted to know also proved again...
"In their eyes..."
"In the eyes of these flies, I am a self-proclaimed prey..."
"I did not say it, but my aura and intent should be there..."
"They did not attack me at first because I looked like a big bat, and then when they noticed I am not, I thought about how I am not that great against these guys."
"They attacked with more force."
"They see me as a prey that is not capable of fighting against them, and they would not be wrong..."