Chapter 120: Recruiting an army of birds

Meanwhile, on the surface, Sobek had re-emerged with the elasmosaurus in his jaws. Even though he had improved his freediving skills over time, he couldn't last long without breathing. Unfortunately, he wasn't like crocodiles or whales that could hold their breath for hours. He wasn't afraid of the submarine. Unlike him that could count on [Reinforced skin], it couldn't go up fast, or the pressure difference would tear it apart. He could eat calmly. He wasn't even worried about the submarine reporting his location to the authorities. After all, getting attention was exactly what he wanted. While devouring the elasmosaurus he noticed movement in the sky. He raised his snarling head before realizing that it was just a few cormorants aiming for the carcass. Despite being quite far from the coast, seabirds could travel many kilometers every day in search of food, so he wasn't a surprise to spot them. Sobek's ears were filled with not very nice phrases. "Oh, how long does it take?" "I don't know. Don't it want to eat it all? " "Greedy bastard! Leave some to us too! " Sobek narrowed his eyes as he observed the cormorants: those assholes wanted a piece of his food at all costs! Seriously, they wanted to eat free and they even have the courage to complain? Why could Sobek understand what the cormorants were saying, you ask? Very simple. On Earth, where Sobek came from, it used to be said that dinosaurs were extinct, but that wasn't true. Because the birds were dinosaurs! If you looked at life as a large tree, then it branched out in half after the reptiles appeared, dividing into synapsids and diapsids. The synapsids were the category that would have formed the mammals, the diapsids instead reptiles and birds. Among the diapsids, then, there was a further division between lepidosauromorphs, which included most of the reptiles (including marine reptiles), and archosaurimorphs; this last group then in turn divided into archosaurs (including crocodiles), pterosaurs and finally dinosaurs. At that point the branches multiplied even more, encompassing all the various species of dinosaurs. And among them one started a new branch including all the existing birds. So the birds were actually dinosaurs! Eagles, gulls, quail, sparrows, albatros, crows, eagles: they were all descendants of the giant reptiles who had ruled the Earth in the Mesozoic era. It is no coincidence that non-flying birds, such as ostriches or cassowaries, were very reminiscent of theropod dinosaurs! And since the birds were dinosaurs, Sobek was able to talk to them thanks to [Linguistics]. Skill that he didn't hesitate to reveal: "I can hear you, you chicken heads!" The cormorants screeched in fright as soon as they heard it. It doesn't matter what living being it is: if an animal suddenly hears a completely different creature speaking its own language, its reaction will always be fright. "Have you heard it?" "It speaks! It speaks!" "Of course I speak, blockheads!" grumbled Sobek. "And if you want a piece of my prey, change your tone! I don't intend to share something that I have hunted with hard work and effort with some ungrateful flying fowl!" The cormorants began to circle around him. Even if they could swim, none of them dared to lean on the water. However, they didn't even try to escape: they were intent on eating, and they did not want to let go of the possibility of an easy meal so quickly. Sobek knew this. He could guess the intent of the birds. His first impulse was to chase them away, but he soon changed his mind. He had found a better use for them. "I can offer you a deal!" he said aloud. The birds looked intrigued. "A deal?" "A deal of what kind?" "Tell us, tell us!" "Come on, hurry up!" "Let me talk!" Sobek snapped. Those chicken heads were really annoying. "Here is my proposal. I will bring you a carcass like this every day, which you can feed on. But in return, you will have to become my eyes and my wings " Sobek could only rely on his senses to keep an eye on the surrounding environment. But his senses were not invincible either. He didn't want to risk seeing a fleet come upon him and noticing it too late. But if he had obtained the help of the 'flying dinosaurs'... The birds were perfectly designed to fly for long periods. They had air pockets adjacent to the lungs that allowed them to breathe easily and their feathered wings could exploit the air currents with minimal effort. They could travel many kilometers every day with minimal rest time. As a result, they could have controlled the entire area surrounding it from above! "I want you to warn me every time you notice human activity. Ships, boats, speedboats... everything" Sobek explained. "Do it and you can eat carcasses like this every day!" The cormorants seemed satisfied with the proposal. Indeed, it could be said that they rejoiced at that prospect. For them, flying all day wasn't a problem: they were used to it. But getting free food all the time... that was a blessing! "We accept! We accept! " "Good proposal! Good proposal! " "We agree!" And so it was that Sobek created his first true spy network, made up of the least suspicious creatures in existence: birds. ************ "Is the spinosaurus still alive!?" The headquarters of the NMWA was in turmoil. The news had come almost immediately as soon as captain Rasczak had sent the information to the naval base. Now the representatives of all countries were agitated! "If so, then the Confederate States of Vinland should take care of it. It was in one of your towns that it all started!" Wafner exclaimed. "We didn't bring that animal there! We cannot answer for the actions of a single tycoon!" Bennett defended himself. Palma sighed deeply, then he raised his voice: "Gentlemen, please calm down! We will discuss this later. We now have a more important matter to attend to. How do we get rid of this scourge?" "According to captain Rasczak, he can swim at breakneck speed. He says it's even difficult to hit it with torpedoes!" "Absurd! If so, how do we stop it?" "I don't know! What can stop an animal that can even dodge torpedoes?" The room exploded in a sequence of shouts, yells, insults and criticisms. Unfortunately, even in the face of a national emergency it wasn't easy to reach agreement with many different nations. Suddenly Bennett had an idea: "Wait! We cannot deal with this problem, but we know who can. Those people who saved Flagard City from the spinosaurus could devise a plan to kill it!" The contribution of Sarah Hardy, Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant to the 'death' of the spinosaurus hadn't certainly gone unnoticed: the three were now known as those who had devised a heroic plan to defeat the monster. The whole world knew about them. Finally, to that proposal, the NMWA calmed down and everyone expressed their agreement. "He's right! Call Sarah Hardy, Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant immediately!" ************ In the following days Sobek knew he had made the right choice: thanks to the birds he could know what was happening tens of kilometers away. Basically, he knew the routes of the ships in advance! He had therefore been able to avoid a destroyer coming straight in his direction by simply moving a little north. As he had predicted, after his 'activity' the navy in the ocean had intensified. However, it wasn't a big deal. The ocean was large and Sobek had [Ambush] on his side. On the contrary, his work as a ship sinker seemed to have served its purpose: no one had yet come to claim the ship the dinosaurs were traveling on. The danger represented by Sobek was much greater. Sobek always returned to the ship once a day to make sure there were no problems. Fortunately, the dinosaurs were able to coexist quite peacefully. Moreover, they didn't seem to be subject to his will: they knew how to manage themselves. One day, in fact, Sobek had found some of them intent on throwing pieces of whale now devoid of substantial parts into the sea. "In this way we will avoid the spread of diseases" the creator of that act, a female velociraptor named Blue, had explained to him. Even if they didn't know what viruses were, animals instinctively knew that being near a rotting carcass could make them sick. The fact that they had decided to get rid of the now useless parts of the whale was therefore a sign of autonomy. Which could only make Sobek happy: as already mentioned, he did not want sheep as subjects. Since everything was going well on the ship, Sobek concentrated on hunting. Even though he now needed 660,000 experience points to level up, he hoped to increase at least a couple of levels before making it to the continent. And then, every day he had to fulfill his part of the covenant: he brought a carcass of a large marine animal to the surface and called the birds that ate it. Obviously they took a fraction of it: even a thousand birds would not have been able to finish a marine animal larger than 10 meters. But at least they had full bellies. Furthermore, by always bringing the carcasses to the surface, Sobek had obtained even more servants: the smell of the dead animal always attracted new birds who hoped to claim a part of it. Seagulls, herons, coots, sandpipers, boobies, even some sea eagles: all of them flocked to the call of food. In less than three days Sobek had come to have more than two hundred birds under his command. Given the huge number he had decided that it was appropriate to take the next step, so he had offered them to join his pack (renamed for the occasion 'flock') and had entered into a [Contract] with them. After that she had given him [Linguistics] right away. Thanks to it, birds of different species could now understand each other. Sobek had promised them that if they served him well he would reward them with something even better. Needless to say, the birds had been galvanized to that promise and had put much more effort into their task. Aside from [Linguistics] Sobek had not provided any abilities to the birds. After all, no one would ever be surprised to see birds flying over the sea or crowding around a carcass. Also, by flying in the sky they were safe from almost any predator. Finally, Sobek, as a good sly as he was, wanted to keep the 'great gift' card as a reward for their work, which would obviously have been one of his skills. So Sobek had spent four days. All that time he had done nothing but hunt. The sea was large and identifying fish, reptiles and cetaceans was easy. He had not yet come across a large predator, but that was not a problem: the advantage of large marine animals was that unlike the terrestrial ones they were almost all carnivores, therefore they could provide a certain amount of skill points. In addition, thanks to their large size, they provided a lot of fame points. That day, then, he had found a rather succulent prey. Initially he had noticed only an elusive shadow and had thought it was a whale, but as he approached he recognized the unmistakable silhouette of a fish. [Prey identified: Leedsichthys problematicus, pachycormidae. Experience: 450,000 points] The leedsichthys was one of the most mysterious fish for paleontologists: it is no coincidence that the full name of the species was 'Leedsichthys problematicus'. For a long time it had been debated about its size, going from estimates of 9 meters to 22 meters. However, in 2002 a more complete skeleton had been discovered, raising the bar up to 30 meters! And from the vision before him, Sobek assumed that this estimate was correct. It really was a giant fish, even bigger than the megalodon! However, it was not the largest vertebrate in the oceans: despite having a similar length, the blue whale still remained undefeated, as evidenced by the experience points that the animal provided (the blue whale provided 50,000 more). One might think that leedsichthys was a super predator of the oceans, but that was not the case. Just like whales, it fed exclusively on plankton and small animals. Not surprisingly, the shape of its body was very similar to that of huge cetaceans. Sobek was about the same length as the leedsichthys, but the fish far surpassed him in height, width and weight. Despite this, he could afford to attack him: like whales, the leedsichthys was not designed to defend itself from predators. He didn't need it: his size was his guarantee of survival. As with the blue whale, Sobek didn't take long to shoot it down. The difficulty was rather to eat it, since due to the weight the fish continued to sink and Sobek was therefore forced to dive continuously to drag it to the surface. However, the booty was not indifferent. 450,000 experience points was a huge sum, and along with everyone he already owned, he had enough to move up to level 31. After advancing a level, he immediately opened the stats. [Spinosaurus ingens] Level: 31 Length: 31 m Height: 9,9 m Weight: 15.5 tons Diet: carnivore, fishivore Strength: 123,456 Agility: 91,312 Defense: 70,215 Maximum speed: 32 km/h Experience points: 15,000/760,000 Skill points: 60 Fame Points: 570,000,000/100,000,000 Bonus money: 2,010,000 As he imagined, fame points are skyrocketing, Sobek thought. He hadn't checked his fame points since he set out to sea, because he knew he had already gotten all the points he needed to evolve again. Not only that, but his skill points were increasing as well. At that rate, when it would have evolved, perhaps it could have upgraded at least one skill to the maximum... Unfortunately, large marine predators, which could provide 8 to 10 skill points at a time, weren't very numerous. It was the rule that applied to every ecosystem: the larger and more powerful a predator is, the less numerous it is, otherwise the ecosystem would have collapsed. Just as tyrannosaurs were not very widespread on land, in the same way in the oceans there were huge areas devoid of any megalodon, mosasaurus or so on. Which obviously diminished his chances of acquiring skill points quickly, as he had to settle for small fishes, pliosaurs, ichthyosaurs or plesiosaurs... He shook his head. The nefarious thoughts could be let for the future. He didn't have to be depressed by the unexpected. He was still getting more loot than he ever had on land, he could be proud of it. His biggest gain though was the bonus money. From just half a million they had risen to more than two million. Apparently, all of his shares had paid off well. After all, freeing the captive dinosaurs and defending them from humans could be considered a 'good deed', even if not from the point of view of humans. Who said that good deeds were only valid if done towards human beings, after all? In that situation, it was the humans who were in the wrong. They were the ones who had imprisoned other living beings for the sole purpose of having fun. Probably the only reason the bonus money hadn't increased even more was because Sobek's actions weren't entirely selfless. The reason he had saved those dinosaurs was certainly not his charity, but the need to form a primary nucleus of his army. His own trip to Flagard City was accomplished only because he wanted to unlock the entire [Weapons system]. Even so, however, his shares were rewarded; since he was still protecting the dinosaurs, he was sure he could reach at least the three million bonus money before returning to Maakanar. With that amount he could have started buying quite a few weapons from the [Weapons system]. Speaking of weapons... "Am I wrong, or as soon as I completed the [Weapons system], I got a notification about some kind of '[Personal Weapon]'?"