Chapter 133: Time to establish a defensive line

In the following days the size of the herd increased enormously. As Sobek had predicted during the early days none of the dinosaurs had brought great results: most of them did not know how to move. But they quickly learned to cooperate and more and more packs submitted to them, consequently increasing the strength of Sobek's army more and more. In nature, a herd could not become too large a force because it needed food supplies. But since Sobek had eliminated these problems and had turned to multi-ethnicity, then the herd could only grow. And with ever stronger dinosaurs joining it, the enemy packs that numbered fewer individuals could only yield to their advance. During the first two days, his underlings had barely been able to recruit about fifty other dinosaurs. But since they learned quickly in a single week, the number of individuals in the pack had exceeded a thousand. Sobek had had to fill in [Contracts] all the time and probably the work would only get worse in the future: according to his perspective, in less than a month they would reach a population of ten thousand. More and more dinosaurs of all sizes and species kept arriving every day. Even the great sauropods, attracted by easy food and protection, had agreed to join them. For Sobek this was flattering. Ten thousand individuals might not seem like a lot in a modern army, but it had to be taken into account that each dinosaur was worth at least ten humans, and some even a hundred. When he then unlocked [Linguistics (2)] he could send flying reptiles around the continent and greatly increase his ranks. Even if the dinosaurs present in the pack weren't very many yet, however, Sobek had begun to think about the future. Very soon, the size of the herd would swell enormously and the dinosaurs would go from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands, if not millions. And this made things difficult. Even among the dinosaurs there were individuals who could not fight: cubs and the elderly. Not to mention that the dinosaurs needed a safe place to nest. To this were added other problems, such as the safety of the place, exposure to dangers and other factors. And most importantly, the larger the pack got, the greater the chance that humans would find out. Dinosaurs of various species gathered in one place would not have gone unnoticed. Even though the trees provided cover with their foliage, even they couldn't hide hundreds of thousands of dinosaurs. This led Sobek to a single solution: he had to look for a safer place. The discovery of dinosaurs by humans was only a matter of time: they couldn't remain hidden forever. But they had to prepare for an excellent defense. They had to find more difficult territory for humans, but easier for them, so that in case they could exploit guerrilla techniques. Additionally, moving the at-risk categories (puppies, eggs, seniors) to a safer and more well-protected location would have made much more difficult for humans to reach them and thus potentially use them as hostages. Sobek believed he didn't have to worry about the sky: even though humans had helicopters and planes, landing such vehicles in the forest was not a safe undertaking. With the help of the flying reptiles and [Devastating roar] he could have easily prevented them from attacking them from the air, at least until humans invented long-range missiles. Rather, the problem remained a ground attack. Helicopters and planes would not have been very many and therefore [Devastating roar] and a good number of pterosaurs could have handled them; but the humans that would have come from the land would have been a thousand, ten thousand times more numerous. A direct confrontation would have been impossible. Consequently it was appropriate to find a suitable territory for a battle that favored the dinosaurs. Unfortunately Sobek wasn't an expert in that sector. He was not a soil expert and could not recognize good soil from bad soil. Nature was unpredictable: if he had chosen the wrong place, his herd could have been overwhelmed by a landslide, or swept away by a flood, or cancelled by an earthquake, or eliminated by a volcano that initially appeared extinct. No, someone else was needed, someone who knew nature well. And what better explorer than the most assiduous travelers in the world? No, he wasn't thinking about pterosaurs. They could observe the area from above, but they would not have guessed anything about the land and its properties. No, we needed a dinosaur for that job. And Sobek had only one species in mind: sauropods. Due to their size, sauropods led a nomadic life. They traveled continuously and never stopping, and thus had the opportunity to learn more in their lives than any human explorer. They knew how to recognize dangerous areas with a single glance and were able to understand which paths were best to take. It was therefore to them that Sobek addressed. A herd of brachiosaurs had joined his large herd a short time ago; they were perfect. "Hi" he greeted them as he approached them. "Who can I talk to here?" A large female brachiosaurus walked towards him. She wasn't too young or too old; at a guess he was in his prime. "You can talk to me, pack leader" "What is your name?" "Monica, pack leader" Sobek was a bit annoyed that he had forgotten the name of the brachiosaurus, since it was he the one who had given it to her. But with thousands of dinosaurs it was impossible for him to remember everyone's names. But that didn't stop him from being embarrassed. "Well, Monica, I have a task to entrust to you. Would you like to do it?" "Any of your commands is an order for me, pack leader" "Well, here's what you need to do. I want you to explore the surroundings and find a place. It must be a difficult place to reach, but very large, with running water and a lot of vegetation. Possibly there must be many paths to an escape route, and it must be easy to defend" "Are you afraid of an attack, pack leader?" Monica's concern was normal; with [Reinforced skin] they had become almost invulnerable, so it was unthinkable for them that they should still fear being attacked by someone. Sobek fell back on the simpler excuse. "Not immediately, of course, but since I am the pack leader it is my job to consider all options. Even if an attack is very uncertain, it is not impossible, so it is better to act with caution" Monica seemed content with that answer. Luckily, the sauropods had brains the size of a peanut, so they didn't ask too many questions. "Okay, I understand. We will leave immediately, pack leader" "Thank you" Sobek replied. Monica and a dozen other sauropods left not even half an hour after Sobek's request; despite their size, those gigantic animals were not slow at all, and in fact disappeared into the forest in a short time. Sobek knew they were the best choice. The sauropods knew how to recognize the pitfalls of nature thanks to their nomadic life and they knew the best terrains to settle in. Moreover, with their size they did not have to fear distractions: no one would ever attack them even if they did not have [Reinforced skin], and with the amount of trees in the forest they could eat practically anything. For safety during the first days Sobek sent a deinonichus to check the situation, but seeing that the sauropods knew what they were doing he gave up. After all, he wanted to give as much autonomy as possible to his subordinates; Sobek wanted capable and intelligent dinosaurs, not puppets who simply obeyed orders. As time passed the pack continued to grow. New dinosaurs appeared every day. Most were still small dinosaurs, but the number of the big ones was increasing. Very soon the disparity would be closed. Sobek hadn't been idle, of course: he'd spent all his time at the lake hunting down any predators he could find. In short, his skill points had been enough to maximize [Devastating roar]. That was the beauty of being at the top of the food chain: collecting skill points was very easy. Finally, a week after his third evolution, he managed to rack up enough skill points to get [Linguistics (2)]. The instant he took her to level 1/5, an indistinct series of voices began to make their way into her ears. 'Well... so now I can talk to the smaller flying reptiles. Let's see... whit what I should start?' It wasn't hard to spot a tiny rhanmphorhynchus perched on a rock in the middle of the lake. Rhamphorhynchus were rather small flying reptiles with a very long tail. "You there!" The little pterosaur turned confused in the direction of the sound, finding only a giant creature watching him. The poor animal was frightened and almost fell off the rocks on which he was sitting. Sobek shook his head at that sight: "I don't want to hurt you. I just want to talk" The rhamphorhynchus looked even more confused. After all, he had the brain of a chicken. "Are you talking to me?" he asked, obviously not realizing that they were speaking the same language. Sobek snorted. "Is there anyone else around here? Of course I'm talking to you!" "Uh... I'm sorry! And what... damn, I don't know what to say" the rhamphorhynchus answered. He was definitely not the smart guy. "Yes, I know it's an unusual situation. But I want to make a deal with you" Sobek came up: "Here's the deal: if you join my pack and follow my orders, I will guarantee you protection and provide you with food every day. So, are you ok or..." "I ACCEPT!". The pterosaur's immediate assent caught Sobek off guard. He didn't expect it to give way that easily. But after all, a small animal like the rhamphorhynchus had no problem throwing away its freedom if it was guaranteed food and safety. The [Contract] immediately appeared in front of Sobek and he did not hesitate to sign it. "From now on, you will be called Rambo" he decreed. "Yes, pack leader. But what does 'called' mean?" the pterosaur asked, who obviously had no idea what a name was. "It means that now you will identify yourself with that word. From now on, you are Rambo. Got it?" Sobek explained patiently. With the assent of the rhamphorhynchus, he continued: "Here is your first assignment. I want you to fly around the lake and bring all the other flying reptiles similar to you here. Tell them I'm willing to make them the same offer I made to you. I wait for you here" "As you wish!" Rambo said, getting up in flight and darting on the crystal clear water. Sobek did not have to wait long: in a few minutes a real flock reached him. There were rhamphorhynchus, dimorphodon, dorygnathus, scaphognsthus, sordes... there were all kinds. Like Rambo, none of them had any doubts about accepting Sobek's proposal. This time after making the [Contracts] Sobek didn't give them orders right away: first he took them to the herd shelter, so that they could see with their own eyes that there was nothing false in his words. Many dinosaurs on his arrival seemed surprised to see him wrapped in a swarm of small pterosaurs, but they recovered quickly: they were now used to the oddities. When the pterosaurs were adequately supplied with feeders, Sobek explained that their job would be to help the dinosaurs recruit more members of the pack. Obviously the flying reptiles had no objection and the dinosaurs were happy too: with their help, finding other dinosaurs would have been much easier. It didn't take long for the pterosaurs to settle in and start making friends with their new mates. However, Sobek hadn't certainly finish. "No, Rambo, wait" he ordered since the rhamphorhynchus was about to take off and join the recruiters. "I have another task for you" The pterosaur shuddered with excitement. "Commands, pack leader!" he exclaimed. "Ok... I have to keep it simple or this chicken brain might not understand" Sobek thought in exasperation. He didn't want to be bad, but Rambo was one of the simplest and silliest creatures he'd met so far. "I want you to pick thirty other pterosaurs like you and fly west. Beyond the forest is a desert, and that desert is filled with weird, two-legged, ape-like creatures. I want you to watch them and send one of your underlings to report to me at least once a month. Okay, repeat what I said" "So... you want me to choose thirty of my flying companions, the best ones I can find" "Exactly" "Then I have to go west" "Yes" "And then I have to observe two-legged monkey-like creatures" "Very good. AND...?" "Ehm... is there anything else?" "You have to report to me at least once a month. Is everything clear to you?" The rhamphorhynchus rolled his eyes and didn't say a word, remaining motionless for several minutes. Sobek was already thinking of having to repeat it all over again, but fortunately the pterosaur surprised him for once: "It will be done! I'm leaving immediately!" And without even giving him time to answer, he flew away. "Did he really understand?" Sobek thought doubtfully. He hoped the larger flying reptiles had better brains, or he might became crazy. "I know what you want to do" Sobek spun around. Behind him Carnopo had just appeared. The great carnotaur was motionless in front of him, not moving a single muscle. Sobek could read the tension in her eyes and body. "What do you mean?" he asked. Carnopo let out a slight growl. "You want to fight against humans"