Chapter 15: New home

Words : 1285 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

The first thing Sobek had to do was find a suitable place for him. Not exactly a territory where he could fish, but more a place full of preys and with not many predators, possibly with some kind of refuge that he could use as his outpost. Unfortunately, for several kilometers the river continued normally, without offering any safe point. No covered area, no hiding place, not even a denser zone where it would have been easy to camouflage. After several wanderings, however, he finally arrived in a place where the river bed widened and the water became lower. He had arrived in a swamp; the water of the river poured into some kind of marsh, slowing the current and allowing the birth of small islets. Large mangroves grew everywhere and in the areas where the water was lower there were huge reeds. Sobek could see several fishbirds perched in trees or intent on fishing. Not only them: there were also numerous pterosaurs, some of them very large; Sobek was able to see a flock of tapejara, flying reptiles with strange crests on their heads, and even a tropeognathus with a wingspan of eight meters that fish thanks to two crests present at the end of the beak that caught small fishes like a net. Sobek swam where the water was highest. The reason was simple: he knew that this area, even if it was full of preys, was also full of predators. The reeds and muddy water were the perfect place for carnivores such as crocodiles or snakes to hide. However, it was also the best place for him: he could see that there were different varieties of fishes underwater, so surely the place was full of fish-eating dinosaurs that he could hunt like he did with the baryonyx. Eventually he found a place to settle: a large islet in the middle of the swamp on which three mangroves grew. The trees would have helped him to hide himself and the water would have prevented large predatory dinosaurs from reaching him. There was always the danger of crocodiles, but it was unlikely that they would have abandoned the safety of the water to hunt him: generally they were animals that captured preys in the river. Once on the islet he began to sweep away the excess branches and remove the sharp stones. Then he flattened the sand well and covered it all with some dry leaves. In a short time, an excellent bed (at least for the merciless nature's standard) was completed. He had made it slightly bigger than him, since he would have soon grown up again and he didn't want to have to do everything again every time he would have leveled up. Once the work was done, he lay down in his new bed. Although he was proud of his work, he felt that it was in no way comparable to the familiar warmth of the nest. He shook his head to dismiss those thoughts. He had other things to think about. "System, open the interface!". [Spinosaurus aegyptiacus] Level: 10 Length: 10 m Height: 3.6 m Weight: 5 ton Diet: carnivore, fishivore Strength: 1,350 Agility: 1,170 Defense: 860 Maximum speed: 11 km/h Experience points: 9,600/40,000 Skill points: Fame points: 0/1,000,000 Bonus Money: 1,580 Apparently his attributes looked good, but Sobek knew they weren't good enough. His current goal was only one: to impose his hegemony on the swamp. The water in the area was too shallow for too large crocodiles or snakes to hunt us; consequently he would not have encountered fifteen-meter long giants such as the sarcosuchus or the titanoboa. Removed these two superpredators, therefore, he could set himself the goal of overcoming in strength all the other predators that were there. Crocodiles, anacondas, fishes, fish-eating dinosaurs and so on: he had to become able to beat them all. He was already well under way: with [Ambush] on level 2/5 and [Swim Speed] on max, he could easily defeat a baryonyx. However, the baryonyx wasn't his only opponent: there were other large creatures like the suchomimus. Once his abilities and size made him the undisputed king of the swamp, Sobek was confident he would have risen to the rank of superpredator. In a sense, he could therefore see the swamp as his training ground. He had already decided how to improve skills: he wanted to improve at least once [Rapid digestion], then he would have focused on maximizing [Ambush]. This was for a very specific reason: parasites and diseases thrived in the swamp, and [Rapid digestion] ensured their destruction. Consequently improving it at least to level 1/5 was a good investiment. Sobek sniffed the air. He had memorized the smell of baryonyx, so even in the midst of the swamp's immensity of smells he could spot it. As he expected, there was one not far from him. He dived back into the water and activated [Ambush], then he headed for the source of the scent. While he went he was able to observe better the animal life in the swamp: as he expected, that territory was full of fishes and amphibians. There were also reptiles that swam in the putrid water and in the air there were dragonflies big as eagles called meganeuras. Finding his prey was easy: the baryonyx wasn't exactly hiding. It was fishing in an area where the water was rather shallow, so much so that it didn't even reach its withers. As soon as he saw it, Sobek activated [Swim speed]. Now his top speed was 11 km/h, as a result with that skill at its maximum potential he turned his body into a bullet traveling at 110 km/h! The baryonyx just had time to turn its head towards him before a ten-meter spinosaurus jumped on its body and bit its neck. The impact wasn't enough to kill the baryonyx, but Sobek was prepared: grabbing its head with both forelegs, he rotated it of one hundred and eighty degrees. With a 'crack', the baryonyx's neck snapped neatly. Once he had killed it, Sobek dragged the corpse to his new islet: he had no intention of eating it in the middle of the putrid water, where he risked becoming infected with some disease. It was one thing to eat in the clear, clean water of the river; another was the dirty, muddy water of the swamp. Once reaching the islet, Sobek lay down on his bed and began to eat baryonyx. That was going to be his meal of the day. When he finally finished it was already late in the evening. The first stars had begun to appear in the sky. The baryonyx had given him 25,000 experience points and 5 skill points. With those 5 skill points he upgraded [Rapid digestion] to level 1/5. He felt a tingling sensation in his stomach, but nevertheless he felt better: it was as if he felt safer. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he now had to worry less about potential parasites. Unfortunately, even with the 25,000 experience points he had obtained, he still couldn't level up: his current booty amounted to 34,600 points, but to level up he needed 40,000. He would have had to wait until the next day before hunting again and thus gain enough experience points. Sobek made himself comfortable and fell asleep. When a gust of wind hit him and made him shiver, he remembered with nostalgia the heat produced by his brothers and sisters who thronged on him.

Chapter 15: New home

Comments (0)