Chapter 29: Completing the first evolution

[Evolution complete: congratulations, you have evolved to Spinosaurus superior!] "Uh? Has it been two weeks already?" Sobek thought as he heard the familiar robotic voice of the System warning him that he had completed the evolution. He was confused: it seemed to him that not even two minutes had passed! Very soon, however, the pains in his legs and back confirmed him that he had surely slept for a long time: because of the hard floor of the cave he was all ankylosed. It seemed to him that he had been running and fighting relentlessly for days. Sobek opened his eyes, and it was immediately clear to him that he had indeed changed. His field of vision was different: while before his vision was strictly monocular, allowing him only to see what was happening on the sides of his head, now his gaze was able to embrace a much larger area. He was finally able to see in front of him, even if not completely since he had a tiny blindspot between his eyes, but at least he could now see correctly where he was going. Not only that: he discovered that the eyes could turn in multiple directions, even partially backwards. Overall, his field of view seemed to have reached two hundred and seventy degrees, with a tiny empty wedge in the center of the circle and a large blind area behind him. His other senses too had improved: his sense of smell and hearing had become finer. He could now clearly perceive smells even on land, and his ears were so keen that he could hear rats moving among the rocks around him. "I bet that the taste and touch are greatly enhanced too" Sobek thought, and then he stood up. Deliberately ignoring the pain in his bones, he removed the boulder from the entrance and left the cave. It was obvious to him right away that his entire body had to be changed: now walking on two legs did not cause him any fatigue. Indeed, the standing position now seemed to be his natural one. He was very pleased by this: even if he didn't care much whether he moved on two or four legs, the typical posture of spinosaurs made him slow and less agile on land, while now he could move easily on it. As he walked, an infinity of smells, sounds and sensations he had never heard hit him like a whiff of flowers on his muzzle. He found out that his senses had become extraordinarily precise: although he did not know how, he was able to determine that exactly one kilometer and thirty-two meters away was a herd of hadrosaurs. An entire map formed in his mind simply by standing still and combining in his brain all the information that came to his eyes, ears and nose. This supplement of senses could only make him happy: in those conditions he would have been able to hunt and kill on land! For a terrestrial carnivore, things like smell and hearing were everything. The idea of predatory dinosaurs attacking herds of herbivores by roaring and growling was simply nonsense: no matter what age or period it was, any carnivore unable to hide and ambush was bound to go extinct. And to do this it is necessary to identify the prey from miles away in order to prepare an efficient strategy. Even the colossal tyrannosaurus, a real carnivorous tank, was an ambush predator. After all, any hunt for a carnivore is always a gamble. If it found the wrong prey, it could have ended up being killed as well. This is why sniffing or hearing the prey in advance was so important. Therefore, Sobek could only be happy with his implementation of senses. He was not yet at the level of a tyrannosaurus, but at least he was now able to hunt down the large land dinosaurs that were capable of providing him with much more experience points compared to fish, crocodiles and fish-eating dinosaurs. But first he had to know what he had actually become. Finally he reached the river; his arrival frightened several dimorphodons who were drinking on the shore. He didn't even try to chase them: he just wanted to mirror himself in the water. He found that his muzzle had become more massive, although it still retained the appearance of a crocodile head. The ridge above it was still there, but it had shrunk, probably so as not to obstruct the view, forming just a bulge full of bony points in the center of the muzzle. The nostrils were larger and the holes that served as ears also seemed to have improved, clear evidence of improved senses. The sail on the back had remained the same size, but had change shape: it was no longer square and not very geometric, but had taken on a trapezoid shape. The tail was no longer flat and long like that of crocodiles, but it had taken on a more tapered shape, more like that of terrestrial dinosaurs. The most noticeable change, however, were the legs: the hind legs had swollen and were now perpendicular to the pelvis, favoring the upright posture, while the front ones had become more muscular and the claws had lengthened, thus transforming themselves into edged weapons. The last variation was his color: he was now a black/gray all over the body, suitable for camouflaging in the forest, with the only exception of the crest on his nose and part of the sail which were still reddish, although of a darker shade compared to the previous one. From Sobek's point of view, he had became very similar to the spinosaurus potraied in Planet Dinosaur, a BBC documentary realizated in 2011. Sobek could be considered himself satisfied. '"What can I say ... an excellent improvement. I don't think I'm capable of beating a t-rex yet, but I can surely handle several large predators now" he thought smugly. "System, open the main interface!" [Spinosaurus superior] Level: 18 Length: 18 m Height: 6 m Weight: 9 tons Diet: carnivore, fishivore Strength: 8,150 Agility: 7,960 Defense: 6,340 Maximum speed: 19 km/h Experience points: 10,000/120,000 Skill points: 20 Fame points: 1,080,000/10,000,000 Bonus money: 48,710 [Attention! You obtained three new skills] [Attention! You unlocked the Food system] Sobek froze at the last sentence, then he exploded with joy. He was right! With the evolution new abilities appeared! And he had also unlocked one of the [Secondary systems]! "System, show me the abilities!" [Open window: skill interface] Swim speed: 5/5 Ambush: 5/5 Rapid digestion: 5/5 Regeneration: 0/5 Deadly claws: 0/5 Fast eating: 0/5 "Regeneration and deadly claws... well, I assume that's normal since I have to become a land predator. I'm much more likely to get hurt here, and of course I need a weapon..." Sobek thought while he looked at his new abilities. "That sounds like the good stuff. If I could regenerate, I wouldn't have to fear wounds like I used to. Sure, a t-rex could still bite my neck and kill me instantly, but at least if they bit me on the side or dorsal sail it wouldn't be a fatal wound anymore. As for fighting ability... hmm, let's see before we start dreaming" [Regeneration]: The body heals more quickly from any wound. Healing speeds increase as the skill is upgraded. At maximum level, it is guaranteed to heal from fatal wounds in less than a minute. Cost: 10 skill points. [Deadly claws]: Claw hardness and arm strength increase considerably, allowing you to deliver fatal blows to prey or opponents. At the maximum level it allows you to drill through steel effortlessly. Cost: 15 skill points. [Fast eating]: The speed of the jaws and esophagus increases, allowing the prey to be consumed more quickly. At the maximum level, it guarantees to devour a complete meal in half an hour. Cost: 10 skill points. "Not bad. Really not bad.." was the first thought of Sobek. Both the first two abilities would have guaranteed him a considerable security: healing quickly from serious injuries would have made him feel much safer, and having deadly claws did not seem bad at all. As for consuming prey more quickly... it looked good, but he already have [Rapid digestion], so he could survive without it for a while. Eating his prey quickly was certainly a good thing, since he would not have risked other predators coming to try to steal it, but he could survive without it. He would have thought about it only after having maximized his other two abilities, which were much more useful for his survival. By the time he left the swamp he had already almost maximized all his abilities; therefore all the skill points he had gained from that moment were still unused and could therefore be spent to improve some abilities immediately. Even if he hadn't hunt carnivorous animals very much, he was still able to obtain 20 skill points, so he could upgrade at least one ability. At the moment, the most captivating to upgrade was obviously [Regeneration]. On the other hand, however, he needed weapons to hunt. He thought about it well, and in the end, he decided to upgrade [Deadly claws]. At least he could have hunted some prey, and with the skill points that he would have obtained by them he could have upgraded [Regeneration] very soon. As skill points dropped to 5 and [Deadly claws] went from 0/5 to 1/5, Sobek finally opened the new System page: the [Food system]! However, he found that it was blocked. "Are you kidding me!?" Sobek kept selecting the new page, but all it opened was a blank interface. There were several boxes, but they all had "LOCKED" on them. "What's the point of unlocking a piece of the System if it remain locking!?" Sobek was furious. He had been so excited about the new feature, but now the System was letting him down like that? Was it a joke by any chance!? He furiously shook his head in anger and scuffed the ground with his paws, even causing waves in the river ahead; several small animals ran away in terror from the giant dinosaur's fury. When he had finally calmed down, however, his gaze accidentally landed on a nearby tree. [Recognized element: tree. Unlocked the function of the Food system: manger for sauropods] "What?" Sobek was completely taken aback. He quickly returned to the interface and found that one of the boxes had unlocked. Without delay he opened it. Several projects appeared in front of him. It almost seemed to him that he was watching a construction game, of those that had to create certain buildings such as mines and sawmills to improve the city... with the difference that such projects were all about big trees. There were [Eternal fir], [Eternal conifer], [Eternal ginkgo]... All of them marked in their specifications: [Total leaves regrowth: 1 minute]. At that point it was all clear to him. "Of course! The Food system is an eternal dispenser of food for all dinosaur species!" Sobek thought. "Now I understand... if I could use it, then no dinosaur in my army will go hungry! This is how I'm going to keep them under control and prevent them from eating each other!" The prices were a bit high: each of the projects cost at least 500 bonus money, but that wasn't a problem. By continuing to hunt he would get enough money to buy everything. "I unlocked it by looking at the tree... if my theory is correct, then..." Sobek reflected, and his gaze fell on a small bush. [Recognized element: low bush. Unlocked the function of the Food system: manger for herbivores that feed on low fiber] "It works!" Sobek thought beaming. Frantically he began to look around for anything that was remotely attributable to food. [Recognized element: rat. Unlocked the function of the Food system: manger for small carnivores] [Recognized element: fish. Unlocked the function of the Food system: manger for fish-eaters] [Recognized element: hadrosaurus. Unlocked the function of the Food system: manger for large carnivores] The last unlocked box drove Sobek crazy. If he had bought a manger for carnivores, then he would have had an easy time! He wouldn't have had to hunt anymore! Too bad the System let him down again. The food in the slots had only nutritional value: it didn't score any points. "Oh, come on!" the poor spinosaurus exclaimed in his mind. Apparently the only way to gain experience was to hunt: there was no way to cheat. The mangers could be used exclusively to feed his future army. Of course, even so they were absolutely useful, but... "Why do I feel like I've been scammed?"