Chapter 33: Superpredator

It didn't take him long to reach the desired amount of experience points: following the olfactory traces left by the megaloceros he had been able to follow the entire herd. After a few tries, he had become very good at using each of his senses to their fullest potential, and fortunately the deer were not exactly intelligent animals and although they were faster they had not moved far enough away to escape his nose. With a second assault he had been able to get all the food he needed. In reality he had managed to catch very few of them: the deer weren't smart, bt they still had learned his smell by now, just like him, and they had dispersed almost immediately after sensed his arrival, and so they escaped from him for three times. They were too fast to chase them with his enormous and heavy body. After Sobek understood this, he decided that it was time to use [Ambush] again; he hadn't used that skill anymore because he wanted to test the new stealth abilities that he had obtained thanks to the evolution, but now it didn't make sense to hold back. Using his camouflage, it was again easy to capture the megaloceros. After he taken his last giant deer he still need at least 4,000 experience points to level up, but for one time he was incredibly lucky; just in that moment, in fact, a young carnotaur was attracted by the smell of the meat and so they crossed their paths. Needless to say, even though the carnotaur tried to leave immediately, Sobek had no intention of letting it escape, and so of course there was a battle. The fight hadn't lasted long: the carnotaur wasn't an adult specimen yet and it was very inexperienced. Its bite was powerful, but the animal didn't even reach half Sobek's height. Besides, it was alone. The carnotaur itself had realized the disadvantage immediately and it had tried to escape, but Sobek hadn't permit it to run away and simply with a charge and a swipe of his claws he killed it instantly. The carnotaur had given him 4 skill points and 17,000 experience points. Surely an adult specimen would have provided him with some more, but since it was just a juvenile it couldn't give him too much. It was still a good amount and he could consider himself satisfied. Added that experience points to the ones 'kindly' provided him by the megaloceros, Sobek was finally able to level up again. [Spinosaurus superior] Level: 19 Length: 19 m Height: 6.3 m Weight: 9.5 tons Diet: carnivore, fishivore Strength: 12,610 Agility: 11,530 Defense: 10,670 Maximum speed: 20 km/h Experience points: 13,000/130,000 Skill points: 4 Fame points: 1,080,000/10,000,000 Bonus money: 56,320 "Uh? I didn't check the bonus money for a while" he thought, noticing that detail. "Damn, since I became a terrestrial predator they heve increased quite a bit... well, I guess it's because hunting a dinosaur is way harder than catching a fish. Or maybe there is another reason? I continue to not understand how this things works..." Sobek shook his head. Why couldn't he see the bonus money and skill points that the prey could provide him, as he did with experience points? He would have had much clearer ideas! He didn't mean to be mean, but he kept thinking that the System was really poorly designed... or that God was having fun at his expense. "Well, I can't use them at the moment anyway" he finally decided. "So, I can ignore them for now..." Satisfied, he returned to the river and lay down on the bank to sleep. Even if he wasn't overly tired, it was still better to be at full strength with each hunt, so he had to force himself to rest for a while. And even though he was now a land predator, he still felt safer near the water; at least on the beach he had an escape route that he knew exactly how to use. Even though it was unlikely that any other large predator would attack a 19-meter-long beast, he didn't want to take any chances. He wasn't at the absolute top of the food chain yet, so he couldn't let his guard down. A few hours later a pungent, wet smell woke him, which Sobek now knew almost by heart. He immediately thought of a baryonyx, but soon he realized that the odor was slightly different. Following it, he easily found its source: it too was on the shore, and just like him it seemed to have just woken up. [Prey identified: Suchomimus tenerensis. Experience: 45,000 points] Sobek's eyes sparkeld for a second. Suchomimus! After the spinosaurus, it was one of the most dangerous fish-eating dinosaurs. Almost 11 meters long from the head to the tail, it was a true monster for all the creatures of the river! Fishes, amphibians and small crocodiles were all little snacks for it, and even some of the biggest crocodiles and snakes would think twice before dare to attack such a beast. Only adult spinosaurs could compete with such creatures as the strongest semi-aquatic dinosaurs. Even if Sobek was no longer a freshwater predator, he wouldn't have let such a prey escape. Confronting a suchomimus would have been an uncertain challenge when he was still a common spinosaurus (even though the fight would probably have ended in his favor anyway), but now he had nothing to fear. He would have never lost a golden opportunity like that for anything in the world. Sobek he approached, passing through the trees until he reached her back, and then he went out suddenly of the dense forest and grabbed the suchomimus around the neck with his mouth; the dinosaur wriggled, but it wasn't able to free itself, since the spinosaur's teeth were still made to hold its prey. Having completely pinned it, Sobek unsheathed his claws and slit his throat. That confrontation had lasted less than a minute, and it wasn't hard to imagine how it ended. It need Sobek at least six hours to devour a huge body like that of the suchomimus, but the results were whorty the effort. When he finished he had obtained 45,000 experience points and 6 skill points. A great success, indeed, an absolute success from his point of view. He currently had 10 skill points. He could power up both [Regeneration] and [Fast eating] at the same time, but suddenly he felt it wasn't a good idea. After all, the key to survival was always the weapons nature provided. If he had encountered a dangerous predator even with [Regeneration] at maximum he wouldn't have had a chance. It was therefore best to focus on improving [Deadly claws] at the moment. He just needed to collect 5 more skill points. Only five, and he could have powered up the most powerful ability he had at the moment. "Isn't there some barionyx nearby?" he thought, sniffing the air. Unfortunately all he was able to found was a juvenile rugops. "Still better than nothing..." he thought, trying to console himself. Unfortunately, luck wasn't always on his side; it was something he had accepted long ago. The rugops only gave him 2 skill points, but it was an advancement nonetheless. But suddenly he noticed something in the water: a shadow that seemed to move as if it had life... "Sure! What a fool!" was his only thought. He had focused so much on the land creatures that he had completely forgotten about the fully aquatic ones! River water drowned out the smell. Creatures such as crocodiles, which provided excellent skill points, couldn't be found just thanks to his nose. But Sobek didn't have just that at his disposal. He was still an excellent swimmer. From the size of the shadow he could tell that his prey was no more than seven meters long. He could feast quietly. When he dived into the water and reached the crocodile, he could finally see what it was all about. [Prey identified: Crocodylus porosus, crocodylae. Experience: 8,000 points] This was the sea crocodile, the biggest carnivore of the modern Earth. Even though in that strange world of mixed ages it was just a tiny cousin to giants like sarcosuchus, it was still a good source of experience points... and since it was a carnivore, of skill points too. Capturing it was as simple as drinking a glass of water. Sobek had by now got used to hunt crocodiles and he was much faster than them. The prey was dragged to the mainland and quickly devoured. "At a long last..." Sobek thought, as he hurried to spend them and saw the [Deadly claws] ability reach level 2/5. Soon after came a notification from the System. [Caution! You have reached the rank of 'superpredator'. With the weapons that nature has given you now you are able to easily defeat almost any predator in the forest, positioning yourself at the top of the food pyramid. As a result, the slots in your Inventory have increased to 4 and the amount of extra experience needed to level up with each advancement will go from 10,000 to 30,000] "Oh, come on! Why now!? Why always when I am happy? Why the bad news never arrive when I am already sad?" Sobek snorted in his head as he watched the 130,000 experience points required for level advancement become 150,000. While he was happy to have confirmation that he was officially among the most powerful predators in the world, he was still annoyed by the fact that he now needed so much more to level up. "Never a fucking moment of joy!"