Chapter 34: Scavengers

Over the next few days, Sobek did nothing except hunt down whatever he found. He had mostly focused on mammals and river creatures, without trying too much with the dinosaurs, but he still had to face some carnivores to get skill points. He had mostly focused on suchomimus, barionyx and rugops, but he also got to hunt another pair of dilophosaurs and even a bizarre carnivore with a strange bony hump on its back called concavenator. Thanks to his hard work, he was able to upgrade [Deadly claws] one more time, reaching level 3/5. Seeing how much he had improved defensively, he had decided to treat himself and having enough skill points on his side he had also finally upgraded [Fast eating] at level 1/,5 so as to at least speed up the consumption of his prey a little.. He felt he had reached a pretty good level, so he was planning to update [Regeneration] next time. Now his claws could take down a carnotaur with a single blow, so he could say he was safe enough. Therefore, even though he still wanted to maximize his abilities as soon as possible so that he could feel absolutely safe, he could at least allow himself to breathe a small sigh of relief and proceed with more caution. He was not yet safe from any other predator in existence, but at least he was already at a good level to defend himself from almost all of them. By now only the largest and most massive predatory dinosaurs, such as the infamous Tyrannosaurus or others like the Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus and Mapusaur could represent a danger to him, and encountering such animals, even in a world full of dinosaurs, was certainly not a common thing. He had also leveled up once again. While he hunted the fish-eating dinosaurs he also attacked every mammal that come to the river to drink. He was able to eat an entire herd of toxodons, animals with the body of a rhino and the head of a hippo. He also eat some ancestors of the horses called eohippus and a moeritherium, a bizarre semi-acquatic animal that vaguely resembled a hippo but which Sobek remember, thanks to his past life's knowledge, it was in reality an elephant's ancestor. His indiscriminate hunting of mammals had allowed him to reach level 20, and so now he had a body length of 20 meters and a height of 6.6 meters. Such size had never been achieved by any other creature that lived on land. And with a weight of 10 tons, Sobek officially had the same body mass as a tyrannosaurus... although larger specimens did exist, but they were not as common. He could now say he was the largest carnivore on Earth. However, he wasn't a fool. Though size did matter in a prehistoric match, Sobek knew he still couldn't beat a specialized predator like t-rex. After all, even with his powerful claws and rapid regeneration, a tyrannosaurus was a war machine built to kill. Every muscle on the creature was designed to inflict lethal wounds. Taking on a fully grown specimen would still have been a dangerous gamble. Sobek knew this and in fact he avoided battles that he wasn't sure he could win. For example, in the previous days he had happened to come across an odor he had never smelled before. When he got close enough, he discovered it came from a predatory dinosaur called tyrannotitan. Even though he was just a distant cousin of the t-rex, it definitely looked a lot like it. It was clear to Sobek that it must had a strength not distant from that of its monstrous relative, so he hurried to the river and left the area. Dealing with such animals still entailed too many risks. He wanted to at least wait to upgrade [Regeneration] to the max. And so his routine had continued as always: he hunted, ate, found new trails and then retreated into the river to continue to go west. Even taking it easy, he had already covered several kilometers thanks to [Swim speed]. Today, however, he had found a pleasant surprise: a group of dinosaurs had approached the river. The peculiarity, however, was that they had no defense. [Prey identified: Maiasaura peeblesorum, hadrosauridae. Experience: 13,000 points] Remembering what had happened with the parasaurolophus, Sobek had always stayed away from herbivorous dinosaurs, but this ones didn't seem too dangerous. In fact, they gave him more of the idea of big and fat duck-billed cows. Determined to test his theory, he leapt out of the river and attacked an adult specimen. As expected, there was no attempt at defense. The dinosaurs just fled madly. Capturing his prey was incredibly easy, at least compared with the usual. Sobek of course thanked that stroke of luck a lot. 13,000 free experience points; what more could he want from life? He needed 180,000 experience points to level up again, so 13,000 wasn't much. However, just as he did with mammals, he could track the herd of those maiasauras by their smell. It was just a shame that these dinosaurs couldn't get entangled in branches like the deer... Thanks to this method, in a few days he captured and ate four adult specimens, for a total of 52,000 experience points. As he continued his hunt, however, he had an interesting surprise. He had found the corpse of a recently dead maiasaura, probably of old age or illness. Normally he would have ignored that, because the carcasses, although they were once living animals, didn't give him any experience points. This time, however, several creatures were feasting on the remains of the hadrosaur. [Prey identified: Dimetrodon grandis, sphenacontidae. Experience: 1,500 points] Dimetrodons weren't small, but in a world dominated by giants, they couldn't be much of a challenge. If Sobek remembered correctly, they ruled the world in the early Permian period, only to become extinct with the arrival of more advanced predators. After all, they barely reached 250 kilos in weight, and that was true for the largest species; compared to animals weighing several tons, they were very low-ranking predators. Also, they didn't seem to be very fast. They gave Sobek the idea that they could take shots like crocodiles, but get tired very quickly. Probably in the food chain of that world they played more the role of scavengers than hunters. The most peculiar characteristic, however, was that they too had a sail on their backs. Someone might have believed they were related to spinosaurs, but in reality it was a simple case of evolutionary convergence: dimetrodons were not even remotely related to dinosaurs. They had even evolved the sail for different reasons: while spinosaurs used it to swim faster, assome fishes such as marlins did, dimetrodons used it to regulate their body temperature. However, Sobek didn't care about it: he was focused on how much he could obtain in a single hunt. With a quick check he could see that there were eight dimetrodonts around the carcass. Even if they could only offer one skill point each, they would still have guaranteed eight skill points! Sobek still had three skill points after the last update to [Deadly claws]. As a result, by eating all the dimetrondons he could upgrade [Regeneration]. However, when he came out of his hiding place he found that it would not have been so easy: the dimetrodons didn't run away like the maiasaura, but they regrouped and started yelling at him. Those strange reptiles were tiny compared to him, but there were still a lot of them. If they attacked all togheter, Sobek might have been at a disadvantage. However... A plan formed in his brain. With that in mind, he attacked. As he had predicted, the dimetrodons attacked him too. In nature it was unlikely that the smaller animal attacked a larger one, so if a smaller predator saw a larger one coming to claim its prey, then it would first have tried to drive it away. Knowing this, Sobek had the advantage of initiative. His intent was not, however, to attack the dimetrodons. As soon as he saw them start running towards him he stopped and changed direction. He played this trick several times, jumping from side to side and moving in a zigzag. The dimetrodons, convinced that they had frightened him, continued to chase him to drive him away. However, that was just what Sobek wanted: looking over his shoulder in fact he saw that several dimetrodonts had already separated from the pack and had stopped. As he had imagined, these animals weren't marathon runners. They soon got tired. Knowing this, he again changed direction and attacked the unfortunate. A pack of dimetrodons could prove to be an uncertain challenge because a large number of enemies have multiple strategies to implement; however, a lone dimetrodon was nothing against him. With just some blows of his claws he killed four dimetrodonts, halving the pack. The survivors, who were still chasing him, only now realized that they had fallen into his trap. Terrified, they tried to run away. But they were tired now, and besides, their stubby legs couldn't match the speed of a spinosaurus. Sobek quickly killed two more. The last two left stopped and tried a desperate defense, but they were no match for a titan like him. Sobek was finally able to stop. He wasn't exactly tired, since he didn't have to run long distances, but he was a little out of breath. He began to eat dimetrodons; they were so small that he could swallow them in just three bites. However, a roar came from his shoulders. He turned and saw a large green theropod emerge from the fronds in a clear aggressive attitude. [Prey identified: Allosaurus fragilis, allosauridae. Experience: 50,000 points]