Chapter 37: Something is wrong

It didn't end well. Or at least, it didn't go as smoothly as Sobek had hoped. In spite of himself, he soon discovered that even in the animal world the actions had their consequences. After moving a couple of kilometers away from the carcharodontosaurus he finally had stopped and ate the stegosaurus. That was his most noteworthy prey after the allosaurus: the stegosaurus had given it 20,000 experience points at one time. Even though it was only a sub-adult, it was still a huge amount of meat and quite dangerous, making it a great source of experience points. It had been also a very peaceful and tasty meal as Sobek had discovered that stegosaurus meat was particularly sweet and tasty, so he had felt as if he had eaten a luxury meal. Rather, the problem had come the next day. While he was swimming, Sobek had spotted the unmistakable silhouette of a large predator in the distance. Initially he had thought it was just some theropod who had come to drink, but on closer inspection he discovered that it was a carcharodontosaurus! And not a common carcharodontosaurus. He recognized that body shape and those scars: it was the same carcharodontosaurus whose he had stolen the food! Obviously, Sobek had no intention of fighting it. The carcharodontosaurus wasn't as lethal as the t-rex and unlike the king of the dinosaurs it hunted alone, but it was still a very dangerous dinosaur. In a real battle it would have been difficult to determine the winner. While it would undoubtedly have netted him a lot of skill points, the risk wasn't worth the reward. Sobek so had just gone away, sure that the carcharodontosaurus would have left him alone as soon as he left its territory. But after three days, the carcharodontosaurus reappeared in his field of vision! It didn't take Sobek long to realize that the animal was chasing him. Apparently, the carcharodontosaurus had taken the issue of his theft personally! Sobek couldn't believe a dinosaur could bear a grudge, yet it looked like the carcharodontosaurus really wanted to make him pay. Sobek had tried to distance him using [Swim speed], but he also wanted to stop from time to time to eat and rest, and so the carcharodontosaurus was always behind him. And no matter how far he went, the predator refused to give up, so much so that he began to wonder if it stopped to eat, drink and sleep or if it just chased him without stopping. "Damn! Will that bastard give up sooner or later!?" Sobek had thought at some point after spotting it in the distance for the umpteenth time. He was seriously getting annoyed by the situation, and it almost felt like the other predator was challenging him. He could almost hear the carcharodontosaurus screaming at him with its eyes: "As soon as I catch you, you'll see what I'll do to you!" Eventually Sobek had decided to go to the other bank of the river, hoping that the predator would not have been able to cross the deep waters. He wasn't too sure about that, since even Earth paleontology had shown that predatory dinosaurs were excellent swimmers, but he couldn't think of anything else at the moment. The only good thing that happened to him in those days was that he had found confirmation that he was approaching a human city: while he was continuing to move he had glimpsed a boat. However, he didn't want to show up now. Using [Ambush] he was able to hide himself from the human's eyes and he avoided to hit the boat by just swimming underwater taking advantage of the depth of the river. While it would have increased his reputation, he didn't want to reveal himself until he had upgraded [Regeneration] to the fullest: he didn't know what weapons the people aboard the boat had. In a world where dinosaurs and prehistoric animals ruled even just a sightseeing trip required gun safety, so it was foolish to think the people on board didn't have any of them. Sobek was protected from small and medium-caliber bullets thanks to his thick skin, but if they had a heavy weapon aboard he could have been seriously injured. It was better then to wait until he was well prepared. Once [Regeneration] would have been maxed, even if he was hit by a minigun or a bazooka he would still have had a chance to escape and therefore save himself, since he would have healed from any wounds; unless the humans hit him in the head, he would have been safe. But for now he was not at that level of defense yet, so it was better not to take any risks. He had been swimming for a couple of days, getting only small preys like fishes and amphibians, consequently, once he got back on dry land, he immediately started looking for something more substantial to eat; and luckily, he finally got a nice surprise. While hunting near the river he spotted a group of strange sauropod-like animals in the distance. [Prey identified: Paraceratherium transouralicum, hyracodontidae. Experience: 80,000 points] Sobek was radiant! He knew what he was facing: the largest land mammal ever, a hornless, long-necked rhinoceros reaching as much as 8 meters in length and 5 in height! A huge animal of fifteen or even twenty tons, a perfect source of fresh meat and above all beautiful experience points! By what he was able to remember from his knowledge from Earth, paraceratheriums were some of the biggest animal that ever walk on Earth. For many scientists, their size was the maximum size that a mammal could reach. They could be called the chads of the mammal kingdom! Elephants and mammoths could only bow and clean their paws with their trunks. Their appearance was very reminiscent of sauropods, but unlike them, they didn't have a whip tail. This was normal, since they had no natural predators when they evolved on Earth. Their enormous size was already too efficient a defense, so it was useless for them to evolve weapons to fight. However, in that messy world, they were easy preys for carnivorous dinosaurs! Sobek didn't think twice and attacked them. It was easy to kill one and even easier was to chase after the survivors, since he was much faster than them. After killing two of this enormous beasts he let the others go: he would have surely needed a lot of time to consume the carcasses before another predator arrived, and with his new superior senses he could easily track down the herd at a later time. When he finished he had obtained 160,000 experience points, which added up to those he already had guaranteed him to finally level up again! However, before continuing to move forward, he wanted to do one thing. He had been swimming and hunting nonstop for days, and now he was really tired. He needed sleep, seriously this time. So he went back to the river and lay down on the bank. He leveled up and immediately after he fell asleep. When he woke up he had reached level 21, with a length of 21 meters and a height of 6.9 meters. One last step forward and he would have exceeded 7 meters in height, thus surpassing in height any record previously set even for the tyrannosaurus, thus becoming the tallest predatory dinosaur ever to exist. He liked that prospect, so he decided to immediately get to work to gain enough experience points to reach that goal. But before he could do anything he felt something in the air. "Human smell?" He could recognize it since he had smelled humans before. He lowered his head: it wasn't his problem. If humans wanted to take a ride in that forest they were free to do so, also because he had noticed that by now the large carnivorous dinosaurs were starting to decrease, a sign that he was actually approaching civilization. If there were humans around, then it was best to stay calm and quiet and wait for them to go away; so he closed his eyes again, since it was still night and he couldn't go around to hunt, so he could as well get some more sleep. However, shortly thereafter, other smells hit him. One of them jerked his head up: it was undoubtedly blood. And there was also a hormonal smell... fear? By now Sobek had learned to distinguish the different smells that animals emitted with their sensations, and he remembered the human one having already smelled it. Did they have problems? But he hadn't heard any shot... he lowered his head, but this time he remained alert. A short time later there was a scream. This time Sobek wasted no more time: he got to his feet and walked quickly to the source of that cacophony of smells and sounds. He recognized the scream: it couldn't have been produced by an adult human. Sobek had been human and he remembered how high-pitched the scream of an adult human was. And that was surely not the scream of an adult. It was the scream of a child. It was clear that something was wrong. The small fragment of humanity left in his soul took over, preventing him fron ignore that situation again. At least he had to check.