Chapter 6: First level up

When he woke up the next day, Sobek initially thought he had a dream, but soon he realized that this couldn't be the case since he remembered nothing of his previous life as a human except his knowledge. When he opened his eyes in fact he found himself in front of a scaly wall which turned out to be the tail of his sleeping mother there. The sun was just starting to rise, but Sobek could already fell its warmth: its rays crossed the clear sky and warmed his body like a radiator. Sobek had no idea how the changing of seasons worked in that world, but since animals generally calved during the warm seasons, there was a great possibility that it was summer. Although with a little regret, he lifted himself from his comfortable position and stretched. Alerted by his movement his brothers and sisters also woke up and began to get up as well. Sobek noticed that many of them were imitating him, stretching as he did and yawning like him. He had definitely become some kind of a big brother. A thud made Sobek turn to his shoulders. His father got up and walked towards the river. It was surely going to get more fishes for him and his siblings. It wasn't the only one: several other spinosaurs were rising from their beds and heading for the river. Sobek was pleased with that vision: it meant breakfast was on the way. He wasn't worried about his father's absence: his mother remained at the nest and many other spinosaurs imitated her. Predators wouldn't have dared to approach. Although his brothers and sisters invited him to play, Sobek took advantage of the wait to get a better look at the nearby forest. There were several trees, all of different types. However, there were no tropical plants or anything like that: there was birches, oaks, willows and so on. The forest was very similar of those of the temperate areas of the Earth. Sobek knew that this was an off-limits area: surely the interior of the forest was full of predators. He could only imagine what he could find: tyrannosaurs, giganotosaurs, carcharodontosaurs, carnotaurs, ceratosaurs, allosaurs... Until he reached a bigger size and gained better skills he couldn't hunt in the forest, not without the risk of became the one that was hunted. This wasn't really a problem: spinosaurs weren't proper hunters. They were fishivore animals and like crocodiles on land they were clumsy and awkward. Even their structure was not suitable for hunting: their body was built to remain horizontal, since it favored fishing, and this required a four-legged posture; even if they could rise on their hind legs when they became adult, they remained slow and inadapt to hunt on land. In his current state Sobek could hardly have preyed on other dinosaurs, both herbivorous and carnivorous. The smartest thing to do, therefore, was fishing as his nature dictated him. Once he got better enough he would have moved to the land and start his life as a hunter. Sobek remembered the mission that God had entrusted to him; however, he couldn't build any army at the moment. In the first place, he didn't know how to communicate with other dinosaurs; secondly, the only thing animals respected was strength. If he wanted to establish himself as the new alpha, he first had to rise to the top of the food chain. His father returned with the food about an hour later; a cascade of fishes was discharged in front of him and the other little spinosaurs. Sobek tried to find some live fishes like the previous day, but he was disappointed. However, he didn't let that discourage him. When he had eaten enough he jumped out of the nest: it was time to hunt! The day before he had gained 330 experience points. If he had managed to get an equal amount he would have been in a good way in leveling up. This time he walked away from the nest by himself: even if the help of his siblings was useful, he couldn't become too dependent from them. He had to get a prey by on his own strength. He began to smell the air. For a predator the senses were everything: he had begun to learn how to use them, but he had to train properly to be able to manage them correctly. He had learned the smell of various animals. Following the one that he remembered belong to the frogs he was able to immediately obtain a tree frog which earned him 30 experience points. His hunting skills were also improving: he was now much more attentive and patient. Instead of attacking his prey right away, he was learning to sneak up and use the wind as a cover for his scent. Suddenly the strong gust of wind brought a smell into his nostrils he had never smelled. It resembled a frog, but it was much stronger. He approached trying to make the slightest noise, and what he found gave him a pleasant surprise. A short distance from the shore, half hidden in the mud, a frog almost a third of his length was sleeping! [Prey identified: Beelzebufo ampinga, ceratophryidae. Experience: 350 points] Sobek was seized with excitement: what he had found was a real treasure! The beelzebufo, or devil frog, was the largest frog that ever existed. Its size allowed it to prey on even small dinosaurs. No wonder the experience points it could give him were higher than any he'd gotten the day before! Even though he was happy, Sobek knew he had to be careful. The beelzebufo certainly couldn't eat him, he was too big for it, but it could always escape. Such a large frog probably didn't move too fast, but if it ran into the water it could have strayed too far into the river. Sobek didn't want to take the risk of entering the water: he still didn't know if he could handle the current, and besides the river could be full of crocodiles, big fishes and other dangerous animals. Therefore it was imperative to catch the frog on the first shot. If he managed to jump on it, the beelzebufo would not have been able to free itself from his claws. He just had to get close enough: he had been lucky to catch the frog when it was in a state of half-sleep, he couldn't waste the opportunity. He continued to approach slowly, even paying attention to the vibrations he emitted with his paws. He was downwind for now, but the wind could change at any moment and reveal his presence. He couldn't waste any second. When he was less than two meters away, he sprinted and jumped on it from behind! With all his weight he pinned the frog to the ground and pierced its flesh with his claws. The beelzebufo wriggled furiously and this taken Sobek by surprise; fortunately he recovered quickly and made force on his paws, preventing the frog from freeing itself. To further increase his grip he grabbed the beelzebufo by the neck with his mouth and squeezed tight. Unfortunately, the amphibian had a fair amount of vitality: he managed to keep it still, but he felt at least two of his teeth breaking in the process. The beelzebufo struggled for a good ten minutes, desperately trying to free itself. Sobek felt the muscles in his legs, neck and mouth burn. "Damn! Come on, does it never give up?" he thought angrily. With each spasm of the frog he sank his claws further into its flesh, using his large body for extra weight. Finally, after a full fifteen minutes of fighting, the beelzebufo stopped moving. Its body became soft and lost all vitality: the frog had lost too much blood and because of Sobek's claws it was unable to breathe well, ending up suffocating. Sobek waited a few moments to make sure it wasn't a bluff, then finally he could relax. He roared triumphantly: that could be considered a real prey! And he had captured it all by himself! It took him about half an hour to eat it all. When he finished he was full. He couldn't have eaten anything until late afternoon, but that didn't matter: with that one hunt alone, his experience points had risen to 680! It was more than half of what he needed to level up! Not only that: the beelzebufo also ate small animals, so it was a carnivore, and therefore it had given him 0.5 skill points! Added to the previous day's water snake, he'd almost gotten his first full skill point! He returned triumphantly to the nest: after that meal he couldn't eat anything for a while, but he wouldn't have remained idle. One of the things that accelerate the digestion was the motion, and with at least twenty brothers and sisters he could do quite a lot of it! His little siblings were eager to start playing. Not only could he consume his meal more quickly, but he could also improve his hunting skills again! So he spent the whole day playing with his siblings. Even though it was actually more of a training than a game, Sobek couldn't help but have fun: he felt like he was a child again, when he was full of energy and just wanted to run and jump... well, in a way that was what had happened. He was a cub now, and as a cub he had a lot of energy for playing. Besides, his siblings were too cute to not make play with them enjoyable. The cubs were always sweet, regardless of the species: even those ones of crocodiles and snakes aroused tenderness. For baby dinosaurs it wasn't different. With all that training he completely digested the beelzebufo by early afternoon. In addition, his strength had risen to 15 and his agility to 12. As soon as he felt that the devil frog had been completely digested he resumed the hunt. This time he headed straight for the river's edge: he had more chance to found preys there, since the water would have attracted them. Some of his siblings obviously tried to follow him, but Sobek blew at them, making it very clear that he wanted to be left alone. The hunt proved fruitful. Sobek quickly found and ate five more frogs and two large crabs, which gave him a total of 230 experience points (the crabs were worth 40 points each). Unfortunately, after that he couldn't find anything else: due to the noises he had previously caused while hunting the other prey, all the other sources of food had fled. Towards evening he threw in the towel and set off for the nest. Even if he was a bit disappointed, he now had 910 experience points: he planned to level up the next day. But fate came to his side once again. On the way back he saw something crawl quickly a short distance from him. He initially thought of a snake, but then he realized that it was a creature similar to a centipede. [Prey identified: Eoarthropleura devonica, eoarthropleuridae. Experience: 230 points] Sobek felt his heart pound. That centipede was worth 230 experience points! He couldn't contradict the System: the eoarthropleura was at least fifty centimeters long and appeared to be covered in fairly solid armor. As far as he remembered, the eoarthropleura was an extinct genus of millipede that lived in the Silurian period. Its Carboniferous descendant, the arthropleura, reached 3 meters in length! Fortunately, such insects had become extinct long before the advent of humanity due to the change in oxygen levels. However, in that disordered world, all species of all ages coexisted. Sobek had long since assumed that Eden's oxygen level was higher than the Earth's oxygen level: he felt far too energetic compared to normal. Furthermore, that immense forest that seemed to cover everything had to pump a disproportionate amount of oxygen into the atmosphere. Therefore the giant insects could safely survive. But unlike in the Silurian and Carboniferous periods, where they had no predators, here they were nothing but sweet snacks! Sobek ran after the centipede. The arthropod moved rapidly, but it couldn't match a reptile twice its length in speed. In a short time Sobek was above it. As he had imagined, the armor of the eoarthropleura was very hard, but with a lot of effort he managed to break it. He cut the centipede into three parts and devoured them one after the other. When he was done, he had reached the amount he finally wanted! With 1,140 experience points, he could level up immediately! To confirm that a notification appeared immediately. [Experience points needed for level up achieved. Would you like to level up?] "Yes! Yes! Absolutely yes!" Sobek thought, authorizing the command. A moment later, excruciating pain emerged from all over his body. Sobek felt himself being pulled from all sides. He roared furiously as he felt his bones lengthen, his muscles moving, his cells rapidly multiplying to fill in the blanks. Under his gaze his paws became thicker and the ground seemed to drop. The whole process lasted just ten seconds. At the end of tha agony Sobek breathed a sigh of relief. It had been quick, but certainly not pleasant. Taking advantage of being still close to the river, he went to reflect himself in the water. Physically he hadn't changed nothing: his appearance was always the same. However, it was evident that he was bigger. "System, show the interface!" he ordered. The System promptly obeyed. [Spinosaurus aegyptiacus] Level: 2 Length: 2 m Height: 1.2 m Weight: 1 ton Diet: carnivore, fishivore Strength: 98 Agility: 82 Defense: 41 Maximum speed: 3 km/h Experience points: 140/2,000 Skill Points: 0.8 Fame points: 0/1,000,000 Bonus money: 130 As he had imagined, his stats had soared: strength, agility and defense were far superior to when he started his day! He was now 2 meters long and 1.2 meters high. He could already be considered a small/medium sized dinosaur! Experience points for leveling up were increased. Sobek had foreseen this: since getting bigger meant hunting bigger and bigger preys, and therefore they could provide him with much more experience, the experience needed to level up also had to increase with each advancement. Unfortunately, Sobek could not yet determine whether each advance doubled the required amount of experience points or simply increased it by another 1,000 points. He hoped firmly in the second hypothesis, but to verify it he would have had to wait to advance to level 3. However, he could be satisfied. He had done it: he had completed his first advancement! And it had taken him less than two days! He knew he wouldn't have always been so lucky, but he could take it as a good sign, or not? Proud of himself, he returned to the nest. Here, however, a problem that he had not calculated arose: both his mother and father immediately got on the defensive when they saw him. Sobek hadn't thought about it: his parents might not have recognized him! After all, it was only a meter long when he left the nest that morning! Fortunately, his mother walked up to him and sniffed him. After checking his scent she realized he was her son, so she let him pass. Sobek breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, animals did not rely on sight alone to recognize their companions: smell also played a big role. To confirm this, even his brothers and sisters as soon as they saw him did not recognize him, but after having smelled him they began to scurry around him as they had always done. He reentered the nest, but found that it had grown smaller. With his larger size he took up much more space. Many of his little brothers and sisters snorted in offense as they pushed each other, but after some effort they managed to find the right position. Sobek sighed. It was a little tight, but at least his siblings still kept him warm. After his next level up he probably would have been forced to sleep out of the nest like his parents.