Chapter 65: Starting the second evolution

"Sgrunt" was Sobek's only thought while he was going away. He was quite annoyed. No, he was more than just annoyed. Damn humans! He had imagined that after his performance someone would have come looking for him, but he didn't expect them to take so little time to track him! How did they find him so quickly? It had to be said, however, that Sobek had lost the sense of the passage of time from a while. For the dinosaurs every day was the same, there were no concepts like months and weeks. Their rhythms were regulated only by the day/night cycle and the seasons. As a result, Sobek often found himself watching the weeks pass by without even realizing it. In fact, since he had finally gotten rid of the little girl, even if he hadn't noticed it, almost two months had passed. Most of that time was spent in the area full of Permian creatures in search of a gorgonopsid, the rest was spent in the river doing nothing but swim, hunt and eat. Sobek had lost the sense of time so much that he couldn't even remember how much time had passed since he was born. If he had kept track of the days, he would have realized that it had been more than seven months since he had hatched, even though it seemed like a short time to him. Of course, even so, the only reason Mitch and his people had arrived so early was because the expedition had already been prepared, otherwise Sobek wouldn't have seen any scientist for at least other six months. However he obviously couldn't know all this, so he could only curse those damned humans who went there to bother him. When the dart with the narcotic had passed near him while he was swimming he had panicked, fearing that he would have been caught and imprisoned in some controlled facility; that was something he absolutely wanted to avoid. He would have never accepted to become a guinea pig in a laboratory. So he had devised a cunning trap: he pretended to have been hit by the anesthetic, only to destroy the rifle with the narcotic as soon as they let their guard down. He could have directly crushed the idiot that was carrying it, but he was afraid that she would have been faster than him and shoot him. He had then been patient and let them do all their stupid measurements, then he attacked them when they were stupid enough to finally put the rifle on the ground. After that he had attacked on the helicopter. He didn't care about the three idiots: he knew they didn't have powerful enough weapons on them because it was impossible hidden them. In the helicopter, however, he hoped to find something interesting to hide in his [Inventory]. Unfortunately he hadn't been very lucky. He had found nothing in the helicopter, and then some fool had decided to blow it up in his face. He had tried to check one last time to see if anything was saved, but when he looked into the remains of the vehicle he found that it had all been charred. He would have liked to track down those three to teach them who was the boss, but the smoke had entered his nostrils and had prevented him from recognizing smells. After coughing a couple of times he just gave up and walked away. After all, from his point of view as a large predatory dinosaur, there was no point in wasting time killing humans. It was as if a human were wasting his time trying to crush an insect. Even though he no longer had anyone chasing him, he was still irritated. Fortunately he noticed a rugops on the shore against which he vented his anger. This rugops was far bigger than the one that he ate the day his father took him to fish, so it gave him 5 skill points; now he only needed to collect 2 more to maximize [Fast eating]. He snorted. At least he had received one positive thing that day. Well, four if he also counted the irritator, the parasaurolophus and the ceratosaurus. However, he decided that continuing into the river was no longer safe. He was too visible. The forest, on the other hand, provided him with a good cover thanks to the trees. He therefore decided that from now on he would have continued on foot, even if he would never have strayed too far from the water to have a guaranteed escape route in case he found an opponent too difficult. He knew the humans wouldn't have let him go so easily. It was impossible after the extraordinary performance he had given with the little girl. The scientific world would have continued to chase him forever. Biologists and zoologists would have been eager to study him even if he were just a new species, but after seeing how empathetic he was, they would have started a real witch hunt... well, dinosaur hunt. Fortunately they couldn't search all over the forest. It was too big, so he could feel comfortable enough. The deeper he went into the jungle, the harder it would have been to track him down. He already decided that once he evolved further he would have left the river forever: if his hypothesis wasn't incorrect, the next evolution would have granted him sufficient abilities to make him the apex predator of the entire ecosystem, with no more competition. He was already able to hold its own against most carnivores, so with the next evolution he would have risen to the absolute top of the food chain. Another three days passed after that event. Sobek no longer dared to approach the river bank, so he could say goodbye to the crocodiles, the amphibians, the fishes and many other easy preys. However, he had many others at his disposal. With his overdeveloped senses and the [Ambush] ability, he could easily capture any animal on land. First, he had managed to capture some young dilophosaurs who had granted him all the skill points he lacked and also many others that he could keep for the time after the evolution. [Fast eating] had finally reached the maximum level. Now he could clean up a carcass in half an hour. He also had over 240,000 experience points, so he leveled up again. It was now 24 meters long and 7.8 meters high. The tyrannosaurus now looked like just a little cousin of his. After maximizing the skill he had hurried back to the cave after he had made his first evolution; luckily it wasn't too far away. However, there was one detail that he hadn't considered before, but which became evident as soon as he arrived. "I'm too big!" When he was still a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, the cave was large enough to contain him, but he still had to struggle a little to get through the narrow hole. But now, not only he was much bigger, but his body shape had also changed, making impossible for him to pass. "Damn! Isn't there a bigger one around?" Unfortunately not. There wasn't a cave large enough to hold the new huge bulk of him. Sobek had no choice but to look for a new one. The days passed quickly. He almost didn't notice them. Every day he continued to walk in the forest, eating every predators he found. Just like his first evolution, he wanted to have as many skill points it was possible, so that he could improve some new skills immediatly. Thanks to [Fast eating] and [Fast digestion], he could feed on dozens and dozens of animals every day, and with [Ambush] and [Deadly claws] he could catch all the preys he wanted. And if by chance he made the mistake of running into an opponent a little stronger than the others, [Regeneration] would have promptly fixed the wounds. His diet now consisted in just some dromaeosaurs like velociraptors, utahraptors, troodons and other small predators. He was also able to catch some lions and tigers and one time even a pair of megalosaurus. Of course that kind of diet didn't provide him with much experience points, but he was focused on skill points. And even if each carnivore he hunted gave him no more than 2 or 3 skill points, with very rare exceptions that usually didn't exceed 5 skill points, he could eat so quickly and spot preys so easily that every day he gained a considerable amount of skill points. In few days he obtained 10 skill points, then 20, then again 25... After a couple of weeks he finally reached a promising place: a plain of rock full of big holes. It was enough for him to search for a while to find a new cave, one big enough to let him enter. To his great pleasure no one had occupied it, he had no need to fight for it. Once inside he lay down and ordered the evolution to begin. [Do you wish to evolve to Spinosaurus ingens?] Sobek selected 'yes' without thinking twice. Sleep overtook him and he quickly sank into the world of dreams.