Chapter 80: Find the family again

Even though he was basically being idolized as a god, Sobek didn't notice anything. The reason was simple: the city of Thirkiom had just over ten thousand inhabitants. Furthermore, the Neanderthals had no contact with other cities: due to the large predators it had never been possible in history to establish trade routes. Even the Homo sapiens sapiens had never had contact with other tribes before the advent of firearms. As a result, the fame points Sobek had earned were just ten thousand. Perhaps he would have noticed that little change when he was still a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, when the fame points bar peaked at one million, but now that that bar had expanded to one hundred million a change of only ten thousand points remained unnoticed. On the other hand, Sobek had better things to think about than Neanderthals. He had initially been tempted to follow their scent to see their city, but he soon dismissed that thought: he would have gained nothing from such experience. He couldn't go into the city and see how Neanderthals lived, so even if he followed them he would only see a wall. So he went on his way, completely ignoring the 'hominids' question. It was strange: he was certain that if he were still human he would probably have done everything to observe a completely new civilization closely, but now he didn't care at all. Being a spinosaurus was really affecting his character: it was as if anything that wasn't a danger or food to him was classified as 'useless'. When he put his cell phone back in his inventory, he waited for the Neanderthals to leave, then returned to the water and resumed his path. Two more days had passed since then and he had only managed to eat a rugops and a couple of crocodiles not three meters long. His skill points had risen to 16, but that wasn't enough to upgrade [Powerful bite]. Unfortunately, the skills useful for hunting always needed 5 more skill points than the others. Finally, however, he smelled a new smell in the air from the forest. Whatever it was, there was an animal resting nearby. Taking care not to be noticed, Sobek stepped out of the lake and headed for the area where the smell was coming from. He discovered that it was a pile of low leaves at the foot of a large tree, inside which a snake was hiding. A very, very large snake. [Prey identified: Titanoboa cerrejonensis, boidae. Experience: 70,000 points] Sobek couldn't believe it. He had found it! He had found the titanoboa! In any environment, if a snake had a chance to grow enough then it would be at the top of the food chain. And the titanoboa was the largest snake ever, a beast anyone would dream of in their nightmares. Sobek wouldn't have dared to attack the titanoboa if it had been in the water. Probably that animal was the only predator, with the exception of humans, that could still represent a danger to him. The titanoboa, like all constrictors, killed by strangling the victim and had a strength beyond any conception. If it managed to wrap itself around his neck, Sobek doubted he would have been able to free himself from the death grip. And he didn't know if the [Reinforced skin] and [Regeneration] combo could protect him from being strangled. However, they were now on the ground. Giant snakes had the advantage only in water: outside of it, their weight became a problem. Like crocodiles, snakes that are too large also tended to tire quickly because they didn't have enough stamina. Even a tiger or a lion could have killed it. In addition, the specimen in front of him had all the appearence of having a full stomach: the belly showed a noticeable swelling. When the snakes were full they could barely move. That's why the titanoboa was hiding: it was in its most vulnerable moment. Sobek certainly couldn't miss that opportunity! He jumped out of his hiding place and bit the snake in the neck. The titanoboa tried in vain to lift its body to wrap itself around him, but its weight and the one of the prey in its belly prevented it from doing so. Very soon, Sobek's teeth completely pierced the snake's muscles and veins, killing it. Sobek rubbed his muzzle. Even with [Powerful bite] at level 2/5 he had to struggle a bit to cut the titanoboa's neck. That was to be expected: the spinosaurus snout wasn't designed to bite and tear. Without that skill he probably wouldn't have even been able to sink his teeth a little bit into the snake's body before snapping his jaw on his own. He absolutely had to reach the maximum level of [Powerful bite] as soon as possible so that he no longer needed to struggle to penetrate the thick skin of his preys. When he finished consuming it, the titanoboa gave him 9 skill points, the most he had achieved so far! After all, it had devoured a terrifying predator! Of course, he had taken advantage of his weakness... but in nature prevailed who knew best to choose the territory and the moment. With all those skill points, he could finally see the level of [Powerful bite] go up to 3/5! To maximize [Powerful bite] he needed a total of 40 skill points. Taking out the 5 he had left after the last update, he still had to find another 35 skill points. Sobek felt it was going to be slow and tedious work, but unexpectedly things finally began to go their way. The next morning he had found a suchomimus that had earned him 6 skill points. That same afternoon a barionyx had guaranteed him another 5. Sobek had never done such a big hunt since he came to the lake, but when he saw a familiar sail in the water, it was all clear to him. In that corner of the lake there were so many fish eating dinosaurs because it was particularly abundant in fishes! And in fact he had finally found the refuge of the spinosaurs! He found them towards evening, huddled on the shore intent on resting and consuming the fishes they had caught. Sobek noticed that they were much more numerous than when they left! They had probably found another herd and joined, or perhaps that lake was the place where spinosaurs from various herds reunited for mating. As proof of this last thesis, Sobek recognized some of his brothers and sisters from the brood; some were alone, but most of them were sleeping next to another spinosaurus. They had found their mate. Sobek was certain that if he waited for the next summer and returned to the nest, he would find himself the uncle of dozens and dozens of little spinosaurs. A veil of melancholy passed over his eyes. Even if they weren't particularly in love affairs, that was still her family, or at least her family from that world. He would have liked to go out on the shore and join them. His spinosaurus instinct drove him to reunite with others of his kind. Unfortunately, however, he knew he couldn't do it: it was now a completely different species. If they had seen him, his brothers and sisters and even his parents would not have recognized him; they would only be frightened at the sight of a predator much larger and more lethal than them. He could only watch them from a distance. He thoroughly studied those he knew to be his blood relatives. His siblings measured just five meters, but that was normal for spinosaurs that were not even one year old: even if they grew fast, they still needed time to reach the colossal size that spinosaurs could boast of. In a way, they had barely seen a season, even though that summer had been nearly as long as a year on Earth. Or maybe more? A lot of time had passed since Sobek checked the date. Had it passed already... months? Maybe he was on that world for more than a year now? Well, who cares. Even though his siblings were still young they had already reached sexual maturity. For many animals it was normal to start giving birth as early as a year after their birth: being able to immediately increase the number of individuals was the key to the survival of the species. Also, even though he couldn't be sure, Sobek was pretty sure that his siblings would not have a family before the next summer: the animals were cyclical, so there were certain times when they nested and others not. Sobek was convinced that this 'trip to the lake' was only to find a companion, with whom, once the summer returned, they would generate new spinosaurs. So, in a sense, when compared to the Earth years, spinosaurs didn't have their babies until they were four or five years old. In a way Sobek felt relieved: even though he knew it was none of his business, he felt a certain annoyance at the thought that his sisters would be pregnant so soon. 'What... wait, do I have older brother syndrome?' he thought annoyed by his own thoughts. In fact, he looked like the kind of brother who spent his days worrying about keeping his little sister's virginity intact! Which seemed like a joke, considering that he was now an animal and therefore his only concern had to be the maintenance of the species, so he should just rejoice to see his sisters find a boyfriend as soon as possible. "Look what thoughts I'm doing... I better go or I'll go crazy here" he thought plunging back into the water, leaving the spinosaurs to rest on the shore. However, before he left, he decided to give them a little help. They were his family, after all. Throughout the night he chased and chased away all crocodiles and fish that could pose a danger to old and young spinosaurs. He even managed to catch and devour a couple of gryposuchus which gave him 6 skill points each. With that amount of skill points, he was able to upgrade [Powerful bite] to level 4/5, and still had 8 skill points left! Sobek had thought not to stop until he would completely circumnavigate the lake, but instead that day he made the decision to stop there: since the place was teeming with fish it would attract predators all the time. Which meant it was a gold mine for him. He only needed to find 12 more skill points to maximize [Powerful bite]. If he had found just a couple of suchomimus, he would have win the jackpot!