I won the fight, and killed those three violet sea snails, which gained me an explosive amount of experience points and levels, but at what cost. As I felt pain wracked my whole body, my exoskeleton nearly completely melted and is in complete tatters.
'I may not be able to survive another fight! If I were to suddenly encounter another foe of similar levels.' I complained. Nevertheless, I bare with it, for now, and reap the rewards of my first hunt.
'My first hunt. It is the Violet Sea Snail. Its body contains acidic bodily fluids. I wonder if it is even edible... even if it is not edible. I still can't waste food here in the wild. Everything is essential to survive in the wild. The energy and stamina you need to conserve in order to survive.' I thought, unanimously, I decided to trust my gut feeling, and go with the flow.
With my small-sized mandibles, I took a small chunk of gelatinous flesh from the violet sea snail, and it tastes extremely bitter. This is probably due to the acidic contents of its bodily fluids mixing in with its bodily flesh.
'The acidity is negligible when it is diluted and not concentrated. It is not strong like I initially thought or is it because of my increase acid resistance that it is starting to have less of an effect on me.' I commented.
I consumed the flesh of the violet sea snail, and the seashells of the violet sea snails in rapid succession, alternating between the two to reduce the bad bitter after taste.
Unknown to me at the time, but this sort of method to eat sea snails, was quite common in the gourmet seafood world. As the calcium carbonate of the seashells acts as an alkaline agent, which neutralizes the strong internal acids of the gastropod, without destroying anything, leaving the content of its meat and flesh intact.
[You have consumed the flesh of a Violet Sea Snail. You have received 5 bio-growth points...]
[You have consumed the exoskeleton seashells of a Violet Sea Snail. You have received 2 bio-growth points...]
'What! What are these so-called bio-growth points? Is it something new.' I commented, as my attention is piqued.
[Bio-growth points are essentially merit points created in order to aid the host (monsters) in creating mutations that eventually leads to evolution. Bio-growth points can also be used as currency to buy skills or traits from the system, in which you have unlocked after you consumed the biomass, and acquired their genetic DNA sequence...]
[The higher the amount of bio-growth points the host has in their arsenal, the rarer evolutionary paths the host can unlock...]
[Bio-growth points are acquired through the consumption of another lifeform; flesh, bones, plants, any sort of organic matter...]
Almost immediately, having heard my response, the system immediately answered my inquiry, as a line of blue text soon appeared before my retina.
[You have acquired the genetic DNA sequence of the Violet Sea Snail. {Intermediate Gastric Gland} {Mucous Gland} { Weak Exoskeleton Regeneration} unlocked...]
'What!' I shouted, as I read through the threads of blue text, that appeared before my retina. Their context totally astounded me. The potential and mutations that I could gain from the system.
'This is incredible!' I screamed out in a joyous occasion after I've discovered this fact.
'I wondered if I could buy the [ Weak Exoskeleton Regeneration} skill from the system. It could come in pretty handy right about now, but how much bio-growth point would that literally cost me.' I thought.
[Do you wish to buy the mutational skill {Weak Exoskeleton Regeneration} from the monster system for 120 bio-growth points?]
I instinctively replied 'yes'. However, the response was slightly disheartening.
[You possess an insufficient amount of bio-growth points. You could not purchase the { Weak Exoskeleton Regeneration} skill. Current bio-growth points: 7...]
'It costs so much, and I have so little amounts of these so-called bio-growth points.' I grow slightly depressed about discovering this obvious fact. Nevertheless, I know have a goal that I want to achieve. The sooner the better.
'Wait a minute, there! Didn't I consume a lot of organic material at the nest? If even seashells are considered organic material, then wouldn't eggshells be the same.' I commented, and the system immediately gave a response.
[In order to prevent any unnecessary cheat and unfair advantage from the system. Any organic material produced or excreted out from the parent of the species would not count as bio-growth points until the initial 48 hours are up. However, consuming the flesh of the same parent species would increase within the 48 hours timespan...]
'I didn't know that the monster system could be so vile, and encourage cannibalism, and infanticide. Well, this is another world after all. There is no use to add human logic into it all, when they are not even humans in the first place, we're monsters after all.' I commented, which seems to sours my mood a bit, as I relented to release all of my pent up frustration.
[You have consumed the flesh of a Violet Sea Snail. You have received 5 bio-growth points...]
[You have consumed the exoskeleton seashells of a Violet Sea Snail. You have received 2 bio-growth points...]
[You have consumed the flesh of a Violet Sea Snail. You have received 5 bio-growth points...]
[You have consumed the exoskeleton seashells of a Violet Sea Snail. You have received 2 bio-growth points...]
[Your current amount of bio-growth points: 21...]
I continued to dine on the remaining remnants of the dead carcasses of the violet sea snail that I killed, in order to increase my arsenal of bio-growth points, I must first consume more biomass, to get biomass, I must find and kill more prey. Repeat the same cycle, until I've gathered enough bio-growth points to buy the {Weak Exoskeleton Regeneration} skill from the monster system.
[You have reached the maximum skill proficiency. The skill { Weak Acid Resistance Lv3} has become { Weak Acid Resistance Lv4}...]
After having finished my meal, I almost recovered the entirety of my stamina and energy to continue, I didn't continue the hunt, instead, I decided to make the decision to head back to the nest, to recover from the wounds that were inflicted on my body.
I could still feel the pain that has wrecked my body, though the pain has somewhat lessened, it is still there and has yet to have completely disappeared.
Without much further thought, I began to make my way back, retreating back to the comforts and safety of the nest. Though I don't exactly trust my safety in the hands of my siblings. It is still a lot better than being completely alone, safety in numbers can most definitely reassure me of my chances of survival.
I slowly began to make my way back to the nest, whilst, constantly on guard, utilizing my long elongated whiskers as feelers, feeling the vibrations of waves and the movements of water particles within the waters. Whenever my elongated whiskers would vibrate it would detect abnormal movements, indicating that there was another lifeform or organism nearby, that creating vibrations or movements in the water.
If the detected enemy was of formidable size, and quite ferocious, something that I could not handle. So I would immediately retreat the moment, my eyes gain visual of the target.
It didn't take me long to return back the burrowed nest, everyone was in a lively energetic atmosphere, it would seem that their hunt has gone very well, and they were quite successful. Most have managed to increased a few levels or two.
However, there were a few amongst the group that was left out, feeling a bit sad and gloomy, like an outsider. Some were quite seriously wounded, many with a damaged exoskeleton, destroyed carapaces, and severed limbs. These kinds of things do tend to happen, occasionally, in the wild, when our lifestyle is always fraught with unsuspecting danger at every corner.
When I returned to the burrow nest, I was met with the constant gazes of my ghost shrimps siblings, feeling all of their black pupil like eyes landed on me. It immediately gave me goosebumps, but I simply ignore it for it now.
I went to a small corner of the burrow, isolated from the rest of my siblings, with the least of my siblings around.
I burrowed my body under the ground, as the dirt-covered soil camouflages my body. I immediately went to sleep, to get some well indeed rest, to recover my stamina from the tortuous battle with violet sea snail.