'Yes! I did it!'
Looking at the dead crocodile in front of him, Matthew literally jumped out of his hiding place and patted himself on the back for thinking of a genius plan and executing it perfectly to defeat such a powerful enemy.
Now that the system said that he could evolve, Matthew wondered how strong he would be if he had the crocodile's biting strength and sharp teeth. His current teeth, although sharp, are not the best at biting through tough meat or skin. His current diet is only eating the spider and maybe he could also eat the mantis or beetle, but if Matthew wanted to get stronger, he also needs to eat other large animals such as the wolves, boars, or deers, and many other animals that he hasn't been able to see at the deeper parts of the forest to improve himself and get stronger.
But Matthew doesn't need to worry anymore since if he got the crocodile's ability to do such a strong attack, then he can surely deal with other big animals. And adding his still mysterious evolution process, Matthew is hoping that it will be a huge boost to his overall prowess.
Now that he is one step closer to completing his mission, the last step is to consume the whole crocodile.
'But…'
'How…'
Matthew walked beside the dead crocodile's body and tried to bite off the underside of the crocodile on its belly. Matthew knew that it would be impossible for him to eat or even damage the top scale of the crocodile, but what he didn't realize before, is that even the bottom side of the crocodile also has scales on them although not as hard and tough as the top part. Matthew's chameleon teeth tried their best to pierce through the softer scale, but it even needed him a considerable amount of time to just slightly damage it.
'Why didn't I think of this! But who would've thought that I was so weak, this is so unfair!'
'Well, at least I can take my time and eat it little by little right?'
Then something that Matthew didn't expect happened. Suddenly, on the surface of the water, Matthew could see 4 other black shades, similar to the one when the crocodile was submerged underwater, appeared and they were going in Matthew's direction.
'Don't tell me that those things are also…'
Matthew hoped that he was wrong, but just in case, for his safety, he went back to his hiding place to see what would happen.
This time, his worry turned out to be true. 4 other crocodiles roughly the same size as the one who was currently dead on the ground, came out of the lake.
'Are they angry that I killed their friend? But they won't notice that I'm here, so if I just lay low here for a while and wait for them to go away searching for the murderer, I can just… WHAT ARE THEY DOING?'
The 4 other crocodiles who Matthew thought were angry and wanted to get their revenge on whoever killed their friend, turn out to be the one who was most happy that one of them just killed, as the four of them feasted on the dead crocodile's body vigorously.
'How… Why do you guys do that! Other animals protect and help each other to survive in this world but instead, you eat each other!? And besides, I'M THE ONE WHO KILLED IT! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!'
All Matthew wanted to do right now is to come out and beat the other crocodiles all one by one to a pulp and eat them all whole, but he can't do such things. Right now, if he even dared to show himself in front of them, one bite is all it takes to end Matthew's second life. All he can do is just sit there in despair and watch the crocodile that he hunted with all his hard work and a full day of preparation just be taken from him and eaten away by other crocodiles.
Looking at the 4 crocodiles who seemed to be full after eating one of their friends went back to the lake, Matthew sighed and thought
'I will have to make better preparations and think things more thoroughly so that this kind of situation won't ever happen again.'
Accepting his fate reluctantly, Matthew noticed that the deer who got his neck broken is still intact on the ground, it seems that the crocodiles are already full, and decided to leave the deer alone.
'Well, at least I got a deer monster data and some bionutrients from it.'
Just when Matthew wanted to take a bite from the deer's carcass, a loud familiar wolf howl could be heard resounding in the forest.
'Don't tell me…'
Matthew hurriedly wrapped his tongue around one of the deer's legs and used all his strength to drag the deer away from the open space near the lake and try to move it somewhere to hide it from the wolves. But Matthew is only a small chameleon compared to the large deer, despite using all his strength and trying his best, he could only drag the deer so far before the wolves arrived and noticed a dead deer's body is free for them to take.
Matthew, who clearly understood what his fate will turn out to be if he tried to take the deer away from a pack of wolves, decided to once again grit his teeth so hard that his head hurts from the tension, and finally made the decision to release his grip on the deer and let the wolves took it away from him.
The wolves who just got a free meal without having to do any work, happily took the deer away from the lakeside where there might be other predators who might steal it from them and brought the deer back to their den.
Matthew who was hiding inside a nearby bush with his camouflage is now speechless and doesn't know what to say regarding his current situation. He thought that he made a perfect plan and executed it perfectly, but in the end, his supposedly flawless plan is ruined by an unexpected factor and by his own carelessness and Matthew almost just waste a full day of his time completely, if not for the fact that he got a lot of experience from just killing the level 12 crocodile and he could evolve from the experience gained from the crocodile.
In conclusion, Matthew realized that no one is to blame except for himself, for being careless and underestimating the situation, but more importantly, for being weak. If he was stronger, he didn't have to let the deer be taken away by wolves, if he was stronger he wouldn't have the crocodile be taken away and wasted all his preparations from before, and if he was stronger, he didn't need to make such troublesome preparations in the first place.
Realizing what he should do now, Matthew then promised himself,
'I will become strong enough that I will clean the lake of any crocodiles and I will definitely make those wolves regret ever making me leave empty-handed today.'
Matthew then threw off some rocks into the lake as a reminder of what his current goal is and to blow off some steam, and after calming down and arranging his thoughts, Matthew decided to go back to his nest and check out how the evolution process works.
Matthew wondered how exactly, the so-called 'evolution' works, will he become an entirely new species or he will keep his current species but his characteristics will be buffed up. These few days living inside the forest, Matthew hasn't seen any creatures evolve and he didn't meet any creature that is still on their pre-evolution or post-evolution stage from the initial phase that Matthew has seen them.
The best guess that Matthew could give is that the wolves and boars who could use aura ability have evolved at least once from their initial stage since the system said that Matthew himself could only use his aura ability after his second evolution. In the end, the best method to figure out how the evolution process works is to undergo the process himself, so he decided to just do it and see what happens next.
Even though the forest is still crowded at night, with Matthew using his camouflage and walking slowly and cautiously, Matthew could go back to his nest without facing any unnecessary obstacles. Looking at his nest, now that Matthew already finished eating all of the spider bodies and he has used his spider leg that was supposed to be a spare, his nest seemed a bit empty, but nonetheless, he still feels comfy inside his own nest. Matthew then walked to the back corner of his nest, sat comfortably with his 4 legs, and asked in his mind,
'System, how do I evolve?'
'Just say, System, Evolve.' the voice in his mind replied
'System, Evolve'
-Host will be vulnerable when in the evolution process, are you sure, you want to evolve now?-
- Yes / No -
'Yes.'
After giving his confirmation, Matthew then felt his body going limp and his vision went dark.