'I don't think I want to do this again for a while'
Walking down the deer's body, Matthew thought that his fight today is full of gambles and he is just lucky that he got to come out as the winner in the fight with only joint pain. First, Matthew miscalculated the deer's behavior since he assumed that they won't fight back when being hunted down, but it only applies when the hunter is a big bad and strong crocodile. When the one who hurt them is just a small chameleon, they will surely retaliate and take their revenge.
Secondly, Matthew also didn't consider if any of the deer is capable of using aura ability. If just one of them got an aura ability, Matthew's chance of defeating them will plummet significantly and possibly get killed himself.
'Well if that's the case, I can just hide first and then run away later. But just in case, I need to be more careful in the future and ready to run if my plan fails.'
Despite all that, Matthew gained a lot in today's fight. He's able to learn how potent his venom is, especially with animals that have bigger bodies than himself, he also learns that injecting his venom through the fangs is not the only way to utilize them, he can also coat his claws with the venom, making something similar to a poison-coated dagger that Matthew saw in movies back on earth. Matthew also learned that, although his body is now twice as big as his former body and his muscles seem tougher than before, he is still on the weaker side of the spectrum compared to the other bigger animals. Just one kick from the deer can almost incapacitate him if he were unlucky.
But overall, Matthew really thought that the fighting style of doing sneak attacks using poison and just watching his enemy fall down on their own with only a maximum amount of effort in the beginning and less in the fight itself.
'I guess I can now understand why people liked assassin or hitman movies, now that I've done it myself, I felt so cool!'
Looking at the deer corpse next to him Matthew thought,
'Should I just start eating here or should I bring it back near my nest first?'
'Come to think of it, I haven't got the notifications for the other two, I need to end their suffering first. Although I find the fight fun, I'm not a psychopath or anything.'
Walking back to the area before the last deer starts sprinting, the two other deers is currently lying on the ground with an open wound at their bellies and they are huffing and puffing catching their breath.
'I'm sorry for leaving you two like this.' Matthew said as he swung his claws, cutting their necks, shortening their suffering.
-Level 8 Brown-Tailed Deer Killed-
-Level 8 Brown-Tailed Deer Killed-
Even though Matthew wanted to kill them in an instant, he doesn't have the ability to do that right now. If he wanted to give them an instant death, he needed to either crush their heads or slice their heads off in 1 swift move, but none of his current ability is capable of doing that. The most he could do is quicken their deaths by cutting their throat or injecting more venom inside, but his venom glands also needed time to refill the venoms and Matthew didn't want to run out of venom just in case there was an emergency situation that needed his venom.
'If I could add another animal's body parts that are capable of doing that, I will surely add them to my body in my next evolution.'
'And that crocodile bite strength, I swear I will add that to my collection, soon enough.'
'Now we're back to the first question, should I eat them here or bring them back first?'
Considering the fact that Matthew is now on the other side of the forest where the wolves and other large animals come from, he didn't think that staying here for a long time would be a good choice. In the end, Matthew decided to bring the deers back to his nest first since that side of the forest is filled with insect-type animals, Although they are still giant insects compared to the ones back on earth, they are still smaller than the deers and wolves and Matthew is sure that he is capable of fending the insects off if they ever decide to steal the deer away from him.
Since the deers are mammals and their bodies are made of flesh, muscles, and bones, Matthew isn't able to cut up the bodies into smaller pieces and bring them part by part back to his nest. Fortunately, his tongue muscle is amazing as ever, and added with the help of the whole muscle from his body, he is able to drag the deer by their legs to get them back to his nest, even though it took him about 10 minutes each deer.
Because Matthew isn't able to cut up their bodies, that also means that he isn't able to store the deer's body inside his nest, but only putting them near the entrance where he can watch over them.
Not knowing if the wolves will show up again tonight, Matthew decided to eat one of them right away and if the other 3 deers are taken by the wolves, he will only save his hatred for later and make his revenge even sweeter.
At first, Matthew tried to just take a bite from the deer but only the fangs succeeded in piercing through the deer's tough hide. His other teeth which are designed to eat insects are having quite the difficulty in tearing the hide apart to get into the meat part of the deer. So to eat the deer, Matthew needed to cut the deer open first with his claws, or just use the opening wound at its belly to further open up the deer so that Matthew could access the meat part.
This is the first time he will be eating raw meat without cooking them first, but Matthew is rather curious than scared since he is already used to eating the weird spider meat and its green blood. Eating meat that is very similar to what he used to eat when he was still a human is far easier than eating giant-sized insects.
When the raw red meat first entered Matthew's mouth, the intense taste of blood caught him a little off guard and he almost spat the meat out, but after a few chews, the taste of fresh raw meat is not bad and certainly better than the hard exoskeleton of the wandering spider and the meat soon entered his stomach.
-Brown-Tailed Deer Data Collected (1%)-
-Bionutrients Consumed-
'I wonder how many deers I need to eat to complete the monster data this time, And I don't think I will get much bionutrients since I can't eat the bones and skin of the deer, let's just see the info tab after eating 1 deer.'
Thanks to his body doubling in size, Matthew is able to finish eating most of the meat of the deer, with the exception of its innards such as lungs, hearts, bowels, brains, and other intestines, and decided to store them away for him to eat later tonight when he is not full anymore. If Matthew ever decided to eat the deer before his first evolution, he didn't know how long it would take him just to finish the meat part of the deer.
'System, open info tab.'
-----
Name: Matthew
Race : Altered Veiled Chameleons
Level : 8
Bionutrients : 360 (48+312)
Monster Data Collected:
-Common Wandering Spider (100%)
-Brown-Tailed Deer (21%)
-----
'I only got 21% from eating all that? Come on!'
'But I guess, bones took a huge part in constructing the body so it is understandable that I only got this much, and I haven't eaten its intestines yet, so maybe it will go up a little more after I eat those.'
'But damn, I got 312 bionutrients from only eating the meat part of 1 deer, which is thrice as much compared to eating the spider's whole body!'
'But this could only mean that I will need more bionutrients to change my body parts, I need to stock up more before the next evolution then.'
After eating only 1 deer, Matthew already felt full, but he still had 3 other deers that needed to be consumed before they rot and become inedible.
'I guess this is why animals didn't do mass hunting, they only hunt when they want to eat and they only take as much as they need. But do I really hope for a freezer… I can hunt for a full day then laze around for the next few days if I have that.'
But Matthew's wish could only stay a wish for now since he didn't know what kind of world is outside the forest. He even didn't move far from his birthplace for the last few days and he didn't know how large the forest was, but he did really want to meet the humans if he ever got the chance.
Even though he is surely a real chameleon from the top of his head and tip of his tail, Matthew used to be a human and he wanted to know more about the humans in this world.
'Wait, Since I can change my body parts to whatever I have eaten, doesn't that mean if I eat enough humans then I can become human…?'
But remembering that he now has an amazing body that is far more amazing than a human, like a multi-purpose tongue that is twice as long than himself, sharp claws that can break tree trunks without any tools, color-changing skin, and even spider venoms that can kill animals way bigger than himself. Why would he want to become a human? A weak creature that is bound by all kinds of rules.
Even though it is the same, back when he was a human where the strong have an easier life than the weak, at least Matthew now has a fair chance in trying to be whatever he wants to be and he is not bound by anyone's expectations or by any rules. The rule in the forest is far simpler, be strong and then be happy. Which Matthew really liked, despite that also means that if he ever pissed off any creatures that are able to kill him in 1 breath, he couldn't do anything about it.
'That's why I will climb to the top of the food chain in this forest slowly and surely so that such things won't ever happen.'
'Speaking of climbing the food chain, let's try this other method of using the venom.'
Looking at the sky, the night is still far from over and Matthew waited for the wolves to come and steal his hard-earned prey, but after thinking about it, Matthew came up with an idea so that the wolves didn't just get a free meal.
Matthew dragged one of the deer carcasses to an open area not too far from his nest where he is still able to watch over it, Matthew then injected his venom into the deer's meat and spread them all over the deer's body before going back to his nest and waited patiently until the wolves took his bait.
'Now let's see if you like my gifts, you deer-stealing thieves.'