Well, it does take Matthew about a few hours to move the 4 wolves' bodies back to their den, especially the black and gray one that is located quite far from the wolf's den. And Matthew also felt lucky that he got the mapping function from the system since he is sure that he will already be lost in the vast and complicated forest if not for its help in keeping track of the path he has been to.
After bringing the corpses back, Matthew is tired enough that he wanted to take a bite or two of half-eaten light grey wolf earlier since he wanted to finish them as fast as he could. But first, he decided to rest a little before doing that and after he laid his body down on the ground and relaxed his muscles for a second, he already lost his consciousness and fell asleep without even realizing it himself.
And with that, he is finally able to rest for the night and wakes up the following afternoon with his stomach feeling empty again. He looked up and down then left and right, and saw that although his current environment felt slightly different than his usual nest since both his nest and the wolf's den are essentially just a hole, Matthew didn't feel that unfamiliar with the place. The only stark difference that he noticed is that he found himself surrounded by the wolf corpses that he dragged and gathered with much difficulty by himself last night.
The long night of following the poisoned light gray wolf into the deeper part of the forest, hunting the pack of wolf one by one separately and covertly by going back and forth between 2 places so that he is able to find the right moment to perfectly kill them without enabling them to ask for the other's assistance, and also dragging each of their bodies back to their den is taxing for Matthew's little body that is only about 60cm long compared to wolves body that can reach up to 3 meters in length and many times bigger than Matthew's body.
If not for his strong tongue muscles and the new strength that his body got after his first evolution, he probably would only be able to move 1 wolf using the same amount of time. And not taking the 2 wolves that are further away into the equation.
'Come to think of it, how strong will I be after my second evolution?'
Since his first evolution gave him the ability to drag a creature way bigger than himself, and his claws are actually strong enough to pierce through the deers' and wolves' hide, Matthew is curious how amazing his new body will be after his second evolution.
'Will I be strong enough to break the crocodile's scales? Will I be able to fight the crocodile head-on? Or will I need to use petty tricks again to have my revenge on them? Not that I mind using tricks since it works just fine to reach my goal and I also felt smart when using them.'
'Well at least, that's a plus point for being an ex-human, I guess being a human also has its merits too, but more importantly,'
'I WILL ALSO GET MY AURA ABILITY AFTER MY SECOND EVOLUTION!'
'Will I be able to grow my claws just like how the boars elongate their tusk? Or will I get my entire body's muscle enhanced like the wolf's? Or will I get something unique and special only for my species, what will it be? I can't wait!'
Matthew really wanted to just go and evolve right this second, but he knew that if he holds back for now and completes the wolf monster data first, he would get more during the evolution, so he firmed his resolve to eat the wolves and complete his data collection first before going into his second evolution. And with that, the afternoon eating fest started with 3 and a half wolves as his menu.
It took Matthew about less than an hour this time to finish a wolf because he ate them slowly, and now his monster data for the wolves have reached 86%, only missing 14% left or eating the equivalent of half a wolf's body, but he is currently felt so full and Matthew is worried that his stomach may burst if he forced himself to eat them. Curious about how many bionutrients he got from eating all the wolves, he opened his info tab,
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Name: Matthew
Race : Altered Veiled Chameleons
Level : 10
Bionutrients : 1368 (692+676)
Monster Data Collected:
-Common Wandering Spider (100%)
-Brown-Tailed Deer (57%)
-Lupus Wolf (86%)
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'Wow, that's a lot of bionutrients.'
Each wolf gave him about 270 bionutrients and Matthew ate 2 and a half wolves since last night, so now he has 1368 to spare for his next evolution.
'Wait… If the spider venom glands cost me about 50 bionutrients that means I can have about 27 venom glands!'
'With that amount of venom, I will become invincible! HUAHAHAHA...or not, my mouth won't fit that much venom glands and I don't think it will help me much if I turn my body into a venom factory.'
'I want to have a stronger body! If possible in the future, I want to add stronger animal body parts from maybe a gorilla, a bear, or maybe a tiger that has powerful arms and claws that can easily tear the flesh or break the bones of other animals to my body. But since I don't know what kinds of creatures exist in the forest, let's just explore the forest first and see what will happen along the journey.'
Matthew decided that he wanted to stretch and walk outside first to see if there would be some difference in the environment between the area near the lake and in the deeper parts of the forest where the wolves live or at least used to live.
With his trusty minimap on the top corner of his vision that kept track of the path he had gone through, Matthew had no fear of getting lost and with his camouflage skill, he blended in with the grass just to be safe in case something unexpected happened and then he set out on his little walk.
Walking in the forest so far, Matthew didn't see any difference with this part of the forest compared to the usual place he explored to hunt for the spiders. He still couldn't find any animals on the grounds such as the mantises or the beetles. He tried to climb up the trees to find the spider webs that indicate a spider's home, but he also didn't find any of them.
'Is this part of the forest actually more deserted than the part at the other side of the lake?'
It's not until 30 minutes into the walk that Matthew noticed something that he could never expect to see in the middle of the day where the sun is still hanging way up in the sky and the sunlight is still as strong to pierce through the gap in the leaves. What Matthew saw was,
'Wow, that is a huge rock! Why is it brown though? And what are those two white things that protrude from its...nose? Why does the rock have eyes? Wait, did it just move?'
Matthew squints his eyes, and although it doesn't help him to see any better since chameleons already have excellent eyesight from the beginning, Matthew refuses to not believe what his eyes have seen and did a 180 degrees turn,
'No, it couldn't be, right? Since it is still daytime and there is still a long time until nighttime, yes I must've been still tired from the hunt and all that dragging last night and now I'm seeing things, I guess I need to hurry back to get some more sleep.'
But since Matthew is curious, he turned once again to look at his back and the thing he believed was just his imagination running wild is still there.
'IS THAT REALLY A BOAR?'
'IN BROAD DAYLIGHT?'
No matter how many times Matthew blinked his eyes, turned his back, and turned back again, the boar was still there, eating small plants that had a soft stem.
'Does this mean that I'm wrong all this time and that the creatures still go out in the daytime? But why can't I find any creatures back there? I have to find out more about this!'
Proceeding with more caution than before, Matthew decided to explore even deeper into the forest. He stayed low on the grass and tried to move on the taller patch of grass to make his camouflage even more perfect.
The more Matthew went deeper, the more he is sure that his theory about the creatures only goes out at night time is 100%, completely, absolutely wrong. Or at least that's what happens in this part of the forest. Not only boars, Matthew also saw another pack of deers. He also looked up to the trees, and while he still didn't find any spiders, he could see monkeys climbing up the trees and eating the fruits.
As Matthew looked at all the different kinds of creatures around him and realized how he had been wrong all this time, he thought 'My life so far has been a lie…Am I even real now…? I'm prepared to live a boring life of just eating and becoming stronger, but actually, there is more to the forest than what I've known so far? Where have I been...I wasted all this time seeking revenge even though there is such a beautiful and colorful life waiting for me out there? What I've been doing all this time…'
'Just kidding, I don't care! The strong eat the weak is still the name of the game anywhere in the forest! And those crocs are still getting what they deserve for stealing my prey and for doing whatever they want! '
'And all of these different creatures only means that I got more creatures to eat and more body parts to add to enhance my body!'
'Hold on... Since when did I start only thinking about eating animals and upgrading my body… But if I think about it, haven't I been talking to myself a lot more lately? Am I going nuts? Ah, it's not important. Let's just go back and evolve first! There are still many unexplored places in this forest, and I will discover them and enjoy my life after I finish