Alex knew he may be wrong but so far he was confident that the system worked on a sort of guided evolution process. Normally evolution happened over countless generations in order for a species to adapt to it's environment better. This process started when a stimulus was introduced to the species good or bad was irrelevant. Over time the species will slowly develop and promote traits that work for that specific stimulus. Alex thinks his system did the same but on a much much faster and greater scale. The name of the system was accurate in that if Alex put in the effort and had enough imagination he could slowly evolve himself into whatever type of monster he wanted.
Unfortunately since he didn't meet the criteria for the herbivore trait Alex's body did NOT like the fact he ate a plant. This was shown when he wretched up the small piece of plant matter that tasted wholly unpleasant to him. The woman frowned at this "unknown reptile attempted to consume a piece of fruit but quickly regurgitated it , likely from incompatibility" she noted calmly. 'Dear god that was unpleasant and i need to do that another nine times to get the trait?' Alex shivered at the thought.
'From the fact my body didn't like me eating a plant I can safely assume I am a carnivore of some type.' Alex concluded before making his way over to the frankly huge black ants. Alex was thankful that he didn't have any issues controlling his new form despite how different it was from a human body. Alex was less nervous about eating an insect than the eager stare the woman was giving him thanks to his previous life as a homeless man.
Thanks to the harshness of being homeless Alex had gotten over any sort of preconceived notions about what he ate and had eaten grubs and other less appealing things to survive previously. As a result Alex had no hesitation when he reached the easily inch long dead ants and grabbed one of them with his wide mouth. {CRUNCH} The sound of the ant's carapace collapsing was disconcerting for Alex but he ignored it and continued to chew the insect until he could safely swallow it. It didn't taste bad at all but rather good actually similar to fried frog legs. It was fairly clear that Alex was a carnivore from how unbothered he was at eating the ant.
*TRAIT: carnivore lvl1 DISCOVERED* *CONSUMPTION OF NEW SUBSTANCE DETECTED / ENHANCED SCALES TRAIT GENERATED* again there was a pause before the requirement for the trait showed up. *CONSUME 50 CARPENTER ANTS TO UNLOCK: 1/50* Alex was surprised at how easy the unlock requirements were for the new traits , but the level behind the discovered trait solved that oddity. The requirements were to unlock the simplest possible version of a trait which basically meant that they were rather weak at the start. Did this discourage Alex at all? Not even a little , rather it excited him.
"Unknown reptile appears carnivorous in nature , but further testing is required for verification of what depth the diet truly consist of" the women noted eagerly. Alex wasted no time eating the other four ants which left him visibly stuffed to an uncomfortable level. Interestingly enough this act of overeating actually generated an additional trait , specifically the [compact stomach] trait. the requirements for this trait were that Alex had to over eat twenty five times. This also high lighted the most bothersome part of the system for Alex. In order to know exactly what the trait did he needed to unlock it which meant he needed to guess what they did until then.
So far it was fairly easy to guess what some traits did from their names but Alex didn't doubt that later some might be hard to figure out. Alex ignored the woman who was watching him eagerly after eating and went back to the soft scarf he found earlier where he fluffed it up before curling up to go to sleep on it. The woman seemed to not mind being ignored and went on and on about the things she found of note about Alex.
Alex woke up later when the women was sketching his appearance on a sheet of rough paper and had apparently felt the need to flip him over. It was a rude awakening to say the least and alex showed his displeasure with a loud hissing sound. "Oh hush up , you are just too cute to be intimidating." the woman said with a giggle at Alex's protest. Alex sulked with a dejected expression hearing this which made the woman laugh even more. "Now hold still and i'll give you a bit of fish as a reward." the woman said and Alex fell to the temptation of good food , remaining nice and docile.
__________________________________________________
My p@treon is listed under my pen name : loskro if you are having trouble finding it. patreon.com/user?u=81578854