The woman was quite surprised to find out that Alex actually seemed to understand what she said and was suspicious that there was more to him than it seemed. Alex didn't realize how big of an issue it was for him to be sapient since he only knew a bit about this world. Having only played monster hunter world years before his death meant that Alex was only vaguely aware of the storyline of that game and little about the worlds history. He remembered that the society was made up of at least three different species of sapient creatures but without playing the games before mhw he knew little else about their way of life.
The woman who Alex soon learned was called Eliza kept her word though and did give Alex a small fillet of tuna. Thanks to the fact Alex was barely half a foot long minus his long whip-like tail this fillet was enough to over stuff him again advancing his progress towards the compact stomach trait. This wasn't the only benefit to eating that fillet either as he had generated another trait from it as well. This trait was called [swimming muscles] and Alex needed to eat an entire tuna in order to unlock it.
Alex didn't think he was going to unlock this particular trait anytime soon since an average tuna was the size of a seven year old human. this is to say three to four feet long and about a foot thick while Alex was still half a foot long and about an inch and a half wide. Alex didn't realize it but Eliza slowly started to test his intelligence with bribes of food in exchange for an increasingly complex command. Once she was positive that Alex was sapient Eliza immediately reported him to the fleet commander and admiral who had just returned from his last expedition.
Alex was lazing about on the scarf he had "borrowed" on a permanent basis when he literally felt the air grow tense. He was frightened and anxious at this sudden change when the door to the room he lived in opened and Eliza entered with two men. It took him all of half a second to identify the source of his discomfort. the admiral was a good seven foot tall with think bands of muscle and semi long spikey blonde hair.
Whats worse was the primal aura the man seemed to radiate that Alex was picking up that made him immediately dive into a nearby empty urn to hide. Eliza was speechless at Alex's actions and looked apologetically at the two men. "He's usually much less timid , though i can imagine why he has acted in this manner" she said while giving the admiral a stern look. the man smiled sheepishly as the oppressive feeling vanished "sorry , force of habit." he said rubbing the back of his head. Alex was thankful for his reptilian biology that had his eyes at the top of his head as he peeked over the urns rim.
It was rather comical to see a single tiny red eye staring at you from a huge earthenware urn but only the admiral laughed at Alex. "Not to worry little fella we aren't here to hurt you." the man said trying to reassure Alex. "Here , i even brought a gift to prove it." the admiral said placing a fish about twice Alex's size on the table before backing away showing his hands. Alex didn't smell anything wrong with the fish from his urn and slowly climbed out of it without breaking vision with the admiral.
Alex cautiously slinked over to the leg of the table before climbing up with his ridged feet and claws. It was only after he got on top of the table that the admiral reacted since he could be fully seen in the lamp light now. "Hmmm , can't say as i've ever heard of anything that looks like that." the man said which made Alex flinch slightly. "He certainly is rather cautious isn't he?" the fleet commander joked drawing Alex's attention to him. Alex didn't recognize the dark pink scaled fish and took a tentative bite to test it.
{CONSUMPTION OF NEW SUBSTANCE DETECTED / WATER BREATHING TRAIT GENERATED}
This surprised Alex since he figured that that trait would likely be much harder to generate and unlock but the requirement had actually only been to eat ten different species of fish. The three people watched as Alex ate close to a quarter of the fish causing him to bloat up. "Quite the appetite as well , the little fella seemed like it just ate half its body weight at once." the admiral noted with an interested expression. "Could you bring me my quill little one?" Eliza said and Alex cautiously did so while watching the two men carefully. "Fascinating , it would seem you have truly discovered a sapient creature this time." the fleet commander said causing Alex to freeze.
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