The next day, he woke up hungry and could hear his stomach growl.
"I shouldn't have flown so far yesterday." He thought.
"I should go for the hunt now."
He took off in search of the food. Within a minute he spotted many preys like frogs, scorpions, lizards, and mice. However, they were too small for his appetite and he would have to hunt multiple times to fill his stomach.
After another minute of continuous flight, something caught his eye.
There was a golden line in the ground with a length of 2 meters. However, he was sure it wasn't a golden line or rope because it was moving slowly.
With a sharp vision, he was able to zoom in on the snake and see its true body. It was one of the natural abilities of the golden eagle.
The snake was slithering slowly, and its body was unnaturally golden. It looked as if a golden rope was crawling.
"It is unnaturally golden, I have never seen or heard of such a snake in my previous life."
Curiosity got the better of him, so he dived and caught the snake with his talons and flew towards his home tree.
Golden snake tried to free itself from his clutch. However, his claws could exert a force of 600 psi or 15 times the grip strength of an average adult human, so its attempts were in vain.
After returning to the tree, he used his talons to crush the head of the golden snake and got a notification.
[Congratulation host on eliminating Mutated Golden Snake!]
[You have obtained 5 Evo points!]
What surprised him was not the points but the name of the snake, 'mutated golden snake'.
He had hunted many preys, but none of them were mutated, so he asked the system about it.
"System, why was it mutated?"
"Animals can mutate after they reach the mutation realm. However, it had no cultivation. So, it must have mutated due to its environment."
"System, what is mutation realm?"
"Mutation is the first realm of various cultivation stages or power level in this world."
"Cultivation? What's that?" He heard the word for the second time from the system, but had no idea about it.
"Cultivation is the act of gaining supernatural power and increasing your lifespan through the act of forced evolution, usually done by absorbing Qi available in the surrounding."
He had never heard of the word 'QI' too, so he asked "System what is Qi?"
"Qi is the microscopic energy particles surrounding us."
"System can I cultivate too?"
There was only one rule in the jungle, 'Strength'. He was eager to get stronger.
"No, you currently lack any skill or ability to absorb QI. However, you can also grow stronger by absorbing abilities."
He was down when he heard he couldn't cultivate.
"At least I can grow stronger by absorbing abilities." He still had some hope left.
"Hopefully, I can obtain those abilities or skills in the future."
He was still hungry, so he ripped the snake into 4 pieces and started gobbling them one by one. Finally, he was full and there was small progress in his ability 'poison bite'.
After a bit of rest, he decided to make a hole in the tree that was big enough for him to live. He still had human consciousness.
He used his talons to chip out the small chunks of the wood and after hours of work, there was a big enough hole in the tree for him.
"Finally done."
The night was already upon him, so he went inside.