Callum hurriedly ate the other 9 small fruits and noticed that all of them were worth 5 energy points each bringing the points he had to 50. He tried upgrading his life regeneration to Tier III but seeing no movement on the panel he knew the points weren't enough. He still had a chance to integrate 1 ability this week and Callum decided not to wait but first increase his chances of survival much as he could.
Most of the small creatures didn't have any abilities and those that did had ones that were useless to Callum. Still trekking slowly through the trees he suddenly saw some flashing up in the trees. At first he thought he thought it was a trick of the light but the movement stopped and he saw a small bird that had tiny arcs of electricity fading from its beautiful blue feathers. It flew away and Callum hurriedly scanned it in excitement.
{Scan activated... Target - Flashing blue jay}
Level : 10
Ability: Electric speed enhancement (Tier I) {Extract?}
Swiftly accepting, he felt a new kind of energy coursing though his body. As was usual, he innately knew how to use the new ability and couldn't wait to try it. First using 10 points to upgrade it to Tier II he activated the ability and felt the energy in his body rapidly drain as small arcs of electricity covered his whole body. The world seemed to suddenly slow down and he tried to move towards a tree in front of, arriving next to it in an instant.
Even though just using it once at full power had drained 80% of his energy Callum was still ecstatic. His means of attack had once again improved increasing his chances of survival and he finally realized how lucky he was to have life regeneration as one of his first skills. He had thought that it was only useful for healing but its Tier II version brought him amazing energy recovery.
After he was back to full power in a few minutes, he decided to stop since the sun was setting. Finding a tree surrounded by some bushes he decided to spend the night there where he had some defense at his back and no direct line of sight to him. Darkness slowly encroached on the forest as the last rays of light faded and an eerie silence enveloped the wood. The soft glow of the moon provided a little light but Callum found himself incredibly unnerved, strange considering how he was always comfortable during his alone time. Finally he realized it was the absolute silence, it was like all the animals and birds had gone to their burrows, snags & holes and were hiding in terror.
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A few hours went by but Callum was too on edge to sleep, he didn't even move from his position. Thinking that maybe this was just a feature of the forest, he had almost started to relax when he felt it, life force. It was the same as when he had sensed the purple fruit but the life force this time was massive in comparison and he sensed 6 distinct ones. Callum slowly moved closer and peaked through the leaves of a bush trying to see what they were.
Searching for a while he didn't see anything but he finally spotted them, they were somewhat similar to black panthers on earth but instead had dark furless skin and shadows seemed to cling to them. They were about 15 meters away and were moving through the trees like ghosts, even with his improved physique he was shocked to find he couldn't hear their movement. Scanning them he finally saw their attributes.
{Scan activated... Target - Shadow Panther}
Level: 10
Strength: 70
Speed: 130
Ability: Shadow Cloak (Tier I)
Five of them were level 10 and Callum noticed that they had almost similar stats to the level 13 red claw wolf. The sixth one was most dangerous one.
{Scan activated... Target - Shadow Panther}
Level: 12
Strength: 90
Speed: 150
Ability: Shadow Cloak (Tier I)
He could use flame claw at full power at most 3 times plus once more if he decided to use his energy points, he could feel that it would take about 25 energy points. Callum knew he would have to limit the lethality of the ability to be able to use it more times and realizing how much of energy he had let go by leaving those creatures he saw while walking in the forest alive he felt slightly regretful. He had subconsciously avoided the thought of killing the little critters as they had done nothing to him and he didn't want to be a psycho who went around killing everything in sight to obtain energy points.
Though he was hesitant, he knew if push came to shove he would do whatever it took to ensure his survival and that he had to harden his heart. Callum's internal moral dilemma paused when he noticed they had all stopped and the level 12 panther lifted its snout in the air as if it caught a scent. When it turned towards his direction, Callum knew another battle was imminent. He thought he would be terrified but Callum found that a strange feeling of excitement similar to what he felt when he fought the wolf and won was bubbling in his chest. Smiling slightly he got ready, his prey was coming.