I stood up and moved closer to the crystal. The humming in my head grew louder, but I blocked it out as best as I could. Then I took a deep breath before opening the pending notifications.

[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against a Dilophosaurus above your level.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have reached level ten.]

[You have grown a Common Body. Your body grows stronger and more tough. You need less water and rest than before. Diseases have a harder time taking hold.]

[You have merged Consumptive Healing into Iron Stomach*, creating Improved Constitution. Your stomach is rock solid, devourer. Whatever you eat is food. There are no concerns over sickness from eating food. Devouring food speeds up the healing of your body.]

[You have merged Improved Constitution into your Common Body, creating an Improved Body. Your body is stronger and tougher than before, including your teeth and your bite. You need less water and rest. Your stomach is rock solid. Whatever you devour is food. There are no concerns over sickness from eating. Devouring speeds up the healing of your body, targeting the most critical areas first.]

The two merges surprised me. This was a huge upgrade from eating calories to improve my healing rate. It must have added in what normally happened when folks grew to level ten. However, I noticed it did not mention I needed to eat less. That could be concerning, if I couldn’t hunt for myself once I was back at the colony. Either way, it was still all positive. I looked down to see what was next.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have devoured a Dilophosaurus and gained insight into Heightened Senses.]

[You have devoured a Compy and gained insight into poison resistance.]

[You have devoured a Compy and gained insight into poison resistance.]

[You have devoured a Compy and gained insight into poison resistance.]

[You have devoured a Compy and gained insight into poison resistance.]

[Skill Unlocked: You have unlocked a skill: Poison Resistance.]

[Would you like to merge Poison Resistance and Venomous Bite?]

I paused after that notification. The question sat there, waiting for a response. If I combined the skills, what would happen? I didn’t really care for Venomous Bite, and I hadn't used it yet, but if Poison Resistance increased that would be awesome. Consumptive Healing merged automatically into Common Body, upgrading the skill. This time it prompted me for a response before I could move on. This was a choice. I guessed it was because Venomous Bite was also an option that it didn’t automerge.

Then again, I wondered why it didn’t merge with Improved Body, which would group all of my healing and resistances into one skill. One that I’d keep for the long-term, unlike the potential Venomous Bite. I hit no.

[Would you like to merge Poison Resistance and Improved Body?]

That was the option I’d have expected. I hit yes.

[You have merged Poison Resistance into Improved Body. Your body is stronger and tougher than before, including your teeth and bite. You need less water and rest. Your stomach is rock solid. Poison and Venom cannot get a hold inside your body, you automatically heal it. Whatever you devour is food. There are no concerns over sickness from eating. Devouring speeds up the healing of your body.]

While the name hadn’t changed, the description had updated and I was impressed. That left me with 8 skills out of a potential ten. Two free slots seemed like plenty. Especially since Noseen mentioned I needed to focus on unlocking a movement skill better than Tree Climber. Maybe I could unlock something and merge the two together? That would be my next skill target. The experiment with aiming for wings hadn’t worked out, but I could focus on trying to unlock something ground related. I pushed that thought away when another notification popped up.

[You have devoured a Parasaurolophus and gained more insight into stealth.]

That last notification bugged me, but I quickly got distracted when I realized I had way too many free points and I should spend them. I had eighteen points from the 3 levels I’d gained. Two from these fights, and the level from the microraptors. Glancing over my stats, I decided to even all of them out to the nearest nice neat number, except for Quickness, since it was already high.

Name: Alex

Level: 11

Race: Human

Traits: Survivability, Adaptation, Hangry

Class: Devourer

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Stats:

STR: 25(35)

QUICK*: 34(43)

FLEX: 33(40)

CON/TOUGH: 27(35)

INT: 24(35)

FORT: 25(35)

WILL: 26(35)

CHA: 23(30)

FREE:0

Monstrosity: 1%

Titles & Achievements:

Jack-of-all-Trades

Lucky Stars

Skill: 8/10

Insight

Improved Body

Crystal Attunement

Heightened Senses*

Stealthy Camouflage**

Blades and Polearms

Tree Climber*

Venomous Bite

Skills Categories: +

The amount of progress I’d made staggered me, and now I was so much stronger than I’d been only a few days ago. John would be shocked once I saw him. Soon, I might even pass my brothers, if this kept up. At last, I figured out that the asterisks were counters, and when I hit three, the stat or skill upgraded. I smiled at that thought as I moved closer to the tree. Time to make sure I knew the way to go, then I had to get moving. Nightfall would be here soon enough.

It felt like so long since I’d last climbed this tree, but it'd only been a few fights, it couldn’t have been that long. I couldn’t wait to arrive back at the shuttle and show my brother my progress. He’d be so proud.

Then I stood at the top of the tree. In the far distance, black angry clouds swirled high in the sky, but more importantly, the sunlight streaming over the grasslands fell in the wrong position. The sun wasn’t lower than the last time I’d been up here. It was higher.

I paused, my mind racing. The fresh meat tickled at my mind, while everything else had smelled off.

No.

It wasn’t possible.

“Noseen, how much time did I lose?” I whispered my question, hiding the panic.

“It’s the next day. You hunted the grass eater early this morning for your first meal. You didn't want to eat the leftovers from yesterday.”

My head spun, but the position of the sun in the sky didn’t lie. It was before midday. I’d lost a whole afternoon and night to devouring. I steadied myself on the branch, closing my eyes for a second before I climbed down the tree as fast as I could. Before I jumped to the ground, I glanced around for any movement, not wanting to be caught by the same mistake twice.

Noseen sounded hesitant. "Every Devourer has a binge moment. Now you've experienced it, and understand. You could not have understood before, none of us can. But now, you can stop it from happening again. Hopefully."

I nodded. "It's not that. I get that it's part of my class. It's the time I lost. What if something’s happened to my brother?" The question came out in a rush, and hearing it outside of my head made my shoulders stiffen. The piles of carnage mocked me as they sat on the ground, and I yanked out the rest of the bones and organs from the inventory crystal. I wasn’t going to clean this up, might as well leave the mess here. All I kept was the meat from the para, for later. Soon, I’d be giving the crystal back to John, and I didn’t need him asking questions. He had to be okay. I needed to get moving.

The meat and the devourer's teeth. I didn’t want to part with them. Not yet.

"You are less squishy now, I assume your clutch-mates are less squishy as well."

Maybe it was a human thing, since while Noseen had tried to reassure me, it didn't work. Maybe bugs didn't bond with family like we did.

The crystal hummed louder than normal, since it was completely grounded and at full strength. That was why it hurt my head. It had to be. I leaped to the ground, landing on both my feet, and then stalked over to the sled. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the rope and yanked. The sudden silence was such a relief as I took my first steps. Then I traveled across the grasses toward the south, moving with purpose. Most of the mud hole had dried up overnight, shrinking it from the day before. That was, at least, a good thing, and I made use of the small win.

The ground was hard under my feet, and I made good progress. Nothing bothered me as I made up the distance, reaching the far tree line in short order. Now, I needed to continue to the east until I came across the marking I’d left, and get back to John.

I found the marked tree easily enough, the problem was the constant noise. This side of the jungle was so freaking loud. My head was on a swivel, moving back and forth, trying to figure out what was going on. The bushes in the distance danced with creatures, putting me on edge.

I paused for a second, dropping the rope to the sled next to the marked tree, then I crept forward, keeping to the shadows and focusing on being sneaky. Too much was going on and I needed more information before I tried to get back to the shuttle. The next marked tree came into view, yet this one had a circle over the normal carved ring. Seconds ticked by as I tried to remember why this one was different. My eyes widened as suddenly all of it made sense. The craters that had torn up the jungle were directly ahead, along with the dead dinos. Everything snapped into place, including the unexpected activity, but I crept forward to double check.

A fern hid me as I surveyed the destruction. So many scavengers gathered in one place seemed unnatural, but was, of course, exactly what was called for. Everything from little ones, like Compys, to much bigger ones I couldn’t name off the top of my head. It was the largest gathering of meat eaters I had ever seen, though they were all of the scavenger variety, not the overtly predatory. Some of the bones were already picked clean, almost glowing white in the daylight. Small flyers covered one carcass toward the east, and nothing went near them. Other areas had small fights on-going, as competing creatures darted forward to snag bites as they could, while larger beasts defended their food source.

The entire area smelled horrible.

Everything inside me screamed that I should not try to make my way across this area. No matter what way I looked, there were more creatures, and there wasn’t a chance I could make it unnoticed. I’d need to circle to the west and keep my distance. My fingers tapped on my leg, watching everything that was going on. So far, the beats were concentrated near the kills. I’d need to be careful with my loop around the edge, and stay quiet. At least, since these weren’t really predators, they were unlikely to look for a fight with so much food available already.

It didn’t take as long for me to get back to the sled as it had to creep forward to the field of death. With that giant all-you-could-eat buffet up ahead, I wasn't worried about something following me. It’d be much more work to catch and kill something, plus I’d bite back. My only concern was yet another delay. I didn’t have time for this bullshit, since I needed to get back to the shuttle and make sure John was okay.

Once I got back to the sled, I headed to the west, careful to keep a wide distance between me and the congregation of scavengers. This whole area of the jungle was much quieter, especially after all of the commotion in the other location. Yet, the more I moved through the ferns, the more concerned I got.

It was too quiet.

A fern moved in the wrong direction up ahead, and I pulled out my knife, keeping my pace moving forward. I didn’t want whatever it was to know I had spotted the trap. Slowly, I extended my spear, keeping note of what was going on to both sides of me. Behind me was harder, since I still pulled the sled, but I did my best to keep my senses peeled.

That feeling of being stared at washed over me. Something decided to check out my level before committing to the battle.

Then, nothing.

The bushes went silent.