He was back at the tree on the border of the swamp. He had eaten the salamander and received another mutation point for his trouble. He now had 8 mutation points. He was able to obtain Titanic and Gills like he had originally wanted, but he had no intention of venturing into the sea just yet. So he intended to get Running Adaptation instead. He had a feeling that he would be very large once he received Titanic and that meant he would be slower. He decided to change that by getting himself some running capabilities.
The first thing he chose to receive was Running Adaptation. His legs cracked. The gap between his joints lengthened and he found himself unable to stand on them. He rolled onto his back and watched as his legs became much longer and grew enough muscle to hold up his 1000 pound frame. They were now toned and muscular compared to their previous lack of fitness. He felt like they would be able to hold him up all day if he really had to compared to the tiring belly walk of most crocodiles.
Leo rolled back over and stood. He was low to the ground, but he tried to run and found that his legs carried him with far less effort than they previously had. He attempted to reach max speed. He ran towards the river as fast as he could and slid. Although he rapidly slowed down he still found himself riding the water like it was a wave.
Yeah, this was awesome. He was no longer limited to areas near water. He could move relatively quickly and he was able to expand his area of operations.
Excited for the next change, he bought Titanic. Instantly he felt as his body changed drastically. His body expanded. The first feeling was a series of crackling as his spine popped and his vertebrae and bones expanded. He seemed to keep the same proportions as all parts of his body grew. His jaw widened and lengthened with his teeth falling out and new ones growing back in their place, except they were larger. He finished his growth and roared. It was much deeper and louder than before. The swamp stood silent for a few moments before answering roars met his cry.
He moved towards the nearest one. He only wanted to take his new body on a test drive. He walked over the water ways like they weren't even there. It only took him a single jump to clear most if not all of each waterway. He reveled in his new speed and size. He had never been seriously athletic. He had been fit, but he never got serious in athletics. He spent most of his time exploring and learning new things instead of at the gym. So the power he felt in his limbs filled him with excitement as he charged towards a massive tiger.
It likely had received the titanic mutation like him because it was at least 2 meters at the shoulder and maybe 3 meters long. Compared to him though, it was small. The tiger roared and pounced at his back. Leo's body slid into a narrow tributary, dodging the pounce. He turned around and ripped of one of the legs of the tiger. It howled as he chewed up the flesh and bone of the leg and swallowed it.
The tiger stared at him in anger. It growled and in its eyes was fire. It wasn't just its eyes either, fire ignited around the tiger. The tiger growled as it limped towards him. Fire shot towards him and he once again took shelter in the tributary. The fire died as it reached the water he was hiding in. Leo was large enough that his pure bulk caused the tributary to rise in level. The water protected him from the creature.
Leo tried to think fast. The tiger must be a Tier 2 it was probably stronger than him by a little so he had to win somehow based off of his advantages. It was decided for him as the tiger attacked him in the water. He jumped out at the tiger the same time that the tiger jumped at him. His jaws closed around the tiger's neck as the tiger bit down on his. The only difference was that he had armor and the tiger did not. The tiger bit down on his neck and penetrated his armored skin but it was unable to bite deep enough to get through his thick neck. On the other hand his teeth punched straight through the tiger's neck and into its artery
The tiger roared in pain and fire burst into existence around it. The fire wasn't hot enough to harm him, but his eyes did get uncomfortably hot so he put his clear eyelid down and the pain subsided. He had the tiger by the neck and he used it to his advantage. Leo pulled the tiger down with his weight and twisted its neck as much as he could. He rolled his own body in a version of the death roll crocodiles were famous for except it was now on land. The tiger went legs up before Leo took advantage of its helplessness and got on top of it. His claws savaged the cat's belly as his jaws took chunk after chunk out of the tiger. Eventually, he got a notification.
[You have killed Juvenile Blazing Wildcat(T2)! 5782 experience awarded!]
Leo ate the rest of the tiger. He had already eaten a large portion of its stomach and head so it didn't take long, especially with his new size.
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation Point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[New Mutations Unlocked!]
Leo had eaten the large tiger. He noticed that the tiger was very hot internally. He wondered if that had something to do with its fire affinity. He checked his new mutations.
Mutations
3 points (126/1000 lbs)
Gills- Allows breathing in water [3]
Wings- Allows for instinctual flight[5]
Regeneration- Allows growth of new tissue with sufficient nutrients[5]
Heat Absorption- Absorb heat as energy that is stored for later in muscles [2]
He had gotten a mutation related to what he had eaten. He had no idea that he could unlock new ones in that manner. Well, he was thankful for it at least. Although he now had an issue, he wanted all of them. Gills would allow him to breath underwater. Wings would let him fly. Regeneration would give him back his tail that was still missing about a 2 feet. Finally, heat absorption would counter one of his cold blooded weaknesses. He just didn't have enough points. He would have to eat a lot of inorganic material to get the points before he leveled. Luckily, he could probably eat quite a lot with every bite now.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The order he planned to get his mutations was Regeneration, Wings, Gills, then Heat Absorption. That was in order of benefits. He needed the regen first, for obvious reasons. Then the others were simply in order of usefulness.
He made his way back to his home base, the border tree. He decided that that the easiest and most abundant resource at the moment was sand. He rested for a time before beginning the desert buffet.
----------------------------------------
Leo lay on the ground groaning. His mouth felt like sandpaper which was appropriate since he had just eaten 3000 pounds of sand according to his notifications.
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
He bought Regeneration and felt a buzzing sensation rush through his body like his body had fallen asleep and was waking up to pins and needles. There was a lot of buzzing focused around his tail. He looked back and noticed that the flesh around his tail was roiling. His stump broke open and new flesh came forth. He witnessed his tail regrow. It began with a lump of flesh that formed bones inside of it, then formed the scales and spines. His tail finished reforming and what was left was a ravenous hunger from the stolen nutrients the ability used.
He ate some mud for the variety. He was done with sand. It tasted like shit, which it very well may be. Leo was full. He didn't want to eat any more dirt of any kind. He needed a palate cleanser, so he roared. He got an answering roar to the right, near the beach. He headed over. Leo reached the beach. There was a giant salamander. It was much larger than the previous salamander he had killed and it didn't seem to have anything else special about it.
The two beasts roared at each other and growled. The first attack came from the salamander. It screeched, sending a blast of sound at the crocodile. The crocodile flinched as his ears started to bleed and then seemed to stop soon after they started. The crocodile lunged at the salamander. He captured the salamander around the neck. As he squeezed around the salamander's neck, the creature struggled to get its voice out. However as it struggled to make a sound, the salamander did manage to amplify every sound they both emitted by many folds.
It was an interesting power, like it could manipulate sound. Each slam their bodies made against the ground sounded like the earth itself was cracking open.It was shocking at first, but he got used to it soon enough. Despite the salamander's attempts at freedom it soon died from a broken neck as Leo ripped its head off.
[You have killed Juvenile Shrieking Salamander(T2)! 3782 experience awarded!]
[New Mutation Unlocked!]
Leo was happy. There was no other word for it. He had never thought he would experience joy from battle, but here he was. Leo checked his available mutations.
Mutations
1 point (226/1000 lbs)
Gills- Allows breathing in water [3]
Wings- Allows for instinctual flight[5]
Heat Absorption- Absorb heat as energy that is stored for later in muscles [2]
Resilient Organs- Increases the resilience of organs [2]
He probably received the Resilient Organs mutation due to the damage sound manipulation had wrought on his ears. Other than that though the fight was fun.
He wondered if he should be concerned about his change in mentality, but he shrugged it off. If he didn't change at all after fighting for his life in the form of a crocodile then he would be more concerned. As it was he was happy he didn't have PTSD or something. He ate the salamander. It was very chewy and just a little slimy.
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
----------------------------------------
He had repeated that process multiple times. Rest. Eat. Kill. Eat. It had been a week since he had first arrived in this world. He was now a 40 foot long crocodile compared to his original foot long size. He went over the notifications from the last few days.
[You have killed Juvenile Toxic Monitor(T2)! 4237 experience awarded!]
[You have killed Elder Desert Scorpion(T1)! 1287 experience awarded!]
[You have killed Juvenile Zaros(T2)! 6451 experience awarded!]
[You have leveled up! + 3 Mutation Points]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
[You have consumed 1000 pounds! + 1 Mutation point]
Mutations
12 points (206/1000 lbs)
Gills- Allows breathing in water [3]
Wings- Allows for instinctual flight[5]
Heat Absorption- Absorb heat as energy that is stored for later in muscles [2]
Resilient Organs- Increases the resilience of organs [2]
He breathed deeply. He knew what he was about to do would hurt very much, so he did it without thinking any further. He bought all of them at once.
The first thing he felt was a warm current flowing through his organs and muscles. That must be his organs and muscles being strengthened. It was actually quite comfortable until he felt the sharp pain as if his side was being slit open. Then he felt and heard as his back grew massive wings. They were scaled and sharp, jagged on the edges.
When he came back to reality after the pain, he found himself a changed croc. He now had large tan wings that looked jagged and deadly, but he couldn't see his new gills. He entered the water to test them out.
When he entered there was a feeling of relief. It felt nice in the water. He felt openings on his neck. They felt like they were breathing water in and out. Other than that nothing really happened, so he walked out of the water.
Leo thought for a moment trying to use his new wings. He extended them and retracted them, trying to get the feeling for it. He moved out to the beach to get to an open area. Then he got a running start and flapped his wings.
For a second, he hung in the air furiously flapping. Then he found a packet of knowledge in the back of his head that showed him what to do. He took off into the air. He soared above the desert, gazing into the horizon.
He got an arial view of the surrounding area. To his left was ocean as far as he could see, the right was desert, and directly ahead was nothing but beach.
He turned himself in the air, relying on his instincts to adjust his flight to face the delta. From up in the air he could see the delta narrow into a single large river and even further along he could see what looked like a town. He focused and could barely see what looked to be humans. Leo dived into the river and approached the village. He stayed below the water as he swam upriver ready to see what humanity was like in this world.