- Magic

The second I get to my den, I start digging the dirt out of it. I dig for a good two hours and pack the dirt in with my feet. While the den was pretty small before, it's now a little over half as tall as an adult man! I made it just big enough for me to fit in, and I use the loose dirt around it to create a little wall in front kind of like a door that you have to break down and repair every time you use it. I lay down on the small bed of golden flowers I used to create a bed.

"Alrighty show me the choices!"

[Choose your evolution path:]

[Mammalian]

[Reptilian]

[Amphibian]

[Avian]

"Reptile."

[Extinct]

[---------]

"Umm… Extinct I guess?"

[Tyrannosaurus Rex]

[Spinosaurus]

[Giganotosaurus]

[Variant]

"What's the variant?"

[You can create your own species using other creatures as a base.]

"That sounds pretty difficult. I'm just gonna go with the T-rex."

[Tyrannosaurus Rex: This creature starts off small, but grows into one of the largest land carnivores to have ever existed]

"Oooh you're giving descriptions now?"

[Yes, I seem to have gained more free will after being named.]

"That's awesome! Can I get a description of the Spinosaurus?"

[Spinosaurus: The largest land carnivore to have ever existed. Starts off rather large and gets even bigger; however, this creature spends most of its time underwater.]

"That's a hard pass. Fuck the ocean. How about the Giganotosaurus?"

[Giganotosaurus: This dinosaur is roughly the same size as a Tyrannosaurus]

"Yeah, I'll just go with the T-rex. As cool as the name Giganotosaurus sounds, I know more about the T-rex."

[Very well.]

I start losing my consciousness again as I lay down on this incredibly comfortable bed of leaves that I made. Certainly if anyone were to look in here right now, they would think I am a dream. Especially since I'm hidden in a clearing with a golden tree in it.

After what feels like a couple seconds, I start to wake out of my stupor. I stand up and start to stretch out, but I realize I can't stand up all the way because I'm already touching the ceiling.

"What the hell?"

I look up and see a light coming into my den through the small opening at the top of the wall. I start walking forward, pushing the dirt wall out of the way and see a group of people that look rather terrified of me. I finally have a size comparison that I can fully understand now. I am about 2 meters (~7 feet) tall! I look at the man and woman that are currently on the ground trembling with fear, and I start freaking out myself.

My den was found! Shit! Now what? Everyone is gonna know about it now! I don't wanna give up my home so soon after finding it! But it's not like I can kill these people, they're just campers!

----------------

[Side Quest! Your domain has been intruded on! Kill these intruders in order to keep your domain safe!]

[Kill: 2 Humans]

[Reward: 15 Modification points.]

[Failure: You will lose your den.]

-----------------

"WHAT?!"

I roar out as I realise exactly what Ellie is telling me to do.

"You want me to kill them?"

[Yes. Humans are dangerous. If word of your den gets out, there will be many who will want to hunt you down. Either for scientific reasons, or just for game.]

"But they're just campers!"

[I wouldn't be so sure about that]

"What? What else would they be-"

*BANG*

"AAAAGH!"

I feel a sharp pain on my side and look over at the people. The man pulled out a gun and shot me! I start freaking out as the man starts firing over and over, this time at my head. I start charging at the man, and I jump up and land on him, immediately crushing his midsection under my feet.

[Lesser Human (Adult) killed]

[Level up x12]

I ignore the update window and look at the woman who is running away, also with a gun in her hands. I start running towards her and easily catch up, which causes her to turn around and start shooting me with an angry look on her face. I lunge towards her before she can get a single shot off and claw her stomach with my hands. She doubles over in pain as her guts start to fall out. Not wanting to see someone suffering like this, I take my claw and put it through her brain, killing her instantly.

[Lesser Human (Adult) killed]

[Level up x11]

-----------------------

[Quest completed!]

[15 Modification points awarded!]

------------------------

I look down at the corpse and wonder why I'm not bothered by what I just did. I had expected to start vomiting or something after killing people, but I feel like I would if I had killed an ant. It's not like it didn't affect me at all though, because I felt extremely guilty about what I had done. Then, I started to smell something. I turned the man around with my arms and opened up the backpack he has on him. There's a little girl stuffed into it!

I slowly lift her out of it with my hands, being very careful not to touch her with my claws.

"Ellie, is this why you said they weren't campers?"

[Yes.]

"Why didn't you tell me that they kidnapped a little girl?"

[Because you didn't ask.]

"WHEN IT'S SOMETHING IMPORTANT LIKE THIS I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO ASK!"

[...]

[I apologize. I didn't deem something like this important, and will scan your mind from now on to determine what you would classify as important.]

"Ugh."

I sigh and bring the little girl back into the den. Now that I get a good look at her, she can't be any older than 7. I realize that I may have injured her after making that man fall over, as both of her legs are broken and mangled.

"Ellie, would that mana heart give me healing magic?"

[I am not sure, as Gaia has not given me a detailed description.]

"Get the modification."

[Yes, Adam.]

As soon as she unlocks this modification, I start to feel a burning sensation around my heart. Not an unpleasant one though, as it feels like I'm drinking a glass of whiskey. After a couple minutes, I start to sense something as the entire world starts to rumble. The pleasant sensation slowly turns into a scalding fire burning around my heart. I start focusing in on it and see a ring forming around my heart as if it's a glowing green tattoo. The sensation moves throughout my body and starts coming out as a green plasma. This plasma starts heading towards the girl at a slow pace. I watch in awe as this plasma touches the girl and slowly starts to regenerate her damaged legs and all of the cuts, scrapes and bruises around her little body.

The world stops shaking as this same green plasma shoots out of the ground, most of which goes into me and the little girl. I look at the tree above my den and see that it starts to grow at an incredible rate, overtaking the nearby trees in seconds. After another few seconds, the ground underneath the tree collapses, sealing the girl underground with it. I don't have much time to freak out as within a minute, the tree is now as tall as a skyscraper and is still going. After another minute, the tree stops its growth after reaching far through the clouds and starts opening up in the front, showing me a small wooden cave with a cone of sunlight coming through, illuminating a giant bed of golden leaves with a little girl laying on top.

The girl starts to lift into the air as vines start exploding from outside the tree, all coming towards the girl, encasing her in what seems like a giant egg. After a few seconds, the vines start to glow with a beautiful green light and hurry away from the girl, retreating back into the ground. The girl now has slightly green skin, with a tattoo of what seems like the world tree from Norse mythology on the side of her neck. Her previously dark brown hair is now replaced with a light mint green color, and her body seems brimming with magic.

After a few seconds, I hear a voice echo seemingly throughout the entire world.

{Thank you, young beast king. Thank you for awakening the first world tree, your new home.}