Chapter 44: Bulldozed (Part I)

'Fuaahhhhhhhh...'

Getting out of the enclave, really helps my nerves relax. Not to say that the enclave is small and makes me feel claustrophobic, but its just... weird...

I'm not anti social! I'm really not!

It's just, quite a process, to say the least to get used to talking sea creatures.

I don't know why talking to Shelton comes so naturally to me, but most of the other people I'm still having a little bit of a hard time being comfortable around.

Blowing water out of my siphons, I take in some of the uh, fresher, water around me.

I take in the sight around me for a little bit, happy to see the colorful coral reefs around and the flowing kelp strands.

I begin crawling south, towards the yellow spires.

'Why is it called the yellow spires huh? Is it like sulfur deposits or something?'

I can only assume that there's some sort of yellow rock formations where the Synok tribe lives, and that's going straight off of what Shelton said, and I don't entirely know if Shelton is entirely knowledgeable of the topic himself.

Point is, I wonder if I'll ever see the home of those snakes.

Passing by, I snag a few of the now completely overwhelmed red ranked crabs to snack on.

It really is funny, I mean, these guys used to be more than an entire meal for me but now? Merely an appetizer.

While I can definitely feel that I've became stronger, these wild crabs don't exactly make the best practice dummies though.

There's no real fight between me and them anymore.

I kind of just, grab them, and squeeze them, and BAM.

They're dead.

I know that it wasn't exactly a fair fight from before I evolved, but now at this rate I'll eventually get a crab god complex going.

At least they still taste really good though.

Oh! That's another thing that I had discovered from Ponto a while back too.

That cooked crab meat that I ate which got me a little... excited... wasn't actually even seasoned! So I could try and make the crabs taste even better than before!

Oooooohhh boy, just imagining what some of the crab would taste like with some salt... I can already feel my beak watering in anticipation...

I wonder what Shelton tastes like?...

No! Bad! No wanting to eat your friends! Thank god he's not here to hear that nor can he read my mind.

Enough of food though, I think I've finally found a worth opponent!

System!

<Scanning Creature...>

<Creature Scanned!>

<Showing Status of Carnivorous Marble Snake>

<Level 17>

<Health: 330/330>

<Vitality: 66>

<Strength: 82>

<Speed: 71>

<Endurance: 65>

<Intelligence: 12>

<Magic: 0>

<Luck: 16>

<Mutations: ???>

<Skills: Suffocate, Bite, ???>

<Tier: 3 (Orange Rank)>

<Species: Carnivorous Marble Snake>

Looking at the name of the snake, I have to say that it describes it quite well. The scales on this thing look like the marble you see on kitchen counters, just not quite as flat, ya know?

Not quite as strong as that snake leader that me and Shelton faced before when we had our first encounter, plus it's not intelligent either, but still! This is a fully fledge orange ranked creature!

And I really do have to say... Jesus.

This wouldn't have been much of a fight before I evolved yet again, but just looking at the numbers...

Kinda almost makes me feel bad for them? Most of my stats are nearly if not double this poor fellows, and that doesn't mean that I'm twice as strong, but rather WAYYYYY stronger.

Especially in strength. This guy has an ability named suffocate? With that pathetic number? Hell no! You should be doing everything you can to stay away from my 192 strength stat!

Unfortunately for this snake, it has no idea about the difference in strength nor about the fact that it's even being targeted by an octopus wanting no less than lethal hugs.

My body is larger yeah, BUT, the main reason why I was being spotted so much in the enclave was because not only was I moving, but also because the only cover there was uh... rocks.

And not jagged rocks that jut out from the walls and have little deformations on them, nono.

Smooth. Carved. Identical rocks. I guess crabs like to make sure their legs don't get sore from walking on uneven surfaces.

I guess you could say they're, flat footed?

No, but my camouflage is still as useful as changing my light brown color into a more green bluish color, with just a little bit of yellow.

It looks like the snake is searching for something? Probably hunting, now that I think about it, with it's tongue sticking in and out of it's moutH, I can see it slowly slither through the sand.

While it's not quite heading directly in the opposite direction of me, it certainly wouldn't get any closer if I just remained in my one single spot so I've got to catch up.

Thus, queue the jaws theme...

I crawl after the snake, thankful that it's taking it's time checking it's surroundings making sure that it doesn't miss anything. Except me of course.

This little game of chase continues for a few minutes as I gradually get closer and closer until...

"SSSSsssss..." The snake hisses in my direction.

'did it discover me?'

The snake continues to look in my general direction before swimming a little closer, inspecting some of the disturbed sand that I kicked up while moving.

[You have activate Density Manipulation!]

*Shlick!*

[You have killed a level 17 Carnivorous Marble Snake!]

The large barb on one of the tip of my tentacles pierces straight through the snakes brain, as it finally wanders within range of one of my tentacles.

Now, I know that I could've probably just hunted this thing down... But where's the fun in that?

I'm trying to test my strength here, okay? Not go around culling the damn snake population although I'm sure the tribe would appreciate that.

Ripping the head of the snake off and watching in amusement as some of the blood spills into the water creating a little bit of a cloud, I stuff the head in my beak first, before tearing the rest of the snakes body into bite sized pieces eventually finishing my meal.

With all the new barbs appearing on my body as the mutation levels up and as I evolve, it's getting easier and easier to use my make shift forks all over my body as I also gain more and more control over my cephalopod body.

Leaving the crime scene, I continue on my path as I grab a few more creatures who aren't too far out of my way for a little extra food in my stomach.

I soon see the "border" between the territories of the two tribes and just looking at it, I can indeed tell that there has been quite a lot of fighting going on.

I don't see any corpses around, but then again the fights probably don't finish exactly on the border, rather most of them are probably in the Carak tribe's territory since the Synok tribe is the one invading.

That's awfully rude of them. We're over here fighting for our lives and our territory and they're just waltzing in with no repercussions?

We have to be nervous that there could be an enemy patrol around the corner in our own territory, but they don't get the same treatment?

Grinning to myself I quickly decided.

"Let's check out what the Yellow Spires really look like!"