Finding The Right Prey

Matthew woke up the next afternoon, then he proceeded to finish eating the big crocodile since he couldn't finish it in one sitting earlier when he woke up at dawn.

And after Matthew stuffed his stomach full with crocodile's meat. He finally got the notification that the monster data for the porosus crocodile had been completed at last.

'Alright let's see my progress so far. System, please open the basic info tab'

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Name: Matthew

Race : Altered Veiled Chameleons

Level : 14

Bionutrients : 3811

Monster Data Collected:

-Common Wandering Spider (100%)

-Brown-Tailed Deer (100%)

-Lupus Wolf (100%)

-Scrofa Boar (12%)

-Porosus Crocodile (100%)

-Boa Dendroaspis (100%)

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After taking a quick look at the basic info tab, the one thing that stands out the most for Matthew's eyes is the number of bionutrients that he has. The amount he has now is already 2000 more bionutrients compared to his second evolution.

Matthew was about to wonder how much freedom could he have on his third evolution with that amount of bionutrients. He already got an idea of what he wanted to add to his body from both the crocodile and the snake. But before Matthew was lost in his imagination, he remembered that the case regarding his bionutrients is always the same after each of his evolution.

In the first evolution, he only had about 200 bionutrients, while in the second evolution he had almost 2000 bionutrients amassed, and when he thought that he could do whatever he wanted with that many bionutrients, he was left with only 200 bionutrients left after the evolution because of the expensive price of adding the wolf's head.

This time, Matthew was only a level away from the required amount to undergo the third evolution, but he already has almost 4000 bionutrients, about double the amount from last time.

But Matthew didn't fantasize much because he knew that following the trend of his evolution so far, there is a high chance that his body will get even bigger and possibly double his current size. And the prices will also be more expensive since size also affects the price.

Matthew won't complain about getting another size increase since he felt that his 1meter long body is still not sufficient and getting his body length to about 2 meters long is just the right amount for him. And Matthew didn't really care about his body getting too big for him to camouflage and blend in with his surroundings since his chameleon aura ability solved all problems regarding his stealth and invisibility.

But Matthew knew that the bigger his body became, the more bionutrients he needed to spend to get the upgrade that he wanted.

Matthew didn't know if the upgrade he was thinking for himself was really possible or not in the first place and he had to see and try it for himself if it would work or not. But he knew that if the upgrade was possible, it would have taken as many bionutrients as changing his chameleon head to a wolf's head if not more.

The upgrade, if it's truly possible, will greatly enhance Matthew's defense and will enable him to take a few additional ordinary hits to his body without endangering himself.

'And speaking of evolution, I'm only a level away from reaching level 15, but how many creatures do I need to kill to level up? If I remember correctly, the deers are only about below level 10. The boars are better since their average level is around level 11.'

'But so far, killing creatures with levels below my current one is not effective at all. I at least need a creature at my level and I need to kill at least 5 of them to level up once. And that is only my rough estimate with my unreliable knowledge.'

'If I have to kill the boars and the deers, then wouldn't I need to kill ten or maybe twenty of them? And I don't even need their monster data, their bodies will only be a waste since I won't be eating that much in a short amount of time!'

'This world isn't a game and the creatures will neither despawn after death nor respawn if they are extinct. I only wanted to simply level up, not destroy a whole ecosystem.'

'The best thing to do is to hunt other strong creatures like the wolves and crocodiles which are above my level or at least the same or only 1 level below mine. But I've killed them all and the next thing that I found scary and strong looking is the bear.'

Matthew then remembered the event yesterday where only a snapping twig could catch the bear's attention from deep within its burrow, meaning that its senses are top-notch. And the strength that the bear displays is way too terrifying for Matthew to imagine.

He didn't even bother to imagine his body getting clawed by something that was able to cut deep into a tree and almost made a see-through hole through the tree with only a swing of its claw.

For now, Matthew decided that it's not the time yet to challenge the bear, but maybe after his third evolution, he will try and do it.

'So what should I do? I can't evolve if I don't level up, but my options are limited! The bear is sure out of the question as well! But should I really massacre the low-leveled animals?'

Matthew then scratched his head several times, trying to think of ways out of his difficult situation.

'I mean I could totally kill the deers and boars, but it just doesn't feel right to me.'

Matthew could kill the animals so far because he thought that he killed them for his own survival and the other reason is because of revenge, but just killing a lot of them and wasting their meat only for him to level up a level is not worth it in Matthew's eyes and his conscience also couldn't take it.

'If only there is another creature that is the same level as me or at least only 1 level below me and lived in large groups and I didn't have their monster data yet so that it won't be a waste when I ate them….'

'If only that exists…..'

Then something clicked on Matthew's mind,

'MONKEYS!'

Matthew used to completely avoid the monkeys because he thought that they would be a pain in the backside to deal with their known infamous trickster nature back on earth, and the power they display when jumping over a 10-meter distance made Matthew think slightly high of them. More importantly, their huge number that reached more than 10 monkeys is also another intimidating fact that Matthew didn't forget.

But if Matthew really thought about it, if he used his full invisibility, no matter how strong or cunning the monkeys or how many their numbers are, if they fail to find Matthew's whereabouts then all their advantage will go down the drain, and Matthew could play an unfair game of tag with the monkeys where the runner couldn't see the tagger that was chasing them.

The average levels of the monkey are still unknown, but even if they are two or three levels below Matthew, there are tens of them in a group and Matthew doubt that there is only 1 group of monkey is the vast forest, and that means he won't be doing any genocide to the population of monkey in the forest.

But nevertheless, Matthew still hoped that their level is at least above 10, and killing an entire group of the monkeys would be enough for him to get the level up that he wanted.

Now with Matthew's body fresh after a whole night of sleeping and having a satisfying meal, he quickly set out. Swinging his body into the directions where he had seen the monkeys last time.

Matthew is still proud of himself that he had found out about this method of traveling that saved so much of his time. Although he had stumbled upon the swinging idea by accident which derived from wanting to realize one of his childhood dreams, he still took the full credit for coming up with the way of improvising and realizing it with his new chameleon body.

Matthew swung for another 20 minutes before he finally arrived near the area where he found the monkeys before. By now, Matthew's tongue seemed to have been more reliable as 20 minutes of swinging didn't even give it a slight sore. And it is combat-ready even after continuous use for swinging.

Matthew then made sure that his skin color is the same as the grasses and the ground where he put his feet, then he set out forward to find the monkeys.

And it didn't take long for Matthew to find them since compared to the silent and camouflaging snake, the monkeys made a loud sound as if pronouncing their whereabouts to the whole forest. And Matthew is sure that even without his enhanced hearing from the wolf's ear, he could still clearly hear them shouting from far away.

When Matthew was about 50 meters away from them, he started activating his chameleon ability fully, to turn completely invisible.