Settling The Beef (1)

'Okay then, let's do the first test!'

Matthew proceeds with coiling his tongue around the boar's whole body, circling around its stomach. After he finished the preparations, Matthew then used all the muscle that his tongue possessed and tried to lift the boar's whole body up into the air.

His tongue bent in a downward arch and all the muscle in his body, especially his tongue tried to bring the heavy boar's body up, but the boar is still too heavy and even with Matthew's upgraded strength post his evolution, it is still impossible for him to completely lift the body up. And even after all those efforts, Matthew only succeeded in lifting the middle part of the body slightly off the ground, making a small gap that couldn't even fit one of Matthew's feet.

'Test one ended in a fail, but it was expected. This boar might even weigh hundreds of kilograms! It would be considered blatant cheating if I get that much buff on my tongue to be able to lift the boar single-tonguely. But maybe if I evolve a few more times then maybe…just maybe... Well, that's a matter for another time. Now let's proceed with the second test!'

For the second test, Matthew released his tongue from the boar's stomach and then tied it to both of the boar's hind legs. After that, Matthew then positioned his body in the other direction making his tongue that is still connected with the boar's legs to bend sideways toward the boar's body that is now directly behind Matthew.

'Alright then, 1...2...3...PULL MATTHEW!'

Using his 4 limbs and using his tongue as a rope, Matthew pulled the boar's body behind him just like a horse pulling a carriage. With the help of his whole body and the tongue's pulling force, Matthew is finally able to drag the hundreds of kilos of weight behind him.

'Although this is hard, it is still doable. Trying to completely lift its body above the ground is a foolish idea, even dragging this thing all the way to the lake might cost all of my energy reserves for the day!'

'And speaking of energy reserves… It's okay for me to take a bite or two right…?' Matthew thought as he looked at the boar behind him.

'I doubt the crocodiles will realize if the boar misses one or two body parts right? So… Thank you for the snack!'

Although eating once a day is enough for Matthew, especially after he had two deers for dinner last night, Matthew wouldn't mind having a snack before he eats for real today, since the more he eats, the more he will benefit from the bionutrients that he got from each meal.

And besides Matthew hasn't drunk anything today. Although drinking the lake water is still Matthew's current favorite beverage in this world, the boar's blood does help him a little to quench his thirst.

'And of course, snacking is not my main reason why I wanted to take a bite from the boar's body! The main purpose is to make the boar's body lighter so that I don't waste too much energy dragging it back there, right Matthew?'

'You're 100% right Matthew! It's totally for that reason and not because you miss the taste of crispy bacon and roasted pork belly right Matthew?'

'.....'

'I think I need to quickly find someone to talk to... At this rate, my self monologue might turn into a novel with this habit of talking to myself... And I think it might get worse over time if I don't have a proper conversation with another person or creature soon.'

'Anyways! Enough inner monologue, me! Let's get straight to decreasing the boar's weight!'

Matthew then released his tongue first before he put the boar on its side. Then using his claws, he cut open the boar's belly and started to dig its body, and pulled out the boar's intestines, heart, liver, and innards.

Although Matthew wanted to eat the belly part, he didn't know if that would affect the crocodile or not. Matthew is 90% sure that the crocodile won't mind getting free meat even though it missed some body parts and there is a chance that they wouldn't even notice it at all. But because of the remaining 10% chance that they do, Matthew decided to just eat the boar's innards because it wasn't visible from the outside.

The process of extracting the innards out and eating it didn't take much time since Matthew already did it a lot of times with the deers and the wolf, and it only took him about 20 minutes to do the whole process until he finished eating.

And now with his newfound strength after filling his stomach with food, and also with the boar's weight lessening, Matthew continued his journey back to his nest with the boar's body dragged along by his tongue.

The supposedly 30 minutes relaxing walk from the new area to Matthew's nest turned into a 90 minutes long strongman pulling competition with the heavy load that he is carrying.

When Matthew finally arrived back at the nest, he dumped the boar's body inside his nest to keep it safe from any creature even if there are currently none in the area, Matthew just wanted to be safe rather than sorry. After he dealt with the boar's body, he soon followed inside the nest, activated the scanner function, and closed his eyes.

'I shouldn't have had any funny idea about taking a crocodile bait from a place that is 50 minutes walking distance. I shouldn't have been greedy last night and saved 1 deer, or even better, I should have hunted 3 deer instead of two…'

Matthew complained before he went to sleep. In order to regain his physical strength after the exhausting chore that he just did and the one that is about to come when bringing the boar to the lakeside Matthew felt like he needed a quick power nap. And he also hopes that his aura will be back to full capacity when he's awake in a few hours so that he could fully utilize it in the fight against the crocodiles.

Matthew finally woke up from his nap in the evening just right before the sun was about to enter the horizon. And luckily, the power nap that Matthew took did its job properly and gave Matthew the energy that he needed to continue dragging the boar to the lake which should only take about 30 minutes which is about the same time that it takes for the sun to be replaced by the moon.

Before Matthew started dragging the boar, he checked his aura center first to see its glow and found that although the glow is not as bright as the one in the morning, it's close enough that the difference is barely noticeable.

'Alright, this is it. This is the day that I will finally settle my beef with those prey thieves and the day that I will be freed from my grudge!'

After Matthew finished giving his pep-talk for himself, Matthew finally coiled his tongue around the boar's hind legs again and started dragging.

Matthew's earlier guess is not wrong as he arrived at the lakeside in about 25 minutes and by the time he arrived, the moon was already at its post replacing the sun.

Seeing that nighttime already arrived, Matthew didn't wait any longer as he put the boar's body onto the lakeside, the same spot that he got his prey stolen, then he left the body there before he went and hid in a nearby bush.

This time, instead of immediately activating his aura ability and wasting his aura to lay in wait for the perfect ambush moment. Matthew only changed his skin color to blend in and camouflage his body within the bush. But Matthew also readied himself by connecting with his aura center first and prepared himself to activate the aura ability the moment Matthew noticed the crocodiles coming or appearing at the lake.

Inside the bush, Matthew prepared his mind and body for the upcoming fight. He couldn't make a foolproof plan as he didn't know any details about the crocodiles and he would depend on his aura ability to run away if things go south. But Matthew didn't plan to run away that easily. If he only met with some difficulties, he will prioritize finding ways to deal with them. And he will only use the run-away card if his life is in grave danger.

As Matthew was already used to waiting for his prey, he waited and waited inside the bush without complaint. As the night went on, the other animals started to appear, the insects, and the deers, Matthew finally saw what he was waiting for. A dark shade under the lake and is slowly moving towards the lifeless boar corpse that Matthew had brought earlier.

Seeing his cue, Matthew activated his aura ability and went fully invisible.

'Okay God, if I have spare luck left unused, I would like to use a portion right now and hope that everything will be smooth from start to finish, thank you, God.' Matthew prayed in his mind before he started walking out of the bush to find the perfect spot to execute his ambush.