Third Evolution (3)

'3400 BIONUTRIENTS! Dear Bearded God! IT HAS TAKEN HALF OF MY BIONUTRIENTS STORAGE IN ONE UPGRADE!'

Seeing the required bionutrients to proceed with the ideal customization that he wanted, almost made Matthew jump out of his consciousness. But luckily Matthew didn't do so because he also felt relieved that he still had more than 3000 bionutrients left to add other things to his body. And knowing that his idea of having a color-changing crocodile scale is actually possible really made him quite delighted.

'The crocodile scales actually took about the same amount as my whole wolf head! And I don't know that those crocodile scales are actually called scutes, what a weird name!' Matthew thought as he looked at the first name on the list of upgrades.

Matthew then gazed downward and looked at the second name on the list, 'And what is that? Chromatophores? Its name is even weirder than the scutes! And it actually cost 2000 bionutrients alone… But it must be the thing that enabled my chameleon scales to change their color. Thank you Chromatophores, you helped me a lot all this time, and I will still be depending on you again for the days to come!'

Now that Matthew's main objective to add the crocodile's scutes to his body is accomplished, he is free to browse the other animal body parts and shop for the body parts that he wanted. With a remaining of more than 3000 bionutrients, Matthew could still try and do a lot of things with that much left.

Even adding a complex body part like the wolf head only cost Matthew about 1500 bionutrients, if Matthew really wanted to add a fifth limb to replace his tail, he could definitely do that with the remaining bionutrients. But of course, Matthew didn't have a plan to do that. Yet.

Matthew already has a few things that he got in mind when browsing through the body parts lists of the other animals. The first is the snake's venom.

'System, are the spider's venom and the snake's different?'

'The wandering spider's venom mostly consists of neurotoxins that impair the nervous systems. While the Boa Dendroaspis' venom is a mixture of rapid-acting presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins (dendrotoxins), cardiotoxins, and fasciculins.

'Wait wait wait hold up, English please!'

'The system is currently speaking in English.'

'No! That's not what I mean!'

'Can you please explain to me using a simpler term about the difference between the spider's venom and the snake's venom? And can I mix them together to make my venom more potent?'

'Both venoms are quite similar, but the snake's venom is more complex and if it was used together, the snake's venom will enhance the symptoms of the wandering spider's venom.'

'Now that's the language I can understand! Please add a third venom gland from the snake's and the enzyme glands so that I won't die from my own venom please!'

Matthew then checked his spending and quickly heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that both the venom gland and the enzyme gland only cost him about 135 bionutrients for both of them.

Matthew then continued scrolling on the snake's section and then he found what he wanted, the snake's heat sensor! Without thinking twice, Matthew then clicked on it and the heat sensor was added to his body. The snake heat sensor upgrade made a few more holes on Matthew's nose and that's it.

'For an organ that cost 369 bionutrients, it looked quite plain and simple. But it should be very useful and beneficial to me, I hope that it won't let me down.'

Matthew had already got what he wanted from the snake, and after he scrolled through the list he didn't find anything else that caught his attention.

Matthew actually still had one more thing that he was curious about and if possible, he wanted to add it to his body, so he asked the system.

'System, what makes the crocodile's biting strength so powerful?'

'The crocodiles have relatively stronger jaw muscles compared to other animals and they also have a second jaw joint that makes their ability to firmly clamp their mouth together.'

'So, if I add those two things, then my biting strength would be as strong as the crocodiles, right? Is it possible to only add them and exclude the other parts of the crocodile?'

From Matthew's understanding of the special evolution, it should have worked, if the system was able to make a color-changing crocodile scale, then this one upgrade also shouldn't be impossible.

'It is possible, but it requires some adjustment to fit Host's wolf head. With the addition of the second jaw joint and the jaw muscle, Host's biting strength will be significantly upgraded, but it won't be as strong as the crocodiles.'

'Size does matter, host.'

Since Matthew already got all the other body parts that he wanted, without thinking about how much bionutrients the upgrade will cost, Matthew just agreed to add them to his body.

Matthew's mouth then becomes slightly elongated from the added second jaw joint. Then at the top base of his neck, near his mouth, Matthew's face becomes slightly wider with the added jaw muscle.

It slightly bothered Matthew when he looked at his body aesthetics, but remembering that a wolf head with crocodile skin is already unpleasant to the eyes, he didn't bother much and just ignored his looks.

Matthew then looked at the cost of bionutrients and he didn't expect that it would only cost him 480 bionutrients for both the second jaw joint and the jaw muscle. Even with all the upgrades that he has added to his body, Matthew has 3411 leftover bionutrients.

'I guess 7000 bionutrients is really a lot! But what do I do with these 3000 bionutrients? It would be a waste not to use them since it would be some time after I evolve again. And I want to maximize my gains to power myself up as much as I can!'

Matthew then browsed through the animal list again, and he even clicked on the deer's and the monkey's this time. Matthew is sure that he didn't want anything from the deers. but he still scrolled through the list just in case he missed some diamonds that were buried under coals.

After finished scrolling through the deer's body parts list and still didn't find anything, Matthew proceeded to the monkey's list and he also scrolled down slowly and carefully since it was his first time looking through the monkey body parts list.

As Matthew scrolled through the list, Matthew noticed that the monkey body parts are quite similar to a human's. And after only meeting only animals so far, he had gotten quite curious to see the humans in this world. Although Matthew's current body is already completely different from the humans, his soul, logic, and way of thinking still belonged to a human.

'Now when I think about it, monkey's limbs work the same as a human's right…?'

Although after living for a few weeks with a chameleon's body, and Matthew is actually already quite used to walking and living every day with his 4 legs, he still preferred his life as a biped. Who can blame Matthew though? He lived his life as one for about 20 years. Using 2 hands and 2 legs is far more comfortable for Matthew compared to his current quadruped limbs situation.

Besides the positive sentiment for the bipeds, Matthew also felt that his current body is not agile enough and there's a lot of limitations that he got from the chameleon's short legs.

Besides being forced to use his tongue as a sort-of grappling hook so that Matthew could be more mobile, the chameleon's legs are also slow and it didn't have any specialties other than the two-toed leg design that helped him to climb up trees.

Matthew never thought of changing his legs so far because he needed the ability to climb up trees since he used the trees for a lot of stuff. Matthew did a lot of ambush from tree branches, he also needed to climb up trees to do his favorite way of moving which is swinging.

And the available limbs so far are the spider's limbs which Matthew didn't like and it wasn't much better in terms of its usefulness compared to Matthew's chameleon limbs. The crocodile's limbs are the worst since other than being beefier, it can't be used to climb up trees and it was also slow when being used to travel on lands, and Matthew didn't have any plans to live in the water any time soon or any time at all.

The deers and the wolf's legs are quite okay since they will give Matthew the ability to run so fast and traverse the forest with its uneven terrains filled with big roots and mounds everywhere. But the crucial weakness of those legs is their inability to climb up trees which are vital for Matthew.

But now that Matthew was given the chance to change his chameleon limbs with the monkey's, he was really tempted and he really thought hard about it.

'Should I change it?'