First Kill.

Talos looked around the forest clearing as he was curious about where he found himself. First, he decided to test if he still could speak in this form. 

"Testing." 

He could still speak, but considering his vocal cords, tongue, and teeth were very different from a humanoid creature, it came out distorted like metal grinding. He kinda liked it, so that needed no fixing. 

The trees around him were massive 100 meters tall causing the clearing he was in to be the only place to see the sky. He shook his head and got focused as he would need to truly adapt to this new monster body he had. 

He got his feet under him and took a deep breath. He would need to make the Adaptive Evolution skill truly his if he wanted to survive and thrive in this world. Already he could feel the Divine Rank skill he received causing micro changes to his body. 

With every breath he took, his body got better and better at drawing in neutral mana from the air. This was not a visible change and it would not make significant changes on its own. But an advantage was an advantage over his competition. 

'Time to focus.'

Talos began to practice with his new body which was a weapon in of itself. Besides his tail blade, he had giant teeth made for grinding up metal, a fire-producing organ, a molten metal storage organ, powerful front limbs, huge back legs tipped with spikes, horns, spikes, scales, and his own sword skills. 

This body was designed to fight so he began to use the open space of the clearing to practice how to use his body in a battle. The tail blade would be his main weapon so he needed to see how well he could control it. 

Turns out, extremely well the tail's muscles, tendons, and neurons gave him exceptional control over it. He could sweep it side to side, stab with it, and he could even lift it over himself and use it like a regular sword. His front limbs allowed him to support his weight on them to better leverage into sword attacks. 

As for his fire organ, he had a steady stream of fire that could melt ore and rock so it was a deadly weapon. He stopped after 20 minutes when he got a good feel for his body. He took a breath and reached up to scratch his neck. 

'Ok, flexible, energetic, and powerful. As for Size, I am the size of a medium-sized dog. If I was a regular creature I could be at risk of being eaten, but I am not. I still have my old sword and magic skills. Changing my sword style to my new body will be tricky, but I can do it. As for magic, I should recover my lightning affinity along with the earth affinity.' 

As he was deep in thought, he began to walk out of the clearing to begin looking for prey. As he did so, he would use his claws and blade to cut notches into the trees to lead him back to the Mana Vein in the clearing. 

He kept his eyes, nose, and hearing pealed while using his mana sense to get a reading on his surroundings. The forest seemed to be just as massive as the great trees around him as there were trees that towered into the sky. 

After a few minutes, he senses life so he looks up into the trees. High up in the giant tree canopy, he could see what looked like giant ape creatures fighting just as large reptiles. The reptiles were around 5 meters long and bright green. 

As for the apes, they were 4 meters tall, but while they were smaller there were more. He focused on the fight a bit longer until a pair of the battling apes and reptiles slipped. The green reptile tackled a big ape causing both of them to plummet toward him. 

He saw the struggle mid-air with the ape wrapping his arms around the reptile's neck while the reptile bit the ape on the shoulder. 

'Score.' 

Talos backed away as he sent mana into his eyes causing them to glow bright golden. Time slowed down as he would ambush the survivor if he was injured badly. He sent mana into his tail blade causing the whole thing to burn red hot. 

His claws and teeth tensed as the fighting pair landed on the ground. The ape spun them around and landed on top of its foe. Even then, it was wounded badly as the impact shook its internal organs. Just as it pulled itself free, the reptile on its deathbed dug its razor-sharp claws into its armpit. 

The ape roared in pain as it brought its giant arms down on his attacker's head killing it. It began to pant in pain as the wounds on its chest, armpit, and shoulder continued to bleed. On all 4s, the ape began to crawl towards the tree as it wanted to rejoin the fight. 

But just as it was distracted, Talos ran in at that moment. Mana was flowing through his body as he leaped into the air. Back legs first he dug them into the ape's back and with his front he held on for dear life. He opened his metal-crushing teeth and bit down on its shoulder while his tail blade pierced into the ape's back. 

The ape not expecting the attack barely had a chance to react as Talos' tail blade severed its spine and pierced its heart. Talos ripped his tail blade out and stabbed the ape over and over with it as he did not intend to risk himself. 

With only a few more wheezing breaths the ape fell over dead. Talos licked his lips as he looked up into the trees with his mana-enhanced gaze. Neither species had noticed him as they were still fighting tooth and nail in the trees. 

'Got to hurry.' 

Talos' small jaws clamped down on the ape's bit hand while his tail blade pierced into the reptile creature's neck. With far more strength than his small body should have, he dragged both creatures away back into his clearing. 

Talos had to keep enhancing his strength with mana as he was still very small. Even then, he continued to drag his prey away as he needed food. Already, the exertion of his efforts caused his Adaptive Evolution to increase the efficiency and strength of his muscles. 

He felt his heart beat stronger than before as if it adapted to pump blood more efficiently into his body. This increased the speed at which he moved as he managed to get away from the battle in the treetops with his prey. 

Talos began to feel tired as he was pulling at least 2 tons of weight, but this was perfect exercise. By the time he made it back to his clearing, the sun had gone down and it was late at night. He dragged his prey to the hole he had dug and dropped them there. He took a few breaths as all that work had taken a lot out of him. 

He looked at both creatures as he decided which one he would eat first. In the end, he chose the ape as it was going to be softer to eat than the big scales. But, he felt exposed by leaving prey out in the open. He looked at the hole he dug to get out of the ground and was loath to make a tunnel to fit the reptile down there. 

He sighed as he listened to the instincts of his monster side. He grabbed the tail of the reptile and began to pull it down into his hole. It did not fit, but instead of digging a bigger hole, he used the reptile's body to expand the hole. 

It was not easy and it took well over an hour before he had the reptile down in his lair. He nodded with pride as liked the expanded hole down to the mana vein. Already the mana had recovered some so he walked back to his ape prey. 

With his second prey item well hidden, he could focus on eating. When he was back above ground he walked to the dead ape and lifted his right hand. He dug his claw into the ape's neck and dragged it down slicing it open from neck to belly. 

A downpour of blood left the wound, but he was unbothered. He dug both his clawed hands into the wound and with pure strength tore the ribcage apart. He as carefully as he could removed the intestines and stomach as he did not want to eat that. 

Besides that, he grabbed the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys which he dropped into the ape. With that done, he could begin. He took a deep breath and blasted a steady stream of fire over the ape's insides and the outsides. 

He burned off the black fur and focused on the insides as well. Cooked meat is less tough and more nutrient accessible for him to use. Plus, despite the fact he was now in a monster body, he would still like to eat cooked meat rather than raw. After a few minutes of this, the fur was burned off, and the smell of roasted meat was in the air. 

He licked his lips and dug into his prey. Using his clawed hands he tore the arm off the ape which was full of meat and muscle. His metal-crushing teeth tore into the roasted flesh with ease along with bone. 

As he ate he opened his eyes widely as the ape had a great taste. It was like roasted lamb mixed with pork. He dug into his prey with gusto as before long most of the giant ape's arm was in his gut. 

Normally that would have left him full as the arm itself was several times bigger than he was. But his Adaptive Evolution trait allowed him to eat more. His cells drew out all the nutrients from the flesh, bone, and marrow inside so he continued to gorge himself. Eventually, over half of the giant animal was gone when he felt fully satisfied. 

He fell to his back feeling like his belly was about to burst. 

'Now that was a meal.' 

He yawned before he burped which caused him to belch fire. He could sleep in his lair, but he decided to sleep next to his prey to defend it. He closed his eyes as he curled himself in front of his food. 

He gazed at the night sky which had looked weird to him as their was only a single large moon. He was used to seeing two equally large moons in his world which once again reminded him he was not home anymore. 

'But could I call that world home? I never explored which I now regret. For some reason, I feel more happy as a monster than I ever did as a man.' 

Eventually, he closed his eyes and let sleep take him. Yet, he did not let his guard down all of the way as he was in a wild forest. Anything could come to take his prey or even take him for food. Of course, he would not allow himself to become any basic monster to turn him into it's prey. 

They would come here and they would just join the ape as his to fuel his growth. He slept unbothered for several hours while internal changes happened to him. All of the energy in the meat nurtured his body which caused him to begin to grow in his sleep. 

His body was now exceptionally efficient at drawing out energy from his food. As he was having a good relaxing sleep, he sensed something watching him. When he opened his eyes they glowed a bright gold with a red hugh to them. He brought himself to his feet as he stood in front of his food. 

He brought his tail blade above his head to make it point forward. He roared out into the woods to scare off the opportunistic animal. After a good sleep full on food, he had grown at least 6 inches which were welcomed. 

'Come and get it.'

From the woods emerged large wolf like creatures. They were three times the size of a regular wolf and they had dark shaggy coats. Their were around 5 of them and they seemed to be unafriad of his display. 

They would pay for that mistake with their lives.