A young lizard glided silently across the dense, damp undergrowth, its emerald green scales shimmering faintly under the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy. The creature, more commonly known as the Chinese water dragon was only 3 inches in length, possessing a beautiful, 4 cm long, ribbon like yellowish tail that was majestically coiled up.
This predator was currently on the hunt, its golden eyes keenly searching for any signs of nearby movement, its forked, pink tongue flickering in and out of its mouth constantly, sampling the humid air.
And as luck would have it, soon it got a hit- there was the unmistakable trail of a delicious snail nearby. The lizard thus quickly began to swerve its head around, hoping for a visual confirmation.
"Ding!
Target: Common tree snail.
Biomass- 7 micro units.
Spirit-0.001
Threat-???
Comment- Enough to make a nice snack."
A slightly feminine mechanical voice rang inside Anaxa's mind when he spotted the creature perched above a low hanging tree, showing him some basic information.
"7 units… hmmm… well these types of snails tend to live in groups. Hopefully, there's a small colony there." Anaxa agreed with the system's evaluation that the snail was at most fit to be a snack.
Thankfully he knew from experience that these types of snails loved to congregate on leaves, molds and mushrooms that grew on the bark of decaying trees.
So he hoped there would be enough of them around to turn this encounter into a proper lunch.
It was with that optimistic thought that the hungry lizard wasted little time, slithering up the trunk of the giant tree using its sharp, dragon claws, and effortlessly swinging around a few small branches to end out just behind its spotted prey.
Anaxa's mouth began to subconsciously salivate as his black slitted eyes lay their gaze on the fatty, juicy, grey steak like meat up close, so he quickly got into position, letting his green body naturally camouflage itself among the leafy greens and browns.
He approached the mollusk silently and stealthily, making sure the webbed steps did not make the slightest of sound, until he was within striking distance.
Then, upon confirming the poor snail was still completely oblivious to the looming danger...
Shoo!
The dragon like head lunged forward without any warning at the speed of lightning, its giant maw clamping down on the strong shell with all its strength. The hard carapace cracked with a dull snap almost instantly, before shattering altogether the next second.
Anaxa's sharp, razor like teeth thus dug into the soft, exposed meat below with great relish, as he found the taste of the rich, salty, juicy meat divine.
'Ahhh! I now see why so many people loved eating snails in my previous life. Their taste is really… mmmm, so slick and soft!'
It was so tasty that Anaxa could not help but take several large bites within moments, leaving huge gaping wounds on the body and making the poor snail let out tiny but horrified screams.
The attack had come out of nowhere and even before the poor creature understood what was going on, it felt copious amounts of its bluish blood flowing out.
The sluggish body had no defense against such a mortal wound, and thus, all the snail could do was wait and painfully endure the torment, becoming weaker and weaker until merciful death overtook it.
On the other side, the only thing in Anaxa's mind was how tasty the meal was and how he wished there was more, as he ate the delicious body in its entirety, leaving virtually nothing behind.
Once finished, he easily forgot the tragic fate of the innocent being and instead began to focus on finding his next prey, flicking his tongue out in hopes of picking up any new clues.
The discovery came almost instantly- just as he had assumed before, there was indeed a whole colony of mollusks around that damp tree only some distance away.
"Hahaha!"
Lunch for the fortunate reptile was thus very sumptuous that day, so much so that by the time he was done, Anaxa had trouble climbing down the tree.
His belly was full to the point it made him almost lose his balance and he had to rely on his very long tail to balance himself during some of the more perilous descents.
Then upon safely reaching the ground, the emerald dragon quickly snuck back down into a nearby heap of damp rotting leaves, mixing itself into the ground until it almost became a part of it.
This was the entrance to Ananxa's underground lair, and as he had snuck back into the concealed hole, he quickly used his tail to shift a small nearby stone to the mouth of the entrance, thus sealing it.
He had learnt to do this from hard experience when one day a snake slithered in accidentally looking for its next meal.
Thankfully, Ananxa was out at the moment, and when he returned, the system automatically rang out, telling him of the presence of the 'prey' inside.
The numbers shown that day had shocked Ananxa nearly out of his mind- the mismatch was so much that if they fought, the poor lizard could have done virtually nothing to save himself.
So he wisely abandoned that hideout, and upon the construction of this current one, decided it was extremely unwise to leave the front door to his house wide open like that.
"Ahhh… safe at last!" Anaxa let out a sigh of relief as he entered his lair, looking around to find the closed off dark, damp cave oddly very comforting.
"As a human, such a small, dingy place would have made me die of claustrophobia! And now…" He ruefully mused at his sudden change in taste, lampooning, "Ahhh… how I wish I could stay here forever and never have to go out to hunt. The forest is far more dangerous and cut throat than I could have ever imagined. My heart winches in fear every time I go out."
Anaxa slowly moved towards a bed made of stacks of green and yellow leaves as he lamented, taking a large sip from the makeshift puddle there. The seemingly dirty water tasted clean and pristine to his parched throat.
Then with all that done, the contented lizard finally curled himself into the soft bed, and…
"Ding!
7 microunits of biomass have been consumed.
9 microunits of biomass have been consumed.
….
….
5 microunits of biomass have been consumed.
11 microunits of biomass have been consumed.
10 microunits of biomass have been consumed."
….
6 microunits of biomass have been consumed.
8 microunits of biomass have been consumed.
….
He only woke up at night as this string of notifications buzzed inside his mind, informing him that his stomach had finished digesting the meal.
"Damn it! I thought this would at least see me through the night!" And as Anaxa opened his eyes, instead of feeling happy, he cursed- feeling that familiar pang of hunger creeping back. This meant it would soon be time to go out again to hunt, forcing him to put himself in danger once again.
This realization greatly troubled him, especially since- "The interval is getting shorter and shorter. To think I finished all that meat so quickly. Tsk… Just as the system said, my digestive juices are getting stronger and stronger."
Normally a juvenile Chinese water dragon like Anaxa could have survived eating only once a day or two. And that too would be based on eating only small insects, worms, critters and even foliage- things relatively lacking in energy.
Whereas he had eaten thick, juicy snail meat, full of nutrition and fat.
If Anaxa were a normal water dragon, and he had eaten so much of this rich food, he would have risked dying from indigestion, as the weak juices in the stomach would fail to break down the meat before it started to rot and fester inside.
Yet… due to his own peculiarity, it had taken only a few hours to digest it all, as proven by the feminine mechanical voice sort of cheerfully chirping out,
"Ding! Successfully gained 55 total units of micro biomass. Spirit energy increased by 0.003." Anaxa's foul mood only got a bit better by looking at the final scores,
"Well… at least I have gotten more efficient in my digestion. How much of the biomass did I get… thirty percent? Maybe even a bit more. Hmmm… System, open my host window!"
A curtain of light suddenly appeared in front of Anaxa's vision, filled with lines of succinct text,
Host: Anaxa Gelenis
Species: Physignathus cocincinus (more commonly known as the Chinese Water dragon)
Age: Juvenile
Location: Earth (Alternate reality)
Status- Cursed (Hunger- Host gets hungry quickly. Strength of curse is increasing.)
Primary Objective: Grow.
Side objective- Survive the next red moon! Time Remaining: 7 days.
Mission Tip: The host can hunt or graze on plants and trees to gain biomass, evolve and improve his chances to survive.
Bonus objective- Hunt and devour any prey with spirit of at least 0.01.
Reward- Level up, unlock new skills or decrease the effect of the curse.
Penalty- Strength of curse continues to increase and becomes- 'Great Hunger'.
Time limit- 5 days.