Day 6

***POV Change***

I was surprised when the female woke me up, shaking me softly. After yawning and streching, I pulled myself out from underneath the fallen tree and looked at her. She had taken to wrapping the bear pelt around her, covering her shoulders and falling down to around mid thigh, like an extremely short cloak.

Her eyes were serious. “Something is attacking that group of people, a lot of somethings.”

*****

When we made it back near enough to the camp to see, most of it was already over. Over 100 frogs had come to the camp, including a dozen of the red streak ones, which appeared to spit poison, and one mound level frog. Although there were quite a few slaughter frogs, almost all of the bodies that were so full of life yesterday were being devoured. The only two still standing were Miguel, wielding a large axe, and Ishten, his eyes burning bright. When he would point, a huge plume of flame would burst forth, leaving screaming frogs in its wake.

But it appeared that he was running out of gas.

“Nathan and that girl… I can sense them. They are running away, into the woods.” I shrugged. It made sense, they wouldn’t be able to overcome this many frogs. But heading deeper into the woods was a bad idea. Well, I couldn’t warn them of anything.

-Well you could have.

-Quiet, other me, every man is alone in this world.

-Except for us.

-Quiet, other me.

I turned to find the female, Kat?, giving me a weird look.

-Yea, I think her name was Kat.

“It’s Ketlia, actually. You could have just asked.” She grumbled, watching with a surprisingly determined gaze as these people like her were slaughtered.

I looked back towards the slaughter. The mound was hopping forward, heading towards the panting duo. When it was about 30 meters away, it stopped.

“And this,” I said to Ketlia, expectantly watching as it opened its mouth. “Is why even I am wary of those frogs.”

Tongue blurred, exploding Miguels head and quickly reeling the body into the giant maw. Ishten, finally losing his nerve, turned and began to run, ignoring the frogs hopping around him. But that mound frog was too quick.

The tongue brought the body back into its mouth, it chewed just once, and then the mouth was opening again, the tongue shooting forward, piercing through Ishten’s heart drawing the body back to eat.

“Well, that’s that. Let’s…” But I paused, eyes locked on the mound. After the frog ate the body, it trembled, then grew about two feet. And as I watched, the flesh of its forehead heaved and bubbled, and then popped, revealing a third eye, sitting right in the middle of its head. Most forebodingly, that eye turned and looked directly at us.

Congratulations! You have encountered the first step on your path to becoming a dragon. Slay that monster, and grow into your birthright.

At least I had a bit more guidance on what that strange skill would do, but there was a more important bit of information here: the monsters can level up and evolve too. This wasn’t a good thing. I shivered. “We should leave.”

She stared at the eye, horrified. “...I think it can see us. It wants-”

Its mouth was barely open, about 100 meters away, but my instincts felt it coming, even if I couldn’t sense it at all. I managed a half step to the side before the vicious tongue had crossed the distance and basically eviscerated the left side of my abdomen.

My body was spent spinning and tumbling, the pain almost knocking me out. I actually must have lost it for a second, because all of a sudden I snapped away, Ketlia crouching over me, indecision and fear in her eyes.

I stood up, blood running down my now shredded bear robe, and shoved her away from the frogs. “Move! We can’t stay here. We can’t-” But I couldn’t finish that sentence. There just wasn’t any air in my lungs. But still I hobbled forward, my improved Agi enough that even with the injury handicap I was getting farther ahead of her.

I twisted my head around and glared at her, wishing I could find the strength to speak, but I knew that continuing to run was more important. If it got another shot with that tongue…

“Are you… are you alright? How can you survive like that?”

I didn’t answer, hobbling grimly forward. I couldn’t answer.

*****

“Three things. First, if I didn’t know better, I would say that wounds heal exponentially, rather than linearly. As if the healing builds up momentum. You don’t heal at all during a fight, or running away, but as soon as I was in a safe zone, the flesh started to knit right together. Second, my increases in Vit and End from leveling seem to have made me much more hardy. And finally...well, it doesn’t matter, you can read my mind anyway. My recovery speed should be about double the average. As such, I’ll probably make a full recovery.”

I grimaced, looking at my furiously throbbing side. “Probably by tomorrow.”

Ketlia just sat there, looking into a small pond, bear pelt wrapped around her. Then she raised her head and looked at him. “Now what? That thing… that thing was smart. Smarter than an animal. It had plans. And it wanted…” She shivered. “It wanted to devour you. You specifically. It knew your face. And it will chase you until it gets what it wants.”

I nodded, satisfied. Ketlia seemed to sense this, and her jaw droppped. “You… you want to fight it? That? Unless you have a machine gun hidden somewhere-”

I waved my hand. “I don’t need that. I just need a level or two. Besides, I have to fight it too, now. Its my destiny.”

Ketlia gave me a withering look. I shook my head. “No, I’m serious. Well anyway, it won’t be that hard. Just a few things to do first. And while we are at it, we can train you up. Time to fight on your own for a bit.

*****

Although there were a few close calls during her first fight, she managed to pull through, and grew to level 4. I didn’t plan on having her actually participate in the fight, but she would be useful in locating that three eyed monster, and making sure I could isolate it.

Scary enough to fight it alone. But with dozens of smaller frogs hampering me? I would die.

In the meantime, when I wasn’t eating the corpses of the frogs to gain Biomass, both of my hands were practicing throwing knives, learning to control their flight with more finesse. And it appeared that having two selves focus on it really did make the process much easier.

Congratulations! Due to your practice, your skill has become “Knife Throw Lvl 9.” Accuracy when throwing knives increased by 27%. Damage increased by 9%. Knives can be thrown with incredible accuracy from long distances.

Well, it wouldn’t win the war by itself, but every bit helps. With the increased mastery of that skill and my Biomass at 171, I was ready to shift my attention to leveling up. I still couldn’t move at full speed, but I could walk in straight lines and throw knives well enough.

Working together, Ketlia and I ripped through large groups of frogs, not bothering to hide our presence as they pursued us. Part of my plan was to draw out the read streak frog, and it worked. Unfortunately, it caught me by surprised, and I had to shed the rest of my bear robe in order to survive through its acid. Still, when my three knives sunk into its head, I finally got the notification I had been waiting for.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, you have reached Lvl 8. All Biomass has been consumed.Due to your special circumstances, you have the choice of retaining the previously earned Racial Growth Rate of “Kobold Minion” or use the Biomass to receive another randomly assigned Growth Rate. Note, retaining a Growth Rate will allow you to learn Racial skills at the typical level they are learned. Note, if a Growth Rate is retained, the Biomass will instead be converted into random chances for improvement.Do you wish to retain your previous Growth Rate? Y/N

I clicked no, crossing my fingers. Hopefully the 171 Biomass would be enough...

Due to your special circumstances, you will receive the racial growth rates of a random race based on the amount of biomass consumed.Congratulations! You have received the racial growth rates of a “Vampire Stalker.”Vit +2End +1Str +2Agi +3Dex +3Memory +2Processing Power +2Wis +1

I sighed. It was fine, I supposed. All in all, I gained quite a few stat points. But the points in Memory and Processing Power were almost pointless, and I was hoping to obtain something that could give me a more concrete plan for fighting against the three eyed frog. I glanced at Ketlia, who was dispatching the rest of the frogs.

I opened my status and sighed.

Name:PredatorLevel:8Race:Biomass:0Health Regen:x2Vit:11 (+2)End:14 (+2)Str:13 (+2)Agi:11 (+2)Dex:10 (+2)Memory:204 (+2)Processing Power:215 (+2)Parallel Computations:2Wis:8 (+2)Luck:32 (+2)TitlesA Creature Which Named Itself PredatorRacelessSkillsLesser Air AffinityEndless StomachWeapons Mastery Lvl 1Knife Throw Lvl 9Path of the Dragon

Would this be enough…?

“Hey.” I frowned, looking up at Ketlia. There was something strange about her voice…

She smiled. Her mouth didn’t move. “I just got level 5. And I learned a new trick.

*****

Later that night, after we tested the limits of her new ability to speak mentally and working out a plan to attack the frog, we snuck back to the camp. Although all the bodies had been taken by frogs, there was something I thought we needed to make this work.

Ketlia got a spear that she seemed pleased with, and I found that wickedly curved axe that Miguel had used to decimate the frogs. I grinned in the darkness.

I was very excited for tomorrow.