I watched as the Impersonators untangled themselves, angrily snapping at the air and clawing the ground. I was about to approach, but I wasn’t sure yet if I could handle a group of them, even if they did seem to be at a disadvantage. Probably not.

The sleek muscular creatures shot back across the ground, scurrying to the pile of fruit. One of them crouched down, reaching out a long tongue and scooping up the fruit, swallowing it whole. Then, the Impersonators launched themselves into the air as a group, flapping their wings and jumping from branch to branch before propelling themselves neatly onto their cocoons, pulling open the bottoms, and climbing in.

It was a strange scene to see all of their wriggly tails hanging down to the forest floor before being reeled into the cocoon. I blinked, some crust tearing away from the corner of my eyes, and yawned.

Well, I thought. On that note, I think I’ll sleep.

I settled down in my secret spot, positioning my head so that I could see out of the bushes without revealing myself. Though I joked about it, this world was a dangerous place to live in.

I wonder why I’m just… fine with all this? Is it just my nature? Or, did reincarnating change me somehow?

I lay there, pondering like a philosoraptor, my eyes growing heavier as howls pierced the night sky. As my breathing slowed, and I finally allowed my eyes to fully close, I observed a dark shape in the distance darting by, just as I fell asleep.

Alpha Fenrir [Lvl ???]

In the morning, I kept an eye on the cocoons hanging from the branches as I snuck away silently. On a whim, I used Observe on one of them.

Metamorphic Impersonator Hagat

Hagat? What the heck is a hagat?

I shook my head, observing the other cocoons in hopes of an answer. But it was to no avail. The instinct didn’t level up, either. My next target were the fruits beneath the cocoons, which were smaller than the one Little Dino Foo Foo had stolen.

Skurgis Fruit Skurgis Fruit Skurgis Fruit Skurgis Fruit Skurgis Fruit Skurgis Fruit Your [Observe] instinct has leveled up. It is now level 3.

Aha!

Now that my skill had leveled up, I tried using it on the cocoons again.

Metamorphic Impersonator Hagat Vivresekdei

What? I kicked a nearby stone angrily, sending it flying off into the distance. That just made it worse!

Whatever these things were, it was clear that Observe wasn’t going to be any help to me. Not right now, anyway.

And with that delectable fruit having been abducted, there was no longer a reason to stay nearby. And so I walked, and the jungle passed me by

I crossed over a stream and through brambles, though the thorns no longer bothered my new saurian body, being covered in scales and all.

Pro tip (for dinosaurs only): If you have to flee from normal creatures with soft skin, run through the thorn bushes. Just, make sure not to get one in your eye, because that’d probably hurt.

Occasionally, I’d find tracks in places with soft dirt. While most of the jungle was covered in moss, roots, and rocks, some clearings looked to be very fertile ground, with a rich dark color, and an extremely earthy scent.

However, the first time I stumbled upon one of these clearings, I paused. The treeline abruptly ended where this fertile ground began. My suspicion grew when I noticed that any tracks I’d been able to see were simply absent in the circle of dark dirt, and no foliage was present.

Naturally, I used my Observe on the clearing, as I’d been doing with everything I passed by, though it hadn’t leveled up again yet.

This leveling system seems a little… unbalanced.

Blessed Glade

Huh?

No information besides the name of the spot was presented, and so I carefully made my way around the zone.

Remember, I thought to myself as I crept around the clearing. This is a game of life and death, and that’s a flag I don’t want to blindly interact with.

As I traveled farther away, leaving the Blessed Glade behind, I stumbled over the crest of a hill to find myself presented with another one.

Blessed Glade

What the hell are these things?

After avoiding that one, and scaring away several deer in the process (which I just missed using Observe on), I discovered that there was yet another Blessed Glade directly to the side of the first. And as I worked my way between them and moved beyond, I encountered more and more of them, appearing closer together until I couldn’t safely traverse the thin line of trees between them.

This… is definitely not a safe place.

At first, I had wondered if the Blessed Glade was just a name for some kind of natural occurrence in the dense woods, but after seeing this many, I could tell it clearly wasn’t.

A squirrel darted in front of me and shot towards the clearing, its dark bushy tail flapping out behind it. My mouth watered involuntarily as I watched the rodent, which seemed so much larger to my tiny body. My stomach grumbled, and I unconsciously took a step forward before catching myself. I shook my head to clear it.

What am I thinking? Squirrels?

I caught sight of the grey creature as it paused, looking around abruptly before leaping out into the Blessed Glade. It landed on the dirt, pausing to glance around once more.

A sense of danger washed over me and I hopped further away from the clearing. My stomach growled, but the rumbling I felt now wasn’t from my body.

No. The ground was shaking.

The bundle of silver fur leaped, shooting across the ground, a bullet fired from a gun. It doubled back, dipping and dodging some invisible threat, as though it were unsure whether or not it wanted to cross the zone or simply escape.

The bushy tail fluttered again, tapping the dirt beneath it, where the squirrel had left light footprints in the previously unmarred soil.

And that was when the earth erupted.