Chapter 31: Who's The Lucky One?

It only took Matthew about more or less an hour to finish eating the two deers since he is now capable of eating them both in one sitting. But two deers at once is his limit and he can't fit any more food inside his stomach if he didn't want to vomit any food that he had eaten.

Matthew decided to eat both of the deers instead of saving one to be the crocodile bait because he wanted to know his new food consumption limit and he also wanted to visit the new area tomorrow to hunt for the crocodile bait.

Matthew wanted to go to the new area because first, he is slightly curious and just wanted to know a little bit more regarding the area before he truly starts exploring them for real after he's done with the crocodile. And second, Matthew wanted to know how strong his tongue really is.

Since Matthew had seen that he could find the boars there, he planned to kill one of them and drag the boar all the way from that area back to the crocodile lake.

So far, Matthew already knew that his tongue is strong enough to choke and hold one of the deer if he coils his tongue around their neck, and he could also swing from tree to tree using his tongue without feeling pain at all. But he wanted to know if he is capable of dragging a boar from such a distance, which took him about 50 minutes of walking with no luggage.

If Matthew was still half his current size, he wouldn't dare to try this out because it may take him half a day or more to accomplish it. But now with his significantly upgraded tongue strength and the body that is already half as big as the deers and the wolves, he only wonders how fast he could do it.

But that is tomorrow's matter and for now, all Matthew wants to do is to go back to his new nest and digest the two deers that he has eaten peacefully while enjoying his sleep.

If Matthew walked back to his new nest, it may take him about 15-20 minutes which is not that long, but now that Matthew has the ability to easily swing from trees, he could cut the time that he needed to reach the nest by half. And with that, Matthew climbed up one of the trees before he coiled his tongue at one of the branches and started his circus show.

After arriving at his new nest, it didn't take long for Matthew to quickly relax his body and close his eyes. But before Matthew was able to go into slumber, he then remembered something,

'Wait… System, now that the evolution process is done, you can enable the scanner function to keep watch while I'm asleep right?'

'Yes, system can notify the host if system detects a creature entering the scanner's effective area.'

'And how large is it again? The effective area?'

'With host's current level, the scanner area is 5 meters in radius from host's body.'

'That's good enough, enable it then.'

After Matthew confirmed the activation by seeing the appearance of a circle around the dot that represented him in the minimap, and the system's voice confirmed the activation, Matthew can finally relax his body and sleep without worries.

The night went peacefully and Matthew was awaked the next morning by the gentle sunlight that seeped through the nest's entrance.

As usual, when waking up, Matthew stretched his body from his head until his tail, and he even didn't forget to stretch his tongue as it is also a muscle that he will be using a lot throughout the day.

After Matthew is done with his stretch, Matthew then checks on the scanner function and he could see that it is still on from looking at the minimap.

'You can turn off the scanner function now, system.'

After Matthew gave his command, Matthew looked once again at the minimap and he could see that the circle around the dot that represents his body was gone.

'And also, thank you for keeping watch while I'm asleep, system. I will be in your care every night from now on.' Matthew thanked the system.

But as always, the system didn't respond to his thanks nor the statement that he will be bothering the system every night and probably for the duration of his entire life.

After he was done with his post-wake-up stretch, Matthew walked outside the nest and continued his physical stretch by climbing onto the trees and swinging here and there for a bit before he went back to the ground and trained his aura ability.

When he connected with the glowing white orb, Matthew noticed that the orb is already glowing brightly again.

'I guess a night's sleep is enough to restore all the used aura from yesterday's fight. That's good then, I don't need weeks or months to restore my aura ability.'

Although Matthew is curious about his limit on how long he could use the aura ability when he went completely invisible, he didn't have the opportunity to test that yet since he is planning to deal with the crocodiles tonight. And Matthew also needs to hunt for the crocodile bait and both of those activities required him to use his aura ability.

Since he didn't know precisely how long it would take for his aura to return to full capacity, he didn't want to risk it. If his aura ran out in the middle of the fight with the crocodiles, it certainly wouldn't be good for Matthew because if he ever made one mistake and if he accidentally gets bitten by the crocodile's strong jaw, either his spine breaks and kills him instantly or his head was bitten cleanly and also dies instantly.

And because of that, Matthew only trained to connect with his aura center and activated the ability for a moment before turning it off again right after to conserve his aura.

Matthew then continued his training until later in the morning when the sun was almost hanging directly above his head before he decided to hunt for a boar in 'that' area for the crocodile bait.

This time, instead of swinging there with his tongue, Matthew decided to just take a walk there to understand the area more. Even though Matthew already got the minimap recording the area, the minimap didn't give him detailed information nor the actual live situation at the site. So taking his time by walking and observing closely is the best course of action for Matthew, just in case he missed anything the first time he went to the area.

After spending 30 minutes walking, Matthew didn't see anything different from the first time he walked through the area, but he didn't regret walking as it was still early noon and the sunlight was not hot enough to sting his reflective chameleon skin.

When Matthew first arrived at the area, the same place as last time, Matthew tried to find the animals that he found last time. But after glancing left and right and looking at the patch of grass and plants that he had seen the boars before, he still didn't find other creatures.

'So am I wrong? Was it only a one-time occurrence and I happened to be there at the right time?'

But Matthew didn't just give up and he decided to go deeper into the forest. And because he never traveled to the deeper area, Matthew walked cautiously and made sure that he walked through a tall patch of grass so that he could blend in with them.

Even though his body is currently almost taller than even the tall grass, it will still be hard to spot him from afar, and with his enhanced hearing senses from the wolf's ear, Matthew will be able to locate other creatures from their footsteps from quite a distance.

And speak of the devil, after going in not too deep from his current place, Matthew could hear another hoofing sound.

'From the sound of their footsteps, it must be a group of quadrupeds, but it is slightly different from the sound that I heard yesterday, so it probably wasn't the deers.'

Hearing the hoofing sound finally stopped some distance away from Matthew's current place, Matthew decided to use the aura ability to go in closer to the source of the sound. But he didn't use full invisibility, he only used enough to make his body a blur.

Matthew proceeded with caution and peeled his eyes open to see what animals made the sound. When Matthew got closer and was finally able to see the animals, he brought his guard down and sighed in relief.

The animals in question are currently eating red berries from the bushes. The creature is shorter than the deers, but its body is wider and bulkier. And with short tusks that came out of their mouths and with their very iconic snout, they are the boars that are currently in the middle of enjoying their meals peacefully.

'Alright now, who is the lucky one who will be coming home with me?' Matthew said in his mind while silently activating his full invisibility.