A Cold-Blooded POV

As he walked through the cave his chubby belly routinely scrapped against the ground. Though he was almost 3ft in length if he was measured in height he would only be at the torso of the small goblins.

This was because of his legs, though they were strong, they were short. So each time he took a step his belly and the ground were in friction with each other.

He passed the odd tools the six goblins had as they tried to rush him. There were large wooden clubs, sharpened shards, and sharpened rocks, he even saw sticks with rocks wrapped around them, making them blunt and heavy.

Ethoss once again acknowledged how intelligent the goblins were, these weird objects were probably weapons created to hunt since the goblins themselves were pretty weak physically.

[Deep Night Vision has reached level 2]

Ethoss blinked in surprise, his night vision had just leveled up. He didn\'t even realize he had been in the dark at all up till this point, his Deep Night Vision made him feel as if was regularly outside walking, no darkness was even visible in his eyes.

However, he noted that once skills reach rank 2 they take much longer to level up, he had been in the cave for almost 2 hours now and just now and it has just leveled up for the first time.

Soon he reached the middle of the long tunnel, where the two paths diverged, he quickly went down the other path where the 6 male goblins came from.

Though he could use rapid dash and dramatically speed up his movement, he felt lazy after stuffing himself. He would occasionally flick his tongue again and again, even though he didn\'t sense any lifeforms down the cave tunnel.

As he reached the end he could see another stick wall that was built by the goblins but these sticks weren\'t blocking the entrance to the cave room, instead, the door made out of sticks was wide open.

Most likely because of the goblins rushing out in a hurry to come to confront him, forgetting to close it back. He entered through the entrance easily. Inside, he saw tons of things made out of sticks, grass, and other things found in the forest.

The goblins had been making beds and chairs for themselves, though the beds were only tons and tons of soft grass and leaves. He walked deeper into the cave room and spotted even more of the odd weapons the goblins created, they were hanging and laying against a closet made out of more sticks and grass.

Everything was looked odd in Ethoss\'s eyes though, he understood why the weapons would be needed, however, the beds and chairs he saw no need for them.

As he thought about it again, he imagined himself laying on a bed of sparkling cores. Flicking his tongue in satisfaction, he sort of started to understand why the goblins would want something like that.

Speaking of cores he had been peeking at some red orbs on the far end of the room, he walked closer to get a better look at them. Moving some grass from on top of them, he easily deduced that these red orbs were monster cores.

How could he not recognize such a beautiful object? The small red orb dimly glowed as mana was leaked out of it, the twinkles it made in the dark were just as extravagant as when in the light.

Ethoss swayed his tail with excitement, he hadn\'t seen one of these balls of beauty since he absorbed the only core he had in his cave. Seeing these cores now made him want to bury them from the world for only he to see and have.

However, the voice quickly made him snap out of his moment.

[Compatible monster core detected. Would you like to reinforce your core or reconstitute a monster?]

There were 5 cores present that he could absorb, with these cores his MP would increase by leaps and bounds. But why didn\'t the goblins absorb these cores?

They were monsters too, wouldn\'t they have already absorbed the cores as soon as they got them? Perhaps they also admired the beauty of the cores just like himself? Thinking this, he grew a bit of respect for the goblins deep in his heart. They really were smart just like him!

Alas, no matter how much he liked the cores, he was smart enough to know that they would be more useful absorbed. He quickly began absorbing each of them one by one until...

[Monster core has reached the capacity for your current stage of evolution].

Huh? So apparently he had limits his core has to stay in with each evolution tier. He noted this in his mind, however, he still had one more core left. He started at the core with eyes of admiration. Since he couldn\'t absorb it he would keep it.

He grabbed the core with his maw and walked to the grassy bed the goblins had made for themselves. Since they no longer needed it he decided to make use of it while he evolved. As he lay down, he dropped the core next to himself and got comfortable.

Seconds later he pulled up the status in his mind, and he saw that his two skills, Venomous Bite and Camouflage had reached level 5 and could now be upgraded to a rank 2 skill. He quickly upgraded them.

[Would you like to improve Venomous Bite and Camouflage to Lethal Venomous Bite and Discoloration Camouflage? This will cost 2sp]

He confirmed.

After checking his status and making sure that he had upgraded his skills, he immediately went straight to the mutations menu. He had enough biomass to get one of his mutations to +5 and the rest, all to +3.

He immediately decided to get his Jacobson\'s organ to +5 since he would need to rely on it more than any of his other body parts. Without his Jacobson\'s organ, he wouldn\'t even be able to hunt properly.

As he selected the mutations he wanted, his heart was jumping like a kid about to experience its birthday, he was super excited to find out what would happen once one of his mutations reached +5.

He was confident in something happening because when he reached level 5 he leveled up, and when his skills reached level 5 they were able to get upgraded.

[Would you like to purchase Jacobson\'s organ +5, Legs +3, Eyes +3, Scales +3, Claws +3, and Teeth +3? It will cost 29 Biomass.]

He confirmed.

[At this level you may choose a mutation advancement, select from the menu]

Soon a large list of potential options he could choose appeared. The list seemed everlasting. Heat Sensory Jacobson\'s organ? Magic Sensory Jacobson\'s organ?

They all sounded useful to Ethoss, however, he had to be calm and choose carefully. A lot of the upgrades seemed to revolve around sensing things that were magic related however what he needed was simply a stronger sense of smell. He flipped through all the options, settling on one that sounded perfect for him.

[Unmasked Jacobson\'s organ: This upgrade will allow you to sense through the deceit of mana manipulation, giving you a more pronounced and accurate sense of smell].

This was exactly what he was looking for, now he could be more confident in his sense of smell when hunting, and he wouldn\'t have to worry about any tricks when he was targeting a specific monster\'s scent.

He confirmed Unmasked Jacobson\'s organ.

Hiss...

A hiss of relaxation was subconsciously released from his maw, the cooling sensation assaulted all his body parts at once. Having one of his body parts reach +5 made the sensation even more vivid.

It felt like ice was running through his veins, he could feel waves of frost maneuver throughout his entire being. Soon after 2 minutes, the sensation ceased.

Now it was time for the big upgrades, his evolution. He clicked through his menu until finally, the unemotional voice returned again.

[Would you like to use the evolution menu?]

He confirmed.

[Congratulations on reaching the maximum level for your current species. Evolution will allow you to change your form and increase your stats as a monster.

WARNING: Evolving will make securing XP and biomass more difficult as fewer rewards are given for preying on creatures less evolved than yourself.

Your evolution options are as follows:

- Mature Aeternus Lacerta

- Draco Aeternus Lacerta]

Just like last time, the previous evolution appeared, however, he also had a new evolution appear that wasn\'t there the first time he evolved. He had the choice of either picking the ordinary and regular evolution pathway or he could choose the new one that had suddenly appeared. However, he wasn\'t sure what the new evolution promised.

[Mature Aeternus Lacerta - Advance from a Hatchling of your kind into an adult. Base stats will significantly increase, and new skills will be unlocked.]

[Draco Aeternus Lercerta - Advance from a hatchling into the sub-species, Draco. This is a rare evolution path not available to all monsters. Base stats will significantly increase, and new skills will be unlocked.]

Reading the two descriptions of the evolutions he decided to choose the more exciting and mysterious. He felt his instincts telling him to pick the more original evolution but, perhaps it was his growing individuality that gave him the idea to be different.

He selected Draco Aeternus Lacerta.

[Your monster core has been formed and enhanced, it will provide bonus energy to your evolution]

He flicked his tongue in understanding. Basically, the voice was telling him that since he formed his core and got it to its maximum capacity he could boost his stats even further than they would have been originally. This was good news!

[Due to high Cunning Stat, manual evolution has been unlocked, would you like to enable manual evolution?]

Manual evolution? What did this mean? None of this happened last time, perhaps because he only formed his core instead of evolving? Nevertheless, he confirmed.

Unexpectedly his mind was flooded with all kinds of information regarding what he had to do, and a large window opened with evolutionary steps and stats allocation screens unfolded. Now the options of what he could do were truly endless, he was already surprised before but now he was just completely lost.

Manual evolution allowed him to make his own choices, if he didn\'t have such high cunning then the voice would have most likely done all the work automatically. However, Ethoss didn\'t mind this, it gave him the power to control his own growth.

According to the information, with this new evolution, he received a fire gland. He wasn\'t sure what that would do however it sounded strong so he didn\'t touch anything relating to it. He also gets to choose a new organ or limb. This excited him and he looked at all the options.

There were tons of options to choose from, he could get an extra jaw full of teeth, a new tail, stink glands, additional eyes, and the list was huge. He wanted something simple that he understood, he chose a new pair of legs.

Before, he had gotten his tail cut off, but that could have easily been his legs, if he ever got his legs cut off during combat he would definitely be at a huge disadvantage. With these new pair of legs even if one got cut off he\'d still be able to fight the same.

Finished with that he locked his eyes on the stats section. His current stats were:

Strength: 30

Toughness: 33

Cunning: 50

Will: 27

Looking at his strength there were a couple of things he could do here. He could increase his muscle mass which would, in turn, increase his size or he could increase muscle density which would not increase his size but his muscles would be much more pronounced and he would be much stronger.

When it came to his toughness, he could either increase his external defenses or solidify his internal defenses making them much more robust.

For cunning, he could improve his processing speed or increase his brain matter. Looking through everything he could even get himself another brain.

How was this even possible? Regardless everything regarding cunning and his brain was overly expensive. If he tried to get anything from here he would not be able to tweak any of his other stats, he was already fine with his cunning being at 50.

Since his cunning was already high he decided to just go all out for his toughness and strength. What he needed right now was a better and stronger body so he could completely dominate his prey.

He decided to increase his muscle density, making himself much stronger without gaining much size. He ended up using the evolutionary energy in a ratio of 50/50 for his toughness and strength. Soon he was finished allocating his stats.

[Would you like to confirm your choices and evolve?]

He confirmed.

Then everything faded, turning black and his consciousness ceased.