"Ding! Biomass consumed. Beep! Host detected to be injured. Consume acquired biomass to heal wounds?"
Anaxa blinked at the offer, momentarily startled by the system's unexpected generosity.
"Yes!" He responded without hesitation.
Almost instantly, he felt the wound on his back begin to close, the raw, searing pain being replaced by a cool, soothing sensation. It felt like a glacier was running over the injured area, bringing much relief to the profusely bleeding lizard.
"Beep! Operation successful. Total biomass consumed 20 micro units."
"...." Anaxa read the prompt with a slightly bittersweet mixture, firstly marvelling at the rapid speed of healing and then feeling a bit acrid over the high price the system charged him.
He had only gained 25 microunits hunting the mother, and out of that, 20 were used up just here. Even the remaining five… well, he probably used that much energy just in the high octane fight.
Meaning he had essentially just managed to break even… all while putting himself through quite the ordeal.
"Sigh… well, let's not cry over that. At least I managed to gain some valuable fighting close quarters experience. Thinking back… I certainly could have fought better." With the adrenaline of the fight dying down, Anaxa calmly looked back at the exchange and found he had made quite a few mistakes- the most glaring of which was that he did not use his tail nearly as much as he could have.
"I need to improve my limb, mouth, and tail coordination. When I use one, I tend to forget about all the others. I need to learn how to complement each one with the others seamlessly." Anaxa understood he was currently like a trainee fighter, he had the same set of tools as a master, but lacked the expertise to know how to accurately use them like him.
This made him want to practise a few such bouts to hone his skills. Especially given that any bruises or wounds suffered would be taken care of by the system.
"System… why did you not offer me this service when my leg was bitten?" He asked.
"... Service unlocked at Level 3. Service limited to only minor cuts and abrasions. Service entering cooldown. Host is recommended not to be reckless." The system replied flatly in that mechanical, slightly feminine voice.
"...Of course," And thus Anaxa's plan to farm the system was crushed even before its birth, "Forget it! Let's get my karma point," Reigning back his twitching lips, Anaxa perked himself up with the sight of the bird chicks still chirping away in front of him. He swiftly approached them with drooling lips, eager to taste the soft, delicate meat that lay defenlessly in front of him.
When suddenly…
"Kwahhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhh!"
A terrifying dark shadow caught his eyes just around the corner, as the dreadful siren sent Anaxa's heart thumping like a wildebeest.
"Crap! The mother is back!" He instantly tucked his tail and ran from that tree branch, not willing to stay even a second longer. He did not even bother to verify how far away the adult bird was, or if he had the time to take his prize and then escape.
As already said, Anaxa was a bit of a coward, and given he had lost his stone, he felt totally defenceless. Thus he was not willing to take the slightest bit of chance. Karma points were indeed precious, but his life was far more so.
"Dammit! Just my luck! I did not even get to eat the mango." Safely on the ground, the poor reptile only cursed like so, shedding a tear while looking up at the delicious fruit.
He really wanted to taste the refreshing fruit, but now with the predatory bird up there….it seemed this time Anaxa lost both the goose and the golden egg.
So it was with a bit of dejection that he made his way to the pond, picking up a small pebble along the bank before melding into the cool waters.
There he attempted to hunt the surrounding fishes just like yesterday, only this time, instead of chasing them head on, he would use his tail to take a swipe first.
He would approach them slowly from the front, acting all nonchalant, like he was not at all interested, before suddenly swinging his tail forward as soon he got within range.
Such an unexpected ambush yielded quite good results for the tiny lizard, as most fishes would not pay heed to the languidly approaching juvenile Chinese water dragon- and even if Anaxa were to suddenly accelerate to try and catch them, they were confident that their aerodynamically shaped laminar bodies would let them easily escape the sneak attack.
Sadly, they assumed wrong and it was this mistake that let Anaxa get nearly a fifty percent kill ratio- he would first injure the fish with his hit, before suddenly accelerating to abnormal speed using his powerful dextrous tail and biting down on the fleshy body with all he had.
Then it would be a simple case of 'hammering' the fish to submission with his 'tail club' just like he had done with the vole mother. Admittedly this was not the most elegant way to hunt as a lot of the part of the prey would end up like 'mashed fish'- bones, flesh and blood all mushed together into a grotesque mixture.
But hey, you could not argue with the results.
Anaxa even refined his technique the next day, deciding to approach the fish from the side instead of directly from the front. This gave his tail a greater effective reach as now it did not have to go over his own body, and it also made it easier for Anaxa to aim for the delicate parts like eyes since they were located to the side.
"Ding! Target hunted. Biomass- 60 micro unit!"
"Hahaha… another one bites the dust!" This was exactly how Anaxa hunted his most recent catch, smashing into the eye before taking a huge chomp out of the wound- and this time his bite was so strong that he managed to even shatter the skull in a single bite, stun killing the poor unknown fish within moments.
The tiny water lizard gleefully tore the flesh while analyzing the results of his past three days,
"Mmmm…. my efficiency hunting in water has really improved. In fact, if I were not cold blooded and could only hold my breath for a limited time, I would have already preferred to hunt here. Hehehe, it just goes to show… if you do not try new things, the old things always seem better."
This rhetoric was markedly different from when Anaxa first started- he initially thought prey on land were far easier to catch and much more abundant. Only upon testing himself underwater did he notice how overpowered his 'tail club' and 'supernatural bite' combination made him.
Hunting here was so much more efficient- not only was the total biomass available much greater, but the average prey also seemed fattier- but without any additional difficulty.
"Even my tail proficiency has greatly improved! It is up to nearly 70%! If I were on land… I do not think it would have improved so quickly. I have noticed that the higher I get the number, the more difficult it gets to increase it. Tsk… this system is really…"
The realization caused Anaxa to produce a complex feeling about the system and how it had clearly laid out its mission with clear goals- on one hand, he was very glad to see the mysterious feminine voice leading him to quickly upgrade his tail... but on the other hand…
"Sigh… forget it, I should concentrate on things I can do... like my current mission." Fortunately, Anaxa was wise enough to know his priorities and decided to no longer worry about things he had no control over.
He instead put his energy into the challenge that lay right ahead,
"My hunting the past two days has clearly shown I can comfortably hunt the small fish. But it seems my tail hits are not strong enough to hunt bigger fish. It hurts them for sure. But it does not stun them."
"So the shock causes them to instantly swim away. And I am not yet fast enough to catch them. Even if I can somehow bite into them... they shake so much that the best I can do is tear off a chunk! Tsk.. if only I could hook myself to them…hook myself..."
As Anaxa said this... the image of the stone he held with his tail began to change. He began to imagine what if the stone, instead of being smooth and round, was sharp and pointy.
"Hmmm.. yes! Like those spears ancient cavemen used. Ahhh! Spears! Yes! So that is what the system meant by fishermen. SSpear! Ahhh... I cannot, I believe I have been so stupid! Fishermen would use spears to hunt fish! They would literally skewer them from the river as they swam! Ahh..."