Anaxa's eyes glowed with an unusual luster as he finally figured out what the system's hint meant- it was asking him to hunt by sharpening a piece of wood or rock and then stabbing the fish with it.
He imagined that as long as he got a good hit with the pointy side… it would surely cause a massive wound, making even quite a large fish quickly die from internal wounds and blood loss.
Many rural fishermen hunted exactly using this technique.
And Anaxa could not believe it took him so long to figure out something so simple, "Tsk! I really need to learn how to think more creatively. The system is not going to spoon feed me the answers."
"Okay! Let's not waste any more time. I only got tomorrow to finish the mission- so I need to find a good, strong twig as quickly as possible."
Anaxa quickly exited the water with this thought and spent the remainder of the afternoon scouring the forest floor for a good, strong twig- he needed it to be durable and hard but not too thick that he could not wrap it around his leg and not too long or heavy that he could not easily wield it.
Correctly checking off all four conditions proved a harder task than expected. And by the time Anaxa found a decent one, it was nearly close to dusk. So the poor lizard had to burn the midnight oil sharpening the weapon against a smooth, hard stone to meet the encroaching deadline.
The emerald water dragon headed out of his nest the next morning with great purpose, swinging a spear sharpened on both ends- the idea was that if one side dulled or broke, he could simply switch the heads and have it good as new.
Anaxa dove into the pond through his usual route, stealthily and sneakily, before quickly getting into giving this new weapon of his a spin. And the results quite pleased the man, as he managed to skewer quite a few nearby unlucky fish and quickly turn them into breakfast.
Indeed, true to his expectation, as soon as he started to practise with it, the spear rapidly proved itself to outclass its 'Tail club' brethren by quite a margin, letting Anaxa gleefully chuckle,
"Hahaha… oh Anaxa, you fool… how come it took you so long to figure out something so basic? This spear gives you so much more range and flexibility. Sure, the sheer blunt damage might be a bit lacking but now I can so easily poke the eyes. Hahaha… once the prey is blinded, sneaking up on it from that side is child's play. Ahhh… if only I could tie a stone to the spear. Then I would have the best of both worlds… the perfect weapon."
The only slight source for Anaxa's lament was his inability to combine the two modes- where was he only to find rope or twine, and more importantly, how was he going to tie the two things together with only one tail? Anyone would see how arduous it was to make a knot with only one hand.
With his hunger sated, Anaxa began to slowly swim forward, towards the deeper parts of the pond. This was uncharted territory for the verdent lizard, as to date he had not dared to face the much bigger foes that lived in the cleaner waters.
The muddy waters near the banks not only provided him with excellent camouflage, but being so close to land also meant Anaxa could quickly exit the 'battlefield' should things ever start to get dicey.
But the system's mandate dictated that Anaxa could no longer afford to play it safe. So ditching the safeguards, Anaxa steadily propelled himself with his strong tail until he began to spot bigger and bigger prey.
Mollusks, reptiles, turtles, snakes, and fishes like medium sized bluegills, perch and 'huge ones' like bass, carp and catfish- the sight of so many fatty, delicious 'menu items' both invigorated Anaxa to want to quickly grow stronger so that he could one day taste them, while at the same time it made him slightly apprehensive.
How was the relatively small lizard weighing less than 100g going to butt heads with an opponent at least twice as heavy and if not proably even more? Especially when there were so many opportunistic feeders lurking all around.
How could Anaxa be sure he was not the mantis stalking the cicada unaware of the oriole behind?
"Tsk! Well there is no point dilly-dallying around. Let's go!" In the end, as his breath began to run out and his body started to cool, the tiny lizard simply forced himself to move- quickly spotting a nearby tilapia and sneakily approaching it from the side.
The intent was to get parallel to the large, doleful eyes of the unsuspecting oval shaped fish, and then instantly jab his sharp spear into it with all he got. Then once the fish started bleeding, even if it somehow managed to dislodge the spear from its eye socket, it would simply be a matter for Anaxa to follow the trail of blood to slowly claim the prize.
"Ding!"
Target Locked- Tilapia,
Biomass- 450 micro units
Spirit- 0
Karma- 0
Threat- Regular.
Note- Good luck!
Anaxa read the number for the biomass available and for a moment did think it was a bit too high for him. He had never hunted something so 'big and heavy'. But bolstered by his earlier test results, he also felt sufficiently confident.
Shoo!
The wooden spear suddenly cut through the water like a rocket, and as intended, dug into the poor, unsuspecting fish right where it was intended.
Bubble! Bubble! Bubble!
Whether the fish screamed or not, Anaxa could not hear, but the huge bubbles released from its mouth certainly laid strong testament to the absolute agony the fish must have felt.
And the sight of the successful hit amazed Anaxa.
…. However, the next moment everything suddenly went wrong for Anaxa.
As the injured and startled fish began to run, the poor lizard found himself utterly helpless to do anything to stop it.
He could only hold on with his dear life at the ride, swearing, "Crap! It is so strong! I feel like a feather attached to it! Ahhh... stop, stop! You are taking me to the center of the pond. No.. there are monsters in there I do not dare face!"
"Darn it! Why did I have to stupidly go pick on such a huge behemoth? Aghhh.. there was a reason the system only told me to hunt half this weight. Ahh... Anaxa, your hubris this time might really be the end of us!"