Lizard Lord - Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - Hunting Records
With his keen sense of smell, Tang Zhao followed the faint smell of blood in the air and found the location where the group of hunters had been attacked.
The two places were perhaps not far apart, only a few hundred meters. Tang Zhao quickly searched the bloody scene for things he could use.
He found several copper coins with the image of a person holding a sword, two slightly blunt hunting knives, and finally some jewelry like rings and necklaces.
Tang Zhao knew it was not safe to stay in this place for long. He wrapped everything up in a torn piece of leather and carried it with him.
He learned the location of nearby water sources from the map he had seen earlier. However, Tang Zhao chose not to temporarily settle in those places but deliberately avoided them and ventured deeper into the forest.
The reason was simple—he couldn't afford to provoke that group of wolves now.
Dealing with wild beasts alone would be manageable, but the intelligent creatures hidden among them were a different story. Tang Zhao knew nothing about them.
They were able to kill three hunters in a matter of seconds without revealing their true form. That ability alone was enough for Tang Zhao to actively avoid them.
If he were to venture outside, it would be like giving up the forest's barrier against humans and exposing himself to their eyes.
He was well aware that normal people wouldn't reason with a large lizard. If he encountered a few armed adults, his life would be in danger, not to mention the possibility of attracting more people hunting him.
So, the best choice for now might be to move deeper into the forest.
Away from the various markings on the map, he headed towards the unknown territory marked as blank on the map.
...
After walking a considerable distance, Tang Zhao finally stopped when he felt it was about right.
He hadn't forgotten his skill of climbing trees. He found a sturdy tree and climbed up to find a relatively safe spot for sleep.
He also took a look at the condition of the deep green emblem, determining the criteria for the next evolution.
{Evolution Criteria: 200 kilograms of low-grade meat, six inferior blood cores.}
The meat would be roughly twice his current weight, and the blood cores could be obtained from the body cavities of certain creatures. The next step was to find these two things so he could continue to evolve.
With this in mind, Tang Zhao began searching for food.
Relying on his exceptionally keen sense of smell, he searched for suitable opportunities based on the scents in the air.
As he hadn't learned any hunting skills yet, he wasn't well-suited to directly prey on healthy animals. Instead, he decided to engage in a sought-after job among animals:
To be a glorious scavenger was what he was born for.
With excellent smell and vision, powerful digestion, and a physique intimidating enough to deter most competitors, he could emerge victorious from fierce competition.
Following the scent of blood in the air, Tang Zhao found a relatively intact wild boar carcass and some companions feasting on it.
They were a group of giant spiders, each one at least as big as Tang Zhao's head.
They were currently gathered around the wild boar carcass, using their mouthparts, not much smaller than Tang Zhao's teeth, to divide the body and swallow chunks of boar meat into their bellies.
The eating habits and lifestyle of these spiders were very different from their Earth relatives, but their appearance was not much different.
Tang Zhao looked at the layers of spider webs formed on the trees behind the spiders and felt a little uneasy.
If the wild boar had been entangled in the spider web, he would have kept his distance. But since these spiders had left the web, it was a different story.
Finding food in nature was never an easy task, and Tang Zhao was well aware of this. He didn't want to give up this precious opportunity to eat.
Approaching a few steps while carrying the package, the outer spiders immediately raised their bodies, revealing their sharp fangs as a warning.
However, the inner spiders continued to feast without showing any interest in Tang Zhao.
Tang Zhao devised a method to deal with these less intelligent insects.
He swung his tail in front of one of the outer spiders, and it immediately rushed forward, baring its fangs and claws.
Using this method, Tang Zhao gradually led the spider group away from the wild boar, with the half-torn leather jacket held in his claw as protection. Supporting himself with his hind legs, he slowy took a few steps forward and, using his weight, swung down on the spider like an iron rod.
The sound of cracking shells came from beneath him. As a precaution, Tang Zhao stood up again and smashed down several times.
After confirming that the spider beneath him had been completely flattened, Tang Zhao removed the leather jacket and tilted his head back to swallow the flattened spider.
The taste wasn't anything to praise, but a few of them would be enough to fill his stomach.
After repeating this process three or four times, it seemed to trigger a fear in the spider group. They immediately abandoned the half-eaten wild boar carcass and crawled back onto the spider web, hiding themselves.
Tang Zhao naturally didn't dare to chase after them. Instead, he approached the wild boar carcass and carefully examined it.
The more he looked, the more he felt that something was off.
There were bite marks on the wild boar's body caused by the spider mouthparts, mainly concentrated in the abdominal area.
However, on the wild boar's neck, there were numerous peculiar bite marks, indicating that the owner was far from being a benign creature.
【Why didn't they eat it after killing it and just left it here? The mouthparts look similar, it's possible that they are the same species, or maybe those spiders from earlier were juveniles, and the wild boar was specifically caught as food for the young ones.】
Looking at the dense spider web in front of him, extending endlessly into the distance, and then at the many spider fluids and remains left by his side, Tang Zhao felt that he should run.
Biting down on the wild boar's spine, Tang Zhao dragged it along and left without looking back.
Shortly after he left, a sharp and angry roar came from the web-covered forest, startling the numerous birds in the trees.
Tang Zhao, who had already covered a considerable distance, couldn't hear the previous roar. Maintaining a high speed, he ran for a while and then lifted the wild boar onto a tree, preparing to rest for a while.
【The current situation seems quite bad, struggling to survive in a tight spot.】
He can now understand why the map didn't label anything inside the forest. It was most likely because the cartographer didn't want to provoke conflicts with the spiders inside the woods.
The interior of the forest was the territory of giant spiders, while dangerous wolf packs occupied the outskirts. Survival could only be achieved in the buffer zone between the two.
However, this situation couldn't last long. Humans would eventually enter the forest to clear it out.
Tang Zhao extended his head into the opened cavity of the wild boar, using his slender forked tongue to explore. Luckily, he had good luck and found an intact blood core.
If he only consider survival, being a cold-blooded animal, he was relatively energy-efficient. This one wild boar carcass could sustain him for a while without the need to hunt.
But the threat was right in front of him. He needed to evolve quickly and couldn't afford to be a patient opportunist scavenging for corpses. Only by taking initiative could he rapidly acquire sufficient resources.
Looking at the leather jacket covered in arthropod fluids and the various human tools within it, Tang Zhao began to contemplate the specific uses of these items.
...
In a tranquil clearing by the stream, several deer were bending down to drink water.
Suddenly, a massive lizard leaped out from the forest and pounced toward the deer herd.
The distance was relatively far, and this lizard, despite its large size, wasn't as swift as a tiger or leopard. Before it reached the deer, they had already leaped over the stream and fled into the woods.
The lizard didn't give up after its failed attack. Instead, it persisted in trailing behind the deer herd, forcing them to continue fleeing towards the forest.
After a chase for a certain distance, the sound of snapped branches came from ahead, followed by the deer's cries of distress reaching Tang Zhao's ears.
Involuntarily, a barely discernible smile appeared on Tang Zhao's face, and his speed increased significantly as he hurried towards the direction of the sound.
In front of Tang Zhao appeared a deep pit. Stuck in it was a sharp short dagger and several pointed stones, with scattered branches with green leaves.
A deer was lying in the pit, its thigh pierced by the dagger, blood flowing out continuously.
Without a doubt, a lizard like him couldn't match the speed of a deer. He had no hunting experience, but as a creature with intelligence, he could come up with other solutions.
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