Task- Hunt down a fish weighing at least 200g.
As soon as Anaxa read that first line of his new mission, a tide of complex emotions instantly surged inside him, "Damn it! Hunt in water? Why?"
And he cried, for two main reasons.
One- Anaxa did not like swimming. He remembered not being a particularly good swimmer in his previous life and even had small trauma regarding it… although he seemed to have forgotten the exact details. Hence his human instinct made the earth appear safe and secure to him and the water deep and forbidding.
And two-
"I will not be able to move or see well in there. And my throwing skills will be completely useless." Layering on top of the personal distaste was the practical aspect, with Anaxa being understandably unwilling to lose his one and only trump card.
He knew his tiny tail would never be able to generate enough force to let the pebble cut through the water resistance and still carry enough force to cause any appreciable damage.
Meaning in this mission, Anaxa would have only his jaw and claws to do the job.
And after having tasted the divine excellence of ranged combat and supreme safety and ease it provided, why would Anaxa want to voluntarily change to the far more dangerous and barbaric melee style of before? That too underwater, where his prey had the natural home court advantage, while he was restrained in all aspects.
"Ahhh! Why? Is the system really that hell bent on punishing me?" Thus realizing the immense size of the handicap made the tiny lizard literally shed a small tear.
Then a moment later, this sorrow suddenly turned into fury, as Anaxa felt a bitter sense of betrayal. In his mind he felt he had just wasted all that time and effort on learning something that was completely useless to him.
"F it! I won't bother completing this!" So swearing at the optional task, an incensed Anaxa closed the blue screen without even bothering to read the rest of the text, and angrily turned around, wanting to look for new prey.
His only wish now was to drown his sorrow with food, food and more food.
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
That day, that small part of the protected woodland suffered a small ecological disaster, as an utterly enraged and manic Chinese water dragon raged through it like a devastating tornado.
Everywhere he went, Anaxa reaped any life he could find, not even caring whether he wanted to eat it or it. If anything moved in front of him and he thought he could hit it, then it died.
For instance that spider he had spotted before, Anaxa shot it dead from a stunning distance of 11 meters, leaving its carcass splattered into the bark of the tree and a prize to be stripped by the surrounding ants and other bugs.
And similar fates befell many bugs, locusts and a variety of frog species.
The enraged lizard only stopped his rampage as dusk started to fall, returning to his nest with a belly fully laden to the brim with an assortment of exotic meat.
"Ahhh… I feel like I have a huge sack tied to my belly," Anaxa moaned as he slowly swaggered inside, a subtle hint of contentment leaking out.
The exercise, the thrill of the hunt, the fresh air and the delicious food had finally managed to soothe temper. Thus after Anaxa had closed the 'door' to the home with an expert swish of his tail and got to lie comfortably on his bed, he began to reconsider some of the previous things more clearly.
"Hmmm… skipping this mission is not actually possible. The system has clearly recommended I do it and it would be very foolish of me to ignore its advice. Even without the warning, I would have never considered this. The reward… the chance to get a warm blooded body is too alluring."
The advantages of being able to regulate one's body temperature and not rely on the sun were so obvious that Anaxa did not even bother to give a second look at the night vision choice.
In fact, he even wondered why the system presented the two in the same bracket because it made no logical sense- the cold blooded Anaxa would not be able to hunt in the night even if he wanted to. If he ever tried, he would start to soon suffer from hypothermia and then die within a few hours.
Thus it took Anaxa only a moment to make up his mind about his reward.
Then moving on, Anaxa turned his attention to take note of the brand new skill he had just gotten- his new stomach.
And after 'using' for the whole day, began to now admire it with great fondness,
"This 'Expanded Stomach'... is not actually half bad. I seem to have somewhat overlooked its qualities before. It is much bigger than it looks from the outside. If I had not seen it for myself, I would have never believed it could store so much meat. Hahaha, it has made my hunting so much more efficient!"
Previously one of Anaxa's biggest worries when hunting a particularly large prey was what to do after killing it. He did not feel safe eating it at the very place he had killed it, finding the place to be too exposed.
But bringing it back to his place was also hardly ever feasible- given the 'huge' distance, dragging such a huge carcass would waste too much time, energy. And who could say Anaxa would not be ambushed on the way by other, bigger, stronger opportunistic predators on the prowl for a quick, easy meal?
Thus Anaxa usually made do with what he had, quickly eating only the most delicious and nutritious bits and wasting the rest.
The same example went for when he spotted numerous prey. If Anaxa spotted a colony of twenty snails in a tree, but could only eat ten before he was full, well, then he would have to wait until he had digested his meal before restarting the hunt.
Obviously such a loss of easy prey was a massive setback.
But now, with the 'expanded stomach' and a magical mouth that could expand to unnatural lengths, a lot of these drawbacks had been reduced and mitigated.
Anaxa could accommodate biomass much more easily.
'Is this stomach a curse or a blessing?' Anaxa thus even started to wonder so.
And the only thing that prevented him from squarely labeling the skill as the latter was the speed at which it digested his food- it was exceptional.
No other words could describe it.
For instance, even as Anaxa just sat and rested like he was doing now, he could still feel his fully laden belly start to slowly lighten, the corrosive juices melting the meat and turning into biomass.
"Ding!"
"Ding!"
"Ding!"
The flurry of chiming notifications going off in the background further served as incontestable proof of that.
And listening to the speed of the ringing made Anaxa's scaly body suddenly shiver,
"Ahhh! What will happen if I am unable to hunt for one day? If I am sick or injured? Won't I simply die from starvation?"
This newly found fear made Anaxa quickly turn his attention to the skill, and he began to wish with a slightly terrified voice,
"Ahhh! The very next skill point I get, I will use it to expand my stomach. Right now I can roughly store one and a half times my body weight. That is hardly enough to get me 24 hours. I need to be able to store much more. At least a week's worth!"
"Ahhh.. how I wish I had a second stomach like a cow's. Then I would be able to store food without letting it become digested and slowly munch on it during emergencies."
"...." The system that had been listening to the entire dialogue silently rolled its eyes at the luxurious ask, finding it quite incredulous that Anaxa was not at all satisfied with the gift it had given him.
But at the same time, it was a bit amused at the man's creative thoughts. At least Anaxa was not short on ideas or imagination.
"Ding!"
Hence, as if to reward the man for his humor, it suddenly broke with a loud, distinct chime, "Mission Hint- Think like a fisherman."
The slightly feminine voice died down as swiftly as it came.
But only that was enough to leave Anaxa extremely surprised.
He was caught off guard by the system's unannounced intervention, as well as the strange text, "A fisherman? Does it want me to catch the fish with a net?"
The lizard gaped open its mouth a bit incredulously, asking itself, "Is the system hinting me to knit a fishing net? How? My tail can't do that! Hmmm… maybe, it is a hint that I should use bait! Tie something to the end of my tail and… "