The boar's blood spread through the water in drifting ribbons, fading into the dark like smoke swallowed by the sea. As its life left its body, something pulsed inside me again, the same strange pressure I felt the moment my jaws closed around it. A quiet signal behind my eyes, subtle yet deliberate, like instinct developing a voice.
The world dimmed inside my skull, and a simple line surfaced in the space between thought and hunger.
Boar Consumed
Choose Trait
No light. No floating text. Just intention, clear as hunger itself.
Two impressions formed, faint and unimpressive.
• Thick Hide
• Iron Stomach
I tested them instinctively, comparing them to the hardness of my scales, the strength of my bite, the ease with which I had swallowed the boar whole.
Pointless. Inferior. Unworthy.
I denied both with a flicker of disinterest, and the interface faded instantly, dissolving back into the quiet dark of my mind. Whatever force governed this instinct didn't argue. It simply waited for something worthy.
The sea around me shifted.
A new vibration brushed my senses—smooth, fluid, coiling through the water with a confidence. Something long. Something flexible. Something that moved as if it belonged to the deep shadows more than the light above.
It slid closer, drawn by the drifting blood, but stopped when it sensed me. A low hum tingled across my scales, faint but noticeable, like a whisper of electricity drifting through the current. It circled once, twice, cautious but curious.
An eel.
Not a small one. Not the kind that hid in rocks. This one was long as a small boat, thick-bodied, scarred with old battles, and crackling with faint electric energy that pulsed along its skin. A predator built for darkness and ambush, for twisting through the currents like a blade.
It tasted the water, recognized something bigger than it, and hesitated.
That was enough.
I lunged.
The sea exploded around me, jaws shearing through the water and closing around the eel's midsection. A jolt shot through my body—sharp, electric, burning for a heartbeat—then my weight crushed the fight out of it. The eel thrashed once, twice, then went limp as I dragged it deeper, letting instinct swallow the kill whole.
Warmth spread through my body again, sharper than with the boar, carrying that same subtle announcement.
Another pulse.
Another choice.
This one felt different. Stronger. Worthy.
The world dimmed inside me once more.
Apex Eel Consumed
Choose Trait
Three impressions formed, each one clearer, more defined.
• Electroreception
• Current Sense
• Serpentine Burst
Instinct leaned toward all three, but one called louder, deeper, older—something meant for a creature built to command the water.
I chose Current Sense.
It sank into me like the ocean claiming its place beneath my scales. The world sharpened instantly. The pull of the tide no longer felt like water brushing past—it felt like direction, like the sea itself was speaking to me. I could sense distant pressure lines bending around landmasses, faint magnetic drifts tugging at the edge of awareness, the heartbeat-like rhythm of waves crashing miles away.
For the first time since waking in this body, I felt connected to the world instead of lost inside it.
The ocean wasn't just water. It was a map. A living, shifting pathway only I could feel.
I rose toward the surface, head breaking through with a quiet rumble. The coastline remained still, the air thick with salt and distant forest, but the deep water behind me… something vast moved there, its presence bending the current long before its body came near.
Something watching.
Something deciding if I was a threat.
I didn't retreat. I didn't fear it.
I turned toward the open sea, following the silent pull beneath the waves, letting the currents call me forward like a promise.
With every kill, I grow stronger.