A Cold-Blooded POV

[You have defeated level 14 Humana Barbarian]

[You have gained XP]

[You have achieved level 2, One skill point awarded]

[You have defeated level 15 Humana Archer]

[You have gained XP]

[You have achieved level 3, One skill point awarded]

The cold, apathetic, voice echoed in Ethoss's mind. He had just finished killing the weird pink creatures that had appeared. The question was where did they come from? He had never seen nor sensed one of these creatures before so they most likely didn't live in the forest expanse, and if they weren't from the forest, where were they from?

Questions built up on top of each other in his brain, but there was one thing Ethoss was sure about, these pink creatures were large bags of XP. Killing them was definitely more rewarding than killing the low leveled monsters in the forest.

If he could find where these creatures' territory was he'd be able to hunt them and level up way quicker than he was now.

After biting off half of the first pink creature's body he had gotten biomass from it being his first time eating one, he also unlocked the basic profile of these creatures. Ethoss looked into his mind and willed himself to see the profile.

[Humana: Homo Sapien or Human for short. One of the sentient races of Atinen, showing the most astounding progress in evolution over time, a successful race. As a species born outside of dungeons, most humans are located on the surface.]

The surface? What was that? Ethoss didn't know, but he learned lots of new things regarding the pink, two-legged, creatures. They were called humans.

The profile described them as a successful race that has shown the most progress in evolution, however, from what Ethoss had just experienced, he disagreed. They were far from a success.

'These…humans, are weak. Their choices of evolution are inferior and their mutations, if they even have any, are worthless.' He thought. His intelligent brain had shown signs of individuality once again, resulting in a thought of his own.

He looked back down at the two corpses that he had gathered and hissed lowly. Regardless of how inferior they were, humans were definitely a good source of XP.

He then started to walk over toward the last human that he had killed, preparing to drag its corpse over to the others. As he reached the place where the corpse was he realized that the corpse was not there.

Now that he thought about it, he couldn't even remember receiving the last alert stating that he killed that human from the voice. He immediately licked the air, trying to pinpoint where the human could have gone. Nothing. The clean smell the humans reeked of wasn't there, he could only catch the scents of monsters.

His claw tightened and dug into the ground, and he hissed in annoyance. He had let his prey escape him, nice good XP had just escaped his claws. Even though he was upset, he knew there was nothing he could do now that the scent was gone.

He couldn't go blindly searching for the human, leaving the corpses of the other humans here because there was a high chance his food would get snatched up by another monster.

Ethoss eased his anger and decided to give up on finding the other human, he still had the other two so it wasn't that big of a deal. He turned back, walking over towards the human that was missing its upper half. Shortly after he took a bite, then another.

…

Now finished with his meal, Ethoss turned around and glanced at his priceless treasures. Six crimson-red orbs laid on the ground, sparkling every now and again.

Ethoss had greedily gathered all the cores the humans had found. In a way, he was thankful to the humans, although they were weak they still had some sort of talent if they could collect six cores in this forest expanse.

He knew just how hard it was to find other monsters with cores so if could find six then they at least had a little competence. They even created some sort of pouch that could hold the cores instead of carrying them one by one like he had been doing.

Using his four arms in the front half of his body he maneuvered his claws, gently bagging all the cores into the pouch, then he grabbed it with his maw and began walking.

Ethoss was heading towards the cave that previously belonged to the goblins, he still had a fear that the giant reptile that had invaded his cave was still there, waiting on him to return so he wasn't keen on going back there at the moment.

He felt ashamed of his cowardice, in his heart he knew that he shouldn't have fled from that fight, however, he forcefully pushed this feeling down.

This was only for the moment, as soon as he felt confident in his strength against the reptile he would immediately march back and claim his territory.

After walking for a couple of minutes he finally made it to the cave and entered, going doing the path that led to the comfy bed of leaves and soft grass. He jumped on the bed of grass, placing the pouch of cores down then opened the bag carefully, trying not to tear it with his sharp claws.

This pouch was useful to him, if he could keep the pouch in good condition he would be able to carry multiple cores at once instead of one at a time. Ethoss lay down on his stomach with his head on the bed of grass and leaves. His gold, vertical pupils stared at the six red cores that were in front of him.

He knew he had to absorb these cores so he at least wanted to admire them a little before he absorbed them. After about two minutes he stood up, then he tapped his snout on one of them, signaling the absorption.

[Compatible monster core detected. Would you like to reinforce your core or reconstitute a monster?]

…

After absorbing all six of the cores Ethoss flicked his tongue on instinct. He was satisfied with his haul today. He then pulled up his status.

Name: Ethoss

Level: 3(Red Core)

Strength: 60

Toughness: 55

Cunning: 50

Will: 27

HP: 50/50

MP: 32/32

Skills[Attack]: Lethal Venomous Bite level(II) 1, Tail Whip level 4, Claw Swipe level 4

Skills[Support]: Rapid Dash(II) level 1, Deep Night Vision(II) level 2, Discoloration Camouflage(II) level 1, Dig level 3, Mana Manipulation level 4

Mutations: Unmasked Jacobson's organ +5, Legs +3, Eyes +3, Scales +3, Claws +3, Teeth +3, Fire Gland

Species: Draco Aeternus Lacerta(Male)

Biomass: 7

Skill Point: 3

He had gathered a total of 7 biomass after eating the humans' corpse, now he could either get another of his mutations to +5 or he could focus on getting his new organ, his Fire Gland, to +3 and save the rest of his biomass.

He flicked his tongue, thinking hard about his decision, and soon he concluded on catching his new organ up with the rest.

His original goal was to get all his mutations to the same level anyway, so why change it? He may need his new organ during a life-or-death battle and it was best to be prepared.

[Would you like to purchase Fire Gland +3? It will cost 6 Biomass.]

He confirmed.

***

Monster profile(Species Profile):

[Humana: Homo Sapien or Human for short. One of the sentient races of Atinen, showing the most astounding progress in evolution over time, a successful race. As a species born outside of dungeons, most humans are located on the surface.]