Reincarnated As A Chameleon And Eating Everything To Evolve

"Big brother"

"Big brother Matthew, wake up!"

Slowly opening his eyes, Matthew woke up to a familiar yet different from the usual ceiling that he had been used to seeing for the past few days.

Looking around him, he saw the first kobold kid shaking his body to wake him up and the twins were sitting near him. While seeing the first kobold kid right after waking up is already not an unusual occurrence for Matthew, the place that they are currently staying in is surely unusual.

Yet Matthew felt strangely familiar with their current place. Although there are no tables or chairs, nor wooden ceilings or walls, Matthew felt a cozy and comforting feeling from being on top of the dirt floor and inside the dirt walls and ceilings.

'Ah, yes, we're inside the bear's burrow…'

'Now I get why this place feels very familiar to me, I'm back to living in the forest. The real forest. '

"Um… brother Matthew, I'm sorry for suddenly waking you up, but I don't know where we can get some water. We haven't drunk anything since yesterday." The first kobold kid said, waking Matthew up from his realization.

"Water?"

'Now that I think about it, I rarely drank water before coming to the kobold village… But where can I find water around here? What did I usually drink again before coming to the village?'

'Ah it's that thing, the taste is not the best, but it works. However, I don't think the kids will be okay with that, but just in case, I should just ask.'

"The closest water source I know is quite far away from here, are you fine with drinking blood? I have drunk them to substitute for water and it works just fine although the taste is not the best. If you want, I can hunt a few deers or boars to get some." 

The three kids then looked at each other before shaking their heads vigorously.

"As I thought, then-"

"Wait brother Matthew, is drinking blood one of the ways you said to get stronger? If it is, then we'll drink the blood" The first kobold kid suddenly said before looking at both the twins and soon the twins nodded their heads and also said,

"Yes brother Matthew, if that's really what we have to do to get stronger, then we'll do it… we…we…"

"We'll drink the blood! As much blood as we can!"

"Wait, second brother! Don't just say that lightly!"

"But sis…"

"Okay stop, stop! You kids don't have to put on a ready-to-die face. No, it's not how I get stronger nor it would make you guys stronger from doing it!"

'Well, I do get some bionutrients from drinking blood… But I only do it because of the few extra bionutrients and it also quenches my thirst. If I was too full from eating the meat then I won't necessarily force myself to drink all the beats' blood.'

"I just said that it could be a substitute for drinking water if we can't find any water source."

Seeing the three kids had a visibly relieved expression on their faces, Matthew smiled a little as he now realizes that although he was back to living inside the forest, he was now not alone. He suddenly had three kids that he needed to take care of.

'I guess this is how it feels if you had an older sibling and they suddenly ask you to take care of their kids? But our age difference is only a- no, they are older than me if we only counted our age in this world. Whatever, it's complicated, let's just say they are my little siblings.' 

"Alright kids, although the distance is quite far away, I know a lake where the water is very fresh, let's go there for now."

Matthew then stood up and lightly stretched his body. Seeing this, the three kids soon followed after him and the three of them looked like elementary school students stretching their bodies before the P.E lesson.

'Come to think of it, this bear's burrow is very spacious. I should make my next nest as big as this the next time I build one.'

After doing their morning stretches, the four of them then started walking towards the direction of the lake with Matthew leading them on the front.

Using the map from the system, Matthew was able to quickly navigate through the forest and avoided the spots that he remembered as dangerous such as the area where he met the snake and the hot spot for finding deers or boars since there were many berry bushes in that certain area.

In the middle of the long journey, the four of them talked to each other and the kids were slightly excited as it was their first time traveling towards an unknown place in the forest.

The twins were still slightly gloomy after the event that happened yesterday, but the first kobold kid took the initiative and engage them in conversations and keep on talking to them while they walked which made Matthew glad knowing that the first kobold kid wasn't drowning in sadness and instead helped the twins to feel better.

'Don't worry kid, I will make sure that we will get our revenge…'

"And I think that it's weird that we've never seen any other creatures in the forest besides the deers, the boars, and the dangerous creature that brother Matthew defeated! How about you, brother Matthew? Have you seen any other creatures besides those three?" The first kobold kid suddenly asked him.

"Well, I've seen monkeys, spiders, mantises, beetles, two-headed turtles, snakes, and there are also those gluttonous crocs!"

The three kids perked their ears as they heard Matthew had just said some new words that they had never heard about before. As always, the first kobold kid is the one who started asking first,

"What are those? Where did you find all those creatures? And how did you know all of their names?"

"Umm… Their names…Um… I know them from… Um… It's just a hunch?"

"Hunch?"

"Yes, I thought those names are fitting for them so I called them those!"

"So anyway, some of those animals are really dangerous and we can find them around the lake later at night, so we shouldn't wander around there at night since it will be very dangerous for you guys."

"Okay!" The three answered.

"Oh and brother Matthew, can you please tell me how you did that yesterday?"

"Did what?"

"Making your tongue as long as a rope!"

"You mean like this?"

Right after Matthew asked his question, Matthew extended his 6 meters long-tongue and waved them left and right, up and down, and he even tried making shapes using his tongue, which he failed badly except for making a circle or a spiral.

"Woww…" The three kids said with their mouths agape.

"I chan alsho mhake ith shticky!" Matthew said while still keeping his tongue out of his mouth, making his speech slightly unclear.

Matthew then touched the tip of his tongue to a short twig on the ground before pulling his tongue upward and the twig was stuck to the tip of his tongue.

Releasing the twig from his tongue, Matthew reeled it back inside his mouth before asking,

"How is it? It's amazing right?"

"Yes! It's cool!" The first kobold kid said,

"What other things can you do?"

Matthew then thought for a second before saying,

"Watch this!"

Matthew then changed the color of his scutes to the same tone of brown as the tree trunks around him before hugging a nearby tree, becoming almost indiscernible with the tree trunk.

After seeing the kids were amazed by his little tricks, Matthew returned the color of his scutes back to its original color and walked back towards the kids.

"I'm also able to create venoms from my mouths, but you can just see them in action and how strong they really are later. We've almost arrived."

The four of them then walked for about another 5 minutes before finally, they arrived at a large clearing in the forest. And in the middle of the clearing, they could see a large lake, so large that it didn't lose in size compared to the kobold village.

Matthew just smiled and felt his stress alleviate slightly as he saw the familiar serene lake. It was the place where he had spent the first few weeks of his life. His feet started walking on their own towards the huge body of water as he wanted to take a sip of the fresh lake water that he hadn't drunk for such a long time.

But different from Matthew, this is the first time for the kids that they had seen a very huge body of water. Their village well was only about 1 and a half meters wide and they couldn't even compare it to the lake in front of their eyes as the difference was too massive for them to compare.

But seeing Matthew confidently walking towards the lake, the three kids soon followed after him while keeping their eyes wide open, staring in awe towards the lake.

"It's okay kids, in the daytime, the worst thing that could happen is either you drown or you hit your head onto a rock. So just make sure you don't trip and neither of those two things will happen to you." Matthew said to the careful-looking kids.

Using his hands like a bowl, Matthew poured some water onto his hands before drinking the slightly cold lake water.

The water poured into Matthew's mouth and slid down his throat, bringing a refreshing feeling that he hasn't felt in a long time.

'A nostalgic feeling is always one of the best feelings ever…' Matthew thought as he took another gulp.