Reincarnated As A Chameleon And Eating Everything To Evolve

Matthew had been postponing his evolution for quite a while and even though he didn't lose any levels because the system had automatically stored the excess levels that he got from killing all the creatures until now, it still means that Matthew was limiting the growth of his own strength.

It may be seen as counterproductive as his and the three kobolds' goal was to get stronger as soon as possible with the human army steadily closing in on them, but Matthew had a good reason on why he was delaying his fourth evolution.

It was so that he could amass more bionutrients so that he would have more freedom of choice in his fourth evolution. Frankly, Matthew didn't have a clear idea yet on what he wanted to exactly add to his body for his fourth evolution because he already had a lot of options in his arsenal, and he was sure that he had also missed some useful beast body parts from the list of the collected monster data. and now added with the troll's monster data, he has even more options that he needs to consider.

But with plenty of bionutrients that he has collected right now, about 16000 of them. Matthew was quite confident that he could do a lot with that amount of bionutrients. Even if he wanted to change his monkey limbs to a bear's limbs, he would still have a considerable amount left to maybe add the deer's antlers to his head or replace his rigid chameleon tail with the monkey's tail that is more flexible, powerful, and useful rather than his current one.

Although Matthew wanted to evolve as soon as possible since he think that his current preparations should be enough, he was still unsure whether to postpone his evolution again or not because there's a possibility of finding new beasts or demihumans that might give him even more options and useful body parts for his fourth evolution.

And the clear example of that is the Ogres that the trolls had mentioned. Matthew had never heard or seen them before, but from what he heard from the trolls, the ogres should be another being that is considered equal to the trolls.

'I remember the troll village chief said that I should try taking the ogre's spot instead of the troll's, so that should mean that the ogre also lived in the deeper part of the forest, around the same level as the trolls.'

The ogres that the trolls mentioned had actually intrigued Matthew's interest since the troll village chief had also said that the ogres mainly used their aura instead of using magic.

Matthew had always wondered how other demihumans used aura. He never had any teachers teaching him how to use aura. All his knowledge regarding aura came from the system or by learning on his own. Well, mostly learning on his own since the system only taught him the basics of how to control them.

Even his trump card, his main method of offense, and the one ability that he relied on to defeat higher leveled creatures, the solid aura was the result of his attempt to recreate the usage of aura from another creature, the human general.

Matthew didn't know whether the ogre would also have a unique trait such as the rapid regeneration that the trolls have or why it seems that the trolls didn't know how to use aura at all. But the fact that the ogres mainly used aura is already enough to make Matthew interested and want to meet them.

If he got the chance to see how other demihumans that mainly focused on their aura fight and use their aura, then it will certainly give Matthew at least a different perspective on the usage of aura if not a completely new way of utilizing aura in general.

However, there are also some problems if he wanted to do that. Matthew didn't know the location of the ogre's village. Getting lost is not what Matthew was concerned about. He literally has a minimap that mapped out all the places that he has been through. And even though the minimap didn't have a marking function, Matthew was able to easily find out the location of the wolf den on the minimap by memorizing the small unique landmarks or he could just memorize the exact point on the minimap.

What he was afraid of was the time it takes to find the location of the ogre village. 

It has been about a week since he last saw the humans going near the bear's burrow. And Matthew was afraid that if the humans kept on expanding horizontally, it would take them about 2 more weeks before they reached the wolf den with the human's speed. 

And exploring the forest to find a certain ogre village was surely not an easy task. It took Matthew about 7 days to find the troll village, and there was no guarantee that the next demihuman village he will find is the ogre's instead of another, different troll village. Simply saying, Matthew was afraid that he will be wasting a lot of time trying to find the ogre village and his level will still be stuck at level 20 since the requirements needed him to evolve before receiving the stored levels.

However, that doesn't mean that Matthew can always postpone finding another demihuman village. With the humans rapidly expanding, sooner or later, Matthew and the three kobolds need to find another place to stay. It wasn't really a huge problem for Matthew who could practically live anywhere he wanted by either making a new home or taking over an already built one, but the three kobolds need a place where they can find water.

Different from his beast anatomy that could survive by drinking blood, the three kobolds who were bonafide demihumans needed to also drink water. Aside from the water from the lake, another source of water that Matthew knew was either the rain or a well. And it had never rained before ever since he was born into the world, so the only option that was available for him right now is to get water from a lake.

He could probably make a water well by randomly digging deep in the ground and hoping that he will find a water source, but getting water from an already built well will surely be easier. This means that living in a demihuman village will be easier than digging a well randomly in the forest, hoping to stumble upon a water source by accident.

Seeing his complicated relationship with the trolls, Matthew guessed that he had to try speaking again to another demihuman village and secure a place to live for him and the three kobolds to live. And if he could convince them, then he could get their help in the fight against the humans.

The humans would also be attacking them, so Matthew hoped that they would really take that into account and not complicate things by being ahead of themselves and underestimating the humans' strength.

'Well, if talking is not convincing enough, I can always show a little demonstration of strength for them…'

'But if they really respected strength, won't I need to be as overwhelming as possible when I meet them? My fight against the troll was not an easy one and one mistake could lead me to my death with that arrogant troll mage summoning earth spikes everywhere. My strength is probably still lacking to be highly respected by them…'

'Then I guess evolving right now is the best course of action for now?'

There's also one thing that Matthew had considered, and that is to get human data and add certain body parts from them. 

Matthew had never considered this before since he had only been killing beasts and one demihuman before, but he wondered whether changing his chameleon brain with a human one will enhance his intellect. He didn't feel much different with himself and his ability to think with the current chameleon brain, but it's not wrong to say that he had also thought about whether it would affect him.

He also wanted to take the human's vocal cord. His current one could only make beastly noise. And even though the system had been working hard in making the noises even comprehensible for the humans, Matthew knew from firsthand experience that the human's vocal cord was one of the most flexible vocal cords that could make all kinds of different noises.

But in the end, Matthew decided to shelve that idea since he won't be getting a definite benefit from taking the human lives while he was trying to go under their radar and make them forget about his existence. He was about to fight all of them in the end, so he would surely have enough humans to eat later to complete the human data, he doesn't need to rush about this matter.

'And about the ogre, and demihuman village matters, I need to confirm something first…'

'System, when is my next evolution after this one?'

[Host's fifth evolution will be on level 25.]

'With the accumulated levels that I have right now, I should have plenty enough to skip a few levels right after I finished my fourth evolution. And with the boost of strength from the fourth evolution, I'm pretty confident to fight against the higher leveled beasts in the forest. It shouldn't be too long for me to reach level 25 and add the ogre or a new beast monster data if I found something valuable for me. It shouldn't be too late for me to prepare for the humans who probably still need weeks to reach the troll village.'

'Then it's decided then.'

'System, Evolve'