One year. A whole year had passed.

During that time many things had changed, but Sobek had mostly focused on one thing: eating. And finally, that day the System notification confirmed that he had reached enough skill points to maximize all of his abilities.

"At long last!" Sobek exclaimed as he spent his skill points to max out [Linguistics (3)], the latest skill not yet fully updated. "It took me a whole year... but I can finally stop"

He had taken every free moment to eat. Every second he wasn't asleep or didn't have to worry about herd management had spent attached to his Personal Manger. He just couldn't take it anymore. "System, open the interface. Who knows what level I've reached..."

[Spinosaurus perfectus]

Level: 43

Length: 43 m

Height: 13.5 m

Weight: 21.5 tons

Diet: carnivore, piscivore

Strength: 369.123

Agility: 320,150

Defense: 298.311

Top speed: 44 km/h

Experience points: 820,000/4,310,000

Skill points: 0

Fame points: 7,580,000,000/10,000,000,000

Bonus Money: 12,510,300

"Damn… I didn't notice how big I was getting. I challenge this warehouse is getting so tight" Sobek thought, waving his tail. 43 meters. He was now 43 meters long. Which meant he could cover the width of a five-a-side football pitch.

And a height of 13.5 meters, too... if a t-rex had been placed vertically it would still have been shorter than him. He was taller than a four-story building. He was still far from sauropod height records, but still remained one of the tallest animals on the planet.

"System, show me the skills" he ordered. He wanted to make sure he really upgraded them all.

[Skill interface]

Swim speed: 5/5

Ambush: 5/5

Rapid digestion: 5/5

Regeneration: 5/5

Deadly claws: 5/5

Fast eating: 5/5

Reinforced skin: 5/5

Powerful bite: 5/5

Linguistics: 5/5

Apnea: 5/5

Devastating roar: 5/5

Linguistics (2): 5/5

Teleportation: 5/5

Supreme instinct: 5/5

Linguistics (3): 5/5

"It looks like I've maximized them all. Very well, for a while this will no longer be of use" he thought, putting his Personal Manger in the [Inventory]: at least for a month he didn't want to see it again. With that done, he finally came out of the warehouse.

To welcome him outside there was only Old Li. Sobek almost laughed when he saw how tiny the ankylosaur had become: even that 8-meter-long living tank now seemed small compared to him. "Pack leader, are you finished?"

"Yes, my friend. This time I'm done for real" Sobek murmured. "Come on, let's get out of here. I've had enough of this cement"

By now very few dinosaurs were still stationed in Cartago. They hadn't, since they had an alternative.

After a year, the desert was completely fertile again and grass, ferns and bushes grew everywhere. Aquifers had been discovered and unearthed, and had formed small lakes. Many trees were already growing, although they were still very low and barely two meters high. With that paradise available, the dinosaurs preferred to live there rather than on the asphalt of the city.

By now in Cartago remained only the dinosaurs who had to watch over the last remaining humans. Yes, after a year some humans were still prisoners. There were few left, but still there were still. And with them, there was still the guarantee of peace.

During that year, thanks to the exchanges between humans and dinosaurs, the pack had grown a lot. Humans had gone to retrieve the dinosaurs to be exchanged with the inhabitants of Cartago practically everywhere: nature reserves, zoos, sport hunting facilities, farms, etc. Virtually every dinosaur on all two continents where humans lived had been brought to Maakanar.

Integrating the newcomers into the pack hadn't been easy. Some, especially those from nature reserves, encountered no problems, but most struggled to find their place. Some were malnourished, others (especially those from farms) were fat on the verge of pathological. Some also had various injuries, such as those from sport hunting facilities, and others, such as those who came from zoos, had difficulty socializing and learning to live free. Finally, some had developed outright mental illnesses because they had been used for illegal fighting.

It had taken a lot of effort on both sides to get them to recover. Many of them were still recovering. With [Regeneration] it was possible to fix the physical wounds, but for the mental ones, things got more complicated. Many dinosaurs had needed real therapy to recover, and if it hadn't been for [Reinforced skin] many of them would have ended up killing someone as they had frequent outbursts. Some of them even developed a true sociopathy.

Sobek and the other dinosaurs in the pack had been very patient. The spinosaurus was surprised how humans could reduce animals without even realizing it. Many of those dinosaurs had never lived free and now had serious difficulties understanding what this entailed and managing their new life. But with a lot of effort, almost everyone had managed to settle in and socialize with others.

At that juncture Al seemed to have played one of the most important roles: his strong empathy and generosity had allowed him to relate to the problematic elements in an excellent way, helping them to overcome their inner demons and to rebuild their lives. Given his contribution, Sobek had decided to promote Al to third-degree star again. The allosaurus had gladly welcomed the promotion, because in his eyes it appeared as a sort of forgiveness.

However, by now the dinosaurs on the two human-inhabited continents were starting to run out. Thanks to Rambo, Sobek knew that humans were having a hard time finding more dinosaurs to trade with the Cartago prisoners. Even some of them had tried to capture others on one of the three virgin continents, but thanks to his intelligence network Sobek had anticipated their move and had sent a battalion to the point where he knew those hunters would land.

Thanks to the pterosaurs he had sent out on a reconnaissance, he now knew every inch of all three continents, even if he hadn't gone there yet. The same was true of the two continents inhabited by humans, thanks to the birds. Thus, using [Teleportation], the dinosaurs could go wherever he wanted. After the hunter ships had found dinosaurs waiting for them on the shore ten times, they had turned around and abandoned their attempts, realizing that the three virgin continents were indeed under the total jurisdiction of the dinosaurs.

Of course, those battalions had been only the first step. Once [Teleportation] was maximized, Sobek had sent large groups of dinosaurs to other continents to recruit new troops. In fact, by now there was no need for him to attend the recruitment personally: with the new evolution, the bond of loyalty guaranteed by the [Contract] was very strong, almost unbreakable, and probably would have become such the next evolution of him. Therefore it was enough for a dinosaur to agree to join the herd for it to instantly develop a strong sense of belonging to it.

With its fourth evolution, the abilities that could be traded with the [Contract] had become six. Sobek had decided that each member of the pack should necessarily have [Teleportation], [Reinforced skin], [Linguistics], [Linguistics (2)] and [Linguistics (3)]. As for the last ability, Sobek changed it depending on the situation, but generally it was something of an offensive type, such as [Devastating roar], [Powerful bite] and [Deadly claws], or in extreme cases of a defensive type, such as [Ambush] and [Apnea].

It had been about seven months since the dinosaurs had begun to expand their influence to other continents. Sobek had in fact maximized [Teleportation] first, so that he could escape in extreme cases; thanks to it, however, the dinosaurs had been able to obtain a disproportionate number of troops. By now Sobek's army numbered three million trained troops, and many other creatures were joining the pack every day. And it wasn't just dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

Old Li and Sobek crossed the plain and reached the river, where several dinosaurs were drinking. However, there weren't only dinosaurs: a giant gigantophis, a snake twelve meters long, was lying in the sun waiting for them, waiting for orders.

"Go and call me Ammut! Now!" Sobek ordered the snake. The reptile didn't have it repeated and crawled into the water.

A few minutes passed, then the water boiled and the shape of a huge sarcosuchus emerged from the river. The crocodile went a few meters from Sobek, then said: "What do you need, pack leader?"

After [Teleportation], Sobek had started updating [Linguistics (3)]. As a first power, he had gained the ability to speak with archosaurs, so he had decided to start recruiting. Ammut had been the first of her on her list: with her 13 meters, this female sarcosuchus was a true titan in the river, so he had chosen her as her first purchase, and then sent her to recruit other archosaurs. Thanks to this, several sarcosuchus, deinosuchus, desmatosuchus, postosuchus, purussaurus, pholidosaurus, crocodilaemus, teleorhinus, and many other archosaurs had joined the pack. In doing so, Sobek had begun to build a navy: crocodiles and alligators patrolled the shallow waters that surrounded the continent, making sure that no ships approached and sounding the alarm as soon as they saw one.

After the archosaurs he had touched all the lepidosauromorphs: that is to say snakes, lizards, monitor lizards and every other reptile in existence. Aside from a few large snakes like the titanoboa and the gigantophis, Sobek hadn't bothered to recruit many more on the three continents where dinosaurs dominated; rather, they had been very useful to Rambo. Like birds, lizards, geckos, snakes, and many other reptiles also lived in close contact with humans. Their recruitment had allowed Rambo to further increase his intelligence.

But only after maximizing his skill did Sobek begin recruiting marine reptiles. He expected to find some resistance from them, since they were more solitary than land animals, but on the contrary the marine reptiles had welcomed his coming with joy.

Marine animals suffered much more pollution than terrestrial ones. Their food was increasingly scarce and their habitat was continually degrading due to the waste dumped into the sea. Many marine reptiles suffered excruciating pain from starving they ate bottles, pouches or bags which then got stuck in their stomachs. So when Sobek recruited his first marine reptile, a large ophtalmosaurus named Marlin, he was delighted to have met someone who promised him food and health. Thanks to [Rapid digestion] Sobek had made the waste disappear from his body and with [Regeneration] he had repaired the damaged parts. Marlin hadn't hesitated for a second to pledge allegiance to him.

As soon as news spread out at sea that there was someone who could cure all pain and provide fresh food for all, the marine reptiles rushed like a swarm. First an infinite number of ichthyosaurs (shonisaurus, mixosaurus, ophtalmosaurus, temnodontosaurus, eurhinosaurus, cymbospondylus, chaohusaurus, etc.), then it was the turn of thousands of plesiosaurs (cryptoclidus, muraenosaurus, plesiosaurus, elasmosaurus, krososaurus (macroplosaurus) and , peloneustes, liopleurodon, etc.), and finally a gigantic school of mosasaurs (platecarpus, globidens, tylosaurus, clidastes, mosasaurus, etc.). Everyone had answered Sobek's call. Their numbers were so immense that they couldn't all be gathered in one place, so Sobek had given Marlin some feeders and he had spread them all over the ocean. Every day, new marine reptiles joined the pack and Sobek had to go out of his way to manage all the [Contracts].

Since for obvious reasons such creatures had to remain in the sea, Sobek used crocodiles and snakes to have a direct line of communication with them. Although he had the option of sharing the minds of [Contract] he preferred not to use it too much, as this would cause great confusion in his mind due to the huge number of creatures that were now under his control.

"Ammut, take me to Mazu. I have to talk to her"Sobek ordered, plunging into the water. The sarcosuchus did not have it repeated and led the way. The two quickly reached the estuary and then the open ocean. That was where the marine reptiles dwelt.

As soon as he arrived, Sobek was greeted by thousands of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and mosasaurs who welcomed him warmly. However, Sobek was only interested in one of them at the time: Mazu, the greatest of all mosasaurs in his pack.

All marine reptiles were distinguished by strength, agility and dexterity, which thanks to the water were somewhat greater than those of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. But Mazu… she was the strongest of all. She was the only one who had the courage to fight with Sobek. When she learned of the generous spinosaurus that healed marine reptiles and gave food, and that by all accounts she was stronger than any other creature, Mazu had chosen to face him. She went to the estuary and asked for a duel with him, even if Sobek was more than double her.

The battle had been short but intense, and only after Sobek had almost suffocated her Mazu surrendered and swore allegiance to him. To reward her for her courage, Sobek named her after the Chinese sea goddess and placed her in a high-ranking position. It didn't take long for Mazu to demonstrate her leadership skills and earn Sobek's trust, and with it the title of navy commander.

Finding her was not difficult, even in the midst of all that bench. Mazu was however a mosasaur almost 18 meters long and stood out among all other marine reptiles. It was also easy to spot thanks to the moon drawn on her head. When Sobek had started to recruit marine creatures, he had worked to make the dye indelible, so that it would not have vanished even under water.

Mazu walked over to him as soon as she saw him. Around her swam her two bodyguards: Tornado and Cretaceous. Tornado was a globidens and Cretaceous a metriorinchus. They were certainly not the strongest of the school, but they had proven time and again to be brave and loyal to Mazu, so the mosasaur always kept them with him. "Lord Sobek, to what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked as she swam towards him.

"We have work to do" Sobek replied. "It's time for you to get armor too"