[Evolution complete: congratulations, you have evolved to Spinosaurus divinus!]

Sobek finally opened his heavy lids. He felt as rested as he hadn't been for months, even though his body was a bit stiff due to the humidity. As usual, as soon as he woke up completely his senses now much more developed than before him hit him so hard it almost made him dizzy.

It took him a few minutes to recover and familiarize himself with his senses. Now he had such powerful eyesight that he could see parts of a leaf without a microscope, his hearing could sense a raindrop falling to the ground more than twenty kilometers away, and his sense of smell could detect odors from at least a hundred kilometers."Damn, my senses have gotten really powerful. I bet if I ate something I could taste every single molecule" he thought.

He stretched and then stood up. The shape of the legs and the little body that he could see immediately turned out to be different from before. Without delay, he walked over to a puddle and looked at himself in it.

His cymbal face had grown narrower and more robust, similar to that of a suchomimus. The neck, body and tail had become massive, suitable for fighting in hand-to-hand combat. The forelegs had grown thicker and more muscular, with even more prominent claws, while the hind legs remained wide to support the weight, but their shape had harmonized with the rest of the body to ensure greater agility. The sail on his back had assumed a harmonic crescent shape, without any kind of imperfection. His color had turned light gray, with just a few hints of red on the sail and the final part of the nose.

Sobek nearly exploded with joy when he saw himself. "I finally became like the spinosaurus from Jurassic Park!" he thought ecstatically. After so much waiting, he had finally become like the dinosaur he had loved most in the entire film saga. He was virtually identical to it, except that he was more than three times its size.

Sobek was pleased with his new look and was happy that it would become what he would wear for his entire life from now on. Each of his muscles or flaps of skin gave a sense of unparalleled power and strength. Anyone who saw it could not help but admire it. "System, open the main interface!"

[Spinosaurus divinus]

Level: 52

Length: 52 m

Height: 16.2 m

Weight: 26 tons

Diet: carnivore, piscivore

Strength: 108,880

Agility: 102,320

Defense: 99,670

Speed: 53 km/h

Experience points: 12,000/9,310,000

Skill points: 306

Fame Points: MAX REACHED

Bonus Money: 1,357,911

[Congratulations! Obtained three new skills]

[Congratulations! You unlocked the Mutation system]

"Fame points are gone, huh? Well, I guess that's normal since they're useless now" Sobek thought as he looked at the fame points box, on which he was now flashing the phrase "MAX REACHED" very clearly.

Maybe even the skill points, once he maximized his latest abilities, would disappear too? What about experience points? Did he have a limit to how much he could grow, or could he go on indefinitely? "Aaaah, too many questions! One thing at a time" he thought. "System, show the skills!"

[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

Parthenogenesis: 0/5

Radiation absorption: 0/5

Linguistics (4): 0/5

"WHAT!? [Parthenogenesis]!? What the hell is that!?"

Sobek's mind nearly exploded. He didn't want to have too many illusions, but... was it possible?

The System was designed specifically to help him. Was that a gift that God was giving him, to thank him for his work? Could it really be? Almost at the speed of light, Sobek selected and opened the new abilities.

[Parthenogenesis]: allows you to create a new individual in an asexual way, which possesses exactly the same characteristics as the parent. Warning: this skill will not work unless the maximum level is reached. If you try to use it before then, the puppy will either die before it is born or it will be born weak and sickly and die soon; it is therefore advisable to be patient and wait until you have maximized your skill before using it. Cost: 35 skill points.

[Radiation absorption]: allows you to absorb in a non-harmful way all the radiation and nuclear fallout present in a specific area. At the maximum level, it allows you to clean up an area of 50 kilometers in diameter in less than five minutes. Cost: 40 skill points.

[Linguistics (4)]: allows you to speak with the totality of vertebrates. At level 1 it allows you to talk to reptile-morphs, at level 2 it allows you to talk to reptile-mammals, at level 3 it allows you to talk to mammals, at level 4 it allows you to talk to amphibians and at level 5 it allows you to talk to fish. Cost: 35 skill points.

Sobek began to tremble. He wasn't wrong!

Even though Sobek had a human mentality, he still remained prey to his animal instincts. And this meant that every day he felt the urgent need to reproduce. Every living being, after all, has the task of passing on its genetic heritage to the next generation. Sobek knew that he could not fulfill this desire because he was the only one of his kind of him, but despite this awareness his instinct gnawed at him from the inside, making him almost go into depression.

But now... now he had [Parthenogenesis]. Which meant he could give birth to a son!

"Come to think of it, does this imply that my reproductive organs will undergo changes? I am a male, but without a female apparatus I could not create a new individual. Dunno, who knows. I guess I'll find out" Sobek thought as he observed the skill with a dreamy air. He was certainly not afraid of getting pregnant: dinosaurs, like reptiles and birds, laid eggs, so he wouldn't have to suffer any pain from childbirth. As for the brood, it was not a big problem: among the dinosaurs it was very often the brooding male, as in many species of birds.

If he had had a son, not only could he finally overcome his instinct and experience the joy of being a father, but since the son would inherit all his characteristics he could take his place as pack leader later. his death. Sobek doubted that his son would have a System, but his abilities were now characteristic of him, so they should have been passed on to the unborn child.

He was about to spend all of his skill points to maximize skill, but he held back. Having a child at that time was the craziest thing he could do. If he was going to breed, he wanted to do it when the world was a safe place. Raising a child was not at all something that could be done in one day. And if he wanted to be a decent father and be sure his son could take his place as pack leader, Sobek would have to be there for him all the time, an act that was impossible at the moment since his presence was required elsewhere as well.

No, it was better to wait. When the tense climate with humans finally calmed down enough, that would be the right time. Now there were still too many dangers. He didn't want to give birth to a child and then see him kidnapped or worse.

Sobek lowered his head in defeat. If that was the course of action he wanted to take, then it was useless to maximize [Parthenogenesis] at the time. Since he had his own Personal Manger he could do it later. Rather it was better to focus on something much more profitable.

Even though he had been distracted by [Parthenogenesis], [Radiation absorption] had certainly not gone unnoticed. Sobek heaved a sigh of relief as he reread it: now he was much calmer!

With [Supreme instinct] the dinosaurs could have sensed the arrival of the atomic bombs and used [Teleportation] to save themselves and humans. Before, Sobek was worried about nuclear fallout… but with [Radiation absorption], the problem was pretty much solved! Now the dinosaurs could clean up all the radioactive waste before it became a global risk: it would have been enough for them to go to the site of the explosion immediately after the bomb exploded. Sure, the atomic bomb would have destroyed cities and forests anyway, but that wasn't a problem from Sobek's point of view: cities could be rebuilt and forests could be replanted. With [Radiation absorption] there was no longer the risk of a nuclear holocaust!

Now the humans had nothing left to threaten him with. The only thing they could have done would have been to invent a new weapon from scratch. However, Sobek doubted that they would succeed. It was one thing to convert the technology they already had into weapons, one thing was to invent a completely new one. If creating a new weapon had been an easy process, humans on Earth would already have had a technology capable of destroying planets and even stars.

Sobek was in an iron barrel by now. Now he could safely march into enemy territory and conquer it without having to fear anything. Of course, he would not have done it: the peaceful path taken by Eden Union was much better, if longer. So as long as he could he would stick to that line of action.

However, maximizing [Radiation absorption] was a must: it was too important a skill to leave incomplete. He did a quick calculation and concluded that he needed a total of 200 skill points to get her to the maximum level. Fortunately, he had 306.

[Radiation absorption] was maximized without too many second thoughts. When he saw the skill level rise to 5/5, Sobek felt as safe as ever in his life.

He still had 106 skill points left. Sobek already knew how he would spend it: since he had decided to have a child only after the end of the conflict, [Parthenogenesis] would be enhanced last, so at the moment he could focus on [Linguistics (4)].

His army was already huge and he didn't need new recruits, but being able to talk to all vertebrates would have been a big advantage. For one thing, he would completely eliminate all kinds of dangers to his subjects and humans: after all, megalodons, dunkleosteus and basilosaurs were still dangerous to marine reptiles unless they had [Reinforced skin]. They also often attacked ships and submarines. Incorporating these animals into his army would have meant completely erasing any danger to both his people and humans.

The only dangerous animals that would have remained would have been some giant squid and huge arthropods such as pterigotus, but they were invertebrates and therefore out of Sobek's understanding. The spinosaurus understood the reason for that limit: vertebrates all had very similar brains, although it varied greatly from species to species: they all had a cortex, a cerebellum, a thalamus, a hypothalamus, and so on, regardless of how big these organs were. developed. The invertebrates, on the other hand, had completely different brains, some like sponges and jellyfish did not even have them: even with the skills provided by the System, Sobek doubted it was possible to create a common language for all of them.

In addition to the increased protection and growing strength of his army, Sobek could exploit [Linguistics (4)] in other ways: for example, to raise human awareness of them. Even in a world where dinosaurs still existed, man's best friends were still cats and dogs; if these animals had pleaded Sobek's cause, their masters would have been much less reluctant to accept that humans and dinosaurs (indeed, humans and animals at this point) could coexist. So far Sobek had been able to use little of that card because dinosaurs were not considered pets: only a few passionate people kept them at home, even the smallest ones. Dinosaurs were treated much like crocodiles or snakes on Earth: although some lovers of exotic animals might find them interesting, most people would not want them in the house. As for parrots and canaries, they were among the animals that had been released due to the peace agreements obtained when Sobek took Cartago: since they were considered dinosaurs, like all birds, they had been released before Sobek thought that he could use them as propagandists.

But cats and dogs were still the most popular pets on the planet. Furthermore, the emotional bond they created with their masters was very strong and difficult to break on both sides. If they had talked to humans about Sobek's ideal of coexistence, they would have been listened to far more than the dinosaurs.

Sobek quickly calculated how much he could upgrade [Linguistics (4)] with the remaining skill points. He clearly he couldn't take it to the max, but since each level advance cost 35 skill points, Sobek could still reach level 3/5. He would have cost him 105 skill points, but he still had 106!

His skill points were reduced to 1, but Sobek didn't care: he had his own Personal Manger, and basically it wasn't that important to talk to amphibians and fish. Rather, he now had the possibility of conversing with reptilomorphs, with reptile-mammals and, above all, with mammals; exactly what he wanted!

"Now, let's see what this [Mutations system] is..."

Unfortunately Sobek had no idea. For the previous [Secondary systems] he could easily guess what they were about and how to unlock the various boxes, but in this case he found himself facing a wall. He didn't know what [Mutations system] was, nor what conditions were needed to unlock his boxes.

To try to understand something, he tried to examine the boxes; they were obscured, of course, but Sobek could recognize some details through the shadows. On all the boxes there was a kind of double helix. It almost felt like… "A DNA molecule? Is this how I can unlock the boxes? And how do I do this?"

Even though his vision was enormously enhanced, it was not so powerful that he could see inside the cells. DNA was on the verge of the microscopic!

"Maybe I should get humans to help me… well, I'll think about it later. Now I better call Carnopo and Buck, who knows what happened while I was sleeping" Sobek thought, but as soon as he put his hand to the [Contracts] he realized that now he no longer needed to ask questions: his ability to share minds was turned into a huge collective mind!

Although Sobek could turn off the ability when he wanted, when he turned it on he could see, hear and feel everything his subjects were seeing, hearing and sensing. It was like a huge Internet network where he was the center. With a single thought, Sobek could access their memories, their thoughts and their most hidden secrets.

"I don't know how morally acceptable this is, but it sure is much more efficient" Sobek thought as he dumped all his subjects' memories of the past two weeks into his mind.