After my tail regenerated, I stayed in the hideout for another hour, letting the last traces of weakness fade from my body. The panel had done its work—my tail was good as new, though the memory of that centipede's mandibles still made my insides clench.
I will eat you one day, I promised the unseen predator.
But first, I needed to grow.
The next few days became a blur of hunting and survival. With Clawed Strike and Grip Jaw at my disposal, even the tougher insects became manageable prey.
I caught a fat caterpillar the size of my foreleg—it tried to spray acid, but I dodged and sank my new jaws into its soft segments. Grip Jaw held it fast while I chewed through its struggles.
[Caterpillar consumed - Obtained 0.3 Gene Points.]
I found a wounded cricket, its leg broken from some earlier fight. No mercy. My tongue shot out, wrapped around its body, and dragged it in. Crunch. Swallow.
[Cricket consumed - Obtained 0.2 Gene Points.]
A small frog, no bigger than my head, appeared near a puddle. It was faster than me, but I was smarter. I herded it toward a fallen log, then ambushed from above. My claws tore through its soft belly. The taste was awful—slimy and bitter—but the notification made it worthwhile.
[Small Frog consumed - Obtained 0.8 Gene Points.]
On the fifth day, I stumbled upon a nest of spider eggs. The mother was away. I ate all two dozen eggs in a frenzy, their yolky contents sliding down my throat like liquid gold.
[Spider Eggs (x24) consumed - Obtained 1.2 Gene Points total.]
By the end of the first week after the centipede attack, I opened my panel and felt a jolt of excitement.
Gene Upgrade Panel
[Name: Ren]
[Species: Forest Lizard (Juvenile). Required 20 Gene Points to become adult-sized Forest Lizard.]
[Available Gene Points: 19.8]
So close.
Just two tenths of a point away from evolution.
That afternoon, I found a dying dragonfly. Its wings were torn, its body twitching on a patch of moss. Something larger had bitten it and left it for dead. I didn't question my luck. I simply pounced.
[Dying Dragonfly consumed - Obtained 0.3 Gene Points.]
The panel flashed.
[Available Gene Points: 20.1]
[Threshold reached. Evolution to adult-sized Forest Lizard is now available.]
A wave of warmth spread through my chest. I felt it—a humming, vibrating sensation deep in my core, as if my very cells were singing.
But I didn't trigger the evolution immediately. Something else caught my attention.
As the warmth faded, I noticed a strange tingle in the air around me. It was faint, like the memory of a scent or the echo of a sound just beyond hearing. I focused on it, and for a split second, I felt… something. A pressure. A flow. Like standing in a river you cannot see.
Magic?
I thought back to the iron mantis and the Thornspike Boar. Those creatures weren't normal. A regular mantis didn't grow to a meter tall. A regular boar didn't have spikes of bone jutting from its hide. They had been… enhanced. Strengthened. Just like my abilities from the panel, but naturally.
Magical energy, I realized. This world has mana. And those beasts can use it.
I closed my eyes and tried to feel it again. I reached out with my senses, the way I had learned to feel hunger or danger. Nothing. Just that faint, teasing tingle, always slipping away when I tried to grasp it.
Why can't I feel it properly?
I opened the panel and stared at my species line.
[Species: Forest Lizard (Juvenile).]
Maybe my body isn't developed enough. Maybe the ability to sense mana comes with adulthood.
It made sense. Human babies couldn't walk or talk right away. Why would a lizard hatchling be able to perceive magic? The iron mantis and the Thornspike Boar were fully grown adults. They had lived long enough to absorb and use the ambient mana of this forest.
Then let's fix that.
The sun was setting, painting the forest in shades of amber and deep purple. I crawled deeper into my root hideout, widening the entrance with my claws until I had a small chamber just big enough for my body. Then I curled into a tight ball and opened the panel.
[Evolve to adult-sized Forest Lizard? Cost: 20 Gene Points.]
[Yes] / [No]
I commanded: Yes.
The world exploded into sensation.
My body seized. Every muscle contracted at once, locking me into a rigid curl. Pain—not the sharp sting of a wound, but a deep, bone-deep ache—radiated from my core outward. It felt like every cell in my body was being taken apart and put back together.
My skin stretched. My scales darkened from pale brown to a richer, earthier shade. My limbs lengthened, joints popping softly as they realigned. I could feel my spine growing, vertebrae clicking into new positions. My tail thickened, becoming more muscular.
The panel flickered in my vision, displaying a cascade of updates:
[Evolution in progress…]
[Skeletal structure expanding…]
[Muscle density increasing…]
[Scale thickness improving…]
[Digestive system upgrading…]
I wanted to scream, but my jaw was locked. All I could do was endure.
Minutes passed—or maybe hours. Time lost meaning inside that cocoon of agony and transformation.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the pain stopped.
A wave of cool relief washed over me, like diving into a stream on a hot day. My body felt… right. Lighter, despite being larger. Stronger and more alive.
[Evolution complete.]
[Species: Forest Lizard (Adult).]
[Length: 32 cm (approx., excluding tail). Total length with tail: 58 cm.]
[Gene Points remaining: 0.1]
I uncurled slowly, testing my new body. My claws—already sharp from Clawed Strike—now looked more robust, the nails thicker and slightly curved. My jaws opened wider, and when I ran my tongue over my teeth, I found them fully formed—small but pointed, no longer the blunt ridges of a hatchling.
I stretched, and my muscles responded with a fluid power I had never felt before. My old body had been a twig. This one was a branch.
This is what adulthood feels like.
But the changes weren't only physical.
As I settled back into my hideout, I noticed something different. The air around me… it had texture now. Before, the tingle of magic had been faint, almost imaginary. Now, it was undeniable.
I closed my eyes and focused.
There it was.
A slow, gentle current flowing through everything—the soil beneath me, the roots around me, the air I breathed. It was like standing in a shallow river, the water lapping at my ankles. I couldn't grab it or shape it yet, but I could feel it.
Mana.
The panel pulsed, as if acknowledging my discovery.
[New Ability detected: Mana Perception (Basic), Required 10 gene Points to develop the ability.]
I opened my eyes and smiled—a lizard's smile, full of tiny pointed teeth.
So this is the power of an adult.
The iron mantis had a head start. The Thornspike Boar was dead, but its kin probably roamed the forest. And that centipede… that blade-legged nightmare was still out there.
But now I was no longer a hatchling hiding in cracks.
I was an adult Forest Lizard. I had two abilities, a growing body, and the first spark of magical perception.
Tomorrow, I decided, curling into my enlarged hideout, I learn to use this mana.
Outside, the forest hummed with the sounds of nocturnal hunters. But for the first time since waking up in that nest of eggshells, I didn't feel like prey.
I felt like a predator in the making.