After that short skirmish with the "not really two-legs", from which you recovered shortly, you once again continued on your journey. Which came to an end shortly after as your stomach finally reached it's limits and you had to stop to eat the meal you'd stolen.


Day 24


Once you were done with that meal though, you actually began to explore your new surroundings and discovered two things.

First being that you were currently inside another's territory. Specifically, you were in the territory of a creature, that you instinctively knew, was of similar strength to you.

Secondly, you discovered the large structure in the distance which was surrounded by a large wooden wall and had two legs going in and out of it.


Instead of going to check on the two-legs you decide that it'd be a better to first deal with the only real threat to you in these new lands. Not to mention that it would get you some new good food, something you desperately needed.

So you set out into the green covered plains in search.

A search that quickly proved pointless as you saw a creature, around the same size as you, chasing a smaller one. Completely unaware of your existence

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, you immediately rush towards the distracted creature and tackle it.

It doesn't even get to resist as it's bowled over and you get to work on it, ripping at any flesh within reach with your talons. By the time it managed to actually shake you off, it was covered in deep furrows that spurted enough blood to make it turn red.

And that's it, as no more blood seemed to come from those deep furrows. Despite you knowing that there should be, at least, some leaking out of them.

Regardless of that though, you once again charged the wounded creatures while spewing black mist. Only to be met with more of a fight than you expected, as most of your weaker bites were tanked by it, causing it no harm, and the heavier bites were avoided.

What it couldn't dodge however, was the mist that spewed forth as you bit. That it ended up inhaling… to very little effect, other than a moment taken to hack and shake it's head.

Something that seemed to embolden it, judging by the way it suddenly decided to charge you.

A lethal mistake, since it let you break both it's front limbs, just as it put it weight on them, with a single swing of your club tail. An action which sent it tumbling past you and ended with it in a heap.

A heap you beat a few more times with your tail to ensure it stayed down. Which surprisingly enough didn't work as it was still crawling away from you, even with it's head having an imprint of your tail and both it's legs being broken to the point that bones are poking out.

Nothing a quick crushing of it's neck couldn't fix.


It is without hesitation that you begin to tear into the new food, distantly noting that it taste far more… tingly, than anything you'd eaten before. Something which was made far more noticeable when your entire body began to tingle as well.

But anyways, it still filled your stomach quite a bit.


Now with your stomach not completely empty you moved on to the next thing your instinct indicated you should do.

Finding a den, something harder than it seemed with the complete lack of anything resembling cover for as far as you could see. But still, you managed to find something more than usable.

Well, as usable as a hole in the ground is.


With a den found you decided to do something else to do for the last bit of the day…

or at least you would have if a sudden bout of laziness didn't cause you to just lay in the side of the cave until. inevitably, you closed your eyes to sleep.


Day 25

You awoke to a chilly wind coming into your cave.

Once you're fully awake you leave your den and begin the short journey to your next target. The structure that the two-legs kept going in and out of.

Which you reach relatively quickly and once you're there you wait and watch, quickly coming to discover that the structure seemed to be protecting the dens of the two legs. Something especially made clear from how there were two legs guarding the top of the structure to prevent things from getting past.

Or at least they were trying to, since you just climbed and jumped over it without any of them even reacting to your presence.

You didn't even bother to end them, not seeing the worth in wasting your time.

But when you were past the structure you discovered something great. A whole pile of two-leg shells lying in the open, with no other two-leg in sight…

Swallowing the last of the shell bits you look around for more, only to discover you'd eaten all of it. Upon seeing the lack of shells, you decide to move on.

And so, hopping on top of a two leg den, you look around fro something interesting. Only to immediately get drawn to a particular two-leg den, seemingly very different from the rest.

So you go towards it immediately, avoiding the few two legs you see by hopping from the tops of their dens until you're in front of the entrance of the den you were aiming for. An entrance you quickly go through, avoiding the two legs that were filling more and more of the area outside.

Only to come face to face with a two leg.

Except this one seemed to barely see you as it just walked past.

To which you just decide to move on, uncaring about the two-leg since you'd just seen something that looked like shell again. Except it turns out that it wasn't actually shell, but something else.

You still ate it of course, even eating the yellow not-shell.


Coming out of the weird den you found yourself almost caught by a two-leg outside.

Almost because, when you were about to be caught, you leapt over the two-leg to get out of its sight. Something which worked surprisingly well judging by the sounds the two-leg made and the way it seemed to search that direction.

But other than that you found little trouble on your way to the den that had that yellow not-shell substance hanging outside it.

But before you could eat it you got a sudden feeling that doing so will cause you problems…

But you quickly ignore that feeling in favour of eating all the not-shell before you.

It wasn't like you were going to be affected by a feeling anyways.


Finishing the last of the yellow not-shell, and shaking off the ominous feeling, you found yourself completely overstuffed. So you decided to, after wandering out of the den and hopping to the upper layers, find a place to sleep and digest what you'd eaten for the day.

Which you found relatively quickly by climbing back over the structure protecting the dens, once again without being seen, and looking around to find a hole in the ground.

A hole that went surprisingly deep and far as you soon discovered after walking to the end.

Even if you still have to remove and break some of the boons in the wall holes to make enough space for you to lie down and sleep.

You have annoyed every god of the radiant lights faith


Mayor POV

Become the mayor of Oldock they said, it'll be easy they said, you only need to mediate between three mellow factions they said.

"Lord mayor, the blacksmith is just came in. His stocks also been stolen."

What a bunch of shit. If anything, this was the most stressful job he'd ever had and that included that one time he'd been stationed at near the border in the wars.

"Tell him we're working on it," and it was a job made infinitely more stressful by some jackass deciding they were gonna go on a robbing spree the week after a new boss appeared, "and what's the news from the gate guards?"

"Uhh, well," Brienna, his very helpful secretary, began with a hesitant look, "they… well, they've said that the only people who left the town were adventurers… and they've already told people asking that same thing."

"Fuck," and what more could he say?

Because he was now sitting on the bomb that was the entirety of Oldock thinking that it was the adventurers who just stole their livelihood, the same adventurers whose leader had come by to tell him that they'll fight back if people try to blame them for this mess. Which wouldn't be quite as bad if the church wasn't also baying for adventurer blood, something likely influenced by how tense things have been between them recently.

"Alright, Brienna?" she perked up as he addressed her, "go take my personal guards and… deal with that east gate guards, the ones who were on night duty. Keep it discreet."

"S-sir?" she seemed shocked, probably thinking that she'd misheard.

"You heard what I said," unfortunately for her, that wasn't the case, "If things go as they are we'll have an all out war between adventurers and the church's paladins. Something which is far more pressing than the sudden disappearance of half the wealth. We have to deal with it before we can even think of the missing gold."

"But sir, why kill those guards?" she asked with genuine, innocent, confusion.

"Because we need scapegoats Brienna, and the those guards are the ideal ones," he replied, hiding the shame he felt at the suggestion behind a mask of weariness, "as much as I don't want to, it is what's needed to stop Oldock from imploding."

Unsaid was that it would only stop the inevitable implosion until he managed to spin the situation to get support from the capital… which was probably just a pipedream, with the nobles being far more willing to just pull all support and leave them to their fate. Especially since it would be 'his own fault' for not securing the gold better.

But he wouldn't know for sure till he tried.

"I… understand sir," with that, Brienna, despite the obvious conflict on her face, turned around to go carry out his orders. Only to be knocked back as she was about to exit his study as the door slammed open and a hysterical looking scout stumbled in.

"Lord mayor! The bishop just declared that the adventurers are considered heretics," he felt his heart drop to his stomach the moment those words registered with him, "he's got paladins marching to attack the guild building!"

Lysha save him.


Lizard POV

You wake up feeling quite well rested and refreshed.

[Achievement: Living Disaster] gained

You decide that it's time to return to your actual den and so you make your way out of the hole in the ground you were in.

Before you leave though, you do take a look back at the two-leg structure, which now seemed to have a fire in it judging by the smoke rising from it. In fact, if you listen closely you seem to be able to hear the familiar sound of two-legs making loud noises.

Still, you didn't see any two-legs as you left for your den so it didn't really matter.

[Personality update: Now prioritise any shell material (metals) over shell-less (armoured or low armoured) two legs, seeing as they're not really good eats.]


Once you were back in your den you immediately decide to leave it in favour of improving your black mist, something you'd been meaning to do after it's surprising usefulness against that predator before.

And you did this by finding a bunch of holes which you thought were openings of burrows and spewing as much black mist as you could in there.

Something which worked wonders as you found less and less small creatures being able to crawl out of the burrow as time went on. To the point that, after a certain point, the ones that did manage to get out, and the ones you let run away due to curiosity, died a short while later.

Though some of the small prey managed to run quite the distance, at least earlier on.

Once you were done with the last of the burrows you could find you began work on the second thing that you used against that predator. Your fangs, specifically because of how little they did.

And you trained them on some of the creature that were similar to the one you fought.

By the time you were finished you realised you may have overdone it a bit, seeing as there was now pile twice as big as you of the creatures in your cave.


Seeing the success you had in improving your fangs you once again return to improving your mist.

Except you find that all the burrows you found were one's you'd already dealt with… which is where your idea to pour your breath into the large amount of flowing cool fluid, a river as your instincts knew it.

Something you thought to do when you saw more than a few small critters drinking from it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that effective as a strengthening method, with most critters that drank from it barely reacting from it.

It also wasn't very pleasant to float around in the cold liquid, especially with how you could barely move at a fraction of your true speed.


When you returned to the den you realised something, it was time to move on from this place.

So you did, immediately heading out towards the colder air.

Only to stop shortly into your new journey as you found another group of not quite two-legs in the trees. Though, unlike last time you faced them, you didn't run in with your claws ready.

No, learning from your recent experiences, you instead slowly stalked up to the group.

Before immediately sneaking past them into their den where you found the true goal. Shell material, just as you expected.

Unsatisfied with the current amount of shell material in your stomach you turned around to leave intending to enter the protected den instead.

Only to come face to face with a bird limbed two-leg making a lot of noise.

Loud noises that got far louder as you rushed at it and bit it's head off, silencing it.

But it was too late as the den you were in caught fire, the rest of the group of not quite two-legs now aware of your presence. So, not willing to let them do the same thing they did before, you jumped out to pin and kill as many of the merged two-legs as you can.

Which turns out to be a lot, seeing as you almost wiped out all of those specific ones in this group.

Leaving you completely free to hit the ones in the air with black mist, finishing them off with your fangs when they fall to the ground, paralysed.

By the time the actually dangerous feeling one arrives, you've managed to wipe out most of the available not quite two-legs you could see.


Of course you ran off when the dangerous one arrived, though not before grabbing the metal stick that caught your attention.

Once you did so you continued on your journey, eating your newly grabbed snack the next time you stopped to catch your breath.

Only to begin to slow down as the environment suddenly starts to get colder and colder. Eventually, around the time the forest began raising and getting covered in whitish material, you needed to slow down to heat yourself with the boiling mist.

[You've entered a icy biome]

[(Minus) 3 to Strength, Constitution and agility while you remain here]

But still, you eventually managed to get quite far into the colder area. Enough to come to the base of a mountain.


First thing first, you immediately go to search for a den to sleep in. Something you want sooner than later, with how cold it is.

Which was a surprisingly hard thing to do, with how you didn't have the slightest idea on what the surroundings were and what anything meant.

Making it no surprise that you only barely managed to find a passable den in the form of an icy cave that wouldn't even stop the cold wind.

But you weren't satisfied with a breezy cave being your den and so you set out to find a better one.

Only to find nothing, even as you searched high and low.

Well, no. You did find something. That something being a freezing river that you took a dip in, due to finding that some of the ground in this area isn't quite as stable as you expected. A river from which you got a mouthful of glowing blue liquid from.

So you actually ended up finding nothing and swallowing something that's made your entire body feel like it's constantly freezing no matter what you do.


You were tempted to try and do another search for a shelter. You really were.

But at this point, with the way you were currently feeling horrible, you just decide to improve what you already had. Much like you did way back when you were still a little lizard in a burrow.

And so you began digging, and digging, and then digging even more.

You even managed to drag a boulder from outside, when you were pushing out the dirt from your now cavernous cave, to cover the entrance to stop anything from getting in.

It was… a surprisingly easy thing.


With your den now up to a suitable standard it was time for you to get used to your new surroundings. Something you actually had a specific plan for.

A plan which involved you leaving the den and exploring around in spirals in search for something. Which turned out to be another not quite two-leg structure, structures which you were beginning to encounter a lot now.

But as you sneakily approached you saw a familiar, dangerous feeling, creature walk out while carrying a large carcass. Which it… hanged off a tree outside?

It then let out a loud sound that echoed through the forest. A sound you understood.

It was saying that… if you didn't attack it then it'd keep putting free food outside for you? Well, not you specifically but any creature not attacking.

Actually, from what it said there should be more hung carcasses around here… which yes, you see them now that you look around.

Huh, you'll investigate this later. Tomorrow, after you get some sleep.


Day 28

You wake up still feeling like you'd taken a dip in the icy rivers.

Still, you manage to crawl up to go about your day.

After taking a moment to try to, futilely, heat yourself up with your black mist you decide to just go back to the village to investigate the corpse you had seen hanging yesterday.

Especially to see if you could find something that caused your body to tingle pleasantly, much like that relatively strong prey you ate in the grassy plains.

Which took a while since, once you got there, you had to take a bite out of each corpse hanging there and wait to see if it caused that feeling.

But, while it wasn't fast, you still managed to find one in the form of a corpse that looked very similar to that of the strong prey from the grassy plains.

Fortunately you didn't have to fight anything off when you picked it off the tree and returned to your den with it.


When you returned to your den you didn't wait a moment more to dig into it, quickly tearing it apart.

Though, as you did so, you made sure to remember the scent. As little use as it may be, you'd use it if you ever decide to hunt it's kind again.

But regardless of that, you quickly finish it. Letting the tingling feeling suffuse your freezing body. Suddenly the cold wasn't as bad as before.

Feeling a lot better, now that the cold wasn't as bad, you decided to strengthen your claws on the ice right outside your den.

Something which turns out to be very calming, allowing you to just keep clawing in the background as you zone out…

At least until you suddenly snap to in a surge of pain, finding half the claws on your right forelimb stuck in the ice.


It took some time for the craters, where your claws had originally been, stopped bleeding.

Time that you took to go and explore your surroundings again, partially in frustration. Exploration that you did at the maximum speed you could go at.

Okay, to be perfectly clear, you weren't so much exploring as you were getting over losing your half your front claws. But that didn't really stop you from finding something interesting.

[Ice obelisk] found

Though you had little idea what the glowing chunk of ice actually did. Nor did you find out by the time you returned to your den and went to sleep for the day.


Day 29

You woke up feeling, for once since you got here, warmer than you were before sleeping.

Enough so that you didn't have too much trouble getting up for the day.

Feeling as good as you well, you decided to practice moving around silently while you also strengthened your fangs. Which would likely be quite useful, with how much you've been trying to stay hidden recently.

And you did this by stalking around the forest and pinning anything that moved. At least, anything that wasn't far stronger than you.

Which actually worked oddly well, with you quietly ending more than a few moderately powerful creatures near the end of your strengthening session.

Just as you were returning to your den, you suddenly had an… idea. One inspired somewhat by what you'd seen that dangerous not two-leg do outside their dens.

And so you went and got the various corpses of small prey you'd killed while strengthening your fangs and found a good place.

Then you began hanging them off tree branches, the highest you can reach, before standing back to hide.

It only took a small amount of time before some small prey approached to try to get the meat.


Eventually, you leave the ambush point you created. Making your way to the area around the not two-legs den, the place where they hung the dead bodies.

This time you were once again searching for a corpse that'll give that tingling feeling, which you find in the form of another corpse of the same species as the last time. Which you quickly took from it's tree.

Yet, as you were leaving, you saw the not quite two-leg going about. So you, momentarily dropping the tingly corpse, went towards it. Noticing it begin to prepare to fight as you did so.

But you didn't intend to kill it, not yet anyways. You remembered that deal you made with that two-leg who could understand you, back when you still had a den in the warm forest, and you wished to make one with this not two-leg who also understood you.

So, going up to the creature with a non-hostile stride, which it seemed to understand, you began to growl and hiss to get your point across.

A point it understood as it made sounds that, as you expected, turned out to be a deal.

A strange one even.

From what you got, it was willing to give you really good "metal" (which seemed to be it's sound for shell material) if you brought it the corpse of the creature "ice silver deer".

[You know the rough ground of ice silver deer (+30 to finding them roll)]

[You'll get an ingot (1 ingot restores 1 hunger) of frigid silver per deer you bring]

It also said it'll give you good "metal" if you brought it any "demi-humans" (it's kind apparently) you found in the forest. Instead of eating it.

[You'll get random metal ingot (restore 1 hunger) for any demi-humans you bring to him]

All in all, you were very satisfied with yourself when you returned to your den with the tingly corpse.


Deciding not to waste time in getting more metal, you immediately store the tingly corpse and head back out in search of the ice silver deer to trade for some of the good metal.

Which… well, it didn't go well.

Because while you were told where they tended to roam, you didn't actually find any of them there.

Which really didn't change even till you returned to sleep.

Day 30

When you woke up things were… different.

Different in that you suddenly seemed to just… understand some things. Like how your lacking ability to heal two days ago had something to do with that mouthful of blue freezing liquid you'd drank.

Oh, you'd also regrown your claws, and they were as sharp as ever.

[Regrew claws]

[Sapience achieved]


Ignoring your suddenly different thinking and understanding of the world, you instead dig into the tingly corpses first. Which, expectedly, caused your body to tingle for a moment.

Then you were full and ready for the rest of the day.

With your stomach full you proceeded to continue where you left of yesterday.

Specifically, absolutely failing to find and ambush an ice silver deer. This time being even more frustrating as you actually saw the object of your interest, just standing there.

Only to immediately rush of into the distance, far faster than you could hope to catch, the literal moment it saw you.

But it won't be able to run for long.


Filled with rage, you refused to give up. Instead, you hid underneath a nearby, large, brush and waited.

And waited, and then waited some more.

Until eventually one of those little silver cowards came into your view. But you didn't move. No, you stayed completely still as it came closer to you.

Until it was close enough.

At which point you leapt from your hiding place and landed right on top of the thing, your jaws around its neck before it could so much as twitch. But that wasn't enough to satisfy you.

With a single crunch, it could only twitch helplessly.

No, because you then proceeded to slam your open claw into it until it stop moving entirely. Which also made it wobble around as if it didn't have bones anymore.

Which it did, even if you'd broken more or less all of them.

With a ice silver deer finally in your jaws, you made your way to the demi-humans den to trade it in.

Which, fortunately for you, was easy as when you went there that same demi-human who gave you the deal was putting up corpses in the tree again. From there it was just waiting for it to get the metal and giving it the corpse to trade for it.

It was kind of unfortunate that you couldn't find another tingly corpse while the demi-human was retrieving the metal. But you were still happy when you went to sleep that day, metal sitting in the back of your den.