Logan examined the wound on his forelimb. Unlike the simple keratin horns of ordinary animals—mere cuticles like human fingernails—his arm blades were rich in capillaries and neurons. This allowed them to regenerate automatically after damage, but it also meant they bled and caused pain. Blood beads were now seeping from the broken edge of his blade, trickling down his pristine white scales and leaving vivid red spots on the ground.
For an ordinary human, this amount of bleeding would be serious, but for a behemoth weighing over a ton like him, it was just a minor flesh wound. Left alone, it would heal on its own.
Zhu Peiniang's injuries were similar. Jagras didn't have particularly lethal attacks—their claws and teeth were sharp enough, but Thunder Wolf Dragon scales weren't pushovers either. Though she looked battered with streaks of blood, they were all superficial scratches.
These wounds didn't hinder their movement, so instead of returning to the nest to rest, they bounded forward on all fours, quickly catching up to the two Jagras too gravely injured to flee far. A quick strike each ended their lives.
Dragging the two Jagras corpses, Logan and Zhu Peiniang returned to the Ancient Tree "dock." They hung the bodies on an upright branch, positioned themselves, and began chumming the water.
The Jagras' tough bodies were as fragile as tearing apart a chicken under Logan's immense strength. With pulls and twists along the joints, he quickly dismembered them into sections and tossed them into the water below.
Blood began to spread, carrying a pungent fishy stench, tinting the surrounding water a pale red.
Now, they just needed to wait for the chum to ferment. With time to kill, Logan glanced at his already-scabbing arm blade and began reviewing the previous battle.
In terms of strength and speed, his current size performed admirably. His discharge ability was sufficient too, but his defense was lacking.
His scales—composed of enamel, calcium, and keratin—were undoubtedly hard, even surpassing some steels. But as a crystalline material, they were too brittle, unable to withstand overly powerful impacts.
To improve them, the best approach was to incorporate a substance with excellent viscosity and toughness into the scales, like the adhesive layer in bulletproof glass or the metal fibers in high-grade concrete.
What substance to use? Logan thought briefly and quickly settled on one—spider silk.
As one of nature's strongest biological materials, spider silk boasted extreme tensile strength—typically over 300 MPa, with some varieties reaching an astonishing 1500 MPa. Steel's tensile strength was only 250 MPa; even high-performance alloys topped out at 800 MPa, far below spider silk.
Beyond ultra-high tensile strength, spider silk had remarkable extensibility, stretching over 50% of its original length without breaking, providing excellent shock absorption.
Most importantly, it was lightweight, adding no extra burden.
It was practically perfect natural material. The only drawback was its extremely low yield—but that wasn't an issue for Logan.
A week had passed since his last evolution. System rewards plus hunting gains had accumulated exactly 10 evolution points, which Logan now invested entirely into strengthening his scales.
The familiar warm current surged, following his intent and gathering beneath his skin. There, countless pores existed; his scales extended from them like feathers, roots deeply embedded in the flesh.
Now, those millions of pores began to change. Numerous capillaries grew along the pore walls, gradually forming specialized sac-like structures. These could synthesize a viscous, transparent liquid—spider silk protein—from nutrients in the blood.
This protein would mix in precise proportions with the enamel and calcium originally secreted by the pores to form new scales.
It was undoubtedly a lengthy process, not something that would finish quickly.
After allocating the points, Logan felt his skin itch all over, as if feathers were brushing against it.
Fortunately, the sensation was mild and bearable. Just then, a loud splash erupted from below the Ancient Tree, sending up a huge spray of water.
Fish are here!
Logan's spirits lifted. Zhu Peiniang, resting nearby, instantly perked her ears.
He carefully extended his tail, slithering it silently down the trunk into the water like a snake. At the same time, his discharge organs revved up, rapidly generating electricity. Amplified by the transformer-like structures on his head, it became high-voltage current released from his tail tip.
Like an invisible storm sweeping through, the surrounding water trembled. The joyful bubbles suddenly ceased, and seconds later, a swath of white bellies floated up.
Nice haul!
Logan grabbed Zhu Peiniang's hind leg to stop her from foolishly jumping in again. Then his tail whipped out like a harpoon, repeatedly stabbing downward, spearing the floating fish onto the Ancient Tree with its tip. Even distant ones were hooked over with a slender branch he trimmed.
This marsh was clearly resource-rich. A single discharge netted dozens of fish—mostly palm-sized small ones, but a few weighed three to four pounds.
He didn't recognize most species; some resembled Sushifish from his previous world, others Gajau—but who cared? They all ended up the same in the stomach.
This amount wasn't nearly enough for Logan and Zhu Peiniang, but fortunately, this fishing spot wasn't one-and-done. With continuous bait input, fish would gather more and more.
So, with dexterous claws, he crushed the heads of the captured small fish and tossed them back with the gutted entrails. The remaining meat was casually split with Zhu Peiniang for a quick snack.
With fresh bait added, new schools soon arrived.
Logan simply dipped his tail again and zapped—endless food floated up.
Even the massive amounts of fish heads and organs spread the bloody scent far, attracting big fellows from the marsh's center toward the shore.
(End of Chapter 29)