Alexander ate until he was completely full.
He tore through the scaled queen's flesh slowly but relentlessly, ripping apart the muscle fibers and swallowing them one by one. The meat was dense, and with every bite he could feel the warmth of the biomass spreading through his body. The hollow emptiness in his stomach gradually disappeared, replaced by a heavy sense of fullness.
Eventually, he stopped.
Alexander sat down on the stone beside the corpse and remained there for a while. His breathing was slow as his body began processing the large amount of biomass he had just consumed. The battlefield around him was quiet, and only the sounds of movement coming from deeper within the ravine could be heard.
For a while, he simply thought.
His gaze drifted across the scattered corpses around him. Some of them belonged to members of his old pack, while others were the scaled predators they had killed in the battle. Even though two days had passed since the fight, many of the bodies were still intact.
Then he remembered the rotting carcasses he had seen along the path earlier.
Collapsed, darkened bodies that had already begun to decay almost completely.
"If I leave them like this, they'll rot quickly," he thought.
Alexander lifted his head and looked upward.
Above the ravine, the sky appeared only as a thin line between the towering rock walls. The sun had not yet reached its highest point.
That was good news.
There was one advantage to being inside the ravine: most of the ground remained in shadow throughout the day. The corpses here had not been exposed to nearly as much sunlight over the past two days as they would have been on the open savanna.
Slowly, the things he needed to do began to take shape in his mind.
"I need to gather them all," he thought.
"I have to move them somewhere cool, somewhere the sun will never reach."
After a short rest, Alexander rose to his feet again. He gripped the scaled queen's corpse in his jaws and began dragging it along.
Even though he had almost reached adult size, it had been impossible for him to finish such a massive body in a single meal.
This corpse alone would provide at least two more meals.
Alexander began pulling the heavy body across the stone floor.
He turned back the way he had come and began dragging the scaled queen's corpse behind him. His pace was much slower now; pulling such a massive body across the stone floor required a great deal of strength. The sound of the corpse scraping against the rocks echoed through the narrow passages, but Alexander did not stop. Step by step he continued forward until, after nearly an hour and a half, he finally reached the rocky outcrop where he had rested earlier.
He paused for a brief moment and looked around.
This place would not work.
The narrow recess had served as a good shelter for him, but it was far too small for what he intended to do. There was no way he could store dozens of corpses here. If he truly wanted to create a storage place, he would need to find somewhere much larger.
So he continued on his way.
Dragging the corpse behind him, he moved deeper into the ravine. The stone tunnels twisted and narrowed, and maneuvering the heavy body through the tight corners became increasingly difficult. After searching for nearly another half hour, he finally found what he was looking for.
It was a small cave with a narrow entrance.
From the outside it did not appear particularly noticeable, but once he stepped inside he realized the interior was large enough. The air within was noticeably cooler, and most importantly, sunlight never reached this place.
It was exactly what he needed.
Alexander left the scaled queen's corpse in the coldest corner of the cave and immediately turned back. His goal was to transport as many bodies here as possible before nightfall.
So he got to work.
He moved back and forth through the tunnels of the ravine again and again, dragging the corpses one by one into his new storage place. By the time the sun climbed to its highest point and midday arrived, Alexander had already transported five bodies into the cave.
But by then he was extremely tired.
He had been dragging corpses almost nonstop for nearly six hours.
Eventually he sat down to take a short rest.
As his breathing gradually steadied, his thoughts began to organize themselves.
There were fourteen fresh corpses in total. In this environment they would probably remain usable for two, perhaps three weeks before completely rotting. Even so, he knew he needed to consume them as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, his accelerated growth worked in his favor. His body burned through biomass rapidly, which meant he would grow hungry more often. Combined with the ongoing DNA analysis and the possibility of developing new evolutionary traits afterward, he believed he could probably consume all of the corpses before they spoiled.
But then another thought surfaced in his mind.
"What happens after that?"
Once this safe supply of food was gone, he would have nothing left. And despite the overwhelming scent of the mushrooms, he hadn't seen any other predators come to the ravine in quite some time, even though he had spent months inside it.
Alexander remained seated for a while longer, his breathing gradually returning to normal as his mind filled with thoughts.
Most likely, there were no predators left on this side of the savanna. That was the explanation that made the most sense to him. The scent of the mushrooms was incredibly strong, powerful enough to be detected from kilometers away. If there had been large predators nearby, the smell would have drawn them here long ago. The fact that none had appeared despite months of activity and the constant scent of biomass suggested that there were probably no rivals left in the region.
He considered this idea for a while and eventually realized that it might actually be good news.
If there were truly no other predators left in this area, then the herbivore herds roaming the savanna would now be without their natural hunters. That meant an enormous source of potential prey. Perhaps all of this land now belonged to him.
Still, he couldn't be certain, and uncertainty was always dangerous.
There was also another problem. Alexander had never hunted a large animal alone before. Every successful hunt he knew had always relied on the coordination of a pack, which meant he had no real idea how successful he could be on his own.
After a long period of careful thought, he finally reached a decision: for now, he would not produce any drones.
Leaving the ravine already carried enough uncertainty. Adding the responsibility of feeding and protecting newly created drones was a burden he did not want right now. First, he would explore the outside world and establish a reliable food supply for himself.
He also decided that before leaving the ravine, he would return his growth hormones to their normal levels. He had no desire to step into the unknown while already carrying a disadvantage, and he had suspected for some time that his mind was approaching its limits. After all, six months of accelerated growth was no small strain.
With those thoughts, his short break finally came to an end. Alexander rose to his feet, stretched his limbs, and turned back toward the tunnels. There was still work to do, and nine more bodies remained to be moved.
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