Reincarnated As A Chameleon And Eating Everything To Evolve

'Whew, this leaves quite a significant dent in my aura reserve!'

Using aura to boost the kids earlier than fighting a bear by mostly relying on his aura, Matthew's aura reserve was certainly far from being full.

Matthew had been constantly keeping in check his aura reserve the whole time he was fighting the bear since it was literally his lifeline. Using his aura, Matthew had strengthened his body and created solid aura gauntlets to enable himself to defend against the bear's attacks and keep up with the bear so that he could have an even fight with the bear.

Without his aura, he will be going back to being a slightly stronger kobold with longer claws and hard scutes as an additional defense. Which is certainly not enough to fight against the bear who's able to defeat a kobold with a single nice slap to the kobold's body, particularly if it hits the kobold's head.

His venom might work at first, but learning from his past mistakes, he knew that by using aura to enhance its body, the bear was capable of suppressing the venom's effect.

So, the moment his aura runs out, his only choice is to either run away from the place as soon as possible or run out of life(death). Hence the reason why he keeps monitoring his aura reserve the whole time of the fight until the bear is finally dead.

Matthew had used thin aura gauntlets that looked more like a glove at the start of the fight to try and block the bear's slash which turned out well for him as he could stand against the bear's heavy slash if he crossed the aura gloves with each other.

However, if he only used one aura glove then he wouldn't dare to try and block the bear's attack head-on. He would choose to dodge the attack completely if possible unless the circumstances forced him to block with only one aura glove which he believed wouldn't come out unscathed from such an attack.

Although Matthew did block a majority of the bear's attacks, his consumption of aura can't be considered as meager. Each time he blocked the bear's attack, a small chunk of the solid aura that covered his hands was broken. 

But the moment a single crack was formed on the solid aura, more aura poured out from his aura core and repaired the damage as soon as it was formed. Creating the illusion that there's no visible damage at all on his solid aura construct even after receiving the bear's attacks.

Since he played a defensive battle, such occurrences repeated again and again causing Matthew's aura consumption to be considerable enough that by the time his aura blade pierced the bear's head, he only had slightly more than a third of a quarter of his aura reserve.

Looking at the lifeless bear's body that was still too big for Matthew to carry back home, he finally decides to shove the bear's body back to its burrow to prevent anyone or anything to steal it from him.

Why didn't Matthew eat the bear right away? He had just come back from hunting a group of deers and proceeded to eat three of them on the spot. There's no space left in his stomach for the huge bear's body that gave Matthew, even more, bionutrients compared to eating the three deers.

But it doesn't mean that he can't stuff another two bear hands worth of meat to his stomach. So he grabbed the two hands that he cut and started munching on them while he waited for the bear's blood to be drained to make its body lighter so that it will be easier for him to drag back into the burrow.

A notification popped up after Matthew finished eating the two bear's hands that were half as big as his face.

-Horribilis Brown Bear Data Collected (62%)-

-Bionutrients Consumed-

'There's only 38% left before the monster data is complete, eating this bear should be enough. It's fortunate that 2 bears are enough to complete it. I don't know where I can find a third bear if it hasn't been completed yet.'

'And what about the bionutrients? System, info tab please.'

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Name: Matthew

Race : Chameleon Chimera

Level : 20

Bionutrients : 5502

Monster Data Collected:

-Common Wandering Spider (100%)

-Brown-Tailed Deer (100%)

-Lupus Wolf (100%)

-Porosus Crocodile (100%)

-Boa Dendroaspis (100%)

-Macaque Monkey (100%)

-Horribilis Brown Bear (62%)

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'Only about 5 thousand and a half… It's not enough. I still need to hunt every day and eat as much as possible. Considering the amount that I can eat. I can only gather 1000 bionutrients every day, which means that I need at least 10 days to reach 15000 bionutrients. It's quite a long grind considering my progress so far but it should be worth it.'

'Besides, I want to explore the forest more just in case I meet other animals with useful body parts that I can add to my body. Then in these 15 days, I will power-level the kids so that they reach level 15 and they would be able to at least hunt the deers on their own without the wolf's aura ability boost. With that, I can explore deeper towards the forest without worrying about them and they can level up on their own for a while.'

'They're all good fighters by nature and I don't think that there's a lot that I can teach them. Going for the fighting experience route is also the best for them. Alexander and Valda will do just fine with their current abilities, but Ethan will face some difficulties with his current race being a juvenile kobold mage. He needs to find a different method to fight since his body is currently not as strong as the twins.'

'I guess I need to talk to him about it when I get back.'

Matthew then tried to drag the bear's huge body inside the nest single-handedly, but after finding it a hassle to use every inch of his muscle to do it, he activated the wolf's aura ability and started dragging the massive bear as if it was just one ordinary deer. 

Covering the bear's burrow entrance with sticks, leaves, and dirt to prevent it from being discovered by either the beasts nearby or the humans that had been going deeper and deeper into the forest, Matthew made sure that it looks as unsuspicious as possible as if the burrow was just another random slightly bigger mound found in the forest. And thanks to his minimap, he will still know the exact location without needing to make signs on the trees to guide him back to this bear's burrow.

With his business finished there, Matthew returned towards the wolf's den, to where the kids are probably eating right now. Matthew used a roundabout route, avoiding the human base that was built on top of the former kobold village.

He met several human scouts a few times, but he used the chameleon's aura ability to turn invisible with the remaining aura from the fight against the bear that fortunately is enough for him to avoid being noticed by a single human and arrive back at the wolf's den without any conflicts.

The kids had already finished cooking and eating the deers and although they were already fully grown ȧduŀt kobolds right now, 2 deers are still too much for the three of them which makes Matthew wonder how does the system work that enabled him to turn those meats to bionutrients and fit so much stuff into his stomach that was probably only as big as ȧduŀt kobolds.

"Brother Matthew, can you teach us how to use aura now?" Ethan asked.

"Now is not really possible since I almost ran out of aura myself. I might be able to activate the aura ability, but it won't be able to stay active for long with how little aura I had left. Let's just do it tomorrow morning after we hunt for our meal of the day."

A slight look of disappointment appeared on the three kobolds' faces, but they didn't say anything else or complain since they knew that Matthew also wanted the best for them.

"If you three want to get stronger, why don't you spar against each other? From what I've seen so far. your fighting styles are noticeably different from each other so learning a thing or two is possible by fighting against each other. It will surely help you get stronger."

"Now that I think about it, you're right brother Matthew. I focused so much on aura and hunting to get levels that I forgot such basic yet effective training exists. Let's go twins!" Ethan said while pulling the twins away towards a spacious area where they can move quite comfortably without crashing onto a tree.

"Make sure you don't use your claws or bite each other when sparring!" Matthew shouted.

"Oh and, Ethan! Can you come here for a minute? I want to talk to you about something."

Ethan looked back at Matthew when he called him and soon ran over to Matthew.

"You two go ahead! I will join you later." He said to the twins,

"What happened, brother Matthew?"

"Come sit here first," Matthew said while patting the ground beside him.

Ethan then obediently took a seat beside Matthew before looking at him once again to ask what he wanted to tell him.

"I want to talk about the way you fight," Matthew said, straight to the topic he wanted to talk about.

"What's wrong with it brother Matthew? Am I not talented in fighting close combat?" Ethan asked with his eyebrows downcast.

"I know that I killed the deer far longer compared to the twins, but I'm sure that I will soon catch up with them and-"

"No, wait, don't misunderstand what I'm trying to say, hear me out first," Matthew said suddenly, cutting Ethan mid-sentence.

"Your talent is no less than the twins and I'm sure that you will only keep getting better the more you gain fighting experience. The problem is not your fighting talent, rather, it was most likely your current body."

"While the twins become an ordinary kobold after evolving, you become a juvenile kobold mage. While you got a boost on your ability to control the fire elements easier, the twins got a body that is more suited in fighting hand-to-hand combat."

"So does that mean that I should just give up my dream an-"

"Ethan, you better let me finish speaking first before I call you kid once again."

Hearing Matthew's 'threat' Ethan then closed his mouth and patiently waited for Matthew to continue speaking.

"What I'm trying to say is, you need to find a more different, unique fighting style that is able to maximize both of your talents in close-quarter combat and in magic."

"So, I've been thinking. What if you use both magic and your fist at the same time? Maybe you can make something like a fire Hadouk-"