I noticed in the corner of my eye there were more glowing boxes. I called them up begging that there was some sort of explanation to this madness.

  You have met the conditions to unlock the hidden racial skill Monstrous hunger.

  Monstrous Hunger 1:- All monster type entities are susceptible to hunger. Those that do not gain EP quickly or struggle with consuming their prey fall victim to the hunger. It pushes them to seek prey and consume until their hunger is satiated. The hunger will return if a monster type entity does not gain EP Regularly. As a Progenitor in your hunger state your stats will all gain a 20% increase.

  Warning:- Everytime you enter the Hunger state you will find it harder to return to normal. Excessive time in the hunger state can impact on your potential evolutions.

  Oh, that was…well disturbing. At least the system was kind enough to give such a detailed explanation would have been better to know before I got to this state but hey ho. It was a weird skill on one hand it did give me a power boost and it's not like I lost my faculties but it did shift my moral compass. It was so easy what I did. The mere thought brought the memory of the taste back. I wish I could say that it was horrible but the truth was it just made my mouth water. I had to fight myself to rein it in. Yeah this is a skill that I’d avoid using unless I couldn’t avoid it. I looked at the rest of my messages.

  Congratulations! You have consumed 5 Prism Hisser cores.

  You have met the conditions to unlock a new feature of your Progenitor title. Once a week you may use consumed cores to create a new ability instead of EP. Would you like to use this now [Y/N]

  Now this was something I could use. Part of me wanted to hold off until I could get some more cores to get something more powerful. But one look at the state of my body and I knew I needed all the fire power I could get but I had to save at least one of the cores for EP. I did not want the hunger taking over again. I found it interesting that the eggs gave a full core the same as the adult. I tried to see if there was any difference in the cores but no they were all equal in the eyes of the system.

  I selected [Y] and another screen popped up.

  How many cores do you wish to use in the New skill creation.

  Note: Cores will influence the type of the skill based on the creature of origin. Using cores of a similar type will be more likely in replicating abilities you have witnessed. However, your own core will influence the nature of how those abilities work.

  I selected to use four cores, saving the last one to convert into EP. I really hoped that the new skill would be some sort of powerful ability like the Prism Howlers sonic blast thing. The screen that popped up in front of me was just what I needed.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  New Skill acquired!

  Refractive Scales 5: Your scales now have the ability to bend light and can be used to render you invisible to sight.

  This was the great equalizer! With this I could hide out until the morning and then once the sun was up and my body could heal and I could begin hunting in earnest. I had an idea. It was one week before I could use this ability again and I planned to stock up on cores in the meantime. But before I could do any of that I needed to use my last core.

  You have 1 Prism Howler Core. Would you like to turn it into EP [Y/N]?

  I selected yes and felt the core dissolve in my stomach. It was the strangest feeling like putting a Beroca on your tongue but inside me. Once the feeling subsided I felt like there was something growing in my chest where my heart should have been. I was about to pull up my stat sheet but then I looked at the carnage around me. The jungle around me was a wreck with broken branches and blood sprayed across the foliage. I looked at myself and that’s when my reality hit. I was covered in foul smelling blood in the middle of a predator infested jungle. It was time to see how my new skill worked. As I focused on it I felt knowledge seep into my mind as I understood how to manipulate my scales to bend the light around me. I felt like there was more to this but the skill didn’t grant me anymore knowledge so I would have to experiment but that could wait until I found somewhere safe.

  I commanded my scales to bend the light around me as I leapt up into one of the trees I’d used in my combat with the Prism Howler. Initially I wanted to head straight for a water source to clean myself. But that’s when I thought of this plan. I could hide in the tree and the bodies below would mask my scent and with my skill I could hide out here until the morning.

  On paper it was a good plan but I had underestimated how uncomfortable I’d be up in the tree.I managed to find a few thick enough branches that’d hold my wait and I lay across them staring at the jungle down below. Despite all the craziness or maybe because of it I started to drift off. That was until I heard rustling down below me. I looked down to see the weirdest little critters. Emerging from the brush a group of four small bipedal green creatures appeared. Now these were proper goblins with oversized smiles full of needle sharp teeth and wearing nothing but loin clothes. I watched them for a while as they barked at each other in a language not that dissimilar from the bigger high goblins that had left me for dead.

  I couldn’t help but wonder what those little creature’s cores could give me but I decided to stay put and not get involved, a decision that was quickly proven wise as four more groups of these loin cloth wearing goblins appeared. I felt a pang of jealousy as they got to walk around somewhat modestly while here I was butt naked in a tree. I watched them for a while, noting that some members of the other groups were female. They were all animated making quick work butchering the two prism howlers and setting up a fire. Thankfully the smoke wasn’t headed in my direction. I sat there watching them for hours unable to sleep as they gorged themselves on my kill down below. I felt a rage building up within me and forced it down. Fighting these guys was not a good idea for all I knew they had their bigger cousins waiting out there. No I would bide my time if the opportunity came I would take it otherwise it was best to just wait them out till the morning. With that though I made myself as comfortable as you can while sitting in a tree naked and closed my eyes.

  Which unfortunately snapped open as I heard the sound of something big approaching. I looked around in a daze trying to work out what was going on. I looked down and saw that the goblins' fire had died down and at first I thought they’d moved on but then I noticed one under a prickly shrub, all wrapped up in a thick looking blanket. I then started noticing more of them hiding throughout the area in all sorts of places. My attention however was taken off them as I felt vibrations through the tree as something big and heavy got closer. I started to climb higher up the tree doing my best to make as little noise as possible and that’s when I saw it.

  There, making its way through the brush without a care in the world, was a huge bipedal reptilian creature with a triangular jaw that looked to open into three separate sections. This huge monster's tail smacked into trees without much care causing the smaller saplings to break under the impact.

  Great! There were alien T-rex’s now. Just my luck!