Chapter 73 - Psychological Game.
writer:GREAT      update:2022-08-16 16:25
  The arrow ravaged through the body of the Draconic lizard, killing it immediately and giving the original hunters no time to react.

  To the two Crocodiles, they were already at the point of killing their prey when a black light suddenly erupted, and then, boom, their prey was dead. They hovered in the water in a confused daze.

  Their brain capacity was not that developed to start analyzing what happened but they both came to one conclusion, an enemy dared to kill their prey.

  "Roar!!!" They roared in anger.

  As anger suffused their mind with their heads practically already bringing smokes to emphasize it, they both turned their heads at the same time as they heard a sudden movement sound in the water.

  Their glowing red eyes constricted as they looked in that direction, and without hesitation, they rushed forward rapidly.

  Whoosh!

  Their tails moved so fast in conjunction with their bodies that they practically became a blur in the water, they disappeared into the distance in just a few seconds in pursuit of the prey.

  As they moved, their enormous teeth clapped dangerously at the water as they already anticipated the battle that would erupt on finding their prey.

  Only pure bloodlust could be sensed from them.

  A minute after the two predators disappeared into the distance, a chuckle sounded as Sebastian came out of his hiding location.

  Looking down, the meat of the hunt was before him without blemish. Seeing this, he could not help himself as he chuckled again before looking at his system notification.

  [You have killed a Draconic lizard- Level 16: You have gained Experience.]

  [You have gained 5 Skill points and 10 Adaptation points.]

  [You activated a magic domain skill: Sound Control.]

  After he killed the Draconic lizard, he pretended to escape immediately while he actually decided to hide nearby which was highly effective with the help of his camouflage organ adaptation.

  After hiding, with his sound control skill, he created sound waves to replicate the sound of a fish rapidly swimming away.

  This combination was enough to fool the 2 Crocodiles as, without hesitation, they rushed into the distance in pursuit of their prey.

  Though Sebastian felt a little proud about his achievement just with 2 non-combat skills, he knew that the Crocodiles won't be fooled for long and would come back to feast on their food.

  All they could do was lament about the lost experience and points. Unfortunately for them, they would lament about the meat too.

  Without hesitation, he swam closer and started digging into the food.

  Crunch! Yum! Yum!

  He could not help but create yum yum sounds with his sound control skill, the crispiness of Draconic lizard meat always left him craving for more.

  "If not for the bloodlust and being a shark, Oceania would be an ideal location for a vacation after much dissecting due to the nice meat alone".

  Amidst his mumbling, he quickly finished the meat of the dead lizard.

  After temporarily curbing his craving for food, he did not leave immediately to escape the possible subsequent pursuit of the two Crocodiles.

  After the success of his first plan, he didn't believe that the Crocodiles had the necessary mental faculty to participate in his psychological game.

  He was not underestimating them; the fact was pointed that it was even a slight overestimation. From their adaptations and battle style, it was clear that the Crocodiles were among the more brawn and no-brain sea creatures.

  He didn't want to hunt them as he recognized their strength after the battle, what he wanted was to check if they had a family here.

  After 2 days, he was pretty sure that he was probably close to the center of the seamount already and this was his first time encountering these Giant Crocodiles.

  And with the fact that 2 of them were able to so easily hunt a Draconic lizard, he concluded that they were probably the rulers of this seamount.

  He still hasn't forgotten his ambition to leave this world of fire entirely, and that ambition could start from him killing the overlord creature of this seamount.

  Though he was already getting used to it, the extreme heat of this region was still irritating to him. Amidst his thoughts, he did not have to wait long as the 2 frustrated Crocodiles finally swam back.

  Getting closer, they froze for a moment before rapidly swimming closer to the place where their prey lay dead a few minutes ago.

  Clear disbelief and shock showed in their eyes, then the disbelief suddenly turned to realization, then extreme anger overwhelmed their brain again.

  "Roar!!!" They roared angrily.

  At a safe distance away from it, Sebastian chuckled again on seeing this.

  Though he was more of a dissecting guy, he also loved playing video games in his previous life which contributed a lot to his smooth transition into his new life.

  One thing that he loved the most then was kill stealing, then those he kill-stole from would yell angrily in frustration which was like a comedy movie to him. From humans yelling angrily, now it was Crocodiles roaring angrily.

  He chuckled again. "I upgraded". 

  "Old hobbies never die".

  …
For the remaining parts of the day, Sebastian began a game of stalking as he followed the 2 Crocodiles to wherever they went. 

  After venting their anger in the surroundings due to being fooled, they finally calmed down and left to get other food.

  Like Sebastian predicted, hunting to these guys was as natural as pooping. They were natural-born predators, hunting prey seemed so easy with them that they always had leftovers which Sebastian happily fed on.

  Of course, at times, he butted in from the shadows, kill-stealing without drawing too much attention. This was probably his most eventful day in Oceania, the Crocodiles hunted like they had unlimited stamina.

  He sincerely felt a deep respect for them.

  Though it was a little exhausting, he persevered and stalked the 2 Crocodiles. All this was for him to know if they really had a huge family of Crocodiles in the seamount which could mean a lot of things to him.

  When the green glow in the water subsided a bit, indicating the coming of the night, the 2 Crocodiles finally turned and started returning deeper inside the seamount.

  On the way, they met and grouped up with other Crocodiles.

  A few minutes later, Sebastian's patience paid off and he finally laid eyes into the city, or better still Kingdom of the Crocodiles.