I approached the spot where I’d hatched, not too far away from the river, but a significant enough distance from the monster on the other side that I felt safe.

Sailboat, I will one day be stronger than you!

Yep. That was his name now. At least, until I came up with a better one, because I wasn’t great with names. Hell, my mother had delegated the task of naming our first puppy to me, and I’d simply come up with the name “The Bounty Hunter”, for obvious reasons.

The egg lay shattered upon a fold of massive leaves, the blue and green shell speckled with dots. But I hadn’t come back to the egg to crawl into it anymore. I’d returned to gain experience.

My eyes flicked over the remains as I strained my ears for buzzing. When I moved closer to the egg and looked inside, I could see a small horde of the giant mosquitoes buzzing around inside.

They were drinking from the leftover yolk.

My foot came up, and then it smashed down.

Squish.

A couple of mosquito corpses lay stuck to my foot, oozing green liquid. I hastily rubbed it off on the moss coating the tree next to me, and stomped again. One of the bugs caught me by surprise by landing on my back, and I had to slam my back against the huge tree to kill it.

Another smash into the egg finished off the rest of them.

The corpses lay scattered across the ground, each one the size of my old smartphone. I cleaned the rest of the gore off using the moss on the tree again.

Just a root from the tree was bigger around than my foot was long. This truly was another world…

A flood of messages filled my view.

You have developed a new skill: [Stomp Lvl 1]. Your [Stomp] skill has leveled up. It is now level 2. You have received 5 experience points for killing [Egg Sucker]. You have received 5 experience points for killing [Egg Sucker]. You have received 5 experience points for killing [Egg Sucker]. You have received 5 experience points for killing [Egg Sucker]. You have suffered 1 damage from [Egg Sucker]. You have received 5 experience points for killing [Egg Sucker]. You have received 1 experience point for killing [Egg Sucker Larva]. You have received 1 experience point for killing [Egg Sucker Larva]. You have received 1 experience point for killing [Egg Sucker Larva]. You have received 1 experience point for killing [Egg Sucker Larva]. You have received 1 experience point for killing [Egg Sucker Larva]. Congratulations! You have leveled up!

You are now level 2 [25/20]. You have been fully healed, and stamina is restored. Congratulations! You have leveled up!

You are now level 3 [5/30].

I’m going to need those collapsed in the future, magic boxes. Come on.

My stomach growled, and I caught the scent of something delicious. As I sniffed around with my new and improved snout, I located the source. And man, was I disappointed.

Pro tip: When being reborn as a baby dino, and likely as any baby creature hatching from an egg, expect to find yourself unfortunately attracted to disgusting food.

In this case, that disgusting food was a hellish mix of mosquito gut and my own egg yolk.

Well, I was hungry, so I dipped my tongue into the mixture.

And then I found out that it didn’t just smell good. No, I actually liked it!

In a matter of moments, that gooey goodness was gone, and I had consumed every remnant of the bugs I’d killed. Now the egg was nothing more than an empty bowl.

Experimentally, I took a bite. Why not? Already, I’d found delicious satiation in things I never would’ve before. Some people like raw egg, but… no. Well, not until now, anyway. Plus, eggshell was potentially the least disgusting thing I had available as an option for lunch today.

To be honest, it was okay. Super crunchy. Not all that flavorful. Kind of bland. What did you expect from an eggshell?

I heard a loud crash in the distance, and a few heavy footfalls coming nearby, so I quickly dove for cover under the nearby bushes.

Did I mention that basically, all plant life in this new world was massive? Well, so were the bushes. A fully grown human probably could’ve had a comfortable sleeping space inside those things.

The stomping grew closer, and as I peered out of the bushes, I saw one of those dinosaurs with the super long necks chewing leaves from the trees.

Ah, a plant-eater.

I sighed in relief and climbed out of the bush. As much as I liked it, this place felt much too dangerous to stay in, so it was time I started walking.

I chose a heading, away from Sailboat, and directed myself there. There were a few times I had to climb up hills, using the copious trees, both thick and thin, to pull myself up the steeper inclines.

Have you ever wondered how hard it was to hike through a jungle? Maybe not, because you’ve hiked through forests, and you assume it’s the same, but believe me, it isn’t easy when everything is ten times larger than it used to be. Being a Frail Baby Dino didn’t make the trip any easier, that’s for sure.

There also aren’t any paths from humans.

And there didn’t seem to be any game trails, either. I only know about those from my gaming experience.

It seemed like the dinos probably didn’t have a highway of any kind to travel swiftly and easily. I guess it made sense, because most of them wouldn’t have issues with their massive, muscular legs.

Though, I didn’t encounter too many saurs while I walked. I did see, once I was atop the tall hill, that down near the river, some more aggressive fights were breaking out between all kinds of dinosaurs.

I guess it was dinnertime or something.

After walking for about twenty minutes, and occasionally chasing some wildlife around playfully, enjoying my new body, I broke through the trees.

A massive empty expanse greeted me, dotted with lakes and vegetation of all kinds. Massive dinosaurs flew through the skies, and others did battle on land. I didn’t see another of the Sailboat kind, thankfully, but a creature that seemed like a stubbier Tyrannosaurus Rex tore across the plains.

I actually had yet to find out what kind of dinosaur I was.

Status, please. I thought.

Frail Baby Dino

Level:

3 [5/30]

Health:

30/30

Stamina:

20/20

Skills

[Bite]

[Lvl 1]

[Claw]

[Lvl 1]

[Flee]

[Lvl 2]

[Stomp]

[Lvl 2]

Instincts

[Fight or Flight]

[Lvl 2]

[Freeze]

[Lvl 2]

[Fearful Flight]

[Lvl 2]

Nothing revealing what type of dinosaur I was. And even though I was level three already, I was still just a Frail Baby Dino. How disappointing.

The good news was that apparently my Stamina only decreased if I was doing strenuous activity, like sprinting or climbing hills. It seemed to regenerate if I was just walking, and it followed that it probably regenerated faster if I was asleep or at rest.

I wondered. Didn’t one of the earlier messages say something about evolution, though? Worth a shot, I guess.

Evolve!

Sorry, you cannot evolve until you reach the [Frail Baby Dino] maximum level: 5.

Oh, at least I’m close.

I decided not to try my luck in the massive empty expanse, where dinos did battle without care, and instead headed back into the jungle forest. It was probably safer for me if I had places to hide.