Alien Evolution System 3 Intelligent Life?

The metamorphosis was quick. The Collector was not working with difficult or complicated genetic material, after all.

In the span of a minute, the Collector went from primordial goo into a fully formed...thing. If the denizens of Elysia could witness it, they would surely scream in terror. It had fused what it believed to be all the useful traits of a rabbit, spider, and centipede together, and the resulting fusion paid no heed to human senses of aesthetics.

-Metamorphosis Complete. Metamorphosis level 1 reached.

-Bioma.s.s Fully Consumed

--Bioma.s.s level: 0/100

-Genetic Material Available

--Black Ant

-Current Adaptations

--Ultrafiber Muscles Rank 2

--Sensitive Hairs

--Organic-Hyperalloy Carapace Rank 1

It was an abomination.

The Collector's legs and body were that of a rabbit for it believed the rabbit's legs most suited to extensive movement. It also a.s.sumed the rabbit's body in order to be warm-blooded so as to fuel its muscles better. However, its skin was covered with a gleaming, white-plated carapace that looked like a full suit of bony armor. In the seams of the armor, where the joints were to maximize mobility, fur poked out, standing straight and sensitive to all manner of vibrations in the air and land. Though its general body was that of a rabbit's, small front arms included, its head was all but.

It had a.s.sumed a centipede's head, armored and patterned in the red and black bands of the Striped Centipede. Twin pincers lined either side of its flat, hardened head, acting like cleavers with which to slice apart or crush anything unlucky to near it. Multiple eyes dotted its head - a trait from the spider - providing heightened compound vision to pick out small details.

Its rabbit feet ended in hideously curved claws dripping with centipede venom. Its tail was long and bulbed at the end, forming into a spined spinneret that could eject powerful webbing. Four arachnid limbs sprouted from its back, becoming versatile tools with which to stab, slash, balance upon, climb, and grab with.

All in all, this monstrosity of nature stood a meter and a half tall, far larger than any insect or rabbit.

The Collector clicked its centipede mandibles in satisfaction. This form would be competent in the jungle, capable of competing even with the jungle felines that roamed these wilds.

Knowing this, the Collector set to hunting for real now. It now had the power and durability to hunt bigger and badder creatures for bioma.s.s. And it needed to - each successive Metamorphosis Level needed significantly more bioma.s.s than the one before to fuel it.

----

The Collector hunted, and it was efficient.

One thing that the Collector retained that made it supreme above most of the jungle fauna was its intellect. It could still think and strategize, drawing upon predatory instincts stored in its Collective memory bank to make its movements absolutely efficient, deadly, and quiet.

Over the next few hours of the night, the Collector had slain rabbits, found a small pond to slake its thirst, and even took down an entire deer. It had even setup a ma.s.sive web between the shade of two tree trunks, invisible to those not wary.

Little bugs such as spiders and centipedes do not strike fear at their size, but when they are expanded to a meter, they become horrifying predators. Normally, the Collector would not have been able to retain such a large size while utilizing insect genetic material, but somehow, something in this world's atmosphere made it possible to retain its ma.s.s.

The Collector stuffed the last of the slain deer's red flesh into its jaws, its four arachnid arms picking apart even the bones of the creature clean. Then it dismantled the skeleton, consuming it piecemeal like crunchy snacks.

At this level of biological complexity, the Collector could recognize what tasted good or bad, and this deer most certainly tasted nice, as did most flesh at this point. The more complex the Collector became, the more its appet.i.te would become predatory and carnivorous, seeking out larger, stronger, and denser lifeforms.

-Bioma.s.s gained

--Bioma.s.s Level 10/100

The Collector clicked its mandibles in irritation. It would take a while to reach the next level. Progress was slow now. It needed more. Intelligent life would help the most considering that intelligence was perhaps the most complex of evolutionary developments, but it could not risk fighting intelligent species. If they had even one-thousandth of the power that being of light had, then the Collector stood no chance in its current state.

As it contemplated its future struggles, the Collector made its way back to its spiderweb. Before the web was even visible, it knew it had caught something. It could feel desperate vibrations in the air as something thrashed against the powerful silk.

The Collector scurried into leafy cover, nearing the trapped prey with stealth. It was best to kill whatever was trapped quickly and stealthily so as to prevent as much retaliation as possible. It did not want to waste any bioma.s.s on regenerating its wounds.

In the cover of a particularly thick overgrowth of vines that drooped down from a low branch, the Collector could make out the web it had placed. In the middle thrashed a small, humanoid creature. Its skin was a black that glistened with sweat as it exerted itself, trying to break the silk. However, it was too weak, being a measly meter tall.

It was bald with a large nose and beady eyes that glowed yellow in the dark. Its mouth was lined with sharp teeth visible as it shouted gibberish in a high-pitched snarl.

The Collector recognized this thing was somewhat intelligent. First, it covered its privates with a ragged loincloth. Second, it wore a belt upon which lay tied a rudimentary stone knife.

It kept squealing out the same set of vocal intonations, indicating an intelligible word to others of its kind. It also indicated that there were likely more in the vicinity.

The Collector, however, could not sense any with its sensitive hairs. It took this moment to silence the creature before its cries could draw its brethren nearer. With a pounce, the Collector leaped through the vines and landed just in front of the bound humanoid.

The humanoid's eyes widened in a moment of fear before the Collector thrust one of its arachnid back limbs through the humanoid's throat, tearing apart its jugular vein.

The humanoid gurgled out a stream of blood, eyes even wider in death as it fell limp, tongue lolling out its mouth.

The Collector unraveled the humanoid from the web and savagely tore it apart, its four arachnid limbs extending claws that utterly ma.s.sacred the body. It stuffed in chunks of meat and organs in its mouth as quick as it could, slurping off blood from its claws as it did so.

The humanoid was utterly delicious. Truly, this was an intelligent lifeform - its wondrous taste was evident enough of that. However, it wasn't quite as intelligent as most of the species the Collector knew of. The humanoid was a barbaric, simple-minded creature capable of little more than crafting rudimentary stone tools and shouting basic commands and requests.
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The Collector froze.

It could sense additional presences nearing by. They were of similar size and build to this humanoid. Its brethren.

The Collector did not have time to consume all of its slaughtered prey's remains, so it took what remained of the mangled corpse and ran up a tree, using its spider limbs like picks to crawl across the bark.

From high above, the Collector looked down, eagerly a.s.sessing the situation.