Survivor 3295743

12

When I awoke it was already late in the evening with two crescent moons slowly glowing in the sky. I could see the silhouettes of two other long reptilian creatures up the hill where the dead lizard was left. They had six legs and large bodies like the dead lizard, but they were sleeker with thickly ridges scales instead of spikes and narrower predatory heads.

On the ground, they would probably be half the difficulty as the spiked lizard I now assumed to be male.

The two females were currently cannibalizing the male by eating its insides like scavengers. I was honestly surprised, though, that they had come out at all with all of the potential competition. However, it did not seem like there were any other animals at all in the area. Even while listening and examining the condition of my body, the only signs of life were the wet squishing sounds of eating above.

Sadly, I was in no condition to do anything right now with a thoroughly bruised and battered body. My left shoulder was slightly swollen and throbbing, probably from having been jammed and then dislocated. I had no choice but to fill my mouth with mesh as I clenched and flexed my suit around my shoulder to compress and straighten it somewhat into the place of least discomfort.

"Suit 3295743 has acquired a first-aid function," sounded in my ears without even an alarm ring just before my suit suddenly tightened and stretched with an audibly popping of my shoulder. I groaned and tightened my grip against the mesh in my mouth while fighting not to cringe and writhe from the sudden fire in my chest and arm. Thankfully, the pain subsided in dull throbs after a few moments and I drifted off back to sleep.

I felt like a million dollars when I woke up more than twelve hours later with the sun more than half up the sky in early noon. That deathbed was the best sleep I ever had in this new world and I easily rose up from the foot or so of mulch covering my body. I was surprised to find that the swelling of my shoulder was gone and there was not even any bruising when I expanded the surrounding mesh.

Did this body naturally heal like this or did it have something to do with the limitations that were removed early on? I had no way of knowing and I did not care to voice my concerns for fear that sponsors would try to use information to bait me. Knowledge was power and the only power I had in this world is whatever I could find for myself.

I did not want to rely on any aliens for as long as I could manage.

There were a few scavenging weasel creatures with saber tooth fangs on either side of their narrow snouts picking at the remaining bones and skin and body of another scavenging creature. I simply rushed up as hard and as fast as I could to catch one by surprise before it ran away. After crushing it in a bear hug, I blatantly set to work cleaning the animal and then starting a fire.

Because I was in an evergreen grove there was not much wood that was actually safe for me to cook with but there were a plethora of large and small rocks like granite or lime stone lying around. After expanding my fist and smashed the side off of a large piece of granite, I built up a large fire and let it burn down to a mound of embers before introducing the granite slab. After another round of burning wood around the granite, it was ready to fry with.

I flippantly only used the soft neck and back slabs of meat from the giant weasel's body and tossed the rest of it down the hill to attract scavengers. While these slabs of meat were cooking I set about gathering any whole scales or useful lizard parts still remaining. These scales on the male lizard's back were stronger than any insect carapace I had dealt with, meaning it could be used for some armor or tools.

Knowing there were at least two more lizards to deal with before I could claim the tree for myself, I expanded the outer layers of my suit around my chest, back, arms, and lower legs to fit in large and small spiked scales. Once the suit contracted back to normal around them, all of my vitals and offensive areas were protected or augmented by natural armor plates.