A Salamander, but Mighty

Tamara woke up when the sun was already high. Once she came out of the den and raised her head to look above the green and luxuriant foliage: the position of the sun suggested to Tamara that it must not be between nine and ten, even if at the moment she didn't know if the length of the day on Tala corresponded to the same amount of time on Earth, the books suggested this was the case, but that was more of a reader's inference than anything canonically described in the texts.

Sleep had passed, she felt rested, but also a little hungry... had she eaten after being reincarnated? So much had happened that eating had become a secondary factor.

Tamara thought about it for half a minute… no, she hadn't eaten.

“Um… Velen? Velen?”

After a few moments in which Tamara felt betrayed and abandoned, the strange light that denied the normal effects of physics appeared in her sight, “here I am! Good morning!”

“Oh, there you're,” she said in relief, “what… what can I do now? I'm hungry…"

“It's normal, you haven't eaten yet and you're probably receiving reductions to your characteristics.”

“Huh?”

"Right! Sorry!" Velen exclaimed, “even though monsters don't have access to their stats, I managed to make sure that you were able to manage your evolution manually instead of instinctively. Say the word Status, please."

“Status,” Tamara said in a tone that sounded somewhat questioning and unconvinced.

Then, a sort of semi-transparent screen appeared in front of her head.

___

[Tamara Parker][Salmadrer][Monster (lv.1)]

[Health: 30/30 (40)][Mana: 20/20 (30)][XP: 0/100]

[TRAITS MODIFIERS]

Hungry (-2/level to all traits)

[TRAITS]

► Dexterity: 10 (12)

► Faith: 4 (6)

► Knowledge: 4 (6)

► Resilience: 6 (8)

► Speed: 8 (10)

► Strenght: 4 (6)

[FEATS]

[1 Feat slot free to use]

___

“Velen, can you see it?” Tamara asked once confronted with those numbers, statistics and details, “I have a video game-worthy screen right in front of my face.”

“I can't, only you and the gods can see what you call a 'game-worthy screen',” Velen explained, “what does it say?”

“The most important things it says are that I have a -2 penalty to my Traits because I'm hungry, that I have a free Feats slot to use, and that my highest Trait at the moment is Dexterity, with the penalty being 10.”

“You're rather weak, typical of the Salmadrer,” Velen had a voice that made her sound like she was nodding to herself.

“You're not helping!” Tamara protested, “help me!”

“Y-yeah, sorry,” Velen emulated a few small coughs, “then, focus on Feats, it should give you options to choose from.”

___

FEAT LIST:

► Bite (Lesser) I

Strenghtens all bites by 5%

► Nimbleness (Lesser) I

Makes the user move and react faster by 5%

► Scale Armor (Lesser) I

The skin of the user becomes harder to damage by 5%

► Scratch I

Strenghtens all claw attacks by 5%

► Tail-Whip (Lesser) I

Strenghtens all tail attacks by 5%

___

After explaining what the list showed, Velen sighed, “It doesn't seem like much of a choice of options to me.”

“But it's the one I have,” Tamara murmured in a low voice, “some attack Feats could be useful to remove the negative status given by hunger by inflicting more damage, but also Feats that give me more agility or resistance to damage could do likewise."

“Which one would you take?”

“I don't know,” the real question would be why an RPG-like system existed in that world, but after seeing deities and socializing with a guardian spirit… who was Tamara to judge? “Let's go with [Scale Armor (Lesser) I]”

SYSTEM: You have chosen [Scale Armor (Lesser) I], do you want to confirm? Y/N.

Y.

SYSTEM: [Scale Armor (Lesser) I] added to your Feats list. All slots are occupied, it is not possible to choose another Feat.

“Well, it's… a step forward, I guess,” Tamara said hesitantly, “but now I'm really hungry!”

“I can find prey for you!” Velen exclaimed cheerfully, “Do you have any preferences?”

“P-prey?” She swallowed, her throat felt dry, “preferences?”

"For sure! Do you think you can feed yourself by breathing?”

Tamara saw herself, the real one, the one with a human body, walking around a supermarket and putting everything she wanted to eat and drink in her cart. She wanted to cry, but it seemed that the monsters' eyes were unable to give vent to her inner pain.

Deep down, Tamara was still wondering if it would have been better for her if she were erased in place of getting reincarnated as a lizard monster.

“I found something that could feed you, it's not far away and it's easy to catch!” Velen fluttered around the salamander monster, “shall we go? I'll lead the way!"

Tamara's stomach rumbled. Once again her choices were limited: she could follow Velen and get food or sit there and let herself starve to death, neither option was all that exciting for her, but it was the hand that fate had dealt her and she could only fold and abandon the table or stay and place a bet.

“Okay… okay, lead the way.”

Velen accompanied her along the banks of the river; she found the landscape very suggestive, wild, similar to those places she had seen many times in the past during her trips to the countryside, with the difference that now the grass hit her face instead of her feet.

They came to a point where the ground rose at least five feet above the level of the river; Velen told her to slow down and to not make too much noise and continued to float over the edge of the rocky outcrop. Tamara hadn't yet understood whether the guardian spirit had the appearance of a ball of light or whether that was simply a way that Velen used to give a point of reference to the people he wanted to talk to or help, in any case, it was better than talking to thin air.

"We arrived. Look! This is a monster of a level within your reach!”

Tamara approached stealthily trying to stifle the voice within herself that screamed at her that she was a human being, that she only ate food that was packed and fresh from the fridge, but doing so would make the prey escape, and hunger was hunger, human or monster.

When Tamara saw what her prey was, she had to stifle a regurgitation: the monster was some sort of large insect that looked like a hybrid between a dragonfly and a wasp!

And I should eat that thing?? she thought in disgust.