Marvel: Upgrading Death

"Let's see."

After making a crude bedsheet he planned to turn into a hammock, and a crotch covering-piece by the dinosaur's skin, he returned to the fire and grabbed the almost charred meat.

After letting it cool down for a moment, he bit into it.

"Ummmmh! Fucking juicy! Hell yeah—It's like chicken but even better!"

He ate like a man starving. But halfway through, he felt something was amiss. The meat was great, fresh, and delicious. But it lacked flavor. He wasn't foolish enough to think he'd find garlic or pepper anywhere. The plants were just starting to evolve as well.

But there was one thing he could have right away. And have so much of it that it'd never end.

"Salt!"

Quickly, he stood up and closed his eyes. His nose wrinkled as he tried to sniff something. He'd been smelling so many different things for a while now.

"I can almost smell the ocean… Then…"

He looked at the dead dinosaur's corpse and shook his head. Heading out to find the ocean was a risky strategy. And he didn't know how rare the wildlife was there. There were no plants that he knew of, forget about eating them. The best strategy was to field dress the dinosaur and preserve its meat first.

"I can use the bones for tools."

Right away, Marshall entered full survival mode. He didn't need to know everything to do things. As long as he had a general idea, that was enough. Quickly, he clawed all the internal organs of the dinosaur, and in doing so, found so many weird things in it. But he stuck to what he knew, avoiding eating strange things.

The blood alone was enough to fill a tub for him to bathe.

Then, he grabbed a bone from the animal and ground it on a stone to make it sharp like a knife. Then, he cut the meat into small, decent-sized strips; Then made some thinner strips. The only two methods he currently had to preserve the meat were smoking and drying, so he went with them.

Quickly, he increased the size of his fire and created structures from the bones themselves to smoke the meat. As for drying, he climbed the massive trees around him and hung the meat on the taller branches. He wondered if flying dinosaurs would appear, but he didn't care. He rather wanted to see them. If possible, domesticate one as his flying beast.

That settles it… I'm going crazy. Really? Flying on a dinosaur?

Slowly, the night approached. The sky darkened and the forest was dense around him. The sounds of various creatures were all new to him, but they didn't scare him anymore. Instead, they seemingly attracted his attention.

He controlled his urges, focusing on smoking the meat.

Sitting by the fire, alone, he started to think about his future. Humans wouldn't appear for tens of millions of years. He didn't know if he'd survive a year even, let alone hope to see his kind once again.

Is this it?

He looked at the intact skull of the dinosaur.

"Don't even have anyone to talk to."

Sighing, he lay down by the fire itself. His survival spirit began to lose to the hopeless situation. He didn't mind if he were to die now. There was no point in living like that.

####

One million years later.

"Holy shit! It IS real!"

It took fourteen thousand years to map the entire planet on the back of multiple animals he subdued and rode. And to his no surprise, the map had changed as well. The continents were much different from the modern world.

But what Marshall chased was the mythical Antarctica that was currently lush, green forest land, teeming with life. It wasn't easy reaching it, finding the way, and measuring directions. He created a compass and mapped the stars for directions. He wasn't really a diligent army officer so he had to learn everything from scratch.

And with a million years gone, it was natural that his brain also grew. But with it, he also grew more senile, or perhaps suicidal. He no longer feared anything and went wherever he pleased. He ate whenever he desired, and killed whatever he wished. Just a year into his time on the ancient Earth, he'd ventured into the ocean in a suicidal hope of dinging the large sea predators who could eat him.

His wish was fulfilled.

But then he appeared right at the shore, writhing on the ground like a fish out of water. That was when he realized the weird situation. He inherited the strength, the abilities, and the properties of whatever creature killed him. And he cursed his fate as well. If he'd known it, he would have let a flying creature kill him first.

But since the apex predators of land and sea both killed him once, no other creature came close to him, let alone attack. He had to force the weird T-Rex by chasing them to act as his steed. Even his clothes were created from the fur of small rodent-like creatures that only came out during the night. There were simply no large fur creatures.

Thankfully, he did great with the food. He had plenty of salt, some plants that imitated spiciness, and even honey-like substances from weird plants. But it wasn't that sweet.

In his travels, he found plenty of things around the world. Massive chunks of literal gold. Fist-sized diamonds. Iron ore that he managed to forge into a crude sword. It was a slow process, learning and improving kept him busy. Whenever he grew bored, he resumed his travels. There were no nations, and no visas, after all.

And finally, he saw the warm, lush Antarctica. A land no modern human would see, not in his time. It was pretty similar to the rest of the world. The dinosaurs were also the same.

He decided to make one of the mountains in Antarctica his home. Not because he liked it, but because he hoped to use it as his time-measuring point. When Antarctica would start getting cooler, he'd know the end of dinosaurs was coming.

Not having aged one day since he appeared there, he knew he'd keep on living. Sure, he could have jumped into a volcano. But that was boring. He wanted to find creatures even stronger than the sea's apex predators. He wanted to see how much stronger he'd get.

"This looks decent."

At last, he picked a nice, large cave as his home and started renovating it.

####

Ten million years later.

More than not having anyone to talk to. More than being alone. More than not having company. What really annoyed Marshall was having to use his hand. He came from a decent family once and had plenty of ladies as his partners. But now, he came to truly cherish the god's finest creation—women, and the sweet, sweet organ between their legs, and chest, and their mouths—well, them as whole.

Eleven million years of libido contained. Marshall felt like he was going crazy.

"Grrrrr~"

"What?" He glared at his pet T-Rex.

The large, once apex predator stared at Marshall with puppy eyes.

"Fuck, why ask me? Go away if you gotta take a dump or something." Marshall annoyedly shooed the creature while he remained in his large bed. Its structure was made of bones while the bedding was made of animal skin and rodent fur. It was truly luxurious but worthless with just him and his pillow there.

Psst! I know what you desire… I can give it to you… I can bring you women… as many as you desire~

"Great! I'm going insane for good now." Marshall groaned and ignored the whispering sound that seemingly arose inside his head. He turned to his side and tried to sleep again.

One may wonder. What can a man achieve if he lived for ten million years?

The answer was: Nothing much.

Marshall didn't have a degree in engineering. He wasn't some scientist. He wasn't one of those fantasy protagonists who conveniently knew about everything. From how to fuck to how to make a fucking nuke. No, Marshall was just one, average Joe. Even his college degree was in media marketing. What the fuck was he supposed to do with that? Teach the dinosaurs? Create the first-ever media company with animals as its actors.

"Grrrr~"

"Goddammit! Don't ask me for everything! Do whatever you want."

At that point, the random animals he domesticated were his family.

####

Twenty-three million years later.

"Baby shark do-do-do…"

Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex…

"Mommy shark do-do-do…"

Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex…

"Papa shark do-do-do…"