6 Crow's Feet
I rested for four days. I mean, I did more than that, but the concept is pretty much the same. I took it easy. I ate, I slept, and I practiced with my abilities. I found that the best way to practice was to open a small window in the woven root ceiling and target any small critter that would come to the oak grove to forage for their supper. It was an effective practice.
The idea I had didn't yield the results I wanted. I think I have the right idea but my execution is wrong because of a lack of knowledge. What I wanted to do was focus my now usable Vitality into the slowly healing wounds to hopefully speed up the process. At first, it seemed like it was going to work, but as a wound started to heal the others would open up. At that point, I started feeling woozy and passed out. when I woke up I had actually lost another point of Health and was down to three.
I didn't try it again. I feel like I'm missing something, but I don't know what. Regardless, after three days, two squirrels, a chipmunk, and another jackalope, something important happened. I leveled up.
[Carrion System]
[NAME: Morgan
[RACE: Spirit Crow
[AFFINITY: Plant
[LEVEL: 2
[EXP: 6/300
[CARRION COINS: 98
[HEALTH: 7/11
[VITALITY: 24/24
[ANIMA: 11/11
[ESPRIT: 36/36
[ESSENCE: 10/10
[MANA: 24/24
[ATTRIBUTES
[ABILITIES
[STORAGE
[*LOCKED*
[*LOCKED*
[...
Two things I noticed immediately upon leveling up; I healed four points of health instantly, which is nice as I'm getting stir crazy sitting in my little bunker, and two, a magic word that made my feathery heart flutter. Storage. It may not be common knowledge, but feathers don't come with pockets.
First things first, I open the Storage option and what I see is... a large hole. The perspective is so weird I have no idea how big the hole is; it could be a foot deep or a mile. So being the problem solver I am I start throwing things into it to see how big it is. First up, what's left of the wolverine. That gives me perspective. The hole is like thirty feet deep, huge, I could fit a small house here. The upside is I seem completely aware of each item and can withdraw it with a thought.
I place a bunch of the improvised spears I've been building in my copious spare time. Now if a target shatters one I'll easily be able to replace it and keep attacking at full thrust. There are a couple of things I want to test but some of them I can't just yet, or rather it will take time to test them. One thing I was able to test is whether or not living things can be placed in there. They cannot. The upside of this, all those larvae and creepy crawlies that started forming colonies inside my food are now displaced. The downside is I had to see them and my damn crow body got a craving for the disgusting little bugs. I'm sorry, raw meat is one thing, but bugs are where I draw the line. I'm still modernly human enough to find that gross.
Checking through the system, I find a few more things have changed. The first couple I knew about from the notification window. Plant Manipulation, Telekinesis, and Quill Barrage all advanced one level. Three days of practice was totally worth it. I can launch six quills now and I can control up to six objects with my telekinesis and lift heavier objects.
Plant Manipulation has improved greatly as well, but there is little in the way of quantifying it. It's just easier to use and the plants are more responsive. I even started to express my creative side and make the plants grow into specific patterns and shapes.
When I checked in Attributes, I find some happy news.
[BODY
[MIND
[SOUL
[FREE STANDARD ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 10
I remember the rules here. Each increase costs a number of points equal to the rank I'm buying. For now, my attacking skills are most important so I put points into Agility raising it to four. The other thing I need is more Health and Vitality, so I put points into Resilience and Endurance bringing them each to three. Then I look at my results.
[VITALITY: 26/26
[ESPRIT: 37/37
So there is a direct correlation between Attributes and the energies, but there is something else playing in the background that I don't fully understand yet. Why is Esprit so much higher than the other two? It seems to go up when IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS increases. In fact, it seems to go up by three points when that talent increases. That's plausible, but why doesn't that work for the other abilities? Shouldn't the same happen for Mana as Plant Manipulation increases?
I pondered that for a while before realizing that I don't have a large enough sample size. I'm only level two, I have a long road ahead and I can't get bogged down on the minutia. I need to see the forest through the trees. There are obviously hidden mechanics in the system that I'm not privy to and I'll get nowhere fast if I focus on that too much. I decided to bed down before trying to fly the next day.
When I woke up this morning I remember something that had been bothering me when I nodded off last night. I open my status and look at the Attributes section. The Body, Mind, and Soul orbs each have a small, barely noticeable dot moving in a pattern inside it. I could be wrong, but I don't think it was there before I leveled up.
More mysteries to put on hold. My wing seems better and I need to get into the air and move around. My Flight Talent is stagnating here. I pincushion a squirrel with my quills.
[Defeated Squirrel. Gained 2 EXP
Huh? Wasn't that 3 EXP before? I must have lost a point for leveling up. I try scavenging its soul.
[Used SOUL SCAVENGER. Gained 4 EXP. Gained 4 CARRION COINS.
Well, that's the same. Souls must have a direct value that doesn't scale based on the difference between consumer and consumed... or something like that. I'm spitballing, okay?
I finish breakfast and stretch my wings. There is some stiffness, but I feel solid. I push off and get my first taste of freedom after three-plus days of confinement. Weird, more than eighteen years of flightless life, and I was fine, but a week as a bird and now I go stir crazy if I can't flay after only a couple of days.
It's true, though. I was never really comfortable with heights, not a full-blown phobia or anything, just some slight discomfort being high up outside of a stable foundation. Rollercoasters were barely tolerable. But now, flying has to be one of the most freeing experiences of my two lives.
Something slams into my back and drives me down and the muscles in my neck strain trying to avoid a fatal break. The momentum slows and I can turn my head enough to see a hawk has latched on to my body. "Are you for real with this shit?" I scream, of course, it comes out as an angry "Caw caw caw," but the intent is conveyed.
I know it's hypocrisy in the highest, but I can't believe some asshole would ambush me like this... again. Nearly a dozen small animals cry out from beyond the grave... and you know, my stomach.
I can't get a good angle because I'm stuck between his talons, but I flail enough that the hawk tries to make a landing before trying to finish me off. I'm ready for this bastard though. I pull a spear from my Storage right in front of its descent. Catching the spear with my telekinetic ability I jam it hard into its body.
The hawk tries to dodge, but I wrap some telekinetic energy around it, holding it in place to get a clean jab. It cost me more than a third of my Esprit but the bastard is going down. Unfortunately, I realize that I'm going down with it. Upside, the hawk is dead and no longer sucks as much Esprit to control it with telekinesis. the downside is that it still has its talons embedded in my flesh. I just healed some of that damn it!
I can't use telekinesis on myself for some reason, but I can use it on the hawk that has a death grip on me. It really is a death grip too. The fucker is dead after all. Much like with a vampire, driving a wooden stake through someone's heart will usually kill them.
Thinking back to the choices I had from the Random Standard Class Ability draw, I really wish I could have gotten all of them. healing, armor, danger sense, just being lucky in general would have made things a lot easier these last few days. The zombie thing I could still do without. It's just gross. All in all, though, I don't regret my choice. Telekinesis is my mainstay and the reason I'm still alive.
On the ground again, I pry the talons loose and escape from the dead hawk's grasp. Nothing threatening seems to be around, so I take stock. I'm down another health point, but up ten EXP after scavenging the hawk's soul. Only two hundred seventy-eight to go to the next level. I'm being too slow. I need to be more proactive. I need to find special targets. Targets that have some unique ability or trait that I can steal. I need to be a hunter instead of a scavenger.
I leave the hawk's body behind and take off into the air again. I have plenty of food and there are plenty of scavengers in the forest. I fly within the canopy this time, so I don't attract as much attention from other avian predators. The scent of blood and death catches my attention. I wing my way over to where I here screaming.
I find the sight of the initial battle two humans are dead in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds in their legs chest and neck. A spear is protruding from one of their backs and half a dozen small greenish-gray, I'm guessing, goblins are dead around them in various states of dismemberment. There is still noise from up ahead though, so I continue on. It's risky, I'm not sure I am up to taking down humanoids yet, but I'll check out the fight to see how much further I have to go.
I make to the fight and several more goblins are dead on the ground along with one more human. The other goblins are pinning another human to the ground while one is... Oh goddess, no. No! No! NO! My blood boils. I want to vomit. I want to scream. I want... I want to-
Something inside snaps and I charge at the six goblins. Six spears appear around me, my current limit. I launch three of them at the one in the middle, because fuck him. I suppose I must have some presence of mind because I hit him on an angle to throw him off the woman beneath him without hitting her. One spear each slams into the goblins pinning her arms and torso. I have to be careful, one may not kill them I should probably double-tap them at least.
The ones on the woman's legs spin expecting other humans I'd guess but instead, get a face full of feathers. Well... one does the other just looks confused as I strafe by impaling his friend with needle-like feathers. I bank hard and come back around looking for who is still standing. The one with the quills in his face is rolling on the ground in pain and the other one is- Holy shit! Throwing a spear at me. I roll, avoiding the spear and grab it with telekinesis as it goes past. For some reason, it is as hard to hold it as holding a living thing.
I bring the spear around and hurl the spear back at its owner. The goblin dodges and I only scrape his leg. He rolls to the side, but I'm not done with him yet and a storm of quills penetrate his body. It's a small storm, only five quills hit, but it put a hurt on him and that was my goal I fly high to get a view. Four of the goblins are still moving, though they're all hurt. Tough little bastards, all things considered.
I pull out another six spears and target each of them with one, keeping two in reserve. Two hit square and the notification blink in the corner of my eye tells me their done. The other dodge... mostly. I catch one in the arm shattering it and spinning the little creep to the ground. The other one is bleeding heavily from the face and has one feather is still stuck there right around his eyebrow ridge. He's currently screaming what could probably be translated as, "I am thoroughly displeased with your actions and demand satisfaction," only a lot less politely.
I respond with a spear to his back. There happened to be one just laying there so I figured, "why not." I really feel a lot better after ending that first fucker. It's really cathartic. I check my notifications quickly to count how many have died and find that only the one with the broken arm is left and he's not going anywhere.
I go to the cold place inside. That place I keep all the pent up rage and indignation for what I went through and I channel it. An icy wave rushes through my veins as I dive towards the last target. He grovels and mewls on the ground as I thrust the remaining spears through him screaming the whole time.
I practically crash into his body talons first and scream, "Give me your soul you piece shit! You don't deserve one. You don't deserve anything but pain and misery," but the familiar little golden orb doesn't rise. I should have known that filth like this doesn't have a soul.
"I guess you hate goblins as much as I do,"
