14 A song of joy

Now that I ate the boar, not leaving a single bone, the only trace of him left in the burrow was the pile of webbing. Despite its metallic appearance, it was still soft to the touch. I decided that next time I go to sleep, I will make myself a nest out of it. Especially since the next time I will be asleep, I won't have a carapace and will be able to feel the softness of it with my entire body.

I waved my antennas in the air and looked out of the burrow. No threats were in sight. Not surprising, considering the screams of the boar I just ate, but just in case, I spent an hour to spin a web over the burrow's entrance. I will have to cut it through to exit, but for now I was safe to rest and evolve.

Evolve. Into something bigger, finally!

Sadly, if I wanted to evolve right now—and I sure did—I had little choice. It was Garelia bird for 3431 EXP or nothing. The mouse cost fifteen thousand EXP, and the boar… More than a hundred thousand.

My life had never been easy. I picked the option to evolve into the bird, relaxed my muscles, took a deep breath, and prepared for the pain.

It tore through me like dozens of sharp knives. Time and space and everything besides pain lost any meaning until a moment or an eternity later it finally began to dissipate, leaving only an ache behind. I wished, once again, that I had higher CON. It was so much easier to bear with higher CON.

I tried to stand up, but after spending so long on six legs or no legs, two were a challenge again. I stumbled and fell headfirst into the dirt, but it reminded me not to hurry and examine my body first.

I had only four limbs now, which was easier to control after I got the hang of them. Two of them were my legs, and two were my wings. It was a surprise to find them feathery now, instead of made from the transparent membrane. I also had a tail, but it was too short to do much on the ground, though I knew birds used them for steering during flight.

My eyes and ears were much sharper than before, especially eyes, though my sense of smell suffered heavily. I could see every small rock and root in the burrow's walls around me. The burrow itself felt smaller around my bigger body, though it was still very spacious. More than spacious enough to stand up on my legs—without falling now—and even walk around a little.

And of course, I had a neck. I craned it as far as I could, trying to inspect myself visually. My feathers were blue, but on my chest I caught a sight of a mark that resembled a white cross. I couldn't remember that on the bird I ate, but that didn't mean it wasn't something from my abilities.

Then I tested my voice. My beautiful, glorious voice. I tried to say something, but the best I could manage wasn't really understandable. Still, the fact that I could finally laugh in joy, even if the sound was barely resembling a real laughter, made me burst with it.

This was when I also found where my stinger went. It was now growing out of my right paw, still sharp and ready to poison, though small compared to my current size. I would have to need to raise it a level or two before I will be able to use it as a weapon against creatures of my size.

After my physical inspection was over, I opened my character sheet.

[Voren]

[General Info]

Species: Garelia Bird

Sex: Male

Age: 21d

Height: 9.4cm

Weight: 0.73kg

Emotional state: Joy

Titles: Devourer, Alpha Predator, The Lord of Nine Hells

[Stats]

HP: 6/6

EXP: 8268

STR: 2.12

DEX: 13.99

CON: 5.78

INT: 8.75

[Abilities]

Devourer (lv MAX) (Evolution options available!)

Flight (lv 9) (species boon) merged with [Flight (lv 6) (Can be levelled up!)]

Stinger (lv 6) (Can be levelled up!)

Steel Web Spinning (lv 11)

Underwater Swimming (lv 1) (Can be levelled up!)

Berserk (lv 1) (Can be levelled up!)

Peck (lv 7) (species boon)

My DEX rose sky high in this body, and even my CON increased, to which I was grateful. The bird also had innate 'Flight' higher than what I already had, and 'Peck'. I knew, though, that every ability still left at level 1 was absolutely useless to me now.

Abilities didn't scale with my size. Level 1 wings could move around me as a beetle or a slug, but their strength won't be enough for a bird. Same went to most other abilities. Exceptions always were, of course, but they usually had a cost of evolution so high that they were impossible to miss.

I still had eight thousand EXP to level up my other abilities, but I didn't feel the need to. I had my beak and my webs, and of course, my wings. What else a hunter needed?

Instead, I cut a section of the web from the burrow's entrance and flew out. It didn't take me long to get a hang of my new wings—I had practice with different ones in Hell. It was pure joy, though, to fly on bigger wings and in a body that didn't move with every slight breeze.

"Tu-tu-tu-tu!" I sang as I flew up and up through the forest. Leaves and branches plummeted past me until I rose above the canopy.

The sight of the endless blue sky above and the sea of green below stole my breath. For a minute I simply marvelled at it as I made lazy circles in the air currents until the novelty wore off a little—just a little. Then I noticed another important thing.

Several thin columns of smoke.