Assassin Crow Evolution

With his current metabolism becoming more trouble than it’s worth, Jimmy seriously considered reducing his bodily size, just for the sake of also reducing the speed, and demands of his metabolism.

It sounded like a good idea, but as the proteins, and vitamins from his decent meals traveled through his bloodstream, he became aware enough to know that right now, reducing his bodily size was actually a horrible idea.

It may never be a good idea, really, because as a crow who valued intelligence, paired with the fact that he was aware of how compact his bird brain was, he’d risk a lot more just to gain more brain mass, nevermind lose mass. If he could afford to be a six-foot tall crow, he would become one, because he knew that his brain mass would grow along with it.

Another thing he feared was directly related to his present goals. He was upgrading the Think Ahead evolution, for the sake of being more prepared across future troubles. He would not, under any circumstances, risk stunting this evolution.

He’d try his best to preserve it, even if he had to eat a cow every hour!

Thankfully, that was not the case right now, as he tamed his hunger with walnuts and critters alone, but about ten hours ago, he realized how important the Think Ahead evolution was. The lack of upgrades towards it in the past, cost him tens of valuable Flesh Cores!

So yes, he would gladly hunt, and eat a cow every hour if it meant that he’d never lose out on tens of cores again!

[Think Ahead evolution: Level 2 >>> Level 3]

[-550 system points]

[Remaining points: 7,715]

[You can now think four steps ahead, at all times.]

In hindsight, thinking four steps ahead was better than two, but Jimmy was somewhat petty right now, as well as distraught. He wanted to have a significantly greater advantage, so he kept upgrading the evolution, until his brain felt actually sore.

It wasn’t normal for one’s brain to feel sore. Biologically, it shouldn’t be possible, even, but he pushed it to the limit.

For the sake of recovering some of the points he spent, he kept killing little critters, and eating them. He could’ve eaten more walnuts, which didn’t require as much effort, but they didn’t give him any points.

Despite how he felt, he didn’t want to spend all of his system points, in case he needed them in the future.

Technically, the points could be significantly replenished if he killed a couple of humans, but it was sometimes hard to find humans who deserved to be killed. Other than that, he was far from going down some point-farming psychopath’s path. Ironically, he was too humane to kill innocent humans when he didn’t have to.

The bugs and rodents would do for now. He managed to rack up a couple of hundred points with them.

[Think Ahead evolution: Level 3 >>> Level 8]

[You can now think nine steps ahead at all times.]

[-5,050 system points]

[Remaining points: 2,865]

Jimmy bought them in bulk. He had the system implement the upgrades one after the other. He’d max it out up to level twenty-four if he could, but level eight had to do for now.

’This is... interesting...’ He thought, ’Stressful, but interesting... Why am I thinking of a nine-step plan of harvesting this entire walnut tree? Most of the fruits aren’t even ripe yet, so that would be stupid.’

Just when he thought that things couldn’t get any more complicated, the system hit him with another notification.

[IQ: 168 points >>> 179 points]

Jimmy was in a daze. He tried to adjust to the new ways his brain now functioned, and up until now he couldn’t figure out why he was thinking a little bit faster now, even if incorrectly. The Think Ahead evolution wasn’t supposed to do that, but thankfully, the IQ boost explained it.

’Eleven points up?’ He thought, ’That’s a huge boost nowadays. My IQ only went up by nine points yesterday after I learned a whole ass human language.’

Jimmy was happy, and when he thought about the Flesh Cores he had stashed up in the walnut tree, he was even happier. Them, paired with his barrel of upgrades, helped him foster some sort of positivity, and so, he felt a little bit less sour about his massive blunder yesterday.

Speaking of the Flesh Cores, now that he felt more present, and sharper than ever, his exhaustion did not burden him as much. He saw it as insignificant, and his full stomach helped energize him as well. Likewise, he was ready to absorb the cores now!

Sleep could wait.

Jimmy flew up on the tree, and grounded his feet on the thick branch below him. He then tightened his grip on the branch, so he wouldn’t randomly fall off the tree, and then, he started pecking at one of the cores.

’Gotta be smart about this shit,’ He thought, ’I don’t have to rush, I hope? No, I don’t have to, I don’t see the Chief, or that fucking monstrosity anywhere, so I can absorb my cores in peace. Fuck it, let them come, I have a full mana pool now, so I can hold them off for a couple of minutes if they want to fight.’

Furthermore, he thought, ’Still, if they managed to follow us, I can’t have them find me paralyzed, while the gang’s asleep. We’d get royally fucked. No lube, no oil. Raw.’

Virena had been holding on to him as he battered on below, and within the walnut tree. She was still sound asleep, and yet, she held on to his back so tightly, that one would think she was glued there for good. She wasn’t bothered, Jimmy couldn’t wake her up right now even if he tried, and he hoped he didn’t have to.

Jimmy pecked at a core, one little bit at a time, just so he could easily handle the minor surges of pain that came with its absorption. He tried to be strategic about it, as he surely did not want to get paralyzed in pain.

As a tiny little pain strained his muscles, all the way to his legs, he couldn’t help but get angry again. He lost his stream of positive thinking in the blink of an eye!

’We’re some tough motherfuckers!’ He thought, as the hot, mid-day sun beams, practically rustled his feathers, ’How in the name of the wee man did we carry the cores, and our weapons at the same time, at the dead of fucking night? That’s not fair at all.’

Just before he was about to go down on a spiral of pettiness, anger, and general mad-man talk, the system interrupted his episode.

[Foreign strand of Arcana detected]

"Huh?" He grunted, then he silently added, ’Half of my arsenal used to be foreign, system, what are you on about?’

[Foreign strand of Arcana is incompatible with your biology, and Assassin Crow evolution tree.]

[Would you like to expel the foreign strand out of your body, or force it to transition, and adapt to your arsenal?]

In a snap, he asked, ’What are the risks of forcing it to transition?’

[The risks are biological. You could suffer a stroke, which can significantly damage your brain.]

’Hell nah!’ The feathers on his head cocked upwards, ’I gave an arm and a leg, kind of, to sculpt my brain in the way that it is. There is nothing in the world that would convince me to risk it!’

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

As he thought of the matter more, he asked, ’Can you force a... more minor transition? One that’s risk free?’

[Analyzing...]