Assassin Crow Evolution

Jimmy was not blind.

Initially he had just mimicked his brother, subconsciously, and had put up his Retractable Razor Armor without thinking about it much.

Other than that, the system marked his progress as soon as he experienced a change, so he didn’t have to look for clues as much as his brother did.

Likewise, he barely bothered looking around, not to mention downwards.

Now that he did, he noticed that the spikes on his neck were absurdly long.

Not significantly, but they were twice the length compared to the spikes across the rest of his body.

At four inches long, the spikes on his neck stuck out like a sore thumb. To any predator who could put two thoughts together, these spikes alone would appear problematic, and they may not want to risk being stabbed in the mouth, if they were to try and hunt him.

"Interesting..." He said.

"They look nice," Zoey said, "Foxes can’t snatch you now. They’d risk stabbing their mouths a few times too much."

"A fox, really?" His focus was snatched from him in an instant, "Greater beasts have tried to kill me, but they couldn’t. If they weren’t so light-footed, I would’ve eaten a bunch of foxes myself by now."

"Relax," Zoey tried not to chuckle, "I didn’t say you’d be less of a brave, strong man if a fox did snatch you. They’ve been bothering crows for ages."

As the two of them bickered, Vorin was so anxious to grab another core that he started lightly jumping in place. He was stimming.

At last, he said, "Are we gonna stand around all day, or are we gonna absorb some cores? They’re squirrel cores, they’re not hurting us, so why are we wasting time with needless conversations?"

Jimmy was amused by his brother’s frustration. He wasn’t surprised, and he knew that his brother would crack over the slightest breeze of stress, but nevertheless, he was amused.

"Grab one for yourself," He said, "I’m in no rush to become a tougher squirrel."

Vorin did not appreciate that comment whatsoever. At the back of his mind, despite the fact that there were nearly fifty cores in front of him, he felt that his brother wasn’t holding up to his promise.

Vorin was nowhere close to practicing, and understanding magic, for one thing, and the Retractable Razor Armor was one of the two things he could call his own. Yet, Jimmy mocked that as well.

It didn’t feel nice, but he swallowed his pride, and fished out another gray core with the tip of his dagger.

’Beggars can’t be choosers,’ Vorin thought.

In the meantime, Jimmy turned to Zoey, and asked, "Are you sure you don’t want a squirrel armor? It’s painless."

"I don’t need it," She insisted, "I’d be more interested in cores that would give me illusion skills. I don’t really need to get stronger right now, but you never know what’s out there."

"I can’t promise you anything like that," He said, "I have no idea what forty of the other cores are about. They could kill us on the spot for all I know."

"No pressure," She brushed the topic away, "But if you do figure them out, I’d be here to see anyway. If a couple of the cores seem worthwhile, I’ll step on them."

Zoey did not care about the cores as much as everyone did, which was why she managed to remain comparatively calm so far. Though, she was still curious, so she stuck around.

In the following twenty minutes, Jimmy and Vorin absorbed the rest of the seven gray Beast Cores.

There were ten of them in total, just as Jimmy thought, which held on to his observations. The pattern was there, he just wasn’t entirely sure what it would lead into.

The forty other cores remained a mystery.

From the seven remaining gray cores, Jimmy absorbed just two more of them. He didn’t need more, and so he saw no reason in splitting the gray cores equally.

In the end, the system confirmed another level up.

[Retractable Razor Armor evolution: Level 8 >>> Level 9]

[This evolution has been maxed out.]

’So I can never upgrade it again, eh?’ He thought, ’I can’t change it. This is the best the armor can do?’

[Yes, or in other words, you maxed it out.]

[If you feel that the armor isn’t strong enough to protect you, there are other, official ways to protect yourself within the Evolution Tree. After all, you stole this evolution from a Razor Squirrel, meaning it wasn’t designed to meet your path as an Assassin Crow thoroughly.]

Jimmy did not like the fact that the system sassed him a little bit, but he didn’t push into the conversation any further.

Instead, he wanted to figure out what this maxed out evolution was good for. He looked at his body, and didn’t see any changes.

The spikes haven’t grown any bigger. It was frustrating, as he felt like he wasted those two last cores for nothing.

As his frustration built up, he felt a pressure on his chest, close to the neck.

Once more, he wasn’t attentive enough to notice a change in the armor, but nevertheless, he was forced to pay attention.

At first, he figured that the pressure on his chest came from the fact that he was frustrated, but then, at the corner of his eye, he saw the spikes on his chest move.

It moved too much for his comfort.

Within a blink, two of his spikes shot forward, detaching from his body, and beaming through the damp summer air at top speeds!

Vorin was in front of him.

He saw both of the spikes fly towards him, missing his neck by half an inch! His head was right in between them.

"What the fuck!" Vorin exclaimed, "You almost killed me!"

"I didn’t mean to," He tried to remain calm.

Vorin took deep breaths, spooked, and as he looked at his brother’s horrified face, he then tried to calm himself down.

"Be careful next time," Vorin said.

Jimmy retracted his armor, and said, "This is as careful as I can be with it, I guess, but you should be careful too. You’ll max out your armor soon, you can’t have it evolve forever, and based on what you just saw, you’ll be able to shoot your spikes once you max out your armor."

Vorin did more than listen to his brother’s advice. He retracted his armor as well, just to be safe.

Stabbing someone by accident would be bad, that wasn’t even a question, but he feared that if his spikes hit the chest in front of him, and knocked it over, all three of them would be exposed to a much greater risk.

The tiny room was silent after that point. The three of them barely spoke.

Vorin continued to fish out, and step on gray cores. He absorbed five in total from the initial seven, and those five cores were enough to help him max out his evolution. He could feel a difference.

To confirm it, he flew out, and away from the tree, summoned his armor, and tested it out.

Sure enough, the spikes across his neck were much longer compared to the rest, and shortly after, those spikes started moving.

He shot two spikes from his neck, nailing a tree, and the spikes managed to dig three inches deep into the tree. They were a lethal weapon no doubt.

"That can be helpful," He tried to contain his excitement. "They’re hard to control, though. What if I don’t want to shoot?"

Vorin waited for a few minutes. He waited for more spikes to shoot out of his body, but that moment didn’t come.

Then, he retracted, and protracted his armor again, attempting to mimic the first shooting.

Everything was the same, in the sense that he didn’t shoot spikes against his will.

This led to another idea.

"Shoot!" He exclaimed.

The idea was to mimic his brother, in particular cases where he shot fireballs, and directly announced them when he did.

’Spikes aren’t fireballs, but it’s worth a shot,’ He thought.

Within a blink, two spikes shot out of his chest again. He figured out how they worked.

"So the first shot was like a warning?" He thought, "Or like a welcome to the changes? I have to tell Jimmy about this."

Vorin then flew back to the tree. He was happy that he figured something out on his own for once. He felt proud.

As he explained his discovery to Jimmy, a sense of relief breezed over them.

Jimmy was happy that he didn’t have to do all the thinking by himself. Odds were he could figure this out himself, but he was more focused on the rest of the cores right now.

"Arlight, we figured out what ten cores do," He said, "Now let’s look at the others. Do any of these cores look familiar to you? This is the time to speak up. There are no bad ideas."