Assassin Crow Evolution

The core shattered beneath Vorin’s claw the moment he stepped on it. He didn’t even have to put a lot of pressure on it, as it broke once anything alive touched it.

The core looked like a gem, it was symmetrical, and it was supposed to be sharp if one broke it, as normal gems would be. But that was not the case.

Vorin didn’t suffer any cuts.

Instead, the stone dissipated into a small, gray mist, before it assumed a more thin form, like a stream of water, except it was weightless.

It was like a thick string of energy, containing every fraction of a beast’s main skill.

The string floated up, and disappeared in Vorin’s chest feathers. He absorbed it.

It was a two second process, and now, he held his breath, nervous, scared, unsure of what to expect.

Pain was common amongst upgrades. He wasn’t scared of pain, but in this situation, he didn’t know if he should welcome it or not. Obtaining, and upgrading the razor armor didn’t come with pain before.

The three of them waited in anticipation. A deep, anxious silence stretched for ten seconds, and yet, nothing else happened.

"How do you feel?" Jimmy asked.

"The same, I think?" Vorin answered.

"Well, you’re not melting away, and you haven’t exploded, so it’s a good thing that you still feel the same." He added.

"But how can I tell if my armor got stronger?" Vorin asked, confused, and frustrated, "I have to know."

"There’s an easy way to figure that out, brother, focus." He said, "Pop out your razor armor, and check if there’s anything different about it."

"Oh, right," Vorin nodded.

The strangling emotions he felt during the past hour, drained his common sense. The path towards progression and responsibility was harder than he expected it to be, and he didn’t like the fact that it surprised him more every time he tried to progress.

Nevertheless, he popped his Retractable Razor Armor out in the blink of an eye. His razor spikes slid across the entrance of this little den, and got stuck on the wood.

Panicking, thinking that someone had touched him, Vorin wiggled left and right as if a monstrous fox had grabbed a hold of him. He carved the bark straight out of the already dry, wood entrance.

"Calm down, man," Jimmy said, "I almost thought that the core gave you worms."

"Worms!?" Vorin panicked even more. "I don’t want worms inside of me!"

"And you probably don’t have them," He tried not to laugh, "I meant to tell you to stop moving. You’re too jumpy. You basically renovated my home."

Vorin didn’t know what renovation meant, and he didn’t care. Right now, he had to focus on calming down.

A few deep breaths later, he felt better. His body temperature dropped by a couple of fractions at a time, which in turn slowed down his brain as well, preventing it from going haywire.

However, even though he felt a bit better, he couldn’t shake the embarrassment away. He hadn’t panicked this much even when he was surrounded by flames, or when he was eaten by a giant centipede along with the rest of the team. He hated the fact that a mere core almost made him shit himself.

"I suppose I’m not as brave as I thought," Vorin lowered his head.

"Bravery means nothing right now," He said, "Your armor looks the same to me, but that’s not a bad thing. It usually takes a couple of cores to level up as you advance into the higher levels of the evolution."

"I see what you mean," Vorin’s breath became steadier by the moment, "I don’t think anything changed. The armor doesn’t feel more protective."

"Well, can you tell if you absorbed a new skill?" He asked, "We don’t know for sure if these cores belonged to Razor Squirrels."

"I don’t know, honestly," Vorin answered, "I feel the exact same as I did a moment ago."

Now, it was Jimmy’s turn to grow frustrated. He forgot that everyone else did not have a system in them to pin-point and explain every upgrade.

In one way, he felt lucky that he had a system, but in another way, they did not make much progress in figuring out what the cores were for.

Within his brewing frustration, he got an idea. A simple one.

"Well, the core didn’t kill you, so the gray ones are safe." He said, "Fish out two more, I’ll absorb one of them with you."

Vorin nodded, and got to work. He carefully reached his claw into the chest, and separated one of the cores from the bundle with his dagger, lifting it out of the chest shortly after. Then, he fished out another one, and pushed it towards his brother.

"Keep your armor up," He said, "That way, we can see if the cores are making a difference."

Afterwards, the two of them stepped on the cores almost at the same time, easily crushing them.

The cores reacted, dissipated into a mist, and then disappeared into the chest feathers of the couple of brothers.

Just as they expected, the process ended there. They didn’t feel any pain, they barely felt anything new, but this time, the both of them managed to see a difference!

The razor spikes on Vorin’s armor grew by half an inch! Now, the longest spikes, primarily surrounding his chest, were a whole two inches long, and the rest of the spikes across his body were at least an inch long. He upgraded the evolution.

"Now there’s a difference," Vorin held his breath, anxious.

As for Jimmy, he got a more direct confirmation. One that he didn’t really care to see right now, as he saw Vorin’s chest spikes grow.

[Retractable Razor Armor evolution: Level 7 >>> Level 8]

[This evolution can be upgraded to level 9 at most.]

[Task 11: 1/25 complete

Absorb 24 more Beast Cores to get your reward of 5,000 system points]

"Yup, these are squirrel cores alright," He celebrated, and his mood instantly switched for the best. "But I don’t see any changes in me... right? I’m still the same?"

"Are you kidding?" Zoey asked, "Look at your neck!"