Assassin Crow Evolution

[No risk-free forced transition paths detected.]

[However, there is a transition path that only has the mild risk of a severe headache. That’s as much as I can expel risks from the equation, without completely expelling the strand of foreign Arcana out of your body.]

[It should take two hours to complete the process. Would you like to proceed?]

’You got me invested now. I really want to know what the hell this is!’ He communicated with the system, silently, ’But wait, does this uh... kind of risk free path nerf the magic skill? It’s a magical skill, right?’

[Yes, to both questions.]

[The foreign skill will essentially adapt to your biology, which in itself will ’nerf’ it, but the low-risk path also hammers down the estimated strength of the skill.]

[At best, you might be able to manipulate a third of the arcane skill’s original strength.]

[Would you like to proceed?]

Jimmy thought the matter over, he didn’t give the system an answer right away.

For one thing, he didn’t like how the system sounded more like a computer nowadays. In an odd way, he liked it more when she treated him like a mentally disabled person. There was plenty of shame in this preference, yes, but he also felt that the system had more character back then. Nowadays, she just flashed him with statistics, and remained quiet for the most part. It was boring.

Nevertheless, he tried to push that thought aside for now, and instead, he quickly assessed if this upgrade was worth it. Thinking nine steps ahead for this one, though entertaining, it wasn’t exactly helpful.

In hindsight, this foreign strand of Arcana was not worth it, but he was a very curious crow. The term ’curiosity killed the cat’ could never even apply here, as he was as curious as ten or twenty cats combined! He had to know what it was.

Unsurprisingly, he sighed, and nodded, ’Yeah, let’s proceed.’

[Confirmed.]

Jimmy braced himself for a headache. It was nothing that he hadn’t experienced before. Hell, he experienced a strong headache, along with severe brain fog less than an hour ago, he was used to inhumane conditions, but despite how strongly he braced himself, the headache did not strike.

Instead, at the top corner of his left eye, the system portrayed a small timer.

[1:59:59]

[1:59:58]

[1:59:57]

The timer counted every second, and featured two hours in total.

Jimmy looked at it, and thought, ’Damn, maybe I’m stronger than I think I am? I was expecting to suffer a severe headache for two hours straight.’

[You misunderstood.]

[The chances of you suffering a severe headache throughout this forced transition path, are mild. Odds are, you won’t have a headache at all.]

’Ah, right,’ He shook his head, ’Fifty/Fifty chance, I suppose?’

[Correct.]

This odd foreign skill was interesting to say the least, but despite the pull it had on him, it did not manage to capture his attention in its entirety.

By the passing minute, the tiny timer at the corner of his eye became less and less distracting. Paired with the fact that a nine step plan ran through his brain like a train as soon as he saw the cores in front of him, he brought himself to multitask.

The fact was that he had barely even started eating the Flesh Cores. He was yet to discover the full range of their benefits.

Thankfully, he didn’t feel as weird about eating human organs anymore, because he pictured the reward behind the cores, rather than the revolting picture of what he was doing.

It was a good thing, as nothing would ruin his appetite.

To prevent the system’s forced transition process from being interrupted, or corrupted in any way, he started picking off mouthfuls of meat from a different core. At this point, he didn’t care which cores he had carried over the Lakelands, he just ate those that appeared to be the juiciest, because he knew the rest of the team, apart from Virena, didn’t have as much of a tolerance towards Flesh Cores, which towards newbies, was heavy-duty stuff. He believed he was being fair.

Quite repeatedly, and against his will, he rehearsed his nine-step process, solely revolving the cores.

’Step 1: Try this other core.’

"Step 2: Assess pain."

’Step 3: If the core doesn’t make me go through a lot of pain, then I rip another piece from it. If I don’t feel any pain at all, I’ll take a bigger bite.’

"Bonus-note: If the system ends up warning me about the core, I stop eating right away."

Jimmy alternated between thinking, and thinking out loud. He muttered through his plan like a true mad-man, mostly against his will. He was so focused on following his plan to the letter, that he did not care to pay attention to anything else whatsoever.

Well, there would be certain things that would demand some of his attention. Things that may even alter his nine-step plan.

The system certainly came in with some important notifications.

[MQ: 110 points >>> 114 points]

"Son of a bitch!" His concentration snapped like a twig, "I haven’t gotten a MQ upgrade for a while. It’s been weeks, I think? Or maybe less than a week? It had to be when I killed that fuckass Summoner, right? I almost forgot that Flesh Cores are godly when it comes to upgrading my MQ."

Thankfully, no one in the team heard him speak to himself, as they were all asleep. They’ve heard Jimmy talk to himself many times before, so it was highly unlikely for their brains to register his jabbering as alarming, but he was still self-conscious about it sometimes.

Vorin even started snoring, which was entertaining at that second. Jimmy had forgotten that crows could snore.

Moving on, he did then change the last four steps of his nine-step plan. They were now dedicated to boosting his MQ, and overall mana quality, rather than just reaping skills from the cores alone.

Eating the cores became a little bit more exciting now, and since he had built a decent tolerance against the pain caused by Flesh Cores, he did not resist to take bigger bites.

’Maybe they’ll get me to the third realm of Mana Comprehension?’ He thought, ’Well, that’s a fucking pipe dream, isn’t it? I won’t bounce to the next realm anytime soon.’

[Likely not.]

[MQ: 114 points >>> 121 points]

[Mana Realm: No change]

[Mana Quality: Level 3 >>> Level 4]

[Mana Absorption: No change]

[Mana Quantity: 2,200 points >>> 2,300 points]

"Hmm... yeah, that’s not bad." He said.

To his reality shattering surprise, that wasn’t all that the system had to reveal. She kept right on.

[Revelations unlocked]

[New revelation absorbed: The Monk’s Screech]

[SQ: 10 points >>> 55 points]

"What the..." He squinted.