Assassin Crow Evolution

Jimmy lost count of which step he had gotten to, in regards to helping Gundor, but he wasn’t worried. He was on track.

The man that Virena just killed, although seemingly powerful and unique, had to die. Gundor prepared him for it, he explained to Jimmy that the average Summoner was greedy with the Summoning Circle above.

The mage that Virena killed, held a very important item. A staff of sorts.

The staff was made out of stone instead of wood. It wasn’t easy to carry, it was heavy, but its importance was great.

It featured three spikes, which were supposed to be the tail of the stone Wyrm which was carved into the Summoning Circle.

Summoning of any sort within the circle, would be unsuccessful if the staff was missing.

Luckily, the enchanted staff was, in a way, bound to the circle. If someone tried to take it away from the circle, the staff would refuse physically. It would start floating towards the circle, and there was no mage, regardless of their skillset, who could do anything to change that fact.

To fight this fact, Summoners usually stuck around the ruins, and held on to the staff, so they could be the only ones that used the Summoning Circle.

The man that Virena killed was just another greedy mage.

"We should get moving... but, this guy looks important." He said, "I don’t want to eat him, there’s a large bird up there we can nibble on, but I think you know what you have to do, Virena. Let’s get something out of this trip."

"I thought you’d say that," She sighed, "I’ll gut him, and look for a Mana Core."

"Thank you," He said.

In the meantime, Jimmy explored the rest of the tunnel. He didn’t rush to push the staff topside, because he had a sense that this place had something more to offer him.

A few more meters into the tunnel, he figured out what this mage had been working on in the utter depths of darkness.

"Looks like alchemy," He said, "Makeshift alchemy? It has to be some cheap shit, because where’s the massive cliche cauldron? Hmm... no cauldron, of course not, it’s not like he’s a witch. I don’t even think witches are a thing in this world."

The craft appeared cheap, because that man had been pushing ingredients in a hardly symmetrical steel vase.

Why anyone would waste steel on a vase was beyond him, but he figured that it was a cheap way for alchemists to get started on their craft. Assuming steel was abundant in this world.

"Eyes, mushrooms, weird flower," He spilled the vase, "What sort of potion was this motherfucker trying to make?"

Alchemy was within the umbrella of the system’s purchase options, and he had browsed it before, but even though he was a bit more interested in alchemy now, he hesitated to jump into this craft now.

He didn’t want to carry a vase around, for one thing, and knew that he needed a decent home vase where he could stash his alchemical set, and his potions. Stuffing them in a tree didn’t seem efficient. He was not a squirrel, after all.

"I should just stick to looting shit," He said.

Within a sack, there was a bundle of even more ingredients.

Jimmy spilled them, and observed them. Looting ingredients was not within the bounds of the deal he made with Gundor, and it was simply a bonus.

Jimmy ignored the herbs, plants, and mushrooms. He focused on every ingredient that belonged to an animal.

"These don’t look like human eyes," He said, "Eating them wouldn’t be considered cannibalism. Well, I’m a crow, but still."

He knew to avoid the mushrooms. He could feel it in his gut that it wasn’t supposed to touch them.

Out of the few memories he brought back from his human life, he distinctively remembered a funny meme about mushrooms. Like how dangerous they could be, even if one mushroom looked identical to an actually beneficial one.

"I’ll stick with the eyes," He said, and swallowed one whole. "Let’s hope it’ll give me a cool new skill."

There were three types of eyeballs in front of him. Nine pieces in total.

Jimmy ate all nine of them. The fact that they were squishy, and the fact that he could swallow them easily managed to weird him out quite a bit. He was not a fan.

After eating the seventh eyeball, he began to think that he did this for nothing. He didn’t get a new skill, and the system was silent even after the ninth eyeball.

"Damn, am I that unlucky?" He said.

A moment later, a system tab popped up in front of him.

[Thick Bones: Level 1 >>> Level 2]

"What?" He cocked his head, "I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe you made a mistake? If I remember right, I bought this one. Why would eating an eyeball upgrade it?"

[Thick Bones is a strength based skill. Other creatures have it as well. You simply didn’t have to go through the trouble of obtaining this skill naturally, but it can be upgraded in other means, such as consuming the body parts of a creature who has the skill.]

"Ah, so I’m not that unlucky after all." He smiled.

Jimmy was motivated to eat more of these ingredients, and see what other skills he could steal or upgrade, but he hit a limit of sorts.

There were no more ingredients that belonged to animals.

Eating some pretty purple flower and hoping for the best, didn’t fall within his umbrella of expectations. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get anything useful from it, and odds are he’d poison himself or become extremely delirious. The herbs and flowers did not look edible. Mushrooms even less so.

With that considered, he decided to quit while he was ahead, and circled back to more important matters.

As he walked back to Virena, he saw her tossing an organ out of the man that she had killed earlier on.

"That’s a Mana Core alright," He said. "I don’t think anybody is gonna bother us here, so let’s eat."

"If you say so," She nodded, "Do you want me to cut small pieces for you?"

"No need," He said, "I think I can handle it on my own. Plus this motherfucker didn’t seem so strong to begin with. He probably used a potion to deflect my fireball."

Virena cut a tiny piece for herself, measuring it based on how much she could handle, and Jimmy simply bashed his beak into the meaty core, and swallowed a piece whole.

The effect was immediate. He could feel his gut burning, and that burning sensation quickly branched across the rest of his body.

He felt sore, every small movement hurt, and for a moment, he blacked out, but seconds later, he could feel his body forcing itself to over-perform, more than it already did the moment he swallowed that piece.

It quickly dispelled the pain.

At that moment, he was confident that the process was over. He was almost sure that the fact that he merged with the Sentient Feather helped him withstand the pain better. It made sense, because mana-based upgrades targeted his organs, his body.

However, moments later, his train of thought went away from him, as he blacked out again.

"Aah!" He woke up screaming.

Then he blacked out again.

Ironically, the pain woke him up once more. He was in so much pain that he was trapped in a loop of getting knocked out over and over.

Jimmy could not figure out for the life of him what was going on. The pain didn’t let him develop a single thought, and he only knew to scream.

Virena was concerned, but this wasn’t her first rodeo. She knew that he’d be alright in the end. She was right of course.

After an hour of agony that not even the depths of hell could match up with, and after rapidly losing a third of his feathers due to the immense stress his body experienced, the pain finally started to fade away.

After another ten minutes, he felt himself again. Meaning, he was no longer in pain.

[MQ: 60 >>> 90]

[Mana Realm: Pale Jade >>> Spiked Ruby]

[Mana Quality: Level 8 >>> Level 1]

[Mana Absorption: No change]

[Mana Quantity: 1,200 points >>> 2,000 points]

It took Jimmy a while to read the system tab in front of him, as even though he was fine physically, the demo version of eternal torment he just experienced affected him psychologically. He felt like his brain hurt.

Finally, he said, "I’m okay, Virena."

"I know," She said, "But your screams gave me a headache."

"Sorry," He rolled his eyes, "I didn’t know mantises could get headaches."

"I didn’t know either," She remarked.

At last, he turned to the system, and said, "These statistics don’t make a lot of sense to me, system. Why is my Mana Quality at level one again?"