Chapter 76: Great Tit
Speaking of deeper questions, Jimmy never expected that he’d follow crawling trees, wondering whether or not they had a penis. It was surreal, and yet, he was getting so used to such a level of absurdity that this little chase felt normal.
The team followed the four Crawler Trees through the densely forested mountain top.
The walking trees crawled through the bushes, and through the other normal, stationary trees with elegance that didn’t otherwise fit their violent nature.
They were cautious, clever, as if they were walking on egg-shells. One could even forget that they were essentially bulldozing through the ground.
Their mirage of elegance was short-lived, however, as minutes later, one of them hurled a poor old boar towards the sky.
The wild boar initially stood in its path, and suffered for it.
It took a little while for the boar to land, but when it did, it exploded into a short-lived bloody mess. Gravity had pulled it down from the sky as much as it was supposed to, solely based on its body weight.
Vorin looked at the carcass, and his stomach cramped, so he asked, "Remind me, why haven’t you burned those trees down yet?"
"Because I need a little bit more information out of them, as we established." Jimmy said, pointing out the obvious. "But if they bother you that much, I will burn them down once we’re done with them."
"That would be great," Vorin shook his head, and tried not to throw up.
With their focus poured on the trees, the team grew less and less aware of the other dangers around them.
The yeeted wild boar should’ve been their warning call.
Sure this mountain was odd enough to make them question their intuition, but down to its root, the basic laws of nature were unavoidable.
The food chain in the wild persisted above all.
Where there were boars, there were animals that hunted boars.
The food chain continued as to what animals the wild boards commonly ate as well. Birds, they ate small birds when they could, usually sparrows.
Jimmy spotted a great snake. Its two parallel red lines that ran across its spine, made him believe that it was the same snake that he had stepped on earlier. Or at the very least, the same, unknown species.
The snake grinded his nerves, but similarly to before, it did not attack him.
The snake did make him more aware of the other dangers this forest housed, but at that point, it was too late.
He failed to spot a creature that no one would see as a threat. Not at first sight, at least. No one would consider boar snacks to be a threat, not unless they were a worm.
Behind a darkened beak, a black and white face pierced through the air, with Jimmy as its target. It wasn’t a sparrow, but it was far more dangerous than one.
Within a blink, its beak sunk into Jimmy’s side-waist, delivering a sharp blow!
"Mutterficker!" He exclaimed.
Poof!
A dark mist engulfed him. The Help Yourself skill immediately sealed his wound.
[-70 mana points]
[Remaining pool: 1,130 points]
The bird who attacked him was long gone. He could not see what attacked him, but he did hear a rapid flutter.
"What’s wrong?!" Vorin asked.
"Brace yourself," Jimmy stalked the perimeter, "Something just stabbed me."
In response, Vorin raised his dagger up high. He didn’t want to get stabbed, because unlike his larger brother, he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to withstand the blow.
The brothers froze on the branches they were on. The Crawler Trees seemed unimportant right now.
Unlike the crows, Virena had seen the attacker fly away, and she knew that it was a small bird. She hadn’t been able to react quickly enough, but if the bird attacked once more, she was ready.
A thin line of fire brewed at the tip of her chained sickle. Within seconds, she formed a Fire Sphere. It floated above her head, ready to be hurled at any time.
After a minute of rigorous scouting, Jimmy spotted a flock of birds.
Their black and white faces, contradictory to the rest of their bodies which were colorful, made the birds seem like half mimes. He didn’t know why, but he considered anything that looked like a mime, threatening.
Seven of them were all the more threatening.
All seven of them charged towards him at once, only seconds after they were spotted. Their flying speed was incomprehensive!
Virena noticed them approaching, and immediately tossed her Fire Sphere against the flock.
For once in her life, she missed.
The flock scattered as soon as they saw the sphere, and then approached Jimmy from all directions!
Jimmy’s Retractable Armor popped up in the blink of an eye. The opponents were fast, but they were still tiny, only a few inches tall, so instinctively, he knew that they couldn’t challenge his armor which was littered with two-inch spikes.
The opponents were none the wiser. They beamed towards him, and clashed against his body.
All seven of them ended up stuck in Jimmy’s armor. They couldn’t even make it past his spikes!
[+105 system points]
[Total points: 11,855]
Jimmy retraced his armor, and the carcasses latched off. They plummeted towards the ground below, several meters from the branch he stood on.
[Phantom Beak skill added. The skill consists of seven levels.]
’Oh?’ He gathered the wisdom to ask his questions quietly. ’What’s that skill about, and what the hell did I kill?’
[You killed a Great Tit. It’s a bird that’s not commonly known to be threatening, but the ones you killed evolved enough to cultivate their own skill.]
[The Phantom Beak skill, when activated, provides an invisible beak-like layer, which promises more piercing power. Bottom-line, you can stab things easier with it.]
’Nice!’ He celebrated, ’But I need to level this shit up.’
Afterwards, he turned to his brother, who was still frozen in place from the initial clash, and said, "Let’s take a little break. I need you to eat a couple of the dead birds down there."
"Eating birds? That doesn’t feel right." Vorin said, as they landed on the ground below.
"Trust me on this," He said, "I’m almost sure that you can steal their skill. You’re long overdue for one."