I'm still not entirely used to sleeping like a bird. I wake up on my side with the ass end of last night's gamey dinner as a pillow. I don't particularly want to get up yet, but I can't think of a reason to stay asleep. I sigh, which comes out as a low whine. I need to process what the goddess told me and figure out a path ahead. I check my status and find a slight update.
[LEVEL: 1/10
[EXP: 133/200
My level now has a cap on it. That must be the point at which I can undergo an evolution. Sixty-seven EXP to go before I hit level two, and goddess only knows how much to get to level ten. I can only assume that the cost to level up will increase with each level.
I make a light breakfast of leftover what I now see is a green-colored raccoon. I guess that has to do with its plant affinity. I close up the hollow after I hop out and fly a little deeper into the forest to find a new hunting ground. I don't particularly want to hunt right outside my front door, regardless of how temporary it is.
The difference between level one flight and level two is pretty significant. I can fly faster and my shifts seem to be smoother. I challenge myself a bit and try to do something of a slalom between the trees. I probably should have wait til level three to try that. Fortunately, my wing is okay despite the slamming into an unseen branch.
A little while later, I find another patch of forest populated by oak trees, and after a quick scan to see if any predators are lounging around or other hidden animals, I perch on one of the outer trees and scan the ground for useful materials or targets.
I know I'm taking this really slow right now. It's not like I'm overly familiar with combat or hunting. The closest I've been to roughing it was a camping trip to my backyard when I was seven with some friends. We got so scared when a stray cat strolled by that we ended up camping in the living room instead. The outdoors was my nemesis ever since, and wouldn't you know it, a jogging path through a park was the site of my ultimate demise. How cliché.
I'm not finding a good club to bean my targets with, so I decide to test my Plan Manipulation ability a little more. I focus on a branch that is about an inch thick and maybe three feet long. I give it a nudge with Plant Manipulation to straighten it out and hew off the twigs and leaves before pinching it off of the larger limb it is growing from. Once separated I refine it further bringing one end to a solid point that should be able to pierce most animal hides.
I pick it up with my telekinetic ability and immediately I can tell that something is different. The newly minted spear feels lighter than expected and I feel like I have more hands to manipulate it with. While holding the stick I reach out with my mind for an acorn that's on the ground. It rises, so I grab another. It rises as well, but I can feel the strain. I reach for a fourth but nothing happens.
I repeat the steps I used to create a spear to make two more. That's my limit for now, but it's pretty good. Yesterday one object at a time was my limit but today it's three. I keep testing my limits with spears. A single spear has a greater range and can be manipulated for a longer period of time than I could yesterday while using two or three spears seems to have a similar range and duration as I previously demonstrated for the single spear prior to the ability level up. It's the same for my aim. I strike with more force and precision with a single spear than I do with multiple spears.
It makes sense. I'm splitting my focus, so I'm less effective. Maybe with more practice, I can reduce the discrepancy, but even still, it's not bad. I manage to take down three targets in rapid succession. All were normal animals, well, one was a jackalope, a sort of large rabbit with antlers, but otherwise perfectly normal animals.
I flew down from my perch to draw have the jackalope for lunch when a sharp pain pierced my wing. I jerk to the side as a barrage of thin needle-like quills pass by and penetrate into the bark of the tree behind me. I drop low behind the corpse of the jackalope as my new assailant comes into view. It's stocky about three feet wide and maybe five feet in length a nasty set of claws and teeth and a bristling coat that ends in a wide tail with ten-inch quills that seem to be the source of the pain in my wing.
It looks like someone mated a wolverine with a porcupine and then fed it steroids. I get the spears into the air at about twenty feet up and maneuver them above the target. I pull them down hard on to the beast but at the last second, it jumps away. It's awfully fast for such a wide body. I don't have a lot of resources to play with here.
Another barrage of quills pass dangerously close to my body penetrating the corpse that I'm hiding behind. It's still moving towards me but more cautiously now, trying to watch the sky for dangers. An idea is forming and I start to channel Mana to power my Plant Manipulation. It's not fast enough to attack, but I may be able to use it to slow the beast down.
Roots start to push their way through the ground in an area around me. If it wants to get to me it will have to pass through the area. I harass it with the spears and it dodges and takes a swipe at one with its oversized claws shattering it into toothpicks. I use the other two to attack its flank to keep it off balance. It spins putting it's back to me as the two spears circle in the air above it. It takes a step back into the mass of roots, but I don't move them yet. I need it farther in to guarantee it can't get out easily. This thing is strong I need it fully contained.
I grab one of its own dislodged quills with my telekinesis and maneuver it around low to the ground while the beast is distracted by the airborne spears. I drive the quill forward into its exposed throat eliciting a scratching howl like a broken chainsaw. It jumps back into the mass of roots and vines. Got it! I channel Mana for all I'm worth and wrap layer after layer of wood and vine around the beast as it thrashes trying to break free.
It struggles and I know it will only hold for a minute but that's enough. I drive the spears down, again and again, stabbing every exposed part possible. The roots pull back just enough to leave its throat exposed, right where the quill is still sticking out. I drop the second spear and focus on driving the remaining one as hard as possible right through the beast's throat. It chokes and wheezes for maybe ten minutes before finally subsiding.
[Defeated Barbed-tailed Wolverine. Gained 12 EXP
I relax a little and as the adrenalin subsides the pain returns. I take a moment to extricate the quill from my wing. It burns like acid, but I'm smart enough not to pull it back the way it came in at least. I really need a healing ability. I'm under fifty percent of my Health after that stupid quill got me. Worst of all, my wing is in no shape to get me back to my home. Looks like I'm stuck here.
Stupid wolverine had to interrupt my lunch. I eat a lot, but I would have shared, but no, it had to be a bitch and try to get a side of shish kebob crow with the rabbit dinner. Who's eating who now asshole. I make my way over to the wolverine and scavenge its soul.
[Used SOUL SCAVENGER. Gained 6 EXP. Gained 6 CARRION COINS. Gained Quill Barrage.
Tasty. I can pretty much guess what it does, but let's see how it works.
[QUILL BARRAGE is a Talent that launches a number of sharpened barbed quills at a target within range. Quills regenerate at the cost of Vitality. The quill's attack power is based on the user's Body.]
Okay, so I was pretty much right about what it does. The quill regeneration is pretty nice, although it would be better if it was free. I know, I'm greedy. It's also a Talent which means it grows through use and can get stronger over time. To what degree, I don't know. I understand how to activate it at least; even though the description is vague it seems to impart some measure of knowledge.
I might not have a tail full of quills but I have wings, even if one is incapacitated, I can still wave about the other to practice. I slash my uninjured wing through the air and release a barrage of pinion feathers that penetrate into the tree. Well, barrage may be a bit of an exaggeration. Three, three pinion feathers fly out and penetrate more than an inch into the flesh of the tree.
That's pretty good. The nicest thing about gaining skills like this is the inherent understanding that comes with it. If I had to figure out how to channel Mana, or focus Esprit, or now guide Vitality, I would still be learning the very basics of the ability and probably would be for months.
It's interesting, to me at least, Esprit emanates in a pulse from the mind or maybe from somewhere around the center of my forehead between my eyes. You have to focus that energy, narrowing it to a concentrated form, to enact the ability. Mana flows in a wave from the center of my chest and wraps around me. I have to channel that flow to create the effect I'm trying to. Vitality seems to run in a pattern through my veins or something like them in my body stemming from and back to a spot in my lower abdomen below my stomach. Now that I've done it once I can feel the different energies. How they are different; how they are the same. I'm pretty sure the vital energy touches the other two core locations and maybe even helps to refine the different energies.
Vitality flows and concentrates in my wing and the three pinion feathers reform. That's cool. That actually gives me an idea, but I want to get shelter before I try it. I pick out a temporary home in the base of one of the nearby trees. I don't particularly want to hop too far with a bum wing anyway.
I only have a little Mana left so I'll have to make this quick and do a better job of it later. I hollow out a portion of the tree nearest to where the wolverine was killed. I use my telekinetic ability to pull the remains of the jackalope to the edge of the hollow, hop inside the tree myself, and then using the last of my Mana I force the roots to grow but rise up and cover the opening, leaving space under them that I can hop around to access the meat. With that, I practically collapse from exhaustion.
Mana is completely tapped out, Vitality is seriously low, and Esprit has enough left to lift one object for thirty seconds tops. Time for an after-lunch nap. When I wake up I have some experiments to conduct.