When he awoke, everything was the same. He was still trapped within an enclosed box, but this time, he was on the ground rather than the tree. The god-creature still stood on the air, only its outline visible.
His assessment was at the forefront of his mind, as well, and he was distinctly disappointed to learn that his intelligence still read 'Abnormal'. He was distinctly unhappy, however, when he learned that everything else had decreased. Everything aside from his senses was rated as 'Subpar', and the reason was obvious.
The other crows had gone through the same thing, and his level of intelligence before would be what their intelligence was now. With his other attributes, it must've been because they chose to increase their strength, agility and et cetera that he had gone down to subpar.
Had he made a mistake? He wasn't quite sure. Even now, he knew that his thoughts had become more complex and quicker. He was able to understand the new sounds much faster, too. It was useful, but would it have been better to improve his senses or strength?
There was no point thinking about it. The decision had been made, and it wouldn't be changed. He sent his assessment away and gazed at the god-creature, trying to figure out a way to communicate, but also wondering if it would take offense. He was so far beneath it that he imagined it would be like a worm asking him questions; he would've just eaten it and moved on.
After a few minutes, he grew impatient and pulled the trigger, cawing at the god-creature. He put quite a bit of effort into making sure it was as nice and non-threatening as possible, and almost fell over from relief when the god-creature simply responded with a series of sounds and didn't kill him.
He had sounds to decipher, though. He shuffled his wings in excitement and got started. After a few minutes, he was finished, and had been given instructions on how to ascend even farther.
Animals had little marbles in their bodies. When he concentrated, he could feel it in his chest, too. He had to absorb them to get stronger. It was simple, but difficult. Based on his assessment, he was very weak.
A thought was pushed to the forefront of his mind once more, and it was a simple one. Did he want to leave? He answered without hesitation, and instantly found himself standing on the ground, right at the base of the tree. The city was unnaturally loud, and that was saying something. He didn't bother to decipher these sounds, as they were rather simple, violent and unimportant to him. He was quite surprised to see that the human's metal-and-stone trees had all fallen apart, though.
He flapped his wings and tried to take off, and quickly found out why the human's nests had fallen apart. He only managed to fly a foot off the ground before he plummeted back to the ground.
He felt heavier, and had inkling as to why. The knowledge that had been forced into his mind about Earth had been quite extensive, and it seemed that gravity had grown stronger. It wasn't much, but any amount was a lot when it came to flying.
He got ready to take off once more, this time more prepared for the increased weight, and managed to fly high enough to land on the branch where his nest had been.
He cawed in distress when he found that his nest was destroyed, but got over it quickly. He looked around for something to eat. He wanted to regain his ability to fly for long distances soon.
His eyes quickly landed on a great opportunity. The spider had fallen from its web due to the increased gravity, and the tiny fly that was wrapped up in a cocoon was ripe for the taking. It was quite a bit larger than it had been before. He was momentarily surprised to find that he could remember the fly perfectly, likely due to how smart he was now, but quickly recovered from his elation and hopped a few branches over to the web. The spider was nowhere to be found, and he reached out and snapped the huge fly up.
Almost immediately, he returned back to the branch where his home had been. He wasn't as hungry, and he had definitely felt the miniscule core of the fly go down his throat, but nothing had happened. Was the fly too weak? Had he done something wrong?
He re-deciphered the god-creature's crash course and realized his mistake. When he concentrated on the sound for 'absorb', he realized that he would need to let it digest in his stomach for a while before it would take effect.
He doubted that the tiny fly's core would matter much, though. His core was as large as the fly itself had been, so the tiny core probably wouldn't make any difference.
He looked around for something else to eat. The ground of the park's forest was swarming with bugs, which had all left him alone while he was down there, thankfully, but almost all of them were bigger and scarier than they had been before. He would need to eat them regardless, of course, but he got caught up watching them.
There were hundreds of the things, tearing one another apart and quickly gulping down cores. It was interesting to watch so many of them fight each other at once, but he quickly refocused and glided down as best he could with the increased gravity.
He snapped up the smallest bugs with ease, and hopped away from the larger ones like beetles and… well, beetles. They were about the only bug that weren't worth it in these low numbers. He had to avoid the areas where ant nests were slaughtering the nearby bugs, but otherwise was having a great time.
It was great being a clever bird. He could fly for short distances and easily avoided anything dangerous to him, and after an hour, he had snapped up so many bugs that he felt like he was about to explode.
'This subpar,' He thought. He hadn't thought of where he'd go now that he was full. He needed a safe place to digest his gains, but there was no such place anymore.
Almost immediately after he realized that there was nowhere safe anymore- even more than before, he realized that he had just thought… in the sounds that the god-creature had spoken.
He ruffled his feathers in annoyance. He had always been absent-minded, but it was worse than ever. He needed a place to rest; he shouldn't be wondering why he was thinking in the god-creature's language.
He flew up into a branch and stayed observant as he rested. His wings and legs were pretty tired after all the hopping and flying he had had to do under increased gravity, and it was a struggle to remain alert with so many things to think about.
He wondered what to change his name to. His dictionary of sounds had increased massively, and 'animal' was simply too vague for him. He listed them all off in his head, 'Subpar, Earth, absorb, ascension, core, strength, agility, intelligence, abnorm-'
His thoughts were cut off by a blinding pain in his chest. He had been looking around, but not truly paying attention, and, within a heartbeat, recalled what had happened.
A bird, a bit bigger than himself, had been flying despite the increased gravity and had dove down, punching him with a curled-up set of talons. How had it even been flying so proficiently? How was he still alive? That thing had been moving so fast that it should've crushed every hollow bone in his body.
As he tumbled toward the ground, his thinking accelerated even further. He had survived because his incompetent assailant had barely skimmed his body, and while it hurt like hell and had torn off a chunk of feathers and even cut him despite it being blunt force, he wasn't going to die immediately.
He finished this thought just as he struck the ground, and quickly got up, looking around for the falcon. It was already in the air again and looking at him menacingly.
He spread his wings, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulders as he flapped his wings and took off towards the city, where the rest of his flock was supposed to be. The falcon pursued him for a while, moving significantly faster than him for a variety of reasons. Falcons were already faster than crows, and he was already injured. Worse, the falcon had probably enhanced his ability to fly, or else it wouldn't have been able to move nearly as fast as it was under the slightly-increased gravity.
Soon, it dove for him once more, and his thinking sped up again. He was on the ground, in the middle of trying to get back into the air again, and he could tell that the falcon was aiming for where he'd be in a moment rather than where he was currently. There didn't seem to be a way to avoid the falcon completely, and so he didn't.
He twisted, and the falcon struck his wing. Bones snapped, and a feeling of pain on a scale he had never felt before struck him, but he didn't stop. He pecked at the falcon's eyes and grabbed its legs in his talons, and forced it to the ground. The falcon was surprisingly light, which might have explained why it was able to fly so well, and he managed it easily.
With the falcon beneath him, he pushed, putting every bit of strength and weight into it, and felt a few bones of the falcon's bones snap. He kept pecking at the falcon's eyes, but it managed to preserve its other eye. It didn't matter, because soon, he felt the falcon go limp.
He looked around for any other predators for a brief moment before tearing the falcon's core from its chest. Rather than swallow it whole, he acted off instinct and crushed it in his beak. Immediately, he felt a surge of strength enter his body, and his assessment pushed itself to the forefront. He was pleased to learn that most of them read 'average' rather than 'subpar', and was a bit disheartened that it did nothing for his intelligence.
That disappointment disappeared immediately when a thought was pushed to the forefront of his mind. A simple question that he had already seen once before; what aspect of himself did he want to ascend?