In front of her, there were many purple boxes detailing her new skills and stats, but Elise’s attention was entirely focused on what was behind her. She had wings! Pretty, white dragonfly-like wings that glowed!
She didn’t have room to flap them in her tiny burrow, but she could move them around enough to know that she wouldn’t have any trouble controlling them. It was a whole new set of limbs, but they felt so natural that it was like she had had them her whole life.
She inspected the rest of her body to see if anything else had changed, but other than the wings, she seemed to be the same. She stared once more at her shiny new wings before turning her attention back to the System dialogue boxes in front of her.
[You have successfully completed your second evolution! +20 to all stats!]
[Your new species is: {Lesser Fey (Rabbit)}. +5 Strength, +20 Agility, +20 Dexterity, +5 Fortitude, +65 Charisma, +30 Intelligence, +20 Willpower, +50 Mana, +50 Mana Control]
[You have unlocked the skill {Fey Wings}]
[You have unlocked the skill {Fairy Dust}]
[You have unlocked the skill {Fey Bargaining}]
Name Elise Burrow Age 0 (20) Race Lesser Fey (Rabbit) Level (III) 1 Stats Base Bonuses Total Strength 44 0 44 Agility 126 0 126 Dexterity 114 0 114 Fortitude 42 0 42 Charisma 390 0 390 Intelligence 149 0 149 Willpower 154 0 154 Mana 193 0 193 Mana Control 223 0 223 Skills Level Description Inspect 25 Identify the species and level of another creature Nature Magic Affinity - As a creature of the forest, you feel a strong connection to nature and natural mana Leap 6 Jump with additional force. Cooldown: 5 seconds Mark of Fate - ??? Dart 5 Dash quickly in any horizontal direction. Charges: 5. Cooldown: 10 seconds Sudden Growth 6 Cause all nearby plants to grow at many times their normal rate for 3 seconds Mana Sense 5 Sense nearby mana Magic Missile 5 Create missiles of mana that attack your target. Current missiles: 2 Suggest 2 Plant a subtle thought or desire in the target's mind Prehensile Vines 6 Vines grow out of the ground in front of you. You can control them as you would your own limbs. Charm 1 Increase a target's attraction to you Ensnaring Roots 1 Summon sturdy roots from the ground that wrap around the target Fey Wings - Fold or unfold your wings Fairy Dust 1 Release dust from your wings that either blesses or curses (user's choice) any living creature it comes into contact with Fey Bargaining 1 Form a contract with another creature. If either side breaks the contract, they will be cursed
Her eyes bulged when she saw the stat numbers. Her Strength and Fortitude still weren’t very high, but they had more than doubled with this evolution, and the rest of her stats saw significant upgrades as well. Especially Charisma… She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Aside from that, she had three new skills, all of which were directly related to her new species, and none of which were related to speech. She was a bit disappointed. Half the reason she had taken the class was because of the promise of speech, but it looked like she wouldn’t be getting that skill until later. Unless…
“Unless I can already talk,” she finished aloud.
Then she gasped. She was surprised, not only that she was able to talk, but also because of how her voice sounded. It was high-pitched and bubbly, and not at all like her original voice. She sounded like she had inhaled helium; more like an animated chipmunk than a human.
“Well, it’s better than before,” she said.
She giggled at how she sounded, then burst out into louder laughter because of how that sounded. It was a good start, but she needed to get a better voice. How would anyone, or anything, take her seriously with that voice? She couldn’t even take herself seriously.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The first skill she looked at, {Fey Wings}, was not what she expected, and in a very good way. The skill was not what allowed her to fly. In fact, the description almost didn’t mention flight at all. The skill was merely her ability to “fold” her wings, and by “fold” it meant “make disappear entirely.” There was no cooldown, and no duration. It was like a switch to turn her wings on and off.
She tested it out, and as advertised, her wings vanished. She could still feel where they attached to her back, but she couldn’t feel the wings themselves anymore, and when she crawled into the main chamber of the burrow, they did not get in her way. She flipped the switch a few times to get used to the feeling, then moved onto her next skill with her wings enabled to give her a bit of light.
{Fairy Dust} wasn’t something she could test out at the moment. It said she could sprinkle it on her target to either bless or curse it. It didn’t explain any further than that, but it did say it needed to be alive. The ground and the mushrooms in front of her were not valid targets.
The last skill, {Fey Bargaining} was similarly untestable, and she doubted she would get a chance any time soon. It required a target with whom she could converse verbally, and now that the Gray family was gone, such creatures were few and far between. She also wasn’t entirely sure what she would use it for once she could use it. It wasn’t a worthless skill or anything, but it didn’t seem all that helpful to her either. It simply stated that if she made a deal with anyone while under the influence of the skill, both sides would have to follow through with their end or suffer a curse. Like with {Fairy Dust}, it didn’t explain any further what it meant by “curse”.
With her new abilities properly examined, she filled her stomach with one of the mushrooms she had prepared, turned her wings off, and dug back out into the main wyrm tunnel. There was no sign that anything else had been there while she had been out, which was good. It didn’t mean that nothing had wandered up from below while she was gone, but it did mean that she wasn’t in immediate danger. And no immediate danger meant she could test her wings.
It crossed her mind that attempting to fly for the first time in a five foot high tunnel wasn’t a good idea, but she was so excited that she pushed the thought aside. It would be fine. She was just going to do a couple short jumps. Just to make sure she could. She wouldn’t do anything reckless.
A minute later, she was zooming down the tunnel at full speed.
Her ability to fly didn’t make sense. Her wings were too small and weren’t flapping fast at all, but she was able to float above the ground with ease, and had almost omnidirectional maneuverability. She wasn’t actually going that fast, but it was fast enough to feel the wind on her face and it was just a bit faster than she could run. She could even use {Dart} while flying to get an extra boost.
And the best part was that it didn’t cost her any mana. She didn’t understand how that worked, since the way she flew was definitely magical in some way, but she wasn’t complaining. She could fly indefinitely, or at least until her wings got tired, and they showed no signs of doing that any time soon.
She took the long way around the loop tunnel until she returned back to the main cave, and came to a hard stop midair. There was a snake coiled up on the ground in the middle of the floor. It was nowhere near the size the wyrm must have been, but it was a significant step up from the snake that had chased her on her first day as a rabbit, and definitely an evolution or two ahead. Its scales were red with darker red diamond patterns along its back, and the tip of its tail was black.
It was asleep, and since she was flying, she was hardly making any noise, so there wasn’t much danger of it waking. Normally, Elise might have been scared, but with her new evolution, she was feeling invincible, and she was more excited to test out her new abilities than she was worried about it getting her. She could not have asked for a more perfect target to test {Fairy Dust} on.
[Red Diamondback Viper, lvl 7]
The fact that she could see its level when she used {Inspect} told her all she needed to know. On top of that, its species name didn’t scream danger like the cows’ species name had. It might very well have been just a mundane viper with slightly higher stats.
She flew over until she was hovering right above it before enacting her plan. She cast {Ensnaring Roots} to wrap around its body, and at the same time, she used {Fairy Dust} while thinking hard about cursing the snake. Shimmering sand fell from her wings and landed on the snake as it writhed against its restraints. It was stronger than she expected, but her mana pool was big enough that she could just put a bit more mana into the spell to make sure it held while the dust floated down towards its target.
[Red Diamondback Viper has been afflicted with {Cursed Fairy Dust}! The target’s stats will be halved for the next thirty seconds]
With only half its stats, the Viper didn’t last much longer. It no longer had any chance of breaking free of Elise’s {Ensnaring Roots}, and its defenses were practically non-existent. A single {Magic Missile} to its head finished it off.
[You have defeated Red Diamondback Viper, lvl 7]
[{Fairy Dust} lvl 1 -> 2]
Though it had been weak, Elise was still a bit disappointed that she did not earn any levels for defeating it. She still wasn’t entirely sure how experience points were calculated. As far as she knew, Sophie never slew any monsters, but she was still high enough level that Elise could not {Inspect} her properly. And she had earned experience points for just damaging the warg. That meant it wasn’t just like a video game, where only killing enemies would earn experience.
But at the same time, she had never earned anything but skill levels outside of combat. So what exactly gave experience points?
“Hey System,” she said aloud. “How are experience points calculated?”
“At $%^&, we use a patented, AI-powered algorithm to calculate experience points based on numerous factors. We will not share exactly how it works, but the developers have put out a short guide on how to earn experience points. Would you like to hear it?”
“Yes, please.”
“Here is the guide:” the System’s voice changed from its usual excited one to a more authoritative, professor-like one. “There are two ways for a user to earn experience points. The first and simplest is by killing other creatures. Experience points are determined by the relative levels and stats. If you kill something weaker than yourself, your experience points will be penalized, and if you kill something stronger than yourself, you will earn bonus experience. We also take into account skill matchups, terrain, nearby creatures, and numerous other trade secret factors to make adjustments to the final total.
“The second way to earn experience is to do things that align with your class. For example, if a {Farmer} is planting and harvesting crops, he will earn experience points, but if he attempts to take up smithing, he will not. Similarly, if a {Blacksmith} is making tools, he will earn experience points, but if he tries to farm, he will not earn experience points.”
The System switched back to its excited voice. “Please note that the second method only applies to humanoids, as non-humanoids do not have classes.”
“So I can only earn experience through fighting things?”
“That is correct! If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know. I’d be happy to be of assistance.”
As disappointed as she was about the answer, Elise was still in a good mood, because for once, the System actually had answered her question without misunderstanding her intent or telling her she wasn’t allowed to know the answer. She had earned less experience because the snake had been weaker than her, and she had ambushed it while it was sleeping. It really didn’t stand a chance. If she could appeal the decision, she would, because she had never done anything like that before, and thought the actual experience of carrying out that ambush was still pretty significant, but she could at least understand its reasoning.
With that mystery solved, she moved on to thinking about her future plans. Being able to fly opened up a lot of routes that hadn’t even been options before. The huge lake was no longer an impassable wall. She could afford to go deeper into the cow cavern, since she could fly away from danger. And most importantly of all, as long as the Warg wasn’t waiting for her, she could leave the tunnels and survive aboveground.
She decided to put that last idea on hold though. While it might be possible, she had already witnessed the Warg’s power, and its ability to hit moving targets from a distance. They had been moving in a straight line toward it, and hadn’t been that far, but she didn’t want to test her luck. She would rather not take a stray icicle to the behind while flying away, thinking she was safe. It would be better to stay underground, where she had a near unlimited supply of food, water, and experience points, as long as she was smart about it.
She could level up and build up her power while coming up with a more concrete plan on how to deal with the Warg. It was strong enough that it probably wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. And it was also strong enough that it probably wouldn’t get much stronger relative to how quickly she would advance. It was probably earning a pittance for every kill, since there wouldn’t be much in the forest that could actually pose a threat to it.
After a bit more contemplation, she decided that checking the final unexplored tunnel would be her best option. If it led to another place like the cow cavern, she would like to know sooner than later. There was also always a chance it was a path to some kind of hidden treasure. Wyrms were related to dragons kind of. Maybe they kept a hoard of loot too.
Elise never found out if Wyrms kept a hoard of loot or not. The last tunnel just kept going down, seemingly with no end. It went past the dirt, through a few hundred feet of rock, only stopping its descent when it reached another chunk of hard rock, at which point it just went horizontally. It must have been a dozen miles or more before it reached its destination.
The wyrm tunnel ended at the side of an enormous natural cave full of stalagmites and stalactites and sulfuric pools of water and also a wide assortment of disgusting cave creatures. She hadn’t gone more than ten feet in before she spotted a swarm of flying insects with bulbous purple abdomens and stingers as long as the rest of their body. They flew over to her, and Elise noped out. She didn’t like bugs, least of all ugly, purple, stinging ones.
She could hear other things moving around in the cave too, and was sure they would be just as bad, if not worse than the bugs, so she decided it wasn’t worth exploring just yet. She didn’t have any skills that would help her against swarms of insects, and her direct combat abilities were still poor. It wasn’t worth the risk. They were all far enough away that she shouldn’t have to worry about them.
When she got back, she took a long drink from the stream, then decided to head back down toward the giant lake. She wanted experience points of course, but like with the previously unexplored tunnel, she would rather know what was in each of the tunnels for the sake of her peace of mind before going hunting. Now that she could fly, she could actually explore the lake a bit.
With the glow of her wings, she could see a bit further out over the water, but even when she flew up, she still couldn’t see the other side. She started flying out over the middle, but then thought better, and decided to hug the outer rim instead. The biggest, most dangerous things would be living out in the deepest parts. It would be better to stick to the shallower areas until she had a better idea of what the situation was.
By the light of her wings, she could see a few feet down into the water, and discovered that there were indeed things living there. There were a few different types of fish with big blind eyes swimming around below her, none of which seemed to notice her existence. There were also some larger, just-as-blind, predatory fish. Well, she assumed there were more than one. She had only actually seen one as it swallowed a smaller fish below her, but it couldn’t be the only one.
The wall of the cave curved inward for a while, but then took a turn outward, exposing a whole other cavern also filled with water. Aside from the small shore that she had started on, Elise had not seen any other dry places to set down on. It was fine, since her wings didn’t feel tired at all, but she was beginning to wonder if there was any more dry land at all.
The side cavern was much smaller than the main one, and Elise could see all the way to the other side. She could also see the continuation of the wall ahead of her, which left her with a choice to make. She could either hug the wall and continue around the side chamber, even though she could already see the whole thing, or she could cross the deeper water and keep checking the main chamber, of which she still could not see the other side.
She was impatient, so she chose the second option, a decision she came to regret when a dark shape passed under her and the water started rippling.