Genesis read through this new information and took note of it. Its questions were answered, and it couldn’t think of anything else from its battle it wanted to reflect on. At this moment, what it wanted to know was why its bird bodies couldn’t fly. Thinking about it, there was a distinct difference between their new bodies and the enemies they originally belonged to.

Feathers. Of course, Genesis doesn’t know the word for what their new bodies are missing, but they felt as though it wasn’t the blood and flesh that allowed them to fly.

They look down at one of the birds, and attempt to control it to fly. It flaps its wings with all its might, but it’s about as effective as shaking bones would be. Just to rule out that it may be an issue with this particular bird, they control the other two to do the same thing. Genesis also tries to flap its own arms, just for the hell of it.

Regardless of how hard the four skeletons standing in the middle of a forest shake their wings and arms, no flight is achieved. Ultimately, Genesis concludes it must be the missing feathers. Genesis doesn’t dwell on it any further, but tucks this information away into their memory.

Unfortunately, without flight, his new bodies are not as nimble as the field mouse they had originally converted. With no solution to this problem, Genesis once again begins walking, having no particular destination in mind. The birds can’t keep up with Genesis, despite its slow movement speed, so they control them to spread out in different directions.

Genesis wants to see more of their surroundings, and they’ve learned from their previous mistake with the mouse that their bodies can discover new things without its original body needing to be nearby. Not only that, but as its Intelligence grows, the area he can see with Magic Sense similarly expands. At this point, it’s gone from approximately three meters, to ten.

An hour or so passes, with neither Genesis nor their separate bodies discovering anything more than trees, various grassy plants, and insects. While no discoveries were made, Genesis did manage to raise its Intelligence and Wisdom by several points by investigating several plants that caught their interest.

Speaking of insects, originally, Genesis believed that they’d discovered a new animal to convert. One of the birds had happened upon a nest of ants, and upon observing their movements, simply hopped on one. The bird had successfully crushed multiple ants, but it bothered Genesis that they received no notifications for it. Not only that, but upon trying to cast Proliferation on them, it had failed with,

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

[Invalid target.]

It took several minutes of killing ants and attempting to cast Proliferation before Genesis decided on a probable cause. Just as their birds couldn’t fly without feathers, these insects lacked bones. And, through the very complicated process of putting two and two together; that being that one, both he and his bodies had lost all mass besides bone when it cast Proliferation on them, and two, that the ants didn’t appear to have bones, Proliferation must require bones to cast.

Upon coming to this conclusion, Genesis received a new notification.

[“Target cannot be invertebrate,” has been added to the description of ‘Proliferate’.]

[You’ve come to several conclusions about your limitations! Wisdom + 5, Intelligence + 4, Creativity + 2]

Genesis was intrigued by the fact they were capable of changing their abilities, even if only the clarification text. It meant they wouldn’t have to put every discovery to memory, and could simply check their status. But, while they were intrigued by this, they didn’t assign any particular importance to it.

Moving on from the insects, the strange looking ferns and plants provided no information about themselves. At times, Genesis would pick up something that caught their eye and attempt to learn more about it. However, Genesis lacked several things that could help them ascertain anything more than surface qualities. That being taste, smell, or a body to test the plant’s effects with.

Finally, Genesis comes upon something that surprises them. Upon crossing a rather dense spot of bushes and tall grass, they enter a grove that lacked the tall trees they had become accustomed to. Instead, it was occupied by a moderately sized body of water surrounded by roughly two meters of grassland.

This area was surrounded by trees and dense foliage, which would almost certainly make this spot impossible to notice until you walked directly into it. While Genesis took this in, all of their bodies stopped in place. Genesis didn’t feel as though this was very safe, so they controlled the three birds to duck into some plants near where they stood. All three bodies were miles away from Genesis and each other, but Genesis could see through their eyes as though he had swapped places with them.

Once they were relatively tucked away, Genesis scanned the coast of the lake. As they did so, they saw what would inevitably become their next enemy.

A small deer with a large gash in their side, alone, drinking from the body of water. The moment Genesis laid their sense on it, it saw them, and despite its grievous injury, rage immediately entered its eyes.