After that event Corvus treated sentry duty in a dead serious manner. He had even forgone switching, relying on Bent Wing's kindness to receive some food at the end of each gathering session. During the fourth or fifth session the next day Corvus strained his eyes trying to see everything. As he did his vision became filled with flood of falling and floating grey. It was like a shower of rain on foggy morning. Corvus only saw this for an instant, the sight of it breaking his concentration. He felt himself go somewhat slack.

While Corvus was curious about what he had seen, he was very grateful that his vision was unobstructed. He guessed that a high state of focus was necessary for whatever happened so having lost some of his tension was in ways a relief.

That night, on the cliff Corvus tried to replicate what he did earlier. Straining his vision, he looked up into the sky. He watched as the sky burst forth with grey. Unlike before he could now see that there was a misty pillar rising from the green zone reaching up into the air before splitting and arcing towards the north-east and south-west in a smaller vein. Streaks of grey shot out from these three veins, some falling to the ground, some passing across the horizon. When they hit the ground some got absorbed but the majority bounced back and began floating in the air. They danced through the air coalescing or repelling each other seemingly at random. Despite the dingy neutral color, Corvus took a sharp breath as he observed this.

'This is Mana.' there was nothing else it could be. 'Goals' he thought letting his concentration drop..

Inheritance Test Stage Two GoalPrimary ConditionEvolveSub ConditionsTaskCompletionDetect Mana066%Absorb Mana010%Concentrate Mana000%?????????000%???000%?????000%Total Completion012%Participant NameCorvusGoal StatusFailure

Noting from the color without reading that he had made progress Corvus flicked his beak up intending to dismiss the window. Before it vanished he half imagined half acted stabbing his beak to stop it. The window remained floating there at a fraction of the size it normally had. Making this discovery Corvus played around with it and the other windows a bit. He saw that his skills had increased. Flight was now at Adept, Pecking and Void Resistance remained at Amateur but Pecking was above ninety percent while Void resistance was at twenty, double it's previous value.

When he was done playing around with the windows Corvus swiped them all away save for goals which he shifted to the bottom left of his field of view. Making a brief check that everyone around him was asleep Corvus looked up, opening his beak in an attempt to swallow one of the falling streaks of mana. He wasn't that surprised that it failed, just feeling a little silly for having tried. Knowing it wasn't that much better he also approached one that seemed to be breaking down and dispersing into the air like mist and took a deep breath. It seemed that a few of the droplets were drawn towards him but as soon as he exhaled they drifted further away. Grasping at this straw Corvus tried alternating deep breaths with short exhales. Right when the mana particles were directly in front of him, Crovus' eyes went dark and he passed out.

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"Follow." a cry woke him.

Lifting himself up, Corvus saw that the sun had risen and it seemed the other birds were waiting on him to go gathering. Not wanting his vision obscured, he closed the goals window after discovering he made no more progress the previous night.

He kept his one bird vigil, refusing to yield the duty to anyone else. Corvus couldn't help but be thankful as he was once again provided meals by Bent Wing. The group of crows made numerous gathering session that day, without incident. So when night fell again and the others slept Corvus began to experiment with mana again. He made several attempts to inhale the mana being careful to avoid the same mistakes. Every attempt failed.

'Gaaaaah,' he screamed, looking at one of the falling mana streaks, 'Just get over here.'

Much to his surprise the mana heeded his direction melding with him. The Absorb Mana goal went up, but Corvus was wracked with unfathomable pain as the mana streak he had absorbed slowly drew back out, dropping it down again. Panting, or as close as he could come, Corvus decided to stop for the night and shuffled into a comfortable position before nodding off.

Several days passed in this manner with Corvus acting as a sentry during the numerous daily gathering session and experimenting with mana at night. His days ended up being more productive than his nights. He made no progress on the mana front, but he had managed to warn the others whenever he spotted the cat keeping them safe. It was five or six days later when he woke he was too weak to move properly. Even though Bent Wing had been sharing her food with him it apparently wasn't enough. Drawing his eyes into a squint he wondered, 'How is she fine? She's been sharing it about fifty-fifty.'

Struggling to right himself, Corvus was greeted by a small cacophony of caws that held the rarely used "Wait!" Both Bent Wing and Speckles were reproaching him so he stopped. But as the two turned to leave he prepared himself again, only to receive the same admonishment. It was only when Heartless added her own voice to the three that Corvus stepped back letting them leave him behind.

They forced him to remain behind each time they went out giving him about a third of their yield each time. Corvus had to admit he wasn't in the greatest shape so he stayed but it was boring. Eventually he turned on his mana vision and just watched how it moved for the first time, He couldn't see it clearly at night. He watched as the mana streams fell at the edge of a shadow. Just gazing at it for a while he realized that some of the streams reflected going off in random directions, but some sunk into the ground, while others turned into the shade or bent into the sun and began dispersing.

As though struck by lightning Corvus exclaimed, 'There are different types of mana!'

As if in response to his breakthrough, the mana streams and particles dyed themselves different colors. Not all of them, but the three that led to his discovery. One was a dark purple, another pure white, with the last taking on an orange-brown color. Watching how these types of mana interacted with the world Corvus decided what each was. The purple was Darkness or Shadow, the white was Light, with the last being earth.

After that day Corvus recovered enough to resume going gathering. He easily determined three other types of mana as well. Water was obvious, he determined that the same way was the earth mana, causing it to go a dark blue shade. Then there was the mana that only got absorbed into grass, Corvus thought of this as Nature mana despite Plant mana making more sense. This type of mana turned green. Encountering the third type was a fluke, in the dead of winter during a gathering session Corvus noticed he could see currents of mana floating around on the ground and through the air. He speculated that this was frost mana and was right as it turned a light blue, but decided on calling it ice mana.

By this point more of the mana streams were colored than weren't but the remaining grey mana seemed to just float in the air with no clear indication between them. Given the other types of mana Corvus assumed that what was left was wind mana, but there was no reaction. He could only assume this meant that more than one type of mana was left unidentified. As he guessed there would be a heat or fire mana this made sense, however as it was winter and he was unable to distinguish wind and fire by sight.

Corvus discovered the fire mana by accident when he felt a strong up draft while flying. Thinking it was wind mana he checked to see some mana rising instead of falling. It was still grey though so he was certain it wasn't wind. Fire was his next attempt and sure enough the rising mana took on a red color. It was a strong breeze that allowed Corvus to determine the green colored wind mana.

At this point Corvus thought he had finished and called up his goals windows only to discover he wasn't. Try as he might he could only see the grey mana around the veins but almost as soon as it left the mana would adopt another color. 'Neutral.' ended up being his judgement on the grey mana. His completion however remained just short of one hundred. As the days passed Corvus tried to absorb the various types of mana. In the end he found that he could only absorb Dark, Wind, and Neutral without the mana being rejected. Corvus only absorbed a small amount, because he was uncertain what effects it would have.

Winter faded to spring, and the crows held gathering sessions even more frequently than before in preparation for the trek back. It was during one of these sessions that Corvus discovered the final type of mana. The sky had been darkened by the appearance of large billowing black clouds. As it was close to the migration the bird chose to remain despite the torrential downpour.

As Corvus was gathering food he looked up, watching as lightning arced across the sky. On a whim he focused his eyes checking the mana, and saw dense streams of mana flowing along the bolts that tuned yellow almost as soon as he saw them. 'Hahahahaa' Corvus was in a fit of joy over having completed one more of his goals and began flapping about in the air. His situation hadn't exactly changed, but for the first time in a year and a half Corvus felt like he had some control over his own life.

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Lightning flashed again, brightening the surroundings and breaking Corvus' jubilation. "Cat!" he screamed announcing his discovery. The gathered crows launched themselves into the sky and safety, ending this gathering session. Still rejoicing Corvus flew above the other birds, even attempting a barrel roll. It was a miserable failure, as sheer terror made him panic when he was upside down. Struggling to right himself, Corvus plummeted downwards.

"Kra-boom!!"

Time seemed to stop for a second as a bolt of blue shot down towards him. All concern that he was falling driven from his mind by the new threat, Corvus grasped the only chance he figured he had. He reached out with his mind willing the mana in the lightning towards him, trying to absorb it. Mana stream after mana stream entered his body merging with what mana was already there. After what seemed like forever to Corvus the flood of lightning mana came to an end. He felt as though sparks were dancing along and off of his entire body but managed to fold one of his wings in momentarily, finishing the barrel roll. Having put forth a frantic effort to slow himself, Corvus managed to escape serious injury when he touched down.

His body still crackling with energy, Corvus attempted to will the lightning mana out of his system. A tiny bolt shot out smashing into the ground, but as it exited his body it burnt him. Understanding that forcing the mana out would be suicide he tried to restrain it. 'Another failure ...'

His attempted had only caused some of his feather to begin to sizzle as if burning. Desperately grasping at straws Corvus tried forcing the mana to move around his body like a stream. While this had the desired effect, Corvus had absorbed too much mana. He imagined the mana circulating through every limb but there was so much that the tail end of the stream only started moving when the front end reached it. Whenever he slacked for a moment the two end would collide sending a shock through his entire body.

Corvus felt five sharp stings as something hit his chest slamming him to the ground. It was the cat. It lowered it's slavering maw, encompassing Corvus' head.

'Noooooo!' he screamed inside, 'not like this.' as he felt his body riddled with shocks.

Frustrated and unyielding Corvus willed all the lightning mana in his body to concentrate in and on his beak. Still feeling the pain of it he lashed out pecking towards the cat's descending mouth. A stream of lightning shot forth crashing explosively into the tiger creature's upper jaw obliterating it.

Laying there half pinned being doused in the now dead feline's blood, Corvus looked at the stormy sky as though it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

*Ding* *Ding*

Using the new trick he discovered Corvus position the two windows that appeared side by side so he could examine them at the same time.

CongratulationsYour Species Rank and Species have changed. You species is now Piercer Crow while your Species Rank has upgraded to Monster. As a monster the number of traits and skills you may have has increased.

NotificationAs a result of your evolution you have developed the natural skill Lightning Peck. Due to the synchronous nature of the two skills, Pecking has been absorbed into Lightning Peck.

Laughing maniacally in his head Corvus dismissed the two windows bringing up his skill window. He had been trying to avoid it, but this was just too much. He had to read about the new skill.

Skills

Void ResistanceThe Void is a place outside of the physical Realms. The nature of the Void is governed by a Void Lord. However, there is one trait that all Voids share, that is the cleansing of one's most recent identity. Your memories and emotions are slowly wiped away as spend time in the void. Through sheer force of will you have managed to create a bubble of protection that allows you to carry through the reincarnation process the equivalent of a few days worth of memories.Skill RankAmateurRank Progress20%

FlightThis skills is for those who wish to take to the skies. While it won't help just any Dive bombing dunce become an aerial ace, for any species that commonly flies. It is the quickest way to become an Adept Avian, even more so if it wasn't your original form. Requires a winged form.

*You have retained this skill from a previous life, however due to your current form's inability to support it, the skill has been suppressed. It has also been reduced from Skill Rank Novice due to time spent in the Void.Skill RankAdeptRank Progress35%

Skill PromptSkill NameLightning PeckSkill DescriptionDue to absorbing an enormous amount of lightning mana your body has acquired a strong internal lightning attribute that will convert any other type of mana absorbed into lightning mana. You will naturally and passively absorb and convert mana from now on. Because you have successfully released this amount of mana through your beak it has adapted to the voltage allowing you safely discharge any lightning mana. Additionally as the skill has fused with Pecking, optimal targeting locations will still be highlighted.Skill RankAmateurRank Progress10%

'Goals.' It was the only thing left to check.

Inheritance Test Stage Two GoalPrimary ConditionEvolveSub ConditionsTaskCompletionDetect Mana100%Absorb Mana100%Concentrate Mana100%Procreate000%???000%?????000%Total Completion050%Participant NameCorvusGoal StatusFailure

Upon seeing this Corvus felt drained. Even though he had cleared three conditions during his stary here he only unlocked one. One condition that, while it required his participation, wasn't something he could speed along. In a matter of minutes he had gone from feeling like he had the ability to affect his life, to feeling hopelessly caught up in someone else's designs for it.

"Move!"

"Move!"

Two calls came. Standing nearby and encouraging him, were Bent Wing and Speckles. Corvus smiled to himself, actually feeling encouraged. It was a bit of a struggle to dislodge himself from under the cat's fallen corpse but he managed to do it.

The next day the group of the twelve remaining crows made their journey home.

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Author's Note

Number three is now up.

I feel like the discovery of the mana types felt forced so I may come back to this one day. For now it stays.

Hope you enjoyed the read and as always please feel free to comment, correct me, and rate.

Next one in a couple hours.