Going into the crystal cave I found it to open up considerably. The ceiling was only half a meter higher than the entrance but the ground sloped downwards near vertically. Crystals grew all over the walls and right in front of me, a path of steps and ledges was cleared of the black stones, presumably the way the baboons took to get in and out. The walls formed an upside-down cone with a flat base on the bottom. Down there grew the biggest crystals and in between sat the last dozen monkeys, some absorbing mana, others resting.

The very middle of the cave was taken up by a crack in the ground. It looked almost like a giant claw had ripped out a piece of the ground, only that it went too deep to make out an end. Out of there a large singular crystal grew supported only by smaller ones on the walls of the crack. The weird black light created a pattern of shadows similar to the nearby forest only that it was moving. A flow of energy was visibly flowing into the centre crystal creating a weaving of light as one might expect from a candle.

This spectacular view held my attention for a long moment. This was the kind of place I wanted to find when exploring. Absolutely breathtaking natural magic playing around in a hidden place.

Only the monkeys were in the way. Fur and droppings marred the ground and the occasional movement distracted from the natural beauty. I wanted to clean it up anyway, so I got to work. My shadows flowed out of me and spread around. As I silently dropped to the ground not one of the baboons reacted to my presence. The darkness might have alerted them if they paid any attention but they were too focused on each other and the crystals.

Slowly I glided around and spread more and more shadows. At some point, a few of the resting monkeys showed signs of worry but by then it was too late. Darkness smothering both sound and light had spread all around them. Not a single one saw my talons coming.

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 24. 3 Attribute Points awarded.

Nice! Although three levels for a dozen monkeys seemed low, I was not too worried. This just meant I was getting too strong to gain much from random monsters. I would have to look for stronger targets soon. The points went straight into Intelligence of course.

This still left me with the mess of bodies, fur and shit in the cave. Instead of worrying about it, I got my minions to help me out again. The scouts came with their whole team this time. I eyed Meeny sceptically but she avoided me and kept to her work. I had to point them to clean up the fur and droppings as well but in the end, nobody voiced complaints. Only Luk even opened his mouth at all.

“This is your place, you took out their leader. We will help you set things up, that much we owe you.”

I nodded in answer. It would not be my place for long but for now, even the system judged me to be its rightful owner.

~ding~ Congratulations! For securing a tenebrae aer node as your territory, bonus experience was granted.

~ding~ You have reached level 10. Attribute points allocated.

That was all? Fine. At this point, I barely even cared about the missing milestone. It would have been nice to get more but the way race and Class levels differed had lowered my expectations accordingly. It was however nice to see that I had gained two more points in Strength. That would make my strikes even deadlier.

More interesting was the ‘tenebrae aer node’. It had to be the large crystal in the middle of the cave. Or maybe the energy flowing into it. At the very least, I had a magic home now. I would spend some time trying to get my mana enriched up from minor. If the crystals outside had not given me enough energy, maybe this one would push me over the edge. But I wanted to explore as soon as there was nothing more to gain here. A territory was useful, I just wanted more from life than sitting in one place and contemplating. I was convinced the meaning of life was not ‘ponder on the meaning of life’. And family? I was not even mature. There was no need for a home right now. I only needed food and sometimes shelter from the weather.

But this node business made me almost want to stay a little longer. At least if it could give me more power and did not reach a limit as quickly as the small crystals had. So I closed in on the gigantic crystal capping of the rift. I scanned it carefully from all sides but besides the swirling energy coming up from below I could not make out any difference from the small ones. It had the same pitch-black colour with the same weird light coming out of it. The energy swirl itself was of a lighter shade. It almost looked like stripes of vanilla pudding floating in raw oil. If my Latin did not fail me the dark flow was tenebrae, or darkness, with the pale yellow being aer, or air.

Did this mean I had taken in two kinds of mana? Maybe the crystals outside had only dark mana in them and this would get me even more power? Instead of sitting on my questions I went ahead and touched the crystal. And woke up an unknown time later lying right next to it with a splitting headache.

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Ouch. Okay, there was way too much power in this thing. I was lucky my foot left its surface when I got knocked out or I might have gotten seriously hurt. My status had not changed, so at least the headache was considered at best a small injury. Now I really wanted to stay and figure this out. But if I got knocked down every time I touched the crystal there was no way to get anything from it. So I sat there and brooded. Nothing came to mind, but I sat there. Trying to think of a way to make this power mine I entered a staring contest with a crystal at least four times as tall as I was.

After a while, my stomach called me away from my brooding and to hunt. So I went to get some food before I returned. This time I sat down on the other side of the node. As if that would make a difference. I wanted it to do something. I wanted to do something about it. But there was nothing. This was absolutely fruitless. Instead, I started playing with my upgraded Skill. Shadows flowed around my feathers almost subconsciously turning my plumage pitch black. I pulled out more energy from my inner gate and created small tendrils hanging off of my wings. Slowly moving the darkness across my feathers I pulled it together to make one large tendril at each of my wingtips. Then I flattened those out and doubled my wingspan with the help of gaseous shadows.

I admired my creation and slowly moved around. The extensions would probably not help carry me on the wind but I did feel the airflow on my shadows so maybe once the Skill got higher level? Then I felt a jolt go through my left wing. Or rather, the shadows around it. I looked to the side and instead of an elongated appendage, I found the shadows on the end of my wing had formed tentacle-like roots attached to the crystal. The node crystal in the middle of the room. And there was a flow of energy going straight into my Skill. I even felt the darkness getting thicker on the rest of my body.

Very interested in these proceedings, I focused my attention. My inner gate was reacting without additional prompting and instead of powering my shadows, it seemed to slowly feed off them. My Skill transferred the darkness straight into my heart. Okay, it was not quite as edgy as that sounded, but it happened nonetheless. Some of the milky yellow strands had found their way into it as well by now and I felt them clog up the flow of darkness. They had nowhere to go. So I pulled on them with my mind and guided the air energy into my body. Carefully and only in tiny specks, but I succeeded. And I did not even get a headache. The mana settled mostly on my wings, near the ends of my feathers.

This was the way. Just absorbing power straight up. Nobody in my way of growing stronger. I would be the greatest owl that ever lived! But what if instead of one connection, I used two? I had two wings after all. So I went ahead and pointed my right wing at the node as well. The tendril of shadows formed another set of dark roots drawing another flow of energy from inside the crystal. I carefully monitored my insides. At least my metaphysical magic insides. My inner gate opened up a little more and let in the additional energy. The air mana spread around my wings on my prodding and guidance, some of it I pulled deeper into my body.

I was in such a rush from the power going through me I did not pay any attention to my surroundings. Or myself. Which made me very confused as I found myself waking up a second time in one day, lying on the ground with an enormous pounding in my skull. I had absolutely overdone it. Even my status agreed this time.

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, slightly wounded, mana enriched (medium), flux overcharge

Level: 10

Class: [Assassin lvl 24], -

Strength: 13

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 20

Perception: 21

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 15

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 3], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Soundless Flight lvl 4]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 3], [Intimidating Screech lvl 3], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 5], [Aerial Combat lvl 3],

General:

[Maths lvl 4], [Identify lvl 3],

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 4], [Surprise Attack lvl 4], [Mingling lvl 2]

‘Flux overcharge’, huh? Whatever that was it could not be good. At least I had gained a level each in [Soundless Flight] and [Aerial Combat]. Even though I did not use the Skills specifically since the last time I checked. The air mana must have improved them somehow. Mana Enriched had gone up as well, sitting at medium now. Although I was no longer as confident in how positive that was.

[Identify]

Flux Overcharge: This individual has absorbed too much excess mana. Flux has formed in its muscles reducing reaction time and coordination.

That did not sound good. I was an absolute paperweight. The only way I could survive in a fight was striking before a response could be mustered or perfectly dodging my opponent's attacks. This was a condition I had to avoid at all costs. But I had been afflicted already. How was I supposed to remove it? I really hoped just some rest would get rid of it. So I went ahead and did just that. My wings spread and flapped, slightly off in rhythm, and I pushed off the ground with my feet, barely able to put any strength into them. I flopped straight onto the ground in front of my node and decided this was just as good a place as any to get some sleep.