I woke up in an unknown place. Somehow I was held down onto a soft surface by a blanket. Above was one of the familiar roofs of the goblin huts. To my side, the room was cut off with a curtain of leather.

I tried to move. The blanket was heavy. It barely budged when I tried to lift my wing. Rolling around under it I got onto my back. This time both wings together managed to heft the blanket a few centimetres into the air. The next moment it flopped back down on me. I could exert no force moving like this. Why? This was just some fur stitched together. I should have easily enough strength to lift it off me and get up.

Then it clicked. I had used my wings. Not arms. I was not human. Why did I think I was human and try to get out of bed like one? I turned around with lots of effort and once on my belly started to wriggle forward. There was not too much space in front of me but once I had gotten about halfway out from under the blanket two strong flaps of my wings threw it off. My feathers were ruined. I had to do a lot of [Preening] to get them back in order. At least I was out now.

Before I could get my bearings, steps approached my position. A hand shoved the curtain to the side and I hopped back making myself small. A sudden headache exploded as I realized I was instinctively trying to create shadows. I flinched in pain and nearly fell over again. Whatever this Flux was it appeared to still be a problem.

“Fio, you good?” a voice asked. A voice I recognized. Roguk. This must be his bed, but why had I been resting in it?

“Luk found you knocked out in your new home and brought you here. How are you feeling? Ah, better go with simple questions. Are you feeling okay?”

I blinked a few times. The headache was ebbing off and otherwise, I felt alright. So I nodded.

“Good. Luk told me there was a node in there, you didn’t touch it directly right? You probably did. Listen, nodes are dangerous. They are a direct connection to the Ether, or the Void, as some call it. You need proper tools to harness a node’s energy. Otherwise, you can seriously hurt yourself. It seems you only have some flux overcharge, so you got lucky. It will go away on its own with some rest.”

As he was speaking I made myself smaller and smaller. This was really stupid. I had almost hurt myself really badly even though there was someone who knew so much about the node. I should have just asked him what to do with it first. At least the overcharge would go away on its own, that was some good news.

“Here, I got you some food ready. Just stay in here for a bit, I got a second bed brought over for myself so no worries, okay?”

Wait, a second bed? How long had I been out of it that he already needed to get one? Urgh, this was not good. I really should be more careful in the future about touching natural magic.

“Anyways, I’m getting back to work, just hoot if you need something, okay?”

I looked at him and nodded again in thanks before he left me to my own devices. Now, to figure this out. Why was I so stupid? I had vague memories of being rather smart in my last life. There was not much about people but I had a lot of knowledge. Surfing the internet was my only consistent pastime besides watching braindead TV shows. So I had accumulated a wide variety of knowledge and experience. Admittedly, the latter was second hand at best, but still. I did not think myself too stupid to realize danger. Add to that the instincts of my new body and I should have a double warning. There really was something off.

And then I remembered two minutes ago. Waking up in a bed and struggling to get out of it as a human would. This was my first time since being reborn that I had woken up in a bed. My last life on the other hand was spent primarily in a hospital. I had reverted to my pre-owl days and tried to approach the problem as a human. Maybe something similar had happened with the node? Had my curiosity for the fantastical driven me to disregard my instincts?

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This might be a problem. Maybe even a bigger one than I thought. The wrong instincts could influence every action of mine. What if in the middle of a fight I suddenly got sick from killing a person because I was attached to some remnant of morals from my old life? What if there already had been things influenced by that very idea? Like… my rules…

I had to go through them again.

First rule: I will kill my chosen target.

Okay, this one was fine. Normal [Assassin] stuff.

Second rule: I will not kill other living beings besides my target unless they get in the way.

This one on the other hand. Yeah, there definitely were some things going on in my head. I had made this rule with the mindset of not bringing more suffering than necessary. That was a very human thing to think. It did not make me comfortable removing the rule, but I had to reconsider the meaning of it. My target was my number one priority. It would be the largest source of my growth. If I killed mindlessly on the way to it, there was a good chance of alerting it and reducing my [Assassin] experience. The rule would stay, but the idea behind it was different. There was also personal safety. Slaughtering everyone would not only increase the danger of messing up and possibly reduce the experience but I also had to make sure to get everyone. Otherwise, I might have a vendetta up my behind. So yeah, the rule made perfect sense. Just not because of wanting to kill as little as possible. Next.

Third rule: I will freely choose a target for food or growth if it is non-sapient.

Fourth rule: I will only choose a sapient as a target if I have additional motivation.

Fifth rule: I will not kill sapient children.

Well, these three kind of dealt with the same thing. Target selection. A distinction between sapient and non-sapient made sense to my human morals. In the end, though it did not really matter. Or rather, if I went with morals, animals and monsters only lived for survival. I should not mindlessly slaughter them for my personal gain. That would make me evil. And sapients would have some actually evil people, which was probably what I meant when thinking of additional motivation. Children as well, a purely human morals rule when I decided on it.

So I revised my thoughts. What I wanted were growth and survival. They kind of went hand in hand, as long as growth did not risk my life, like the node apparently did. This meant, I did not need separate rules for target selection. One would be enough.

Third rule: I will choose a target for personal growth or food if I can survive being found as the killer.

This meant, no sapient children. Probably no children at all. They would not help me grow strong. But sapient children especially would have their parents hunting me for revenge. For sapients in general I would have to make sure to plan my exit. Or kill the bad guy, so the good guys would protect me. Or maybe there was some kind of [Assassin] guild that could help me grow and protect me from repercussions. Definitely not in this backwater village though. Monsters, yeah. No issues there. Killing the big guy usually scared the small fries so I could just go for any group leaders I thought myself capable of taking down. When it came to something like that flock of feathered wyverns, I would have to be more careful though. It hinged on my observation and understanding of their social behaviour as well as instincts.

These were my rules now:

First rule: I will kill my chosen target.

Second rule: I will not kill other living beings besides my target unless they get in the way.

Third rule: I will only choose a target for personal growth or food if I have a valid escape plan.

I felt a lot more like an [Assassin] now. Not some girl with a basic understanding of backstabbing. This was a lot more ruthless and in line with being a monster. But did I want to be a monster? Well, I had revised my rules about a week after coming up with them. And only the first had fully survived. So if I found a reason to change them again, why not? Only, why have rules then? Okay, these rules would stay. I was convinced they were good and built on a strong mental base. Maybe if I got a second Class one day there would be a revision to adjust to new ways of growth, but for now, this would do.

The night passed quietly. I preened my feathers and got some rest, trying not to exert myself as to avoid my splitting headache returning. At some point, Roguk brought another bit of food over and wished me a good night. I was a little confused. The goblins were up at night normally, so why would they wish a good ‘night’ when going to sleep? Maybe the nocturnal activity was not their natural behaviour?

It did not matter too much so I dismissed the thought and got some more rest. When it was time for breakfast the flux overcharge had finally worn off. I did not know how long I had slept but it lasted longer than a whole day. I would have to avoid it in the future unless I had someone to rely on nearby. Good thing the goblins were this friendly. Friends. Maybe I could make some? Wait. That was my human side speaking again. This was messing me up. Trying to figure out what I want should not be this difficult. And yet here I was, sitting in a goblin hut contemplating morals. A decision was in order. And it was pretty simple. Instincts were better suited for survival than remnants of humanity. I was a monster. I would act like one.