The notification held all of my attention. I could get a new Skill!

~ding~ Please choose one of the available Skills. Failure to do so will result in a milestone Skill being selected automatically.

[Poison Brewing]

[Harmless Weaponry]

[Target Awareness]

[Aerial Strike]

[Dark Strike]

Two of them were identical to before so I did not even bother identifying them and looked straight at the other Skills.

[Identify]

[Target Awareness]: Your senses surpass what is expected from even the most skilled [Assassin]. Your target, once traced, will be unable to escape your perception. The closer you are to your target, the better you can understand its state of mind and body.

[Aerial Strike]: You are a winged [Assassin]. Rare are the beings able to fly naturally and smart enough to find the perfect opportunity. Aer mana from your soul can be used to strike at your target from a greater distance than before.

[Dark Strike]: You are a being of darkness. Tenebrae mana from your soul can be used to strike at your target from a greater distance than before.

Okay. That was something. [Target Awareness] looked to be similar to [Target Tracking] from before, just with some upgrades. Knowing more about my target’s state would make it easier to find the right time to strike. But I had to get close beforehand. Which [Mingling] should be able to do. Those two Skills appeared to have some serious synergy. On the other hand, they looked to be a lot better for an actual person. Infiltrating society was surely useful, but I had no way to communicate properly so it would be very difficult to make use of.

The strike Skills though seemed very straightforward. And they also seemed to be influenced by the mana I had absorbed from my node. And they talked about my soul. Was what I called my inner gate my soul? Or at least the entrance? It sure looked like it. The only confusing thing about these Skills was how [Aerial Strike] talked about me being a winged [Assassin]. It appeared to have something extra to it, even though I was certain I had absorbed more darkness mana than air mana. There was also the question of how long I had to choose a Skill. And if absorbing new types of mana would add to my Skill selection even after it had appeared first. Because I was getting a very interesting feeling from this node. If I could get a strike Skill with this mana, I might get a serious power boost.

I thought about what to do. The safe thing would be to just pick one of the strike Skills. But I really wanted to try getting this other type of mana. More specifically one of them. The node gave me a slurry of different feelings. The most dominant was a very weak version of the eldritch presence I had felt from the open gate. While interesting, the second strongest was what piqued my interest. It felt like emptiness. Absence of everything. Void. A [Void Strike] had to be extremely powerful, right? I was giddy just thinking about it. Underneath those two there was other mana. Something that felt like undeath, a bit of destruction and a smidgen of fire. Those seemed dangerous to get close to my soul, other than the fire. My instincts however did not shy away from both void and the eldritch, as they did from destruction and undeath. So I decided to try and absorb as much of it as I could while keeping an eye on my Skill selection screen. If I managed to fill up my flux tolerance without getting anything new I would just take [Aerial Strike]. But if something new came out of it, I would see immediately.

And the eldritch eye had said to listen to all of myself. I really wanted something special. That was my human side speaking, while my owl side said to just go find a place to stay. I would find a place, but for now, I wanted more power.

My [Owl’s Shadow] spread out and took hold of the node. Only I had overlooked one thing. This node had not formed a crystal through which I could connect to it indirectly. Instead, I had to form a direct connection. Within moments my shadows were filled with the node’s mana. Suppressing my panic I guided the alien and void mana to my inner gate. My soul, if the Skill descriptions were to be believed. It took a good bit of concentration, but I finally got both to form a connection and flow into me. The energy rushed out of the node and inflated my shadows to over triple their previous size. With it, other mana was dragged into me.

Undeath, destruction and fire mana all flowed into my body. I focused hard to keep it out and away from my inner gate. Undeath was easy. It held nearly no connection to the energies I held in me. Fire too, there was scant to connect with and I separated it from the other energies with only a little effort. Destruction however was different. It stuck to the void mana as if they were parent and child. Even worse, my inner gate opened up and air mana flew outwards to connect with it. Once destruction and air met, however, it only turned into more void. Interesting. Void was formed from destruction and air? There was however a part of destruction that did not mix with my air mana. Instead, it rushed right along with the other mana. I could do nothing to stop it. And once it met my inner gate, nothing happened. I was baffled. This had given me such a bad feeling and I was not harmed in the slightest? Or was I just unable to sense what it did to me?

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Before I knew it, the energy flow abruptly cut off with a bang. Lightning cracked through the air where the node had been for a moment and then it was gone. Nothing was left, only the last remnants of mana still flowing through my body and my half-filled tolerance of flux.

I shook my head to break out of my stupor. Right, I had a Skill to pick! Was there anything new?

~ding~ Please choose one of the available Skills. Failure to do so will result in a milestone Skill being selected automatically.

[Poison Brewing]

[Harmless Weaponry]

[Target Awareness]

[Aerial Strike]

[Dark Strike]

[Void Strike]

[Eldritch Shift]

Oh, wow! There actually were two new options!

[Identify]

[Void Strike]: You have adapted to the void. Vacuos mana from your soul can be used to strike at your target from a greater distance than before.

[Eldritch Shift]: Normal [Assassin]s avoid being seen by their target through physical means. Hiding in shadows has become too simple for you. You can use alienis mana from your soul to partially shift out of this realm. This can only be held for a short time. While shifted you may travel along paths unseen.

Okay. That was something. [Void Strike] was there, just as I had hoped. However, [Eldritch Shift] looked far more interesting. It looked to be a Skill that let me phase out of reality and move during it. It also looked to automatically force me back in, so I had no concerns about safety. Rather, it would let me dodge attacks without moving if I wanted. And it would let me move without being seen by anything. Well, one like that eldritch monster from the other side would probably be able to spot me, but from his actions, they seemed to hold little interest in this world.

I wanted it. I really wanted it. And I took it.

It might be stupid to follow my impulse but I could not find an argument to stick against it. Sure, it might turn me into some eldritch monstrosity long term but no matter how scary that thing’s power was I felt no bad intentions from it. So I decided to listen to the advice of what was pretty much a complete stranger and just follow my heart. I would not deny one part of me over the other.

Looking back on the last days and weeks I had already done so. When I first realized my animal instincts were clashing with my human wants I wanted nothing to do with my human side. I was an owl now, so I would live like one. But I had made my first rules instinctively while considering human morals. Ideas no owl would come to. Or would they? My new family was not made of mindless beasts. Sure, they might lack some empathy and self-awareness, but they were not stupid. They were not bound by instincts alone. I simply had more thoughts besides my instincts.

I looked at my rules again.

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.

These were valid. They were a part of me. I would not remake them again. Despite that, I was aware of my human ideas as mine now. Only, I did not find them to clash. My rules said nothing about having to choose a target. I could simply decide not to make someone or something a target, even if it let me grow. I had done so already with the goblins. Roguk, Grag and Luk were my… friends. And even for Meeny, who I disliked heavily, I felt no desire to kill.

So instead of reworking my rules, I decided to simply relegate them to ‘only for work’. My decision to pick a target was something to get me into using them. And before considering anything about safety or escape plans I would figure out if I wanted to do that. If I had a reason. Something to gain, other than experience. Settling a score. Protecting someone I cared about? Those would be reasons my human side could figure out.

At this point, I had been sitting in an empty wasteland of at least two hundred metres diameter for at least an hour. Maybe even two. I was unsure how long I had taken to drain the node. It was time to be on my way. And so I took off, to new adventures. This time with a new awareness of what I was. And no clue what I wanted out of life, other than getting stronger.