I had killed the ork mage. And I had gained a lot from it.

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 30. 4 Attribute Points awarded.

Four whole levels! I was pretty sure the ork had forgotten about me until my talons ripped through its neck. And because of that [Assassin] levelled this much. On the other hand, I got not a single race level. Probably because it was not an owl thing to just swoop down on a wounded target in the middle of the city and kill it without any intention to eat. I invested my Attribute Points immediately. Intelligence was looking good now.

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, mana enriched (medium)

Level: 13

Class: [Assassin lvl 30], -

Strength: 15

Constitution: 12

Dexterity: 21

Perception: 22

Intelligence: 24

Wisdom: 15

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 5], [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 4],

General:

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

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 4], [Surprise Attack lvl 4], [Mingling lvl 2], [Eldritch Shift lvl 1]

I had some plans to work on my Skills next. For one, I would find places like that rooftop and listen in on the orks’ conversations. That should help with [Mingling]. [Preening] and [Owl Stomach] should level on their own at some point. They were not important enough for me to specially train. [Solid Grip] and [Intimidating Screech] would be useful though. I planned to work them on some wildlife up on the mountains’ flanks. That left only [Eldritch Shift]. Hopefully, I could use it a little more often now that I had more Intelligence. I really wanted to figure out that movement part of the Skill.

That was for my below level four Skills. Above level four I decided to take a look at [Owl’s Shadow] at some point soon. I wanted to figure out if I could actually start grabbing things with it. [Owl Senses] would level naturally, I used it all the time and events like that floating armour or the crafting ritual should help with that. Speaking of, I had not forgotten to loot. My talons were not very useful for grabbing large things, but the mage’s wand was small enough to carry even with my beak. And the orb was still set on the top. There was a small socket holding onto it, a simple twist removed the gem and made space for another. If I had some more time, I might have found more of them in the ork’s robes, but I wanted to get out before his minion returned.

I currently sat in my little cave and played with my prize. The wand held mana of what felt like the primal aspects. I knew aer and perditio, I had some of it myself. Terra and ignis were also familiar and the last ones had to be ordo and aqua. The amounts differed slightly, a bit less of aer and ordo and a lot less of perditio. I realized it had been used to power the lightning orbs. The perpetrator, the white spherical gem had no mana itself. I was a little surprised, after that ritual I had expected it to hold a lot of energy. But it did not. It reacted however when powered by mana and guided it into the form of a sparkling ball of destruction.

I had shot one of them at a tree and left a smouldering circular cavity in its trunk. It was actually very easy to use, only I had no way of recharging the wand. At least not all of it. I was able to pull some mana from my inner gate into the wand but it only accepted the primal energy, not the compounds I had absorbed. This meant I was able to refill aer and perditio, but nothing else. I would have to look for more nodes and absorb all the aspects, at least the primals. It should make me a lot more powerful. Maybe I could even combine them to create anything I wanted? That would need a lot more Wisdom though.

Judging from how much power had been used by my experiment I had about another 30 shots left before I ran out of ordo. I decided to just carry the wand around in my beak when going to the city. Having access to a ranged attack even if just to deter enemies from chasing me would be extremely useful.

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I used what was left of the day to rest. There had been enough excitement for now and I expected the town to be on alert. When dusk came around, I took off to train my Skills. I left the wand behind so I could work on [Intimidating Screech] without dropping it. Though it would be the last Skill I worked on tonight. Using it might draw too much attention from the town.

For [Solid Grip] I probably just had to grab something and hold onto it. My first idea of holding onto a branch like a bat was quickly discarded. Instead, I picked up a fallen log I could barely lift with my wings and rose above the treetops. I kept an eye on my status while gliding over the forest, hoping to see the Skill level up. It took almost the whole night of gliding and resting when I got too exhausted. Then finally I got it. [Solid Grip lvl 4]. It was at the Breakpoint and I could push through if an opportunity arose.

Since the sun was rising I decided to get some proper rest. I had a few more days worth of food left in my stash but magic practice might cut through my reserves. At least working on [Intimidating Screech] should let me get some food on the go. As night returned, my training continued. My screeches echoed through the forest as I hunted. I also made use of [Identify] to see what the ‘new’ level brought. I had not forgotten about it, there were just more important things going on. Totally.

[Identify]

Species: Mole Rat (mature)

Age: 14

Name: -

Gender: female

Well, age was somewhat useful I guess? Though maturity already gave a good idea about it, maybe it would be useful for some long-lived races? Since the Skill was at level four I stopped using it. I did not know how it worked exactly but it might use some of the mana I wanted to practice [Intimidating Screech].

After a few hours I had not gotten the desired level up but I was too exhausted to continue. I did not want to black out near a town after I had made such a ruckus. So I retreated and got back to work the next night. And then again the one after. I spent the days in between listening in on orks talking in town, trying to learn their language. [Mingling] had to be close to a level up. When resting half the night I had more than enough energy to make use of the day.

I must have annoyed someone in town because when I went out on the fourth night to work on my [Intimidating Screech] I spotted movement in the forest. A small group of orks had set up camp in a clearing not far from town. They were eating and drinking around a fire. Meanwhile, goblins ran all around the forest searching every nook and cranny. The orks had armour made from leather with metal protectors around some of their vitals. Their necks were unprotected. The goblins had far worse equipment. Simple leather clothes, looking more like rags, covered their dirty forms. Some carried knives but most only had pointed sticks. They were very sneaky though and I had trouble spotting them from above the treetops.

I wanted to practice my Skill, but it was too dangerous. The orks had to leave and then hopefully the goblins would go along. But maybe, I could kill the orks? Three targets sounded very dangerous though. They talked to each other, if I killed one, the others would see me. At least they were loud and careless. And maybe drunk. I did not smell alcohol but I was quite some ways above them and my sense of smell was decorative at best. I observed their behaviour for almost an hour before I was confident they were drunk. And I was confident in taking them out.

The goblins kept their distance from the hulking drunks. I suspected they would only return on catching the nuisance, or when dawn arrived. Meanwhile, the orks were drinking and laughing, sometimes falling into an off-key song. They had roasted some meat over the fire earlier, but it was all gone by now. Twice, an ork had walked a few steps into the forest to relieve himself. This was what I was waiting for. Once the third got some distance I could easily take him out. I hoped his companions would check on him and present themselves for the reaping as well.

I circled above them, far enough from the light to stay invisible, when the ork finally got up. He took a few unsteady steps towards the trees and stopped. Damn it. He was too drunk to walk into the trees. His waste liquids pattered onto a nearby tree while I considered. Both of his companions were busy drinking and laughing about something. I made out just enough to understand they were laughing about their goblin underlings.

I decided they were sufficiently distracted. As the peeing ork swayed slightly back and forth, I started dropping towards him from the trees. My drop was perfectly silent. I had covered my plumage tightly with shadows. Like a spectre of death, I landed on his neck, talons first, and ripped straight through it. Confused and choked grunting followed my attack before my target collapsed beneath a fountain of blood. I had already pushed off and was almost in the forest. Just as I arrived at the edge of the clearing I shot out an explosion of shadows all around me. Confused and angry screaming came from the two drunkards. I heard them scramble to their feet and draw their weapons. Luckily, neither of them were mages. They only carried a simple sword and buckler each as well as an axe on one of the still-living orks.

I rose above the treetops and returned to the clearing. Shouts came from the survivors, it sounded like an angry discussion. As I arrived, the axe ork smacked his partner before storming off into the trees. Were they really so stupid as to split up to look for me? I decided to wait a bit for the leaving ork to gain some distance. The last one in the clearing shivered while his eyes shot back and forth between every tiny movement and sounds he could make out. Luckily I was too stealthy for his senses. I dropped right on top of him to circumvent his erratic movements and screeched directly into his ear. He dropped to the ground and curled up screaming expletives with tears and snot flying around. I spread my shadows around him before jumping on top and going for the kill. As soon as he felt my talons, he swiped at me. I had no time to move out of the way but I did not need to either.

[Eldritch Shift] activated just as the ork’s strike was about to land. I felt the blob of aspects that made up his arm go through my position. I also noticed something new. A path. Or rather, a field where I could move. Everywhere my [Owl’s Shadow] was spread, I was. And with a thought, my body stood right above the ork’s neck, talons already inside. I ripped my feet out right as I rematerialized and jumped away. There was little need to. The ork was already dead and unmoving.

I heard scrambling steps approach the clearing. Instead of retreating, I decided to sit on my prey. These steps were too light to be the other ork. Additionally, it was only one pair of feet. A goblin broke into the clearing and froze. His eyes first stopped on the dead ork right in front of him. Then he looked up at the body I was sitting on. I hooted and spread my shadows out. The goblin flinched. He looked too scared to even try attacking me. But then he pointed his stick at me and ran forwards, screaming as loud as he could.

I had no intention to kill a weakling like that so I put all my will into [Intimidating Screech] to make him stop. The goblin froze mid-run. He did not stop his motion, he simply stopped moving. And dropped to the ground, his limbs still extended to take the next step. I gazed down at the prone form shaking on the ground in front of me. I hooted again and took off. There was still one more ork to kill.

As I scanned the forest for the last ork, I took a glance at my status. I had gained another five levels. Immediately I put one point into Intelligence and the rest into Wisdom. Even better, [Intimidating Screech] had reached level four and [Eldritch Shift] had gone up as well to level 2. I was very happy with my gains. I could not wait to get more targets.