Once more I stepped into the cave. Nothing had changed and I carefully made my way to the hole. The lower cavern was there, the lizard still sleeping on the ceiling. I had waited an hour to make sure he would not wake up easily. My experiments had shown I should be hiding properly in order to avoid detection from using [Identify]. For extra safety, I had turned into my metal form. I spread my wings and slowly dropped down into his home. The cavern was not entirely round and there were a few stalagmites perfect to hide behind. I still had to see him, however. I could at least hide most of my body.

My head poking out just far enough for me to have the lizard’s butt in view I set myself up for my Skill. This was far riskier than before. If he spotted me I would have to actually deal with him and could not just quickly run away. My shadow tendrils did not reach through the entrance above and even if they did they would be a dead giveaway to my presence.

I had tested with a sleeping squirrel and successfully avoided being noticed. It still had woken up and looked around in a panic. It simply was not able to spot me. This meant the lizard would probably search his home even if I succeeded. My idea was to hide for as long as possible and try to sneak towards the exit. I needed maybe half a second to get high enough to reach a tendril through the entrance. Once there, I could get out rapidly. If he noticed me immediately I would go with the flow which probably meant I had to fight him. I had no better target to practice right now so I wanted to avoid killing him but I would not hold back.

I made sure to coat my face in darkness. The rest of my body as well, in case he walked along the ceiling. Then I pulled on my Skill and everything I had learned until now. I directed my will to carefully activate everything and slowly felt it fall in place. A slight pull of mana connected to the lizard’s inner gate and as his information came up I shifted my face to disappear.

[Identify]

Species: Monitor Lizard (mature)

Age: 16

Name: -

Gender: male

Carefully, I held my breath. The lizard was sure to have woken up by now and surely, I soon heard its breath quickening. Accompanied by a soft grinding sound the animal started to move. A hiss was audible and something slick moved. Maybe his mouth was opening? Did lizards taste smell, or was that only snakes? It did not matter much, I had made sure to cover up my scent with [Sneak] before even landing in front of the cave so there should not be anything to notice. It did give me confidence I had at least partially done it right. While there was no notification for a Skill upgrade, it apparently had not spotted me immediately.

I listened closely. Grinding steps closed in on me. Shrrk, shrrk. The lizard inched towards me. My heart was racing. Any moment now. I readied my shadows to shoot out into the cave, prepared my new ranged attack. I should really practise with that one. Then the steps slid up and away quickly growing quieter and losing the grinding noise.

Was I safe?

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I held my breath for a minute before slowly letting it go. It had not seen me. I was safe. This cave was really not the right spot. I felt far too threatened in here without ample space to take to the air. The water mana was a little unpleasant as well, even though I was in my metal form. It took another few minutes to get back to normal. I poked out my head from my hiding spot and sure enough, the lizard was gone. Just as I planned to leave, steps reached my ears. It was coming back! I quickly hid again. Almost. I almost messed it up. Just as the movement stopped, the lizard let out a hiss. It sounded angry or at least annoyed. Was it actually sapient? It should be much more impulsive if it was wild, right?

A splash ripped me from my thoughts. The lizard had dropped down into the puddle. I really hoped my flinching did not give me away. Once the steps resumed and turned into grinding sounds again, I felt relieved. This was a full success. Now only to escape. One more day and I could try again. Maybe I would succeed next night?

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My escape had been easy after waiting for a few hours. The lizard was paying attention to its surroundings for a while and almost caught me the first time I peeked out but at some point, exhaustion took it to the land of sleep. I had a good idea how to go about my Skill so I decided to find more targets to practice. This time it was the deer I targeted. I hoped their senses were not any better than the lizard’s but I was rather confident. Only, I could not find them anymore. They had completely disappeared. I searched for at least an hour but could not find their resting spot anymore. Maybe they had moved on at some point?

I had no choice but to find something else to do and I returned to a thought I had earlier in the cave. I had barely practised with [Winged Death]. I knew only how to activate the Skill and that using it with eldritch mana was extremely dangerous to those already afflicted by warp.

Before I jumped onto another target, I decided to just see what I could do with it. The Skill gave me an idea of how to use it. I had to swing my wings in an aggressive motion, almost like trying to create a storm in front of me. At the same time, I needed to infuse mana into my wings which would create magical feathers flying off with my swipe. Those feathers would then hopefully kill my target. Their effects and properties were defined by the mana I used. Eldritch I had already tried. Those were intangible feathers directly striking at the mind or possibly even the soul of my target and creating warp. The amount was not really dangerous to someone without a partially tainted soul. Normal people would just go a bit crazy and have some inane dreams. Unless they acted on their new ideas, nothing would really happen. My other aspects were looking far better to use for a ‘real’ attack.

Metal and crystal both would surely be strong weapons, the same for earth and to an extent void and destruction. Though the last two, I was not sure about. They were not tangible and might not be traditional weapons. Order, air and darkness seemed to be pure utility and I was not sure if I could even get change and time to work. Time really was only in my storage Skill, it was not actually part of me. Maybe one day I would understand it well enough to get it to work. Change, while deeply ingrained by now with [Eldritch Shift], did not look to be useful in any way. I would at least see if it did something.

The physical weapons worked just as I expected. I had found an uprooted tree somewhere and put my Skill to use. Now, a dozen magically created feathers stuck in the dead trunk, four made from silvery steel, four from crystal and four rocky ones. I had aimed them right above some mushrooms growing on the bark and hit my targets cleanly every time. In fact, the feathers seemed to have a homing function following my will. It was not perfect, if I changed target mid-attack it would not turn in time unless it was already close, but I could certainly improve it by investing into Wisdom.

Next, I tried out my magical weapons. Void first, the feathers flew and landed on the trunk. Instead of sticking there, they went almost twice as deep before dissipating. So, void for penetration and gashing wounds? That seemed very powerful. The mana cost, however, was very steep compared to the physical attacks. I could shoot maybe thirty shots total if I had all my mana. Destruction left similar results though instead of making a clean hole it left more of a broken mess on the surface of the trunk. It looked to be more of a bludgeoning weapon. I had to try it on a living being though. It might just as well break off a limb or something similar.

Utility went about as expected. Air feathers left shallow cuts but exploded into a miniature storm. A nonlethal weapon. Darkness did the same but instead of a storm created a cloud of darkness. Sadly, I could not shift to it. Though when I shot it from close enough to connect with a shadow tendril, I could both shift inside and even assimilate it with my [Owl’s Shadow] regaining some mana. The final experiment was order and change. I quickly realized I could not use change for my feathers. I had synergized it while in my soul, similar to time, so I probably had to have an aspect absorbed from a node to use it with this Skill. Order worked, somewhat. It did not leave a wound, not even a scratch on the soft mushrooms. In fact, I did not notice any change at all. The feathers just landed where I wanted them to and did nothing. They were definitely not a weapon. Unless there was some interaction like the cliché light magic kills undead but heals everything else and I just had not found what it worked against. There was surely some use for it, otherwise having it available as part of a Skill called [Winged Death] was pretty useless.

In the end, the Skill was very useful. The mundane weapons could let me easily take out targets at range, firing speed only limited by how fast I could flap my wings and how much mana I had. It was definitely the right choice. Now, it was time to finish the Breakthrough for [Identify]. I had put enough effort into it, I was sure it would get there next night.