I stood at the edge of my roost, looking down at the forest below.
My fully developed eyes penetrated through the lighter tree canopies as if they were never there, unveiling the figures underneath.
It’s a habit of mine these days, looking at the savages below struggling to survive.
A pack of monkey-like figures each the size of a gorilla was fighting an abomination of a tiger: one with 6 powerful legs and 2 roaring heads. Curved ram horns grew from on top of the left head and a rainbow unicorn horn on the other. Its tail was a snake, snapping and spitting venom at any of the monkeys coming too close.
The monkey-gorillas each held rough barely circular shields made out of a dark red bark, while their other hand held spears of the same color. Their tails are prehensile, grabbing rocks from the ground to throw at impossible angles.
I gazed up at the midday sun where it sat on its throne between the clouds. The orange monarch was only just starting to show its splendor when the two forces beneath had met and immediately started fighting. That they are still at it after half a day is a testament to both the tiger’s vitality and the monkey-gorilla’s persistence.
Of course, it was not as if nothing had changed from the start. Half of the attackers have been incapacitated, with only 4 left to fight. Monkey-gorilla corpses littered the area, their broken shields and spears scattered here and there along with bits and pieces of their flesh.
Yet their sacrifice has not been in vain: the remaining monkey-gorilla held spears dripping with fresh blood.
Such a sight was normal to be found in the forests beneath me. Every day, every hour, there would be countless fights to the death, where various species of animals and plants would fight for survival. Be it in the form of food, location, or magical-looking resource.
The law of the jungle is still alive and well, even here. That much hasn’t changed.
Yet it was all, much like their literal location, far beneath me.
Why, you ask?
I smiled, my wings rubbing my full belly, the memory of the meal I just ate fresh in my mind. The level 23 『Jade Worm』 today was particularly scrumptious.
My eyes cast backwards, towards the white figure that had graciously provided said meal.
Mother was looming over my siblings that just recently hatched, with more Jade Worms wriggling between her beak.
Anytime one of the ugly black wingless furballs chirped, their mouth was filled with a meal. A healthy dose of Jade Worm-shaped experience that helped their body create cracking and popping sound as they developed in seconds into a noticeably larger form.
My eyes swept through the orchestra members playing a symphony of gluttony, focusing on each just long enough for the System to realize what were my intentions.
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 11』
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 8』
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 10』
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 6』
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 1』
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 3』
『Infant Roc - Lvl. 5』
Heh. Look at these weak, useless shut-ins. Their stubby legs are so weak it can’t even support the weight of their own body yet! Some even haven’t opened their eyes, choosing voluntary blindness instead, no different than a bottomless feeding pit with an internal alarm-clock.
The difference between these bottom-feeders and me couldn’t be any different. Closing my eyes, I recalled the information I saw just a few days ago, willing it to appear. The System complied a second later.
『Species: Infact Roc - Lvl. 29』
『Name: N/A』
『Stats』
『Blessing(s): Tier requirement not met』
『Locked: Species requirement not met』
『Afflictions: N/A』
『Locked: Level requirement not met』
『Locked: Level requirement not met』
Information is power. Just like the old world, the saying rang true here. After the Observation on mother a few days ago, the Blessing section was updated from its locked form.
True, this was insignificant information, something that I would surely stumble into as this body levels up. But why stumble? Why go through a series of trials-and-error at all?
Imagine if you had to plan a heist. But all your life, all you did was stumble around like a headless chicken, brute forcing everything until the world caved in to your will, nary a plan or preparation in sight.
You would fail. Once, maybe twice. You’ll succeed by the third time, I’m sure. But in that time it took you to do three tries, I would’ve done a second or even a third heist.
It was why I have spent the past few days perched at the edge, looking out and down from the tree-hole where Mother made our nest. From here I saw over and over again various beasts clawing at each other’s faces. From the lumbering Ent, guarding a pond with silver water, to the Harpies clashing against a Wyvern. To the Imps casting fireballs at each other, laughing all the way.
My gaze returned to the monkey-gorillas and the mutated tiger. The fighting reached a deciding point sooner than I expected, with only two monkey-gorillas left against a heavily injured tiger.
The tiger’s tail were unresponsive, the snake head hanging limp, a gash running down its side.
It looked to be an even fight. They circled each other, four sets of eyes never leaving their enemy, waiting for an opening.
The moment the monkey-gorillas were close to each other, the goat-horn head opened its mouth.
A roar went out that stunned the monkeys in place for just a moment. That was all the opening the tiger needed as its other horn came to life, white sparks crackling and arcing from it.
A vast beam of light shot forward from the tip of the unicorn horn.
It caught the two monkey-gorillas before they could react, leaving a gaping open hole from the stream of mana that evaporated their flesh. Their bodies fell to the ground not soon after, an expression of shock and disbelief in their faces.
The tiger’s horn seemed to dim afterwards, a faint feather crack running through its features.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
But it had done its job, and both of the tiger heads roared in triumph; a fierce proclamation that sent the nearby trees shaking and its inhabitants to fly out.
Then, out of the trees on its side, a sudden blur appeared.
One of the monkey-gorillas leapt from its hiding place, spear in hand. The snake tail lashed out of instinct, but though the attack striked true it was too weak to prevent the assailant’s momentum.
The next thing the tiger knew was the existence of a spear penetrating one of its heads from underneath, piercing through and poking out from the other side.
The monkey-gorilla leapt back, one arm dangling limp on its side, green pus leaking from two small punctures on its forearm. It had lost its weapon, his shield-arm useless, his brethren strewn around him lifeless. But the expression on its face was anything but.
Lips curved in a wide, mocking grin, the monkey-gorilla stood straight one last time on shaky legs. His healthy arm raised, it started banging on its chest to the beat of an invisible drum.
It knew, though it had lost, its sacrifice had ensured their enemy had not won. Their tribe would be safe.
A familiar bright light washed through where the monkey-gorilla was standing, erasing its existence.
The crack on the unicorn’s horn deepened, its furrows widening, while more and more cracks appeared as it webbed through the dimming object.
A second later half of its top shattered, leaving behind an inert stump on the tiger’s head. An angry, frustrated growl followed from the now exhausted tiger. It bit on the nearest monkey-gorilla corpse, and quickly slunked away.
I felt my mood turn sour at the end of that fight. It was a predictable outcome, by way of how frequent I’ve seen it occur. Too often, too disturbingly often, the winner of a fight in the jungle could only claim a pyrrhic victory.
I couldn’t help but think about the fight. Had the monkey knew about the tiger-head’s horns capable of casting such devastating spells, would they press their luck? At the very least they could’ve planned better, or bring bigger numbers. They could’ve found easier prey.
Had the tiger known about the stalking monkey-gorilla, it would’ve came out of the fight relatively unharmed. But now? A simple miscalculation, an early celebration of one’s pride that quickly followed a fall. It had lost one of its head, the other was nothing more than a normal tiger head now, while the rest of his body was bleeding all over. Although it still had its tail and legs, its firepower had been cut by more than half, at least.
To say its future was bleak is an understatement.
In the end only those who can overwhelmingly win, or do so without much sacrifice, would grow to see a better dawn. And the way to do it… is to be prepared for whatever your enemy has in store, and then some more.
To understand your enemy more than they understand you and act accordingly.
I shook my head, willing the bitter taste to disappear from my tongue. I would not end the same way as these savages would. I would not allow it. I am a Roc, and I will soar above all these weaklings, as is my station.
Steeling my resolve I turned my eyes down once again, searching for a group from which I could learn from. It didn’t take long.
Another party of 5 were moving about in another part of the forest. A farther part, at the edge of my vision, not too far from the vine-ridden sky-scraping tree.
They were just a bit too far for me to properly make out their finer details, but it was clear enough to me that they shared similarities with the monkey-gorillas from before.
Admittedly, I was not fair in that description. They were monkey-like in that they were roughly equal in size, having the same four limbs and moved around in groups, but that was the extent of it.
These green monkeys were lankier, taller. Their limbs just a slight bit shorter compared to the monkey-gorillas but a thousand times more proportionate, their body a graceful work of nature that moved with fluidity and grace that bellied their size. They walked with their backs straight and heads up.
Most eye-catching of them all was the figure standing a full two heads above the rest. Dressed in the same leaf cloaks, with features identical to the rest, except for the crown of white antler on its head.
If only I could see them more closely. Where they’re situated, a bit too far for even my eyesight, I could only make out their general properties; none of their facial features were available to me.
I focused on my sight, my world narrowing until the only thing reflected on my eye were the clearing with the weird green monkeys in question.
Power surged from within me. From deep within at the bottom of my pumping heart, a long slumbering organ surged through life. A second heart deep within my pumping one starts to beat as veins I didn’t know existed flared with life and thrumming, liquid power coursed through. It snaked by my center, up my neck, and in less than a fraction of a second pooled in my eyes.
I felt light-headed as my vision narrowed, the fringes collapsing on itself towards the center. Darkness sweeped in, covering the outer parts of my vision, and with each portion of the land that was shielded from my eyes, the green monkeys grew closer and clearer.
By the time I could make out the twisting vines from which their body was made out of, it felt as if I was right there in front of them.
『Skill Unlocked: Farseer - Level. 0』
I stared at the notification, beak open wide. A skill. One that allowed me to do something beyond the physical capabilities of my body.
My attention turned inward, combing through every part of my body the same way I would everytime I level up, identifying and noting down the changes.
I started from my eyes, the memory of that surge of power snaking through my body fresh in my mind.
With them as the anchor, I traced the path back, reversing where it came from. It didn’t take long before I noticed a connection now, between my eyes and an organ I am positive was never there before. It was nothing more than an inert block of flesh, one that I must have subconsciously ignored every time I did a self-scan. To be fair, it seemed to be as useful as an appendix, a dead end pocket that provided nothing. It sat right beneath the heart, barely larger than a marble.
Yet it was from here that undeniable power surged out.
Power that allowed magical things to happen. It reminded me of those games I played when I was younger; the warriors capable of extreme feats when they interlace mana into their action. Was this the same thing? Am I in those game worlds, where mana existed?
Those games never explained the origin of mana in one’s body, but it made sense for it to come from an organ. A mana organ. A mana heart? Mana core.
Whatever it was, the beating marble-sized core pumped a continuous stream of mana to keep the connection - and the skill - running. I concentrated on feeling it pump, almost three times as fast as my heart, working tirelessly to ensure a constant line of mana that never broke.
It was fascinating. I zoned in on the stream itself, the secrets of magic at my claw tips.
A strong peck to my back broke through my concentration, disrupting my flow of mana.
Immediately after, the skill faded away. The green monkeys disappeared from my sight and I felt myself return to my body where it stood on the edge of the tree.
I looked back, only to find Mother staring very intently at me, her eyes as wide as I’ve ever seen them go.
She shuffled closer, and my eyes drank in the sight of her eyes changing from its dull brown into gold.
Golden eyes that stared at my whole being, unblinking; Observing.
It was only now, so close to her. Only now, after an understanding of how mana worked, did I noticed it. The subtle, almost undetectable sheet of mana that covered mother’s eyes, the very same one that I’m sure caused her eyes to brighten from its usual dim brownness. The same one that probably covered my eyes moments before.
How did I never realize it? Her understanding of my growth, and of my intent, was not out of simple matronly connection.
She was Observing. A high-level, probably higher-tiered one, with more details and understanding that mine would ever afford.
She did it all with mana. Using it, anyone could glean anything and everything about the world around them.
The moment that realization sinked in, my core started to beat again.
A torrential wave of mana gushed out, filling my entire body, flooding all possible channels before crashing into my eyes.
Colors blinded my vision. The wood beneath and around me disappeared into an ocean of brown; my siblings nothing but murky green-brown blobs on top of yellow paint; the air itself a white purer than snow. And in the middle of everything -
A burning emerald sun.
One that pulsed with power that could consume everything around it, but which coiled its influence close to itself.
A single strand of pure emerald connected me and that sun.
A moment later, it was gone, and the colors in the world dimmed.
Before the disappointment could even set in, a more primal emotion let itself known within me. From my mana core a cold, ravenous hunger demanded attention. It forced a clarity akin to that painful moment when one realizes how empty their stomach was, magnified a thousand times.
A deluge of dizziness swarmed me, my mind reeling in pain.
My body started to tip over.
The last thing I remember was a shrill shriek piercing the nest as my vision blurred and darkness consumed all.