I looked at the corpse of the lizard debating on what to do, luckily my stomach answered me. With my stomach speaking to me I decided to light my prey a blaze then proceeded to dig into the lizards corpse. The flavor was interesting, it tasted a bit like chicken whatever that was but there was also a hint of an amazing flavor. This flavor my mind associated with fish; I didn’t know what a fish was, but I’d love to find one. Just thinking about it made my stomach growl in anticipation. After eating my fill of the lizard, I decided to turn to what’s next.

There was a couple options I came up to. The first being class advancement, the second being leveling my general skills, and the last being find people. The last option was lower on the list due to less of a need to find people. Mama did say I should find a way to hide and I bet someone would know how. Class advancement came first because it would help with finding people along with leveling general skills. With my options set up I went to advance my class.

[*Ding* Would you like to advance [Class 1: Child of the Star Phoenix – Inferno]? NOTE, having more and higher-level general skills will help with class advancement. You are in a safe place; would you like to proceed with advancement? Yes/No!]

Having read that I reconsidered. Having a better class would definitely help with my travels. The thing was what would I train first? [The Legacy of The Celestial Star Phoenix] or just [Legacy] for simplicity is already capped along with [What’s That?]. [Alert] and [ Monster Slayer] seems to require me being in combat for them to level. [Perfection of the Star Phoenix] or [Perfection] to be simple as well is pretty easy to level up, I bet I could also level up by fighting monsters and becoming more perfect that way. [Ruminations of the Past] or [Ruminations] is pretty simple I just have to meditate on the memories of my dreams and visions, speaking of which I leveled up the skill I wonder what I will see. [Core of The Celestial Star Phoenix] is going to be hard mainly because I don’t know what it does in full, I can give a good guess as to what it does. I think it is where my fire originates from, so practice with my fire should help.

I devised a plan to help upgrade my skills along with taking one more new skill.

[Artist of Fire]: Fire to you is the most beautiful thing your eyes have ever seen. Your fascination didn’t just stop at looking at the fire, but you wanted to see what it could make. Pushing control to its limit you made many detailed sculptures. Take this skill to help improve your proficiency with your art. + .5 % mana control per level when using skill -5 Mana Regeneration when active.

My plan was to use this skill while using [Ruminations] I wanted to see how good I could control my fire while distracted, and sense I was playing with my fire [Core] should also level. Once I caped [Ruminations] and [Artist of Fire] I would start my travels to find civilization, and during the travels I would fight monsters to level [Core], [Alert] and [Monster Slayer] . With this plan I should be able to advance in no time.

Starting my plan, I used [Ruminations] , while using [Ruminations] I mirrored what I was seeing with [Artist of Fire] .

For a second, I thought I was having a repeat memory but there was some big changes. The man was driving on that forest service road again but this time his emotions felt happy. The reason for this was the woman in the car with him, she was beautiful. There were no other words to describe her beauty, she was just beautiful. The man or should I say “I” was having a conversation with her. There was some good banter treated between us and the atmosphere was just generally good. At some point we stopped getting out of the car and started our hike. It was pleasant, I had good company and a wonderful view, and I’m not just saying that because I am staring at this woman. We hiked for a couple of hours till we arrived at a frozen waterfall. There was still some water trickling down it, causing it to make a wonderful ambient noise. The girl who I found out is my girlfriend turned out and gave me a bright smile. I burned this memory into my mind, vowing to never forget it.

Things faded and I was back to my bird self. I was crying again I couldn’t tell why but something told me it wasn’t good. Infront of me was a sculpture of that immaculate moment, there was something unexpected. My fire had taken on different colors to accurately depict the memory.

I didn’t want to check my notifications because there was still more to gain from this memory. I also wanted to try something; I wanted to split my attention three ways, one keeping the image of the water fall up, the second ruminating on the memory, and the third depicting what I was thinking of. This task was hard. Just doing two things was fine but three was difficult, it would be easier if I sacrificed detail in the images, but I wanted it to be perfect.

Several hours passed and I learned a few things. First being that with time it got easier to keep one image and change another image. Whether it was due to [Artist of Fire] leveling or not I didn’t know but, I also suspected [Perfection] was pulling a lot of weight as well. Second being the mana cost, it wasn’t high but with more images it took more mana to upkeep and mana power was also starting to hold me back. This thing was a sad thing, the second memory I ever had was about this place and I learned why there was a melancholic nostalgia. The flashes I had of the coffins lowering was related to this, one of those coffins was of this woman. When I realized that pain shot through my whole being. I also finally admitted that mama was most likely dead, I still wanted to hold out hope, but my past self was a tad pessimistic. These memories were not easy to parse due to their emotional weight of them, but the benefits were very nice.

[*Ding* [Ruminations of the Past] has leveled up 2  5!]

[*Ding* [Artist of Fire] has leveled up 1  8!]

[*Ding* [Perfection of the Star Phoenix] has leveled up 3  8!]

[*Ding* [Core of The Celestial Star Phoenix] has leveled up 1  3!]

[*Ding* You have earned the [General Skill] [Multitask]!]

[*Ding* You have earned the [General Skill] [Parallel Minds]!]

[Multitask]: Sometimes doing one thing at a time isn’t the best option. Take this skill and multitask with ease. -2 Mana Regeneration when active.

[Parallel Minds]: Learning new information can take some time, sometimes problems are not easy to figure out but as the saying goes “Two heads are better than one.” Take this skill to split your thoughts allowing you to effectively have two heads or more. -10 Mana Regeneration when active.

I took the new skills they were both a blessing and a pain, it meant I had to level more skills. While it may seem like a small set back at first this is actually a boon. This will allow me to do what I was doing before while also trying to find people or fight monsters. I wanted to start my flight right now but when I looked up, I saw it was night. I could definitely pick a star right now, but the sun rises from east to west, and I would have a more definitive direction. I only thought about it for a second when I came to a conclusion. It was time to sleep finally. I returned to my original pile of tears and got comfortable.

When I slept, I had a dream, but I dedicated [Parallel Minds] to the task of analyzing it. I tried to see if I had more than one extra thought process, to my expectation/ disappointment I didn’t.

As my parallel mind got to work, I started on a new project of mine. Before I fell asleep last night I decided to make a grave of sorts for mama. I wasn’t sure if part of it would work but it was worth a try. I swept some of my tears away and started.

I coated one of my talons in a flame and started to write in the glass pushing away molten glass. In the glass I wrote “R.I.P The Celestial Star Phoenix,” I didn’t know mama’s real name, so I used the title the system called her by, I didn’t know what the date was, so I used my age. Eventually when I find out the real date I will try to come back and change it. All in all, it read “R.I.P The Celestial Star Phoenix, Loving mother, 1 Week 3 Days,” now came the part I wasn’t sure would work. I took my tears and filled each letter, once filled I applied fire to it. I started with a low heat and slowly brought the temperature up till my tears melted. I was glad they did; my mama’s grave was written with the tears of her son ‘ I will never forget ’ I vowed to myself. I had one last addition, it was partly a whim but a good idea, nonetheless. I melted a pool of glass below the words, plucked one of my feathers and placed it within.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Once done I admired my work. It was a beautiful grave. I forgot to mention this but, I wrote in English cursive, after all it was mainly for me. A reminder of where my journey started and what she gave to allow me to. She didn’t explain the reasons behind all of this, but I had a guess. Having done all of this I looked at the sky. The sky was blue like earth, and a white star or sun ‘I like star better ’. I took off flying in the direction of the beautiful star.

The Flight was boring. The only interesting part was the revisiting of the dream I had, it wasn’t anything to revolutionary just my past self-hanging out and going on dates with the woman. I did notice something interesting though. In my dreams and the memories, I never heard my past name; I don’t even remember it, but instead of my old name it was my new name that was used. The woman’s name though was always static. I also used the [Ruminations] again gaining a new memory. To my disappointment it was of a place called “work”, it was a good memory. There was something I did notice as well. With each memory my thought process here changes, or well molds with my old thought process.

While flying I kept an eye out for monsters to fight, there were some options, but they were either way too strong or too weak to help my advancement. So, I decided to ask the system questions.

My first question revolved around skills and leveling for them. As it turns out there are minor thresholds. There is also major thresholds but that only applies to the class itself. The minor thresholds are in the middle of major thresholds. For example, there is a minor threshold at lv 16 for skills and a major threshold at 32 for classes. At these minor thresholds, the skill has a chance to change or upgrade. This is only a chance so, not all skills will change or upgrade, this especially applies to [Legacy], [Core], and [Ruminations] . Major thresholds on the other hand will always change or upgrade or even downgrade, this is the class advancement section and I get to choose what I want to do.

My second question was whether skills could change before or after the minor thresholds. The answer was yes it could, however, you have to reach certain requirements for that to happen. These requirements could be many different things depending on the skill and what potential upgrades there are.

I tried asking the system about my specific skills, but it spouted some nonsense about “not having access to administrative knowledge.” It would also give me an error code which my past self-found particularly funny the error code was “Error: 404 Page Not Found!” These issues caused me to stop asking questions for a bit.

Around noon I decided to take a break and see if I could find some lunch. Soaring high in the sky I kept an eye out for any potential prey. I still wanted to find something strong but not too strong. After searching for a bit, I saw something that sang to my instincts.

Below me slithered a smallish black and yellow snake. I say smallish but for an average mundane snake it was average. I knew it wasn’t mundane though, [What’s That?] said its level was lv 33. It was around the same strength of the lizard I fought but it was already past the second major threshold.

Not wanting to waist the opportunity, I wreathed myself in fire and dived. Diving as fast as I could, I collided with the snake on the ground and set it ablaze. After setting it a flame I took to the skies again and watched my prey. Moments later I was glad I looked as I saw a beam of light coalesce in its mouth and start to fire. Something told me I wouldn’t be able to negate all of its damage. I rotated, and folded my wing so there was less surface area for it to hit, and I would start to slow. The beam passed right by my head; it was way too close I know this because of alert. I had to change my strategy. I couldn’t just dive bomb this snake.

I decided to try something risky. I flipped upside down and dove again covering just my beak in a weak flame to try and trick it. Another beam formed and just like before it shot at me, but I was ready, I already had something prepared. I formed a very small fire ball right next to me and detonated it and pushed myself just out of the way of the beam.

As I got close to the snake, I coated my talons in flames and went for a grapple. My grapple connected and I flew up. There was two downsides to this tactic. First being if it decided to attack me, I wouldn’t have much reaction time. You could say to just drop it. That would work if its beam wasn’t faster than I could drop it. I was both wrong and right about those predictions, what I wasn’t expecting was it to start to glow, which wasn’t that bad the heat produced did nothing. What got me though was the multiple beams forming around it. My solution to this was to peck its head a lot. Turns out I didn’t need to peck a lot and this thing probably had low health because in just one strike it was dead.

[*Ding* You have slain [Yellow back snake – Radiant Lv 33] Bonus Experience acquired from slaying a monster more than four times your level]

[*Ding* [Alert] has leveled up 1  8!]

[*Ding* [Monster Slayer] has leveled up 1  8!]

[*Ding* [Multitasking] has leveled up 1  5]

[*Ding* [Core of The Celestial Star Phoenix] has leveled up 3  6!]

[*Ding* Note: High stress environments can help boost leveling!]

I was triumphant I killed the snake with no injuries except for the mental scare of the near-death experience. Which was weird because those attacks felt mostly like fire. I’d have to ask the system later about it. For now, though I get to have a nice lunch.

I glided down and found a safe place to land and landed. The sun was now directly above and after that fight I wasn’t quite sure my bearing was still set in the right direction. Now was a great time to eat and look over system notifications from before the fight.

[*Ding* [Parallel Minds] has leveled up 1  6!]

[*Ding* [Ruminations of The Past] has leveled up 5  6!]

All that was left now was [Parallel Minds] , [Multitasking] and [Ruminations] . Luckily, the answer to leveling this up has already been solved. I finished eating my lunch which was interesting, it didn’t taste great but something in me revealed in the taste. Once I finished eating, I discarded the carcass and took flight once again. This time I made sure to use [Multitask] as well.

While flying I focused on making smaller things, so I don’t waste too much mana. Unfortunately, with all my general skills active my mana regeneration was in the red. So, every now and then I had to stop using [Artist of Fire] . I also had to deactivate [Parallel Minds] every now and then. Which actually made me appreciate [Multitask] a lot more. When I only had one mind going, I had one part of my mind focused on the ground and the other on my flying, which I made harder on myself by performing acrobatics. And the whole time I had [Ruminations] going.

I had some interesting memories; this time it was less of my old girlfriend and more of my old family. Memories of trips, moments with my dad, me messing with my younger sister, and times with my mom. From my memories I could tell my old family and I were all pretty close when we had time together. My sister and I had school, so we weren’t home often, and I also had a part time job in high school, but when we did have time together it was treasured.

I knew when [Ruminations] capped because I stopped getting new memories. I still went over all of the memories, studying each one and when I had the mana creating sculptures of the people that used to be close to me.

It was starting to get dark, and I started to get tired. I know I wanted to travel by the stars in the skies but, after the long day of constant flight and a few snacks on weaker prey I was exhausted. Thing was I didn’t want to sleep out in the open. I did have some luck come my way though. In the distance I could see the desert start to transition from sand dunes to dry arid land. I looked up at the stars, picked a memorable star and continued my flight.

Not too long after I ended up in the other part of the desert. I was expecting a new message about changing regions from the system, but none came. So, I went to find a good tree to perch in, it took a bit, but I found one. I wasn’t expecting perching a tree to be so comfortable but surprisingly it was. I nestled down and checked my notifications before sleeping.

[*Ding* [Ruminations of The Past] has leveled up 6  8!]

[*Ding* [Multitask] has leveled up 5  8!]

[*Ding* [Parallel Minds] has leveled up 6  8!]

[*Ding* [Core of The Celestial Star Phoenix] has leveled up 6  8!]

[*Ding* Would you like to advance [Class 1: Child of the Star Phoenix – Inferno]. You are in a safe place; would you like to proceed with advancement? Yes/No!]

I was ready everything was capped; I was in a safe spot now was the time to do it. I selected yes and everything went white then black and suddenly I was somewhere else.