Kaelen was checking Elias for any wounds after Alaric brought him down, but I was frozen in place. That was a bit of exaggeration, but even when I joined them, my mind was still on the gift. Player #KTWC-52931 had sent me something that can be used as a weapon, but its name screamed dangerous. It had gifted me something precious, and Ability Stone, but it was not a relatively normal one like my fire ability. Instead, it was "Ability Stone: Daemonic Transformation". I did not need this at the moment, and I had no idea if it would even result in something good.

Probably not.

My instincts were surprisingly quiet, and it was as if they silently accepted that it wasn't too bad of an idea to take in the ability stone. The other personality inside my head was, unsurprisingly, a giant advocate for absorbing the stone, supporting her argument with her classic Powerful! explanation. Needless to say, I did not listen to her.

Kaelen shook me out of my thoughts, "Terra, are you listening?"

"Huh?" I asked, looking a little guilty.

"We are discussing what to do next," she said patiently, and somehow I felt worse, "Elias wants to 'punch some more monsters and show them what we've got' but I think we should just go back."

I didn't hesitate, "I agree with Elias. It is still early in the day and we can use this time to get some easy kills. For loot and for the Major Event."

That had been what I wanted to do after we won the battle, but I added, "But if you want to go back, we won't stop you."

Elias nodded, causing Kaelen to scoff playfully, "Of course I won't abandon the two of you. What kind of person do you think I am?"

As we began walking back in the direction of the safe space entrance so that we could stay close to the area in case another dangerous monster like the skeleton spotted us, another notification popped up at the side of my eyes. It was a message from my System Team of workers, and I read it eagerly, expecting some kind of secret information that would get me ahead of others. Instead, it was a piece of bad(?) news.

Raven, we saw the contents of your gift. If you want to use the stone, you must use it soon. Because it was sent from a different universe altogether, it was worn down severely and it might just dissolve in a few hours. We recommend that you be cautious use it, but no matter your decision, you must make it quickly.

There was two crossed out words, but I could not read them because they were gone too fast. They could be important, or maybe the Worker just made a typing mistake, but there was no way I'd ever find out. Regardless, with two most likely unrelated parties giving me the same advice and my gut feelings not opposing to absorbing the stone, I was really considering it.

Hydra's voice filled my head, 'What's going on? You look distracted. There is an enemy about five metres from you.'

'I was sent this stone...' I explained the situation to him, and the dragon immediately replied.

'Are you stupid, little hatchling?' he growled, sounding exasperated, 'When you get a chance to gain power, you take it.'

That is the third entity to tell me the same thing. Might as well. I'll do it after dealing with whatever monster Hydra was talking about. With a soft voice so as to not startle the beast in front of us, I informed Kaelen and Elias of what Hydra had reported, "My dragon partner said he saw an enemy five metres... about four now, in front of us."

Elias shrugged, "The trees are so thick that I can't see anything."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

At that moment, a sharp shriek could be heard from somewhere in front of us, and we rushed forward to find a young man lying on the ground. There was no monster to be seen. There weren't any visible wounds or scars, but he was just lying there, unmoving. I bent down to touch his neck. His skin was still reasonably warm, and although I did not major in forensics, I had some basic knowledge. The information I had told me that the man was either still alive or was just killed a few minutes ago. There was no pulse, though, which made it clear that it was the latter.

Before I could tell the others about what I had found, a pool of murky darkness rose out of the man's chest. It morphed into the rough shape of a large eagle, the size of Alaric, and there was a skull mask where its face was supposed to be. I stepped back, trying to figure out a plan to defeat it. I could hear Hydra descending from his position up in the canopy, crushing branches as he landed. At the same time, Kaelen worked fast, trapping it in a force field and protecting us with another, but the creature simply phased out of the force field. Kaelen gasped, "How could that be possible?"

I had the same question, and Hydra answered it in my head, 'I had this kind of creature back home, too. They are not exactly the same, but similar enough from what we've just seen. You can't fight it with physical damage - It is just made out of shadows. You don't have a shadow manipulator on hand, but maybe the daemon transformation can help you?'

I grumbled. I knew that Hydra was not lying from our emotion link, but it did not mean that I liked it. I called the stone out from my Inventory, and it gave off waves of eerie energy that reminded me of radiation. I visualized the stone being absorbed into my body, and it melted into my palm, giving me a cold electric jolt that sent me shivering all over. It didn't matter though. If this worked, I would be willing to overlook how uncomfortable the absorption process is.

Kaelen's voice is nervous, "The creature... has stopped moving, but my force fields can't stop it from getting to us. Terra, Elias, any ideas?"

I nodded, but did not explain - I did not even know how this ability worked. I drew force from the ability, just like the previous time with the fire. However, since I had no idea what I was getting into, I let the ability take me wherever it wanted. A system ding ringed in my ears as the transformation began.

Evaluating Player Raven Dawn... ERROR! 5!@#%!24954 ERROR!

User is an Entity... Reevaluating... ERROR! %#@%^! ERROR!

Entity-Player Raven Dawn cannot be evaluated. 50% 50% will be taken.

Before the words of the System could sink in, I felt the pain of the transformation kick in. It was an understatement to say that it was absolutely agonizing. When they depicted someone suddenly gaining wings and horns in those fantasy stories, they did not mention that growing bones and skin in a few seconds puts a great strain on the person's body. There was a lot of cracking and tearing as my skin and bones grew to accomodate my new body. It hurt, terribly, and I could see stars before my eyes, but that was not it. Tendons pulled and muscles stretched, giving me sporadic spasms and jolts all over my body.

It really took all of my willpower not to fall over and give up. However, the worst part ended quickly. As the last piece of bone finally clicked into place, a deep ache ran throughout my entire being. I shuddered. I would need some time to get used to it, but I did not have the luxury of time.

The shadow eagle was startled by my transformation and began flying towards us. We ducked, but it swiftly turned to divebomb us once more. I tried to control its shadows like Hydra had suggested when he recommended for me to use the stone, but it did not work the way I wanted it to. Although I could feel them with my mind, they struggled and fought against my willpower. New as I was to this power, I could not handle them. There was some despair as I considered the possibility that even with the shadow control that this new form granted me, it might not be enough to do any damage to the eagle.

Then, some kind of secondary instinct spoke to me, and with much wariness but not much choice, I listened to it. I took off towards the sky, exerting a lot of energy to control my wings, until I was at eye level to the two empty holes in its skull mask. It felt like I had just run a marathon, but this was only half of the job. I called for the monster's shadows to answer my call, and surprisingly, some did. It gave me a big headache, of course, and it only lasted for a few seconds before it regained its bearings.

The creature looked angrier than ever, but now that I had a way to defeat it, it suddenly did not feel as menacing. I grinned, focusing on the shadows that the owl was comprised of, and launched my attacks.