After leaving the apartment and once again hitting the streets with flashlights in their hand and the moon above their head to illuminate the path for them in the dark, rather than seeing zombies they came across many scavenging birds on the roads: Crows, ravens, vultures and even some hawks. It was rare to see some of them around the city let alone seeing them in these large groups.

They were feeding on the dead bodies scattered all over the city and not just them. There were also dogs and cats. While birds moved in large herds, the dogs and the cats the group saw were mostly in small groups. They looked threatened and in a defensive mood, checking around again and again as if they couldn’t feel safe, expecting something to hunt them down.

Kaan would expect the dogs to form a big pack but after a while, he saw the reason why they acted like this. The reason for it was partially the birds and zombies of course but the real reason was some of their kin were having abnormal changes.

The group saw a few of them. Their kin avoided these lone ones as if they were not what they were once anymore, not a part of their kin. They were abnormally skinny and wild. While their fur looked lively in some areas of their body there were rashes and their pupils shook uncontrollably now and then, were they sick somehow? Also, they were much bigger and had other not-so-big modifications on their body which made them look even more unsettling.

Although they were not overly aggressive, they certainly looked contained danger. Those little growls, suddenly lunging onwards or standing without making any move, their body parts suddenly jerk and distort in disturbing ways… Especially to the ones who got close enough to them, they showed no mercy.

As they continued their path avoiding most of the large groups, Kaan saw the deformed dogs and cats moving towards the birds’ side from time to time. They looked like they wanted to have domination over them but even in their situation, they were afraid of getting close too to birds.

It seemed that the dead bodies of other animals, which were fool enough to attack the big herd, lying in front of them with lots of claw wounds intimidated and drag out the fear. So they only snatch the bodies away from them to feed on.

But not all of them listened to their fear, one of the bigger deformed dogs lunged towards a raven which annoyed it for a while and tear it into pieces with its sharp teeth. Not long after tens of raven was flying over its body, attacking it with their claws and beaks as they encircled it. The dog's angry howls quickly turn into painful whines containing great agony and Kaan couldn’t see its body anymore as the birds surrounded it fully.

After a while, the sound of the deformed dog was cut. When the herd of ravens left its body and flew away, Kaan saw its mauled corpse lying on the ground. Its head was so badly damaged there was no way you could decipher what its face looked like before.

Kaan was only able to see the flesh covered with dirty blood, feathers and fur. Half of its neck was gone and only half of its limbs were in contact with its chest and what was left of its body was covered in claw wounds. It joined the piled corpses of animals in front of the herd, playing its role as intimidation for them to not mess with the herd again.

It happened quite further away from the group and it seemed it was only Kaan was the one who could catch this brutal display.

“Guys, look at that!”

Dean pointed out one specific raven in the crowd of birds excitedly. He didn’t have any sign of intimidation or fear from their new discovery of changing animals on his face or voice, he even looked fascinated by it as he eyed them with a smile on his face.

The group focused on the raven he pointed out. Though there were lots of ravens and crows in their point of view when you once you located the raven Dean was pointing out, it was hard to lose it from your sight. It had four eyes and a large, bulked body making it look as if it was not from the same species as the ravens around it.

Yet it looked like a guard for its species, like a leader, watching around for danger as the others feed on the dead and intimidating the others with its presence who were fool enough to attack them. Its kin gathered around its presence as if they knew it was the leader and listened to its order.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“That’s one big raven and what’s with the four eyes? Are animals also getting affected by the system? How would they even level? Do they even level up like us?”

Emily said asked out loud as she examined to big raven of the group. Her questions were mostly for herself as she speculated how things would go from here with animals and other life forms apart from humans. She looked quite interested in this new aspect of the system.

“Whatever it is, it's good as long as they only attack the zombie. Let’s move on before we gather their attention. They do not seem to retain themselves from feeding on humans and we’re too young to be a bird food, ey?”

Thar said jokingly as he tried to get the group moving but he was very serious with his words. He didn’t put much thought into sudden changes in animals as he didn’t think it was needed, he wasn’t intimated by the changes, they were already dealing with monsters. It didn’t make much of a difference in his eyes.

The thing he thought about was how dangerous the situation could be as he looked at the trio who idly examined the ravens feed on the dead bodies scattered around. They didn’t seem too alarmed by the scenery in front of them but he was not able to be too relaxed like them.

He was already aware of some of the birds were eying their group from both air and earth and having them watching made him really disturbed. They felt weirdly intelligent for an animal as if they were eyeing intruders in their area, ready to attack. Thar thought It would be very troublesome if they suddenly decided to attack them, would they be to hold them back? They would probably find a way to deal with it as they did until now but he didn’t want to things come to that.

‘Now I think about it I haven’t seen many animals in my vision. Only companions of beast tamers or classes similar to it and the local monsters. Is this situation something normal or unexpected?’

Kaan also examined the birds for a while and he saw only two sticking out from the rest so but maybe only just some individuals from their species. He only came across to anomaly of an animal having a class for once.

While he knew animals and some monsters could be evolved in the wild by themselves or by classes like [Beastmaster], he only saw changes like these, size, speed, and strength, were made by the owners of specified classes.

He knew [Beastmaster] [Beast tamers] and [Sprit Caller] and classes which revolved around summoned or tamed beasts were able to change or bring variety to species of animals. Other than that the animals he saw in his visions didn’t have visible physician changes without an owner as the ‘Great design’ enforced them into their paths. They can be bigger or stronger than their kin very well but if they had two horns from the beginning, they wouldn’t have a third horn without an outer influence.

Kaan looked for a change in their physical forms by examining their beaks, wings and leg but it looked like only one of them had four eyes and that was it. As exceptions didn’t break the rules, Kaan was not very interested in these changes.

While they might be useful and dangerous depending on their change, Kaan know they had limits which they cannot break. The monsters were and would be much more deadly for them no matter what.

After examining the animals a little bit more the group once again move in full speed towards the heeding Thar’s words. While the nighttime might have been more dangerous thanks to their light sources, it didn’t create much difference from moving in the daylight.

A few animals gave a few growls and but none of them attacked, they mostly avoid the group. All in all, Kaan loved moving in the dark with moonlight above them and a light breeze hitting his face from time to time more than moving in the daylight. The night felt quiet and tranquil, calm in this deadly and changing world.

When they were finally getting out of the city and reached the forest track, the group encountered one of the houses which was fully infested by some kind of purplish mushroom. Its walls were fully covered with thick vines, or maybe it was its root, and there were bodies which were constricted and glued by those vines: dogs, cats, birds, humans, zombies.

They were covered in some kind of substance secreted by the mushroom, which probably played the role of making digestion easier, and some of them were still moving as they were consumed by the mushroom.

The areas where prey was caught were more of a dark reddish-purple mix as the mass of the mushroom twisted, pulsated over its prey and crushed it before fully engulfing it inside its large mass and becoming one with it. Quickly new mushrooms sprout from the area where death was consumed.

Other than that the thick tendrils were sticking out to the streets from the mass of green mushrooms, looking for prey to feed on. The group avoided them easily and continued their ways. However, Kaan took a photo of it out of interest.