The morning sun cast long shadows through the forest canopy as I stretched my massive new wings, each feather catching the light like polished obsidian. Being a Haast Eagle made everything feel different - the air currents seemed more cooperative, the world below looked smaller, and breakfast... well, breakfast was about to get interesting.
From my perch atop the ancient pine, the river looked like a glittering snake winding through the landscape. My enhanced vision picked out individual fish scales flashing beneath the surface, each movement crystal clear despite being hundreds of feet away. Hunting as a Haast Eagle was almost unfair - like bringing a tank to a knife fight.
I launched myself from the branch, which creaked gratefully at being relieved of my considerable weight. The thermal currents caught my three-meter wingspan, lifting me effortlessly. Below, fish scattered at my shadow - all except one particularly oblivious trout that was about to learn a valuable lesson about situational awareness.
My dive was less of a splash and more of a surgical strike. Where before I needed precision and careful timing, now I simply... took what I wanted. My massive talons, each the size of my former beak, pierced the water with barely a ripple. The fish, substantial by my old standards, now felt like a mere snack. One gulp, and it was gone.
{Bioenergy: +1}
"Well, that's disappointing," I thought, noting the measly energy gain. Evolution had apparently raised the bar - like a video game where your starting enemies suddenly give minimal experience points. The fish that once seemed like decent meals now barely registered as more than appetizers.
While digesting my rather unsatisfying breakfast, I noticed something new in my mental interface - a shop icon that definitely hadn't been there before. The system, it seemed, was evolving along with me. "Curious," I mused, pecking at the new option.
The shop interface bloomed in my vision, displaying five tantalizing categories:
{Shop}
{Skills} {Cultivation techniques} {items} {Sign in} {Quests}
It was like having a celestial app store in my head. The sign-in option caught my attention first - who doesn't love free daily rewards?
{First day sign in, reward obtained}
{Basic Avian Beast technique (uncommon)}
{Next sign in, 1 year or after evolution}
it was greyed out.
he checked the description of the reward he just got.
{Basic Avian Beast technique (uncommon): the basic cultivation technique to advance in stages in F-tier and E-tier.}
The technique's description floated in my vision, promising advancement through the ranks of F-tier and E-tier.
He then clicked on the Quests icon by pecking.
{Evolve to a common beast} (claim reward)
He then clicked on claim the reward.
{Reward: Basic mana manipulation (F+)}
The moment I accepted the mana manipulation reward, it felt like someone had dropped a library directly into my brain. The knowledge hit like a mental thunderbolt, sending waves of pain through my consciousness. My screech echoed across the forest, probably sending every prey animal within a mile into hiding.
For thirty excruciating minutes, I perched there, trying not to fall off my branch while my mind reorganized itself around the new information. The pain was unlike anything I'd experienced - not physical agony, but the mental equivalent of trying to download the internet through a dial-up modem.
When the pain finally subsided, I discovered most of the shop's features were still locked - grayed out like unachievable achievements in a game. Only through evolution, it seemed, would I unlock their secrets.
The forest around me buzzed with life - squirrels chattering, deer moving cautiously through underbrush, smaller birds going about their business. But my attention was focused on something else entirely: tiny white particles floating through the air, barely visible even with my enhanced vision.
Mana. The very essence of power in this world, and now I could see it. The particles drifted like cosmic dust.
I had also gained knowledge of Basic Avian Beast technique.
From a common ranked beast, beasts could form beast cores, but common ranked beasts rarely had one. from uncommon ranked beasts, they automatically had one.
The technique I have tell me how to form one. I sat there a bit for meditation.
He reflected on sensing the energy with his basic mana manipulation, before he got the skill. he could faintly perceive some energy, but now with basic mana manipulation he could clearly see, small white particles floating around they were very scarce. but were there.
he tried to pull one closer, by imaging a suction force in his body. which got the particle closer and closer. but he failed as he broke his concentration.
The Second attempts to gather them were clumsy - imagine trying to catch soap bubbles with chopsticks.
It was already night time. it seems time really flew by, what appeared to him as few minutes, was an entire day almost.
he went back to his nest. he could still fit his body in there, as the nest was very wide. but he didn't know what would happen if he evolves one more time.
I tried meditating once again, to my joy I found them more abundant in the growing darkness than they had been in daylight.
But then I tried something different. Drawing on some half-remembered physics from my human life, I created a sort of spiritual vortex. The mana particle I targeted spun closer and closer, finally merging with my body in a tiny burst of energy.
{Bioenergy: +1}
A quick internal check revealed five mana particles now residing within me - one newly acquired, four apparently left over from evolution. Twenty needed for a beast core, according to my new knowledge. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
As I settled into my nest for the night - thankful it could still accommodate my enlarged form - I couldn't help but wonder what other secrets this system had in store. One thing was certain: between hunting, gathering mana, and working toward evolution, my days of being a simple eagle were over.
Though I did make a mental note to find bigger prey. These fish were starting to feel like eagle-sized sushi rolls, and I had a feeling my new form was capable of hunting much more interesting targets.