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Shaking my head, I went back to my Seed to get back into the game. There was practically no information on Druids, since people preferred more tech-oriented classes in the game. So naturally, there was no information about what Sub-Class I needed to get the Xeno-Shifter Advanced Class, or how to obtain it. I could only obediently follow Jarl’s instructions. However, once I was back ingame, a window appeared in front of me that made my eye twitch reflexively.

  New Skill Acquired!

  Cooking – Basic Level 3

  Exp: 52%

  The art of cooking is an important survival skill for any in the wild. While modern technology can make the skill obsolete, it is still important to understand for when the technology is unavailable.

  It’s even giving me skills for things I do outside of the game… I took a few moments to calm down after realizing that. There were a number of different ways such things were possible. A simple memory scan upon login would reveal the information, for example. Since the game was linked directly to my mind, it was entirely possible. It was just odd if that was the case, because games that use memory scans to identify skill usage in the real world typically grant the user any of their known skills when they make their character.

  I had a few thoughts about logging out and doing some hacking to get that skill, but I quickly cast that thought aside. Even if computers worked the same here as in the real world, it wasn’t worth the risk of getting caught. I’d just do some quick hacking work when I got to a computer I could practice on in the game.

  Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled episode of cultivating mana! Today we have… well, me, cultivating earth mana again. As expected, it took over six hours to get Earth Affinity to 5%, but after I did so, I was happy to see that I could pull mana from the earth just as fast as the mana was spent. It effectively created the same kind of circuit pattern that I would do between my hands when preparing magic.

  New Ability Unlocked!

  Earth Manipulation – Earth Affinity – ☆

  Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the ground around them.

  Only half a star rank? But more importantly, this is an ability, not a skill… I thought about it for a moment, and then pulled up my windows. As expected, there was an Ability Window separate from my Skill Window.

  Base

  Abilities

  Nature Magic

  Nature’s Grasp ★

  Alchemic Heal ★

  Alchemic Poison ★☆

  Alchemic Antidote ★☆

  Alchemic Sleep ★

  Wind Magic

  Gust ★

  Wind Bullet ★

  Nature Magic + Wind Magic

  Poison Spores ★★

  Earth Affinity

  Earth Manipulation ☆

  So abilities level up based on the relevant skills or affinities, rather than grinding them. Then is Earth Manipulation only half a star rank because Earth Affinity is at 5%? How many stars would it be if I managed to get it to 100%? I thought to myself as I maintained the cycling of earth mana. Like I had planned initially, it was time to go looking for an animal companion.

  I had given a bit of thought to what kind of companion I wanted while doing my cultivation, and ultimately I decided that the best thing for me would be a bird. While a wolf could track an animal through smells, a bird was able to fly and get a good view of the situation. And, if I was eventually able to copy the qualities of my animal companion, I’d much rather have the ability to fly than to sniff things really well.

  At this time, a sweet voice entered into my ear. “Ah, finally done?” Taking a quick look around, I found nobody in sight that would have caused the voice which seemed to belong to a little girl. The action did, however, earn a giggle from the voice. “Down here, down here!”

  Following the voice, I looked down to my wrist. Suddenly, a holographic display of a girl in her late teens appeared. She seemed extremely energetic, and the appearance she had taken was a girl still growing. Though, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t already exceptionally cute. It took several seconds for me to piece together the hologram’s identity.

  “…Celeste?”

  “That’s right! You were so busy before, I didn’t want to disturb you and ruin your efforts. It got really boring waiting, you know?” The little hologram puffed up her cheeks in a pouting expression, causing me to laugh. I hadn’t realized that Celeste would finish developing her personality while I was still cultivating, but really I should have. The store owner did say it would take no more than a day, and that was almost a full day ago.

  “Sorry, sorry. I see you ‘woke up’, though?” I was also a bit surprised by her personality. Since most of her time had been spent observing me cultivate earth mana, I had naturally assumed that she would have a more professional attitude like the main character of a Xianxia novel.

  “Yup. I completed my initial awakening cycle roughly five hours ago.” Celeste nodded her virtual head with a wide smile. “So, what are you going to do now? Not practice another element, right?”

  “No, I’m going to look for an animal companion. Hoping to get a bird of some kind.”

  After I said that, Celeste paused for a few moments before nodding her head in a decisive manner. “During your walk on the way here, I noted five different species of birds. From their reactions in the presence of you and the other girl, two seemed to be predatory, two were confirmed herbivores, and one was indifferent.”

  I thought about that for a moment, trying to decide what I wanted in my animal companion. An herbivore could just grab the fruits from nearby trees, rather than relying on itself or me to hunt for it. “Can you tell me about the two herbivores?”

  She nodded her head a fraction again. “Alright! The first one was roughly two feet tall, with a green coloring. Its beak was three inches long, and curved at the tip. When you passed it was eating some type of nut, but immediately dropped it and flew away. The other was a bit smaller, just one foot tall, with an unusual defense mechanism. As soon as it noticed you, it dropped the fruit it was eating and altered its coloration to blend into the tree behind it. This species possessed four thin wings and three long feathers in its tail.”

  Certainly not small birds… I had expected her to find some that were only a few inches tall, not two feet. “Alright, can you keep an eye out for the second one, and let me know if you see another one? Also, see if you can find any of the fruits it was eating, since we’ll need something to bribe it with.”

  “Can do.” She gave me that sweet smile again before the display vanished. Well, at least my AI companion was an energetic young girl, instead of something more abusive. And since she called this her initial awakening, she might still mature more later on.

  Bidding farewell to Jarl, I went off into the forest, being very careful about where I stepped. This deep in, it was far too likely that I would encounter an enemy. Not to mention, I was completely lost. I wasn’t too worried about not knowing where I was, though, since I could ask Celeste to help guide me back. Speaking of which, a couple minutes after I started walking, there was a buzz at my wrist.

  Looking down, there was a small arrow pointing up. Following it, I found a few fruits hanging from the tree above. Great… now how do I get them down? Shoot them down? No, I’m more likely to miss and accidentally hit a wild animal…. Guess that leaves just one option…

  I sighed in resignation, knowing I was going to regret this. Looking at the tree, there were no shortage of handholds to grab onto and climb the few meters I needed to reach the fruit. I wasn’t afraid of heights, more afraid of what might be hiding in them. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and climbed up, step by step until I was crawling along the branch. It was at this time that I looked down to my wrist again, and felt like crying.

  The arr
ow that had appeared to have been pointing at the fruit just out of my reach was now pointing in every direction at once. Don’t tell me… I looked around, and one by one the ‘leaves’ of this great tree shifted, changing from green to red as wings unfurled.

  “Uhm…Grab the fruit… and run… fast…” The little voice at my wrist sounded out meekly, no more eager to be in this situation than I was. They may be herbivores, but in this number they were still easily a threat to me.

  Reaching forward, I quickly grabbed two of the fruit from the branch I was hugging to chuck them into my inventory, and jumped off. Whether through luck or my stats, I landed without a hitch, and was able to immediately begin running. It wasn’t the sound of thousands of wings flapping at once, or the feeling of the wind buffeting the ground from the sheer number of birds flying through at a low altitude that worried me. It was the other sound coming from them.

  “Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine!” Hundreds of high pitched voices saying the same thing, like a swarm of tiny children. They can talk?! And they’re going to alert the whole forest at this rate!

  I ran, as hard and fast as I could, I ran. Past startled wolves, and sleeping bears, I ran. But they flew faster. Thankfully, their numbers managed to scare off the normal predators that would have been more than happy to eat me for lunch. Even casting a Gust spell behind me only gave me a brief respite as dozens of birds were knocked back.

  Less than a minute later, my vision had turned completely black, and I stood there awaiting death’s embrace, constantly hearing that one word repeated over and over again. And then I felt feathers all over my body, and was worried that they might be omnivores, not purely herbivores. Were they landing on me to go in for the kill?

  Minutes passed, and nothing happened. Every now and then, I would still hear that single word echoing around me, but otherwise I was simply wrapped within the strangest feather blanket the world has ever knock.

  Mine.. wait, don’t tell me they weren’t referring to those fruits… I slowly tried to move one arm, and was surprised to find that there was no resistance. The birds were clinging to my body, but there talons did not dig into my skin. The long feather tails that Celeste had noted seemed to help them in hugging my body to stop themselves from falling off without hurting. When I opened my eyes, I saw that all of the birds that weren’t able to find purchase on my body had instead landed in front of me.

  “Mine.” “Mine.” “Mine!”

  Since I was able to freely move, I sighed in relief. I seriously thought they were going to kill me there for a bit. Looking around, I pulled out those two fruits from my inventory. All at once, the eyes of the birds lit up, and I thought they might attack for real.

  “Mine!” “Mine!” “Mine!”

  Moving the fruits around, I saw that all of the birds had their eyes glued to them, but were not making any moves to attack. At random, I chose two of the birds to feed, ones which were greedily clinging to my shoulders. The two happily accepted the fruits, making a cooing sound as they did. The others, including the rest that had latched onto me, looked at the ground with a depressed atmosphere.

  “Aww….” They seemed to say at once before flying off again, leaving a confused half-elf alone with two happy birds perched on his shoulders.

  Chapter 13: The Lovebirds

  After taking a moment to think about what happened, I looked to the two birds that were happily rubbing their heads against me as if I were an old friend. Then, something occurred to me… The flock of birds which had managed to scare away everything with sheer numbers had just left… it wouldn’t be long before everything came back!

  “Celeste, I need directions back to the grove, now!” Since she’s been recording everything so far, she has to know which way to go for things, so long as I don’t keep my eyes closed when I run.

  “Sir, yes, sir!!” She said, appearing in a military dress up, and doing a silly salute. Then, as I began running for dear life for the second time today, she began guiding me back to where I had been cultivating. On the way there, I naturally caught sight of several animals returning back to their homes now that it appeared safe. A few of them recognized me and cringed away, as if fearing the swarm was right behind me again.

  Of course, there were several that chose to attack on sight out of frustration as well, including a pair of rather angry looking wolves. I was about three minutes away from the grove at a dead run, and with no way to kill the wolves. The two birds were still uselessly sitting on my shoulders, as if the wolves or the run were of no concern to them.

  Hastily, I thought through my list of spells, and realized there was only a couple of things that I could do to get them off my trail, but I had to act fast. Those teeth were starting to look very vivid whenever I turned my head back to look. In the same manner as I had fused my Alchemic Poison with Wind Magic, I started fusing Wind Magic and Alchemic Sleep. There was a ding in my head from a notification, but I was a bit too busy to take notice.

  Stretching my hands out to the side, I worked the makeshift spell to spread the sleep spores behind me. Even if it didn’t knock the wolves out, it should at least make them slow down for a bit! I kept casting the spell again and again, not daring to look back in case I was met with more teeth.

  By the time I was nearing the grove, my mana had almost completely run out. However, I had finally mustered up the courage to look back, seeing that there were apparently no longer any wolves chasing after me. I let out a sigh of relief, and dragged myself over to the small pond while my legs felt like they were ready to give out. I’ve never run so desperately in my life… and now I did it twice in one day. This can’t be good for my heart..

  Looking at the notification that had appeared during my run, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was just another spell notification, letting me know about the new spell Sleep Spores. However, I was a bit surprised when I heard a young voice speak up from nearby, in a rather amused tone. “What’s this? A couple of young lovebirds, huh?”

  Looking over, I saw Jarl smirking in my direction, and quickly looked around as if to find the couple he was talking about. I surely would have noticed people here on a date, right? This is too far out of town for there to be just anyone enjoying a stroll. Seeing my reaction my Jarl laugh earnestly. “The birds, they’re called lovebirds. A pretty common species in the forest, though many people tend to dislike them due to their clingy nature.”

  “Yeah… I noticed that too.” I turned to look at each of the birds on my shoulders, who seemed happy for even that little bit of attention. “What can you tell me about them…?” Asking him was a far safer option than trying to figure it out on my own, no matter how rewarding the latter experience is supposed to be.

  “Well, male lovebirds are quite rare, roughly one percent of the species. Thus, they are able to take any mate they want. The males also have decent combat abilities, on par with a full grown wolf, as their talons and beaks are sharper than the females. On the other hand, the females have the ability to camouflage themselves by altering the pigmentation in their feathers. They use this ability to try to attract a male, and hide from predators.

  “Females not chose as a male’s mate will often hide out in trees near their favorite fruit, earning it the name Heart’s Apple. Whenever someone comes by and picks the fruit, all of the surrounding females will swarm that person until they choose to feed one of them. After that, well… I think you get the picture.” He smirked slightly towards the two birds on my shoulders.

  “So… aside from their stealth ability…” Before I could even finish asking, he nodded his head.

  “Completely useless in a fight. Their talons are dull, and their beaks too curved to use as a weapon. Some tried to train them to use their tails as whips, but that never ended well.”

  Great… so I got two useless birds… Well, from the looks of it, nothing short of killing them will make them go away, and I wasn’t exactly looking for a combat pet. Being able to fly and gaining their stealth power is alread
y good enough of a reason to keep them.

  I sat down, or sprawled out on the ground, depending on how delicate you want to be about it. Once I recovered my mana, I sent a bit into each bird, hoping to establish the animal companion link as Jarl had described it. The birds seemed more than willing to allow it, and even guided the mana to make it happen more quickly. Once it was established, they both squawked out a resounding “Mine!”

  Hearing this reminded me of the swarm, and I cast a depressed look to Jarl. “Can they at least be trained to talk?”

  He smirked again at my misfortune, the bastard! “If you practice your Nature Magic with them enough, they may glean enough information to project a voice. That all depends on how quickly they learn, though.”

  I shook my head helplessly, and propped myself up to sit in a meditative stance. Okay…. gameplan, train Nature Magic for a little while until they show signs of being able to learn. Then, start cultivating Wind Affinity. Maybe these birds can pick that up and make themselves useful. In the meantime, I can try to copy their traits. Being able to fly and hide like that would certainly come in handy no matter where I was.

  “So… how exactly do I practice the bestial aspects of Nature Magic? Rita taught me how to do the plant side, but this doesn’t really seem similar at all.”

  Hearing my sudden question, Jarl looked up at me, and tilted his head before realization dawned on him. “Well, it’s actually quite similar. Just like with the plants, you need to analyze a beast with your mana, identify how they use their ability, and replicate the mana signature. For gaining body parts like wings, you have to carefully analyze the appropriate body part, in as much detail as you can, and then try to guide your mana within your body to match.”

  To demonstrate, he lifted one of his hands up, which quickly turned into an oversized bear paw, lengthening and widening with brown fur sprouting out. The fingers became indistinct as the paw form settled in. A moment later, it started the shift back to a normal hand. “Mastering either the plant or animal sides of Nature Magic will each grant extraordinary gifts. For instance, a master of the beast path can grant themselves eternal youth by simply shifting into a younger form. Likewise, a master of the plant path can use medicinal effects to achieve the same result.”