Free Web NovelChapter 12: Swordsmanship Comprehension evolution (1/7)
[Confirmed]
[Initiating...]
To no surprise, Jimmy started jumping around like he was walking on lava.
"Fuck fuck fuck," he took in deep breaths, "Are you helping me evolve, or ripping my feet off?!"
The system didn’t answer. Every sort of movement hurt him like a fresh stab. Not moving at all brought him the same result.
Jimmy suffered like this for five minutes. He cawed, cried, and rolled around within some random alleyway.
Some humans even snuck over, and tried to see what all of the commotion was about. When they saw a crow rolling around, they feared that he had caught some sort of disease, so they ran away as fast as they could.
They didn’t have the guts to nip the disease in the bud, and this worked to his advantage greatly, because he would’ve been hit with a shovel otherwise. It would be infuriating, since he wasn’t sick to begin with.
[Swordsmanship Comprehension implemented.]
[-370 system points]
[Remaining points: 284]
"Finally," he sighed in relief.
Jimmy was covered in dust and mud. He had rolled around like a child throwing a tantrum, and now, he looked like he was close to death, but on the contrary, as the burning sensation of pain faded away, he felt more powerful than ever!
He bounced back on his feet, and stretched one leg forward as if he was planning something mischievous. In reality, he lifted his leg as high as he could, so as to inspect his foot better.
To his horrifying surprise, he discovered that he could tilt his foot to the left by a stunning 60° now, without straining his foot, or feeling any pain whatsoever! The movement of his claws was also more flexible. He could control each claw separately, a skill popular amongst pianists, except pianists could move each finger with ease. Not their toes.
"This was not in the evolution’s description," he said, "But I like it."
[You should feel comfortable with a sword now. I added a joint, half an inch above your claws. A second ankle, really.]
[This way, you can swing any blade with a lot more ease. You should also be able to handle a blade as decently as an amateur swordsman, which is a big upgrade from what you knew. Birds aren’t supposed to wield swords at all.]
"I understand," he nodded, "Honestly, I would’ve paid two-thousand points for an evolution like this. I feel lucky to have paid so little."
Moments after, Jimmy discovered that he spoke too soon. The beginning of the evolutionary branch dedicated to assassin skills, now flashed a number.
"Level one out of seven, huh?" He said, "So I can upgrade the Swordsmanship Comprehension evolution six more times? Now that’s gonna be expensive."
[You can always visit this option later. As you may see in the assassin branch, two more options have been unlocked. One of them is a skill, the other, an evolution.]
"I see," he nodded, "The Two-clawed Wielding skill is the second thing I wanted to buy, but I don’t know if I can carry a sword that would need both my claws, just to swing it."
[You may need to buff your size first, yes.]
"I’m gonna need a lot of points for that," he said, "So I’m not going to touch that skill for now."
Instead, Jimmy focused on the third thing he wanted to buy, which was a decent IQ upgrade. He requested it, and the system implemented it right away.
Thankfully, this evolution did not hurt. He just felt slightly more alert all of a sudden.
[IQ upgrade complete.]
[-200 system points]
[Remaining points: 84]
[IQ: 104 points >>> 114 points]
"Evolving is expensive," he said, "I almost ran out of points already, but... let’s hope this evolution is worth my while."
Jimmy didn’t feel a great difference from evolving his intelligence. Primarily, he bought it because it unlocked another option on the short evolutionary branch, revolving intelligence.
It was called MQ. Its description was simple.
[Increase your comprehension of the Arcane Arts and Mana.]
The base cost of this single upgrade was a thousand system points, and he could tell that it was the kind of option that he could upgrade tens of times, or limitlessly, if it did not have a bracket at all. He just had to rack up points and buy them.
"My MQ is just five points," he sighed, inwardly, he was embarrassed, "That’s probably the arcane equivalent of being as smart as a house plant. I have to look into magic soon. But first, I have to get my hands on a weapon. I won’t have to look for salt if I can chop Stone Worms in half."
Jimmy spread his wings wide and flew above the buildings. He was hoping to find a dagger of some sorts, as he was quite eager to put his new evolution to the test.
"Maybe I can steal one?" He said, "All these people down there... one of them should have a rusty dagger that they don’t use anymore. Maybe I can find one in the rooftops? I don’t need a fancy weapon, it just has to be a little bit sharp."
His search didn’t yield him any results. Worse yet, he was still hungry, as he hadn’t been able to feed on the worm he had killed. He figured that the worm was either too salty, or still dangerous to eat.
Eventually, his grumbling stomach led him to a busy part of the city. He saw an apple on a merchant’s stand, as fresh as it could be. Its red, juicy-looking exterior allured him.
Jimmy swooped by the stand, sunk his claw on the apple, and flew away with it. He could hear the merchant yelling at him from the ground, but he didn’t care to hear it. He couldn’t understand the merchant anyway.
He landed on a rooftop, and started pecking on the apple. A sweet delicacy for a crow in the city, as he hadn’t seen a single fruit tree so far.
As he gobbled down on the apple, he saw three large crows land in front of him. Each crow had a dagger on one of their claws.
"Hello," he said, "Am I in trouble... It was just an apple. I was hungry."
