Free Web NovelChapter 4: 35 Evolutionary Paths unlocked
Jimmy tightened his legs, and rocked forward so he could prop himself up on his feet.
Well, at least, he tried.
He did gain some momentum, but he fell on his face.
Every following result was the same, or similar.
Jimmy tried his best to stand up and walk, but his body wasn’t ready. This was a task that he could not cross off of the list just yet.
"Damn it. I am too fat." He pouted, "This is your fault, system. You made me irritate my parents to feed me more."
[That is hardly the case.]
[As I said, you knocked off the four other tasks a lot sooner than I expected. You’re simply too young to walk yet. You’re just eight days old.]
[Give yourself some time. You’ll be able to walk soon, and when you do, you’ll be a bit more ready to face the world because of the tasks you completed.]
[In the meantime, try to maintain your current progress. Eat a lot of food, and move whenever you can.]
"Pft..." he laid on his stomach, "Okay."
...
Thirteen days passed by quickly enough, and now, he was a full three weeks old.
He grew from weighing a few grams, to a whole 400 grams (14 ounces).
From beak to tail, he was 40cm (15.7 inches) long.
It was fair to say that he was a bulky baby. A bird that outgrew his siblings by a third, because he kept pestering his parents for more food. Crows grew rapidly while nesting, and Jimmy grew especially fast.
Since the system kept sweet-talking him about the progress he made, he was very proud of where he stood in terms of progress right now. He felt superior.
However, he grew quite bored.
The days he spent in the nest got quite repetitive. He could only fight his siblings so many times a day, which was his main entertainment, but other than that, he felt trapped in this nest. Endless food and comfort wasn’t as glamorous as he thought it would be.
"To hell with walking, I want to fly already," he said.
"Be patient," his mother answered, hearing yet another of his complaints, "You’re not supposed to leave the nest yet, my chubby champion."
Jimmy did not say another word. He was irritated, so he focused on what he could try to do right now, within the safety of the aging nest.
Hard-headed, he convinced himself that this was the day for him to complete the only other task that remained in the list that the system gave him. He wanted to walk.
So far, he was only able to take a few steps at a time before he fell over. The system didn’t count them, and insisted that he had to be fully able to walk in order for the remaining task to be marked as complete.
Jimmy was half-sure that he’d topple over again, but after a good night’s rest, he gave it another shot. His little ego pushed him to try.
He rocked forward, and stood up in one go. He wasn’t nervous, and stood up half-mindedly, as he had done many times before when he tried to walk.
"Let’s see..." he took the first step.
Then he took another, then another.
Jimmy managed to put twelve steps in before he fell over.
"Good start," he nodded. "Better than yesterday."
Jimmy spent his day trying to walk. Every attempt was considered a fail, and yet he felt confident. His progress was rapid.
At one point, at the dead of night, he got thirty steps in before he toppled over. This was his personal record, and he would smirk if his beak bent that way.
"Hehe..." he chuckled.
Afterwards, he gave it another shot. He started walking again.
To make things harder for himself, he hopped around in his nest, pushing his balance to its limit. He did so many times, and half of the time, he landed on his feet. He was clumsy, sure, but his siblings couldn’t even put a few steps in.
He was far ahead of them!
Minutes later, as he kept testing his balance, the system spooked him with a notification.
[Congratulations! You successfully completed task five! You’re finally able to walk on your own, making you that much more independent.]
[500 system points have been added to your balance as a reward.]
"Oh," he stopped on the spot, "I almost forgot about the task. Walking is pretty fun."
At three weeks old, his human consciousness was still considerably restricted by his crow brain, but he wasn’t as dumb as he used to be. Considering his rapid growth-rate, he was close to being considered an adult crow, so that worked to his advantage a little bit.
With that said, he asked, "Okay... I spent all that time learning to walk, and you gave me... system points? What were they about again? I don’t think we talked about them."
[System points are your best friend. You can buy a lot of abilities with them, of various categories, including magic, but since I mainly offer evolutionary paths, I’d recommend that you choose and buy one of those.]
[As of now, thirty-five evolutionary paths are available to you.]
"Slow down, system," he tried to rub his head, to help process what he said, but his wings couldn’t provide him with such relief. "Am I supposed to turn into an eagle or something? I’m a crow, and I’m comfortable being a crow."
[You don’t have to change your species entirely. That’s a long, and painful process anyway, so I’d recommend you stick to the paths that help you remain a crow, just a much stronger one.]
[Later on, if you’re aching for a change, more evolutionary paths will be unlocked as you evolve, and complete the tasks I assign you.]
[The possibilities are nearly limitless, but for now, how about you browse through the thirty-five evolutionary paths, and pick the one you want to go through with.]
Shortly after, a bright, blue and white system tab popped up in front of him. He squinted his eyes.
"I remember this..." he said, "It almost burned my eyes out the first time... same shit now."
The first evolutionary path that appeared in front of him was The Cockatrice Path. He could evolve into the equivalent of a dragon/chicken hybrid if he wanted to. The downsides were that he’d be as tall as a chicken, and mostly flightless.
"No," he was almost annoyed by this option, and browsed the second one. "Oh... an actual chicken? Hell no. Even worse than the one with the cock."
The third option wasn’t as promising either. He could choose to evolve into a pelican. Each path so far cost under one-hundred system points to buy, and he could see why.
"Weird beak," he nearly scoffed in disgust, "Worse than a flamingo."
The fourth option, as it had it, was a flaming flamingo. It was the equivalent of a tall bird being a fire mage.
"God damn it! I hate how cool that looks." He was beyond annoyed.
So annoyed in fact, that he subconsciously swept to the other option in line, just so he wouldn’t have to admit defeat to the flamingo.
"Hmm..." his pupils widened.
