Chapter 22: Fire Fowl
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The pages of the brothers' Summoner's Grimoires began to flip then, revealing the information about the fowl before them.
[Species: Fire Fowl]
[Introduction: A giant fowl that dwells in the forest. Possessing a dazzling plume and omnivorous, it has a very short temper]
[Current Level: 2]
[Rank: Normal ⭐⭐]
[Race Talent: Fire breath +1]
[Bond (Beast)]
[(1) Each beast gains a 5% increase in strength if there are more than 2 beasts.]
[(2) Each beast gains a 10% increase in strength and an intimidation halo (minor) if there are more than 5 beasts.]
[Summary: Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!]
The fire fowl suddenly turned its head sharply and stared tightly at Chen Yining.
Man and fowl stared at each other—the beast's reputation of having a short temper was certainly deserved.
Angry bird… or the fire fowl, to be precise, abruptly puffed its comb, the down around its neck bristling just like an angry lion.
In the next instant, it breathed a straight jet of flames from its beak.
It shot to a distance of five meters before it finally faded.
Chen Yining, however, was standing over ten meters away from the fire fowl.
As such, he was not affected at all, aside from feeling a heat wave in the air in front of him.
On the other hand, the fire fowl realized that Chen Yining and the others were not backing off.
Extending its talons out of the bushes, the beast clawed the ground, putting up a look that said 'I'm very angry'.
Chen Yining realized with a start then—the bird wanted to intimidate them and scare them off.
"The noisier you are, the more obvious that you're hiding something." Chen Yining flashed a nasty smile.
He waved his hand, gesturing for Green Skin to advance.
Holding the steel shield in front of itself with its left hand and protecting its head, it carefully advanced while holding the rebar with his right hand.
The fire fowl shook its neck warily, blood filling its eyes instantly as it widened its beak, revealing the tight rows of tiny razor teeth within.
It flapped its wings, making itself appear huge and menacing.
Puffing its neck again, it breathed another jet of flames once more.
This time, however, the flames were much smaller than the one before.
It appeared that breathing fire in rapid succession had taken a toll on the beast.
Nonetheless, the fire fowl's flames managed to hit Green Skin's shield this time and pushed it backwards, though Green Skin managed to steady itself.
The flames appeared to carry a considerable impact force, and it was fortunate that the shield they prepared for Green Skin was heatproof thanks to a layer of heatproof materials embedded within it.
Bellowing, Green Skin rushed forward and swung its rebar viciously as a weapon.
There was a dull sound as it struck the muscles over the fire fowl's shoulder.
As if anguished, the fire fowl shook its head in irritation and crowed furiously.
It opened its beak that was lined with rows of razor-sharp tooth while flapping its wings wildly, using that momentum to crash toward Green Skin.
Green Skin kept its shield in front of itself and the fire fowl was knocked half a pace backwards after it slammed its head into the goblin's shield.
In the distance, Chen Yining was quite surprised.
After all, Green Skin now possessed frightening strength after evolving twice. Just moments before, it had completely overwhelmed the hobgoblin they had encountered in front of the farm in the strength stat.
And hobgoblins were virtually twice stronger than the average adult human.
It was therefore certainly unnecessary to mention Green Skin there, who had evolved into a goblin warrior.
"That fire fowl seem to be stronger than the faceshifting spider," Chen Jing said.
"That seems to be the case for now, but that might not be the case." Chen Yining nodded. "The faceshifting spider was dealt with too quickly and did not manage to reveal many of its techniques.
"Doll monkey, fire fowl, faceshifting spider… those are three most common magical beasts in this forest, barring the goblins. We might run into more of them in the future," Chen Jing said as he studied the fire fowl seriously, stroking his chin.
Chen Yining's gaze twinkled then.
Thanks to the unique ability he possessed, under most circumstances, the more summoned beast he owned, the better.
With high basic stats as a prerequisite, he could could develop excellent individual summoned beasts, which also helped with fusing summoned beasts.
But through the same principle, a rabbit that was strengthened ten times would never win against a dragon strengthened twice.
That said, the difficulty in strengthening said rabbit over ten times was much simpler—the condition being the ability to gather the strengthening materials needed.
Everyone had to weigh the pros and cons themselves.
Therefore, there was nothing much to worry about with fire fowls, since they were quite common in this forest.
Judging from the one they are looking at right now, the base stats of the fire fowl was much higher than the goblins. In fact, they might not be a match for those birds after evolving just once to hobgoblins, and logically speaking, the fire fowl should be stronger than goblin warriors which evolved twice.
After all, its fire breath had a range of up to five meters and it had considerable strength as well as razor-sharp talons. It would be over if it managed to hit one's belly and claw out one's guts.
"Do you want that fire fowl?"
Cheng Jing hesitated for a moment, but shook his head. "No. I'll tame my own summoned beast; I don't want to rely on you."
Chen Yining chuckled. His younger brother was proving a little obstinate after recently graduating from university.
Whatever.
Chen Yining did not try to force him either.
"I'm going to tame it," he said then.
That left Chen Jing quite surprised, since the fire fowls' bond bonus was bad no matter how he looked at it, not to mention that beast bonds were the most common bond.
"There are a lot of fire fowls in that forest," Chen Yining explained. "Moreover, there's nothing definitive when it comes to evolution—who knows, a few more evolutions and it would become a phoenix."
"A fire phoenix?" Chen Jing chuckled.
Still, he thought that it was logical—since his brother had that special ability of his, taming common beasts like the fire fowl was definitely the smartest thing to do, since it would allow rapid evolution.
Meanwhile, the fire fowl, flapping its wings, bounded up to five meters in the air and streaked toward Chen Yining!
The fire fowl actually understood the principle of defeating an enemy by capturing their chief!
Chen Yining promptly darted behind some obstcales nearby.
However, two of the fire fowl's talons were about to land on Chen Yining… but the Summoner's Grimoire floating in front of him suddenly released a bright white fluorescent light that shielded him.
The fire fowl felt as if it claws had touched an invisible screen when it reached the fluorescent light, which nullified its attack and knocked it backward.
Chen Yining tried to seize the moment for a counterattack with the protection of the Summoner's Grimoire. Still, he soon realized that the invisible screen blocked both attacks targeting him as well as his own attacks, keeping him isolated beyond the battle.
Still, it was simple if he wanted to continue the fight—he just had to dispel the protective screen from Summoner's Grimoire, allowing him to fight again.
But Chen Yining was not that much of a fool.
Right now, he should play the role of a summoner as it was intended.
Meanwhile, Green Skin was beside itself in fury when it saw that his master was attacked.
It charged viciously and seized the fire fowl by its rear talon, pulling it down firmly and slamming it to the ground.
Then, pinning itself atop the bird, it repeatedly stabbed its rebar sharply down the fire fowl's neck.
Having been refined by gnomes, the rebar had spiraling sharp edge at it front.
As if a dam was punctured, blood shot out furiously in the instant that a single wound was pierced into the fowl.
-- Gift
received