บท 2: I'm a chick but not just a bird

[Would you like to evolve?]

[Yes] [No]

Hold on, hold on, hold on... what just even happened. That wet feeling I felt earlier is now gone. I leveled up twice, I gained two skills, and now I can evolve!? This happened way too fast. Let me check my status...

『Status』

[Name: None]

[Race: Feather]

[Status: Confused]

[Level: 2/2] [Evolution available]

[HP: 5/5 MP: 0/0 SP: 0/0]

[Skills: [******] [Spark] [Escape]

[Titles: [Blessed by ********* ****** of *************]

Nothing really changed other than my level and that I gained two skills. Is there a way for me to know what those skills do? Maybe I should've tried this earlier on that censored skill. Where do I even start to understand what the skills do? Maybe if I stare at it long enough, it will-

[******]

[Evolve to reveal more information]

Oh, it worked! It seems I'm not strong enough to find out what this skill is called... or what it does. I'm going to assume that it's the same thing for my title. Let's check just in case though.

[Blessed by ********* ****** of *************]

[Evolve to reveal more information]

Yeah, I knew it. Should I check my other skills? I'm starting to get restless for that evolve option. Let's do it quickly and satisfy my desire for it.

[Spark]

[A small spark of electricity, something akin to a static shock.]

[Escape]

[Raises speed stat by 3 for 5 seconds. (Unavailable due to no speed stat)]

Alright, well, I have some more skills now. Lets proceed with that evolution.

[Evolution available]

[Yes] [No]

"Yes!" I shout in my mind.

My body begins to heat up, and I feel an excruciating pain that radiates through every molecule of my being. My mind is slipping between the border of being conscious and unconscious. The pain is leagues above any of the injuries I sustained in my past life.

Soon the pain becomes too unbearable that I get knocked unconscious.

Arrggghh... My head hurts so much. Wait, my head!? I instinctively open my eyes to find myself sprawled across the ground, surrounded by trees. Holy crap! I can see! Let me get up and check if my limbs are back. Are they back... what is this?

I look down to check if I have my limbs back, which they are... but... they look like wings. Very soft and delicate wings replaced my arms. The wings are black with stripes of yellow in the shape of lightning bolts.

I look down to check my legs to see 2 skinny pale noodles with 3 dark grey talons on the end of each noodle. The black feathers on my body go all the way down to where my knees are supposed to be.

I start to feel my face with my wings and find a sharp beak attached to my face. Before I could check my status, multiple notifications alert me of some exciting and aggravating news.

[Congratulations on evolving to Lightning Cursed Wings]

[Due to requirements being met, you have become a variant]

[Spark has evolved to Shock]

[Escape has evolved to Boost]

[You have been granted a gender]

[You are now a girl]

I see... I see... EHHHHH! I'M A GIRL NOW! Fuck, this has to be the work of that damn devil. Does that mean my brother is gone...

I look down to check if he is still there, but to no surprise, nothing is there. There isn't even a reproductive organ; it's just feathers. How does this species even reproduce? It was a devastating loss.

Well... I guess that would be disturbing to see a chick with a... I don't want to imagine it... AHHH! GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD! THE PICTURE! IT WON'T LEAVE!

Wel... Fly high, my brother... *sniff*.

*sigh* you can't change what has already been done. Okay, let's check what I obtained besides the gender switch. I'm a Cursed Wings species, and I'm guessing the lightning part makes me a variant. Wait, I can check my status...

『Status』

[Name: None]

[Race: Cursed Wings (Lightning)]

[Status: Slightly Aggravated]

[Level: 0/10]

[HP: 15/15 MP: 5/5 SP: 5/5]

[Strength: 2]

[Defense: 1]

[Magic: 4]

[Speed: 4]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 5]

[Skills: [******] [Shock] [Boost] [Peck]

[Titles: [Blessed by ********* ****** of *************]

Hmmm... I was right about the Cursed Wings being the race and that I'm a lightning-type variant. I wonder why I became a variant, and it could be because of that [Spark] skill... just more questions to be added to the pile.

I'm assuming Cursed Wings is a bird because of how I look. Wait, can I inspect my race like I can with my skills and titles? Let's try it out, and if it does work, that would be extremely helpful.

[Cursed Wings]

[An extinct race of monsters that wasn't discovered with the innate skill [******].]

So I evolved into Cursed Wings because of the censored skill. I want to know why I turned it into a variant. Can I inspect the lightning part?

[Lightning Variant]

[You can only become a variant when the following requirements are met]

[1. Kill a being at least 5 times stronger than you]

[2. Kill a being that has a lightning attribute]

I ignored the kill a being 5 times stronger than you because I don't want to rack my brain too hard yet. I want to finish checking my status first.

Now moving on, It seems my HP has increased while there are numbers for MP and SP. Oh, I also got stats that look... terrible, absolute garbage. How am I supposed to defend myself with these stats? Do I have to run away all the time?

I also got a charisma stat, and I think the reason why it's 5 is that I look cute. I mean, I can only assume. Who knows, I may look like an abomination to existence itself.

Alright, moving on from the stats, let's look at the skills I acquired before I evolved. My skills evolved with me, transforming into [Shock] and [Boost]. Let's inspect them again to see what changed about them.

[Shock]

[A shock slightly more powerful than a static shock]

[Boost]

[Raises speed stat by 5 for 5 seconds]

[Peck]

[When hitting or stabbing with your beak, your strength doubles.]

Oh, I didn't mean for it to display [Peck]. But I guess that would be handy... if I had more than 1 strength stat!

Anyways the old skills are just more powerful forms of their pre-evolution. I don't know if the censored skill evolved because it is still censored. Also, the headache was still lingering around when I got the notifications, so I couldn't tell if the skill evolved. Let's assume it didn't because I'm not even powerful enough to see the name.

[******]

[Evolve to reveal more information]

Yeah, I knew it... the devil must have messed with the skill, not allowing me to see it or something. Another hypothesis would be because I'm extremely weak... probably that... yeah, probably that. I'm not even going to try the blessing that's still half censored.

As I finished checking my stats and my body... it sounds kind of weird. I look around to figure out my situation once again because now I have 4 more senses. I find myself surrounded by trees with a dead carcass of an animal right next to me.

I got pretty scared until I saw that it was dead. The animal was beyond lifeless, almost like all the blood got up and left.

"Damn, it looks like a vampire sucked it." This is what I wanted to come out of my mouth, but all that came out was a,

"Cheep,"

Oh yeah... I forgot I'm a bird now.

As I got closer to the animal carcass, I saw what it looked like. It looked like a jackrabbit with a massive horn on its head. Its fur was pale white, while the horn was a yellowish-tan color. There was also a huge bite mark on the side of its body.

This is definitely a fantasy world. What rabbit has a horn on earth... yeah, none of them. I wonder who did this to the poor guy-

[Thunderous Jack Rabbit]

[Killed by [Cursed Wings (lightning)]

[Evolve to reveal more information]

WAIT, WHAT! I killed it. How did I kill this thing!? There are obviously bite marks on this thing! It could have stepped on me, and it would've killed me!

... Also, this is a pretty cool feature. I can see the race of different monsters. Wait... this is probably why I met that requirement from earlier, which made me become a variant. This might be a big clue on what that censored skill is. Let's review what happened.

Before I evolved, I was a feather, and I felt a warm liquid run throughout my body. I panicked and started to use the only skill I had, which leveled me up and granted me new skills.

The only thing that I can think of that is semi-reasonable would be... something bit the rabbit causing it to bleed, it went to rest on the ground after escaping while it was still bleeding out, I came and landed on the pool of blood from the rabbit, which I used my skill on, maybe absorbing the blood on the ground and inside the rabbit...

My innate skill might be related to absorbing blood. This is the only thing I can think of. Well, I'm going to think more later because I am starving! I haven't eaten once since I came to this fantasy world.