I got a class! I was so excited! I wanted to check it out immediately but decided to get to a vantage point first. So I sat on the closest branch I could find.

‘Status!’

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: -

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy

Level: 2

Class: [Assassin lvl 1], -

Strength: 8

Constitution: 8

Dexterity: 12

Perception: 13

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 8

AP: 1

Skills: [Owl Senses lvl 3], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Solid Grip lvl 2], [Soundless Flight lvl 2], [Intimidating Screech lvl 1], [Maths lvl 4], [Identify lvl 2], [Sneak lvl 1], [Surprise Attack lvl 1]

Oh my! This was big! I got two whole new skills and one Attribute Point each to Dexterity and Perception. In addition, I also had a free AP available. I was unsure what to spend it on, but I wanted to [Identify] my new skills and my class first anyways.

[Assassin]: A blade in the dark of night. A poisoned glass of wine. An arrow out of nowhere. There are many ways to strike down your target. You have chosen to do so without their notice. Gain +1 PER and +1 DEX. Gain +1 AP per level in this class. Unlock skills depending on how you kill your targets.

[Sneak]: You are a master of moving silently. Greatly decreases the chance of being detected when stalking your target. Improves with Dexterity and Perception.

[Surprise Attack]: If your attack is unseen, it will land where you desire. Attacking a target that has yet to notice you, greatly increases your accuracy and damage based on your Dexterity and Perception.

This was amazing. Two AP just for getting the class and another one for every level. And more skills. Though I would have to come up with creative ways to kill my targets to unlock new skills. The two skills I already got covered pretty much everything I did when hunting normally. For now, focusing on [Sneak] and [Surprise Attack] was the way to go, but I had to come up with new ideas if I wanted to get more new toys.

With both of my new Skills improving based on Dexterity and Perception it was very obvious which attributes I should increase with my new point. On the other hand, I could also wait and save up a few points. Maybe a magic skill would unlock at some point? For now, I decided to keep hunting and see how big a difference my class made.

It was a big difference. [Surprise Attack] drastically improved my accuracy, letting me go after prey hidden in tiny spaces between roots, rocks and moss. I was even able to hunt on foot on the ground. [Sneak] allowed me to move almost unnoticed between the ferns, plants and trunks at ground level. With moss silencing my steps further and careful dodging of crunchy leaves and twigs, I had an almost fifty per cent success rate on the ground. Almost as good as my new hunting skills from the air.

My kills also gave me a new notification, as long as my target died before noticing me:

~ding~ You have taken out your chosen target. Experience awarded.

After the first few kills that got me this message I wondered if the old notification for hunting my prey still appeared and sure enough, it plopped up just as I thought about it:

~ding~ You have killed [Forest Rat (adult)]. For hunting your staple food you have gained experience.

I made all of my kill notification disappear again and went back to taking out targets with [Surprise Attack]. When the sun had started to turn the sky a slightly lighter shade of dark blue I got another new message:

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 2. 1 Attribute Point awarded.

Nice! A level in half a night. This went far quicker than my race level. I was hunting for four nights straight and had not even gotten a single level there.

Hearing my father hoot from a bit of distance away I decided to call it a night there and flew back to our little cave home. After landing I could barely calm down, even through the exhaustion of a full night of hunting in the forest. So I shifted and paced and spread a wing here and there.

Mother got so annoyed with me she smacked me in the face with her wing. It really hurt. It had no right to hurt this much! She only struck me with her covert feathers, not even the bone of her wing. And she hit straight onto my beak. And it still stung like hell.

‘How strong are you, mother? Right, you beat up that Wyvern. You are the strongest! I’m sorry for annoying you.’

Somehow I was able to calm down a little and by dusk, I had even slept enough to go hunting again. Another two nights were spent hunting with father. Nothing much happened until late into the second night when he called me and my sister to him with a few long hoots.

I was curious about what he wanted from us and reached him quickly. My sister followed shortly. I had gained another two levels in [Assassin] and even one race-level! My race-level had given me a point in Dexterity bringing it to 13, on par with Perception.

But now father wanted to show us something. He stepped closer to us on the branch we were sitting on and made sure to draw our attention with a quiet chitter and a silent wing flap. When he was sure we were not distracted he closed his eyes and drew in his head. His feathers first pulled tight around his body before the ones furthest on his back puffed up slightly.

With a tiny spread of his wings smoke started to pour from in between his plumage. No, not smoke, there was no fire there after all. It looked more like liquid shadow. Wherever it spread I could not look through it even a tiny bit. Smoke normally allowed a few hazy streaks of light through, but this was completely obscuring my vision. This was magic.

Once a good bit of shadow smoke was surrounding him, father opened his eyes and bobbed his head at us. He slowly spread his wings and guided the shadows closer to our faces. My first instinct was to create some distance but I was able to stand my ground and inspect it more closely. My sister simply shoved her head into father’s wing and bathed herself in his shadows. She was quite brave, huh?

Following her example, I carefully touched the liquid darkness with my beak. It felt just like air. The same as when he protected us from that wyvern, it only obstructed vision and was otherwise completely intangible. It did react to my touch, bouncing off my beak and feathers and floating a little through the air. It was quite fun. This was how I always imagined what playing with soap bubbles would feel like.

I kept bumping the shadows, father willing them back towards me. My sister was completely cocooned in impenetrable darkness by this point. As I got more and more comfortable with the situation, I felt something seep into my feathers. A slight chill spread around my body before it disappeared just as fast and a notification startled me so badly, I almost fell off the branch.

~ding~ Racial skill [Owl’s Shadow] compatibility created due to class [Assassin]. Racial skill [Owl’s Shadow lvl 1] obtained. Experience gained for successfully learning a racial skill with guidance.

[Owl’s Shadow]: Owls are creatures of the night. Some of them are so adapted to the darkness, they can create their own through pure willpower. The amount and thickness of shadow created increases with intelligence, control increases with Wisdom.

Wow. That was a cool skill. Immediately I felt a connection form with the shadow floating nearest to me. Guiding it to hover around my spread left wing I covered it completely in black. This was amazingly stylish. It was also far lighter than father’s shadow. Mine looked really like smoke, with how grey and transparent it was. In the darkness of the night though, it was still wonderful to hide the white feathers on my chest and wings.

When I looked back at my sister though, I was speechless. Not that owls really talk, but I could not have said a word had I been able to. She looked like a demon from the deepest, darkest parts of hell. Completely covered in black. How did she do that? Did she have more Intelligence than me?

I thought I knew she was not as smart as me but this made me doubt myself. What if she was also sapient? But she had shown no reaction to any attempt at complicated conversation. Maybe she was just talented with this skill. Yes, that had to be it. There was no way she was smarter than me. I had [Maths] on level four after all!

Soon the darkness dissipated and a happily bobbing head looked at me. She let out a few exhausted hoots and looked back at father. He was very proud. Glancing to and fro between us he let out deep, happy hoots. The shadows slowly retreated into his feathers as dawn broke once more. A short flight brought us back to our home and we enjoyed a long day of rest.

But this rest was cut short by me. I wanted to explore and I wanted to do at least some of it in daylight.