My daily hanging around with all the goblins, while educational, was not very helpful with my dreams of becoming stronger. As such, I decided to do my own thing after a week of learning things I would never be able to do. Unless one day I learned some form of telekinesis to utilize tools and hold and lift stuff. A beak and sometimes a clawed foot just did not let me do work.

I conveyed my desire to hunt by bringing my own food for dinner one evening. Roguk asked if I wanted to help out the village by hunting and when I nodded in return he smiled and got the hunters together. At least the ones I had already gone out with before. There were three hunter squads usually rotating to have one protect the woodcutters and gather roots in the forest cave. The other two squads would take the tunnel on the opposite side and bring back larger prey.

Despite my protests, I was to only go into the forest and hunt there. There were dangerous things behind the other tunnel. The poison Roguk made was the only way a goblin could defend themselves there. Or so I was told.

I was not very satisfied with that explanation but I decided to trust Roguk’s judgement for now. Once I was a little stronger I could go hunt real monsters!

The hunter team took me along again the next morning. This time Grag was not with us. He was not a [Hunter], but a [Scout] if I had judged the explanation correctly. His expertise was needed to check on the ravine regularly to make sure nothing dangerous made its home there.

Jiro and Haro again stayed behind. They would go through the forest close to the camp and take out any potential dangers to protect the non-combatants. Meeny and Luk went out into the forest. This time instead of walking and hopping along awkwardly I decided to fly above. Because the trees were growing very close to each other I had no choice but to stay below the branches. Otherwise, there was no way I could find anything to hunt. Unless I was going for bats, but those were impossible to take out without being noticed. And I needed to do that to increase my [Assassin] level.

Since Meeny was in the lead, she was responsible for tracking. After having to circle back for the third time while she was carefully scanning the ground, I decided to just go off on my own. With a hooting goodbye, I took off and did my thing.

The animals underground were mostly relying on smell, touch and hearing to navigate. This meant only my scent could really warn them of my presence. My flight was perfectly silent thanks to three of my Skills working together. And because I was flying, nothing would locate me using touch until it was already dead.

In addition to that my superb senses allowed me to keep track of my targets easily. And after the third kill I finally got the notification:

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 10. 1 Attribute Point awarded. Congratulations! For reaching the first milestone in your class you gain +1 DEX and +1 PER. Please choose your first milestone Skill!

Ooohh! A milestone! This was good. Immediately after, a list of Skills popped up.

~ding~ Please choose one of the available Skills. Failure to do so will result in a milestone Skill being selected automatically.

[Poison Brewing]

[Harmless Weaponry]

[Mingling]

[Target Tracking]

Using [Identify] on these was possible, so I decided to investigate their details.

[Poison Brewing]: Poison is one of the most common tools of an [Assassin]. You have learned under a skilled [Alchemist] and are now able to create your own. Improves effectiveness of crafted poison based on Intelligence and Dexterity.

[Harmless Weaponry]: An [Assassin] only needs to kill their target. It matters not what they use to do so. You have learned the use of many tools most perceive as harmless. Improves damage done when using objects not recognized as weapons.

[Mingling]: An [Assassin] is a master of getting to their target unnoticed. You have learned to mingle with groups highly differing from yourself without being suspected of harmful thoughts. Improves ability to learn languages and adapt to social norms. Targets can be aware of your presence and still unsuspecting of your intentions.

[Target Tracking]: No target can escape a truly skilled [Assassin]. You have learned from a skilled [Hunter] how to track prey. Adapting these techniques to your own means you have learned to always keep track of your target.

These were honestly… underwhelming. I had hoped for something more. Maybe a shadow teleport or something. But these? Poison almost seemed the best to me, even though I was not sure how I could use it. Soaking my talons might work but it would surely be gone after a single strike. Maybe I was approaching this wrong. This whole [Assassin] thing was about taking out ‘a target’. One target. One at a time. In that case, poison actually seemed fine. As long as putting it on my own body would not harm me.

[Harmless Weaponry] I dismissed after a short moment. It might actually increase damage done by hitting something with my wings, but those would never kill someone.

[Mingling] would have been really good a week ago. Faster learning of languages? Really good. The last sentence however kept it in the race. If this meant I could be seen by my target and still get [Assassin] experience, it would be a game-changer.

[Target Tracking] was nearly useless to me. It might give me some kind of mark, but it did not say so explicitly so I was sceptical. And anything but a magical beacon to put on someone I could do by myself already. My [Owl Senses] were really good. I was able to hear where everything around me moved. Much better than following some transparent footsteps or whatever this Skill might give me.

So the choice was between [Poison Brewing] and [Mingling]. Poison was interesting. It would give me a new way to approach difficult targets. However, anything I could not kill with my claws might well be too big for a single dose of poison. Especially when the only way for me to apply it used my talons. Which meant it could not be strong enough to cause me serious harm. And I was pretty weak on the defensive side with a Constitution of eight.

I really did not like my options here. And I had to choose or the system would do it for me. I really wanted to wait and maybe unlock a few more useful Skills. But the system would choose for me and I did not know how much time I had. So I quickly took [Mingling] before it gave me [Harmless Weapons]. Seriously, who would take a Skill for attacking that was called harmless? Certainly not me!

Status!

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, slightly wounded

Level: 5

Class: [Assassin lvl 10], -

Strength: 9

Constitution: 8

Dexterity: 17

Perception: 21

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 9

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 3], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Soundless Flight lvl 3]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 3], [Intimidating Screech lvl 2], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 3], [Aerial Combat lvl 2],

General:

[Maths lvl 4], [Identify lvl 2],

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 4], [Surprise Attack lvl 3], [Mingling lvl 1]

My talon was slowly growing back but it still showed me as slightly wounded. I was not really worried about it anymore. At least my Attributes were looking up. I did not like the uneven number in Perception but for now, I had to deal with it. Although I would only put two more points into Dexterity for now and then wait for the next milestone. Maybe it was at level twenty. I hoped it would not take until level fifty or one-hundred. I was also interested in getting my race up to ten. Another milestone there sounded great, although I was still not really sure how to level it exactly.

A voice ripped me out of my thoughts.

“Fio, come on, stop spacing out!”

I blinked. Slowly lifting my head I met Meeny’s eyes. She was bent over and closely looked at me with a concerned frown on her face.

“Yes, I am talking to you! Come on, let me put away the giant centipede you caught and we can be on our way.”

I was baffled. Yes, my understanding of the goblin language had gotten decent but now I felt I could speak it as if I had grown up in their village as one of them.

“Hoohooot clack whistle.”

Obviously, that was not the case. My vocal cords simply did not allow me to make the proper sounds.

“Yes, yes, now come on.”

As expected Meeny had not understood my ‘speech’. Maybe with some practice, I could at least somewhat replicate it? It was highly unlikely to actually speak but some simple words might be possible.

I was glad I had taken [Mingling]. It was far more useful than I had expected. Later I would realize just taking a few more weeks to properly learn the language should have the same result but the time-save made me very happy at the moment. And so I did not notice the shadow sitting in the branches until a twang and swish sounded out and an angry screech echoed through the trees.

Luk had missed his shot. The creature took the chance and jumped right on top of Meeny to punch and claw at her with long arms.

[Identify]

Species: Cave Baboon (juvenile)

Gender: male

My skill distracted the monkey long enough for Meeny to shove it off and take a stance with her staff. It also meant I had to take off immediately to avoid getting tackled by the black furball screeching its lungs out. Luckily I had wings. Unluckily the monkey was less than a metre in front of me. I jumped up, beating my wings once and thrust my talons forward. [Surprise Attack] was out of commission since it was very focused on me. As the long arm struck towards me I still left a deep gash in its side with my talons. The extra force was enough to get me truly airborne and by now Meeny was ready to strike.

Without hesitation, she clobbered the back of its head and retreated before its spinning punch could retaliate. With a shout from Luk, she jumped to the side and an arrow buried itself into the monkey’s stomach. It screeched in rage. Just as it was about to jump at the now unbalanced Meeny I swooped in. This time my talons dug deep. I ripped off one ear and punctured an eyeball before pushing off again. The beast scattered blood all over the surrounding trees trying to shake me off, even though I was long gone. Just as it stopped an arrow embedded itself deep into the other eye. With one last squealing breath the monkey fell over. It was dead.

~ding~ [Assassin] reached level 11. 1 Attribute Point awarded.

Wow. That was unexpected. The level maybe even more than the monkey.

Luk and Meeny were scanning the surroundings. The goblins focused primarily on the branches and only after a few minutes later were they finally able to calm down.

I joined them next to the body. A bulky form lay sprawled on the ground. Tusk like teeth showed in the corners of its mouth and vicious-looking claws with serrated edges sat on hands and feet. Some of those claws had a bit of blood on them. Only then did I notice Meeny’s armour was scratched up all over and a few wounds on her arms still bled. Luk took out a bone vial from his pouch and poured a thick grey and green liquid on top of her wounds. After it was spread it quickly dried and the wounds were closed. At least temporarily. I was impressed. Did Roguk make this stuff too? I thought he only made poisons?

When Meeny noticed my stare she grinned.

“Just a scratch, no need to worry. You were great there by the way. Distracted it with [Identify]? Good thinking.”

I proudly straightened up and fluffed my plumage.

Hoot. I nodded.

‘Of course, I am great!’

“You’re learning our language really fast, huh? I &§% $E§$” ()§$/!”

I tilted my head. What? She was definitely not speaking goblin there. What was that?

“Hahaha! That’s so cute! Don’t worry, Fio. I will teach you {}§%!”

Hoot!

I narrowed my eyes at her. Was she making fun of me?

“Enough playing around, let’s get back to camp before another one of those shows up.” Luk was such a buzz-kill. I still obliged, if mostly because Meeny turned serious pretty quickly with his admonishment. There seemed to be more monkeys, otherwise, I could not explain how they were this scared of such an easy target.

We returned to camp quickly and once the other goblins saw the dead monkey they quickly gathered their stuff and we returned to the village. These baboons were the real deal, huh?