I decided to just hunt for something myself instead of flying all the way back to the village. This would let me return to my practice earlier and I did not have to deal with people. There was something relieving about doing my own thing and not aligning my schedule with others. When I returned to my spot at the crystals, the monkeys nearby had left. Maybe they were getting some food themselves, or sleep. I decided to simply ignore them. They were already scared, I could just keep going at the energy and hopefully would be left alone.

I spent another day and night there, judging by my eating schedule, before I finally found some real success. This time I was able to lead the tiny thread of energy directly up into my body, just like before. The difference was, I had a place for it. Close to the centre of my chest, though a little bit higher, I had found something it resonated with. Something that felt like a gate, only it was barred save for a tiny hole right in the centre. I had tried and failed to push, pull and press the energy into it at least a dozen times by now to no avail. So I attempted a new method. Just put it close. I guided the tip of the free-floating darkness right in front of the opening. Just as it was about to touch, the gate seemed to close off. But as soon as I let go of the energy, the window returned to its previous form. And the energy was sucked straight in as if vacuumed.

As it disappeared into the gate, I lost all connection to the energy. There seemed to be a disconnected space right there in my body. I was a little confused, but I wanted to study it. So I simply continued pulling energy into myself. This got harder and harder. At some point, I could no longer use my right foot. Any energy going into it would immediately dissipate and make me dizzy. Even the tiniest sliver did not hold further than my knee. So I switched feet. I had only used my right foot until now. Switching up to my left solved most of my issues with dizziness but it brought up the problem of having to learn anew how to guide the energy to reach my inner gate. Though it was a lot easier the second time around.

Another food break chased me away from my practice again. This was the beginning of the second day if I had my meals at dawn and dusk as before. Though with all the focus spent on ethereal energy flowing through my body I was not confident to keep the time all that well.

As I rose back above the trees I made out steps. A group of goblins was making their way into the forest. So I had missed one meal? Or the goblins had changed away from their nocturnal schedule. I decided to ignore them and return to my crystals. There was power to gain! Or at least I hoped so. This whole inserting mana into my body might just as well blow me up once I shoved in too much.

More time passed as if in a blur. There was just something satisfying about absorbing these tiny shadowy tendrils. It spoke to me on a deeper level than anything I had done before. My life somehow made more sense. So when I was interrupted by someone calling my name I was understandably annoyed.

“Fio.” a soft voice spoke. I had just absorbed another tendril of energy and decided to let the dizziness ebb off before turning around. Not without appropriate display of shadow tendrils. I leered at the offender with narrowed eyes. It was Luk. The archer from the first goblin hunters I went with.

He held his bow in one hand, the other casually at his side. There was a bit of worry on his face but no fear. It annoyed me a little more.

“You alright?” he asked while crouching down to my eye level.

I deflated with a long breath. He was not a bad guy. I had no reason to attack him. Why was I posturing this much? I nodded to his question.

He nodded back. “Good. Don’t push yourself too hard. Raw mana crystals can overcharge you if you aren’t careful.”

That… was good to know. Probably what happened when I was running around with those monkeys. At some point, you just could not take in any more mana. For now, I felt fine though, so I would just keep going. I nodded again in thanks and turned back to my cluster. As I was about to put my foot back on it, Luk said one more thing.

“We were worried where you had gone. Roguk especially. Tell him, if you ever really leave, okay?”

I glanced back and nodded at him again. Roguk was nice enough. I would say goodbye.

Luk’s feet slowly stepped away and he continued his scouting. If I had not been lost in my practice immediately again I might have noticed another goblin’s steps joining his. No goblin hunter was out alone.

I must have kept up draining the crystals for another few days. Once my left foot took no more energy, I tried my right foot again. It did not work. Remembering the monkeys using their arms I decided to try my wings. It worked wonderfully. Once both my wings and my feet did not want to accept any more mana however, I was at a loss. My status still said ‘mana enriched (minor)’. I could only try to control larger amounts of energy. That was not very fruitful, however. No matter what I tried, only a tiny thread allowed me to control it. I decided to observe it more closely. Which meant putting my head closer to the crystal. And then I touched it with my beak. The energy nearly knocked me out. Luckily I flinched back and stopped the flow immediately. This had to be the next step. It might be really dangerous to put all that energy in my brain. But I still wanted to do it.

There were two ways to go at it. Just force in as much as I could and get it over with. Or only take the tiniest slivers and carefully watch out for any feeling of pain or wrongness. I went with the second version. Bumping the crystal with my beak gave me a tiny flow of mana in my head. It took dozens of tries before I could ignore the dizziness and exert any amount of control over it. And then a few more before I was able to move it to my inner gate. Slowly but surely I filled up my head with magic. The more I pulled into the gate through my head the longer I could touch the crystal without knocking myself out. And after another day or two, time was flying by, I finally was unable to absorb any more mana.

I tried touching the crystals with all parts of my body but I only got tiny amounts of energy to enter any deeper than surface level. Which was annoying. My status still showed mana enriched (minor). Nothing had changed. Until I realized the shadows floating around me. I was unconsciously using [Owl’s Shadow]. Sheets of magical darkness covered my feathers and gloomy tendrils extended every which way. My Skill had not levelled but I felt much more control and power behind it. And best of all I realized I could see through it. At least a tiny bit. The previously impervious darkness had not turned any less impenetrable but somehow I still saw the other side of it. At least partially.

I ended up covering my eyes with my skill and found it to be not yet usable. It felt like I was a human in a dark room at night with a bit of light from the street lamps coming in through the curtains. It was interesting but not really usable yet. I needed more power. Or maybe some rest would help? Surely just taking a break could give me a new idea of how to approach this whole thing. Or just brute force it somehow. And get myself killed? No, I wanted to take it slow. And so I found myself a snack and some rest in a familiar crevice near the waterfall.

As I roused from my rest an idea hit me. I had better shadow magic now. And in general, my magic had somehow improved, or at least the amount I could use. So what if I was now able to use [Identify] without alerting my target? Instead of asking pointless questions, I went for an experiment.

There were still some monkeys around, they would make for perfect test subjects. I decided to go for a sole baboon sitting close to the crystal area. It seemed to be resting after absorbing mana if I had to take a guess. Instead of simply using my Skill I decided to set down on a nearby branch and get my thoughts in order. [Identify] gave me a part of my target’s status. I had no idea where it took that knowledge from. This was what I wanted to rectify first. So I closed my eyes and focused deeply on my inner self. Just as I had done before when absorbing the shadow mana. My inner gate was still there, though faint without any excess energy flowing through my body. Other than that I found nothing extraordinary. My heart beat, my lungs pumped air and my talons held onto the branch.

I wanted to know how [Identify] worked but figuring out where [Owl’s Shadow] came from might give me a clue. It also would not alert my target. When I activated the Skill, I found it to act mostly like before. It somehow formed magical darkness beneath my feathers and spread it slowly around them. The inner gate however reacted too. Only a tiny bit but a small opening formed somehow in the same place the entrance was, only this time going outwards. It confused me so much, I dropped my shadows and the new exit closed immediately.

On the second try, I was able to keep my focus. A small amount of mana leaked out of the exit and formed tethers spreading into my feathers. As soon as a connection was established my shadows formed faster and received their new property of partial transparency. Trying to change the opacity with force of will did nothing. Neither compressing the shadows or willing them to be completely dark worked. In fact, it felt as if they were denser than before. I came to a conclusion. Somehow I could see through them, even though they were harder to see through for others.

Now that I had that down, I opened my eyes and stared at the baboon. It still sat there on the ground, chewing on something insectoid. I focused on my Skill, [Identify], willing it to prepare activation. And the monkey’s eyes opened wide as it stared right at me. It ran. It had noticed me. Before I could even use the Skill. I had to find a new quarry.