I had a plan but I needed to prepare. And before that, I needed to rest. This fight had brought me pretty close to emptying my reserves. Which, considering I had taken out five orks, was to be expected. I only succeeded because my attacks ended my targets as quickly as they had. The one hit I had almost taken in return would have most likely spelt my end.

For now, I checked out the rest of the cave. There were a few metres of straight tunnel left before it opened up into a chamber one could barely call medium-sized. It was smaller than Roguk’s hut for one and crystals growing on the walls and ceiling only reduced the available space. The ground was littered with broken shards, probably where the bear had walked and rested. The node itself sat directly under the ceiling. Around it, a few larger crystals had grown, but not on it directly.

The light coming from crystals and node was a mix of light green and orange, leaning more towards green. It did not mix very well but instead drew colourful lines and patterns all across. On the ground droppings and remains of food lay sprawled out. I needed to bring all the bodies back here in order to go through with my idea. That was a lot of work. But I was confident I had at least another day. The earliest an ork would come was most likely tomorrow late in the morning. And even then only to scout. They were scared of the bear after all.

As I returned outside, I considered for a moment to eat some ork meat. The thought appalled me. They were thinking beings. Well, they were made of meat, but still. I would not eat another sapient unless I had no other options. And there was a perfectly fine dead bear here. It was already half skinned so I did not even have to get through the pelt. I ate my fill and took to a branch for some rest.

As night broke, I had regained most of my energy. Physical that was. My mana still felt at somewhere between a third and half full. I put my wand in the cave and got to work. All the bodies needed to ‘disappear’. At least enough to make any scouts think the monster was still around. Which it was, it was just a new one. Me. Most important was the bear. Any scout that saw the dead orks would inform the village they failed their hunt. If they saw the bear as well, my plan was doomed to fail.

It was not budging. I dug into the bear with my beak and pushed off the ground with my talons, flapping my wings simultaneously. I only managed to rip off a bit more meat. Would I have to eat the whole thing to get rid of it? And the orks as well? Never. It was impossible for my tiny body to eat this much. Even considering I had a Skill about eating, it was only level three. And a first Breakthrough was definitely too little to eat something a hundred times my weight. No, I had to find a different way to move this body into the cave. Some sort of mechanical trick? Using sticks like the Egyptians had used logs? Or some sort of pulley system? I was not wholly confident in my engineering skills, but it was definitely an idea. I almost wished I had kept some Attribute Points to put into Strength right now.

I looked around. There were not a lot of branches laying around, I would have to break off a few from some trees. That might clue in a good scout that something was amiss, though. Looking through my Status again, I had another idea. [Owl’s Shadow] had some substance to it. I identified it again.

[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.

1st Breakthrough: Shadows gain physical substance. The less area they occupy, the higher their density, up to a limit.

Wait, there was something new there! Breakthroughs actually improved the Skill with additional power? This was interesting. I looked at [Owl Senses] and [Sneak] next.

[Owl Senses]: An owl has excellent vision and hearing. Their sense of smell is comparatively simple. Greatly improves the effectiveness of Perception and Dexterity on eyes and ears. Slightly reduces effects of Perception and Dexterity on sense of smell.

1st Breakthrough: Your senses are attuned to magic. You have an easier time identifying mana and its aspects.

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

1st Breakthrough: Your application of void has improved your ability to stay unheard. Repeated practice has made it easier to stay unseen. Improves stealth additionally with Dexterity and Wisdom

So, [Owl Senses] was pretty much as experienced. The same for [Owl’s Shadow] only now I knew for a fact I could use it as bonus limbs if I formed them small enough. [Sneak] was mostly as expected, only it now improved with Wisdom and twice with Dexterity? I was not sure if it was double or something else, but it made the Attribute far more interesting.

Before thinking about that I had work to do though. My shadows stretched out in thin tendrils from the tips of my wings and curled around the bear corpse. I made them as compact as I could. The maximum density was reached as they were around five centimetres thick, but I could still make them smaller allowing me to grip underneath the bear as well as make more of them using less energy. With this new help, I gripped the body again using my beak and pulled. This time it worked. The shadows tugged the corpse a few centimetres forwards before starting to spread on its fur and losing consistency. I quickly stopped and moved them back into gripping position. If the shadows separated I would lose valuable energy.

Tugging again and again, I lugged the body into the cave. It was a bit easier once I reached the stone ground inside, but it still took me what was probably a few hours. The ork body outside, the lookout, was far easier. It weighed maybe a fifth of the bear and I could take off the weapons to make it even easier. Then I struggled a little more to pull the two orks that had waited for me around the first bend back to the node as well. As I dragged the last bodies deep into the cave, most of the night had passed. There was only one more thing to do right now.

I went back outside and started clearing up the campsite. The collected wood and prepared firepit. The tools and weapons lying around. Then I finally got my deserved rest. I did not set up in the cave directly, though I ate another fill of bear meat. Instead, I found a spot in the trees up on the ledge. From there I could overlook the area and spot any scouts or even beasts coming to check on the cave. The area still looked like a fight had taken place, but I hoped any ork that came by would not be able to deduce everything that happened from just the tracks on the ground.

This was now my trap. The orks wanted to use the crystals from inside the cave and they knew there was a monster here. With the first group going missing I hoped for more potential targets to come and try to clear it out. Then I could jump them from an ambush and take them out one by one. As long as I kept killing everyone that came, new targets should show up after a while. And I really hoped they would not get stronger faster than I would grow. That was probably asking for too much but I hoped to get at least two or three more groups weak enough for me to take on.

As the sun rose and I roosted in my hideout, I checked on my Status again.

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, mana enriched (medium)

Level: 13

Class: [Assassin lvl 43], -

Strength: 15

Constitution: 12

Dexterity: 21

Perception: 22

Intelligence: 27

Wisdom: 25

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 5], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Soundless Flight lvl 4]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 4], [Intimidating Screech lvl 4], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 6], [Aerial Combat lvl 4],

General:

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

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 5], [Surprise Attack lvl 4], [Mingling lvl 3], [Eldritch Shift lvl 3]

I was growing nicely. [Owl’s Shadow] had even gone up a level from all the use last night. I had noticed on the last two bodies, the scout and the boss, how dragging them was a lot easier. I could pull them almost 5 times as far before my tendrils had started to come apart. There was an idea. Maybe I could use them as fully functional limbs with another level. Or with more Intelligence. Which again solidified my investment into magic Attributes. I only needed to get some Race levels and my physical Attributes would catch up. After all, Race levels had never given me a point in Wisdom or Intelligence, as far as I remembered. I only hoped I would not get Constitution. The Attribute was certainly useful, but I had so little, it would take a lot of levels to make myself tanky in any way.

Next was [Surprise Attack]. Getting more targets and setting a proper ambush should let me figure out a way to break through with the Skill. I checked it again with [Identify].

[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.

The Skill was all about attacking while unseen. And landing the attack exactly where it should. This synergized extremely well with [Owl’s Shadow] and [Eldritch Shift]. Both Skills were able to sort of reset being noticed. [Sneak] was primarily useful for the first strike in an engagement. Though usually, that should be enough to end a fight, I knew it was not always the case. [Owl Senses] would also help me with knowing where to strike. I had a lot of options where to take the Skill it seemed. Should I try to make it help me find weak spots? Or would it be better to keep hidden? Or maybe somehow do more damage?

If I thought about it, I already had two Skills for staying hidden and one Skill for finding targets and their weak spots. This was my only offensive Skill currently. I should try to find a way to have it do more damage. Maybe turning it into a magical attack would help. I could also try to wait for another Strike Skill at the next Milestone, but I did not know when that was. Level 50 seemed reasonable after getting one at 10 and 25 respectively, but it might well be 100. Finding weak spots was also a way to increase damage. And with my shadows getting more substantial I could soon find creative ways to strike at my target. Either one would be fine. First, I needed a target to experiment on.