It had been a busy day. I had tried to find a proper target for my furthered [Identify] training. While I could have tried to break through with continuous use on small fry, I had a feeling that would take half an eternity. Something strong, maybe even something intelligent, would be a far better training target. I had spotted the mountain lion once more, it was lazing about on some tree. If nothing better came up, I would use it but I was a little scared of its strength. There was no obvious magic in its body but it still gave me the shivers. There was a clear difference in strength only obvious to my instincts.

The deer were out and about as well but they had not fixed resting spot. I saw them go into hiding on the opposite side of my roost from where they rested before. Risking to wake up the whole herd was not my priority either but it might be a possibility. The stag had me concerned, however. There was metal and earth mana in its antlers. Whatever Skills it held could make angering him very dangerous. I still had not figured out how they hid as well. Maybe some of the deer had mana as well?

For a moment I remembered the ocelot, but disregarding how difficult it was to spot such a small animal beneath the canopy, it was also extremely good at being silent and I could not even rely on my hearing to find it. If I spotted another earth and water node that was seemingly unoccupied I should search the nearby area carefully. It could have its den nearby.

I had spent half the day, starting around noon to look for potential voluntary practise partners. Now it was getting dark again and I decided to take a quick break to hunt for a snack. As I was enjoying my meal of a small fish freshly plucked from the river, a notification came up. One I had expected but not in this way.

~ding~ Congratulations! For reaching adulthood additional experience is awarded. You gain one Point in every Attribute. You are now fully grown up, make sure to keep getting stronger and follow your nature.

~ding~ You have reached level 20. Attribute Points allocated.

Wow, that was a lot! Two whole levels and one point in every Attribute? But the system was not done yet.

~ding~ Congratulations! You reached mana enriched (major) during adulthood. You can now adapt an Affinity or create a Core to evolve.

That was sudden. And apparently, I was not expected to hit major mana enrichment before adulthood. The system message seemed to be a little off as if I had done something completely unexpected. Judging from how long it took the ork who wrote the Thaumonomicon’s foreword to reach medium enrichment I had been way faster than normal. My soul being warped during my travel through the void to be reincarnated was most likely the reason for my higher tolerance and fast growth.

The big question was, what should I do? I could only do one of the two, adapt an affinity or evolve, from how the message was worded. But I did not really know what either of those was. I had assumptions, obviously, but no confirmation. For now, I looked through my status.

Species: Great Eagle Owl (adult), +

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, mana enriched (major), +

Level: 20

Class: [Assassin lvl 51], -

Strength: 18

Constitution: 16

Dexterity: 25

Perception: 24

Intelligence: 32

Wisdom: 32

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 5], [Preening lvl 4], [Owl Stomach lvl 5], [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 5], [Winged Death lvl 3]

Most obvious were the two plus signs in my Species and Status row respectively. Before inspecting them further, I took a quick look at the rest of my status page. My Attributes had gone up as promised, though the two levels seemingly had increased my Constitution. That was not really what I wanted to increase but there was nothing I could change about that. I also spotted [Preening] had reached level four and [Winged Death] had gained a level as well, going up to three. With that, only two Skills were left to reach the Breakpoint. And only [Mingling] really looked difficult to get there.

More important though, the plus signs. I took a gamble and tried to use [Identify] on the first one. And nothing happened. My Skill did not even give me the tiniest hint of purchase. It did not react at all. So I just focused on it normally. And lo and behold, it worked. A new message popped up in my sight. This one was very interesting.

You can form a Core. This will create a physical connection to your soul within your body. The Core will replace your brain as the centre of your consciousness. If it breaks, you will die. Forming a Core will change your body to align with your personality. In special cases a Progenitor Core can be formed, letting you start a new bloodline within reach of your original Species. Forming a Core will prevent you from adapting an Affinity. Do you want to proceed?

That… was interesting? It sounded like a replacement for my brain. Did that mean wounds to my head were no longer lethal? The whole ‘dying if the core breaks’ did make sense. If my brain broke, I would die as well after all. I was worried about the part where it said it would change my body. Sure, I was having some moral issues between my animal instincts and the morals from my previous life, but I felt comfortable as an owl. I did not want to become some weird bird-person. That sounded entirely icky. I remembered the advice from the eldritch being. It said to make a core because it would help me much more than the alternative. Which was adapting an Affinity. Most likely connected to the second plus in my Status. I dismissed the previous prompt and focused on the other plus. I wanted to know what I was missing, before deciding which path to take.

You can adapt an Affinity. This will align your body with the mana you have absorbed up to now. The three strongest aspects in your soul will form a personal node within your body to recharge your mana when necessary. These aspects will be: Tenebrae, Aer, Metallum. Other aspects can be recharged at a slower rate. The node can not be destroyed without killing you. Excessive flux will be absorbed faster, though recharging will create more. Adapting an Affinity will prevent you from forming a Core, do you want to proceed?

Wow. Okay. That sounded powerful. My own personal node not only to recharge my mana but also to absorb flux more quickly? And it said other aspects, not your other. That meant it would even recharge new aspects. And maybe absorbing more of a specific aspect from the world around me would change what my node was providing. I was tempted. Very much so. Even with some of my reasons being speculation it sounded entirely too good to be true. And somehow the eldritch being still suggested taking the Core. The main bonus had appeared to be the new centre of consciousness letting me take dangerous attacks. Though if I was honest, losing my head would still prevent me from breathing, eating and using my senses. And I would bleed out quickly as well. Was the change to my body really that good? Or was a Progenitor Core somehow really strong and I would be guaranteed to get one?

I could only guess what the eldritch being had thought back when it gave me that advice, but I was very confident it had meant well. An instinct not really from my body, but my soul told me to trust its words. I had to think about it more. At least time looked to be plenty. There was no mention of me being forced to make a choice like with my Class Skills at the milestones. I could take all the time in the world to pick one of the options. And I would definitely pick one. Not getting a power-up would be stupid. But I did not need to rush.

I settled down in my roost and calmed myself. My heart was beating fast with excitement. Such a big opportunity and such an important choice. What should I do? Maybe I could get some help. I had a few books with me after all. I took out the Thaumonomicon first. It would be the easiest to look into for more details. If there was nothing about Cores, Affinities or evolution, it would not give me a page.

Luckily there was something. Only a single page. Some thaumaturge had apparently researched the use of beast cores. It looked like you could create a living animal if you had a core and enough power. Though this was only a bunch of hypotheses and random jumbled talk. The actual process eluded me. I apparently had to go from there if I wanted to know more about it and do some research myself. That would be difficult though. With how difficult it seemed to be for most people and animals to reach major mana enrichment, Cores had to be a scarce commodity. Which was a point against getting one. It made me a target for any thaumaturge. As long as they could figure out I had one. I really hoped it would not show up in my status.

Looking for affinity only led me to the entry about nodes I had already read. It did not help me all that much other than thinking I might be able to change my node later on. There were many types after all so getting an upgrade was probable. A downgrade was equally likely, or maybe even more likely. Pale, fading and tainted seemed to be easy to get to by overdrawing on it. On upgrading I found nothing. It should be possible, but once more it felt I was lacking some key knowledge or the right idea to get to the next entry. It was infuriating.

So, I had my options laid out before me. A quick skim through my other books revealed nothing interesting. There was no mention of the important things I wanted to know about. Maybe I had been unlucky and skipped it, but I was so excited to get my power-up, I did not want to wait any longer. Getting this done would also allow me to practice [Identify] on more powerful targets without constantly fearing for my life.

So, what to do? Should I follow the advice of an eldritch being possibly thousands or millions of times my age, or should I take the Affinity that just sounded much more powerful? The decision was clear and as soon as I made it, energy pushed into my body forming a sphere around my inner gate and everything went black.