I startled up and immediately was greeted with... blinding pain. Shit, I'd forgotten just how banged up I had gotten yesterday. I was amazed, however, to see that my right shoulder's muscles no longer hung, drooping around the rest of my arm. Instead, the flesh had healed a remarkable amount, at least, that's as far as it felt to me, as it was firmly bound in... something. It seemed to be a mixture of vines, leaves and moss, and was wrapped around my shoulder, arm, and chest.

I tentatively tried to move my arm and, through the blinding pain, I swore I saw a small twitch. Maybe I wouldn't be entirely crippled then... I could only hope. I looked around and saw that Vefir was passed out next to me. He had evidently evolved while I was unconscious, as he was longer and, somehow, even thinner. I wasn't sure exactly how he had grown, as he certainly wasn't evolved for combat, and, while his claws had mostly become fingers, he lacked the musculature to do anything requiring heavy lifting. I did notice a glowing patch of warmth on his chest though, one I hadn't seen on any other keelish, big or small.

No longer distracting myself, I decided to pull up my [Status]

[Status:

Name: Ashlani

Race: Young Sonic Magicblood Alpha

Current quest:

—Kill 3 Young Thunder Wolfstags. Reward: 1 Constitution, 2 Strength, 1 Magic. Progress: 2/3

Stats:

-Constitution: 10+1=11

-Strength: 13+1=14

-Agility: 15+1=16

-Intelligence: 10+3=13

-Magic: 3+5=8

Skills:

Innate Leadership—cannot evolve

Pack Tactics—current evolutionary progress: 0/10

Improved Bloodlust—current evolutionary progress: Unknown

Dominance—current evolutionary progress: 35/100

Improved Vision--current evolutionary progress: 0/18

Sonic Amplifying organ--current evolutionary progress: Unknown

Evolutionary foresight

-Adult Sonic Magicblood Alpha: live 30 days. Progress: 12/30

-Young Sonic Magicblood Swarm Alpha. Prerequisites: Young Sonic Magicblood Alpha. Requirements: acquire 50 followers. Progress: 32/50]

Man, my race title was really starting to become a mouthful. Also, I wasn't too surprised that this evolution didn't focus a ton on my physical attributes, and was happy to see the substantial boost to my magic. But... sonic? I couldn't think of what exactly that was meant to be or do. [System]?

[Young Sonic Magicblood Alpha: a young keelish alpha whose magic manipulating organ specializes in the Sonic attribute (said magic manipulating organ is henceforth referred to as a sonilphon). The sonic attribute is typically used to dampen or enhance sound, though certain specialists have found manifold uses for it.]

So... I can be louder, then?

[The Administrator laughs at your frustration.]

Well, I was looking forward to this, and now... it seems pretty worthless. Why couldn't it have been fire or lightning? I always used fire in my past life.

[The predisposition of your previous body does not necessarily align with the predisposition of the [System] user's current body. Thus, it would have been nearly impossible for the user to have predicted this.]

Well, I can at least see that I can evolve this... sonilphon. How do I do so?

[The Administrator has deemed it unnecessary to divulge that information. However... the Administrator has decided to grant a greater level of information to the user. The evolutionary requirements for Organ: Sonilphon are: a complete usage of all stored power from full to empty 50 times. Progress: 0/50]

Wait... so in order to evolve the skill... I just need to use it a lot?

[Basically. But it must be from full to empty. Give everything you have from beginning to end.]

Ok, so at least evolution won't be too hard to achieve...

I pulled myself out of the frustration I felt myself wallowing in, and decided to try to use my newfound magic. There was a new… feeling I supposed it would be called, in my chest. It laid there, dormant, until I began actively thinking about it, then, shuddering, came to life.

It felt like an uncontrollable shiver that originated near my heart when I "activated" it. I tried to force it to my hand, but when it began to near my right shoulder, the shudders and twitches started the intensify the already present aches into spasms of excruciating pain, so I pushed the magic entirely to my left hand instead. As it traveled slowly down my arm to my hand, the shivers seemed to possibly have some sort of effect, and I got a little excited. With a strange hum, my fingers began to jitter back and forth, and I hesitantly pushed them into the packed earth ground. Initially, it seemed promising, but after a moment, the magic seemed to lack effect, simply moving my hand up and down in a sawing motion, but without any real lasting change. After another moment, the energy I had relocated fizzled out, and I pulled my fingers from the loosened earth. A little disappointing, but not surprising, all things considered.

After, I recalled that the [System] had mentioned that sonic magic was particularly well suited for the amplification of sound, so I decided to again try to relocate the magic towards my mouth, and see what happened then.

Again, the uncontrollable shiver passed up my chest, this time tickling the inside of my throat as it began to pass upwards. Involuntarily, I felt the need to cough, and tried to rein it in as I tried to continue moving the magic upwards, but to no avail. I suddenly coughed, but it was far from a normal cough sound that came.

The entirety of the stored magic rushed out of my mouth with a sizzle and exploded, making a sound that, for lack of a better way of describing it, cracked like thunder in the small, closed room I was in. As the echoes spread through the den, Vefir scrambled immediately to his feet in a half asleep panic.

"A-are you ok, L-leader?" His stutter seemed to have improved a bit, and he came forward, concerned.

A grin stretched over my face. I could definitely think of a way to weaponize this.