Waking to complete darkness, a wave of pleasure unlike anything I'd felt so far gently soothed me into lazily stretching my limbs to better embrace the feeling. This went on for about three or four seconds before I remembered what I was waking from, so I reluctantly fought off my body's desire to remain idle. However, I wasn't an unfeeling robot, so to indulge as much as I could while still being productive, I continued to stay in my spot as I pulled up my Status to check what exactly had changed.

[Status

Name: None (Pick a name? Yes/No)

Species: Lesser Eaglet

Level: 1/10

Rank: D-

Life: 100%

Condition: Completely Healthy

Magic Reserves: 17 → 44

Attack: 23 → 50

Defense: 15 → 40

Speed: 20 → 47

Endurance: 13 → 37

Magic Potency: 0 → 5

Magic Resistance: 6 → 34

Condition Fulfilled: New Skills "Common Eagle Bloodline Lvl 1," "Swipe Lvl 1," "Flight Lvl 1," "Run Lvl 1," "Acute Vision Lvl 1" and "Bash Lvl 1" Created!

Skills:

Peck Lvl 2 → Lvl 4

Grip Lvl 2 → Lvl 4

Magical Gizzard Lvl 3 → Lvl 4

Appraise Lvl 3 → Lvl 4

Title Earned: Fledgling Of The Strongest Avian

Method of Acquisition: Chose the Evolutionary Path of Eagles

Effect: Comes with the Skill "Common Eagle Bloodline."]

I stared in disbelief at the results of my evolution. My understanding of the world around me and how I compare to it is still remarkably low, but seeing as how some of my stats have more than doubled, I feel as though I'm right to be so surprised.

No, I can't allow myself to get complacent. This is to be expected after both evolving out of Infancy and into the Eagle Path. Thus far, I've come to accept that Munich didn't give me any cheatsy ability, so I should continue forward with ample conservatism.

Shaking my head to dispel any blasphemous thoughts, I return to check on what some of the unintuitive skills I learned do.

[Skills:

Name: Common Eagle Bloodline Lvl 1

Description: Innately granted to all Eagle-type Monsters. As you grow stronger and mature, your bloodline's purity will follow. The higher your bloodline purity the more you comprehend of your bloodline memories; i.e. the higher this skill's level, the more skills you'll be able to learn from the Eagle Path Skills System. Current Skills learned from Common Eagle Bloodline include: Flight, Swipe, Run, Bash, and Acute Vision. Learnable Skills pending.

Name: Acute Vision Lvl 1

Description: Innately granted to all Eagle-type Monsters, this Skill gives you uncommon levels of visual prowess. With each higher Lvl exponentially increasing the range of your central vision, Lvl 1 also grants a small degree of night vision.]

I would have liked to go over what Learnable Skills I had pending from my Common Eagle Bloodline, but I felt myself get pulled up. It turned out that the floor itself wasn't moving, rather, I had been enveloped by a blanket and my summoner had pulled it closer to her side before she unraveled it to reveal me to the world.

"Ah! You became an Eaglet. One of the strongest and rarest types of Avian Monsters!"

Before I could even digest her words, she grabbed and pulled me in to rub against each other's faces. "You're still a little cutie baby eagle, but in due time you'll be a super monster!" She said.

After she separated us, I learned that we were inside a tent and from the opening leading outside, I could tell it was just after dawn. My summoner helped me do away with the blanket enveloping me and I could accurately assess the physical differences I gained after evolving.

First and foremost, I had grown several inches taller, at least twice as tall as I was as a Lesser Avian Infant. My wings, legs, and feet had developed even more so than my height, while the feathers covering my body had darkened from the original white to greyish-brown. Lastly, both my beak and claws had grown into a curved form, solidifying my appearance as an Eaglet.

I became unnaturally happy to see that with my developed legs, walking and even running, as suggested by my Status, would be no problem. However, that happiness was forgoed before I walked even fifty meters as I expectantly turned to gaze at my wings. I already had Flight Lvl 1 in my repertoire of Skills. As a human in my first incarnation, my excitement to literally take flight for the first time could probably be understood by my summoner and her party.

Woosh!

I was a little stunned to see that an experimental flap of my wings propelled me a couple inches off the ground. Seeing how little energy was expended after flapping my wings a couple more times, when I got serious and did the human equivalent to sprinting by exerting myself fully, I shot into the sky with startling acceleration.

One moment I was on the ground and in the next, I was hundreds of feet into the air. From what I knew of eagles in my former life, my speed was unnaturally fast even for adult eagles. But then again, I am a monster and not a typical bird. Furthermore, as a mere D- Ranked Monster, my speed probably wasn't anything I should be proud of.

Still, the feeling of flying was great. It felt natural and freeing. Even without a goal in mind, I could easily see myself deriving fun out of simply staying high up in the air. Alas, it was not meant to be as I heard my summoner call for me before a quarter of an hour passed.

"Er… Little eaglet come back!" She naturally had to shout for me to hear her.

I swooped down by retracting my wings and angling myself toward her, picking up great speed, only to break abruptly and hover such that I could land on her shoulder. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a mistake when I felt her recoil in pain and grunt. I'd yet to fully master my body, and my talons were pinching through her robes. Though, quickly enough I relaxed my standing posture and grip strength to not hurt her.

Strangely enough, my summoner was less concerned over the pain I inflicted than I thought, as she stared at me inquisitively before stating, "Hmm… You caught on rather quickly. I didn't even tell you what was wrong... Could it be that evolving made you more intelligent right away?"

Caught in a crossroads, I nodded in response. The situation had changed since we became contracted to each other. Though it would still be risky to reveal my intelligence in its full capacity, sooner or later, I'd have to do so when she called me out for a fight. It'd definitely be much more suspicious if I feigned stupidity only to reveal cunning in the heat of a battle.

"Y-you can understand abstract concepts like intelligence?" She said, her eyes widening slightly.

Again, I nod as there's no reason to backtrack.

"Wow," her eyes sparkled, "I was originally going to give you a name I'd picked while you were flying around, but now it seems I'll have to run it by you."

She stopped to read my expression, to which I nodded again in understanding. Seeing my Status ask for me to input a name time and time again had started to become an eyesore. Not to mention how dehumanizing it would be for my summoner, and anyone else for that matter, to merely label me as nothing more than my species.

"Would you like to be called, Ginger?"

The name struck me like a semi-truck gone rogue. What the hell? I'm a fucking brown Eaglet and her first pick for my name was ginger? I huffed and shook my head in disdain. Perhaps, in this world, ginger didn't mean anything demeaning, but in my former life, it was an insult among other things.

"Jared?" She asked much more reservedly, though I still ended up shaking my head. With the goal of becoming this universe's god, how ironic would it be for my name to be that of a fragile rose?

"Jasper? Victor? Kaiser..."

No, no, no… These were much better, but a name was forever and I wanted it to be perfect.

My summoner sighed after running through around a dozen names before she helplessly asked, "What about Nova?"

I was half ready to start shaking my head again when the appeal of the name forced me to stop. Nova... I liked the ring to it as she said it aloud while the exotic pronunciation was right up my alley. So, with no reason to decline, I nodded cheering, or rather chirping, happily.

[Name: None → Nova]