I finished eating both Tapirs, thanking my Magical Gizzard Skill for allowing my small Eaglet body the ability to eat a theoretically infinite amount of food so long as it was within the Ranks it could completely digest. Their meat was cherished as it was probably the last thing I would eat for a while, as I was intent on following Katherine's advice and heading over to the Black Swamp.

After choosing the Eagle's Path of Evolution, I needed all the fighting and conflict I could get to continue leveling; continuing in Littleroot Forest would no longer be a viable option. However, Littleroot Forest was very safe for me at the moment and there was still something I needed to check before leaving.

The fight against the father Tapir had proven that at the very least E+ Ranked Monster could begin learning Offensive Magic, so I had to prepare myself as best as possible before heading to an even more dangerous area. I navigated my Status and honed in on the pending skills my Common Eagle Bloodline mentioned after evolving.

[Pending Learnable Skills:

Foundational Wind Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Foundational Earth Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Foundational Fire Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Foundational Water Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Foundational Strengthening Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Foundational Sonic Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Foundational Healing Magic (33% To Skill Creation)

Double-Edged Dive Bomb (20% To Skill Creation)]

Ok…

Honestly, I did not expect there to be so many things I could learn with my Lvl 1 Bloodline. But then again, I wasn't complaining. The more abilities and Skills I had, the better. Now, it was just a matter of deciding what to learn first and what to learn at all. After all, it would be irrational and unproductive to try learning everything. Better to be an ace in one or two things than a common jack of all trades. That being said, it certainly didn't equate to me only picking one or two things to learn.

For starters, I picked Foundational Fire and Strengthening Magic after the philosophy that the best defense was offense. Opting to specialize in what I already knew I was best at by picking the extremely offensive Fire attribute and redoubling it with the Strengthening Magic. Then my leftover picks went to Foundational Healing Magic and that Kamikaze-style attack.

Foundational Healing Magic would pair nicely with the only other type of Support and Auxiliary Magic I knew, Foundational Communication Magic, never mind also allowing what was shaping up to be my glass-cannon build a bit more fortitude. From what I could garner of the names of the last skill, it was probably Eagle or Avian Monster Specific. As a non-developmental, or branching skill, like the other Foundational Magics, it would serve me well to learn all the ones I could.

Now to actually start learning these things…

[Pending Skills:

Name: Foundational Fire Magic

Description: A predominantly Offensive Branch of the Magic System. The higher the Lvl, the more applications of Fire Magic will be made available. To learn, you must fulfill the following prerequisites:

1) Reach Rank E (Magic Reserves >= 20)

Condition: Satisfied

2) Grasp the feeling of Magic flowing through your body

Condition: Unmet; to meet the condition, engage in meditation until the feeling becomes clear.

3) Learn to convert Neutral Magic to Fire Magic

Condition: Unmet; to meet the condition, first learn to manipulate Neutral Magic before referring to your bloodline's memories on the foundations of Magic Circles, Magic Characters, and the Principles of Conversion. You'll have satisfied this condition after managing to create a personal flame.]

Magic Circles, Characters, and Principles of Conversion? I shook my head, resolving to first complete the second condition before worrying about the third. I've never meditated before, but it should be simple enough if the understanding I have of the process is correct.

I sat down, or crouched since sitting would be unconventional without hands or arms to help me up, and tried to empty myself of any and all thoughts. Since I had no idea what it would feel like to "grasp magic," I focused on the Core of my body, right below where my heart sat according to my Bloodline Memories.

The process was trickier than I anticipated, as I had to stop myself every half a minute or so from thinking of "feeling" and just doing it. But before ten minutes had passed, I caught on to a new feeling that had always been there. A feeling I had just been too ignorant to notice.

It was warm like a gentle fire, but formless and free like the air, and for several minutes I could only feel its existence and nothing else. But with time and enough work put into willing the Magic to move, I managed to get it to flow out of my core. Nearly an hour passed, however, before I could circulate the Magic around and to any point in my body. Though, the rate was pathetically slow and far from battle-ready.

[Prerequisites for Foundational Wind, Earth, Fire, Water, Strengthening, Sonic, and Healing Magics:

2) Grasp the feeling of Magic flowing through your body

Condition: Satisfied.]

It was good to know that some of the prerequisites for pending skills were shared, but I was not in the mood to celebrate the current state of my skill at the moment. I dismissed the notification and fiddled around with my Status until I got to the details of my Common Eagle Bloodline and found the information of Magic Circles, Magic Characters, and the Principles of Conversion.

"Magic as a System of power has been around since time immemorial. It is easily identifiable and classified by its two component parts, Magic Circles and the Magic Characters that are inscribed within them. Using a building as a vehicle to understand Magic, Magic Circles can be thought of as said building structure, while Magic Characters are the finer details that distinguish and identify the building. Magic Circles give Magic a form to inhabit rendering it a viable energy source, while Magic Characters give that form an effect."

"Conversion, unlike Magic Circles and Magic Characters, is much more abstract. To put it simply, it's the Theory behind Magic. Though founded in logic, Conversion is unique to each individual practicing Magic. It's an individual's understanding of a Magic, branch of Magic, or Magical Skill."

Coming out of the trance I was in while learning all there was to learn about Magic in my Bloodline Memories, I looked up at the sky and chirped grumpily. It was midday, meaning several hours had passed, but at least I now understood how to go about "creating a personal flame."

First, I had to gather magic and make a stable Magic Circle. With my current understanding and Magic Reserve Stat, Tier 1 Magic was the highest level Magic I could even safely attempt. But as a newbie with literally no experience, and, more importantly, to fulfill the condition to create Lvl 1 Foundational Fire Magic, I settled for Tier 0 Magic Circle.

By concentrating a negligible amount of Neutral Magic on my chest, I followed the process I learned through my Bloodline Memories. After five seconds, there formed a shaky and flickering Magic Circle the size of an apple, but before I could even attempt going to the next step of inscribing Magical Characters, the Magic Circle shattered.

[Magic Reserves: 44 → 43/44]

Not discouraged, I spent another half an hour practicing only the process of directing Magic within my body and creating Magic Circles. After thirty minutes, I still wasn't content with my proficiency, but the Tier 0 Magic Circles I made were now relatively stable, even if they were nowhere near completely filled with Neutral Magic.

In any case, with a stable Tier 0 Magic Circle I had a much lower risk of failing the inscription phase of the casting process, so I moved on to inscribing the four minimum Magic Characters needed to create Personal Fire.

Amusingly enough, both the alphabet for Magic Characters and the four Magic Characters required to make Personal Fire, matched both the English alphabet of my former incarnation and its word for "Fire" respectively. What would the people in my former incarnation's world think if they knew that their most common and widespread language was that of Magic in this universe?

Fortunately, inscribing Magic Characters on a Magic Circle proved to be several times easier for me when compared to constructing the Magic Circle. I hardly broke concentration whilst drawing the word and kept the whole thing stable on my first try. Now the only thing left for me to do was activate the completed Magic Circle and power it with energy from my Magic Reserves. Doing just that caused the Magic Circle to shift from translucent to an almost opaque red before a weak flame was born.

[Condition Fulfilled: New Skill "Red Personal Flame Lvl 1," and "Foundational Fire Magic" Created!

New Pending Learnable Skill Available:

Fireball]