Aarav was now sitting on the roof of one of the five buildings that formed a semi-circle around a patch of well-kept grass. The day had broken a few moments ago and the warmth of it washed away the bitter cold of the windy night before, the wind had not abated much with the rising of the sun but it was still a welcome change. Having spent the rest of the night tucked up on the top of the roof and sleeping, now Aarav felt a little sluggish. With no joints or bones to speak of stiffness was an issue of the past but it seemed that as the temperature continued to drop other things would begin to take effect instead.

The sun changed the scene before him from muted dark greys and blacks to more vibrant whites and lighter greys. Aarav was struggling with greyscale vision still but the greater variety of greys was welcome nonetheless. Hopefully soon…with the Talent we will see, Level 25, here I come! It wasn’t an unbelievable possibility. After all, at level ten black and white vision had separated into greyscale, why not colour next? Hopefully, the amount of attention he had been giving it would result in some impressive gains but thus far he had not had much to show for it. Only a little way to go for twenty-five though. He was holding his breath for something good.

Watery Eyes has increased to Level 24!

Strong Insectoid Wings has increased to Level 17!

Strong Insectoid Wings has increased to Level 18!

Digging Legs has increased to Level 21!

Quad Worm Tails has increased to Level 16!

Fins and Flippers has increased to Level 6!

That last just proved that it was not about using them unless aerodynamic usage counted but more about having them present. It seemed that levels in Skills were coming slower and slower now as well. Before an hour would have been enough to get a few levels, it was soon going to be time to get more selective and focus up.

With its wings continuing to grow and strengthen, it was more important than ever to find some prey, and as he looked over the roofs of the houses with Talent-enhanced vision he could see that there was some kind of small bird perched there on a roof across the way. Its camouflage was good, he was just better at it. As he continued to scan the surrounding area still Camouflaged as water, he saw that there were more of the same birds nesting in the shadow of the chimneys of the buildings. Some were alone but many were in groups of three or four, some large and small, families of birds. They opened their beaks and must have been making a sound but it was too high pitched for him to make out yet as his ears were still too weak. The discrepancy between ears and eyes was disconcerting, Aarav tried to ignore the feeling as best he could by doing the one thing he was great at, suppressing it until it went away, in Aarav’s stilted opinion it was a very healthy way to deal with any problem.

Seeing these families though, gave Aarav a clear target to hone in on. It was important for him to catch at least a few of these before they got away. His ability to fly hinged on this and unlucky for him there were no birds on the roof he was on, likewise the few single birds he could make out that would have been ideal targets were too far away for him to get to easily and without chancing detection. After having rested the whole night he had regained a little stamina, he would need to use it sparingly if he wanted to subdue the birds he could see. Using Identify did not work, they were too far away.

Damnit! Okay, annoying but not the end of the world. Let’s do this. With the meagre amount of stamina he had been able to accrue through the night he leapt off the roof going almost straight up, ten, twenty, twenty-five metres, he still had some juice left if he needed it to fly away without incurring a large stamina cost. From there, Camouflaged as Water he slowly and gently and without using any more stamina alighted on the next roof that was nearly seventy metres away. He had been upwind of the next roof so a lot of the effort had been borne by that wind. He probably should have planned with that in mind but how many humans could say they thought about aerodynamics regularly? He like every Darwinian creature before him would learn through trial and error and evolution! Okay, that path had let down the Dodo….and about 99% of all the creatures to ever have existed…and many humans…he would be planning strategically from now on.

Regardless, he had made it. After a short deserved celebration for having survived another five minutes, he focused on the task at hand. Namely, making it over to the nest of five birds that he had as yet to identify, while Aarav had learned not to have any problem with killing humans in his past life he had great respect for nature. So killing birds was actually harder than the idea of having to kill people, but at the end of the day he was a survivor and his vegetarian diet from before had not stopped him from snacking on some meat from time to time if he had to eat it to survive. It had not happened often in the past but that was just the type of person Aarav was. When no one ever looked out for you, you had to rely on yourself. That was the number one rule of survival.

Using the final precious slot for Camouflage, Aarav learned Roof Tiles these roofs in the inner circle of the village were not of thatch as the farmhouses on the way here had been. If required Aarav would blend with them to hide his presence better, with that done and Odour Alteration having saved Roof Tile as well, he was ready to go. It was a good idea to get this done before people started coming out, people seeing a fight on their rooftops were sure to notice and likely to do something, if only to protect the integrity of their property.

For now, Aarav switched back to Water both smell and sight. Roof Tiles was his backup. Intimidation tactics! Aarav puffed himself up like a mob boss’s debt collectors and edged forward realising that the bird could not see or smell him either. I guess stealth it is! Should have gone with that to start with. I get the bonus for sneak attacks. Not using it for a while was no excuse for not remembering to use all the tools in his arsenal. Silently readying weapons made of water denser than stone he closed with the oblivious birds. Identify! Aarav thought, finally gleaning some useful information…

Adult Female Pigeon - Level 6, Exp 125, Weight 500g

Adult Male Pigeon - Level 5, Exp 110, Weight 450g

Juvenile Female Pigeon - Level 3, Exp 60, Weight 250g

Juvenile Male Pigeon - Level 4, Exp 75, Weight 300g

Baby Male Pigeon - Level 2, Exp 25, Weight 100g

…but not much. Aarav sighed and accepted that everything in this world was a work in progress. Everything started absolutely rubbish and became incredibly powerful, which meant if you didn’t have the patience or tenacity to work on it say goodbye to power… he had an advantage though, Hello, Consolidate! Also, this things name is the same as Earth, the name wasn’t mixed up. Interesting. Weird how that happened, don’t really care right now though. Time to get me some wings!

The first obvious step was to take out the biggest, and toughest of the lot, in this case, it was the Alpha Female, Level 6. Being unable to tell how much health was in it, this is going to be a total gamble, but c’est la vie! Weapons hot, spells primed and projectiles prepared, Aarav was going to give these things no chance.

From out of nowhere, three spells and a projectile slammed into the largest of the birds perched on the roof earth, water and wind together made it lose its footing and slide down the side of the roof, the rest of the family were caught off guard as well and flew to higher ground, the top of the chimney. Looking down to see where the attack had come from. Nothing moved and there was nothing to indicate that there was an enemy. A patch of wetness on the roof among the blown leaves and other detritus of the wind blowing was the only thing that could be seen. The knocked over bird righted itself after sustaining some additional damage on top of being caught off guard from being slammed into the roof tiles and bouncing off. Nice, situational damage! Aarav stayed very still watching the pigeon as it shook off the damage and the cooldown of the spells ticked down.