It was not difficult to spot the last ork stumbling through the undergrowth. He was hacking at ferns and bushes with his axe while swaying slightly. It was not very effective but his grumbling let off for a few moments whenever he struck. I circled a few times to make sure no goblins would be close enough to interfere. Then I dropped silently onto his neck. Shadows spread at the same time in front of his face to make it more difficult for him to see. As my talons sunk in, his axe swung towards me. I eyed it for a moment before going into [Eldritch Shift] and slipping into the shadows in front of him. Before the blood spurting from his wound could splatter me, I accelerated forwards.

Another clean kill. I was getting good at this. Too good. My human side was a little bit scared at how cold-blooded I was. But then again, these guys were assholes, so I was only a little bit scared of myself. It should be fine as long as I kept an eye on my actions. And it was not like my human side disliked the hunt. The only thing I cared about was not becoming a mindless monster. I really should find a hobby.

I had turned off my notifications for levelling up to avoid getting distracted mid-fight so I took another look at my status.

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, mana enriched (medium)

Level: 13

Class: [Assassin lvl 36], -

Strength: 15

Constitution: 12

Dexterity: 21

Perception: 22

Intelligence: 25

Wisdom: 20

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 5], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Soundless Flight lvl 4]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 4], [Intimidating Screech lvl 4], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 5], [Aerial Combat lvl 4],

General:

[Maths lvl 4], [Identify lvl 4],

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 4], [Surprise Attack lvl 4], [Mingling lvl 2], [Eldritch Shift lvl 2]

My Skills and Attributes were growing nicely. The only concern I had were my race levels. I did not gain much there, probably because I was not acting very owl-like. I had no territory and even while I wanted to scout the town, there was no intent to stay here. Only the hunt for food would still give me experience for that. I was not too worried, however. The attributes gained from it were distributed automatically anyways. I would not miss having a few race levels less in exchange for some more [Assassin] levels.

I spent most of the next day resting and only returned to the town an hour before dusk. That was how I completely missed the large group of orks moving about through the forest. I only caught them returning. My guess was they had investigated what happened to their scouts. When I saw a bunch of them holding onto knocked out goblins, that was somewhat confirmed. They had gathered the runaways from last night. The goblins were brought into a building looking much like a simple barracks. I wanted to learn more about how they were treated but I was careful not to get close. If they spotted an owl behaving unnaturally, like getting close to them, it would be easy to figure out the connection to the dead orks. The goblin that had seen me might have even told the orks.

So I simply stuck to the central buildings. The higher roofs let me stay hidden more easily, people never looked up after all. From there I listened in on conversations. It was rather difficult to figure out what they were talking about without seeing them so I carefully stood close enough to the edge of the roof to at least see some of the plaza.

I had known this was not a marketplace so I was baffled by the commotion. Orks stood in groups or moved in and out of buildings and almost everyone was talking. I had to focus very closely to make out the conversations of the orks I could see. Even with my minor understanding, the primary topic of discussion was clear though. Me. They were talking about me. Or rather, about the dead ork in the courtyard building. About the screeching in the forest. And about the dead orks in the forest. I could not make out if anyone knew it was an owl responsible for any of these, but I understood the death in the middle of town was not connected to the forest activities in the minds of the townspeople. Townsorks? Whatever, they kind of were people, if a bit barbaric in their treatment of goblins.

Soon the sun set and the bustle started to die down. I had improved my knowledge of Orkish a little but with everyone on edge, it might be better to leave and look for another town down in the valley. My stash was almost empty as well. I decided to work a little bit on my shadow plus shift combination. Using all that energy would make me eat through the stored food quickly and after that, I could leave without a worry.

I set up in my cave and spread my [Owl’s Shadow]. Familiar darkness filled the surroundings and I felt out carefully where it was. The first test would be shadows everywhere. I spread them as far as I could push them in one swift motion and activated [Eldritch Shift]. All around me dark mana flowed. It was connected to me in a way I could easily understand as a path. The earth and air mana around kept it contained. Wherever the shadows touched, the energies tried to mingle. Something was blocking them but I could not make out any details before [Eldritch Shift] deactivated again. I had seen the air mana rip into my shadows and disintegrating them on the far edge. That would be why I could not extend it any further. I needed more Intelligence to spread a greater distance. Maybe Wisdom would help too. I would pay attention to the Skill, now that I was increasing a different Attribute. I would also check if levelling [Owl’s Shadow] itself grew my area of influence.

But now it was time for [Eldritch Shift]. I pulled in my shadows and formed them into thin tendrils. I spread one to the entrance of the cave and one to the end. Another two extended into the same directions but spiralled along the walls. I made sure to carefully hold onto my shadows and then activated [Eldritch Shift]. This time the pathways were smaller but they were just as easily traceable. The air mana around barely even touched them, instead, it almost looked like the shadows were trying to absorb it. With a mental push, I shifted position. I was already everywhere the shadows were, I only needed to decide where I was when the Skill ended. My real body was after all decidedly smaller than the volume of my darkness.

I reappeared at the end of the cave. Mentally I still held onto my shadows just like before. The ends towards the entrance held steady even though they were at a range they usually started dissipating. I was a little bit confused but then again they were part of my body while shifted. Maybe some of that held true even after? I was quite hungry already so I ate the last of my stash. For a while, I just sat there watching my tendrils. They held steady. I started moving them and: Poof. The shadows instantly evaporated past my normal range. Disappointed, I brought back in what was left. I wanted to try this again but this time use the path twice and see if I could go to the extended range if I did not move them.

After a decent rest, I went for it again. I only spread one tendril to each side, though they were more like blankets this time. Spread out flat and almost as wide as my body they sat against the ground. This would be a lot easier to hold steady in a fight. Taking a deep breath I prepared myself once more mentally. [Eldritch Shift] activated and I reappeared at the end of my cave. I looked at the shadows and made out a new oval-shaped blob of darkness the size of an owl at my previous position. It quickly dissipated though, since it was more like a collection of drops than one singular blob.

The shadow blanket on the ground held steady as expected and so I went for the second one. [Eldritch Shift] turned the world once more into an amalgamation of colours. The dark pathway spread out before me and, as expected, I could move all the way to the end just outside of the cave. And so I did. As I reappeared with heaving breaths I stumbled down the slope of the mountain. This could have used a tiny bit of thinking through. Luckily I had wings and it only took a jump and a few flaps for me to return to my cave. I had no more food saved up but the last meal was not digested anyways. A little bit of rest was a good idea. And so I collapsed against the sidewall of the cave.

I woke up sometime around noon. I felt refreshed, now that my meal had turned into energy, but I was still exhausted. Instead of leaving right away, I waited until nighttime. I did not want to be spotted by any ork or goblin possibly scouting the forest. Once it was dark enough, I took off, the wand held in my beak. I could fly up the river in the valley I had not come from or follow it downstream. The decision was rather simple. Going upstream would make it very likely to pass by the town again on a return trip. Unless I wanted to just head off into the wilderness and make my way cross-mountains into unknown territory. That was an option but it would make it difficult to keep learning Orkish if I found no more of their villages. Downstream it was.

My flight through the clear night was interrupted by a quick hunt as soon as I gained some distance from the town. It was very calming to just fly away from all of my worries. In a night or two, all the orks I had riled up would be too far to be a problem. I really enjoyed this freedom. That did not mean I was opposed to settling down somewhere. It would have to be a very special place though. And I would have to find some actual friends, which required a way to communicate with more detail than just gestures and simple sounds. Maybe I could figure out a [Telepathy] Skill? I already knew what it felt like thanks to my eldritch encounter, I only needed someone to practice on.