[After overcoming a trial together, your pet feels closer to you than ever before. Would you like to upgrade your bond? Y/N]

Uhhh.. Yes?

My eyes stare at the words before me as they jumble together and reassemble themselves. After a good nap, I'd awoken to these words floating in front of me, scaring me for a minute.

It's not every day you wake up and have a white box with strange text on it floating right in front of your face.

What did upgrading a bond even mean?

Would we each get our own friendship bracelets or something?

The same light that shined around Greenie when he became my pet shines around him again.

From my perch on Greenie's shoulder, it caught me off guard when the light surrounded him, and coincidentally, me, at the same time.

[Your pet, {Greenie the Goblin} has gained a stronger sense of self-awareness and pride as your pet. Intelligence has increased somewhat as a result.]

It hurt my eyes a bit to be suddenly surrounded with the white light. Greenie stops for a moment, staring down at himself as the glow continues to shine.

Ding~!

[Acquired skill 『Pet Detection LV1』]

Aww yeah! A skill!

I was starting to welcome hearing that lady's voice.

Greenie was still staring at his fingers, holding out one hand in front of himself.

Woah. The bones in his hands were making small popping sounds. My beak falls open as I take a closer look at what was happening.

The bony fingers with the unusually knobby and large knuckles seemed to be lengthening themselves out, becoming more flexible. Greenie liked the transformation, from the way he kept opening and closing his fingers and staring at them.

Flying off his shoulder down to the ground, I give a few hops backwards to take in what else may have changed, looking him up and down.

That ugly face of his with the 2 yellowed canines poking out were the same.

Hmm. Was he a little bigger? Maybe he was, I couldn't tell. Something else was different too.

What was it?

It was like a spot-the-difference game, but you didn't have the original picture, and could only rely on memory.

The strange torso of his looked the same, with a protruding belly and concave chest. Same green skin.

Hmmmm....

Hmm..Hmm...Hmmm

Was it the feet?

It must be the feet.

If my memory was correct, he only had three toes on each foot before.

The three hairy toes on his foot had diverged into four, becoming more human-like as a result.

Also his rough, patchy skin was smoother now. When I ran my wing over the tops of his foot-

"Kreiiik!" Greenie giggles like he was ticklish.

Were you ticklish before?

The four fingers of his hands do a better job of gently picking me up and setting me on his shoulder. Rather than the usual grabbing and squeezing I would experience, it was a lot smoother. It didn't feel like the ever-loving daylights were getting squeezed out of me. Setting me on his shoulder, he sets off again.

All the trees looked the same to me. We hadn't encountered any monster so far.

I was getting bored. There was only so much of staring at trees a being could take.

The goblin's emotions that I could feel weren't singular anymore. Now, I could feel his thirst and hunger, happiness to be with me, pride at becoming stronger, all mixed together in a jumble.

Greenie was looking at his hands again.

When he switches to look at his other hand, he accidentally bonks himself in the head to look at the hand holding the spear.

I'm questioning the increase to his intelligence...

But he looked better now.

So this was what evolution was like in this world.

It moved things along at a much quicker pace than how it had worked in my old world. No wonder there were monsters like that emerald snake and fire wolf out there.

This was pretty cool!

But how come I hadn't evolved? That encounter with the wolf would seem like a fight that could let me level up, if this were a game.

I wanted to evolve too! In a fantasy world like this, maybe I could evolve back into a human-like form.

Without any hands, I couldn't cook. Turning the pages of a book was impossible too.

And I wanted to read and eat so badly.

Spending the rest of my life as a bird was not good enough. I had to get stronger either way, strong enough that I could hold my own against those wolves, against that snake, instead of depending on luck.

Right now, I was going to die of either boredom, or a very horrible death at the hands of some strange fantastic creature.

There was no way I was going to stay in this forest forever. I would need to make some sort of map, figure out whether there were any towns or cities around here...

I would try out the new skill later, for now, I was waiting for Greenie to take us to wherever we were headed towards. It was better to try them when we were in a safer place. The mistake of using taunt on the Wolf King was still burned fresh in my memory.

"Aaark!"

Greenie takes my croaking as a signal to start moving.

Where was Greenie taking us, I wonder?

Somewhere with a stash of food, like the Ice Cavern? Maybe a body of water where I could get him clean? Or even back to the cave?

Closing my eyes, I focus on Greenie's emotions, hoping I can glean some sort of hint from them.

Happiness. Check.

Pride. Check.

Didn’t seem there was anything else. Nothing new here. Losing my focus, I open my eyes again

My extra-wide vision shows me Greenie rubbing his wide forehead with a pained expression, a little blue from where he'd hit himself.

Pain.

Check.

Opening my eyes again, I looked around to see where we were. Dappled sunlight dropped down the opening between the leaves from the trees that crowded together around us on every side. There were still the same dark trees around us with their hard bark, and....a tree with moss growing up the side.

I had a bad feeling about this.

"Kraaawk!" Calling out for Greenie to stay where he was, which he seems to understand, I fly up and check the upper part of the mossy tree's trunk.

Yep. There's the hollow I spent the night in.

How were we back here when I'd just taken a nice long nap on Greenie's shoulders!?

Digging through Greenie's emotions, I detected no feelings of confusion or being lost.

Maybe goblins didn't get lost? They just walked around aimlessly?

What a happy-go-lucky guy.

Guess I'll have to go do some reconnaissance.

---Status---

Name:

Greenie

Race:

Rare Forest Goblin New!!

Title:

Common Bird's Pet

Magic:

N/A

Abilities:

Special Skill [Luck]

Skill [Stab]

Skill [Gross Eater]

Skill [Night Vision]

Skill [Call]

Skill [Escape]

Resistances:

[Poison Resistance] [Rot Resistance]

------

Below is an excerpt from the Adventurer's Handbook:

Race Description:

Common Forest Goblin: A race at the lowest rung on the food chain of sentient monsters.. Too clumsy and too stupid to hunt, they often scavenge for remains, hiding in the shadows, watching when other monsters fight each other or attack humans. They have enough intelligence to break into farms and gardens for food, causing them to be especially strongly hated by farmers. Extremely dangerous when gathered together to form tribes, as they will attack the nearest towns for women and food. Known for their prolific reproductive capability, they are able to reproduce with almost any humanoid monster, though they have shown an obsessive preference for human women.

Rare Forest Goblin: Stronger, faster and more intelligent than the common forest goblin, it is common knowledge that these rare goblins have a tendency to become the leaders of small goblin bands. Can be differentiated from the common goblins by their 4 fingers and toes. It is recommended that they be killed on sight. The requirements for their evolution are unknown.