"So, like… What do we do now?" The unnamed man before me asked.

I just tilted my head and narrowed my eyes at him condescendingly. How the hell was I supposed to respond to him as an Eaglet? It's not like he was my partner. Though, even if he was, my Communication Magic had yet to improve at all. What had improved, however, was my ability to understand the language he was speaking; I had my Eagle Bloodline to thank for that.

"Well?" He asked, apparently expecting me to respond.

Oh well, I might as well put my newfound knowledge to use and drag my claws on the ground to form a sentence he can understand.

I wrote, "Why the hell are you asking me? You're the idiot who's been running around in the middle of the Black Swamp with far too little strength." Since I was unused to writing with my claws, my handwriting was comparable to that of a preschooler.

"Wh—" He looked like he was about to chew me out, quite obviously mad, when his attitude completely flipped and he literally choked on his words. "Wait a second… If you're intelligent enough to write out whole complex sentences like that and you're willing to stick around and write them for me, why didn't you just speak them to me with a Transmission Spell?"

"Hey dumb-dumb," he huffed and puffed as I finished writing that, "I obviously don't know that Spell, so unless you want to teach it to me, we'll have to stick to writing messages."

As amazingly useful as my bloodline was when it came to teaching me Skills, it wasn't perfect. Perhaps most normal Monsters wouldn't even consider the flaws in their bloodlines, but I was well aware of mine.

For instance, with my abnormally high intelligence — let's be honest and call it self-awareness — I was able to almost instantly learn the Spells that I wanted from my bloodline. Those Spells were what other Lesser Eaglets like myself would be able to naturally learn. You know, like all the other practically brain dead Monsters.

To someone like me, who could reason and deduce how to manipulate Magic about as quickly as a human Mage, I was actually being severely limited to just the knowledge passed through my bloodline; which was to say that I could learn a lot more than what my Bloodline and Level would suggest.

Eagles, I knew, could learn the basics of pretty much any branch of Magic. Only, it seemed that I would need either a higher Lvl Common Eagle Bloodline or a completely evolved one of a variant species before I would be able to get innate insights into Communication Magic Spells.

Though, that would all go flying out the metaphorical window the moment I encountered someone who could teach me; provided whatever it is they taught was within my capacity to both learn and perform.

"I would do that, you know, as thanks for saving me and all. But, I'm stuck in the middle of this god forsaken hell-hole. You might be able to live here without a care, but I'm at the mercy of just about everything else," the man smugly said without moving his mouth through a Transmission Spell. I think he was ego tripping for being able to do something that I could not, at the moment.

Well, I already helped him once. I might as well help him again, especially if by doing so I'll be getting the means to talk to other people and maybe some of the smarter Monsters I come across.

I wrote another message, saying, "Fine. Let's make a trade. I'll help you leave this danger zone if you promise to teach me the Spell immediately afterwards."

"Really?!" He literally jumped slightly after reading my proposition. "That's all I have to do? Wow," he started muttering, "To think that there would actually be a good-natured enough Monster willing to help me… It's a Tamed Beast, sure. But, even without its master nearby it went out of its way to help me just like that? Weird."

I just looked at him impatiently until he finally agreed.

"Well, then… I guess we should figure out what direction to take. Although… Now that I think about it, even I don't know where I should go. Not… Not after being abandoned to death by my fa— I mean, the royal family."

"Let's go west to the Littleroot Forest, then." I wrote, "Your situation sucks, but at least you shouldn't find anything too dangerous there."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved my dismissive statements aside and asked, "Do you even know what direction west is from here?"

Instead of writing another message, I just did my little compass trick before telling him which way to go.

"You're a strange little bird," he plainly stated as we started to journey west, back to the place where I was born. "Um… Do you even have a name? I'm Darius Violetson, by the way. Or well, just Darius now..."

"Nova," I simply wrote for him before we went on our way.

…

An hour later, I was about ready to just abandon Darius and be on my way. I had severely underestimated the man's incompetence and just how big of an annoyance he would be.

"Ugh," he whined for like the hundredth time since we had started going east. "Another region of water? I'm going to get sick at this rate!"

I watched him from above while perched on a tree branch, rolling my eyes at the sight of him 'once again' using the rusted sword he had been carrying all this time to gauge the depth of the water ahead. Unsurprisingly, he whined even more after learning he would have to go through waist-high waters and made us waste more time.

Eventually, he went on to slowly enter the water and continue covering distance. But, it was all just so terribly slow. Though, to be honest, I was somewhat surprised to see his pitiful cries of overwhelming weakness had yet to attract any monsters.

'Ah, I jinxed myself,' I thought as my keen eyes picked up on some movement about fifty meters ahead of Darius. He remained totally oblivious as the swamp's muddied water probably made it impossible for him to know of any dangers it concealed even if he wasn't currently pissing and moaning like a child throwing a tantrum.

Whistle!

I cried out to him, getting him to stop trudging along 'towards' the danger, as I flew down to get a little closer.

[Appraise Successful

Name: Dark-Venom Cottonmouth Snake

Estimated Rank: D+

Description: One of the stronger Reptilian Monsters in the outer region of the Black Swamp. As suggested by their name, Dark-Venom Cottonmouths have a nasty flesh-eating venom that acts like a superacid. Usually, their venom is the only noteworthy threat as their Attack is overinflated by its effects.]

Oh…

My eyes narrowed dangerously as a phantom pain shot through my right thigh. 'It's one of these assholes,' I callously thought as a Tier 1 Empower Spell Circle quickly formed around my body.

It was on my second day in the Black Swamp that one of these Dark-Venom Cottonmouth Snakes had ambushed me while I was eating a prey I had freshly killed. Their venom's potency isn't really done justice by my Appraisal as even now, I feel like I'm half-traumatized after watching my feathers and thigh flesh dissolve away violently after having been bitten.

Fortunately, I had taken up Healing Magic before coming to the Black Swamp and could spam Self Heals until the last remnants of venom were expunged by my body. Otherwise, though I probably would have survived the venom itself, I probably wouldn't have continued to survive against any other Monsters for much longer while severely wounded.

With my experience, thus, I already knew how to deal with these snake pests. For even though I thought the effects of their venom were understated by my Appraisal, the bit about their Attack being overinflated couldn't be closer to the truth. I'd probably killed over ten of these types of snakes over the last couple of days and they'd all been equally triflingly easy to slay; especially if I noticed them before they did me.

Their Defense, and Speed especially, were probably lower than mine after I had immediately evolved from a Lesser Avian Infant into an Eaglet. So, in my empowered state, there was nothing the snake before Darius could do to stop me from slicing it into ten pieces after catching its body with my claws.

As I fished its Monster Core from its slowly sinking body, I thought, 'So much for a D+ Rank supposedly superior monster.' When I turned back to Darius, he just looked at me pale-faced.

"That was a Dark-Venom Cottonmouth," he weakly said as his knees buckled and the sword in his hands shivered in his mockery of a sword stance. When I nodded, he gulped before muttering up a storm about how terrible everything in his life was.

My immediate intention was to cut his tirade short, so we could continue our depressingly slow journey eastward. However, after persisting through an hour of his endless whining, I had learned enough about him to be just the 'slightest' bit empathetic with regards to his situation. After all, he couldn't really be faulted for being in the Black Swamp with me in the first place.

From what I had heard, Darius Violetson had been the son of a high-ranking noble in Violeteast City. His father hailed from a branch of the Amethyst Kingdom and was an accomplished B Ranked Combat Mage. Darius, however, was "god-awful" — his words — at most forms of combat magic and after proving to be a complete disappointment, he had been disowned by the family.

Apparently, the culture of this world — or at the very least, that of the nobility in the Amethyst Kingdom — really valued honor and respect, or something, and Darius being the disappointment that he was, had warranted his former family to leave him to die alone in the Black Swamp.

At the same time, they weren't above handing out "second chances." So, that's how Darius found himself with just the clothes on his back and a rusty sword, alone, in the middle of an area far too dangerous for him.

Anyways… He had kept up his incessant mutters and mumbles, so I was just about to bonk him out of his trance so we could be on our way when he said something that stopped me in my tracks.

"...Can't really get much worse than this," I missed most of his monologue, "So, I might as well teach you the Transmission Spell right now. If not, I'll be even more helpless than I am right now!"

Yes…

Yes!

Teach me that damn Spell, so I can tell you to quit your endless bitching!