Chapter 3: Unknown World

I stare down at the dead rabbit corpse in front of me. I was so hungry you could feel a hint of bloodlust in the air. Even though the morals of my human side kept telling me to cook it, the monster part of me caused me to leap toward the juicy pile of meat.

As I tear the meat apart with my beak, I almost leak a tear because of how good it was. As soon as I felt full, I automatically snapped back to my senses. The scene in front of me was extremely gruesome, so gruesome I almost threw up the parts I ate.

I can't believe I did this...  This may be a fantasy world, but it's still reality... I have to accept this new lifestyle, or I'll never be able to survive.

[Day 2]

I contemplated whether I should explore and leave the rabbit carcass behind or stay in the same area, finishing the rest of the meat.

When I stopped feeling nauseous, I decided that I would explore around and leave the rabbit behind. This might be my instinct as a monster, but I want to grow stronger. This is the reason that I chose what I chose... to grow stronger.

The rotting corpse's stench may push away potential prey, so I have to explore and find new prey. If the opponent is too strong, I can still escape with my [Boost] skill.

I climb the nearest tree with my extremely sharp talons, and when I got to the top, I couldn't believe my eyes. The landform I was on was a mountain. The terrain had a common theme... trees. There would be some places with trees nearing the 40-meter mark in height. While in some other places, there are trees half the size of your average cherry blossom.

I quickly noticed that the mountain is so big that I can't see the peak or the base. This might be because of my poor eyesight, though. Also, in the distance, I can see small silhouettes of what look to be monsters.

"Looks like I found myself some prey," I tried to say, but once again, a 'cheep' came out of my mouth.

I climbed down the tree and started dashing towards a place with trees on the smaller side. Many exotic plants were filling every nook and cranny of my current forest. But the strangest part about them would be how many of them were alive.

I would have gone to try and kill some of them, but I didn't know if they were venomous.

Better stay away from these things.

[Corrupt Bloom]

[Requires basic knowledge of plants]

[Acid Flayer]

[Requires basic knowledge of plants]

[Piranha Ink Plant]

[Requires basic knowledge of plants]

hmmm...

Around half an hour passes, and I near the field of tiny trees. As soon as my talons come in contact with the field of tiny trees, multiple wolves appear from behind them. These wolves were different from those I knew, and they have bloodshot eyes with fur that's a shade of dark red.

As I start to slow down and stare at the wolves slowly closing in on me, a notification appears.

[Berserker Wolf]

[An uncommon species of wolves. These wolves are in a constant state of [Berserk], but due to this, they only live up to 3 weeks at most.]

I think I'm starting to understand how this inspection thing works. You have to put a little of your concentration on something, and it will tell you what it is and the description.

Never mind that, though, I have to figure out how to get out of here. There are way too many wolves to rush in and fight.

I turn my head around, but my body doesn't. I try to run, but my little body crouches down. It was a fighting stance with my upper part of my body dipping low and my wings straight beside me. My body gets rushed with adrenaline, and the only thing I can think of is...

Kill... kill... KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL GROW GROW GROW GROW GROW GROW TO KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL GROW GROW GROW GROW GROW GROW TO KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL…

I swear I saw some of the wolves back away. The faces of those wolves looked like they saw the incarnate of the devil. But I didn't care. The only thing I could think of was killing and devouring the wolves in front of me.

I immediately used [Boost], dashing onto the top of the tree right next to me, but I didn't stop and cowardly hide up there.

I get to the edge of one of the branches and lean forward, falling until I hit the right spot. I was now upside down, clinging onto the branch with my talons. Some of the wolves ran away after seeing my insane speed even though I'm so little. Leaving only 5 wolves to deal with.

I explode off the tree branch like a bullet coming out of its chamber. I dash through the air, targeting the wolf in front of me. I point my beak out and use [Peck], which pierces all the way into the wolf's head, instantly killing it.

Without hesitation, I pulled my beak out of its head and jumped to another wolf. All the wolves ran towards me in a synchronized motion, clearly angry at me for killing their comrade.

When I near a wolf from above, the wolf jumped towards me. I landed on its nose and then, in an instant, jumped to the closest tree branch.

The wolves scratched at the tree, wanting to climb up it. I then did the same strategy from before and darted like a bullet to the wolf directly below the branch.

The wolf screamed in pain as I scratched right past his face, gouging one of his eyes. I didn't delay my next attack and jumped straight towards its throat. As its body went limp, I almost got crushed under its falling corpse.

[Gained the following skill]

[Mind Control]

[Suppresses your monster's instinct, allowing you to utilize your brain and stay calm while in battle. Allows you to hear some thoughts of living beings in a small radius of 2 meters.]

So this is what enabled me to come up with that way of attack without hesitating about my actions. 

"CHEEP!"

In my slight moment of straying thoughts, a wolf pounces on my wing, pinning me onto the ground. The wolf goes in to eat me, but I gamble and use [Shock], which I have no clue what it does.

As soon as I use [Shock], the wolf's entire paw stiffens up. I use this one moment to rip my wing out from under the beast's paw. Thankfully my entire wing didn't come off, but it still felt broken, no not even broken, almost like every bone in my wing shattered into a million pieces.

As soon as I saw my wing, I only realized how much pain I was in and screamed at the top of my little lungs. Even though I stopped for a moment, [Boost] deactivated by itself, probably because I wasn't moving.

"CHEEEEEEP!"

I stopped and regrouped myself because there were still 3 wolves circling me. I wondered why they didn't jump in to finish me after seeing me in pain but decided to push that thought to the back of my head.

The wolf, I shocked, jumped towards me once again, but I was ready. I used [Boost], giving me the agility I needed to dodge the incoming attack. Once the wolf missed me, I used [Peck] and aimed straight for the side of its neck.

Instead of hearing the piercing of flesh, I hear the cracking of bones instead.

Shit! What did I hit? That hurt my beak a lot!

After pulling out my beak, I realized I missed my target, and instead, I broke the side of its spine with my beak.

I dashed towards the top of a tree with wolves lunging at me, trying to swallow me whole.

Phew... That was close.

When I stopped at the end of a tree branch, a sudden wave of fatigue hit me. I laid there on the tree branch with my entire body aching and felt like my lungs were on fire. All I could hear were the sounds of the wolves growling at me from below.

I paid them no mind and looked at my status...

『Status』

[Name: None]

[Race: Cursed Wings (Lightning)]

[Status: Slightly Frustrated]

[Level: 0/10]

[HP: 10/15 MP: 1/5 SP: 1/5]

[Strength: 2]

[Defense: 1]

[Magic: 4]

[Speed: 4]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 5]

[Skills: [******] [Shock] [Boost] [Peck] [Mind Control]

[Titles: [Blessed by ********* ****** of *************]

It seems [Shock] and [Boost] used my MP... Plus I'm running dry on stamina.

Thump

Crunch

Crunch

I sat back up, looking to see what that noise was coming from, and saw one of the wolves biting down and chewing on the end of my tree branch.

Before I could react, I suddenly heard a snap and found myself plummeting to the ground.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!