Shades of the New World

Chapter 38: Full-metal bird.

The living sword was lying on the ground, beckoning others to come find him. It realized that it had such an ability after staying still and trying out different things. It waited long and soon after, his patience paid off as a slightly large raven found the shining metal sword on the ground.

The crow saw the sword, but hesitated on whether it should catch it between its beaks. It was greedy for the sword, but it felt like it wasn't able to carry it.

Noticing the crow's hesitation, the sword immediately started shrinking. It turned into a small little dagger, just a bit longer than the big crow's height. The metal object's sudden shrinking shocked the raven, but its hesitation was no more. It instantly dove down from the tree it was sitting on.

Right after its talons grabbed the dagger, the metal broke down into tiny little pieces again, and violently started wrapping around the raven. The black bird was startled and started cawing in an ugly tone with panic. Its struggle was useless, as the flesh and feathers of the animal were not enough to break through the metal trap.

After a few seconds, the struggle ended, and the raven who thought that it had died, instead found itself with a new set of armor. Its beak and talons were now armed with a layer of scarlet metal, a clear upgrade to its fighting potential, while It's chest and head were covered in a shining silver armor. The raven was startled at first, but it not feel anything negative. It had enough strength to wield its newfound equipment freely, while also gaining some knowledge on how to utilize it properly.

It did not even feel burdened by the weight of its new armor. It took glances at its wings and body, taking some time to adjust to the new sight.

But the biggest change it felt was that it heard a voice in its head, making unknown sounds inside it. First it was agitated, making all sorts of noises inside the crow's head, but after a while it became silent.

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The raven was confused, but it decided to throw the matter out of its head and went on to hunt for other prey.

But right after it starting flying, the shiny metal covering its body kept distracting it and so it fell to the ground. Next came a long period of the bird trying to adapt to its new body.

Evin and Rith woke up soon after sunrise. Ssatsko was already up and preparing breakfast for the two. After storing everything with Rith's powers, they ventured deeper into the forest. Only this time, Evin was in front of the group, awfully focused on finding trails of animals. He found a few trails, but they were all too old to lead to anything. Evin was confident in his decisions, so the trip didn't become that much slower than the previous day. Ssatsko followed silently, offering no input whatsoever.

After a few hours, Evin finally found a trail he deemed stalkable. And it wasn't just any trail, it was the hoofprints of a deer.

'A big game!' Evin immediately started following the hoofprints. He was extra focused, since he didn't want to startle the deer. He began floating carefully between the trees as he perked his ears for any kind of rattling or snorting sound that may come from the deer. He took a brief break every time his mana-core ran dry from the constant use of two Worlds, but immediately began floating in search of the deer after it was replenished.

Even though Ssatsko was walking on the ground, the experienced old man made almost no sound when walking. As for Rith, she was silently following behind them, either floating or just walking, depending on her mood. After walking for about thirty minutes more, he finally heard the faint sounds of an animal chewing grass.

His focus was sharpened yet again, as his eyes darted around the area in search of the deer. He had stopped moving completely, only tilting his body towards to the source of the sound. His eyes finally registered the sharp movement of the deer's antlers.

'A buck, then. Best to kill in one shot and make sure it's dead before approaching it,' Evin noted in his head.

Approaching a struggling creature was considered brave at best, and dumb at worst.

He floated to a spot where he could get a better view of the beast. He flew towards a thick branch, able to hold his weight. He stood on it and stopped floating. The buck was about 20 meters away, facing away from him. After judging the distance and the position, he concluded that he shouldn't be able to get a clean hit to its vitals. He picked up an acorn and let it float. He directed it towards the right side of the buck, slowly and steadily, making sure it doesn't hit anything. After the acorn was about 30 meters away from him, he let it drop and immediately charged up for an air bullet. He learned how to change some of his spell's attributes, so he could make his little bullets much more lethal than a normal one.

Hearing the sudden drop of an acorn, the buck was alerted, and immediately looked towards the source of the sound. A clear view on its neck and head was presented to Evin, which he immediately took advantage of. An air bullet the size of a finger flew towards the buck at incredible speeds.

Evin expected a clean headshot, but the bullet flew a bit to the left side of Evin's intended target, hitting its neck. The deer immediately fell to the ground and convulsed with pain for a minute until it wasn't able to move anymore.

Evin closed in towards the animal, and shot another air bullet towards its head, before nearing the creature. After confirming the deer's state, he went silent and fell onto his knees and started praying.

Watching the process, Ssatsko could only think of one thing.

'How steady Its almost paranoic'

"Not bad. Seems we won't be needing to hunt more, as this amount of meat should last enough for our trip to the center and back," Ssatsko commented.

"We won't be hunting more?," Evin asked, since he expected that the entire trip was going to be a glorified training camp.

"Why should we? We have enough to feed ourselves, as long as we don't find anything that's basically serving itself on a silver platter to us, we'll move at a normal pace. Besides, I realize I don't have much to teach you. I don't know if it's because of your age, or it's just you, but you're even more steady than me. Can't say I would've done any better than that," Ssatsko praised Evin.