Nora slowly opened her eyes. She felt like she had been sleeping for forever, around her she could very clearly see what looked like a misty forest clearing.
She seemed to be laying on the grass looking up. The light seeping through the canopy hurt her eyes a lot.
'Weird… I don't remember my eyes hurting this much…' she thought shifting around, 'strange, I didn't think it was this easy to move… I feel really light.'
Looking around, she didn't see the familiar arms and legs that she's used to, instead, she had to look farther down, noticing clumps of black feathers, spread out in wing shapes.
'Wait a second…' she thought, lifting her head to look down towards her feet, seeing more feathers that seem to be covering her body, the pieces began to click.
Finally, setting her eyes on her feet, they widened. Instead of normal human feet, she was now looking at what appeared to be a pair of talons.
'Hold on one minute… Am I a bird???? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!' She thought in a panic. Trying desperately to move, but only rolling around a bit. It seemed the new arrangement of body parts had temporarily confused her brain.
'This actually can't be happening, why am I a bird??' Nora thought, 'and why can't I move? Okay Nora calm down, deep breaths... Struggling won't get you anywhere.'
After failing to get up or really move much at all, Nora relaxed a bit. She took some deep breaths to calm down her racing mind and to recover from the physical movement. Once she was calm enough, Nora realized that some of the instincts of this bird body kicked in, she was able to clumsily get up and move a little bit,
'It appears that my brain is slowly adjusting to this new body. I just gotta take things slowly.' First, she slowly examined her body, it seemed she was some sort of black bird. She looked carefully at the wings and tail that she could see, but Nora wasn't able to identify the type of bird that she was
'Okay next on the list, find a puddle or mirror or something. I need to know what I am before I can do anything.' Nora thought, analyzing the situation.
The air was very humid in the forest that she was in, so she figured that some of the water should have condensed on the ground somewhere.
Surprisingly, after the initial freak out, Nora managed to keep somewhat calm despite the chaos happening in her mind. From the emotions that she felt in her past life to the confusion of her new form it was crazy that she wasn't dwelling on these emotions.
Most of this was because her survival instincts kicked in, and she had no time to feel sad or confused, she had to find out what she was and find somewhere safe.
.
.
.
After some wandering, Nora was able to find a puddle big enough that she could catch a glimpse of her reflection in.
Nora stared intently for a few seconds, and soon she was able to recognize the type of bird that she was.
'Okay…. So I'm a crow, that's interesting…' Then there was a moment of silence before she let out a squawk of indignation.
'WAIT A MINUTE, THAT LADY TURNED ME INTO A CROW' Nora shouted in her mind, 'Does she hate me or something??? I thought she said she was giving me another chance...' Nora pouted in her bird body, which would have been really strange had anyone seen it.
'This must be some cruel kind of joke, so that 'system' that she gave me was actually just a thing to turn me into a crow?????' For a moment, all Nora could think of was the injustice that was happening to her right now.
Forgetting that she was in a new world, Nora began to think about how she would go about suing this mysterious lady.
Her thoughts were suddenly brought back to her reality when she heard a slight ding coming from inside her head, looking around she saw the message
Right in front of her, a message had popped up:
Ding!
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If the hosts needs help, please say the command 'Help'
Then below it, a description:
"Help" — Provides system advice or list of commands
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Nora squinted her new eyes, she was confused. 'Huh, well that's new…' she thought. 'Wait… I can't speak, how do I say help????'
Then, after a moment, instead of speaking, she tried to think the word "help", hoping that maybe that would work.
The system responded almost instantly, surprising Nora. In front of her was a screen, it seemed incorporeal, it was slightly transparent with a faintly glowing white border around it. It seemed like it was there, but it wasn't interacting with anything.
Nora was actually so low to the ground that the screen actually looked like it was clipping slightly through the ground.
Nora carefully read this new screen.
It said:
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Available Commands:
- Call Ability / Move
- System Quest
- Current Stats
- System Inventory
- Help
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Nora hesitated. Then she thought: "Uh… Current stats?'
Another window popped up in front of her, it also had a white border that was glowing slightly and the screen was a bit transparent. In big white letters it read:
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Name: Nora
Species: Crow
Class: Crow
Level: 1
EXP:0/100
Stats
HP: 120
MP: 30
(STR): 10
(INT): 15
(DEF): 8
(MDEF): 8
(DEX): 15
(AGI): 25
(VIT): 10
(LUK): 15
Elemental Affinities:
Weaknesses: Lightning, Fire
Resistances: Wind
Immunities: None
Abilities & Skills
Peck
Description: A basic attack that deals light physical damage.
MP Cost: 0
Power: damage equal to strength stat
Caw
Description: Loud screech lowers enemy Accuracy and AGI.
MP Cost: 15
Effect: –10% Accuracy & Speed
Power: based off int stat
Passive Traits
Basic inspect: Identify the species of basic creatures
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'Huh, okay so from this it looks like I'm definitely a crow. I guess that's why the intelligence and agility is so high. I also have some pretty simple abilities. It looks like one attack ability and a de-buff ability. That isn't too bad for a level one creature.'
'The lady did say that this was like a "game" of sorts, so this checks out. And I guess she did say not to mention this system to anyone else so I should probably treat them like I would NPCs' Nora was very familiar with video games.
She had worked on the development of several games in her past life, and she and Ethan enjoyed playing video games together whenever they had time off.
Nora remembered how Ethan always liked to pick the warrior characters, while she preferred the ones that stayed on the back lines. He used to joke that she was his healer…
Quickly shaking her head Nora tried to clear away those emotions. Ethan was gone, and there was no way of getting him back. Right now she had to focus on surviving, currently she couldn't even fly, she was nothing more than a sitting duck.
She was a level one character in a forest with creatures that are who knows how much stronger than her.
As Nora focused on surviving, the overwhelming feeling of sadness she felt slowly dissipated. She was brought back to reality by a notification from her system.
Looking at it she saw a new quest.
Ding!
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New system quest: learn to fly
Description: Every bird needs to fly, except the ones that don't, but you aren't one of them! Figure out how to use those wings and take your first step towards ruling the sky!
Rewards:
Passive trait: basic flight, aerial dodge
EXP: +200,
AGI +10
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'Okay that doesn't seem too bad,' she thought, 'I mean birds make it look super easy. Plus by completing this quest I'll get enough EXP to level up at least once.' Nora stood up with confidence.
'I'll survive a lot better if I can fly.'