Crow Evolution

[Lazy_Author_]

An old woman took deep breaths. These would be her final breaths before death claimed her. She lay on a warm, comfortable bed in the hospital. Windy air swirled in through the open window, casting a refreshing breeze throughout the room.

At that moment, the door suddenly swung open, and a young man hurried inside. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as his eyes widened at the sight before him. He rushed forward, shouting urgently, "Grandma, are you okay?"

The old woman's eyes were bleak, and her vision was so blurry that all she could make out was the silhouette of a person. But this was enough.

She gathered all the strength she had left in her right arm and slowly raised it, pointing toward a certain spot.

Lew panicked when he saw this. "Grandma, you should rest right now."

But seeing the stubbornness in her eyes, he hurried forward and quickly found a rusty pendant placed neatly on top of the table.

"What is this?"

He hurriedly brought it back, a faint sense of curiosity stirring in his heart.

The old woman slowly changed the direction of her pointing hand, turning it toward him.

"Take… it…"

She hitched for breath before her arms fell limp. A sharp beeping sound rang out from the machine beside her.

Lew's eyes blurred with tears as he rushed toward her, clutching her limp hands as he cried out, "Grandma, Grandma, you can't leave me alone like this…"

His grandmother's funeral was a short and solemn affair, with barely a handful of people coming to pay their respects. Almost everything was handled by Lew himself.

Once it was over, it took him weeks of silent weeping to recover. The only reason he eventually managed to pull himself out of his grief was that he needed to return to work and continue living his life.

"Grandma is dead, and she only left me this…"

Lew stared at the rusty pendant, now covered in his own tears. Somehow, this small object kept him from completely breaking down. It gave him a sense of warmth and comfort. After all, it was the only thing she had left him.

Shaking his head, he slapped himself lightly, jolting himself awake.

"Now I have no one left… only a few distant relatives."

He sighed. In this small place, the loneliness seemed to haunt him constantly, but he still needed to keep moving forward.

"How am I supposed to live from now on?"

He wondered aloud. Although he was still grief-stricken, Lew knew he had to move on with his life.

His gaze fell upon the rusty pendant once again. He clenched it tightly in his fist until the muscles in his arm ached. Only then did a faint sense of relief wash over him.

"Sigh."

Shaking his head, Lew went back to bed. Tomorrow, he needed to continue with his life and start taking his job seriously again.

As his eyes closed, the rusty pendant tucked neatly beneath his neck began to glow with a brilliant green hue. Slowly, it rose from the bed as if defying gravity itself before gently touching his forehead.

The next moment, his entire body vanished from the room, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

…

"W-where is this place?"

When Lew woke up, he found himself in an endless darkness. It was so dark that he felt as though his eyes were closed, but that was far from the truth. His eyes were unmistakably open.

Lew panicked at first, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't move his limbs at all. It… it felt as though only his consciousness was awake.

At first, he did nothing. But after some time, he tried to move his body with all his strength.

Time seemed to drift endlessly in this place, yet he had no sense of it passing. He didn't know how many hours or even days had gone by.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, a bright light suddenly pierced through this dark, abyss-like world.

Lew immediately grew excited and reached out with all his strength, breaking free from his eggshell as he glimpsed at the world again.

"Caw. Caw."

An incoherent noise came out of his beak, much to his dismay and disbelief. He screamed in his heart.

'Where the fuck am I?'

Around him lay multiple eggshells, just like his, full of cracks, and a large bird's nest built of straw. Lew's head tilted downward, finding the same eggshells that were around his companions.

'Did I come out of this thing?'

His heart grew unsettled as a certain thought took hold in his head. A dangerous thought that he dearly wished was untrue, but his eyes couldn't have played tricks on him. There was no mistaking it.

"I reincarnated as a bird."

Although Lew had heard about reincarnation before, and it was said that one could become anything in their next life, he didn't expect to become a bird. Another, more important question arose in his head: how did he even die in the first place?

At this moment, another one of his brothers or sisters poked its head out of the eggshell, revealing a featherless, ugly, wrinkled head, and started chirping loudly, crying for food. Soon, the entire nest grew loud and noisy.

Suddenly, a large gust of wind blew as a giant shadow covered the entirety of the nest. The next moment, a large crow landed on the edge of the nest with a large worm wriggling around in its beak.

Lew took a deep breath upon seeing this.

'How big is this thing…!?'

The struggling worm itself looked like it could be comparable in size to all the eggs around him, and the next thought made him wear a strange expression.

'Is that a crow, then…?'

He couldn't even finish his thought before the crow's beak tightened, effortlessly killing the worm, and then slowly lowering its head to place the worm in the nest. All the chicks immediately tried to reach for the worm that was in the nest. Even Lew was no different. A deep hunger welled up in his stomach, and he couldn't resist the sensation.

He was the first to arrive next to the worm as he tentatively brought his beak down to peck at the worm's tough skin. His first impression was that it was extremely tough. Even with his beak, which felt relatively sharp, it took him more than twenty seconds to tear off just a small chunk. The moment he did, a green panel appeared in front of him.

[You have consumed the flesh of an earth worm for the first time.]
[You have gained +0.01 Evolutionary points.]

 

[Lazy_Author_]

"What is this?"

Lew was stunned when he saw the panel appear in front of him. His mind swirled with thoughts as his head instinctively went for another piece of the worm's meat.

What he had eaten before was just a small piece of meat, which he swallowed whole, just like any crow would. At least he understood that they were crows, even if they were a little too big compared to normal ones.

As he was thinking, a deep hunger rose inside him, instantly shredding the last bit of sanity he had left and making him peck frantically at the meat to consume more.

[You have consumed the flesh of an earthworm.]
[You have gained +0.001 Evolutionary Points.]

Every time he swallowed a piece, these prompts would appear repeatedly. Lew ignored them completely, as all his focus was on swallowing the meat.

Time passed in the blink of an eye. He and his brothers and sisters continued eating until the entire worm was completely consumed. Only then was their hunger finally satisfied.

Lew fell onto his back.

At this point, the shell was completely broken, with only bits and pieces of it remaining. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the numerous prompts filling his vision. It seemed that he had gained 0.01 Evolutionary Points when he first consumed it, but every subsequent bite only granted him 0.001 Evolutionary Points.

Even so, it was still a significant amount, as the points stacked up quite easily.

'Status?'

He tilted his head, recalling all the memories from his previous life. Seeing the panel, it was only natural for him to assume that something like this would exist. As expected, the moment he called out in his head, a new panel shot into view.

[Name: Lew]
[Monster species: Giant Crow]
[Age: 2 hours]
[Growth stage: Hatchling]
[Strength: 2
Stamina: 1
Mana: 0]
[Skill: <Pecking> <Crow language>]
[Evolution path: ?]
[Evolutionary points: 0.034]

The moment the panel appeared in front of Lew, a wave of familiar memories assaulted his mind, and he instantly understood how the entire panel worked.

'So I can use Evolutionary Points to increase my growth rate, and they can also be used to increase my stats as well as create new skills.'

The thought alone left him a little perplexed.

Lew turned to look at his brothers and sisters, who were also slumped on the ground like him after eating their fill. The giant crow stood nearby, simply staring at all of them without blinking.

He took a deep breath, trying to adjust to his new reality.

Everything that had happened to him so far felt almost magical, but he needed to quickly accept his circumstances and adapt if he wanted to survive in this new world. Even though he didn't know how he had died—or if he had even died at all—all he needed to focus on now was surviving in this place.

After coming to terms with his new reality, he took another deep breath and focused on the panel. The first thing he did was use 0.001 Evolutionary Points to increase his growth rate.

The moment he made his decision, the panel changed on its own.

Lew couldn't even glance at the panel before he felt a surge of discomfort spreading throughout his body. His crow body visibly grew by a small margin, making him slightly larger than the others around him.

[Age: 3 hours] (+1)
[Growth stage: Hatchling]
[Evolutionary points: 0.033] (-0.001)

Finally, he glanced at the panel.

'Interesting. So my age went up by an hour after using 0.001 Evolutionary Points.'

He didn't feel any hunger, so it seemed there were no side effects to the growth. Or perhaps, since he had already eaten his fill, he simply didn't feel any additional hunger? The thought perplexed him a little.

After a moment of thought, he decided to directly increase his age to one day. The moment he settled on the thought, the panel changed on its own.

Even before the panel could materialize, he felt a surge of warmth radiate throughout his entire body. The same familiar sensation from before coursed through him, and the next moment, his body grew to almost twice the size of the crows surrounding him.

[Age: 1 day] (+21)
[Growth stage: Hatchling]
[Evolutionary points: 0.012] (-0.021)

Caw. Caw.

The giant crow tilted its head for the first time, staring directly at Lew. Then, it spoke in a loud voice.

"How did this little one grow so quickly?"

Lew immediately understood what the giant crow had said because of his <Crow Language> skill, which he had been born with. Even his other siblings were utterly perplexed and confused as they stared intently at him.

With everyone's attention focused on him, Lew, now the center of attention, grew nervous and agitated. Maybe standing out like this wasn't the best idea, but he was so excited by the panel that he simply couldn't resist the thrill of growth.

The giant crow spread its wings and slowly swept Lew into its embrace.

Lew wanted to resist, but under the terrifying strength of the giant crow, he could muster very little strength.

"Don't be nervous, little one. No one is going to harm you. I just want to show you to the elders of our Giant Crow Clan."

With that said, Lew was firmly held against the giant crow's back as it decisively took to the air, a powerful gust of wind following in its wake.

"Caw. Caw."

Lew wanted to speak, but all he could produce were indistinguishable crow sounds. It seemed that he could understand what they were saying, but he couldn't speak any words himself. Maybe once he grew up, he would be able to as well. The one day age of his was likely not enough for him to grow fully.

'I wonder when I will reach the same height as this giant crow.' He mused.