Assassin Crow Evolution

Zoey snapped back into her trance-like state before Jimmy could’ve given her an answer.

The truth was, he didn’t have an answer to give, because despite the statistics the system gave him about his body, he was nowhere closer to figuring out who amongst the group was actually the smartest.

He was inclined to believe that he was the smartest, of course, but he didn’t have enough facts to back that up. The branch of illusion was foreign to him, and he didn’t know how deeply it was associated with IQ. He was sure that it was associated with MQ, but that didn’t exactly lead to a solid answer either.

For now, he was tempted to take a couple of more black cores, and see where that gets him.

Six of them remained, as well as seven blue ones, and nine red ones.

Ten cores were still not accounted for, he didn’t know what they did, and considering that each one of those ten cores were different from one another, he knew that he wouldn’t figure them out anytime soon.

’Zoey and Enkus had the equivalent of a mental orgasm when they crushed the black cores, damn it.’ He thought, ’I can’t be that stupid. Where is my euphoria?’

As he took a moment to ponder over the matter, he eventually noticed that Vorin got more restless. He did not calm down, or did not know how to, at least.

Concerned, Jimmy became a bit more direct, and said, "Are you thinking about crushing a black core, brother? If you are, I have to tell you that it might not be the best idea."

"Not the best idea?" Vorin parroted.

"I mean that you might not need it." He followed along, "Which can be a huge problem, considering that the core could make you go mad."

"I get it," Vorin sighed, finally letting go of a fraction of his frustrations, "You think I’m stupid."

Jimmy didn’t know how to dig himself out of this hole. He tried to be objective, but he forgot that not everyone could follow up with the concept of objectivity.

Nevertheless, he gave it another whirl, and said, "The black cores are unpredictable. They helped Zoey, a lot, from the looks of it, but isn’t it concerning that they didn’t help me? I mean, I’m not a complete idiot, but you saw me fight, and so wouldn’t it make sense if the core benefited me more? I have a ton of skills that would help me more if I was smarter, and yet I’m not, even after I crushed two black cores. It’s weird."

Despite the sudden label that his brother threw at him, after several compliments to his intelligence, ironically, Vorin was not offended. He should be, but he slowly picked up on what his brother was trying to say.

Nevertheless, he argued, "Zoey took two black cores, maybe that’s why she’s ahead of you? But anyway, I didn’t like what the black cores did to Enkus, so you’re right, I shouldn’t absorb them. Too weird."

Jimmy nodded along, happy that his brother calmed down a little bit.

Now he didn’t intend to be greedy, but with a black core saved from being unnecessarily consumed, he was thinking of giving that core to Zoey. It seemed like a good idea, but then he took another look at her, and noticed that she was still, in a word, tripping.

"Yeah, she’s not ready for a third one," He said.

With little arranging, Vorin fished a blue and black core out of the chest. The blue one was for him, as Jimmy decided that he was ready to absorb another one.

The repetitive, simple process of absorbing them was repeated once more.

[Task 11: 6/25 complete

Absorb 19 more Beast Cores to reap your reward of 5,000 system points.]

Jimmy ignored that notification completely, and focused on the following statistics instead.

[IQ: 154 points >>> 159 points]

[Fluid Intelligence: Level 7 >>> Level 8]

"This sucks mooseballs!" He exclaimed, "That core barely did anything!"

Vorin did not know how to react to that. He was more focused on his own, painless upgrade, which he was quite satisfied with. Unlike other upgrades, he could feel that he could leap further now, if he was to try.

Knowing his brother, he just let him speak, and essentially argue with himself.

Jimmy was absolutely fuming. Some of his theories supported the idea that the first black core he absorbed was building a strong base, filling in holes in his competence that needed filling, but the recent statistics tossed that theory out of the window.

"I still can’t lift shit with my mind!" He shouted.

He had half a mind to throw the whole chest away, as he truly felt scammed, and the bundle of cores lost all novelty to him, but this was when the system interrupted his rage.

[Do not panic.]

’I’m not panicking,’ He answered, silently this time, ’I’m angry!’

[Well, you shouldn’t be. You’re not dumb, you’re technically considered a genius amongst crows, but that’s not enough to help you deal with the vast arsenal of skills and evolutions you have.]

[In other words, your small, bird brain is already quite crammed with information you can’t get rid of, and it’s trying its best to support that said information.]

[Your biology, paired with your skillset, is what’s limiting your intellectual growth.]

Jimmy took a moment to absorb that information. It made sense, but it still didn’t give him enough of an argument to label himself as the smartest crow in his group.

At some point, he decided that it didn’t matter if he was the smartest. It wasn’t that he lost interest, but he figured out what the system was getting at.

He asked, ’Let me guess, I have to grow bigger first, just to support my brain?’

[Precisely.]

[If you focused on increasing the size of your body, you’d also end up having a bit more brain mass to work with. You’d have some wiggle room.]

’Fuck that,’ He sighed, ’I’m already hungry all the time. I can’t deal with even more hunger right now. The cores can suck it.’

Jimmy just wanted this day to be over.

Getting the chest full of cores, experimenting with them, and absorbing them was the most titillating, and most anti-climactic mission he ever experienced.

He was not a fan of them so far. Their novelty wore off, and he didn’t want to look at them anymore. He had this huge impulse to get rid of them, but that didn’t sound right, so he settled with something else.

First, he gave Vorin another blue core, and got another one for himself. He knew that it wasn’t smart to push the Gravity Rupture Leap any further. It was dangerous.

Vorin already knew how dangerous it was, so he didn’t protest.

[Gravity Rupture Leap skill: Level 1 >>> Level 2]

Four blue cores remained, as well as nine red ones, and five black ones. Not to forget, the ten other cores that were not accounted for.

Twenty-nine in total, out of the initial fifty.

The team didn’t want to touch the red cores. Jimmy proposed that they’d mess with their weapon wielding skill, as they primarily affected the feet, and this was enough to scare everyone.

Virena was not interested in any of them.

Jimmy and Zoey weren’t willing to touch another black core anytime soon.

With that said, they no longer needed these cores. Not for the moment, at least.

Jimmy decided to bury the chest full of cores. It was the only thing that made sense.

"If not anything else, we can use them as a bargaining chip if we need to." He said.

No one objected to it, and after Zoey snapped back to her senses, two hours later, she helped, and did most of the work in terms of burying the chest. Her new, telekinetic abilities came in handy.

In his infinite wisdom, Jimmy grabbed the three Sentient Feathers that he had stashed under a rock in his home, and stashed them in the chest. He figured that there was no way they could slip out of it.

"I can’t merge with them anyway, and neither can you, Vorin," He said, "If we introduce our Arcane Comprehension to the feathers, they’d laugh at us."

"No kidding," Vorin said, "I still have no Arcane Comprehension to begin with."

Jimmy and Vorin clawed at the ground, digging a hole, and Zoey ruptured the dirt itself, pulling out several pounds of dirt at once.

It took them an hour to dig a hole they were satisfied with, six feet deep, but they were confident enough to dig the hole near Jimmy’s favorite tree.

They were confident that no one could unearth the treasure, because once they threw the chest in the hole, Zoey carefully placed several fifty pound stones on top of the chest, using her telekinetic abilities.

"Yeah, no crow can lift this shit," He said, "No normal crow, at least, but I don’t think Gundor cares about the cores. They’ll be safe here."

With the treasure buried, the team looked for their next meal. They were tired, albeit frustrated, and were looking forward to enjoying a good-night’s sleep later.

Jimmy was eager to follow the next adventure that the system had sealed behind one of the tasks that he was yet to start, nonetheless finish.

’Fucking cores...’ He thought.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!