After lockdown was done he scurried out of town and morphed into a bobcat , he wanted to try a camel or something but didn’t know that yet , luckily Jake's party had slayed a lot of bobcats so that was easier to mimic. He was going south , to the border where monsters and humanity was fighting. But he would need to hunt some birds or something because this was going to take a while as a bobcat.
He didn’t notice it in the dungeon but it appears he had okay sight in the night , not because of the bobcat form but more because of his original race , it seemed they had some sort of darkvision , it was still a bit limited but enough to keep traveling in the night. He only had to take 4 hour breaks for torpor in which he continued utilising his mana well.
After 3 days while resting he suddenly saw a flock of 100 birds arrive at a small oasis in the night. He was resting in coin mode blending into the sand , but he saw the birds drinking while the other half was standing guard. He looked carefully at their placement and how the birds flew away.
After the birds flew away he morphed into human form and looked for some branches on the surrounding trees , after he got 5 branches he put them in a star/pentagram formation , he only left space for 2 birds there. Against these bird’s he would have a decent enough chance to use apathy he hoped.
After 2 days watching the oasis waiting for the birds. He also sensed that the mental resistance from Soul mage seemed to help him against the monotony of it all. Because he traveled through the desert always a distance away from the roads evading everything. He would’ve thought he would be bored but it was less than in the dungeon , maybe it's just the day and night cycle that helps.
After another 3 days the Birds finally came back. He was patiently waiting in human form because he learned that he didn’t need to breathe , he only needed sleep and to eat creatures, nothing else. He had packed the sand a bit so it looked that head was a small hill , he left tiny holes for his eyes to see through. His arms and hands were under loose sand so he would be able to move them. He even felt that one of the birds was perched on top of his head. And one standing in sight of the peep holes.
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After the birds were done with their drinking and started to fly away he took action , he cast apathy in quick succession on the 5 leaves and grabbed the birds with each hand. The other birds were flying away and it seemed apathy worked because they didn’t come closer and kept their distance. He turned the neck of the birds and buried them with him under the sand. After waiting out the duration of the spell he saw that the other birds had left.
He crawled out of the sand and dissected the birds , studying their build. They had sturdy compact builds and they looked like a sandy version of a pigeon. They were like 80cm tall. After studying them and eating them he spent a week practising flying in bird form.
It took a bit of getting used to it but after they left another time he watched their movements intently. After feeling confident he started flying with them to their nests.
They flew to an isolated hill where there were some acacia trees growing in which the birds had nested. But it seemed some had even made nests close to the trunk because the trees were filled. He followed them and went to a lone spot to inspect the situation. It seemed it was mating season because the females were in their nests, none of them missing. I went into torpor and waited till it was day.
In bird form i went to a spot where there 3 nests next to each other and threw damn small pebbles i collected in a circle , there were about 6 birds in the circle , i activated apathy again on 5 spots and calmly transformed to Mimic form , the birds started screeching but they were walking in circles because they were getting repelled , i calmly catched them 1 by 1 with my tongue afterwards i transformed into a tiny spider and went to hide while i did this half the birds instantly flew away it seemed they really have quick reflexes. I did once a day for the coming weeks because the bullfrogs I got the trait at around 100 kills. I hoped it would work for the birds too , goblins did not yield me anything maybe because it was a dungeon monster or they were more advanced than standard monsterfied animals.
After about a month and a 180 kills later I finally got the trait.
Migratory Bird(Sandgrouse)
While flying u get less exhausted
After testing the effect out it seems it was about 50%. I Also gained 2 dexterity and 1 vitality from the ordeal and went to level 12. They must be a bit higher level than I thought , luckily I could use their bird brains against them.
