Chapter 20: Evolution

  Gaia World, Day 10 After the Shattering

  Pawel crouched at the edge of the hole where the predatory vine had dissolved, staring at the small, nail-sized brown crystal gleaming dully in the dirt.

  It carried the same concentrated earthy impression as the vine’s sickly brown mana—dense, packed like compressed soil.

  He reached toward it tentatively, curiosity warring with caution.

  Before his fingers could brush the crystal, a sudden flutter and scrabble erupted from above. Snack, perched on a nearby branch moments earlier, launched itself downward in an eager dive.

  The bird landed awkwardly in the hole, head cocked, one black eye fixed on the crystal, then the other, tilting its head in that rapid, bird-like switch.

  “Eh… w-wait… no!” Pawel stammered, lunging forward too late.

  Snack hopped onto the crystal, snatched it neatly into its hooked beak, then jumped out of Pawel’s reach with a triumphant little bob.

  Crunch—the gem crumbled like dry clay between its mandibles.

  Pawel watched in horror as thick brownish mana seeped out in heavy, earthy tendrils, flowing directly into the bird’s body. Switching to mana sight, he observed the brown energy swirl and mix, threading through Snack’s natural green aura like stubborn roots invading fertile soil.

  Pawel froze for half a second, then exploded.

  “THIEVING BIRD!”

  Snack startled violently, wings fluttering in agitated bursts, talons scrabbling for purchase as it hopped sideways.

  It let out a sharp, indignant “CRAA!” that echoed through the glade like an accusation.

  Pawel threw his hands up, face twisting in frustration. “AaaaAAAaaa—!”

  Snack matched him instantly, louder and more insistent: “CRAA!”

  The exchange repeated two more times—Pawel’s escalating yelps clashing with Snack’s piercing caws—until Pawel finally threw up his hands in surrender, half-laughing despite himself.

  “You know what?” he said, voice dropping to an exasperated but amused tone.

  He crouched lower, meeting the bird’s gaze.

  “I forgive you. I like eloquent people.”

  Snack fluttered its wings once in what looked suspiciously like agreement, a soft coo rumbling in its throat.

  Pawel eyed the bird more closely, a grin tugging at his mouth despite the situation.

  “You aren’t going to grow vines out of your arse now, are you?”

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  He slipped back into mana sight. Inside Snack, the brownish mana had fully integrated with the bird’s natural verdant aura—earthy threads coiling through green vitality like invasive roots, pulsing steadily without further change.

  Pawel felt a flicker of concern; his first contact with these magic energies had nearly killed him.

  What would it do to a small animal that was not fully sentient?

  Better not risk it out here. Pawel scooped Snack gently back onto his shoulder perch, scanning the ground carefully as he turned toward camp.

  He stepped deliberately, eyes down for any new tendrils. Now that he had confirmed it was in fact a monster, he knew they would be spawning in various places.

  On the way, he spotted and dispatched a lone clay tadpole with a swift hammer strike—despawning into purple mist as usual, a small but welcome trickle of improvement energy.

  Farther along he spotted another predatory vine, half-buried and waiting. Mana sight revealed it to be different from the first one: no orange wire filament connecting it to the anomaly, but the same sickly brown mana inside its core.

  He left it alone; he still had no reliable way to deal with them safely from range, and right now his priority was Snack.

  By the time they reached the forest hall, Snack’s condition had worsened. The bird breathed heavily, beak parted wide as if trying to cool itself, chest rising and falling in labored heaves. It sent faint pulses of discomfort through their bond—simple feelings of heat and unease.

  At camp, Snack hopped down from the perch and sprawled in the shade of a large tree, wings spread wide, sides heaving visibly.

  Pawel knelt beside it, worry tightening his gut. It had only been a few days, but he had grown attached to his new pet and did not want to lose it.

  He settled into meditation, slipping easily into mana sight. The bond with Snack felt more established than at the beginning—simple messages and emotions flowed with much less conscious effort, though animal minds remained limited compared to human ones.

  Pawel focused on strengthening that connection, intending to guide the bird in using the invasive brown mana to reinforce its own body rather than let it run wild.

  He suspected that his choice of healing and regeneration was unnecessary for dealing with the energy. The problem was to spend and direct it, and the sickness would fade anyway.

  Communicating complex instructions proved difficult; he could only push broad intents and feelings: strengthen, heal, body strong. Snack’s responses were equally basic—acceptance, confusion, faint agreement, and complaints about heat.

  Despite what seemed to be agreement, nothing changed with the invasive mana. The bird either did not understand or could not affect it.

  Pawel decided to try something new. Previously he had only influenced natural mana around him with will and emotion, or projected it into Snack directly.

  Now, with focused effort, he attempted to push his own internal mana outward, extending threads of green nature-affinity energy directly toward Snack. It swirled and reacted, but kept slipping through his imaginary fingers.

  Was it impossible? Like forcing it to form a new ability?

  Then he reconsidered his approach. There was already a bridge built between him and Snack—the mental connection—so his mana did not need to build something new.

  Pawel visualized the mental connection between them as pale white lines and pushed his mana to crawl along them—and it worked!

  His own green aura formed tendrils not unlike the brown ones that had invaded Snack and crawled along the white connections toward the bird.

  Upon first contact, the animal startled, sending unease through the link, and Pawel’s mana got violently pushed away, dissolving into nothingness—lost forever.

  A thought formed: he couldn’t afford to lose any more mana like this; there wasn’t enough for a third attempt.

  Pawel sent a calming stream through the connection, assuring help: “Accept, it is me.”

  On the second try the bird accepted the influx, its aura brightening slightly at the contact.

  “Alright, first step complete—now what?”

  He tried encompassing the brown tendrils with his own and dissipating them into Snack’s body with the intention of strengthening it, but he couldn’t directly control or manipulate the brown mana inside Snack—the foreign energy resisted his will.

  Snack itself, however, responded to the guidance. The bird seemed to see Pawel’s intentions more clearly now through the full mana connection and began to draw on the foreign brown power instinctively, expending it on internal changes.

  Pawel couldn’t quite discern what it was doing—it wasn’t how he would have envisioned it—but something was happening within Snack’s body, a subtle reconfiguration that was draining both the brown energy and the bird’s natural vitality.

  The process dragged on for several hours. Night fell, the forest hall darkening around them.

  Pawel kept the fire low, providing Snack with water from his bottle (dribbled carefully into its open beak) and small shreds of leftover meat. The bird ate weakly but accepted the care. Eventually, fatigue claimed Pawel as well, and he drifted off beside his companion.

  Gaia World, Day 11 After the Shattering

  Morning light filtered through the canopy as Pawel woke and approached the still-exhausted bird.

  Snack lay sprawled in the same shaded spot, breathing more steadily now. It accepted water and a bit of food, showing clear signs of recovery.

  But the change was impossible to miss.

  Snack had grown dramatically—now the size of a chicken, its body proportionally larger. The beak was noticeably bigger, curved and sharp, and appeared to be made of smooth, hardened wood rather than keratin. Its legs had thickened and elongated, covered in flexible, bark-like plating that looked tough yet supple. Long, black talons gleamed at the ends, sharp and predatory.

  The bird still looked drained, feathers ruffled and posture weary, but the heaving breaths had eased.

  Whatever process the brown mana had triggered overnight, it was clearly reshaping Snack from the inside out.

  Pawel stared, a mix of awe, concern, and reluctant amusement stirring.

  “Well… at least you didn’t grow vines from dark places.”

  Snack tilted its newly enlarged head, bobbed once, and let out a low, almost satisfied “Craa…” before settling back to rest.

  Pawel sat nearby, watching closely, already wondering what other changes might manifest—and whether his new ability to externally project mana could be used for something else.