Chapter 12: The Need to Fly
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On a warm afternoon, a snow-white creature chasing its own tail stopped its antics. Its eyes, dark as black pearls, shrewdly narrowed. Around it, the thin white mist rose gently under the sunlight.
The creature named Smoky Snow Weasel tilted its head back. Its pristine, soft fur tightened and turned into a hardened, deep purple shell.
The deep-purple shell cracked open, revealing wing bones pointing towards the sky behind it. Its tender wing membranes hardened upon contact with the air.
Its head also lifted, the skull encased in keratin breaking through the skin. Sharp teeth emerged from the lower beak, becoming part of the keratin structure. Two rigid, violet earlobes stood upright, proudly exposed alongside the upper beak covered by the lower one.
Behind it, the long tail wrapped in armor extended section by section. Spikes rose from the black bristles, unfolding from the spindle-shaped tail.
“ROAR!”
Finally having completed his transformation into Black Wolf Bird, Jié Jié opened his undershot beak and let out a piercing roar. Nearby small animals scattered in panic, some collapsing on the ground with bloodied eardrums.
After shouting, the Black Wolf Bird fell backward.
Jié Jié struggled somewhat to adapt to his new body. It wasn’t because he lacked the ability; rather, the wings of the Black Wolf Bird had no claws for gripping.
This made Jié Jié, who was used to four-legged monsters, feel very uncomfortable. The inability to grip with wings but able to do so with clawed feet felt like swapping human hands and feet, quite bizarre.
Using his tail for support, he grabbed a handful of soft soil with his clawed feet and began flapping his wings. Who wouldn’t want to fly once they had wings?
Even when he was a Hairy Spider, he preyed on birds, later transforming into one himself, though never feeling fully adapted.
The lightness made him lack security, indulging in a brief moment of slacking off due to the freedom that came with being solely responsible for oneself.
But now as the Black Wolf Bird, there was no such issue, for large monsters inherently weighed significantly. His movement caused tremors in the ground beneath him, grounding him firmly.
After flapping his wings for a while, Jié Jié slightly adjusted to them, realizing that flying required height or a jump.
First, lifting off was essential. The Black Wolf Bird’s powerful thighs, more muscular than those of a Scratcher Bird, leaped high, wings flapping hard. However, his time in the air was short-lived, quickly plummeting back down.
Continuously gripping the soil with his clawed feet, Jié Jié sought the instinct to fly inherent in the Black Wolf Bird but couldn’t grasp the missing spark.
No similar kin were around to demonstrate the secrets of flight. Even the most ordinary bird wasn’t a novice flyer. All birds in his memory took to the skies effortlessly with just a flap, offering nothing to learn from.
Unable to mimic others, he could only explore on his own.
In Jié Jié’s previous life, amidst an explosion of information, valuable knowledge often passed through his mind in the least valuable ways, barring anything disrupting societal order.
Yet traces remained, like airplanes flying through something called “aerodynamics,” “fluids,” and “pressure differences.”
These terms sounded sensible together, but individually explained, Jié Jié had heard them before but forgot due to lack of practical application.
Now he needed this knowledge. Reflecting, he realized how precious it was, how invaluable were those who organized it, and how miraculous the era allowing free dissemination of such knowledge.
He hoped people still living in that world, during that time, would value knowledge sincerely, not idling ignorantly…
Thinking for a long time without finding useful knowledge, Jié Jié silently blessed those still alive in that era. Truly, knowledge is only appreciated when needed!
Standing there lost in thought, occasionally grabbing a handful of dirt and flapping his wings, his heart remained calm.
Wind.
The wind stirred by his flapping wings brushed against the Black Wolf Bird’s rigid ears, ripples of inspiration spreading across his tranquil mind.
Birds and large monsters couldn’t achieve insect-like lightness; their instinctual wing flaps couldn’t lift their weight. They needed wind.
Jié Jié walked from sparse woods onto a relatively open road and sprinted.
His initially wobbling body stabilized gradually, as did the wind.
Smoothly parted by his beak tip, it flowed past his eye sockets and over his ears, the latter being the most sensitive.
Jié Jié meticulously adjusted his body angle, the wind transforming from chaotic currents into a cooperative embrace.
As he ran, he slowly unfurled his wings cautiously, careful not to disrupt his honeymoon period with the wind.
Gently adjusting the angles, the innate instinct of flying creatures guided him to find the most effortless position.
Having stabilized his entire posture, Jié Jié stepped onto a gravel slope and leapt at its edge.
Tamed winds carried him upward, propelled by his wings toward the sky.
He could fly! He could fly!
Jié Jié felt the wind, soaring freely in the sky, sometimes folding his wings to dive like a dart, other times flapping to ascend higher.
Haven’t most people dreamed of flying? Jié Jié made it a reality.
Once learned, flying becomes second nature, like riding a bike—skills never forgotten.
From the sky, the vast emerald landscape filled Jié Jié’s vision. This massive ecosystem centered around a giant tree was incomparably grander than any game map.
After all, the New Continent was a landmass, not an island.
The maps in games only depicted parts of the Ancient Tree Forest. Here, Jié Jié could see the towering Grand Canyon beyond the mountains with his keen gaze.
Moved by emotion, he opened his beak and roared again.
However, another sharp, albeit unfriendly, dragon roar responded—it was another Black Wolf Bird, the same one that chased him away in disgrace.
During the wait for the Black Wolf Bird’s transformation, Jié Jié explored nearly all large monsters near the Great Thief Dragon’s territory. No other large monsters were found along the coast.
But venturing deeper into the forest, the Poison Demon Bird still lived, fleeing hastily due to the expansion of the Great Thief Dragon’s domain. Further north, closer to the Ancient Tree, lay the Black Wolf Bird’s territory.
Since leaping from the gravel slope, Jié Jié had been flying towards the colossal tree in the center of his vision.
He had now entered the Black Wolf Bird’s territory, and his roar above it was tantamount to provocation.
A monster akin to him tore through the green curtain, charging fiercely towards him.
