After having gone through that painful experience Ariara approaches the two corpses and with her right leg moves the body of the warrior on the other side, seeing both of their bloodied corpses... Normally, this would make people puke, but with the improvements of Virtual Reality graphics and how nerve wrecked the Harpy already was today her mind was filled with other thoughts than that, instead she slowly moves closer to the warrior, gently letting go of the feather hanging out of her mouth that floats down on it.
When touching the corpse... The feather slowly turns color, becoming of a red color, almost bloody color, a crimson feather. This... Kind of surprised Ariara, as she had let the feather fall on one of the not red parts, something that took a bit of luck considering the wind and just how much blood of both the probably adventurers shed.
Nonetheless the Harpy crouches, awkwardly moving forward and picking it back up with her mouth, being happy she's not a germophobe. After having picked up the 'skill feather' she looks at it a bit before trying to put it back on her left wing, finding it surprising that the feather merges, and slowly changes color, although still crimson when focused on with eagle eyes, or better said harpy eyes, it didn't break the color of her wings, instead fitting in like a chameleon.
Curious about what changed the Harpy thinks again of her status before taking a big look all over it
Ariara the Harpy
Level 3 (24/30 EXP)
30/34 Hp
8/20 Mana
Skills
Bird of Many Feathers (LVL 1) - Colorful Harpy (LVL 1) - Fire Starter (LVL 1) - Self Pluck (LVL 1) Flight (LVL 1) - Rage (LVL 1)
Titles
General of Warfare - Traveler of Worlds - Reincarnated One - High Ranker - Opportunist
Seeing two new changes to her status the Harpy takes her time, opening each and reading them thoroughly before humming, understanding the reason why the dwarf took the actions it did, and the reason she was able to survive this battle and come out on top
Rage (LVL 1) - Activating this skill Ariara will go on a rampage, dealing more damage with any of her attacks and the damage ramping up drastically with the more damage she takes, but she's unable to think straight and will run towards the person that hurt her the most overall, ignoring dangers and using her spells and abilities when she can.
Opportunist - This title holder takes opportunities fastly, having come out of one or multiple deadly situations by taking advantage of opportunities granted.
After having seen the meaning of these new changes to her status the Harpy hums lightly, guessing that dwarf used Rage, but it ended up backfiring when he was, in fact, backfired. Although this didn't explain why this, rather mean title was given to her... Was there some kind of entity giving these titles? But her focus swiftly switched from that to thinking of another thing, was there some kind of priority when 'stealing skills' with her ability? Like rarer skills first? And if so, she wondered who was to decide what skill was rarer in each situation... And how many she could steal from a single individual, but putting those thoughts aside she braced herself before plucking another feather with her mouth from her right wing this time, before gently lowering her head near the archer's corpse and releasing the feather, it drifting down on the corpse.
After a few seconds of drifting down, the feather lands on the corpse, like with the other one changing color, but this time to a brown color, basically just becoming a bit lighter version of the Harpy's feathers. Ariara, seeing this and getting curious, crouches to obtain it, her lack of arms really not making it easy for her to loot.
Doing the same replucking in as before the feather once again dissapears between the others in her wing, barely noticeable, making the Harpy wonder if anyone with bad intentions could spot them and pluck her skills. Changing thoughts however she quickly reopens her sheet and analyzes her new ability.
Harpy Eye (LVL 1) - The holder of this skill passively is able to notice more easily things that don't fit in. Great for hunting small game or slightly useful for finding a needle in a haystack.
Ariara chuckles a bit at the light hearted attempt at commedy in the skill, wondering if there really was someone making up these... Interesting descriptions, but then rejoicing at the passive skill gained, seeing as she always loved having a lot of passive skills, moreso than having a bunch of active ones.
Moving on from the skill stealing the Harpy takes a second look at the two before deciding not to pluck more of her feathers for a few reasons, one being that she didn't know how fast her hit points would regenerate, meaning her resources were limited, and the other being that these two didn't seem to have skills that interested her, archery and axe wielding wasn't really useful to her handless self and seeing as she doesn't have any language skill or her own she just assumes for now that there's no such skill to steal.
However, she gulps as she realizes what she needs to do next, getting up and starting to move the two corpses a bit, trying to get the pouches to come off from the barbarian, and awkwardly making the archer roll around, trying and failing at her attempts of getting his coat off, afterall she wanted to hide her un-human nature just in case someone else came across her and decided to have Harpy Wings for a snack.
It takes... More than half an hour before, with the help of both wings too, the coat came off the body, but having rolled around so much around it meant it was now soaked in blood, and despite there being food in some of the pouches, it too, had now a topping of not so tasty ketchup.
With a sigh the harpy clutches the coat and the largest pouch the barbarian had with her legs, her instinct of harpies, that usually abducted people by clutching them with their powerful feet and flying away, coming in to help her with this task before she starts flapping her wings to take off.
Ariara doesn't know what kind of burying procedures where around these lands, and using her fire starter skill could not only do nothing, but risk her life later on considering her mana usage in flying. With these things considered the Harpy takes off, leaving the bodies behind near the tree she woke up next to, hoping some cleric or someone soon comes across them to give them a proper burial, something she can't do yet.
Thanks for the Meal
Like said in the first chapter, the story definitely has potential. The only thing I am hoping for is that this will not go down the mainstream I want to life with Humans route, while yes it can be realistic in some situations for her it would be stupid after that first encounter, she learned that not only is she going to get hunted she will get hunted and killed only for being a Harpy and she also learnt that she is missing the ability to communicate with humans right now she may be able to talk with other Harpys but that needs to be acculy tested
Thanks for the comment! And I'll definetly expand upon relation with human, can absolutely agree with what you mean though ^^
@Ariara can she have bebes?
Will there be evolution?
There will! Just, a bit later on ^^ it's not one of those novels where the main character is handed op things from the start, or evolves into something crazy
@Ariara ok
So, quick question: What is she wearing?
. . . Feathers
With levels. Taking enough risk, overcoming ordeals, slaying beasts of ever-greater threat.
There's no limit to growth and potential, assuming there are no level caps and the protagonist has a personality suited for such a lifestyle.
With a leeching power that grants her skills without an end and character sheet to constantly fret over, it has a chance to become cumbersome in no time.
Yet coming across a harpy of crimson feathers and brilliant highlights in the wild with an obscured level, or level that's 463. That would be a real fright.
I'm looking forwards to finding out what kind of a person she is and how she'll develop and have to develop to thrive in her new world.
Indeed! That's the fun of this skill, even if she doesn't overcome greater threats she still has room for improvement because she can improve on every side!
Want a bit of magic? Defeat even a novice mage!
Want to use a sword? Beat a swordsperson and leech them
And with levels this is moved to another level ^^
Thanks for the chapter
You're welcome!
@Ariara
backfiring when he was, in fact, backfired
Backstabed for the second maybe, no ? if not, the sentence don't make realy sense
Hmm, in the sentence I meant that the skill backfired, meaning it harmed him when he was fired at in the back, sorry if it doesn't make sense
@Ariara aaaaah, now i understand. Well ... it's remaind a strange sentence noneless. But i'm not a native (i'm french) so maybe it's totaly me !
@Ombre37 I'm not native either! Italian, and it's probably just me trying to twist words around a bit too much ^^;
Thanks for the chapter
You're welcome!
Thank you for the chapter! You are awesome!
Thanks for the read! And you're also awesome!
Love this , Hopefully she finds a mortal enemy. For example she hates snake species.