Darkness cracked like fragile glass.
Blue eyes blinked open — not merely blue, but twin sapphires swirling with something deeper, something ancient. Power? Mystery? Bad life decisions yet to be made? Hard to say.
Kaiser's first conscious movement was a masterclass in controlled power. Midnight-black feathers — not simply dark, but tinged with metallic sheens that drank in light and spat it back in dazzling refractions — shifted and shimmered as he rose. Every tilt of his wings, every flick of his tail, sent tiny ripples through the cavern air, humming like an unsung symphony of force.
The memories came next. Oh boy, did they come.
Not human memories — none of the boring "how to do taxes" nonsense — but a torrent of instinctual wisdom. How to hunt. How to fight. How to survive when the world itself wanted you dead. Every shred of evolutionary brilliance condensed into a single heartbeat of understanding.
Kaiser took it all in with the detached air of someone finding cheat codes five minutes into a game.
"Evolutionary DLC installed successfully." he thought dryly. "Nice."
His body felt...different. The muscled frame of a lion, but engineered like a luxury sports car — sleek yet brutal. His tail twitched experimentally, slicing through the air with enough force to make a very confused bat explode somewhere overhead.
"Status," he called, mostly to see if this new existence came with a heads-up display.
A shimmering panel materialized in front of him, written in glowing letters:
{Name: Kaiser}{Race: Noble Metallic Griffin}{Rank: Uncommon+ (E-)}{Titles: None}
{Stats: 882/1000 (E)}
Strength: 27 → 180/200
Agility: 29 → 183/200
Constitution: 23 → 170/200
Dexterity: 23 → 163/200
Intelligence: 29 → 186/200
{Skills: Hunting (F) → (E+), Mana Manipulation (F+) → (E), Analyze (E+), Steel Body (new) (E), Metal Infusion (new) (E), Metal Shaping (new) (E)}
{Bioenergy: 0/2500}
{Fame Points: 0/10000}
Kaiser squinted at the numbers, his sapphire eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Pretty good," he muttered aloud. "Scratch that — absolutely f*king' broken."
His beak tapped against the glowing icons like an impatient gamer checking patch notes.
First up:{Steel Body (E): Grants immunity to true damage at current rank. Reduces normal damage by 50% against same-rank foes. 10% damage reduction versus creatures one rank higher.}
Steel Body skill caught his attention. Immunity to true damage? Damage reduction?
Kaiser whistled. Or tried to. It came out more like a low, predatory chirrup that made a nearby pebble faint in fear.
Game. Freaking. Over.
Next:{Metal Infusion (E): Imbue your body with mana to harden it into various metals, enhancing defense and offense.}
{Metal Shaping (E): Manipulate metals at will using mana. Creativity encouraged. Safety not guaranteed.}
Controlling metal? Turning his body into armor on command?
His attention shifted inward. His beast core — the source of his mana — pulsed like a living star nestled between his ribs.
Unlike his dark feathers, the core shone white and pure, an ironic contrast to his badass aesthetic. Liquid mana swirled within, already filling about three-fifths of its capacity. Quick mental math told him he had around 620 mana points — six times more than whatever sad creature he used to be.
The liquid was almost filled up a little more than 3/5, according his calculations, mana depended on his intelligence stat. Every point of mana translated to 3.3333 mana points. Taking that into account he had 620 mana points. quite a lot 6 times more compared to his previous core.
"Mutation perks, huh?" Kaiser smirked. "Guess it pays to be fancy."
The cave around him wasn't just a hollow anymore. It was... breathing. Soft luminescence trickled down from unseen cracks above, dappling the rough stone floor with pools of silver and gold. Stalactites hung like daggers from the ceiling, dripping with what looked suspiciously like liquid mana. The air buzzed with the kind of magic that made your fur stand on end and your inner monologue start speaking in italics.
Time to go.
With a predatory grace, Kaiser padded towards the mouth of the cave. Each step sent faint metallic echoes ricocheting off the walls, announcing his emergence like a royal procession.
The world outside was...
Different.
Where once there had been mundane forests and boring mud, now there sprawled a fantasy painting on steroids.
Floating boulders wreathed in vines spun lazily in the forest . Rivers twisted up and down, they expanded a lot like silver helixes. Trees thrummed with internal light, their leaves glinting like emerald mirrors. The air itself shimmered with hidden power, shifting subtly as if watching him — waiting for his next move.
Movement below caught his keen eyes.
Magical beasts — hundreds of them. Wolf-like creatures with crystalline fur glinting in the sunlight, each towering over humans like small trucks. Serpentine river monsters, flashing arcs of electricity between their scales, coiling and diving into churning rapids.
And the moment they saw him?
They froze.They stared.And then, slowly — reverently — they backed away.
No snarls. No challenges. Just...instinctual respect.
Kaiser grinned,
"Yeah, that's right. I'm terrifying now."
Experimentally, he spread his wings.
The metallic feathers caught the light and refracted it, casting prismatic rainbows across the stone and grass.
And then — with a single downward stroke — he lifted off.
There was no struggle. No heavy laboring against gravity.It was like asking the world politely if he could leave the ground — and the world, wisely, said "of course, sir, right this way."
One powerful downward stroke.
Elevation.
Holy sh*t.
Higher and higher he climbed, the wind cradling him, whispering secrets of thermals and airstreams into his feathers. His black form sliced through the sky like a living shadow, framed against a sun that now seemed far less impressive.
Below, the world shrank into nothing but of color and movement.
Kaiser soared higher, a laugh bubbling from his beak, half-crazed with euphoria.
"I could get used to this," he thought as he banked into a wide, lazy spiral.
"Definitely could get used to this."
The horizon stretched endlessly before him — a vast canvas of mystery, power, and absurd magical nonsense waiting to be conquered.
And Kaiser?
He was ready to make it his playground.