After Kristens deep sleep she stretched out her body and got used to it.
'Looks like my left wing is back to normal, thank god.
And all my feathers seem a little sturdier as well. Hopefully when I reach the grassy plains I'll be able to grow stronger a lot faster than in the past!
And if I face anything on the way I can just burn them with my new OP skill mwahahahaha.'
Checking that she was in perfect health she opened her wings and shot into the sky at a high speed.
The wind whipped around her with a playfulness that she couldn't describe, making her appreciate the wildness of this strange world.
Unlike earth, this place had no pollution or over consumption, meaning most of its forest and habitats were thriving without restriction or harm.
And although humans existed, so did other intelligent beings such as beasts, so they balanced each other out.
Each of them had their own ways of gaining power, for humans it was through cultivation and for beasts it was through forming beast cores.
There were different continents in this world, just like earth, which were homes of different races and creatures. The continent that Kristen was in was actually quite big, but over half of it was an impassable desert.
It was called The Marauder because of many bandits that preyed upon towns and cities in the mainland.
In fact when Kristen was held captive by Xue Jie the city she was in was facing multiple threats from rogue bandits and plunderers.
Because of these things the majority of humans on The Marauder could not ascend above the golden core stage.
This created a vast power imbalance between it and other continents, making others look down on the people from here.
The flight only took around 30 minutes for Kristen and when she arrived at her destination...it was a disappointment to say the least.
A lush and green land lay before her, beaming with life yet barren at the same time.
There were no human cities or anything out of the ordinary, it was just..normal.
She wasn't sure what she was expecting but it was definitely not this. Deciding not to judge a book by its cover she flew around and discovered nothing abnormal, there were a few rivers and meadows here and there but that was it.
'Huh.
Well I guess I'll sleep here tonight, then see what I should do in the morning.'
After patrolling the area for a couple of hours she settled down on the branch of a small tree and made herself comfortable.
Sleep took her down like a wave and soon she was dozing off.
..
.
.
A pair of black birds discussed telepathically what they should do about the unexpected visitor.
"Do you think we should get rid of them?"
"NO! We don't even know who they are."
"So what should we do?"
"Hmmmmm maybe we should let them decide if they should join us, they seem strong for a beast with only 1 core. Looks like a lot of potential for the future."
"Join us?!? We've never done that before. You need to be sure if you want to do this, because I'm not sure we should do this so rashly."
"I've got a good feeling about this one, and my instincts are almost never wrong. Just trust me on this one."
The two voices chatting belonged to one adult cat-sized shadowfowl and a smaller one half the size of the first.
After reaching a conclusion in their talk they used one of their divine ability [Shadow Flash] and instantly disappeared from their previous location and reappeared around 45 meters away, straight in front of a sleeping large bird.
Reaching into their feathers the larger shadowfowl pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled down some writing with a shadow-like ink on their beak.
Leaving it in front of the sleeping so that it would be impossible to miss, they quickly left as fast as they came.
.
.
..
Opening her eyes Kristen blinked away the tiredness and stretched her limbs, failing to notice the message in front of her.
She walked and her leg hit something.
'Hmmm?'
Taking a closer look at it she saw a small piece of paper in front of her. Eyes widening, she picked up the message and read it twice.
Go 50 meters in front of your branch if you wish to find us..
'What a cryptic message, who the hell writes like that these days.'
Slightly annoyed she took off and soon reached where the text said.
'Hello? Anyone there? Did they seriously ghost me, if they did I'm gonna hunt their asses down I swear to god-'
A cold, sharp and shadow-like blade kissed her throat. But Kristen had gone through so much that she didn't even flinch.
This caught the attention of them, opposite of what she had intended.
They took the blade of her throat, allowing her to take a proper look at her attacker.
Two birds with feathers as black as ink stepped out from the shadows like twins, one with a large muscly body and the other with lithe, small limbs.
There had been rumors that passed down from town to town of three shadows that plundered and killed everything within sight, one that never seemed to be able to get hit, one who stabbed their enemies from the back and then disappearing without a trace.
And the third no one could ever see clearly, only the aftermath of what happened. Hordes of medicine went missing. Guards went missing with only traces of blood as the remains.
But there were only two birds standing in front of her.
"My name is Lucia and that is Olivia.
There are not that many birds like us, ones who are viewed as evil because of the colour of our feathers. To survive in a world thats pitted against us we need to band together so we can stand more of a chance.
We were originally a trio but our partner died in one of our missions, so we are looking for someone to replace them.
And, we also engage in quite a lot of trouble around human cities, so..."
Olivia, the smaller and less stern one, was more aware of the effect they had on Kristen and tentatively asked what was troubling her.
"Sorry, is something wrong?"
Kristen replied with a proficiency she didn't know she had.
"YES! You-you guys can talk! I'm talking! How are you doing this?"
"Well...when a beast forms a beast core they gain the ability to telepathically communicate.
"Oh. Hehe umm I didn't know this so errrrrr-"
"Its completely fine, a lot of beasts don't realise it until a lot later in their lives."
Lucia butted into the conversation.
"AHEM. So will you join us or not?"