The sun rose and chased the darkness away, slowly awakening everyone in the city by its rays.
Kristen wearily opened her eyes and stretched away the fatigue in her limbs, shaking away the dirt from her makeshift bed she felt an unbearable hunger inside of her. Knowing that she had to get something to eat she flew down from her home and patrolled the streets.
Seeing that the back alleys were filled to the brim with rats she greedily gobbled up 6 of them before finally feeling full.
After doing this she checked her status window and saw that she had levelled up into lvl 8 when drinking the true essence powering the illusion array in Xue Jie house, she was also about halfway through to lvl 9.
'WHAT. SINCE WHEN???'
Staring at the text with a mixture of shock and happiness she thought that her luck had finally turned around.
She hopped happily around and gained the urge to reach lvl 11 and see what would happen, would she get some random OP ability? Who knows.
Taking off the ground and flying away from the carnage she landed on the roof of different building and decided to stay in the city just for a few more days so that she could easily find prey and gain exp easily.
Plotting the course of her next actions she flew away and searched for a secure space to set up her home for the next few days. A moderately clean 4-story with a small nook between the roof and walls was the place she chose.
She still had the map that she found in the forest and left it inside the nook with a couple of leaves to serve as a bed.
'Mwahahaha all rodents beware! I'm coming for you.'
..
.
.
Xue Jie was currently going through a full-on panic attack just 40 minutes before he had to go meet his fate. He had thought of all options and realised that if he didn't go to this gathering with the king then he surely would be hunted down and killed by the royal family.
He was completely backed into a corner.
With no choice he was forced to covertly leave the building and race towards the palace grounds.
Walking up to the gate he glanced at the gate and they immediately let him in without question.
The space before the palace was eerily quiet, a sense of foreboding in the air.
He moved carefully on and was unsure if he should go into the palace building or stay where he was.
The king made the decision for him by walking out through the entrance of the palace alone towards Xue Jie who quickly bowed to show some respect.
The king broke the silence with some pleasantries.
"Hello, are you the one who contacted me about a certain heir of the Bird in the Black Forest? I truly am glad that you came because that creature has been a pain in the neck for us ever since it was born."
"Yes, I was the one who contacted you, your majesty."
Gaining some confidence through the gratitude, Xue Jie replied curtly. Thunder rumbled above them as they chatted.
"Well, would you be able to show it? I apologize if my words are rude but I just wish to see what I have come all this way for."
"Oh. About that um, well here's the thing. The bird kind of, sort of..."
"Spit it out already!"
"Theheirescapedandwecantfindit"
Xue Jie blurted out in a rush.
Stunned, the king stared at the completely idiotic person in front of him.
"You..you let it escape?"
"...Yes."
Xue Jie quietly responded.
This was undoubtedly the stupidest thing that he had ever done in his life, showing up to a trade with the king without what he was going barter with, wasting a member of the royal family's time in the process.
Knowing that things were going to go south real quick he made another dumb decision, running away at full speed.
He had almost reached the gates by the time that the entire focus of a nascent soul stage aura came crashing down on him, stopping his movements entirely.
"Wow. I honestly don't think I've ever met someone as stupid and slow as you. I mean seriously,
first you show up with nothing and then you try to run? Its funny that you thought you could even get away after willingly coming to me."
The king slowly walked up to Xue Jie while mocking him, intending to drag it out for as long as possible.
"You know, I didn't even need that stupid bird that you were supposed to bring."
He drawled out.
"The only reason I invited you out here was to uproot you and your slippery sect."
At these words Xue Jie's eyes went dark in anger at the deception and at himself for being so gullible.
"What a dense person you are, did you really think that it would be that easy?"
He said with a laugh, then started stomping towards Xue Jie with heavy footsteps, leaving cracks in the stone pathway.
Grabbing Xue Jie by the collar he whispered something inaudible into his ears before snapping off Xue Jie's head with a simple flick of his wrist.
And that was how Xue Jie died.
.
.
..
Unbeknownst to Kristen, Xue Jie had met his end she continued her rampage on the local rats, almost having succeeded in massacring half of the rodent population in the back alleys.
A few people noticed her in fright and scrambled away to go tell someone, but no one believed the story of a big raven killing half of the rodents in less than a day.
When Kristen finally felt tired of the bloodshed she called it a day and flew back to her home, the stench of blood lingering everywhere she went.
She collapsed on her bed after seeing that she had reached lvl 9.
'I'll leave tomorrow and go.... I don't want to go back to the forest because who knows if there are other humans in it so I think I'll travel through the grassy plains opposite it.'
She still had the map that she found in the forest and on it there was a small blank green section just outside of the forest, deciding to go there after a nights rest.
Quickly getting up and packing her map in a few feathers she energetically jumped off the roof and flew across the sky and out the city. It took her around 30 minutes of flying to reach the edge of the city.
Going across the walls a feeling of an ease washed over her, like everything that had transpired there had been left behind in the past.
'HOOOLY! That place was awful, never gonna go into a human city again in this lifetime. I wonder what sort of things will await me at my destination, it will be good right? RIGHT.'
Kristen was left to her thoughts as she glided through the clouds, the sunlight of the morning growing more intense the longer the day went on.
On the way to the plains she saw many different scenes below her.
A chubby merchant getting robbed by his own bodyguards and then left to die in the wilderness.
A pack of wolves hunting down and killing a baby deer that was lost.
A homeless, pregnant woman dying of starvation on the side of the road, no one stopping to save her.
Looking at these things, she was reminded of a saying from back on earth that said "All good things come in threes".
'All bad things come in threes it seems like in this world'
Taking a rest to regain her stamina for the rest of the journey, she tested out her new strength after becoming a lvl 9.
She flapped her wings as hard as she could and a blast of air so strong it could bruise someone shot out.
'SICKKKKK'
Moving her claws she sliced a nearby branch into pieces.
'woah. Looks like I have a lot more ammunition against those pesky humans hehehe.'
Thinking evilly about the things she would do to them in the future, time flew by and soon she resumed her journey.
With all the free time on her hands, or rather wings, she took the chance to process all of her grievances from her past life. Not wanting for a repeat of the previous crying session she steeled her heart for anything that could happen in the future, promising herself that she wouldn't ever give up on her goal.
The sun soon went down and Kristen had almost reached the plains, she stubbornly kept flying and flew through the night.
However, in this world, nighttime was when evil, dark creatures came out of their hiding and preyed upon those still awake.
A dark shadow dashed at a high speed towards Kristen and knocked her out of the sky, making her break one of her wings.
"CIIIWWWWWWWW"
A scream echoed throughout the night as she plummeted down into a river below her, disappearing without a trace.