Chosen Evolution: I can load the protagonist template

Chapter 673 The Chocobo Song Echoing in the Ancient Forest
The average size of a shrike is about 5 meters, the smallest small golden-crowned bird is 4.5 meters, and the largest large golden-crowned bird is 6.2 meters. The difference between the two is not small.

However, the bird that appeared before everyone, blocking the deer-headed spirit's path and clearly belonging to its side, was a massive creature nearly 15 meters tall.

Combined with the enormous, luminous crystal it holds in its hands, it's hard to take your eyes off it.

Numerous phantom swords were scattered around the sassy bird, dissipating from its ethereal state. Clearly, they had all been blocked by the glowing crystal, yet the crystal showed no signs of damage, proving that its hardness was far more outrageous than imagined.

The guild hunters who were following Cheng Tian, ​​intending to provide him with covert protection, were stunned when they saw this sassy bird.

Almost without thinking, he pulled a notebook and a charcoal pencil from his waist, and his hands flew around as he began to record data and sketch the enormous, battle-hardened shrew bird not far away.

Scatterbirds are not uncommon, but this one, with its unusually large size, and its association with what appears to be a new ancient forest overlord, and its choice to carry crystals instead of eggs, is definitely worth documenting.

And Cheng Tian, ​​who was closest to this shrew, heard a very familiar melody—

The Song of the Chocobo

"Why are you here instead of hanging out in the Great Anthill Wasteland?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Cheng's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and asked.

What are you doing? Are you communicating with this mutated, battle-hardened bird?
A group of people gripped their weapons, wary of the deer-headed spirit hiding behind the shrew and difficult to attack, while looking at Cheng with surprise.

What was even more surprising was that the giant, pesky bird, which should have been on the side of the deer-headed spirit and was holding a crystal filled with strange energy, poked its head out from behind the crystal and saw Cheng Tian. Then it let out a series of cries from deep in its throat, accompanied by a rhythmic sound of its beak striking against itself.

This is clearly using a communication method unique to sassy birds.

As a humanoid Sassy Bird MAX, even without wearing the Sassy Bird headgear, Cheng Tian would be regarded as one of the same kind by the Sassy Birds, at most being regarded as Little Golden Crown because of his small size.

Cheng Tian's Monster Knight template allows him to communicate with monsters more easily than other professions.

The "Beast Tamer" skill under this template is actually a beast taming version of the "Chariot Master" skill. It allows Cheng Tian to better communicate with wild animals, form a spiritual bond with contracted monsters, and move at will.

It could be said that if Cheng Tian weren't so small, he could easily blend into the flock of shrews and become a leader.

As a bird-dragon species with almost no territorial awareness, the Slug, although not social, generally does not harbor any hostility towards its own kind, unless the other party tries to steal its eggs.

Furthermore, compared to other harpy birds, this battle-hardened harpy bird, which has undergone a significant mutation due to possessing the "Crystal of Ether Light," seems to have also become more intelligent, enabling it to communicate with Cheng Tian more clearly.

Yes, that's right. The glowing crystal in this sassy bird's arms is a special individual resulting from a collaboration with the Final Fantasy XIV IP under the influence of the collaboration's light.

Cheng Tian's Light and Shadow Serpent Form was currently on cooldown, but that didn't stop him from knowing how powerful this shrewish bird was.

Besides stealing eggs, the Swarm naturally has the habit of using rocks as shields and hammers, and the Aether Crystal amplifies this to the extreme. While holding the Aether Crystal, the Swarm gains immunity to all status ailments and traps, making the crystal extremely difficult to drop. Furthermore, maintaining the stance of holding the crystal grants it a "Shield" mode, which forcibly deflects all melee attacks from enemies.

Moreover, once no one can take the Crystal of Aether Light from its body, its size and power will continue to grow until it reaches the limit that its physical body can withstand.

Similarly, it is also one of the Deer-Headed Spirit's reliance.

The Leshen's Beast Domination can control non-dominant beast units in the Ancient Forest to the greatest extent possible. The Swarm should have been within its hard domination range, but due to the enhancement of the Aether Crystal, this Crystal Swarm was essentially hired as a henchman by the Leshen's promise.

With the strength of this savage bird, it's so powerful that you wouldn't trade it for a Rathalos.

But when the deer-headed spirit discovered that the crystal bird, which should have continued attacking humans, was actually communicating with Cheng Tian, ​​a thought called "Buhao" surfaced in his mind.

Within seconds, Sao Niao and Cheng Tian engaged in a rapid and highly efficient intra-clan communication by striking each other with their beaks and teeth, a communication that could also be kept secret from others.

Immediately afterwards, Cheng Tian reached behind him and pulled out a dragon egg with a standard fire dragon pattern, which he gently placed on the ground.

At this moment, the Crystal Bird's eyes widened, revealing its instinct to steal and eat eggs.

While the Crystal of Etherlight does provide Crystal Shrike with powerful physical enhancements, it also amplifies its physiological needs, namely its feeding behavior.

Crystal Swarms only eat eggs and have no interest in monster corpses. This has led to all the dragon nests around the Ancient Tree being visited by Crystal Swarms in recent days, which is also the main reason why there are far more abandoned dragon nests than intact ones in the area.

Gradually, ordinary herbivorous dragon eggs could no longer satisfy the bird's appetite. The enhancement from the crystal also gave it the confidence to challenge the fire dragon couple. However, due to the demonization, the fire dragon couple's nest, which had been destroyed early on, had already been taken over by the local Felyne tribe, leaving only the abandoned nest.

It's so bad that you can't even get your hands on it if you want to.

Unexpectedly, Cheng Tian, ​​the little golden crown, actually took out the delicious dragon egg he had been longing for!
and……

One, two, three—a total of three dragon eggs of slightly different colors—were placed together in front of the Crystal Bird.

Saliva began to drip down the beak of the Crystal Bird.

At this moment, Cheng Tian jabbed the crystal bird twice more with his teeth, causing it to shudder, and then—

With a twist of his body, he swung the Aether Crystal, which contained a huge amount of stun value, directly at the stag-headed demon's face!

In the player's perception of friend or foe, the Crystal Swarm's icon has changed from a red and yellow stripe to a completely green friendly one.

The spirit of contract? What's that? Is it as tasty as the three dragon eggs Little Golden Crown pulled out?

With just one strike, the deer-headed spirit, who had managed to dodge in a hurry but was still inevitably grazed by the crystal, immediately fell into a state of unconsciousness and dizziness!
(End of this chapter)