Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

Gaa was originally an ordinary raven.

Like all its kind in the Dead Mountain Range, Gaga's life is very regular. At dawn, it flies out of its nest to find food: insects, carrion, wild fruit, and if it's lucky, it can even find injured small animals.

Before nightfall, they flew back to the ancient tree where they lived, squeezed among the dense branches, listened to the clan leader's noisy lectures, and then drifted off to sleep.

The days were as mundane as the morning mist that repeated itself countless times.

Until that afternoon.

Gaga remembers it clearly; that day it flew quite far, looking for something different to eat.

In a shady valley it had never been before, it saw a short tree with two bright red fruits hanging on it, so red they looked like they were about to drip blood, standing out starkly in the gray forest.

"Caw?" The bird landed on the branch and tilted its head curiously to examine it.

The fruity aroma is unique; it's not cloyingly sweet, but rather has a refreshing quality that tantalizes you and gets straight to your head.

Its stomach rumbled, and it looked around. There were no other wild animals, nor any of its own kind.

"Just one bite... crunch."

It carefully pecked open the fruit skin with its beak.

The moment the juice entered its mouth, the bird froze completely.

It's so delicious! Indescribably delicious! Every feather on my body is cheering!

It swallowed the whole fruit in a few gulps, smacked its lips with lingering satisfaction, and was about to peck at the second one...

"Gurgle—"

A strange churning sensation suddenly came from inside my stomach.

Immediately afterwards, excruciating pain struck!

"Gah!!!"

It let out a pitiful scream, fell from the tree branch to the ground, and rolled around frantically in the pile of dead leaves.

The pain felt like countless red-hot needles were stabbing wildly inside the body, or like an invisible hand was tearing at its internal organs, bones, and even... its brain!

Gaa's eyes rolled back in pain, and its wings flapped wildly, scattering feathers and dead leaves it had pecked off everywhere.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die... Ahh...!"

It truly believed it was going to die this time, and countless fragmented images flashed through its mind:

The warmth inside the eggshell, the clumsiness of learning to fly for the first time, the half-frozen snake I managed to snatch when I was starving last winter, the chieftain's beautiful daughter...

After an unknown amount of time, the excruciating pain subsided like a receding tide.

Gaga lay sprawled on the ground, its chest heaving violently, its feathers disheveled as if ravaged by a storm.

It panted for a long time before it finally stood up shakily.

Then it froze.

The world... is different now.

It's not about brighter colors or a longer field of vision, although those are indeed factors.

Rather, it is the way it "sees" the world that has completely changed.

The rustling sound of the wind blowing through the treetops in the distance allows one to distinguish the subtle differences in the movement of each leaf.

It can tell what kind of insect it is, how long it is, and whether it tastes good just by listening to the sound of insects wriggling in the soil.

It can even count the approximate number of dust particles floating in the air.

What shocked it even more was that it began to "think".

It's not the instinctive reaction of "being hungry and needing to eat" or "being in danger and needing to fly away," but rather a truly proactive thought process.

"What did I just eat? Why is that fruit growing there? Were any wild animals attracted by my cry? Should I fly away immediately, or observe first?"

One question after another emerged from the depths of my consciousness like bubbles, clear and coherent.

Gaga tried to move its wings...

"Whoosh!"

With just a gentle flap of its wings, its body shot into the air with a "whoosh," moving as fast as a black lightning bolt, even leaving afterimages!

Startled, it quickly withdrew its strength and staggered to the ground.

"I...I've gotten faster? Huh?"

It then looked at a rock about half a person's height next to it and tentatively swept it with the edge of its wing.

"laugh!"

The rock split in two with a sharp sound, the cross-section as neat as if it had been cut by a sharp blade.

Ga Ga stared blankly at its wings. The feathers were still black, but in the sunlight, they faintly shimmered with a cold, iridescent light.

Its heart was pounding, and a thought popped into its head: I... have become more powerful?

Over the next few days, Gaga secretly tested all of her changes.

It can turn instantly in mid-air, its speed is comparable to the fastest falcon, and its strength is so great that it can easily grab an adult deer and fly into the sky.

The most amazing thing is that when it concentrates its mind, its body can suddenly become extremely large.

Its wingspan is a full eight meters, like a moving dark cloud!

When it grows larger, a single flap of its wings can stir up a gale, its feathers are so hard they can deflect spears, and its eyes can emit a hazy gray light that will freeze any beast that is touched by it, as if it has lost its soul.

It can also become very small, even smaller than a small round-necked sparrow.

Gaga was both surprised and delighted, but its smarter brain told it: it shouldn't make a fuss.

It quietly flew back to the ancient tree where its people lived.

The clan chief was still that arrogant old raven, perched atop the highest branch, lecturing with spittle flying:

"...Yesterday, a deer carcass was found in the western valley. I saw it first, so none of you are allowed to steal any! You have to wait for me to distribute it, understand? Quack!"

The ravens below lazily echoed, "We heard you—caw—"

It quacked and landed on a branch in the corner, listening silently.

Previously, it thought the chieftain's words made a lot of sense: the strong get to eat first, which is the law of nature.

But now, it just sounds stupid. It's just a deer carcass. It's a skill to snatch it. Why should we wait for you to distribute it? By the time you finish distributing it, the other beasts will have already eaten all the good meat.

It then looked at its other kind, who were pecking at each other's feathers until they were flying around in a frenzy over a tiny worm, chattering and arguing for ages over the smallest things, and some of them always secretly farting when they huddled together at night...

Gaga suddenly felt that they were so stupid.

But it didn't say it.

It simply stays quietly in the corner, hunting alone during the day. It no longer likes to eat raw meat and prefers to cook its prey before eating it.

Although the first time it was burned and almost set the feathers on fire, it chose to rest on the outermost branch at night.

It began to live in seclusion until a month later.

That day, the clan chief summoned Gaga and said in a commanding tone:

"There's a cliff to the southeast, and wild animals often fall to their deaths at the bottom. You're fast, so go and keep watch there today. If you find any corpses, drag them back to me, quack!"

Gaga tilted her head: "Why me? It's far away, and rock eagles often appear there."

The chieftain flapped his wings impatiently: "Just go when I tell you to! Why are you asking so many questions? I'm the chieftain!"

If it were the old Gaga, she probably would have obediently gone.

But now Gaga can think. The rock eagle is one of the raven's natural enemies. The chieftain knows this, but he sends a single one to guard the cliff. Isn't that just sending it to its death?

Is it because it's been acting alone lately and refusing to follow orders?

Gaga calmly said, "I'm not going. You go yourself."

The entire flock of crows fell silent instantly.

All the ravens stared wide-eyed at Gaa Gaa in disbelief. How dare he talk back to the chieftain?!

The clan chief was stunned, then flew into a rage, his feathers bristling.

"You've gone too far! Quack...! Today I'll teach you a lesson about rules!"

It shrieked and pounced, its sharp beak pecking straight at Ga Ga's eyes.

The surrounding ravens retreated, making way for a clearing, their eyes filled with schadenfreude.

Having angered the clan chief, this is going to be quite a show.