Chapter 106: Bird Manipulation Technique, Grapes

Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Bird Manipulation Technique, Grapes

She thought of birds.

The moment the thought crossed her mind, a small black dot appeared in the distant, hazy gray sky, wobbling as it flew toward them.

It was a sparrow.

Seraphina Sullivan’s heart stirred. Without the slightest hesitation, she immediately focused her mind and activated [Bird Manipulation Technique] on the sparrow.

An invisible wave of spiritual power precisely connected with the sparrow’s simple brain.

The sparrow, which had been flying aimlessly, suddenly stiffened. Its flight path became steady and orderly, and then it dove, flying precisely toward Seraphina Sullivan.

From Sean Chandler’s perspective, he only saw Seraphina Sullivan calmly raise her hand. The small sparrow that had suddenly appeared, as if hearing a silent summons, obediently folded its wings and landed lightly in her outstretched palm.

The sparrow tilted its tiny head. Its beady black eyes had lost some of their luster, and it had become exceptionally docile.

’Capture successful!’

Seraphina rejoiced inwardly. Without pausing, she immediately activated another one of her Profession’s Abilities—[Bird’s Eye]!

Instantly, her vision strangely split and shifted.

One part of her vision remained her own, allowing her to see the sparrow in her palm and the vigilant Sean Chandler beside her.

The other part, however, suddenly dropped lower.

It was as if she had gained a second "eye"—the sparrow’s field of vision.

Through the sparrow’s eyes, Seraphina could clearly "see" herself and Sean Chandler.

The experience of this dual perspective was incredibly novel, even making her feel a bit dizzy at first, but Seraphina quickly adapted.

’I did it!’ Seraphina was ecstatic. ’Shared vision... This Ability is so useful!’

She tried to control the sparrow in her palm with her thoughts, making it fly.

The sparrow immediately flapped its wings, obediently ascending and circling around her and Sean Chandler.

Her "second sight" moved along with it, taking in a wider, higher-altitude view, including hidden corners and the tops of distant buildings. Nothing escaped her gaze.

"A good Ability," Seraphina said to Sean Chandler as she recalled the sparrow, the unusual light in her eyes fading.

"This will make it much easier to gather information, scout the terrain, and get early warnings of danger in this instance. At the very least, we won’t have to personally check every corner that might be hiding The Silenti."

With this eye in the sky, their chances of survival in the Petrification Apocalypse had undoubtedly increased dramatically.

’I just don’t know how many birds’ visions this Ability can connect to and share at once,’ Seraphina thought, feeling the subtle strain the dual perspective placed on her mind.

She had a gut feeling that the Ability’s upper limit was high, but the restriction likely came from the strength of her spiritual power.

Just maintaining the shared vision with one sparrow required her to divide her attention to process two streams of visual information. If there were a few more, not only would her spiritual power likely be insufficient, but the chaotic, overlapping perspectives would be enough to make her dizzy and completely unable to cope.

"Okay, enough overthinking. Time to get down to business and stock up on supplies!" Seraphina patted her cheeks firmly.

Like the most loyal Guard, Sean Chandler stood silently half a step behind her, ever-vigilant of their surroundings. He asked in a low voice, "Where are we going?"

Seraphina didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she focused her mind and controlled the small sparrow in her palm to flap its wings and soar into the sky.

Its primary mission was to act as a high-altitude sentry, closely monitoring the surroundings for any signs of those deadly swarms of The Silenti.

The memory of that sky-blotting, grayish-white shadow still made Seraphina shudder.

As she watched the sparrow fly higher and higher, a thought popped into her head uncontrollably: ’If I run into a lone Silenti, maybe I could try to control it with the Bird Manipulation Technique? The Silenti have wings too. If an Angel can become a bird-person, I wonder if the technique would work on that kind of monster... Its eyes can release the Petrification Light, so they must be a rare material. I’d love to pluck them out and see what’s so special about them. They might be incredibly useful.’

Seraphina’s hoarding tendencies were beginning to stir.

However, she quickly suppressed this risky idea.

’Forget it. It’s too risky. I’ll think about it if I actually find one that’s alone.’

Meanwhile, the view from the small sparrow high in the sky was continuously being fed back to her.

Through its "eyes," Seraphina looked down upon the dead city.

Large swaths of the city were covered in thick, unnatural green vegetation, dotted with countless grayish-white stone statues frozen in the moment the apocalypse struck.

The entire city was terrifyingly silent.

"It looks like the Petrification Apocalypse happened a long time ago, long enough for the plants to grow like this," Seraphina said grimly, observing the scene below through the shared vision.

"There!" Sean Chandler, who had remained on high alert, suddenly spoke up, pointing to the top of a distant high-rise almost completely engulfed in vines.

Following his finger, Seraphina immediately switched the sparrow’s vision to focus on it.

On the edge of the building’s roof, an unusually lush vine was wrapped around a broken railing. Hanging from it were clusters of plump, deep purple fruit!

She activated [Item Identification] without hesitation.

[Common Grapes]

Description: Ordinary fruit grapes.

"Grapes! They’re edible!"

Seraphina’s eyes lit up instantly, her voice filled with a rare, pleasant surprise.

The two of them immediately hurried toward the high-rise.

After reaching the base of the building, since the grapevine was growing at a great height, Sean Chandler didn’t hesitate for a moment. His form blurred as he transformed into an agile black cat. He deftly scrambled up the moss-covered, cracked wall, reaching the grapevine on the roof with just a few nimble leaps.

He extended his sharp claws and precisely severed a vine laden with the best-looking bunch of fruit.

Below, Seraphina was already prepared, steadily catching the "fruit" that fell from the sky.

Keeping the sparrow on high alert, Seraphina immediately issued a new order: "Sean, don’t just pick one bunch. Dig up the whole grapevine and take it with us!"

Hearing this, the black cat on the roof transformed again, instantly swelling into his powerful Werewolf Form.

His claws dug deep into the cracks and soil of the rooftop. With muscles bulging, he gave a mighty heave and actually ripped the deeply rooted grapevine, along with a large clump of earth and its tangled vines, straight out of the roof!

Timing it perfectly, Seraphina raised her hand from below and instantly pulled the entire grapevine, still in the Werewolf’s claws, into her Space.

Mission complete. The Werewolf Form quickly subsided, and he changed back into a black cat, leaping lightly from the high-rise to land beside Seraphina before returning to his human form.

A satisfied smile spread across Seraphina’s face. She broke off a small section from the fresh bunch of grapes in her hand and passed it to Sean Chandler, then popped a few into her own mouth.

The sweetness of the grapes filled her mouth.

"Go on, eat! It’s been so long since I’ve had normal fruit!"

she lamented. Of course, the stat-boosting "Power Apples" didn’t count.

The sweet and sour juice burst in her mouth, tasting especially precious and delicious against the backdrop of this hopeless apocalypse.