A loud rumbling swept through the burrow that Vance was sleeping in. Slowly it got louder and louder, as the shaking grew stronger it roused Vance from his sleep. For a moment Vance merely lay there recalling what had happened to him, then he proceeded out of the borrow. Moving away from the swamp, he reached the top of the hill he was situated on. The other side of the hill had less trees, thinning out the further down he went. Peering through the last few trees, Vance was able to see the cause of all of the commotion.
On the other side of the trees was a large prairie, running through it was a large herd of an animal which seemed to be a mixture of a rhinoceros and buffalo, wrapped in fire and larger than both creatures. They were massive standing around eight foot tall on all fours, the creatures were giving off a strong pressure to Vance. Leading the pack was an absolutely massive beast that was around ten foot tall and had three horns on the front of their face instead of two. The leader gave of so much pressure that Vance knew if it was directed at him he wouldn't be able to move.
"Oh my god, these creatures are huge, why the hell are running so desperately?" Vance thought. Soon the answer to his question revealed itself, as a large shadow swept across the grass. Looking up Vance saw something he would never forget, the pure terror and instinctual need to flee before such a massive predator fought with his curious nature, as he gazed on to the true terror of the plains, unable to move. It was a massive bird that looked more like a small plane from where Vance stood. It was covered in a cloak of light that writhed around it showing different shapes and images that melded an transformed one after another. It was chasing the horde extraordinarily fast. The only part of it that didn't morph around in the light was its beak and black eyes. Slowly the deep black eyes lit up with a white piercing light as it opened its beak and launched a beam of light into the horde. As the rest ran for their lives, there were three that got caught up in the blast becoming unable to flee anymore. Faster than Vance could keep up with the light bird swept down and began to devour the beasts. Vance stood frozen, just staring at the bird as it enjoyed its meal, the pressure not letting up at all.
The bird suddenly looked up from its meal and gazed into the treeline, locking eyes with Vance. at that moment Vance lost all rational thought as instinct took over. All he could feel was the freezing chill of terror that covered him and the adrenaline running through him as he made a mad dash back to his burrow. As soon as Vance got inside, he collapsed shaking as the terror slowly left him, the pure fear and helplessness he felt as the creature looked at him with a deep message in its eyes, promising only death. As the fear and terror left him, anger took its place, anger at the bird, anger at the gods for dumping him here as a snack sized piece of food for any large beast nearby, and anger at the damn arsonist who decided to light the reptile house on fire. Most of all Vance was pissed at himself for being so weak, unable to even look at the bird or save himself from the fire.
Vance knew he had to get stronger and that right now he was nearly helpless. He took a few moments to gather himself and made a list of what he had to do. First, he had to go over the different menus he hadn't looked at yet that the system mentioned. Second, he had to find food, he had plenty of water from the swamp which should be safe for his new body to drink. Third, he had to get stronger and learn how to better use his body. Without further ado he decided to look over his menus. "Status" he thought.
Looking through the different stats he was unable to tell if they were good or not, since he had nothing to compare them to. Looking at the other sections though gave Vance more information. He found out what his species was. He hoped the unique rarity was good, but was completely unsure what it meant by integrating. Next Vance decided to look at his skills.
Vance looked over the skills, surprised at the amount. There was little indication what some of them did, while some were more self explanatory. Vance focused on the skills for a bit longer before another page popped up.
After looking through his skill list, Vance was left with more questions than answers. He had no clue how to activate his skills or use any magic. Still Vance remembered that massive bird and how helpless he felt. He knew that a lot of these skills would give him a major advantage compared to other beasts. He was determined to learn to use these skills and instead of just surviving in this new world, he would thrive. Vance left his burrow with a drive in him to learn and improve.
Spoiler: Spoiler
