Ash began traveling deeper into the Verdant Necropolis.
Going to the areas that he had never visited before. And there, he met several new creatures.
A snake that surprisingly looked normal and not mutated, relying on its green scales to hide among the tall weeds.
There were stags, the 'normal' ones, that weren't made out of vines. Though they looked very similar to the wolves, with plants growing on their backs.
He also met more of the bears that he saw fighting against the carnivorous tree before. The smaller and weaker versions of them.
To his surprise, he also met a certain creature that he stumbled upon entirely by accident.
While swinging with his vines, Ash accidentally wrapped around a creature that was just chilling on one of the tree branches.
And if not for his thorny vines consuming mana to unknowingly buff the creature, Ash couldn't even see it.
It was a chameleon, one that somehow had magic to perfect its camouflage skill even more. Making it almost indistinguishable from the tree bark and branches it sat on.
But most importantly, here, Ash finally met some of the birds that he had only heard their voices from afar before.
Ash recalled the creature that he needed to modify, 'A creature that is able to travel fast distances, can avoid danger, and most importantly, can properly share its findings with you.'
'So basically, I need to modify my own trusty scout?' Ash concluded from the requirements.
The last part of the requirement was quite an impossible one in Ash's logic. 'What kind of creatures can talk with humans?'
But considering all the mutated creatures here, Ash wouldn't be surprised if he found a species of monkeys that could actually talk.
He didn't need a monkey that could speak like a poet, just one that could exchange basic words with him.
But he didn't encounter any so far, so Ash just kept that requirement in the back of his mind and focused on the first two.
Hence the reason why Ash was happy to finally meet the faces of the sounds he heard before.
Why a bird? Because they could fly quickly, and they could definitely avoid dangers in the Verdant Necropolis.
Especially when almost all danger here came from what lurks on the ground.
Now, Ash just needed to capture a suitable one.
And find out how the hell he could make the birds understand him and be able to trust him enough to let him do his modifications quietly like the wolf did.
Something that Ash found to be a challenge of its own as he tried to capture one earlier.
Not only did the birds run away at the first signs of danger, making it very hard to catch them, but he also couldn't figure out how in the world he could make the birds stay still.
Fortunately, his worry was for naught.
With great patience and the harmless vines of his trusty doppelganger, Ash could catch one bird.
It was struggling with all its might, trying to set itself free of the vines' grasp.
But when Ash activated his seed and sent out the mycelium towards the bird, it seemed to understand what Ash was trying to do.
The mycelium, or more precisely, the seed, acted as a very skillful translator that spoke the language of the heart.
Ash gained knowledge of the bird, which turned out to be some kind of enhanced cardinal bird.
It still had its beautiful red feathers, but now, it was able to use magic to enhance its flight, making it almost impossible to catch for other birds when it started flying.
The problem, though, the cardinal bird wasn't the smartest of the bunch.
With the extra knowledge, Ash recognized that this particular species of bird was one of the birds that had proudly smacked his windows back when he lived in the dorm.
And it shows here, it couldn't even detect the doppelganger's vines creeping up slowly behind it.
To have a scout that could easily be tricked wasn't on Ash's bucket list. So he let the bird free.
But not after extracting the DNA that unlocked the bird's ability to fly very fast. It might be useful for his bird of choice later.
Ash continued his journey, focusing his eyes on the branches to spy on more birds.
And to make sure he got the right one, one that he could trust to keep itself safe and have a certain level of intelligence to recognize what's what, Ash did his own tests on the birds.
If the bird couldn't notice his plain vines, then he wouldn't choose it.
If the birds were able to be lured by the berries easily, then they were also out.
If the two methods above failed, then it would be Ash's choice.
And so far, only a certain bird met Ash's criteria and passed all the tests.
It was a very familiar bird, an infamous one in human society.
Well, their cousins were the infamous ones, but they look almost exactly the same as their cousins, who flew in groups called a murder.
The bird that passed all of Ash's tests was not a crow, but a raven.
When his vines crept up the raven's back, it just started flying away as if it was sensitive to the vibrations the vines made.
When Ash tried to lure it with the alluring berry, the raven just stared at it, seemingly already knowing of the berry's venomous characteristics, and didn't go close to it.
And although it wasn't a crow, the raven was supposedly as smart as one, and it had definitely proved itself to be able to recognize an unseen danger like the berry.
It would be the perfect scouting animal for Ash.
Especially with the modifications that Ash would inject into its DNA.
It would be unstoppable and uncatchable anywhere in the world, not only in the Verdant Necropolis.
'But now the problem is, how can I even catch something like that…?'