Getting home after the fight with the Pukei-Pukei was a bit of a challenge after Hanna had plucked its plumage out and wrapped it in the carved up wings. The resultant bundle wasn't heavy, but it's size and shape lent itself to a difficult time. Not to mention her wounds. She was sure her arm was fractured and a couple of ribs were broken, but she had to get home to heal anyways.

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  A few days after the battle.

  Team leader Hakuro frowned as he investigated the battle site. He had come with his handler and a few members of the research team. Thanks to his earlier report about the strange roars and tracks in the Ancient Forest, he had gotten permission to investigate the cause.

  Which is why he's here, standing in the middle of a battleground. While it's not the most messy of fights he's had the pleasure of investigating, the intensity is what threw him off.

  Pukei-Pukei is a cowardly species by nature. They bully weaker monsters relentlessly and run from any fight that they're outcssed in. For a Pukei-Pukei to be sin so close to its nest spoke of a monster that outcssed it so much it didn't have the opportunity to run.

  And then there's the battlescarred terrain. Furrows in the ground where human sized feet had dig furrows. Deep pockmarks where something ran at a high speed towards the creature. Then there's the Pukei-Pukei itself.

  It's bones had been broken, puncture and cw marks all along its hide. It's stomach had been torn open and it's insides feasted. Like something small had killed it and ate its fill. Pukei-Pukei wasn't a strong species among its css by any means, but it was still worrying.

  ______________________________________

  Hanna awoke several days ter, groaning as she felt her sore body protest getting out from the admittedly soft mattress she'd made by piling up Pukei-Pukei feathers between its torn off wings. Best sleep she had in what felt like months.

  A quick reminder from the system told her it'd only been five days.

  "Quiet, you." She hissed, being brought out of her ardor by the service bell ring of the system.

  She crawled out of her hollow and looked down to it with a grin.

  "System. How much bioenergy would I need to spend to gain flight capable wings?"

  「Response: Given that the host no adaptations to assist in flight, a hundred years of bioenergy is required to mutate wings that allow the host to fly.」

  A grin spread across Hanna's face, her bloodstained lips making her appear quite dangerous.

  "System, use my free mutation to give me flight capable wings."

  The system confirmed her choice and she howled out as the pain hit her immediately. She could feel her back bones shifting and cracking, the flesh of her back splitting as two juvenile, leathery wings popped from her back before her skin knit back together.

  Then the pain ebbed, and she started to moan, the euphoria returning more intense than ever.

  Unbeknownst to her, our heroine was being watched, a red-faced researcher staring with big, wide eyes as she saw what she believed to be a new monster species thrash in the throes of pleasure.

  ItsQuarters