When they’re not creating hilariously broken potions, being hunted down by couriers, or checking their phone, Skyrim’s Dragonborn can often be found getting up to all kinds of morally dubious acts.
From getting into combat with innocent citizens, to stealing pocket change, and even trying to eat out-of-date corpses, all of these are enough to see the game’s hero be locked up for life.
That said, perhaps the most heinous crimes in Skyrim history haven’t been inflicted on human NPCs, but have instead ruined the lives of countless chickens, with a recent Reddit thread serving as yet another example of bad times for our feathered friends.
Have you ever tried to level up your illusion skill using poultry?
The thread in question on the Skyrim subreddit began with a post from a player at the beginning of a bit of an odyssey, user PromptZues19508, who shared an image of them whipping out some magic on a farm, captioning it: “Apparently, if you keep casting (the) Fury (spell) on a chicken, it'll charge at you, but because it can't attack, you can get infinite Illusion levels.”
Their efforts to confirm or bust this myth turned into a bit of a wild goose chase, with the first chicken soon meeting its demise at the hands of a guard, a second being killed by a mercenary, and both the third and fourth being incinerated by dragons.
Thankfully, these minor tragedies didn’t stop PromptZues19508, who definitely got as far as chicken number eight (killed by a giant) and may not have given up there, with user cagermacleod saying of their documented travails: “This was a really epic saga. Kept me on the edge of my seat. It had everything I want in a thrilling tale.”
Others shared their own, less chicken-focused, ideas for improving your magic skills, with user DD0223 : “Muffle works better for power-levelling illusion”, to which PromptZues19508 replied: “Yes, but muffle also has fewer chickens.”
Meanwhile, user AbbreviationsOdd1895 wondered whether the whole exercise was actually worth the trouble, wondering: “What’s a chicken gonna do with infinite illusion levels???”
Regardless of whether you think helping fowl to master the arcane arts is a constructive endeavour, make sure to follow us for more updates on The Elder Scrolls 6 and the wacky world of Skyrim modding.
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