We returned to the AA and the first thing I did was to take a bath.


    The big guys wanted me to be there when they handed in the ‘prize’ but I don’t need more fame. I wish they would leave my involvement out of this but that is probably not going to happen.


    I used some rose-scented shampoo to get the stink out of my tail but It wasn’t easy. There was no other shampoo that could get the scent out. I got out of the bath a half hour later, exhausted. I collapsed on the bed in my room.


    This shit is so exhausting, is this why beast kin races are so careful with their tails?


    I never had to really clean my tail before. It just stayed clean by itself for some reason. The same went for Raishin and Greg. Unless they’re scrubbing their tails doing baths and showers but I can’t imagine Raishin doing that. If he weren’t a 6t lightning tiger he’d probably be a 6t dirt pig or something, I don’t understand how someone can be so messy.


    The room smelled quite rosy and I decided that I smelled a bit too girly. I hid my tail and tried to find something to get this smell off me. I opened a vial and the scent of fresh rain wafted through the room.


    Do I do this? Most of the opponents I care to kill are unaffected by this. I wanted to save it for emergencies but… This is an emergency, right? I rubbed my palms in it and covered myself.


    It eliminated the rose smell instantly and made place for a smell reminischent of an autumn shower.  Cologne by day, poison at night!


    I stepped outside and went to the lobby and was turning heads. Did I accidentally [Transform] into a chick? I inspected myself but nothing was different about me.


    “Oh, there you are!” The big guys came at me. “Whoa you smell very nice! Where did you get that cologne?”


    Ehh I forgot!


    “Ah too bad, hey we are eligible for the C-rank assessment!”


    Oh, that is great news! Go show them you deserve it!


    “Well, Krau and I are unsure if we deserve it but we will try, we also got an increased reward for bringing in a rare specimen. We wanted to give you your share.”


    Refusing this is going to bite me back later, isn’t it?


    “What?”


    Never mind, I’ll take it.


    I accepted the 5 gold they offered me.


    I have learned by now that if I refuse, they will see me as nice and humble and this will spread and cause me problems. If I just take this it will be seen as normal and it won’t cause me problems.


    “Sieg we’re rich! I never thought I would ever earn 5 gold!”


    Maybe I should’ve acted more excited. 5 gold is a lot but money had lost its value to me. Why is acting normal so hard.


    “Oh, someone wants to speak to you.” Siegs words awake my paranoia.


    Where is he? Tell him I’m healthy!


    “They said he had a high position in the AA.”


    Yes, I’m sure Healerguy is high up the ladder, tell them ehh, that my goldfish caught on fire! Yes! I need to go!


    I turned around and bumped into an old man. “Oh, it seems you’re doing well.”


    Huh? Vice daddy? And ehh, your wife?


    “It’s me Tania!”


    Did I know your wife?


    Vice daddy facepalmed. “This is my daughter… Tania. You have met her several times before.”


    Huh? Didn’t you have a son? Are you getting forgetful with old age?


    Vice Daddy''s wife... or not-wife put her hands in her hips and was visibly upset. “I’m sure you’re doing this on purpose! How come you remember my father but not me!”


    Uhm, vice daddy, help?


    “I’m too old for this shit… let’s talk in an office where there are less people.”


    We got into a fancy office on the 5th floor and this Tania chick was glaring daggers at me.


    “So, we just heard that you assisted, no were the key player in slaying an ancient creature, a shadow behemoth. On top of having encountered 2 types of unknown creatures. Now you don’t have to file a report because your temporary teammates have done this on your behalf.” He paused to sip on some tea.


    I sipped some tea too. He looked at me and tried to recall if he offered me tea. He didn’t as I had ‘borrowed’ it.


    Vice Daddy continued. “You return after having disappeared and did something crazy again, anyway, I believe it’s time to have you undergo an A-rank assessment to promote you to A-rank.”


    “Yeah! I’m already S-rank! I can''t have my rival lag behind!” Tania said while all acting smug.


    Ugh, another assessment, I’m fine with staying B-rank.


    “Don’t you want to find out who of us is better!?”


    I concede, you win, I can’t possibly win from an S-rank.


    “Where Is your sense of competition! Daddy do something!”


    Is it me or does Tania sound like a spoilt kid?


    “Ugh, it’s as if I’m dealing with troublesome siblings. Look Agnis, your achievements don’t fit your rank. The quests available to you will also be… below your skill level. Will you at least consider the assessment?”


    “I think we should just sign him up and drag him in like we did with the C-rank assessment!”


    Oh, I remember now! You’re Daddy’s girl! How could I forget! You got owned hard at that assessment!


    “Now you remember! Daddy lets kidnap him and drag him to the A-rank assessment!”


    “Tania, please, we can’t do that…”


    Tania pouted and she is supposed to be my rival? I feel more rivalry toward a random blacksmith or a seagull.


    Vice Daddy rubbed his temple. “Anyway, A-rank assessments aren’t very common so you can pick any day you want to have it on and we will arrange it for you.”


    Uhh thanks. I have a strange question. What do you know about fairies?


    “Hmm, not much. There was an old tale about fairies but there is surprisingly little known about them. Are you trying to find fairies?"


    Yup. Does that tale state a location?


    “The marshes of what’s know now as the Aquini delta, that’s all I know. There is a specific area where regardless of your race, elves and beast kin will stop you from going further."


    Hmm worth a shot thank you.


    I tried to leave but I got stopped by Tania.


    “How about we chat for a bit!”


    Pass.


    Tania crossed her arms. “Why not!”


    Because I’m uncomfortable with strangers.


    “I am not a stranger! We met years ago!”


    That long, eh? Shouldn’t you be focusing on more important things than to chat with me?


    “Well, I’m trying to create a party but most adventurers of my age are eh… not to my standards!”


    Then go find those that do?


    “That’s why I want to chat! I also want to know where you got that cologne, it smells nice.”


    Uhm, I forgot where I got this and I’m only a B-rank and… I’m not your age, I’m 21…


    “So, you did remember that I was older than you!”


    I walked around her, toward the door.


    Anyway, I’m busy so cya!


    She ran in front of me and blocked my path.


    “How about I go with you!”


    I thought of my previous adventure where I had no choice in getting my tail out and how fairies are probably going to be a pain in the ass to deal with.


    How about another time?


    “I’ll take that! Don’t forget!”


    I escaped from this situations confident that I will forget but that’s a problem for the future me.


    <hr>


    I was still attracting a lot of attention is it my smell… 2 random dudes walked up to me and asked me where I got it. It just smells like rain, what’s so special about this? I used illusions to mask my smell which seemed to work.


    I went to the park and sat down. The city was still emptier than I’m used to. I had to think of how to approach this. The Aquini Kingdom is currently at war with the Igrini kingdom. While I did have a [Dimensional Anchor] in Igrini, I didn’t have one in Aquini, getting in the country would be either difficult or annoying.


    I could run around the Denga peninsula like I did last time to get to the Aquini delta.


    That might be the best idea. Aquini was probably already at war when I toasted those hippos but I didn’t notice anything.


    So, the plan is to run… or take a boat, get into the river, follow it to where it enters into the Gcehaio Ocean and go around the Denga peninsula. I will have to drop a [Dimensional Anchor] here in Gittrian though.


    I found a quiet spot in the park and dropped a [Dimensional Anchor]. Only 2 days had passed, 12 more days until Yttroz Industries has my stuff ready.


    I went to the docks and got an empty boat and freed Nilah. Nilah likes boats as she always gets hyperactive while on one. I wanted to relax and have the currents take me to the ocean but I had no idea how long that would take. I connected to the air leyline currents, used [Water Dragon Dance] and had the water dragons carry the boat. They rode on the leyline currents of the river and I relaxed. I should arrive at the ocean in no time.


    ‘No time’ was late in the evening. It was full moon but not a good moment to space out for the whole night. I had to cover Nilah up because she was glowing and also had to stop the urge to use [Moontalk]. I tried to figure out how to cover the sky with clouds. I had to disconnect from the leyline currents and create a skill, [Rainfall] which would summon rain clouds. It was a bit iineficient as it wasn''t a skill i would use often but since I could, I did. It was more effective than sending a [Water ball] into the sky and waiting for clouds to gather.


    We arrived early in the morning. The boat got stuck in the mud so I had to abandon it. I stepped out expecting to sink into the mud but I didn’t.


    Right, I weigh next to nothing.


    I tried to do a last attempt to save the boat but I would probably need mud magic or mud Dragonvein to get it out. Why is earth so troublesome? There is sand and there is mud. If this mud wasn’t so thick, so I could do something with it.


    I washed Nilah and myself because we were covered in mud. I didn’t have to worry about the nice smell anymore, as I smelled like swamp mud. It didn’t smell bad so it was fine. I walked inland and looked around with Elgards eyes. Skeletons were spotted deep in the mud. Anything with weight would get sucked in to never escape. Scary.


    Nilah was wary. I couldn’t detect anything threatening close but I did get a strange feeling, there were a bit too many skeletons buried under the mud for my liking.


    This place could put a graveyard to shame. Is this why elves and beast kin warn wanderers to not get here? It is possible that people made up the story about fairies to explain the disappearance of so many people, which will lead to many curious humans and more people stuck in the mud. Things that are real however…


    I dodged a hand coming out of the mud trying to pull me under.


    Marsh sirens, great.


    Hey, I need fairies not sirens!


    I plugged my ears with snow and ignored their songs. They tried to show me illusions of people I care for, being stuck in the mud but this didn’t work on me. The sight of Thalia stuck in the mud shook me but something this lame would never kill her. Trying to trick a 9t with illusions was a bad idea. I returned the favor to them and showed them some nasty illusions. I don’t know what they saw but it must not have been pleasant.


    Now this was a better explanation why there were so many skeletons in the mud. I navigated over the mud and tree roots before I hopped on solid ground.


    Get lost!


    The sirens fled after making screeching wails. I had arrived, what now? Fairies aren’t supposed to be easy to find.


    I started wandering around and collecting fruits and other useful looking plants.


    What I’m looking for should appear about now!


    I turned around but nothing happened. I wandered around for 4 hours before I decided that this might be a waste of time. I was about to return to Gittrian when I saw something in my eye corner.


    Hey you! Don’t think I didn’t see you! You’re a fairy, aren’t you?!


    I was looking at a woman the size of my forearm flying with butterfly wings. I was actually surprised that she looked anything like the stories, it matched up a bit too perfect…


    “Oh, gosh, you saw me, what do I do now?!”


    Yes, yes stop pretending to have been found out, you suck at hiding if that was your goal. Are you here to lure me into the mud?


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    “Huh? What? Of course, not haha! Why would I do that? I would never!”


    This might be obvious but I detected deception. How do humans get fooled by this? Maybe because she looks pretty? So, all the skeletons in the mud are men? Ugh, idiots.


    “So uhm you look lost! Shall I guide you?”


    Guide me where exactly?


    “To the edge of the forest of course!”


    And what if that’s not my destination?


    “Oh uhhh, I can lead you deeper into the forest!”


    To do what exactly?


    “Get lost so that I can guide you to the edge of the forest!”


    Are you an NPC or something? I just told you that I don’t want to go to the edge of the forest…


    “A what?”


    That’s more like it! Now come here for a bit.


    The fairy flew over as I coated my hand in frost magic and grabbed her.  She was strangely heavy, heavier than Raishin and I almost dropped her.


    “Hey!”


    Just in case you wanted to escape, now I have a question. What is fairy dust and how do I get it?


    “Fairy Dust? Wha… I have no idea what that is haha!”


    This fairy was pissing me off. It didn’t seem like she had been truthful a single time. Maybe I could use this, I will just assume everything she says is a lie.


    Do I get fairy dust if I shake you?


    I shook the fairy.


    “I don’t know! I’m dizzy!”


    I guess that’s a no. I started tickling her.


    “Hahaha. Is it working? Not there hahahaha!”


    I guess this isn’t it either.


    How about this? I would suggest talking if I were you.


    I started to heat up my hand.


    “Owowow ok ok! Stop! I’m sorry! I will tell you!”


    I increased the temperature because I still sensed deception.


    “Ok ok! I will show you! How about that!?” Her clothes started to burn.


    “It’s in our village! Please stop!”


    There was still deception but there was less of it, there seemed to be some sort of truth to it. I went back to coating my hand with frost.


    “You must be unpopular with the ladies!”


    I am very unpopular… maybe not, that’s not important bring me to your leader!


    “Oh, you want to see our leader, eh? Very well.”


    Something about how she said this irked me. It was in a lower tone than her normally high-pitched voice.


    No tricks this time.


    “Don’t worry, if it’s our leader you want to see I will take this serious.”


    Again, in the lower tone. There was no deception but a different uneasy feeling. I released and followed the fairy. She did try to trick me several times but I made sure to show her that I wasn’t messing around.


    It took a while but it looked as if we went into a grotto and underground. Okay this wasn’t a grotto this was quite large. The uneasy feeling increased as I saw a lot of fairies flying around.


    “Come come! We’re almost there!”


    All the deception had dropped from this fairy and I stopped.


    Why does she want me to meet the leader? Maybe this is a bad idea.


    A bin full of powder was at the far end of the open space. Maybe that’s the fairy dust.


    I decided to follow her. This place was filled with strange houses that seemed to be spirals made out of rock. One thing I noticed was that these were human sized while all these fairies were no bigger than my forearm.


    I got curious and wanted to investigate but I felt a wave of nausea after putting one step in this fairy village and obnoxious giggling started to fill the space.


    “Come come! What’s the matter?”


    “Hey hey! Who’s this?”


    “Is he here to play?”


    The fairies kept flying around me and kept asking questions. This fairy was leading me to the biggest spiral house in the middle. The nausea was less but the discomfort grew the closer I got to the big house.


    What have I gotten myself into? I was about to activate my Elgards eyes when I heard something concerning.


    “Ooh he smells like roses!”


    i stopped and faced toward the direction of the fairy that said that.


    Excuse me? What do you mean I smell like roses?


    The fairy that blurted that out covered her mouth. I smelled like mud. There was one part of me that did smell like roses but it was hidden. 9t hide their tails in a different plane of reality, sort of a pocket dimension. The fact that this fairy thinks I smell like roses means she can interact with that one.


    “Dirt! I mean dirt!”


    What do I look like to you?


    “A funny beast kin!”


    I activated my Elgards eyes and I collapsed to the floor due to nausea. A feeling was back that I didn’t miss. The feeling as if bugs were crawling through my veins. I tried to keep everything in but I couldn’t help but vomit uncontrollably.


    What… what the fuck is this!?


    “Aah, it seems he found out.”


    The reason my nausea incapacitated me was because the dimensional fabric around this village was completely torn open. This village was built on an island of dimensional fabric, everything around it was torn away. I also started to hear some buzzing sounds, similar to those that I heard in the dungeon near the elven village.


    Impossible… I should have noticed… and my [Dimensional Anchor]!


    “Hmm well you willingly came here so that’s why! Come! Our leader is waiting for you! She will be very happy to see you!”


    I circulated nature energy through my body to try and get the nausea under control. I didn’t miss this feeling.


    I reluctantly followed while swatting other fairies away. I noticed that these were heavier than their frame suggested. The large spiral house drew closer and I entered.


    “Dear queen we have a special visitor!”


    The realization that I might be screwed sank in as I saw a large fairy devouring several medium spirits.


    The enormous butterfly winged woman turned around and licked her lips after her eyes fell on me. “Oh. this one looks tasty.”


    Fairies devouring spirits… can’t say I saw that coming… any chance you can give me fairy dust and let me leave?


    “Oh, don’t worry, I will turn you into the fairy dust you so desire!”


    I made a [Frost wall] but the fairy queen flew through it and shattered it like it was nothing and grabbed me. My only [Frozen Skin] stack broke and she squeezed me.


    “How long has it been since I’ve eaten one of you? I think it was during our invasion yes!”


    I tried to get out of this grip, neither short range nor [Dimensional Anchor] teleports worked.


    Invasion?


    I tried foxfire but it was hard to focus with this nausea.


    “It is futile, we have invested a lot of time and energy to become resistant to your kind, we wouldn’t have been able to invade otherwise.”


    I looked at the ripped open dimensional fabric around the village.


    Wait, you’re not… from this dimension?


    “Correct. It wasn’t easy to get here but all of a sudden, your kind stopped defending this place so here we are! Struggle all you want with your foxfires and Pagos, it will have no effect on us.” She squeezed harder and several of my spirit tethers snapped.


    Wait so you are responsible for the snapping of spirit tethers?!


    “Spirit tethers? That sounds delicious! Tell me more.”


    Was I wrong? I sensed no deception. I covered myself in frost which was protecting me somewhat. I then realized something.


    Wait… spirits had been disappearing from an underground library… and there were a lot of scythe dogs that only focused on me, were those fairies too?


    “Scythes? Dogs? Oh the Kalbusapu, I hate to think that we share the same origin but they are what you here consider as fairies.”


    So… this is not your original form…you all seem to be heavier than you look.


    “Oh, a smart spirit, I will savor you, thank you for delivering this wonderful meal to me Lugalira, you are allowed to return to your beautiful original form.”


    The fairy that had lead me here transformed, she got bigger, bigger and fatter. She turned into a wide and tall sandworm like creature with 2 worm heads and countless orange eyes in its mouths, filled with razor-sharp teeth. An obnoxious loud buzzing sound started to fill the area. The nausea intensified but I managed to keep everything inside this time.


    I see… each of you make a strange sound… so those invisible things that made a sound… a sound like a bell were also fairies?


    “The fairy queen seemed surprised. “The Karum Kalbu are here!? Dasu! Sebu! Get on it!”


    Two fairies reacted and flew off.


    Maybe, just maybe those invisible things were a good sign. I wanted to chug anti-nausea potions but my hands were tied, literaly.


    “Well, it is time to dig in.” The fairy queen transformed into a larger even more disgusting looking two headed worm and had a tentacle lift me above one of her mouths. It was terrifying knowing that I was about to get eaten but these eyes in its mouth were even worse.


    Wait wait! Do you want… a one-time snack or…a whole supply?


    The fairy queen paused. “You will not deceive me! But I will hear you out, speak spirit!”


    I was trying to wriggle and drop Nilah on the floor as she might be able to get me out of here. The problem was that this place was filled with fairies and I was unlikely to escape easily from here.


    So, I know this place where a lot of spirits gather.


    “Continue.”


    I managed to drop Nilah in her sword form.  Oops, clumsy me… can you give me back my sword I… I would want to be eaten with it.


    I was trying to keep my composure but I was nauseous and terrified. I tried to fake confidence but it was impossible as every moment could be a moment where I would start throwing up.


    “Very well.”


    A tentacle reached out toward Nilah, which turned into her giant fox form and hit the fairy queen with a full powered [Kryokym]. It didn’t seem to do much but her grip on me loosened. I chugged anti-nausea potions, which didn’t work as well as I hoped, andhen ran over to the crate of powder I’ve spotted, chucked it in my dimensional pocket and put the now small and adorable Nilah on my head.


    We are getting out of here now!


    “Not so fast tasty spirit!”


    A strange light hit me and made me unable to move. It also did enough damage to kill me once. Why are fairies this disgusting and overpowered? Couldn’t they just be pretty ladies with butterfly wings?


    “I should have known that this must be one of your tricks.”


    I couldn’t move so I couldn’t use Dragonvein. Foxfire and frost magic didn’t seem to work. They are resistant to everything my race was good at. How am I supposed to beat this?


    Nilah jumped off my head. She was a big bigger now because she absorbed some energy from that attack. She tried to pull me along but it was as if I was one with the ground.


    “There is no point, you can’t escape our cradle anyway. It seems you have your fairy dust but you will give up your life for it." Tentacles shot at me.


    Nilah! Sword!


    I couldn’t move but I could at least cut them down.


    “Aaagh! What is this! They can use weapons too?!”


    Magic doesn’t work but swords do? These monsters surely messed up in allocating their stat points. The other fairies started to turn in their disgusting forms. I was still unable to move and the nausea was returning again. Was there any way that I can turn this off? I was well aware that I’m not supposed to be here and that the dimensional fabric was torn to shreds…


    I started to panic. What do I do? I always know what to do or things somehow work out. But I have nothing for this situation. Is this how I die? Alone and in a place where nobody can reach me? I had hoped to go out in at least a cool way…


    The fairies closed in and I fought them off for 2 hours. It was the first time ever that I got shut down. Nothing I did worked and it got worse when I ran out of anti-nausea potions.


    Panic, terror and nausea ate away at me, as did the fairies as they couldn’t help but taking bites out of me. The place was too crowded to abuse my speed. They were spamming that strange light so I could hardly move and use Dragonvein. I was on an isolated dimensional patch so all teleports failed and it was exhausting.


    I gave up as I was tired. What is the point if I survive this? Continuing a life where I get chased down and have all the responsibility but no power to even prevent this world from going to shit. Even worse, there are already these creatures that have already successfully invaded this place.


    I can’t do this alone… I can’t do this by myself. I should have stayed in the Floating Lotus. Stay with my race and led a happy life with beautiful vixens. I surely feel stupid now as nobody would pass on a life like that. Why did I pass on a life like that? Because I was too busy? Too busy rushing to my death.... I deserved this.


    The fairies started to bite into me and spirit tethers snapped. The pain of having chunks bitten out of me was unbearable. I wanted to protect myself out of reflex but there was no point as I got driven to exhaustion after another 2 hours. I lost life after life. Nilah was trying to bravely fight them off but there were too many.


    “Ooh, he is very tasty!”


    They kept going and going for days.


    I was screaming at first but my throat ran dry. They had slowed down so that they could take more bites out of me without killing me. The fairy queen had eaten my legs and the smaller fairies would eat my fingers. Sometimes I would bleed out and lose a life, other times I would survive and had it repeat when my natural regeneration had regenerated them.


    Nilah was curling up on my chest. Whenever the fairies came to feed, she did her best to defend my head and my torso but that’s all she could do.


    I had broken out of this bind several times but it took too long to figure out how to get out of this isolated patch of dimensional fabric so I kept getting caught.


    Illusions had a limited effectiveness against them. Everything that made me, me, was invalidated. Foxfire, illusions, frost magic, fire magic, all useless. I could never get enough time or space to use leyline energy but the leyline energy here was extremely thin because it was disconnected from the rest of the world. And on attempts that did seem to go well… they failed as the nausea would eventually claim me and incapacitate me.


    To think that a fairy would be more of a threat than a goddess…


    I was physically and mentally fatigued. I wished that they would just completely eat me and kill me but apparently, I was ‘too tasty’. I didn’t decide on being tasty, why couldn’t I be disgusting?


    <hr>


    It was feeding time. The fairies had been able to keep me on 7 remaining lives for the past 2 weeks. I wonder if Yttroz Industries noticed that I disappeared. They probably did but think nothing of it because I always disappear. I can’t help to think that nobody would notice and that this is my own undoing.


    Something pulled on my arm.


    I see, the queen decided to eat my arms today. It still hurt like hell and I did want to scream but what is the point? Who is going to save me? I did gather some useful information but I was unsure if there was anything it could be used for.


    There seem to be fairies in 5 different types, insect like, mammal like, birdlike, reptile like and fishlike. The scythe dogs seem to be of the mammal type. These two-headed worms are obviously the insect type. They all eat spirits and are trying to get more of their kind over here. they could eat other species in the absence of spirits. it was why they lured beastkin and humans astray and get them stuck in the mud. They would use a special ability to extract their ''spirit'' which was less tasty if I had to believe them but it beat starving.


    They also are trying to get the ‘Ilu’ over here but I have no idea what this means.


    Feeding time was over. I had succesfully distracted myself to not notice my limbs getting torn off and fairies biting at me. I had kept my tails hidden because they were the last bit of pride I had left. I won’t let them touch my tails.


    I was experiencing a lot of blackouts because the proximity of these fairies was snapping my spirit tethers. Fixing these would delay my demise so I chose to not do so. I wanted to pet Nilah since she seemed sad or lonely but I had no arms. This might have been the worst part of all of this...