There was a strip of land south of Fulgen where the blessed trees of the Forest don't grow. About two hundred kilometers wide from the beach to the Elven Forest, this belt is colonized by humans. Depending on the century, they're independent kingdoms, city-states, or part of the Pekothas Empire. My old enemy Rudolph III surely left a lasting legacy behind. In this Age of Eclipse, it was the latter. The Pekothas Empire was on the warpath and showing no signs of fatigue.

With an invincible leader - a mage to boot - taking the frontlines, the troops themselves became invincible. He only had to sit on his throne, chug MP potions, and cast spells. By the time I saw the easternmost human settlement, he'd conquered a third of the Forest. It was a matter of a few more pushes before he was within sight of the ancient hexagon of Tree-Homes.

I thought about going to the elven trading village I created from the ashes of an orc village, but I delayed my quest for too long. The humans would pay for each centaur that died for their delusions of power. And I would test that Mad Emperor's mettle myself, and maybe extinguish Rudolph III's bloodline forever.

Yes! Every Royal in Pekothas would be purged and their heads put on a pike.

I landed on the outskirts of the village. A fortified manor two kilometers from the village told me some sort of minor noble ruled over this land. A marquis spearheading civilization's conquest of the plains? I would find out before the next sunrise.

But first a proper body for my newest ally. I entered a suitable tree and shifted into my private domain. The tree I had Briar the dryad plant was mighty and reached high up in the sky. More than a hundred meters tall, tallest than physically possible for trees back on Earth. Its trunk was thick and mighty, easily supporting its massive weight. I could sense its roots spreading everywhere in the meadow. It also no longer occupied a corner of the meadow. True to Daphne's promise, the tree pushed the boundaries of this pocket dimension and stretched the place, pushing the thick copse of trees that delimitated the boundary far away. I now had, instead of twenty meters, more than a hundred as the size was dictated by the crown of the mighty tree.

The modest house I bought in Perenneth ages ago sat near the trunk now as if it was moved closer to the tree and shrunk at the same time. On the porch, I saw a broom flying and sweeping on its own, guided by a discreet and calm silkie. I waved at her.

"Vesper!" I called.

The fairy beamed at me and waved back. Then she bowed and greeted me properly, "Welcome back home, mistress."

I shifted into my own silkie form, Silverstreak as Nenandil came free from my soul to make us company. This mystical place was not made for cumbersome mortals.

Vesper would be my daughter if the fairies cared about such things. She spawned in this very house after I set the key elements for a brownie to come to life inside a fairy ring. But alas, she was not my daughter as much as Neep the brownie was not Silverstreak's father. Not at all. The only fairy I knew that called another mother was Nenandil. But while other fairies spawned naturally from the amalgamation of elemental forces and magic, Nenandil was born from an egg.

Brownies were also called Hearth elementals. Neep, Vesper, and I as Silverstreak had a deep connection with the forces and feelings that made a mere building transcend walls and roof and become a true house. A home. All the objects and concepts that made a home were important and part of our element, as much as ashes, coal, and heat was part of Fire. Or leaves, trunk, and roots were part of the Plant element.

The added layer of complexity made House magic, our element incorporates characteristics of all others. We could make gusts of wind if they were meant to push dust away and clean a floor. We could ignite kindling and firewood if it was meant to warm a house to a pleasant level or cook food. We could purify or even summon water if it was to do the laundry, lean, or even just drink and cook again.

Finally, we had the power to repair things and preserve the home. This house stood for centuries inside the fairy ring, exposed to the harsh Windemere winter and torrential rains but it looked as new as the day it was built. The objects inside too had nary a blemish or tarnished spot.

"Hi, Vesper. I live again." I giggled and spun, sending strands of silver hair everywhere. We both had that dark chocolate complexion and an oversized head. But my hair was pure silver while Briar's was reddish-brown as the shingles on the roof of my house. Rosewise's house.

"It's good to see you again. More than a century passed since your last visit."

"Yes, it seems I got held up by the System or something. I got a Perk that says I come back "as soon as possible" but that is too vague. My only relief is that there are no external forces dictating when or where. It is all up to the System."

"Well, what matters is that you're back. With Miss Briar to keep me company, I didn't feel lonely."

"How's she?" Nenandil asked looking at the tree.

"Sleeping with her tree. Mistress, she said she needs some of your blood to nurture the next growth spurt of her 'baby," she answered.

"Yes, I'll look into that," I answered. "I have some things to take care of, we'll wake her up later, okay?"

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She gave me a sheepish smile, "As you wish, mistress. What are we making this time?"

I pulled her close as we entered the now giant mansion. For fairies, that is. "I have this mighty warrior here with me. I want you to help me weave a new body for him, just as we did for Marlowe."

"Speaking of the devil," Nenandil chirped as she landed next to us. "You should get him out of your item box and let him dust his silks."

"True..." The [Archmage] turned cloth golem was in the item box ever since I left Atlantis. I brought him out.

His whole body was a living magical item. With the Core of a fourth-tier monster powering its enchantments, he had improved Attributes, defenses, self-repair, even an MP reservoir, and a decent recharge rate so he could cast spells without tapping into my Energy reserves. What's better, he kept his own Attributes and added the physical statistics of the golem body. It was almost as good as having a secondary Class active at the same time. The finishing touch was that he could shrink from human to fairy size.

"Oh, ladies," the cantankerous magician greeted us. "How are things in the Kingdom?"

We giggled. "It's been a century, Marlowe. Didn't you get the update to your Skills?" I asked.

"No... Blessed Vukdon!" His gemstone eyes glazed over and we knew he drowned in System messages. I'd been there.

Vukdon was the goddess of Magic and patron of all kinds of spellcasters. I had little to no contact with her besides seeing her at deity gatherings.

"I picked up a mighty warrior of the centaur," I explained to Vesper while Marlowe did his thing. "He wishes to help me in my quest to unlock the legacy of the Unicorn King."

The silkie shuddered and gasped. "U-unicorn King? The tales the elves tell about him..."

"I know a few," I commented dismissively.

The blushing silkie gushed, trapped in a world of her own fantasies, "They say no maiden could resist his wiles. No dragon, elf, fairy, or female of any kind. He was the perfect man, stallion, lover, companion any girl could ever dream of."

Yeah, it seems he was all that. However, being a male at my core, I couldn't believe such a chad could exist. What was more strange was seeing the otherwise calm and collected fairy behave like a high school teenager in heat. While all fairies had the correct equipment to have fun according to their sexual persuasion if they so wished, most didn't even feel the need to engage in carnal activities. Honorable mention to the dryads and other female fairies that liked to breed with men, like naiads and nereids, the human-sized lake and sea fairies.

But this Unicorn King fella must be something if the mere mention of his name causes such effect.

That helped me put the legend of unicorns in another perspective. It was true that unicorns favored maidens, ladies untouched and untarnished by men. Medieval historians associated that with purity, chastity, but what if...

What if unicorns liked maidens for the same reason men in most cultures valued virginity? Adding two plus two, we have the picture of a shapeshifting fairy horse with a big horn that was most of the time horny for the fairer sex.

That also added another layer to Galatea's words back in the basement. The 'horn' and 'bone' of the Unicorn King. Or more likely, the guy's horniness and boner. And spears are clearly a phallic allegory.

I really hope the shaft of my heirloom spear wasn't embedded in another kind of shaft while the fairy King was still alive. I racked my brain to remember. The males of just a few animal species didn't have a baculum. Humans were one, and... yes. Horses didn't have it either. Neither did centaurs, for what I overheard the herd mares talk.

Okay. The horn came from the forehead, the bone came from someplace other than the magical dick of the unicorn king. I didn't have to wrap the shaft in something protective and then wash my hands every time I wielded it. I cringed and facepalmed. Wrap the shaft in something protective? Eww.

But now I knew what I had to do. Emulating the Unicorn King's virtues meant I had to get myself a harem and please the ladies to the point they wouldn't ever wish another male. Or any at all, given my current biological gender.

Nobility and Purity seemed so easy now.

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We talked a lot, then went to work and crafted Talysius (I got his centaur-doll body out of the item box to ask his name) a new body. A strong one enchanted to draw upon the physical attributes of the inhabiting ghost to reinforce itself. it had a negligible MP pool just to power whichever Perks the centaur chieftain had. All of the enchantment potential created by the platinum thread, living silk, and gemstones we embedded in the body was used to make him the perfect fighting machine. And he could shrink to the size of a fairy too.

Briar woke up soon after we finished Talysius' new body and transplanted the ghost into it. I gave him a greatsword from my item box and he went outside the house to practice and get used to his new body. Adjusting to sudden changes in physical Attributes was hard.

I gave the dryad enough blood to last the final three centuries of our contract. She gave clear signs that she would wish to extend it as she liked the quiet of the glade very much.

Before I departed, I checked in my storage. I sort of remembered I had another doll with a worthy soul in there but I never bothered to do anything with it. Once I found it, I remembered. This guy was the auctioneer back in the city of Rerin. From when I infiltrated the slaver rings, investigating with Talbain, the werewolf.

I took him out. Since time didn't pass in the item box, he still thought he was in Sadian.

"Hello back, auctioneer!" I greeted him.

The guy looked around. "Where am I? Are you that wolf-kin girl? Mononoke?"

"Was. She was one of my many aliases."

I explained to him what happened and his current predicament. I offered him the choice to move on to the next life but the guy was too attached to his status as a quasi-living being. Then I offered to reincarnate him as a silk-folk and he liked the idea of starting over again, with the caveat that I power-leveled him at least to the second tier. He would serve me for a hundred years and then set out on his own.

I thought of visiting Windemere's open-air Dungeon again. It was such a convenient place to grind levels. The loot sucked, though. Undead monsters dropped too little useful materials. With the taint of the Black Dragon King permeating the Dungeon, that's all it would ever spawn. Undead and the occasional death-aligned dark creature.

In the end, I gave up on having him serve me. His knowledge was outdated and obtainable from books if I searched long enough. He didn't have any useful skills although he would make a kickass chamberlain for some King. I convinced him I would need time to make him a living body and shoved him back in the item box. It wasn't entirely a lie since I had to make organs out of living silk and they had to be perfect.

I would come back and renegotiate in a few centuries. It's not like he had anywhere better to be.

I enchanted some trinkets for Marlowe and Talysius, said my goodbyes to Vesper and Briar. Then I gathered my party and ventured forth.