Aleria hovered in the air as she gazed at the colossal cliff directly in front of her. It loomed over her, rising far above the forest. It informed little fairies like her that they were insignificant to the larger world, like a human when learning the vastness of space.

Not something Aleria ever expected to feel when gazing at a mere cliff. Damn, I’m going to need to rewrite my sense of scale, this is going to be more difficult than I first thought.

Dark green vines creeped across its entirety while several dozen holes, of all shapes and sizes, littered the rocky surface. Exactly what we’re looking for.

One of these many openings would be perfect shelter for homeless fairies to set up a temporary colony. Yet…

They could be shelter for other monsters already.

Her gaze shifted upward, trying to penetrate the thick canopy. Night would fall in a few hours. They had until then to: choose one of these crevices, clear it out and then move a couple hundred fairies in. If they couldn’t, then well… then there’d be consequences.

I’ll bet some of those potential consequences call this cliff their home. This meant monsters whom made night their domain. Predators which preyed upon anything they could find, not just for food, but in an effort to take the easy path to power; at least from a human perspective.

It was a major difference between Human, Demi-humans, and Monsters.

Humans and demi-humans needed to rely more on themselves and their comprehension to grow. Killing monsters still rewarded them through siphoning the deceased's stat-points, but using such methods would only get you so far. To tier-up and break through barriers one had requirements to meet.

These often took the form of quests the Akashic System granted, or a certain skill needed to be upgraded, maybe a certain item helped. Regardless, if one didn’t complete or reach the requirements then there was no advancing tiers. Like how I failed that quest and got locked out of my dream forever. Aleria was still bitter.

Monsters, however, could circumvent this. They didn’t need to upgrade skills or complete quests. They simply had no requirements, no bottlenecks. That wasn’t to say they couldn’t do those things but they just weren’t required to. All they needed was to reach Lvl 50 and boom, they went from Tier 1 to Tier 2, evolving from a killer bull into a berserk minotaur.

This was theorized to be because monsters had mapped out evolutionary lines. Most likely written when being created by the world. There was no guessing at upgrade paths like humans.

Such type of monster, those which killed anything that moved for power, were what Aleria worried about now. Caves like these would be perfect for such predators to sleep during the day; then at night, descend into the forest in hunt of slumbering prey, a time when they were most vulnerable.

One of the larger cave openings gave credence to this, as a few yellow-green feathers stuck to the vines, waving with the breeze.

For this reason they couldn’t stay back in that clearing, they would be open to whatever creature lost those from above and would need to guard every direction. With one of these caves, however—if it could be cleared out—they would only need to defend a single entrance.

The only downsides are the potential neighbors.

We’re fighting for survival though so we’ll be fine. Aleria thought as she regarded the fairies whom accompanied her—the same dozen who’d first found her.

Each shifted their heads around more than necessary, trying to be vigilant but came off more as jumpy, while all but one held their primitive weaponry in tight grips.

Well… hopefully.

Aleria wasn’t impressed with the weapons they had scrounged together. Half carried wooden spears tipped with sharpened stone, held together by a knot of leaves. Patterns had been carved into the wood making them look more like ornaments rather than weapons of war.

The other half carried wooden bows strung together with some sort of wire collected from the forest, making Aleria question their range. Their arrows looked like miniature spears without the decoration and were carried in a woven leaf bag hung around the bow-fairies hip.

In all honesty, she didn’t care, so long as the job got done. But at the same time, it would be better if they at least looked the part and not like some art-history project on the stone age. I hope they’re using these because the real weapons were left in the lost colony, otherwise I’m in for a lot of work in uplifting them.

“All right, listen up! We are here to search for a sanctuary for our people. There will be danger inside those caves, but we must persevere! Because if we don’t, when night falls, our sisters will be beset upon by unspeakable horrors. I know you lack confidence. However, I also know that you lot can rise to the task!” As Aleria’s gaze swept them only one thing ran through her mind: they were not ready for what they could face, but she had no other options.

The only fairy she had any confidence in was Miia. The pink haired fairy could barely stand still, she looked excited over the prospects of a dangerous adventure. Unlike the others, her weapon—a spear—was strapped to her back. Aleria guessed she would rely on magic—like her.

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Another whom caught her attention was the healer fairy, Green. She held a wooden bow close to her chest and looked just as nervous as the others. Unlike them, however, she tried to maintain a confident expression as if she were seeking to earn more praise.

A sign of intelligence perhaps? She has a unique face after all, so maybe it’s possible…

Aleria hoped so, after all, reliable healers were highly sought after and it wasn’t easy to find a competent one. Now it seemed she may get a chance to raise one from the ground up. That excited her.

Now that she had rallied her troops, all she needed to do was decide on which cave would be acceptable. It couldn’t be too high, as fairy wings had trouble the higher the altitude, and it couldn’t be too low, as then they’d be open to ground predators. They would needed a middle ground and preferably somewhere wings were required to reach.

Aleria believe she had found the perfect cave opening before. It emitted a dim blue glow which seemed to welcome entry and was well within her sweet spot. The only problem were the numerous vines growing around the entrance. They stretched up from the ground, giving an access route to those without wings.

But that wasn’t enough to deter her; so she chose. Also helps that the glow most likely originates from some natural treasure, something too good to pass up.

“Follow.” Aleria flew forward, hearing the fairies fall in behind her in a haphazard formation.

Upon nearing the entrance she took a good look at the vines. Many critters and insects crawled along, living out their lives upon them. When she attempted to view their status, nothing happened.

Seems like there aren’t many monsters around here. Even in the forest, I haven’t seen any except my fairies. Who knows how that’ll change at nightfall. She certainly didn’t want to find out, she wouldn’t gamble with her subjects lives like that.

When Aleria landed inside the cave opening a sharp pain and a wet texture greeted her bare feet. It felt like stepping on plastic building-blocks that had been left in the backyard overnight. It also reminded her of her state of undress.

When she had went looking for armor, or at least clothing with more coverage, she learned that the fairies current fashion sense—free-willed—was natural and not because of destitution. In other words, the fairies didn’t know jack about modern sensibilities.

Thankfully, she did manage to have a fairy craft her a leaf dress which fell down to her thighs and hid her stomach from the world. So that was a start.

Aleria remained hovering as she and the fairies wandered deeper, despite the increased fatigue.

Somehow the air inside the cave smelled fresher and cleaner. While the fairies were breathing in-and-out, confused over this anomaly, Aleria smiled, knowing she had chosen well.

It seems today really is my lucky day. Being reborn after experiencing death, and now, finding a natural treasure so soon after, especially when I could such a place the most. Maybe Akasha isn’t so bad after all.

Natural Treasures were created in concentrations of World Energy by Mana Springs. Things like stat-raising fruit, life-saving crystallized energy, spell-tomes or skill-scrolls, even naturally-made equipment were the most common amongst a myriad of options.

Nobody knew how or why such things were possible; they just were.

The best thing, however, was the Mana Spring itself.

Mana Springs were places with immense concentrations of World Energy and symbolized places of power, such as a wizard’s research tower, or a minor dungeon.

If one knew how they could re-purpose the Mana Spring to function in any way they wanted. For example, they could switch its focus from equipment to spell-tomes and even increase production rate. However, one always runs the risk of a drought if pushed too far.

Things could be achieved with a Spring that they couldn’t do naturally. Sentient life had a way of screwing with natural order in a multitude of ways. In her past life they had been used to create food, defend areas, power cities or constructs, manipulate weather, or change terrain. Humanity had barely scratched the surface in researching them before the end war began.

The Mana Spring was what Aleria wanted and was most excited for. Of all the things that her colony of vagabond fairies needed right now, a spring definitely took number two, right after the shelter itself.

I could even try create a monster spawning pool and birth new fairies!

For that reason alone they must find that spring!

“All right, spread out. Be on the lookout for anything suspicious and be careful.” Aleria advanced into the darkness, a dull blue hue was all the illumination given.

The cave narrowed as they delved deeper, until eventually opening into a large space. There appeared to be nothing inside; however, Aleria new appearances were deceiving, especially because of what the dim light and pure air signified.

Because of this, she knew that this wasn’t a dead end; there had to be another passageway somewhere, leading to wherever the spring was located.

As the fairies gathered inside this open space they seemed to have found their courage. Aleria knew it to be false, however. They hadn’t encountered anything worth gaining confidence over, it was more complacency than anything.

A few fairies lowered their weapons as they were freed of tension, “Don’t drop your guard!” She had to hiss, reminding them of the dangers. They weren’t safe at all since no mana-spring would ever be left unguarded and there was no way it hadn’t been found yet—its presence wasn’t exactly subtle.

“Spread out and look for where that light and air-flow are coming from!” Aleria commanded.

Due to the little light, it took awhile for the fairies to map out the space.

The cave floor was littered with rocks and boulders in a maze-like formation, a nightmare for anything without wings and now one for the fairies too, as they checked every nook and cranny for that elusive passageway.

Stalagmites stabbed down from the ceiling, interfering with the little light present, leading to many near-misses when fairies zipped around.

Outcroppings and platform like plateaus dotted the walls and were the most likely spot for another entrance. Thus, where Aleria checked with dogged determination.

Where on earth is that damn passage! They hadn’t found anything and the space had been searched, top-to-bottom and Aleria was getting annoyed. Rock, rock and more rock! Thats all there is. There isn’t even any evidence of monster inhabitation.

“Mii~ miia~ mii~!” Miia walked up to her, gesturing around the cave.

“Yes, I know this is the perfect place for our people to live.” Aleria sighed as she remembered why they were here in the first place. And that they had a time limit. Every fairy needed to be moved before nightfall.

We have all the time in the world to find that damn hole, no sense wasting daylight here now.

“Alright everyone, we’re returning. We can continue the search when everyone takes shelter here overnight.” Aleria sighed as she rounded the fairies back the way they came.

They didn’t get far though.

A terrified screech echoed through the cave.

Aleria swiftly turned and bore witness to one of her fairies being suspended in midair by a long scaly black tail.

Her eyes trailed upward; glowing orange orbs gazed back.