I awoke to darkness.
*Screaming internally.*
'I can only feel stone underneath me again. That means I'm back to being just a core.'
The last thing I remember was getting a nice boost to all my stats and then-
'A fairy?'
I saw a fairy. At least I think it was a fairy.
'I did see something right?' The only other explanation is that I hit myself in the face with my hammer for no reason.
Well, I'm not going to figure it out lying here.
I focused my mana downwards and my core began sinking into the stone floor.
'Wait, if I'm building myself a new body, why don't I just make it taller now instead of eating stone all the time?'
I began spreading my mana through the floor, attempting to regain my previous body's height of 185cm. It was at that point that I ran into a problem. Every time I stretched my mana into lengthening my body, I pulled the needed mana from my limbs, thinning them out. Now, this wouldn't be much of a problem, since my human limbs were thinner to begin with, but in attempting to reach my full height, my limbs had thinned even more than a human's. The current shape of my mana was akin to an anorexic skeleton, and I doubt the spindly legs would hold the weight of the rest of the body.
'I'm missing something important here.'
Every time I ate rocks and stones my body grew taller, but that wasn't the only thing increasing.
'What is my mass?'
Current Mass: 65kg
I reformed my body into it's original form and felt the mana flow from the long limbs back into the original squat form.
Current Mass: 65kg
'That's it, I'm not increasing my height when I eat stone, I'm increasing my maximum mass, and my height just happens to adjust to keep the shape of my body constant!'
Due to a special action, Intelligence has increased by 1
Mentally grinning, I decided to reform my body one last time. This time I imagined myself as I was the moment of my death. Fairly fit, not hideous, but definitely not a greek god by any means. I allowed the mana to fill my form without trying adjusting the height manually. The form ended up showing my height at 70cm tall, which was acceptable for now, at least I would be in a form I was more comfortable with.
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I finally sat up, letting the excess stone around my body crumble away and reveal my form.
'Strange, I was expecting to gain some dexterity for making myself thinner, but maybe my stats are based on some strange variable in the system, rather than my actual physical body. I guess that makes sense considering that I didn't gain a bunch of vitality by increasing my size, either.'
"Finally awake now are we?" (???)
I jumped to my feet, spun around and raised my fists in a mock boxing stance at the sudden voice behind me. There, floating in the air, was a 30cm tall woman, and I mean woman. By the looks of her, she seemed to be in her early 20's and incredibly uhm- gifted. Her skin was pale white with a tinge of green to it, which seemed to be a bit of a theme, because her dress and shoes were the same colour. Her hair was a deep shade of green, almost emerald in colour. She also had four bright green wings behind her back that seemed to shine, either by themselves or from the small amount of light in the cave.
"What-, sorry, who are you? Why are you here?" (Raak)
"I'm Nyssa, but before we get to any of your other questions, can you do something about that?" She said while turning away with a bit of red on her cheeks and pointing downwards.
As it turns out, the form I happen to be most comfortable with just so happens to be male. And I imagined my form rather accurately this time around.
I had a penis.
This is probably the part where I should blush and try to hide myself, honestly though, I'm not so much of a prude that being naked really bothers me.
"What's the problem?" I asked the shy fae, feigning ignorance.
"You! You're n-n-naked!" Nyssa said, stammering slightly.
"I was naked yesterday too." I stated matter-of-factly.
"Yesterday you didn't have a p-p- you didn't look like a man!" She yelled.
"What's the difference?" I teased the fae.
"Just cover yourself up! Stop asking stupid questions!" Nyssa exclaimed, clearly becoming more upset.
"Fine, I suppose I can cover myself up before your head turns into a tomato." I stated, showing her that I knew exactly what she was getting at.
She turned to face me, eyes wide, before very quickly turning back around, as I still hadn't covered myself up.
"Grrrrr! Pervert!" Nyssa grumbled.
I took some of the mass out of my chest, waist and abs, making them all look slightly more chiseled, grinned slightly, and used the excess mass to make a pair of trunks to cover my crotch. The reason I used my own mass instead of simply using earth manipulation is rather simple. The mass making up my body moves when I do, If I had simply made some stone shorts, it would be like trying to walk with a full pelvic cast on at all times.
"Is this acceptable, your highness?" I asked the fae, who was still grumbling about something while facing away.
She turned around gingerly at first, probably thinking I was just teasing her again. She looked down at my shorts out of the corner of her eye, and blushed again before looking up at my face.
Of course, my face had a shit-eating grin on it at that moment. causing her to turn beat red.
*Cough* "Well then, as I said before, my name is Nyssa, one of the forest fae." The girl stated, trying to regain some of her composure. "What is your name?"
"My name is Raak, I'm an earth elemental." I stated simply.
"Your name is rock? Please tell me you didn't name yourself rock." She stated, looking at me a bit sadly.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I let out a long sigh, my face twisted into a grimace.
"It's spelled R-A-A-K and it was a sort of-" I paused for a moment, thinking. "gift, I suppose, by someone who obviously has a terrible sense of humour, and might be more than a little bit insane."
"Oh, was it the person who created you?" She asked.
"Yea it wa- wait, what do you mean by created?" I questioned back.
"Well, at least for most earth elementals, they start out as golems, created by powerful earth mages as servants. It takes a very long time for them to gain sentience though. Most earth mages die long before the elementals can think for themselves. Your master must have been incredibly powerful if they were still alive to name you." The fae stated with wonder.
"Thaaat's not entirely accurate, she was very powerful though," I mumbled to myself.
"Hmm? Did you say something?" She inquired.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter anymore." I clapped my hands. "So, why are you here anyways?"
"Ooooh, that's a fun story. *ahem* I was flying around the forest a couple of days ago and decided that I would have a quick nap. There is this beautiful little flower bed by the river that I use for naps, but just as I was about to fall asleep."
She raised her arms up and flexed like a bodybuilder before yelling out in a mock gruff voice.
"I CAN USE MAGIC!"
And then looked at me with a sly grin as I face-palmed.
"I followed the voice upriver to this little cave just in time to see this rather strange earth elemental smack himself right in the face with a hammer."
She grinned at me again, this time it was received with a double face-palm.
"It's a hamaxe." I said weakly.
"A what?" Nyssa asked
"Half hammer, half axe, a hamaxe." I stated
"That is a terrible name, I think you should call it Thud," she said with a sly grin.
"Why Thud?" I asked, knowing I was not going to enjoy the answer.
"Well, It's simple, Thud, because that's the sound it made when it hit you in the face."
"All the more reason NOT to name it Thud then, hamaxe is perfectly fine," I grumbled.
"You're no fun." The fae replied, hands on her hips.
I then realized a problem, my weapon wasn't in the little cave.
'Wait, why am I in the cave?'
"How did I get back here anyway?" I suddenly asked the fae.
"Oh! I carried your core here, I thought it would be easier to rebuild your body out of stone rather than trying to pack dirt tight enough that it wouldn't fall apart." She stated with a proud grin.
My eyes shot open, I hadn't even thought of the possibility before, It would probably take twice as much mana to draw in enough dirt to make a body as it would to make one from already compressed stone.
"Thank you, I would have had a hard time without you there," I spoke and then smiled.
*ehehehe* The fae giggled a bit before taking on a kind of sheepish look.
"Does that mean you won't mind me following you around?" She asked while looking downward nervously.
"Um, I don't really mind, I've been going a little nuts out here with nobody to talk to. Can I ask why?" I questioned her, slightly stunned.
The fae suddenly looked sad, tears threatening to spring forth at the corners of her eyes.
"I w-was b-banished from fae lands, I've been flying around this forest for 2 months with nobody to talk to."
"Why were you banished?" I asked, then reconsidered. "Never mind, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"It's alright." She said quietly. "Just promise you won't try to get rid of me once I show you."
I started to think this might be a terrible idea. But the tearful look on the fae's face made my decision for me.
"Okay, I promise. No matter what your problem is, you can still come with me." I stated boldly.
"I-It's this." The fae held her hand out in front of her and my hamaxe fell out of a small black hole.
*THUD* It fell on the floor head-first and sat upright, haft sticking into the air.
"Eh?" My eyes widened. "Was that space magic?"
"Yes." The fae said with tears in her eyes as she looked up at me like she had just done something unforgivable.
"THAT'S AMAZING! Can you teach me how to do that?" My sudden change in volume caused the fae to jolt backwards in the air with a flap of her wings.
"Eh?" This time it was her turn to look surprised. "You don't think it's weird?"
"Why would I think that?" I asked with a puzzled look on my face.
"All fae are born with one of the four elemental magics. I'm a sylph, I should have been born with wind manipulation, instead, I was shunned for being different until they deemed me old enough to be cast out without it being seen as murder." Nyssa started crying then. Her life until now must have been quite terrible.
I walked over and rubbed the top of little fae's head with one of my fingers. "It's alright, being different isn't so bad. It means you're one of a kind, special. The others just couldn't see how amazing you are." I said and gave her my biggest smile yet.
Nyssa looked up into my face, smiling a bit through her tears, and then shot forward to hug my neck. "Thank you." She said quietly, before backing away, wiping her eyes and tidying her dress.
"So," I said, trying to lighten the mood a little. "Can you teach me how to do that hammer-space thing?"
She plastered a huge grin on her face. "I can do better than that! I'm fae." Nyssa stated smugly
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.
"You- you really don't know, do you?" Her eyes widened, and then the grin returned.
"Close your eyes." She stated with a sudden authority in her voice.
"Okaaaay," I said as I closed my eyes, I doubt very much that she would hurt me at this point so I'm not really worri-
A tiny pair of very soft lips pressed against my own stone ones. My eyes shot open to see the fae backing away with a furious blush on her face.
You have gained 'Blessing of the Fae'
You have gained the skill: Novice Space Manipulation
Active: Enforce your will on the very fabric of reality
Mana cost: Dependent on use
You have gained the skill: Appraisal
Active: Procure information about the target of appraisal
Mana cost: 10
"Uh-uhm- the blessing is the reason why my people hide away in the fae lands. Humans figured out that they can gain manipulation skills without needing an affinity for the specific element My people were hunted by slavers and sold to powerful mages, nearly to extinction," she said quietly.
"Couldn't the fae simply bless everyone with whatever element they wanted?" I asked
"The blessing can only be given once per fae, And it will disappear if the fae is killed. My people were forced to give their blessings to greedy humans and then locked in cages for the rest of their lives as protection." Nyssa shuddered. "So now you have to keep me safe!"
"Silly girl, I was going to do that anyway. But thank you." I said and rubbed her head again.
I hefted the hamaxe from its seat on the floor and looked out into the now dimming sun.
"Well, should we go find you something soft to sleep on while we still have a little daylight?" I asked.
The little fae nodded her head in assent.
"Alright, just let me try something," I said, and a small black hole appeared in front of me, I was surprised at how easily it worked, I just imagined the hole leading to a space that expanded to the size of whatever was contained in it.
"WAIT, That takes a lot of-" Nyssa shouted right as I started pushing the haft into the hole.
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*THUNK**THUD*
"-Mana." The fae finished right as Raak lost consciousness, falling on his face, and the entire weapon fell back outside the dimensional storage.
"Silly Raak." The fae spoke quietly before a bright light filled the room. Where the young fae once floated, a young woman now stood, with deep green hair and sizeable gifts. She rolled the earth elemental over so he was no longer face down, and then disappeared, once more replaced with the original fae.
The fae giggled once, before flying out of the cave to collect some grass to sleep on.
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Name Raak Race Earth Elemental Str 5 Vit 6 Dex 4 Int 6 Wis 9 Hp 85 Mp 120
Skill List - Passive Level Glutton 1(MAX) Crystal Core 1(MAX) Novice Photosynthesis 4 Novice Hand to Hand Fighting 2 Novice Two-Handed Weapon Mastery 1
Skill List - Active Level Glow 1(MAX) Novice Earth Manipulation 8 Novice Space Manipulation 1 Appraisal 1(MAX)