I woke up to the morning sunlight and quiet burbling noise of the stream. I looked over to my side at the little grass bed the fae had made to sleep on 2 days ago.
Panties.
The adorable little fae had managed to roll her dress up to just barely cover her breasts and was scratching her belly in her sleep while giggling.
"Nyssa." I called out.
"Mmmnn hehehe."
"Nyssa, It's morning, time to wake up," I said a bit louder.
Her eyes slowly opened, still scratching her belly.
"Good morning, Raak." The fae said, then looked down at herself to fix her dress and froze.
She scrambled into the air in haste, shoving her dress down as she flapped her wings.
"Did you see anything!?" Nyssa yelled, horrified.
"Only a pair of small green panties and some very shapely thighs," I responded flatly.
Nyssa's eyes shot wide open at my blatant admittance. She blushed furiously and balled her hands into tiny fists.
"P-Pervert." She said quietly.
"Mmm? Did you say something?" I asked the fae.
"J-just forget everything you saw." She said pleading.
"Done." I lied, causing Nyssa to glare at me slightly.
"Moving on. There are a few things I need to do and should probably get started on them soon."
"Like what?" Nyssa asked, now curious.
"Well, for one, this place is getting hard for me to move around in. I also need to fix Thud, It's getting a bit too small for my current size, If I wait any longer I'm going to end up with one-handed weapon mastery as well." I stated. "I also want to eventually try making clothes, but I don't have enough hide yet to try. Plus I would just grow out of it in a day."
Nyssa chuckled a little at that. "So, what are we doing first?"
"Well, First we're going outside. One of my skills makes my mana regeneration much better in sunlight." I said.
"That sounds weird, what kind of skill is it?" Nyssa asked.
"Photosynthesis, I got it from eating plants like the toothpick flower."
"You got a skill just from eating a plant?" Nyssa asked wide-eyed. "How does that even work, you shouldn't be able to get plant skills!"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you about my glutton skill didn't I?"
I proceeded to tell her all about the skill and the bonuses I had gained from eating different things.
"YOU! Do you even realize how overpowered a skill like that is!?" She shouted at me once I had finished explaining.
"Of course I do, why do you think I ate that greasy rat meat in the first place?" I stated.
"Y-You haven't thought about eating me as well, have you?" Nyssa asked, slightly scared.
"Well, I don't think our relationship has proceeded that far yet, and you're a bit too small for that sort of relationship," I said with a perverted grin on my face.
"Wha- Tha- That's not what I meant at all. Stupid Raak!" Nyssa shouted. turning as red as a tomato.
"Silly little fae, I'm not going to eat you, so stop worrying," I stated more seriously. "You're my first friend here, I would be really lonely without you."
Nyssa turned an even brighter shade of red, before giggling to herself and calming down.
"Alright, we're wasting daylight and I have a lot of work to do, so how about we get started," I said, changing the topic.
"Nn!." the fae affirmed.
I picked up Thud and carefully crawled out of the cave entrance before turning around. I then thought for a bit and took 3 large steps to the left, facing the mountain wall.
"Aren't you just making the entrance bigger, why are you moving over there?" Nyssa asked.
"Well, I figured with how close the little platform is to the entrance, I could just make a door instead of having to wade through the stream every time I want to get inside," I explained and started to remove the stone, compressing it into pieces small enough to eat, and tossing them behind me.
Nyssa was flying around behind me, opening multiple portals to catch the stones and making a little pile off to the side of the new entrance.
It took us about an hour to finish an entrance-way, it was 2 meters tall and almost a meter wide. I had to keep stopping to regenerate mana as I had to not only remove the stone but reinforce the outer walls to keep the entrance from caving in.
"Hungry?" I asked Nyssa after we had finished the initial construction.
She shook her head lightly. "I still have some of the bird from yesterday packed up in my storage, I should be good for another day."
I nodded. "Just remind me tomorrow if I forget again. Like I said it's been a while since I had to worry about food." I said and began working on expanding the cave itself so I could actually stand upright once I reached my original height.
It took me 3 hours and constant trips outside to regenerate mana before I had made a suitable space. 2 and a half meters tall, and 5 meters squared. I had used some of the excess stone to block the other cave entrance as well, I carved a small fountain into the floor, connected to the stream, so we could have a reliable source of fresh water without having to go outside and gather it.
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I then built a sliding door at the entrance in a small groove on the floor and ceiling. I could barely move it with my strength, but sliding it with the help of earth manipulation was easy. I looked around the room and saw that Nyssa's bed had gotten a bit crumpled and filthy with all of the stone and dust being moved around in the room.
"Sorry Nyssa, but we might need to make you a new bed now that I'm finished here."
She nodded. "Don't worry about it Raak, It wasn't really anything special. I'll go get some more grass now and it will be good as new." The fae said as she flew out the open door. I thought about what happened this morning and decided to make a small addition to our new home. I turned towards the wall and got to work.
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Fifteen minutes later, Nyssa returned and begun making a new bed on the floor.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"Making my new bed?" she said, slightly puzzled at my question.
"Well, that's obvious. What I was wondering, is why you aren't making it in your new room." I said before stepping aside and pointing at the small sectioned off alcove that was hidden behind me midway up the wall.
Her eyes went wide and then she grinned and quickly threw all of the grass back into her storage before flying up to the small doorway. She disappeared around the wall and I heard some rummaging sounds before the tiny fae girl flew back out.
"Thank you, Raak!." She exclaimed and flew up to me, giving me a peck on the cheek before turning bright red and flying back inside.
"I'll be outside if you need me," I said before walking through the new tunnel into the afternoon sun.
When I started working on expanding the cave I began turning the stone I removed from the walls into brick shapes for easier storage. Much of the brick had been used to make the wall between the original cave and our home, but there was still a decent sized pile of them on the ground near the entrance.
I grabbed Thud from where I had left it nearby and began expanding on it using the nearby bricks. I expanded the head only slightly, as otherwise, it would be too heavy to lift and swing around with my current strength. I lengthened and thickened the haft to fit my new height and the size of my hands. When I was finished, appraisal showed Thud at 18kg. Even with my modest addition to the head, it was still almost twice as heavy as before.
I hefted Thud and took a couple of practice swings, changing the way I was swinging it and getting used to the new weight. I must have been very close to levelling the skill, as I gained a point in weapon mastery after roughly 10 minutes. It was then I realized that I had been ignoring my skill gains for most of the day.
I took a look at my status and was surprised to see that my earth manipulation skill had fallen to level 2, before realizing that the skill hadn't fallen, but actually levelled up 3 times. It had actually increased a tier, now showing at apprentice level 2, where before it was novice level 9.
I had also gained 48kg of mass today by snacking on stones while I worked. The gradual pace of the changes hadn't really hit me until now and I suddenly looked at my height to see it at over 163cm.
'Wow, I'm going to need to slow down on stones before I outgrow my new house.' I thought to myself, and then I had an idea that I should have probably tried a while ago.
I started compressing my own body.
Due to a special action, Intelligence has increased by 1
I lost 2 cm of height but retained the same mass. 'Compressing myself will probably increase my defence as well, as each cubic centimeter of my body would contain more mass.'
Due to a special action, Wisdom has increased by 1
I laughed out loud at the 2 free points I gained but didn't compress myself any further. 'I want to get back to my original size first, then I'll worry about maintaining that.'
At that time, Nyssa flew out from our home.
"Raak, we have a problem," she said
"Hm? What kind of problem?" I asked, confused.
"There's no lights! As soon as you close the door, it's going to be pitch dark inside."
"Oh, I can just do this," I said as I activate glow on my hand. "I got it from eating some strange mushrooms with glowing blue things hanging off them down in the tunnels. I would have grabbed a few, but they stop glowing as soon as you pick them."
"There are glowshrooms in the tunnels?" She said surprised. "That's perfect, I'll just grab a few and we can replant them, they glow by absorbing ambient mana found in stone. As soon as they gain a foothold, they will start glowing again."
I gave her some quick directions to the first tunnel I found and said she should see them glowing before it gets too dark to see.
The fae flew off into the cave entrance and was gone for about 10 minutes before I heard her scream.
"RAAK!"
I ran to the entrance that I could no longer fit into and yelled back. "NYSSA! What's wrong? Are you okay?" and started removing stalactites from the ceiling so I could crawl inside.
"I picked all the mushrooms and now I can't see!" She yelled back.
All my worries flew away with that. "This girl, worrying me just for that," I grumbled to myself before activating my glow at flashlight levels down the tunnel entrance.
"Thank you!" she shouted back. A few minutes later the fae emerged from the cave and I shut off my glow.
I flicked her very lightly on the forehead with my index finger. "Don't scare me like that, I was scrambling thinking you were being attacked by something."
"Ehehe. Sorry, Raak, I couldn't see anything once I picked the last mushroom and got a bit scared that I wouldn't be able to find my way out." She sheepishly replied.
I sighed at the fae, before walking towards the doorway. "Shall we get those planted before we can't see what we're doing?"
She nodded and flew after me into the large stone room. I molded some earth out of the walls in 4 different places making some platforms to hold the mushrooms up like little fungal lamps before asking "Will it be bright enough for you to see, or do I need to add an expansion on your room so you can fit one of these things inside?"
She thought a bit before answering. "It should be fine, I can always ask you to do it later if it becomes a problem."
I nodded and helped her plant the glowshrooms into their new locations. The mushrooms were very dim at the moment but the fae assured me that they would regain their initial brightness after a day or two.
I spent the short remainder of the day making my own bed, which was simply a raised stone platform with a headboard. I could try layering some grass on it, but I would probably just flatten it and be sleeping on stone anyway. I haven't noticed any discomfort from sleeping on stone, so I'm not all that worried about it currently.
I shut the door, causing the room to dim further, making it so there was barely enough light to see by.
Nyssa and I shared a quick 'good night' before she retreated into her room, and I drifted off to sleep.
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Name Raak Race Earth Elemental Mass 152kg Str 9 Vit 9 Dex 8 Int 8 Wis 10 Hp 135 Mp 140
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 4 Novice Dismantling 1 Novice Cooking 1
Skill List - Active Level Glow 1(MAX) Apprentice Earth Manipulation 2 Novice Space Manipulation 7 Appraisal 1(MAX)