"Did you get anything?" asked Branch.

"Nope, not this time," Kevin replied. He regarded his wooden plate of grilled meat with a hint of frustration but mostly just curiosity. "If it had anything to do with size or difficulty, this definitely would have worked."

"I agree. This monster almost killed you."

Kevin nodded seriously. The monster in question, a humpback swamp mastodon, had been extremely tricky for him to deal with. He had only barely escaped with his life after his first attempt, and only after using traps later was he able to bring the thing down. Unfortunately, after butchering it and eating a bit, he hadn't gained another ability.

Over the last three days since he’d spoken with the Morrigan, he’d sampled parts of various monsters wherever he roamed. He’d also filled Branch in on his new method to acquire monster powers. The fairy had been a great help and turned out to be a fantastic scout; even if the monsters mostly avoided Kevin, he could still find them. Of course, as it turned out, the monsters he was most likely to get skills or abilities from were also apparently the most likely to attack him.

Two days ago, after killing a named monster Branch had known about, one whose name he'd already forgotten, Kevin had gained another ability, [Wall Climbing Fingers]. It was kind of weird–allowing him to use the surface of his hands and feet to scale almost any surface.

Branch voiced Kevin's thoughts out loud, "You probably only get new abilities from special monsters.” He shook his head sadly. "And as your scout, I cannot tell by sight what monsters are regular monsters or unique or named."

"I know that," said Kevin. He stood with his plate, threw the meat off towards the carcass of the slain monster, cleaned it, and put it back in his pack. All of his cooking items had already been stowed. He began walking west again.

The monster carcass would be eaten by other monsters within the next day or two. He didn’t need to worry about having an impact on the forest, because monsters weren’t natural to begin with, either.

"So I cannot easily find targets for you. That doesn't mean that you have to just wait for things to come at you, or just randomly track down every monster I could find, though," said Branch.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just like the last one you hunted," said Branch. "In any area, people will sometimes know what monsters are named or unique, or there might be legends about some."

Kevin nodded thoughtfully. "So you're talking about finding information wherever we go, and then acting on that."

"That's right," said Branch, fluttering his wings extra quick-like in the air like he did sometimes when he was pleased. "I knew it was the right decision to travel with master."

"I told you not to call me that," said Kevin. "Call me 'sir' or 'Mr. Kevin' if you really won't just call me by my name."

"Okay, Boss.”

“Also, you really don’t regret choosing to follow me?"

"Not at all," the fairy shook his head. "I have had more fun in the last few days than the last fifty years combined."

With a frown, Kevin asked, "Just how old are you anyway?"

"Hmm, I'm not really sure. Fairies are all born different ways, and I didn't come into the world as a named fairy. So it's possible that I'm only about seventy, which is the amount of years I can remember, but it's also possible I could have lived over a thousand years now. Maybe more."

Kevin blinked. "That's actually really interesting."

Branch bobbed his head energetically. "Fairies are amazing. We're the only race, well, the only people, that nobody ever goes to war with."

"That's because you all can disappear if you want to."

The fairy nodded energetically again. "Sometimes disappearing is the best. After all, nasty mortals can't kill or capture what they can't catch."

"That's right, your kind are immortal, aren't you? So why is it that so few fairies seem to be ancient, or even really old?"

Branch looked a little uncomfortable for the first time. He scratched the back of his head where he hovered in the air and said, "Fairies sometimes make bad decisions. We can live for a long time, maybe forever, but we can still be killed. And we are curious."

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"That's true. You did come up and talk to me while I was sleeping in a tree transformed into an animal."

"Yes, but look at where I am now, having a great adventure!" Branch did a circle in the air and a quick flip. In spite of himself, Kevin grinned. He always seemed so genuinely happy it was starting to rub off on Kevin.

However, Branch was a little chatterbox too. So one of the first things Kevin had done after confirming that his new travel companion's oath was real was to swear Branch to secrecy and silence regarding all of Kevin's secrets. Then to make sure it was extra clear, Kevin had specifically told Branch everything he could think of to never tell other people. Branch had seemed less than enthused about the gag order, but he'd gotten better every day since, and now he seemed to have accepted it.

Kevin was impressed. He'd always assumed that fairies would be far less adaptable than humans, but it seemed like everyone was an individual, even the fair folk. They must be super curious to die off as fast as I believe they do, though, he thought. He suddenly lifted an eyebrow and turned his nose in the air. He thought he smelled smoke.

"Hey Branch, do me a favor, please. Go above the trees and see if you can find out where that smoke is coming from."

"Sure thing, Mister Kevin."

As the fairy buzzed towards the treetops, Kevin shook his head. He'd been half-tempted to start calling Branch 'Sam the Hobbit', but he was almost certain that nobody in this entire world would understand the joke but him. And if nobody understands your jokes, they just think you're crazy or stupid.

If he was being honest with himself, it wasn’t a very good joke to begin with, either.

A few seconds later, Branch zoomed back and said, "Fire's in the distance, in the west. Not a forest fire, though. Looks like a town."

"Excellent," said Kevin. He hefted his pack and could actually feel how light it had gotten. He hadn't exactly had the greatest variety of camping and traveling equipment to take from his parents' cave in the first place, so he'd been light on supplies when he set out. One thing he had plenty of, though, was money.

"It would be good to get a few things from a village or a town now. How do humans or other settlers around here react to the wee folk like yourself?"

"Depends," said Branch with a shrug. "But this close to the dragon range, I will likely still hide but I might be alright if I don’t. The Great Ones—your parents—don't tolerate slavery around their range, and that's one of the most common things humans and other mortals like to do: capture us."

"Why?"

"We make things that help with magic. Some of us glow. Some of us can tell fortunes or do calculations or tell them things about the stars."

"What about you?" asked Kevin. "What can you do?"

"I'm good at talking," said Branch, putting his fists on his hips and puffing out his little chest. "Also good at listening and seeing."

"Oh, okay," said Kevin. "What about touching?"

"That too!" The fairy lifted his eyebrows up in surprise. "How did you know?"

"Okay, what about tasting?" said Kevin.

Suddenly, the fairy's face fell, as well as his shoulders. He glowered at Kevin and said, "That was a mean question. We can't be good at everything, Mr. Kevin."

"Uh, okay, I'm sorry. Besides, even if you're not good at tasting, being good at hearing, smelling, touching, and seeing are still really good."

The fairy grumbled but said, "That is nice of you to say, but other fairies made fun of Branch before."

"Really?" asked Kevin. "How?"

"They gave Branch yucky berries, and Branch didn't know. And they laughed at me!"

"Oh. Well that was mean of them," said Kevin. He was only paying the fairy half a mind right now, keeping track of his surroundings. Both times the unique or named monsters had jumped out at him or attacked him, there had been no warning.

"Yes, I'm glad that you understand," said Branch. "I wanted to cut their arms off and poison them but that would have been bad. Branch has been on an adventure for a long time now. Most other fairies cannot appreciate my talents, but most mortals do, which is one reason it is more fun to talk to mortals than other fairies."

Did I just hear what I think I heard? Nah, no way. Kevin starting to pay more attention to Branch again. "Really? Like, what do mortals think—what are mortals impressed by that fairies don't care about?"

"Reading, for one," said Branch. "I can read anything, but most fairies don't read at all and don't care. They think reading is boring. It's too bad they're missing out quite a bit. They'd rather look at leaves." He shuddered.

"Wait a second, you can read anything?"

"Anything," said Branch with a nod.

"Wow." One reason Kevin was so impressed by this was that after growing up with his parents, he was aware that there were some texts in this world or ruins so ancient even his parents couldn't read them. If Branch was telling the truth about being able to read anything, he would probably be a prime target for some wizard kidnapping him as well. Kevin decided that if he was going to take Branch's companionship seriously, at some point he should probably figure out a way to help protect the little guy stay safe if they were ever in a town or a city.

He had a sudden thought. “If people catch fairies and use you as slaves, doesn’t that mean fairies can’t always just disappear?”

“Well, people try, especially humans, but they usually can’t catch us. We’re fast. But some humans are very tricky, very tricky indeed. They use traps.”

“Oh.” Kevin didn’t even need to ask any more. He could already imagine several ways such a thing would work. Branch seemed absolutely obsessed with honey for instance.

But while learning more about Branch was interesting, Kevin was currently very distracted. He had a feeling he might not even remember parts of this conversation later, so any more chatting would have to wait. The smell of smoke was getting more obvious, and he had a feeling that the village was not far away.

Kevin loosened his belt and smoothly transformed into the body from his second life when he'd been a knight–a tall, muscular blond man. He was going to start thinking of his different bodies as Earth Kevin, Knight Kevin, and Goblin Kevin. Goblin Kevin was his real body. Knight Kevin was going to be how he presented himself to this world if he wasn't sure how they would react to a goblin. Earth Kevin he was going to hold in reserve in case he ever needed to go unrecognized.

Branch didn't react as Kevin changed. By this point, he was already aware of the different ways that Kevin could polymorph, and, like Kevin's other secrets, this was one thing that the little fairy had been sworn to secrecy on.

It turned out that he’d polymorphed just in time. A few minutes later, the undergrowth grew denser, and the reason was immediately obvious, as there were no more trees in the distance. The fact that more sunlight was reaching the ground from the clearing ahead resulted in more undergrowth around what looked like a guard shack. In the distance, he spotted farms, and past that, there was a log wall that he assumed circled the village.

"Interesting," he said out loud. He walked directly towards the village, and out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed Branch had disappeared.

"I didn't know you could do that," he said softly.

"You never asked, Boss."

"I guess that's true." Kevin needed to remember later to ask Branch everything that the little fairy could do. If he hadn't been so preoccupied with hunting monsters the last few days, he would have already.

He wasn't very far from the edge of the forest when a couple of men from the guard shack set out at a brisk walk to meet him. Both of them were dressed in crude armor and armed with spears. This was going to be Kevin's first meeting with civilization other than the handful of people that had visited his parents over his twenty years on this world.

"Interesting," he muttered again. Then he sucked in his teeth and prepared to lie or bullshit if telling the truth didn’t work.