“What are you? What is a Fae, and why did I acquire Fae Touched? What do you mean, young Druid?”

“I am of the Fae. Most refer to us as the children of the forests or Fairies. As to Beema, she is to become a Druid when she reaches adulthood. We thought it best to help and guide her as much as we can before that allotted time.”

“We had legends of Fairies from where I came from. You called me an Outworlder before. How did you know?”

“The Fae are the first. We are ushered in before life blossoms anew and stay till its tragic end. We work behind the veil to guide or to destroy. We have worked with what you call ‘The System’ since the beginning of our creation. I can see you are not from here. Your race shouldn’t be here yet. Are there others of your kind here as well?. Any of the new races should have been transferred to Galendra. How is it you’re here, Zeallendric?”

“You can see my information, can’t you?”

“I can.”

“No use hiding it, but Beema, you can’t tell anyone else but your friends here, ok?”

She nodded and kept speaking to the now gaggle of floating flowers around her. I hadn’t realized how many there had been. I began to tell my tale of the anomaly and how a swarm of asteroids hit my ship, and the sphere asked me to transfer. When I began telling her about my island, she cut me off with a slice of her hand through the air.

“Do not tell anyone of your spawn. Even the Fae can not tell where it is. That is something you must guard with your life, as it is your life itself, Zeallandric.”

“I see. Thank you for not misusing my trust. That means a great deal. Could you explain what Beema said about picture heat instead of mana?”

“I can see the construct you are trying to create in your mind. You are picturing balls of Mana when you have no concept of Mana, to begin with. I believe it would be best if you pictured the element itself. Fire being heat, the coldness of the ice, and the leaves rustling in the wind.”

“I understand. Let me try again. Please give me a moment.”

The fairy flower flew up and sat on my head, causing Beema to giggle again. I closed my eyes, and this time I imagined the heat of the blue flame being pushed out of the Nav’s thrusters. I forced those into a compressed ball and repeated that twice more. I began to rotate the outside two balls around the center, and I felt the mental click as if everything was correct. I held it there for a few moments and let it dissolve.

“What was that?!” All of the Fae shouted in unison. I opened my eyes to the entire lot of them all hovering in front of me.

“A Tier 1 Fireball, I believe.”

The white and pink fairy flew in front of my face and smacked my nose. “No, you fool, you just constructed a Tier 3 fireball with a Tier 1’s construct pattern. What did you do?! How is that possible? The fire was blue as Beema’s eyes inside your mind.”

“Blue flames are an indication of a much hotter fire, easily five times the heat of the orange flame inside a campfire. I just imagined the flames my ship from back home used to propel itself forward.”

“Do you have the mana to cast that construct? I would very much like to see a blue fireball, as I’ve never seen the like in the eons I’ve been around,” asked a dark green and yellow Fairy.

“I don’t know. I can try. I’ll shoot it up into the air.” I began to build the construct again with the same blazing blue flames before. When it ‘clicked,’ i raised my hand and mentally pushed the construct out of the palm of my hand. I looked up to see a small blue ball of seething fire shoot up into the sky hundreds of meters above before a thunderous explosion assaulted us a few seconds later when the sound of the explosion reached us. Then I fell to my knees as if a large amount of my energy left me.

“Amazing, the amount of pure destruction from a simple Tier 1 construct. Imagine what he could do with a Tier 3 configuration,” I heard from one of the Fae.

“That spell almost drained him completely. A Tier 3 would cripple him. He has a long way to go before he should even attempt it,” came from another.

The entire gaggle of Fae grew quiet as the gates of the village burst open and multiple guards came running towards Beema and me. “What was that explosion just now?!” one of the guards demanded.

I was about to answer when the left side of my chest began to grow hot, and I cried out in pain and clenched my chest before falling back to my knees. I didn’t want to look with many around, but I assumed I just added a leaf or pedal to my Stigmata. When one of the guards saw me clench my chest and the blue glow coming through my clothing, he spoke up.

‘Did you just cast a Tier 3 spell?! I heard the rumors say you were brand new to your class!” That got the guards to begin whispering between themselves. I was saved a moment later by Kiszo, who came crashing out of the forest’s edge.

“Ha! I knew it! It had to be you! No one would have been dumb enough to waste so much mana at once,” said Kiszo as she came to a stop behind us. She knelt and patted Beema on the head, who beamed at the attention in return.

“I was just testing out the spells in this,” I said as I held up the book on magic.

“No way, you got that spell from that book. You added nodes to your construct and got lucky,” said one of the guards.

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“You’re right. I wanted to see if I could figure out how to make the spell stronger,” I lied.

At this time, I looked around the people standing near me. Each had a Fae sitting on their shoulder or head, and not one person realized it. I looked down at Beema, who had a hand over her beak and was giggling again. I understood why the older kids didn’t want to be around her anymore. The poor kid.

“If you had created a construct that used more mana than you had and released it, it could have ravaged your system and killed you. You better realize how damn lucky you got today,” said the same guard from before.

“Thank you, that spell took everything I had. Now I think I’ll go eat a mountain worth of food.” That got a chuckle from the guards, and they began to walk back towards town. All except for the snake-headed Beastkin, who had told me how lucky I was.

“Explain to me what construct you used to achieve such an impressive display of power,” he said as he eyed me.

Now wanting to reveal my secrets, I asked him to rest a moment. I dove into my mind and began to configure fire constructs rapidly until something clicked. Finally, I got three balls surrounded by twelve balls rotating. I told him of this construct, and he shook his head before speaking.

“That’s a simple construct for a Tier 3 fireball, all right. What I saw was far superior to it. Are you sure that’s the construct you used?”

“Yes, but I didn’t use what the book said. I couldn’t get balls of fire mana to work inside my mind. Instead, I pictured the nodes with a raging fire compressed into balls instead.”

The snake seemed lost in thought before he raised his hand and sent a giant orange fireball about two-thirds the size of my blue one into the sky, detonating moments later. “By the gods, that had almost half as much the power added to it. The intent behind your spell just boosted my combat abilities immensely. I need to show the other casters at once. I will let the villages’ chief know about this at once, thank you!”

The snake turned around and ran towards the town, repeatedly calling out three others' names before disappearing behind the open gate.

“You better hope this doesn’t lead to war, Zeal. Those with easy access to power always want more. That is one of the reasons we seldom help those push past barriers meant to hold people back,” said the white and pink flower.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

The flower dismissed my apology with a wave of her hand. Kiszo took it as I apologized to her and shrugged before patting me on the head.

“Do not apologize for growing stronger, pup. If you can cast magic like this, you can now take care of yourself. I still want to train you in bladed combat. There will be a time when you won’t have the mana to defend yourself and will need to trust in your skills with a blade.”

I groaned before agreeing that would be wise. What I didn’t imagine was Kiszo taking off her pack and tossing it on the ground, right onto the flower patch. Beena cried out and ran over to drag the pack of the flowers and tried to fix the now broken plants. Kiszo, not seeing anything wrong, shrugged and tossed me a wooden sword.

I was about to tell Beena it was ok, but the Fae just went over to sit on her shoulders and head and began patting the girl on the head, calming her down. It didn’t seem they cared that the flowers had been trampled.

Kiszo had me go through the first set of stances multiple times before we began to spare. She went easy on me and only defended my strikes but pointed out every flaw over and over as we went on.

Hours later, I began to understand the intent of the training. If I knew how someone would block a strike, I would know how to change that strike to bypass the block. It took me a few tries, but I finally feigned and changed the attack from a vertical to a horizontal swing. That attack was blocked by Kiszo grabbing the wooden sword with another hand, but I got a box pop up.

[ System Notification ]

Sword increased to 20%

Kiszo must have realized I wasn’t paying attention, and she swept my legs out from under me, and I went tumbling down. “You got something regarding swords, right? You should never let a system message distract you in the middle of a fight. It will lead to an early grave.”

I got up and readied to strike at Kiszo, but she had other plans and began to swing towards me. I scrambled to raise my guard, and the force of her strike sent vibrations down the sword and into my hands. I let go of the sword with a yelp, and it fell to the ground. I was about to pick up the sword when the Fae began to scream. “Take Beema into the town. Something is wrong, so very wrong. We can feel the Darkness close!”

I didn’t even ask. I scooped up the child and began running towards town. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see a confused panther, but her back was to me and bow already drawn and scanning the forest. I pumped my legs faster and reached the gate, the guards looking at me strangely. “Something is coming. Warn the others!”

I watched as the guard’s ears twitched a few times, but they said nothing. “I hear nothing but the sounds of the forest all around us. We are in no danger,” the guard said just before a loud ‘crack’ rang through the village like the sound of a mountain slide grinding in the distance.

I looked behind the startled guards to see two houses vanish below the ground in a plume of dust as it shot upwards like a geyser into the air. The next moment another geyser of dust shot up from deeper in the village.

Then the Gnits began climbing out of the hole in front of us in droves. The wave was unending, then the queen’s guard began to fly out from the hole’s center. Screams and shouts filled the air, and everyone began fighting back against the oncoming horde.

“Let us back out. I need to get Beema to safety!” The guard looked back at me. His face was full of panic before shaking his head. “There might be more of them out there. We can’t let the gate fall.”

I wasn’t going to debate with the man. I turned around, holding the now crying Beema’s head against my neck, her beak stabbing into the crook of my shoulder. I ran up the steps of the closest palisade I could find and looked over. No Gnits anywhere. I lowered Beema down before speaking to her. “I’m going to jump over the wall. Then I want you to jump after me. I’ll catch you, ok?” She nodded as she cried, the smell of fear evident in the wetness on my shirt.

I lowered myself over the wall and then let go, falling into a heap. My ankle was not doing so well, but I pushed myself up and called for her to jump. I watched as she slowly climbed onto the wall and rolled over the side. I had to jump to the right, but I caught her, and we tumped to the ground together.

“This way!” I heard before finding the white and pink Fae dartling around my face, waving to follow.