“Hmph!” Was all I got in response.

“Oh come on Mum! It was an accident.” I insisted with a pout.

“HMPH!”

“Great.” I muttered to myself quietly with a sigh. She’s not happy. I could tell by the way she held her arms crossed over her chest and her lower lip quivered. I’d imagine she suspected me of practicing with my class. For whatever reason, she’s dead set against me levelling.

Let’s try again.

“It wasn’t my fault! A scary monster was coming up the hill at me. All I did was accidentally push a boulder and bam! That happened.” I said as I pointed at the pile of rocks at the bottom of the drop. I couldn’t see the large monster's body anywhere. Huh. Weird. It definitely died, I have proof in my logs.

“Why is your power level 103 then?”

I winced and shrugged my shoulders as if to say how should I know?. “Because it was an undead bear that had a power level of 320?” I eventually responded.

“What? How did such a creature even get inside?” One of the other Fairies finally spoke up. I recognised him, Thornwood, he was a green haired and green winged fairy with the [Guardian Fairy] title. One of the very few Fairies with an actual combat class that was assigned to guard the borders of Fairy. When the Fairies with the [Mischief Maker] class or something similar wasn’t enough to discourage any unwanted visitors. [Guardian Fairies] were the most powerful members of our race and were usually the most mature of any Fairies I had yet to meet. Their classes tended to vary but most of them were nature based, using the natural landscape to combat any threats.

The third and final Fairy that had appeared was my older sister Rose, who snorted in amusement. “Only you could run into trouble so deep into Fairy Azzie.” She said just before vanishing and reappearing a second later next to me and ruffling my light blue hair affectionately. Despite how swiftly she moved, there was barely a breeze to blow across my face. Pulling out some debris from my epic battle, I hadn’t noticed as she did so.

Rose was another [Guardian Fairy] just like Thornwood, although her class was [Wind Cutter] which was all wind based attacks and because of that she could move at insane speeds. I think if I didn’t have Rose to look up to and spend time with when she wasn’t guarding the borders, I would’ve gone insane from being with the other Fairies. Since before even regaining my memories from my former life, I had been a little bit of a pariah, always feeling a little distant from the others, which only got worse when I started remembering being human.

“Hmm, it’s hard to believe that a monster like that could get so close to our home and not be seen by anyone.” Thornwood said, looking a little worried. He was also pouting a little bit, it was kind of adorable actually.

“It doesn’t matter! I told Azalea to not power up her class and what has she gone and done?”

“Powered up her class?” I asked, as if there might be some doubt. Sometimes I couldn’t help myself to not help myself.

“Yes, exactly smarty pants,” Mother replied with a glare at me. Honestly she acted like she didn’t want anyone to answer her question, why ask it then? Sheesh. Pretty sure she would have been stamping her foot too if it wasn’t rather hard to do several feet off of the ground.

“I couldn’t help it! My nemesis, err I mean the boulder is what killed the beast. I just benefited!” I explained, while crossing my arms in a huff.

“Hmph!”

I was just about to argue my innocence some more when Thornwood interrupted by hovering in between my dear old mum and I.

“Regardless of whether or not Azalea was going against your wishes, we need to see if there are any more of these undead bears in Fairy and destroy them if there are.”

“Yes!” My sister shouted excitedly, “I’ve been dying to find more enemies to fight. It’s been so long.” She finished while pumping a fist into the air and striking a pose that I guess was supposed to look tough but looked comical instead.

Thornwood had an excited look on his face too as he was watching Rose.

“It’s been awhile since I have increased my power level,” he admitted. “Not that a creature with only a 300 odd power level will advance mine much.”

My heart quickened a little from his words. He was apparently too high in ‘level’ for me to see what it was, even after I increased my own level. I was told you can’t see anyone's power level who had at least 1000 power above yours, I couldn’t see my sisters either, but Mum's level was nearly 900. I doubt the bears even scared her. If Thornwood was just ?? To me, no wonder the undead bears didn’t scare him, he was probably at least 4 times more powerful.

Most of the Fairies refused to say much about classes and how it all worked with me for some reason. It was frustrating, even my sister barely says anything and she’s pretty much my best and only friend in this new world. So as a result, any mention of skills and talents and really anything to do with the system, I was always excited to learn about.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“While they go do their jobs, you’re coming with me missy.”

“Wait a second.” Thornwood once again interrupted just as Mum had started reaching towards me. No doubt to drag me back home or something as equally mean.

“Did you see if there was any loot for you from the bear?” He continues, looking at me expectantly. With maybe a hint of glee and excitement he was trying hard to hide. One thing I have discovered is that Fairies suck at hiding their feelings. Luckily for him, his back was to Mum so she couldn’t see his expression.

Sighing in relief from delayed punishment, I looked at Thornwood and his strange expression, then I glanced at Rose and saw her with a guarded look. I wasn’t stupid enough to look at my Mother with more than the corner of my eye, who was surprisingly silent but while glaring otherwise didn’t argue. Thornwood must have more pull than I realised if he could get my Mother to play nice.

“But I wasn’t the one to kill the bear though?” I answered hesitantly. “Boulder-Senpai did it,” I continued, deciding on the spot that the boulder wasn’t my nemesis after all.

“Who is this Boulder-Senpai Azalea? I swear on the forest that you come up with the strangest things sometimes.” Mother scoffed at me.

“Boulder-Senpai is the boulder that taught me something!” I answered with a smile.

“You are not to go near this Boulder-Senpai again. In fact, don't talk to any other boulders either!” My Mum was practically having a fit, the light that all Fairies produce from our bodies brightening up due to her emotions and buzzing around like she couldn’t stay still.

I rolled my eyes before replying, “I can’t talk to boulders.. Well I can, but they don’t reply. They’re rude like that.”

My Mother stopped the figure of eight patterns she had been flying in and with complete seriousness, nodded her head. “Good, that’s good. Keep it that way.” She said as her glow dimmed back to its normal level.

Blinking the spots out of my vision from her intensity, I nodded then looked back at Thornwood again. “There isn’t a body anymore though? Unless it’s somehow buried under all of that rubble but there isn’t enough to cover such a big monster.”

“That’s because the body vanishes shortly after death for monsters, only leaving behind the loot.”

One of my eyebrows couldn’t help but lift up from that piece of information. I probably should have thought of that, having been an enthusiastic gamer in my previous life. I just didn’t know if this world had that particular type of game mechanic or not. Some things were very game-like, others basically the same as they were back when I was human in my old reality.

“Hold on.” My Mother interjected. “I don’t want Azalea getting involved with any of this. She’s too young!”

“Mum! I’m 50 now. I’m an adult!” I exclaimed with a huff and I couldn’t help myself, a pout.

My Mother snorted in amusement. “Come back to me when you’re 500, then we’ll talk about you being an adult.”

I looked at the she-devil known as my Mother in horror. I was already going out of my mind and it had only been a few months since I got most of my memories back. Another 450 years would see me going completely mental. Not even the euphoria of my new body would be enough to stave it off. Although time does seem to run rather oddly in Fairy. I still didn’t want to spend all of my life here. I wanted to travel the world and level my class. Maybe even become an adventurer if this world had that sort of thing.

“She still still needs to collect the loot for us Willow. No one else can and it might have clues as to where it came from. If we’re lucky, even how it came so close to our nests.” Thornwood said, looking at my Mother imploringly.

With a hesitant nod of her head, Mother sighed and finally consented but didn’t uncross her arms. I tried really, really hard not to seem too pleased with the outcome so far, as I zoomed off to find any tasty loot, honest!

The other Fairies trailed a little behind me but caught up when I was hovering over the pile of rubble. I pretended to ignore the looks they gave me after I saluted my fallen comrades in arms, I was used to that expression now from everyone. I blamed social media. Although being the only Fairy child having been born in nearly a thousand years probably had something to do with it too. I shrugged my shoulders at my wandering thoughts, some questions may never be answered. Just as I was about to ask what to look for, I noticed a faint glimmer partially hidden from the bright sun. Dropping down close enough to the ground that I could walk if I wanted to, I inspected the glimmering object up close. It was an orb that seemed to be made from light. It actually looked a lot like our magical flight form, just somehow more solid. It seemed to sparkle a little in the sun now that I have gotten a good look at it.

“That’s the loot box Azalea, just put your hand on top of it and you’ll be able to access the contents.”

Instead of replying to Thornwoods instructions, I followed them instead. The loot box was slightly warm and tingly and I couldn’t help giggling a little at the sensation. Almost immediately a small window opened in my UI.

Undead Dire Bear Fang x1

Silver Coin x18

Copper Coin x23

I clicked loot all after taking my time examining the items. A new tab suddenly appeared in my interface after the loot box window vanished, along with the glowing loot box itself. It was labeled ‘Inventory’ and it was softly pulsing to get my attention. Mentally clicking on it opened up an entirely new window I hadn’t seen before in this world but was pretty familiar with from video games in my old one. It was a basic inventory screen that had a grid of 20 boxes outlined in the soft blue of the user interface, 19 of which were empty, with the first one having the icon of the bear fang in it. To the left it showed an image of my cute self wearing my current skirt and strapless tube top surrounded by empty boxes. They were labelled things like [Ring Slot] and [Chest Slot] and so on. Another standard gaming mechanic which I guess I had only just unlocked. I couldn’t help but wonder why it wasn’t available until now. I heard Thornwood sigh in evident disappointment behind me.

“No loot and no clues as to where it came from, that’s a shame.” He said, thoroughly confusing little ole me, I had just collected the loot and put it into my inventory after all.

Before I could ask what he meant, Mother zoomed forward and grabbed me by my ear.

“Owie, Mum that hurts!” I exclaimed in pain and shock from her sudden movements but she ignored me.

“Satisfied Thornwood?” She all but growled at the other Fairy. Thornwood was quick to nod his head in agreement, before shooting me a sympathetic look.

“Come along Rose, we need to back track the bear's path if we can.” He said before zooming off into the forest in the direction the monster had come from. Rose spared me a look that was too quick and complicated for my sorry self to comprehend before she too zoomed off.

“Now Azalea, do you want to tell me why you were all the way out here, with no one around and very little mana left?”

Uh oh, I’ve been caught out after all. Quick think of an excuse.

“Umm, pilates?”

If the look on her face wasn’t enough to tell me I had answered incorrectly, the increased pressure on my ear certainly did the trick.