I frowned at the look on Gram’s face but couldn’t do much about it right then because I was too excited to check out my character sheet.

Name:

Azalea

Species:

Fairy

Age:

50

Gender:

Female

Class:

[Mentalist] (Epic)

Power Level:

176

Class Skills:

[Telekinetic Pulse] Rank 1

A force of pure telekinetic energy is sent out through the casters hand/s causing blunt force damage. This is a ranged attack of up to 30 feet.

Congratulations, you have unlocked a new class skill!

[Psychic Slash] Rank 1

Attacks a target with a powerful mental attack on a single target. A successful hit will inflict psychic damage. This attack has a maximum range of 15 feet.

I couldn’t help but do a happy little dance on the spot at having increased my power level and gotten a new class skill too! Unfortunately all of this just ended up leaving me with even more questions than before.

“So my new armour increased my Power Level?” I asked. Grams just nodded with a small smile on her face. “The increased level unlocked a new class skill for me, [Psychic Slash]. What happens when I take off my armour and my level goes down? Do I lose the skill again? Also how do I know how much intelligence that I have? Oh and what other stats are there besides intelligence and how come I can’t see them?”

Grams giggled at my machine gun question technique, put a hand on my bare shoulder and squeezed gently before answering. “First of all, congratulations on getting that skill. It’s powerful but be careful, it’s costly and you have to get in close. You’ll be surprised at how fast monsters can move. It also usually gains you the attention of your target if it doesn't kill it, so watch out for that.” My eyes widened at that tidbit of information. “As for whether you lose your skill, why don’t you take off the armour and see what happens?” She suggested.

So I switched out my armour for my normal clothes then looked at my character sheet again. My power level dropped back down to 103. I looked at my new skill and could see that it was grayed out but still in my info. “So I just lose access to it until my Power Level is restored?” I asked mostly rhetorically.

Grams nodded her agreement to my quasi-statement. “Yep. As for your other questions, you need to upgrade your interface first before you can see them.” She continued seeing me open my mouth to ask the obvious question. “That involves travelling to a Heroic Dungeon and defeating it to obtain a special token that allows you to upgrade certain things like your interface and if it’s high enough, your class.”

Just then I heard Gramp’s wings buzzing as he returned from wherever he went. I think he called out about getting supplies or something? I shrugged my shoulders a little, I’m sure I’ll find out. “Where are you two? Are you in the room with the armour?” Grams and I heard Gramps calling out then a solid thump echoed through the area.

“Yes,” Grams called back. “We were just having a chat while we waited for you dearest. Now for stats. I wouldn’t worry too much about it for now since it’ll be a while before you can defeat a heroic dungeon, but since I know you’re a curious little thing I’ll give you a brief overview. Since your Gramps is back it means we don’t have long now before we have to go. To start with you have; Strength increases your physical strength and attacks, Agility increases your physical speed, balance and reaction times, Intelligence increases your mana pool and how strong your spells are, Vitality increases how much health you have as well as your stamina, Constitution decreases how much damage you take and increases your resistance to poisons and diseases, Wisdom increases your mana regeneration and resistance to mental attacks.”

I nodded along to Gram’s explanation and even though the stats worked basically the way I expected them to based on my experience as a gamer I still wrote some notes down in the interface. Never knew if any of this will come in handy later. Gramps came into the room and handed me a small brown backpack just as Grams finished up. I looked at the bag and realised that I had made a mistake in thinking it was a small backpack. It was more like a pouch that wrapped around my waist and sat on my lower back, allowing plenty of movement for my wings. I nodded and smiled my thanks at Gramps as I put the pouch on.

It was only then that I noticed I had a notification. It was my inventory tab that was flashing so I mentally clicked on it. The screen that displayed the grid for my inventory and my character outfit opened up and I immediately noticed the grid had increased in size. It was now displaying 40 slots instead of the old 20. This was amazing. I hadn’t even considered that actual bag space would be considered when it came to my inventory screen.

Grams stood there smiling at me while I fiddled with my storage system with Gramps looking between us confused for a second before his eyes lit up in understanding. “Does she have..?”

“Yup.” Grams confirmed as a look passed between them, you know, one of those looks that older couples can do that convey whole stories worth of information in a second. I didn’t even bother trying to work it out. It had something to do with having an inventory but Grams seemed to be unwilling to talk about it and if she is then Gramps will be just as unlikely to spill the beans.

“We’ll come on then! Chop chop, we are nearly out of time. Let’s grab the supplies that Gramps got you then we will head out.” Heading her own orders, Grams walked out leading me by the shoulder she still had her hand on. Sitting there near the doorway was a rather large bag full of fruits. Papples and glow fruits took up most of the space, with a small bag of green Arnkora seeds. Next to the bag were two tubs, one was full of the cleaning sap and the other had the medicinal sap. There was even a single Fairy portable nest with a leaf to give it some cover, it was shaped like an oval that was stretched at the ends. A couple of blankets rounded out the rest of what Gramps had brought in. How he carried all of this on his own or even expected me to do it without my inventory I don’t know.

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Grams laughed at her mate then disappeared into their nest room again, before reappearing shortly after with an extra few fresh sets of underwear. “Here.” She said handing them to me, “You’ll thank me later when you don’t have access to a bath or shower for a few days.”

“Right, well start loading everything into your inventory. Also, you might want to keep the fact that you have an inventory secret as much as possible. There’s a bit of a stigma towards people who have them alright? So practice pretending to put things inside your pouch or your satchel.”

At this point I was pretty much at information overload and had started developing a bit of a headache, so didn’t question Gramps as I began picking everything up and storing it. Clicking Yes one after the other until it became almost automatic. I hope I don’t accidentally ruin my class by automatically accepting something, although it doesn’t seem like it’s how the system works. So far there hasn’t been any options for me to choose from.

Finally after what seemed like hours but couldn’t have actually been all that long, everything that had been sitting in a big pile in front of us was all safely stored inside of my magical storage.

I glanced at my inventory screen curious as to how many spaces it all took up. The interface showed 29/40 down the bottom and I could see that some of the items seemed to take up extra space, like the nest took 2 on its own. Some of the items stacked thankfully, like the fruit. The glow fruits stacked up to 10 but the Papples only stacked twice.

“Here sweetie, these can come in handy, left overs from our old adventuring days.” Grams said, handing me a couple of daggers and several vials of liquid, 2 red and 2 blue. I could guess what they were for but I’d wait until Grams confirmed it before assuming anything. “The daggers are self explanatory and can be useful in and out of combat. These vials however are far more valuable and can save yours or a party member's life when used at the right time. Make sure to keep at least a few on you at all times. The red vial is a health potion and the blue one is a mana potion.” I nodded my head at these instructions, trying not to wince at the slight headache. It was just as I thought for the vials.

“Now, these potions aren’t instant acting, they boost your vitality and mana regeneration by several factors for several seconds, so be careful to not let your health or mana drop too low before using them to save your life. Okay?” Grams had gripped my shoulders with both hands and shook me slightly, making sure I was looking at her and paying attention. I nodded my head again with more emphasis this time. “I promise.” I reply with as much determination as possible behind it.

It must’ve been enough because Grams smiled and pulled me into a quick hug, completely unconcerned by the daggers in my hand. “Good. Now put those away and let’s go.” As I placed the daggers and potions in my arm and thigh bands I inspected the new items I had been given.

Ancient Fairy Steel Dagger x5

Grade: Uncommon

Calling this dagger old doesn’t do it justice as it was owned by Titania during and after her adventuring days. Made by Gwendolyn the Glorious using Fairy Steel, this dagger is not magical, although superbly crafted and well cared for by Titania.

Sheesh, I better take care of these daggers, they’re practically antique. Kind of surprised that they didn’t have an antique grade, although not sure if that’s even a thing. Plus I had never even heard of Fairy Steel before either. I’ve never seen any kind of metal since reincarnating, we don’t use it. Fairies use wood, magic or sharp rocks to cut things.

Ancient Potent Health Potion x2

A very old health potion which was already strong and only got stronger. A single sip will be as effective as drinking an entire regular Potent Health Potion. Increases health regeneration for a short time.

A quick inspection of the blue vial showed the same thing as the health potions but for mana instead of health. Wow once again my Gramps and Grams have pulled through for me. Great armour and now nice daggers and really good potions? Am I playing on easy mode? At any rate, I had the coolest grandparents.

At any rate, I was ready to go. I was starting to get excited about going on an adventure, even my stomach was so excited. It was doing backflips, out of excitement. Definitely out of excitement and not anything else. Shut up, you’re nervous.

“Come on Grams, Gramps, let’s go!” I shouted as I took off towards the exit of The Hollow, my wings buzzing loudly in the confined space as I flew through the short tunnel. I heard Grams mutter something, probably about how cool I looked or something like that and then the buzz of both my grandparent’s wings as they followed after me. The tree flashed past me as I shot out of the entrance and into a midday sun that was closer to the afternoon than it was the morning as the sun had started to dip a little in the sky. I spread my arms wide and smiled as I did a few quick loops while I waited for Grams and Gramps to catch up.

“Do you even know where you’re going?” Gramps asked me as he buzzed up to hover near me, his green wings almost lazily holding him in place.

“Uh, good point!” I giggled. In my excitement, I had kind of forgotten. Shaking his head, Gramps still smiled a little bit at my antics and ruffled my hair. “Hey! I had it perfectly wind swept, then you went ahead and ruined it, thank you very much!” I stuck my tongue out at my grandfather then immediately went and hid behind Grams with a smug smile as she approached. Gramps looked like he wanted to tickle me for some reason but Grams held up a hand in front of him.

“Sorry dearest, I know you want to get at the brat but we don’t have time. Rose is waiting for us. If we delay any longer, it’ll make things a whole lot more complicated.” Gramp’s glare promised sweet revenge at me so I poked my tongue out at him again. “Come along Azalea, no time for playing, we’ve got to get you to Rose. She won’t be able to delay much longer.”

I frowned. “Delay what?” I asked.

“You’ll see. Now, I suggest that Gramps or I carry you in wisp form as you insist on calling it so we can get there quicker and you conserve your mana.”

“Okay! I’ll go with you.” I say to Grams, Gramps might take advantage and get his revenge despite Gram’s warning. All three of us transformed into wisp form and Grams moved to me, co-opting my light and taking the mana requirements for me to stay as a wisp on herself. Our forms rotating around one another while for me, it felt very similar to getting to ride on someone’s back. I glanced at the massive tree just before we started moving and noticed the giant jagged scar on the opposite side from which I came in then, with incredible acceleration, all three of us sped off to our destination far faster than I’ve ever been able to go before, light from our wisps trailing several feet behind us. The forest below blurring into a solid green colour from how quickly we moved.