"-ak."

'Nn?'

"Raak!"

I sat up quickly, causing a rather unfortunate fae to tumble off my chest.

Directly onto my crotch.

The surprised fae lifted herself up on her hands.

looked around.

looked up at me.

looked down.

"Eh?"

Turned bright red.

"EYAAAAHH!" The fae scrambled into the air and flew out of the cave entrance.

I stood up with a sly grin and hefted my hamaxe off the floor. This time I did not try to place it into dimensional storage, briefly recalling what happened the last time I tried.

I stepped down into the stream, which was now only up to my shins due to my added height, and actually had to crouch under a couple of stalactites to leave the cave.

Outside I saw a far more composed fae woman looking at me up and down as if inspecting me.

"Why are you so small?" Nyssa asked with a puzzled look on her face.

I looked down towards my crotch, still covered in stone shorts. "I thought it was fairly average, personally," I stated.

She saw where I was looking and her eyes popped open as her face turned beet red again. "That's not what I meant! I mean your body, why is your body so small."

"Oh, that. Well, I get bigger the more stone I eat, a few days ago I was even smaller than you." I said simply.

"I know that already." She stated, calming down. "I saw you eating stones the other day, I was wondering why you haven't eaten enough to become really big."

"Ah! I just didn't want to make myself a bigger target before I was ready, I don't know what kind of huge monsters might be around here." I said.

"Oh, I supposed that makes some sense. You don't really need to worry about it around here though, the strongest thing in these woods are wolves, the most dangerous are the goblins though." She said and shuddered a little.

"Goblins? why are they more dangerous than wolves?" I asked, thinking about short green cannon-fodder from games I had played.

"Well, goblins might not be very smart, but they do use weapons. There may even be some who can use magic if the tribe grows large enough. Goblins also tend to attack in much larger groups than the wolves do, you can occasionally find one out wandering around or foraging by itself, however." She explained.

"Mmmm, that is troublesome, I still don't see what that has to do with my size though," I said.

"Oh! Right." She said before taking on a thinking pose with her hand on her chin. "Ah! Think about it this way, at the size you are now, if you were bitten by a wolf, it would probably destroy half your body. That would mean you would lose half your health as well. However, if you were the size of a full grown human, the most it could do is take a small chunk out of you." She lectured.

"That makes a lot of sense actually," I stated. "It's sort of like an indirect increase in defence."

"Exactly!" She exclaimed and puffed out her exaggerated chest smugly. "So you should eat more and become big and strong."

I chuckled. "Alright then, I'll become big and strong just for you," I said childishly and picked up a large stone. "Oh, by the way, why did trying to store my weapon cause me to pass out yesterday?"

"Oh, that's easy to answer, space magic costs a large amount of mana to use. The mana costs decrease with your level in the manipulation skill but seeing as you just got it yesterday, I'm guessing it's still level one. Trying to store something as large as Thud with level one manipulation was just asking for mana exhaustion." She chided.

"So all I need to do is level up space manipulation on something smaller and I can store it? And for the last time, I'm not calling it Thud." I said, slightly exasperated.

"You should be able to store it easily once you reach apprentice in space manipulation, either that or gain a lot of mana somehow. And the weapon is called Thud already, did you forget about the other skill you gained yesterday?" Nyssa spoke with a grin.

My eyes narrowed slightly at that before I looked at my weapon and activated 'appraisal'.

Weapon: Thud

Weapon type: Two-Handed Hamaxe

Material: Stone 100% - Weight 10kg

Crafted by: Raak

"How did this happen?" I asked Nyssa dejectedly.

Nyssa giggled shyly before replying. "It's kind of my fault, I called it Thud so many times that the system decided that's what its name was. It's partly your fault for not naming it yourself!"

I sighed a bit at that

"You could always make a new one and name it yourself," Nyssa added nervously.

"No no, it's fine. It is a pretty good name for it. It will also be a constant reminder to stop hitting myself in the face with a hammer." I said dryly.

"Ehehehe, sorry Raak" Nyssa quietly laughed.

"Moving on," I said. "How am I supposed to train in space manipulation? Should I just put something smaller into storage?"

Nyssa clapped her hands and grinned at the change of topic. "I created the perfect training for this!"

Nyssa flew down to the ground and picked up a pebble, then flew back up to hover in front of me.

"Okay, now imagine your dimensional storage like you did yesterday, except this time with 2 very small portals on the inside, very close together and facing each other. Have you got the image?" She asked.

I nodded

She grinned. "Alright, now place the entrances to those two portals in front of you, both facing up."

I now understood what she was getting at, as I had seen the concept in a game once before. Grinning back at her, I placed both hands face up and created a small portal above each, connected to the two in my storage.

Nyssa dropped the pebble into the portal above my left hand and said. "Now, just make sure you cancel the portals before you run out of mana, or you will end up fainting again."

The pebble fell into the left portal and flew out of the right one, before falling back inside due to gravity only to reappear from the left portal. It looked like a juggling act using portals.

"If you get really good at using portals like this," Nyssa said picking up another small stone. "You can do something like this!"

The fae turned around and threw the stone into a portal that appeared behind her.

*Thunk*

A pebble hit me in the back of the head.

Nyssa giggled.

We spent several hours sitting there training with the portals. My extra levels in photosynthesis made it so I could regenerate my entire mana pool in less than 20 minutes and while my mana was regenerating between sessions, I would eat stones. I ended up gaining 4 levels in space manipulation, and 25kg of mass. I was now almost a meter tall.

*Grumble*

I heard a soft sound from nearby. I looked towards the floating fae and saw her holding her stomach with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Sorry, I forgot that most people need to eat." Then I paused for a bit. "What do fae eat."

"The same things as everyone else." She stated shyly. "Well, except you, I can't eat rocks."

"Should we just forage for some fruit or something? I could get a couple of birds but I don't have any way to cook them for you." I replied.

"Don't worry about that, I have a lighter." The fae said before a portal appeared in front of her. Nyssa reached inside and pulled out a small stone wand with a tiny glowing red end. "I can use space magic to collect some fruit and wood for the fire while you go hunting."

"Are you going to be alright out there?" I asked.

"Oh please, I've been flying around this forest for 2 months, I would be more worried about myself if I were you. You can't fly away when you get in trouble." She stated.

"Just don't get caught in a spider's web or something." I chuckled.

"See you soon!" The fae said, before speeding off into the woods.

I picked Thud up off the ground and sighed again at the name. 'It's getting a little small, I'll have to make it a bit bigger when I get back.' I thought absentmindedly before following the river down the into the forest.

Ten minutes later, I saw one of the robins, readied a stone, and fired.

It was then I realized a problem with my hunting method. How am I supposed to cook something that explodes into a mess of feathers, bones and flesh every time I kill one.

I ate it. It was just as disgusting as the last time. I did gain one point in dexterity though, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

It took me five minutes to find another, this time, however, I didn't shoot right away. I picked up a decent sized stone off the ground and divided it into 20 small pieces before rounding them into tiny balls.

I was making bird shot.

Due to a special action, Intelligence has increased by 1

I brought all of the pieces close together and looked back up towards the bird.

It flew off while I was playing in the dirt.

I grumbled and made 2 more sets of bird shot, keeping them all floating in the air didn't cost an excessive amount of mana and my regeneration mitigated most of it.

Shortly after, I came upon 2 birds sitting side by side on a branch.

'Jackpot.' I thought.

I launched the first bundle of shot at the birds and managed to injure one enough that it fell out of the tree. The other bird, however, was startled into a quick but rather short flight. I fired both of the other shots at it and it fell out of the air.

I grabbed the first bird, as it had landed nearby, and started walking towards the second when I heard a gruff hissing sound in a nearby bush.

I barely managed to drop the bird and ready Thud before a rat launched out of the bush trying to bite me. I didn't have enough time to swing the weapon, so I caught its bite with the haft, causing the rat to begin scratching at my chest and shoulders in a flurry of claws. I kicked the rat in its exposed underbelly with my stone foot, forcing it to release my weapon and fall back.

I reset my stance and glared at the rat in front of me, the thing is almost half a meter tall and over a meter long if you include the tail. It snapped at me with its crooked yellow teeth and started pawing at the ground.

A brief glance at my bars showed me at around 75% on each so I created a couple bullets from nearby stones in preparation for the next round of combat. The rat lunged towards me again but this time I was ready, I launched both stone bullets, one after the other. The rat attempted to dodge the bullets and managed to succeed in evading the first. The second round slammed into the upper right foreleg, causing the creature to stumble. I took the opportunity presented and swung Thud horizontally at the rat's head.

The rat scrambled to avoid the massive hammer and evaded a direct hit, however, it only resulted in losing its other foreleg to the blow. The rat was now scrambling to move using only its back feet, a hissing furry mess limping as it cried out. I reached down and touched the ground spending almost 30% of my mana to create a binding of earth over the creature to hold it steady so I could put it out of its misery.

I spun Thud in my hands so the axe-head was facing downwards and walked towards the rat. It was kicking its back legs and lashing its tail furiously, causing the binding to begin to crack at the base. I hefted Thud over my head and swung with full force down on the rat's neck, removing its head and ending the battle.

Over the course of the fight, I gained 2 levels in weapon mastery and 1 in earth manipulation, bringing me to levels 3 and 9 respectively.

I sat down and waited for 10 minutes to refill all of my health and most of my mana before removing the binding covering the rat.

'I should try and get what meat I can off this thing too.' I thought to myself before picking up a nearby fist-sized stone. I removed some of the excess, creating a rather brutal looking stone knife. I traced the knife along the rat's underside, scooped out the internal organs as best I could, and removed the fur. It left me with a nearly shredded pelt, a tail, some rather fatty meat, and a new type of skill.

You have gained the skill: Novice Dismantling

Passive: Remove useful parts from beasts and monsters

Increased knowledge of dismantling techniques for each level of this skill

Knowledge flooded into my brain, causing a surging headache and nearly making me black out. All of the information I gained showed me how poorly of a job I had done with the rat. I now knew exactly what I had done wrong with the pelt and how I could do a better job the next time.

After the rush of information finished, I shook my head to clear the black spots in my vision. 'What a rush. I hope that doesn't happen every time I gain a level in the skill.' I shuddered at the thought.

I dismantled the first bird on the spot, but didn't gain another level in the skill, and then walked over to the bush the rat had jumped out of. Inside was the other bird, half shredded by the rat in the short time it had been alone with it.

'Yeah, no. I'm not eating rat leftovers for any amount of stats.' I thought and turned away.

I cleaned the rat hide up a bit and used some large green leaves from the nearby trees to wrap up the bird and rat meat before using the hide as a sack to store it all. I then began heading back upriver towards the cave.

"What took you so long? I've been waiting here for almost an hour." Nyssa said as I came near.

"I got into a fight with a rat," I said, hefting the hide I was using as a sack. "There's a bird in here too if you aren't looking forward to rat meat."

With a sickly look on her face, she stated. "I think I'll stick to the bird, thanks. Can you make me a fire pit so we can get to lunch before I faint?"

"Of course, your majesty," I said with a grand wave of my hand, setting down my bundle and placing both palms on the ground, I lifted a circle of earth before hardening it in place.

Nyssa giggled at that, before filling the fire pit with twigs and lighting it with her little stone matchstick. I got a couple branches from the fae and carved some sharp points on them with before skewering the meat.

Once the fire was going, Nyssa gave me a bright green oblong fruit. "I already ate mine while I was waiting, but I saved one of them for you. They're quite tasty, if a bit sour."

I ate the fruit while waiting for the meat to cook. It had the texture of an apple and tasted like a mix between an apple and a lemon, appraisal showed it to be a 'river pear'. It was rather pleasant considering all I had eaten was raw meat and stone for almost a week.

After about half an hour the meat was fully cooked, I removed the bird meat from the branch using a few more leaves and placed it onto a small stone table I made near the fire.

"Dig in," I said to the little fae, and she ripped off a small piece of the bird before stuffing it in her mouth.

"It's delicious, thank you."

You have gained the skill: Novice Cooking

Passive: Create fabulous dishes from raw ingredients

Increased knowledge of cooking for each level in this skill

A wave of nausea hit me with another influx of information and I fell to one knee, almost causing me to drop the rat skewer.

"Raak! What's wrong!" Nyssa screamed from nearby.

I waved the fae down with my hand signalling that I was fine. "It's alright, I just got the cooking skill."

A wave of realization washed over her face as she calmed down. "Yeah, those knowledge skills always hit a bit hard when you first get them, but it only happens once per skill."

"Oh, good," I said. "I was afraid that might happen for every increase and I'm not sure I could stomach that."

Nyssa chuckled at that. "If that happened for every skill level, I don't think there would be a single crafter in the entire world." She said.

After that, I ate the entire portion of rat meat and got a rather nice pop-up.

'Forest Dire Rat' Has been ingested

Due to the Glutton skill, you have gained

4 strength 3 vitality 3 dexterity

A grin split my face as strength filled me at the changes.

Nyssa and I spent the rest of the afternoon near the fire as I trained in space manipulation continued eating stone. Nyssa got bored part way through and started flying around chasing small birds and insects.

I managed to gain another 2 levels in space manipulation and was weighing in at a whopping 104kg which brought me above 1 meter in height.

When we returned to the cave as the sun was going down, I now had to practically crawl through the stream to make it into the little cave section I had spent the last 5 days in.

"Goodnight Nyssa," I said quietly as I laid down.

"Goodnight Raak." The fae stammered out through a yawn.

'I'm going to need to find new living arrangements if I get any bigger.' I thought idly as I drifted off to sleep

Name Raak Race Earth Elemental Mass 104kg Str 9 Vit 9 Dex 8 Int 7 Wis 9 Hp 135 Mp 120 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 3 Novice Dismantling 1 Novice Cooking 1 Skill List - Active Level Glow 1(MAX) Novice Earth Manipulation 9 Novice Space Manipulation 7 Appraisal 1(MAX)