"Asking nicely?" Clara asked, stunned.

"Well, yeah," I responded simply. "I told you that you couldn't order me to do anything, I didn't say that I would refuse a request."

"Um, in that case. Mr. Raak, could you please escort me back home to Ostentius?" She said, suddenly looking much brighter than she had moments ago.

"Sure, no problem. But not today, it's too late in the day to even make it even back to the road before nightfall." I easily accepted, seeing as how I was already planning to escort her. It helps that we'll have a guide as well, seeing as I'm not sure if people would attack me simply for going near a city.

Clara seemed visibly relieved that I accepted so easily. "Mm, thank you very much." She said, before suddenly realizing something. "That's right, my bedroll is here, did you manage to save anything else from the carriage?"

"You could say that," I replied, before looking over at Nyssa.

The little fae put on a grin before floating over to an empty space. A large portal opened up and moved sideways revealing an entire, but slightly burnt, carriage.

Contrary to what I had thought, Clara didn't stare at the carriage at all. To my surprise, her eyes were locked directly on Nyssa.

After a very long moment, Clara finally managed to fumble something out, "F-F-F-Fae!" She yelled while pointing at Nyssa.

Nyssa, finally realizing what was happening opened her eyes wide and quietly said, "Oops."

"Eeeeh? What's going on?" I glanced between the two of them. "Of course she's fae?"

"I thought she was a fairy! Nobody has seen a fae in more than a thousand years! Most people don't even believe they exist!" Clara spouted. "But she has to be fae, fairies can only use illusion magic!"

"It's been that long since your people hid away in the fae realm?" I asked Nyssa.

"Nnn, it's been even longer actually. The ones that were seen that recently might be exiles like myself." She said quietly. "Or they might have been fae who simply couldn't or didn't want to leave with the rest."

"That makes sense, I guess. Well, I suppose we'll just have to get rid of Clara to make sure that nobody else finds out." I said while hefting Thud to my shoulder.

Clara immediately started backing away, pale faced with terror. "P-P-Please, don't kill me, I won't tell anyone!"

"Raak! Stop that, you're terrifying the poor woman." Nyssa scolded from the side.

"Did you see the look on her face, though?" I said, setting Thud down and walking back to the fire. "It was totally worth it."

Nyssa made an exaggerated sigh, before speaking to Clara. "He's not actually going to hurt you, he just has a really really terrible sense of humour."

Clara fell to her knees with tears at the corner of her eyes, before grumbling under her breath. "Scared me half to death! Stupid golem!"

"I heard that. And I'm a stupid elemental, not a stupid golem." I said to Clara.

"How can you even hear me whispering from over there! Stupid elemental!" She yelled back.

"I ate a wolf and got enhanced senses," I said flatly.

She glared at me. "That's not even how that works!"

"It does for me," I said, shrugging.

"You should really take his word on this one," Nyssa interjected, then looked over to me for permission. I nodded. "He got plant manipulation from a treant, and sneak from a goblin, as well." She said before explaining my skill to Clara.

"That- Sulira's tiny tits! How did you even get that skill!" She yelled once the explanation was over.

"Is Sulira the name of the goddess?" I asked, getting a nod from Nyssa in return.

"Then I got it from Sulira," I said flatly, causing not only Clara's eyes to go wide but Nyssa's as well.

""What!"" they both shouted together.

"What?" I asked back, putting a mock look of confusion on my face.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Clara yelled. "Did you really get that skill from the goddess."

"Sure, I mean it's the least she could do after hitting me with that meteor." I nodded to myself with a smug look on my face.

Both of the girls went wide eyed again and started shouting questions at me. A few minutes later, once I had finally calmed them down, I told them the story. I told them all about my sudden death and subsequently sudden rebirth as well.

"Everything makes so much more sense now," Nyssa said with a sigh. "You know so much about a lot of different things, but almost nothing about magic or monsters."

"Doesn't that make you a hero?" Clara asked, she saw the quizzical look on my face and continued. "One of the people brought from another world to combat the demons."

"Well, she said I could do whatever I want," I said. "So if I really wanted to, I could go fight the demons. She just told me to come here and have fun."

"So you came here, to another world, for what? A vacation?" The redhead asked.

I nodded. "Mmm, basically, yeah. Anyone want more juice?"

Both girls let out a long sigh, before turning towards each other.

"He's insane," Nyssa said and nodded.

"And so is the goddess," Clara replied, nodding as well.

"Well if nobody wants anymore, I'm going to drink it all," I said, ignoring them.

""I'll have some."" they said in unison.

"That's better. Now that that's over with, can I have one of the shields, Nyssa?"

Nyssa floated over to me before opening a portal, out of which a fairly large tower shield fell. The front of the shield was blue and had a white tree with no leaves in the center. It really is a rather beautiful design.

I bit it.

Nyssa just ignored my antics, as they were just the usual, but Clara watched with rapt attention. It didn't take me long to finish the shield, gaining me another 10kg and some nice grey veins to go along with the red ones now running through my skin.

"I look like a diagram of human blood vessels," I said looking down at my hands.

I then molded my right hand into a wolf head, using stone for the fur, impure iron for the eyes, and pure iron for the teeth. It made for a very domineering look.

"That's so cool," Clara spoke under her breath.

"Thanks," I said, using the wolf head to speak instead of my regular head.

"Eeeeeh?" She looked from my head, then to the wolf, and back again. "How does that even work?"

"Mostly by instinct, I can feel the wolf head, and use both sets of senses if I want, but it's really disorienting to use more than one set at a time. Doubly so since the wolf ones are even more sensitive than my already enhanced senses. I think it's due to the structure of the ears and nose, mostly." I answered as best I could. "But really, I'm figuring most of this out as I go."

I looked toward the sun, which was just starting to dip below the horizon and said, "Clara, you can keep my bed for the night, I'll just sleep outside the door once I close it. You can just knock in the morning if I'm not already awake. Nyssa, do you have enough mana to put the carriage back in storage?"

"The carriage!" Clara spouted. "I forgot all about it. Raak, do you think you can move the chest off the back inside, so I can change my clothes?"

I nodded "Sure, just give me a minute." I said while walking over to the back of the carriage.

Nyssa suddenly panicked a bit before saying to Clara, "Ah no! the lid is-"

"Ooh panties," I said.

"-Broken" She finished quietly.

"Eh? Eeeeeeeh!?" Clara yelled before rushing over, only to find me carrying back a chest with no lid. A lovely white pair of panties was sitting right on the top of a pile of clothes and other daily necessities. Clara paled a bit, before grabbing the small white cloth and stuffing it into the side of her chest plate.

""Pervert."" Both women glared and said at the same time.

I just shrugged and kept walking towards the entrance. "What's the difference between a pair of panties with nobody in them and a handkerchief?" Both women seemed stunned for a while at that but didn't say anything.

I carried the chest into the room and set it down near the bed. "If there's anything you need, just let me know, I'll be right outside," I said and started walking back to the door, I was quickly interrupted, however.

"Um, where's the bathroom?" Clara asked, shyly.

""Eh?"" Nyssa and I both said at the same time.

"Ah! you're human, I completely forgot about certain things since I became an elemental," I said apologetically. "Nyssa, can I get a hand?"

"Un!" the fae floated over to where I was.

I first used earth manipulation to slide the bed over underneath where Nyssa's room was, and then started turning a portion of the wall into bricks. I quickly cleared out a doorway and a small room about 4x6 meters, with Nyssa collecting the bricks as I went. I then dug a deep pit and created a toilet over it. The toilet was a simple thing, just a toilet bowl with a tank that you fill with water. You pull a stone lever which dumps the water through the toilet itself and down into the pit. After which I built a small sink, connected to the same pit. I created some buckets and filled the toilet from the stream connected to the room.

"Alright, when you want to flush the toilet, just pull on this lever here," I explained to Clara. "It will need to be filled every time you use it, but it's much better than just a pit. Just give me a minute and I'll get you a door."

I went outside and quickly came back with one of the river pear seeds. I planted the seed in the ground and simply grew a door, right there in the doorway. I attached it to the wall on one side with a simple hinge made of stone and created a latch on the other side to hold the door closed. Then I detached the roots from the ground so the door could swing freely. I also plucked one of the pustules from a nearby glowshroom and used plant manipulation to grow a new one in the bathroom.

"There, one bathroom, completely finished," I said and turned around.

Nyssa was standing there looking at my handiwork and nodding. Clara, on the other hand, seems to have lost control of her bottom jaw, seeing as how it was trying to escape towards the floor. I started chuckling under my breath and Nyssa looked over towards Clara. After realizing what was going on, the little fae flew under Clara's chin and used both hands to lift it back closed, giggling the whole time.

"You, what level is your earth manipulation?!" Clara finally exclaimed once she had returned her jaw to functioning form.

I took a quick look and realized it had gone up by 2 points, before answering, "Journeyman level 3, now."

"Wha- Do you even realize what this means?" She asked.

"That I can manipulate earth more easily than I could at apprentice?" I answered, half a question.

"NO! It means you aren't just a mage, you're a grand magus." She said flinging her arms in the air.

She noticed that this time, not only was I puzzled, Nyssa was as well.

"It's a title used to describe the different levels of mages. Novice manipulation is just known as a novice, Apprentice makes you a mage, Journeyman makes you a grand magus and being expert makes you an archmage." Clara explained with a dispirited tone.

I turned towards Nyssa, to see a small grin on her face. In the most pompous tone I can manage, I said. "Well then, does that mean I have to call you Archmage Nyssa from now on?"

Nyssa giggled a bit before replying, "Of course you do, Grand Magus Raak." In a higher pitched, but equally pompous voice.

Again, it seemed to me like Clara's jaw was attempting another escape. She looked between the two of us, then snapped her jaw shut and sat down on the bed.

"Insane, the both of them. I must be dreaming. Why else would I find a fae archmage and an earth elemental grand magus? Yup, that must be it. I'll just go to sleep tonight, and wake up in my carriage, this whole thing never happened." She mumbled quietly.

"I think Clara needs to sleep soon, she's losing her grip on reality," I said, nodding together with the fae, before leaving the room. I shut the door, leaving only a small gap, so I could hear them if they needed me to open it.

About 15 minutes later, Clara finally managed to calm down.

"So, when are you going to tell him?" Clara asked while changing into her nightclothes.

"Tell him what?" Nyssa asked nervously while washing her face in the fountain.

"That this isn't your true form," Clara replied.

"Haaaa, so you did know," Nyssa sighed before wiping her face with a small towel. "I probably should tell him, shouldn't I. I was originally in this form simply because I don't need as much food and it's easier to hide. After that, I simply didn't know how to tell him."

"Well, that works as long as you don't use magic. However, it would be easier to pass yourself off as a half elf if you want to keep using it. There shouldn't be anyone in Ostentius who can tell what you really are." Clara said.

"Alright, I'll tell him in the morning. At least I'll be able to wear some different clothes for a change."

"..."

Of course, I'll just pretend I didn't hear the entire conversation.

Name Raak Race Alloy Elemental Mass 229kg Str 48 Vit 52 Dex 36 Int 22 Wis 20 Hp 760 Mp 310 Skill List - Passive Level Glutton 1(MAX) Crystal Core 1(MAX) Journeyman Photosynthesis 5 Novice Hand to Hand Fighting 4 Apprentice Two-Handed Weapon Mastery 6 Novice Dismantling 8 Novice Cooking 9 Novice Leatherworking 4 Novice Enhanced Senses 10 Apprentice Sneak 3 Skill List - Active Level Glow 1(MAX) Journeyman Earth Manipulation 3 Apprentice Space Manipulation 2 Novice Plant Manipulation 10 Appraisal 1(MAX)