Mature Content Warning: There is none,really. There might be a little foul language, but nothing that I can think of at the moment.

Author's Note:

Chapter 6: Sweet Deal!

There are times in your life where you may feel that everything has gone wrong. Everything that you have done has led to an undeniably bad end. Until Scott had managed to uncover the hidden secret Fairy Grotto under the office of the Red Rock Mine, he had thought that about his current situation. However, things were not as hopeless as they had seemed initially.

“Are you saying that I can drink from this spring whenever I like?” asked Scott. The very idea invigorated his weary soul. The long battle had wounded more than his body over time. He had grown tired in spirit. The sacred spring water had restored his health and magic, but he was still weary from the constant battle that he had fought.

The fairy shimmered back into sight, and then spread her arms wide before she exclaimed, “Yes, any time that you like. In fact, please do. It has been quite lonely for me down here.”

“All right, you don’t know what this means for me!” Scott was excited. He had stumbled upon a free method of rapidly restoring his health and mana! It was infinite use, as well!

The Fairy giggled at him. She did not know why he was so excited, but it was certainly nice to see.”

“I’ll return in a moment. I need to test something, OK?” he asked.

“OK.” She smiled at him then fluttered about in a happy manner.

He smiled at the tiny girl in kind then left the grotto and went back up to the storage room. As soon as he got there he immediately began casting the flash spell repeatedly. Twelve casts later, he checked his skill status for the spell and noted that he was two casts away from increasing its level.

“Time to see if she was telling the truth!” he said with great excitement.

Scott returned to the grotto and drank some more of the sacred water. Less than a minute later his mana was once again completely restored. “Now, this is what I’m talking about!”

The Fairy blinked at him in an owlish manner. What was he talking about?

After she asked him about his odd behavior, he said, “I’m a sorcerer. I need to train my spells a bit before I go back to the battle I was fighting.”

“Ah, and you’ll use the spring to restore your mana. That’s smart!” The fairy nodded her head up and down rapidly.

“Thank you. I’ll be in and out for a while during my training. Is that alright?”

“Of course! I’ll be nice to see you so frequently.” The tiny girl was quite enthusiastic about his presence. Of course, at this point she would have been happy with anyone popping up. She had been alone for a long time.

Scott and the Fairy parted ways again. He headed back up to train his spells. She continued to flutter about with nothing else to do.

Time passed and Scott managed to master one of his spells, the flash spell. He had decided to just use the same spell until it was completely mastered. After the flash spell reached level four a new message appeared.

Congratulations, you have mastered the spell: Flash!

You are now able to choose a special one-time upgrade to further improve the spell. Please choose from the following options:

Status Affliction Increase

Range Boost

Force Up

Decrease Mana Consumption

“What is this? I can upgrade it?” Scott checked through the options and decided that the biggest issue with the spell was its range. He could already cast it using only four mana, and he did not really use it for its attack strength anyway.

Scott chose to boost the range of the magical attack. A brief musical fanfare occurred that made him smirk then he decided to test out the attack’s new capacity. He raised his hand, palm outward and cried out, “Flash!”

An electrical current shot out of the space in front of his hand then traveled a short distance, about double his arm-length before a bright light flared outward. He had to try it a few more times to get the idea of its actual range. If he used it in a tightly packed crowd he could probably stun several opponents at once now, though the range was still a bit limited.

“Sweet! I wonder what the other spells will be like.”

He could do nothing else with his flash spell, so began working on the burn spell instead. He could only manage another few casts before he had to go back to the spring. However, the level increased not long after he had returned to train once again. He grinned then set about the task of practicing his spells.

Back in the grotto the fairy heard the repeated explosions and wondered exactly what he was doing up there. She knew that he was training spells, but it seemed like it would be interesting to watch.

Once again, time passed. Scott mastered the burn spell and viewed his options. They were the same as the flash spell.

“I’ll increase the force this time.”

He mostly used the burn spell to clear a path or deal damage. So, exploding things better sounded like a good idea. He blinked when he saw the result. “The Force went up three points?”

The sorcerer stepped further toward the back of the room then called out, “Burn!”

His customary flaming dart, now the size of a golf ball actually, raced outward from his palm. The explosion that occurred when it hit the wall made the whole room shake. He clutched his ears and dropped to his knees due to the shock and pain of being too near the explosion. It was like he had set off a claymore mine, or an abnormally powerful grenade.

You have been stunned for thirty seconds!

Your vision and hearing have been damaged.

You have taken minor internal injuries and will lose one health per minute until they are repaired.

His vision swam and his ears rang for a time, but he eventually regained his composure enough to climb down the ladder and go drink some water. The negative effect on his health was cleared.

“What happened?” asked the Fairy.

“I was a dumbass who forgot that you shouldn’t use powerful explosives in a closed room.”

“Oh...” She looked at him with both pity and confusion. He had been using explosive spells for a while now. What had changed?

“Anyway, I’m almost done training. Thanks for putting up with Me.” said Scott. He felt like a moron because of what happened. His burn spell had not produce that much explosive force before, so he did not think that increasing the force by three points would cause such a major growth in output.

“It’s been great having you here.” She smiled at him.

“It has been nice meeting you as well.” He returned her smile with a friendly one of his own. They stood there and smiled at each other for a while before Scott told her that he would be back shortly. He had to train more.

Scott returned to the storage room and quickly began working on his freeze spell. He has a little further along in its usage, so training it did not take as long as the other spells. It still took many trips back and forth to the spring, though. Once he reached the final level of mastery he was granted the ability to upgrade his spell.

“I’ll increase the freezing effect since that’s what I mostly use it for...” Scott chose to increase the status affliction aspect then grinned. It now had a one in four chance of freezing any opponent that was not resistant to frost or who could not resist his magical in general. There was a ninety-nine percent chance of freezing an opponent that was weak against ice, if they could not resist his magic in general.

“Hell yeah, who’s a magical badass?” asked Scott. He started to dance around and punch at the air like an idiot. If he managed to make it out of the mine in one piece, he intended to train all of his basic spells here. There were several more that he could acquire if he spent the ability points necessary for them to become available.

That would have to come later, though. He had not finished his most recent battle and the hunting trips that he had made before had been much shorter than he would have liked. He did not even have thirty ability points to spend at the moment.

Scott stopped dancing around like a moron after his moment of elation passed. He had to finish planning for his coming battle. The monsters that he faced seemed to be rather stupid, but he could not count on that. They did know how to work together. Well, the goblins did at least.

He pulled out his new boomerangs and gazed upon them intensely for a moment. Their most basic information popped up in front of him not long after.

Blessed Master Ironwood Boomerangs of the Hawk [Unique]

A paired set of boomerangs that were granted by divine providence. They are usable only by the one who they were designed for specifically. While they are made of a low-grade material, they were crafted by a true master. They have been blessed by the goddess Origin and contain the spirit of the hawk.

Attack: 20 (each)

Range: 30

Value: 42000

Enhancements:

Master-crafted

Weapon Attack X 2

Weapon Range X 2

Weapon Durability X 2

Spirit of the Hawk

Accuracy + 10 (Each)

Agility +5 (Each)

Attack + 5 (Each)

Special

Eyes of the Hawk

Target enemies with greater ease - Lock-on ability activated.

Critical attack chance increased by 10%

Absolute Return

Even if caught or stolen, the boomerangs will always return to their true owner.

Soul Bound

The boomerangs cannot be lost via death.

“Holy Shit!” He had expected them to be decent, but this was great. He would still lose a bit of his attack, and a lot of his defense, by equipping them due to losing the bonus from unarmed combat. Still, they were very good for his level.

Further, he still kept the attack and defense bonuses from his boots and gauntlets since they counted as wearable weapons, a separate slot from held weapons. Scott equipped his sweet looking boomerangs then checked his stats.

Name: ScottClass: SorcererRace: HumanAge: 18Level: 7EXP: 2176Next: 364Ability Points: 29Health: 90[90]Mana: 101[101]Attack: 30[201]Defense: 30[266]Strength: 34[34]Agility: 31[30]Accuracy: 22[37]Intellect: 35[35]Luck: 16[16]

He only lost the unarmed combat bonus from his strength and agility. He kept his armor bonus and attack from his gauntlets and boots. Strangely, he had actually increased his attack power slightly. His defense was fifty points lower overall, however. His boomerangs did not bolster defense at all.

“That seems a little off though; shouldn’t accuracy be forty-two?” He could not see any reason for it to be five points lower than it was supposed to be, but he decided not to worry about it.

Scott closed his status screen then opened up his skill upgrade menu to check on the boomerang skill-set. His eyes widened even as he grew more excited. There were stat modifiers, including level-up modifiers, for his attack, agility, and accuracy. He wanted to click on them, but realized that he still had to actively upgrade his basic knowledge of boomerang skills first. He clicked on the option named Basic Dual-Boomerang Mastery, and expended ten of his precious ability points.

Congratulations! You have acquired basic mastery of dual-boomerang weapon usage!

Your attack will now be modified by Accuracy X 1.5 when wielding a boomerang weapon.

You receive no accuracy penalty for dual-wielding boomerangs.

+ 5 Accuracy

+ 5 Agility

+ 5 Attack

Scott blinked then a slow, stupid, smile spread across his face. This, this was great! It was ridiculous, but great! He immediately checked his status again.

Name: ScottClass: SorcererRace: HumanAge: 18Level: 7EXP: 2176Next: 364Ability Points: 18Health: 90[90]Mana: 101[101]Attack: 30[277]Defense: 30[271]Strength: 34[34]Agility: 35[20]Accuracy: 22[47]Intellect: 35[35]Luck: 16[16]

Scott stared at his stats for a moment then smirked. That could definitely work. After everything was added up, he had actually gained nearly sixty points in attack overall!

At the moment, his boomerangs provided him much greater attack capacity that his unarmed combat skills. However, that was a numerical advantage only. He would not know the true capacity of his new ability until he actually utilized it.

It was almost time to head back to the battle. He returned to the grotto one final time to restore his mana and make certain that he was as ready as he could possibly be. Upon arrival the Fairy floated over to him, a smile on her face.

“Hi! You came back again.” She was happy to see him and it showed.

“Yes, I needed to drink from your spring one more time before I finish things up above.”

“Finish things? Do you mean, the battle that you were engaged in?” asked the tiny girl.

“Yeah, I don’t know how things will turn out. There were a lot of monsters left, and there could be even more by now since they seemed to want to keep coming while I had to deal with the others.”

The diminutive flying girl placed a finger to her chin and said, “Hmm...”

Scott could not help but chuckle at her expression. It was adorable.

“I might know of a way that I can help you.” she said.

“You do? I would appreciate it, though I’ve already been helped a great deal.”

“No, no. The spring helped you... but I want to help you personally. Will you let me?”

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

Her entire body took on a light red shade of color. “I... You... You could accept me as a guardian spirit.”

“A guardian spirit?” Scott thought of several obvious implications from a gaming standpoint.

“Yes, guardian spirits are spirits of nature who have chosen to join with a mortal as a protector. Basically, I would merge with you and you could use some of my power or even summon me to appear.”

“Oh, like a summoned being?”

“Yes, sort of... Would you like for me to become a guardian? You aren’t a summoner so... you can only have a few guardians.”

At the moment he could use all of the help that he could get. She also seemed to be both shy and hopeful. The tiny girl had been rather nice to him as well, so he had no problem with it.

“Sure, if you want to protect me I won’t stop you.” he said.

“Great! That’s great! OK, I hereby grant you my protection as your guardian spirit!” said the fairy with great enthusiasm.

A riotous musical fanfare erupted all around them and a message screen popped up congratulating him on making a fairy contract. It went on to explain how that contract worked in detail.

The Fairy faded from sight not long after. Scott looked around but could not see her.

“Hey, where did you go?” he asked.

He heard a soft giggle that seemed to echo slightly. “I’m insii-iide your he-ad! Tee hee.”

Scott laughed at the perky sounding innuendo but before he could say anything he saw something that disturbed him a bit. The radiance from the sacred spring had begun to die down. “What’s happening?”

“Since I am now your guardian spirit, I cannot maintain the spring. My powers are yours to command. This place will still be useful for acquiring pure water and other similar things, but its restorative power will be gone soon.”

Scott did not waste any further time. He launched himself toward the spring and began to drink as much water as he could. He had not yet restored his mana. It took several drinks of water, but he managed to restore his magical energy completely before the spring’s luminescence died altogether.

“Uhm, Fairy? What can you do anyway?”

“Do? Oh, you mean my powers? I can protect you from random encounters and I can heal you.” she replied.

So, a healing ability and protection from random encounters? That wasn’t a bad trade-off for losing a spring that restores your health. The spring would only be useful while he was in the mine, after all.

“Well, are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes! I want to see more of the world with you.” Her tone of voice made her sound both excited and shy at the same time.

“Great! I intend to see as much of it as I can.” replied the sorcerer.

He heard a happy little cheer echo inside his head. The nameless Fairy was certainly excited about that prospect. “Hey, what’s your name anyway?”

“Name? My name is Fairy, of course.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, you can call me something else if you want.” replied the girl who was currently resting comfortably inside his mind.

Scott was surprised to see a window pop up with an alpha-numeric keypad. “Would I like to change your name...? Do you want a different name?”

“If you want to give me one... I’d love a name, if you gave it to me.” The shy tone of her reply was a cause of mild concern for the man. What was he getting himself into?

“A name, huh...?” He looked at the blinking cursor and considered what to call her. What was a proper name for a Fairy?

“Oooh, who’s Rhea?” asked the girl, suddenly.

“Rhea? How do you know about her?” asked Scott.

“A guardian force rests inside the mind of their master, so I have to make room among your memories. They are fine, of course. I don’t get rid of them or anything. Still, I have to look at them a little to find a proper place to inhabit.”

“Oh... That’s not disturbing at all...” replied Scott.

He heard her soft feminine giggle in response, but the giggle turned quickly into a gasp. “Oh, goodness... What an interesting memory!”

“What are you looking at?”

“You had a dream about the Rhea person just the other night. It was quite interesting.”

“Uh...” Scott’s eyes widened at the implications.

“Is she really that flexible? I did not think that was biologically possible.”

“Hey, quit looking at that you perverted Fairy.” cried out Scott.

Her feminine laughter was her only response. He just knew that she would look at that dream even more now. Stupid brain and its sexy imaginings!

Scott frowned. He did not like her looking at his memories, but what could he do now? He had agreed to have her along.

He looked down at the naming screen and suddenly realized how he could have his revenge. He typed in three letters and hit enter. “Your name is now, Ero.”

“Ero... Ero? I like it! Why that name, though?” asked the Fairy.

“You’re a perverted little Fairy, so I named you accordingly.” replied Scott.

Ero was silent for a moment. Scott felt a weird sensation inside his skull. When she did speak it was to say, “That’s what

Ero is? This is going to be a fun adventure!”

“Did you just check my memory to find out the meaning of your name?”

“Yeah! I’m really excited now.”

Scott slapped himself in the forehead then sighed. He had corrupted a sweet and innocent little Fairy. He had introduced her to the concept of erotica. Somehow, that seemed like it would end up being a problem.