I teleport out of the core room into the anchor by the forward camp of the demons to test some skills. It is early morning, the long shadows of the mountains still loomed over the valley. I stand up and the trees are around the height of my chest. I'm huge. In the middle of a forest, I look like someone in a tall grass field. I thought about shapeshifting into some bird or flying around but something held me back.

Right after I teleported, a large rosebud sprouted from the ground grew all the way to my head level and bloomed. From within, there was a little thing that looks like a fairy girl. Sharp pointy elven ears, a light purple to pink flowing hair waist long, crystal blue eyes, a lightly tanned skin with some vines tattoo, A translucid pair of light-blue butterfly wings at her back. She is with a dress with a balloon skirt that seems to be made of flower petals with golden details. She is holding a rose like it is a scepter. On her feet pink ballerina slippers with green straps going up the thighs. She is smaller than my pinky finger but I am thirty feet tall. The faerie woke up and greeted me.

"Weee! Good morning ♪, Grendel!"

Spoiler: Spoiler

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://www.deviantart.com/foxy0422/art/Nico-as-a-female-Fairy-707518381

How do you know my name?"

"Wow, meanie! You don't need to be so suspicious, sweetie! I am your faerie guide! I have lots of knowledge about this world! Every hero should have one! You summoned me here, don't be a bad troll and give me a big smile!" And she seems to be the hyper-happy type of faerie.

"What is your name?"

"You are too concerned with names! But I don't have ~ one ♪. I mean, I was born right now, how could I have a name? Please give me a cute, cool, nice, and ~ groovy ~ ♪ name, Grendel!"

"You dress in flowers, you were born from a flower. I'll name you Petal."

She looked very happy after I named her. Then she took off from her flower and it immediately wilted and vanished. Buzzing her wings around, she did some acrobatic moves and hovered in front of me. I was grateful that she didn't trail glitter.

"Wee! Nice to meet you, Grendel. I am Petal your faerie guide. I was created out of your imagination. Thank you very much." I must congratulate her on how expressive she is. But I smell a cartload of trouble.

"And where will you guide me? Or you are the information type of guide?"

"I'm very sorry, but you see..." She makes an embarrassed face and fiddles with her fingers in front of her, "the 'guide' part was put in the skill name because it sounded cool... but I'm more like a traveling companion, someone to talk to and lighten up your day! I'm pretty ♪ to look at, right?" And she then spins around slowly making some cutesy poses.

"Does it mean you are basically useless, annoying baggage?"

She stops and grimaces. Right after that, she burst into tears. "Waa, meanie! Why did I have to be born to this bad troll? I'm useless! Annoying! Baggage!"

"Petal, drop the act. I know you are not crying for real." I don't know, but I'll just bluff here. If she is faking she might stop, if it is for real it will only aggravate a little.

And I was mistaken. She doubles up on the crying. She is mumbling something about 'swat me', 'annoying fly' and other self-depreciative things, but I can't fully understand it.

"Okay, I admit. I am a bad mean troll. You are cute and pretty. It is good to look at you." I'm not lying on this one. It really seems she was created from my imagination as she said.

She stops crying and looks at me with puppy eyes. "Are you lying?"

"No. Look, I have to go somewhere now, if you are coming with me, let's go. I need to get back home. Hold on, I'm going to fly."

"Can I do the 'guidance' thing now? I have some advice for you!" She puffs her chest with pride.

"Sure."

"Are you sure you should be going naked?" She points down. "I'm glad the treetops are hiding the family jewels!"

"Thanks, Petal."

"Tehe! Glad to be of use! But how are we getting clothes this big for you in the middle of a forest?"

"I can whip up something. But I'm too big to work right now. I'll turn into something smaller." I activate the transformation skill to become a chimpanzee. It is the only way I can use my sewing tools.

"Wow, you are like a surprise box!" She flies down and hovers next to me. Now that I can compare sizes, she is about one foot two inches tall.

"Ook, ook!" Chimps can't talk. Improvised illusion magic: Magic Mouth. "Good, now I can use this to talk. I'm going to work. Please don't interrupt me."

"Wow. A floating mouth. I can't touch it!" Of course not. It is an illusion. I got an idea. If she wants a playmate, I'll make one.

"Come here and stand still for a moment. Give me your hand" She puts her hand on my finger and I make a clone of her after raising the magic puppet skill to level 5.

"It is me! Me! I knew it! I am so pretty!" She takes the clone by the hands and spins her around. "But what is the deal with all this nakedness? Grendel you pervy!"

I take some cloth and quickly whip up some clothes for the clone.

"Petal and Petal Second, go play around here but don't go too far." I'll put a sentry and twilight totems just in case.

And now I will modify Beowulf's clothes to adjust in size with me. I'll use a C-rank pemadra. If I were more skilled back then I could've done it in one go. Ten minutes, one pemadra and a few drops of blood later, I dress up and undo the animal transformation. One little tricky thing, I can't dress human-sized clothes in the shape of the Colossus even if it is size-adjusting. Where does all the extra mass go to or come from? No idea.

"Petal, I'm done, please come back." No answer. Without even thinking of it, I used the telepathic link, "Petal, where are you?"

"I'm playing with Sepal as you told me!" She answered with the telepathic bond. I'll assume she named the clone sepal.

"Then come back right away. I'm leaving and you should come with me."

"Right-o!" A few minutes later the two faerie twins come. I put them in my pocket.

I cast reduce weight on me again and used the dragon wings and took to the skies. Half an hour later and Willow Hill was in sight. I could see it very well from here, and nothing was on fire. I sighed in relief.

Even though the size increased, I'm back to my old self. I hover from a distance, and there are several monsters waving. I'll do a round turn around the hill.

Helen's hive is at the north-west face of the hill, it is getting pretty big. I can count around thirty bees, some of the larvae already hatched. Good! And there she is. Waving with a smile. I should go down now. Maybe the anchor square should be fine. Slowly, slowly. Touchdown. Perfect landing, but the jury is still out.

Marcy and Zahariel come out to see me.

"Now that is a colossus. You even make a big shadow. We will need to get the party outside." Nobody is climbing me, so I warn.

"Wow, so big! I can barely reach above the knee!"

"This is going to be troublesome. It is too big."

Petal tugged on Sepal's hand and both fly out of my pocket.

"Hello! Nice to meet you! I am Petal! Wee! You are so beautiful, big sister!" And she goes on to harass Marcy.

Marcy looks at the faeries and then at me, "Why you keep this trend of bringing a new girl home every time you go away?" And shoots a completely baseless accusation.

"I don't even know if this can be considered 'girl' or not. It came as a bonus on one of my skills."

Helen reaches the square. "Too big. Please evolve into something smaller soon."

"I intend to... Oh. I got an idea." I'll just possess Sepal. I command the clone to come near me and then... possession. "This is easier to move around." But speaking with this whistle-like girly voice will be hard.

Helen picks me up and cuddles, "You are so cute, Grendel."

"And since he-she looks exactly like me I am cute too! Wee! Pleased to meet you. I am Petal!"

"Petal, right? You two are the cutest fairies I ever have seen! Pleased to meet you!" I bet they are the first too.

She boasts, "I am the faerie guide of Grendel, we will be working together... forever, I guess." And ends with a finger on her cheek.

"As I was telling Marcy, she came as a bonus on one of my skills."

"So a colossus gets a faerie? Strange, right?"

"No. I am ashamed to say, I used the pemadras from the wyverns. And it backfired a little... Things did a turn for worse. I thought I was in the safe, but it wasn't true."

Helen gives me the x-ray look. "A little means you are screwed, right?"

"Yes. Maybe too screwed. That is why I want to settle things around here the fastest possible. I will need to find a cure for this soul vessel thing."

"I already looked at the guild. There is no information," says Marcy.

Helen reads my face even with a faerie's body, "How much time do we have?"

"I think until the beginning of next fall." I hibernated for 16 days and it decreased by 3%. The remaining 46 should last for around 240 days. If things don't worsen.

Helen clutches me-fairy in her breast, "Two seasons? Only two seasons?" Her tears drip on me.

"We need answers. We need to start asking questions. But first, we need to solve the business with the demons and with Heorot. Once Willow Hill and Mirfield are safer, we are going to scour this world in search of an answer. And we are going to knock everywhere asking."

Zahariel that was watching until now steps closer, "Speaking of demons, we captured nine remnants of that army. They are in jail with the princess."

"I'll go there interrogate and wipe them. And we are going to Mirfield right after. Sorry for making you worry. I was stupid to rely on a power I knew was broken."

There is no time even for a reunion. I wasted sixteen days of Spring for what? Why me? Why give me such a broken thing? I have no answer.

I try to fly to the prison, but something won't let me. "Where do you think you are going, Grendel-fairy? You are not leaving my side. We are going there together after your party."

At the 'Happy Evolution' party, I finally met Caramel, the queen bee. It seems she hatched already tame. Also Mittens, now a 4th tier knight mantis. There are some round disks in the articulations before her scythes he can use as bucklers, and his head now has a carapace that looks like a triangular helmet. There was a little misunderstanding that I had evolved into a faerie, but c'mon. It is a female. There are no gender-bending evolutions. Or there are?

"Time to visit the prisoners then. I'll go in first and clean up. Don't stand by the door the smell is terrible. The same routine, go in wash them burn the trash, ventilate it out."

I enthrall the prisoners and then proceed with the interrogation. They were survivors from the company that was coming to attack us and were lost in the woods for ten days. They lost several of their comrades to monsters and in the end, surrendered when they met a patrol from our settlement. I only need the princess alive to use as a negotiation chip.

The others will be brought to the killing chamber to be executed as invaders. Petal came along, even though I told her to stay back. It seems she won't separate from me.

Grendel has gained 14 + 18 + 18 levels (4-Racial: 1 > 15, 3-Acolyte 1 > 19, 3-Scout 1 > 19) . + 348 SP

I teleported back to the square. I found out that Petal doesn't count against the teleportation passengers. In fact, she came even without touching me.

"Petal, what kind of guidance you can provide?"

"I know a lot about the geography of the world, about skills and magic schools. Also jobs, monsters, and items."

"Say, petal, you wouldn't know where can I find something to fix a damaged soul, would you?"

She stops to think for a while. "You could try making someone learn soul magic. But it has to be someone else, as you can't use soul magic on yourself." And gives an answer! "What is that? Don't make my copy do such faces, it is gross! I am very useful, did you know? I am a guide! A guide! I am born from an SS skill! Have some mercy!"

Oh, it is true. Sepal is her clone, they have the same face.

She pulls on my cheeks. Boy, these faerie bodies are flexible. Oh, well, better stop before it gets too dangerous for me. "Thank you so much Petal. And where can find someone to teach soul magic?"

"I don't know."

"Why didn't you say something before?"

"You didn't ask me, silly. I can't give answers if I don't know the question, can I?"

"It is a matter of lacking initiative then. You can't think for yourself. Is that it?"

"Are you calling me dumb? That is rude of you, Grendel! Of course, I have lots of initiative, I can do it, you know?"

"It means that you are not just some annoying hyper-active super-happy faerie that will be a bother. Is that it?"

"Of course! I am super useful and super strong too! And I have the initiative in spades!"

"Then try to answer my questions before I make them in the future."

"All right!"

"But also answer the ones I do ask too, okay?"

"You got it, boss! Kyaaa, my smile is so cute! Please smile more Grendel!"

I am sure this bird-brain faerie will barge in at the most inappropriate moments with random info I didn't ask for. But for someone born in the information age, having a random news feed is nothing.

"There is one thing we need to do now, and I want you to remind me to do that every day in secret."

"Oi? Secret dealings? Everyday? What might it be!"

"We need to go to a distant town to keep tabs on a person. Come, let's teleport."

With all these upgrades and the capped magical jobs I can reach Colchester easily. I teleport with Petal to the warehouse, the room with the anchor is clean but empty. And it is big. It is like we are in some giant's house. I use remote senses on Azelinus' house to check on Bredda. I want to take the girls here when the baby is about to be born. After peeking for a while in the house, I find her. Her belly is big and she could go into labor any day.

"Yes, they are all healthy. Good. Let's not disturb them too much. Shall we go, my guide?"

"Wow, what a good mood! See, it isn't it too hard to smile. ♪ Who were you peeping on?"

"My sister-in-law. She is about to deliver a baby any time."

"Oh! ♪ I see what is going on ♪ ... The giant troll is a big softie inside! Yay!" She holds my tiny fairy hands with her tiny fairy hands. "I'm here for you now. Do you want to hug and cry? I want to hug and cry."

"No, thanks. Let's go back."

"Okie! ♪ "