The day was getting darker again and Michael sat against a tree, taking bits out of the block of cheese and nibbling on them while he waited for Tock to finish his work. The poor hobgoblin was trying to take apart a monster about as big as him, whining as blood covered every part of itself. Michael didn’t bother looking, instead watching out for predators with his back turned. He sighed, taking another bite of cheese before drinking it down with water. It was the only food he had and he was worried about malnutrition, or at least about getting sick from too much dairy.

His body was completely fine, though. His skin was still glowing and the bruises and scrapes he received from the last few fights, aside from the bruise on his stomach, were almost gone. His skin wasn’t even tanning, a pale white that made him feel almost nonhuman. He was sure if he looked in a mirror he’d look better and healthier than even his past self. It was unnerving to see his body heal at such superhuman speeds. He looked down at his stomach, a tiny imprint of muscle shown through the skin, but all in all he looked skinny, weak.

So why was he able to do so much more now? He got tired half as quickly and even though he was physically weaker than before he could carry things forever without getting anywhere near tired. He never felt sore for long, either. A bunch of little things that were hard to notice all added up to make him doubt if he was really all that human anymore. Maybe that was just how the humans of this world worked? The goddess did say something about him having a body that only some humans in the world had, he could chalk it up to that.

He really shouldn’t think too far into this, as if it would change anything. Like most problems, he had right now he shoved it to the back of his mind. Taking one last sip from his bottle, he corked it and walked over to Tock, grabbing a spare knife to help. He took another look at the gross thing, it looked like a lizard that had eaten too much. It was only a few feet tall but the size of it was as big as a crocodile. Fortunately, the thing didn’t seem to have teeth... or any sense of hostility for that matter.

It tried running away when he and Tock had snuck up on it. It was fast as hell but fortunately, the thing got tired fast. With the blood spell, they’d found it easily enough, and with it exhausted it was pretty much an easy kill. He didn’t even have to use the flamethrower spell. A few stabs with a knife and he and Tock had killed that thing. Good and dead. He had left the hobgoblin alone to butcher it for a good and long while, all while he ate. He sighed, gagging at the warm and sweaty copper smell as he crouched alongside Tock. It was about time he helped.

It wasn’t fast, even with the two of them working at once. The last animal he had killed was less than half the size and easy to lug around. This one was a slog to get through. They had each cut pairs of the legs off and started there. Eventually, they had finished and began the next difficult step. While Michael forced Tock to gut the monster he went at its tail, just cutting chunks of meat out of it until Tock was done. He let the poor, exhausted hobgoblin tree as he took apart the ribcage and separated it from the spine.

Deboning everything took another hour but eventually, everything was finished. Most of the meat wasn’t useful, he only had one magic stone at the moment, thanks to the lizard. What he needed were the bones. He set the lantern to face the bone pile and started blasting away, eventually receiving a pile of crisp, brittle bones. He went on for a few minutes more until he was absolutely sure they’d turn to powder with just a bit of force.

He wiped the sweat off his brow. It was already pitch black at this point so he had ordered Tock to get some firewood for light and all that was left was for him to create the ritual. He took a chunk of meat from the pile, a piece of leg muscle that was crudely cleaved off. He placed it to the side as he waited for the bones to cool down, poking them with the lantern’s staff every once in a while to make sure the bones weren’t too far gone. This’d probably be a finer dust than the last, which definitely meant something good, right?

He didn’t get to think about it since Tock tock had already come back with some wood. The poor Hobgoblin had bitten off more than he could chew and was barely able to walk straight, wobbling left and right as the wood leaned dangerously close to falling. It was pretty admirable but Michael was too worried about the poor hobgoblin to praise it. “Woah, just leave it there, Tock. I have something else for you to do.” The hobgoblin sighed in relief and released the haul in front of him, forgetting his feet were in the way. Michael didn’t pay any mind to his green friend as they cried holding their own foot. Once the commotion was over he ordered the hobgoblin to crush the bones in the jar.

He started the fire soon after, sitting near the flame while Tock worked away. He took a quick glance at the leftover lizard meat, boredom making him wonder if it was good to eat. Thankfully he remembered that he didn’t know if it was poisonous or not, and threw the idea away. ...maybe he’d let Tock have a bite first, see if anything bad happened to him. He chuckled as he poked the hot coals as if he’d let the poor little green guy get hurt on his watch.

He didn’t even know if Tock could eat, honestly. He hadn’t eaten or whined about the lack of food, and the goddess had only ever told him that Tock needed magic crystals… Which he hadn’t given him either. Shit, he really wasn’t doing a good job as his new role of fancy wizard, huh? He took out the magic stone that he was going to use, hesitating on using it for the new summons. He had no idea how familiars worked, maybe Tock would just poof into smoke if he didn’t get the magic stones, maybe he’d just waste away and die terribly…

But he needed to do this fast, there was no time to waste, and the size of the stone was massive compared to the rest, almost half the size of his fist. Whatever would come from this could almost be on the same level as Tock, and he had used all his stones for that one. Though, he didn’t want something to fight with. Even Tock probably wasn’t all that useful in that scenario. “Tock! Are you done? We need to do this soon.” He looked over and was surprised to see the hobgoblin crushing the bones in the jar with his bare hands with strength that surely didn’t look like it belonged.

The bones were gravelly but that was only because Tock went for the next bone the moment he was finished with the former. Michael was shocked. “Tock, Woah! Why didn’t you have the same enthusiasm carrying my stuff? Good work, man.” He shouted, slapping the hobgoblin in the back and shocking him out of focus. The goblin looked back and gave him an unsure, meek smile. Michael knew that smile, it was always on someone who didn’t know if they should be proud of what they did. “Seriously, Tock. Good job on the powder. Just grind up whats inside the jar a little more and we’ll have everything we need, ok?”

Tock nodded furiously, smiling widely as he shoved both hands into the jar with as much gusto as he could. Michael watched in awe for a second as the hobgoblin muscles suddenly grew a bit, small amounts of blue wisps coming from Tock’s body. The hobgoblin had grown a noticeable size as he started crushing the insides of the jar, taking more bones from the pile and crushing them into dust as well. It went on until Tock let out a deep breath, turning back to normal and taking the jar happily towards Michael, who was rattled beyond belief.

He had no idea how to react to what he saw... He took the jar, taking a few uncertain steps back. Whatever had happened was definitely a good thing, right? “Uh, good job Tock. Go get some rest.” The hobgoblin nodded happily and ran over to where the sack was, lying down next to it and getting some probably very needed shuteye. Michael kept an eye on him as his chest rose and fell, glancing at the jar of almost purely powdered bone. What the hell did he just see? Did goblins become berserkers when they evolved? Crap, what if he had run into a hobgoblin before he knew about that!? He would have seen an easy kill, only to be turned inside out by the monster.

The thought sent a shudder down his spine. He really needed to get out of this godforsaken forest. The only way to do that was through the terrible goddess, though. He sighed and took the jar over to the meat pile. Now that he had a surplus of bone he decided to go for a bigger monster. Maybe about as big as Tock. At first, he had thought about getting a bird but he had realized just how bad that could have gone. This was a forest full of monsters, who knew what was in the skies, waiting for some poor innocent little familiar to rear it’s head.

He needed something that could at least have the smarts to hide itself when that happened. Something with human levels of intelligence. Hell, it had to be at least smarter than him. He thought back to what the notebook had said, species and monsters that inhabited the forest. The harpies it mentioned were probably smart enough to hide from anything, if it spoke it could also tell him invaluable information… Well, he had to know what a harpy looked like in the first place, though. Not to mention the fact that last time when he wished for something human he got a green oversized goblin.

He’d hope for the best and think of a human with wings, he finally decided. Grabbing as many muscle and non-reeking bits of flesh he could find, he began the ritual. The beginning wasn’t difficult, he knew that now. It was what was going to happen next that would hurt. He prepared himself with the knife, wishing his hands weren’t so dirty for what he was about to do. He slashed his finger and poured the blood onto the ritual, placing the large magic gem right on top. Michael took a few steps back and thought of a human with wings he uttered the ritual. “Don’t leave me alone.”

A shudder went down his spine as he said it, and for a second he thought he’d done something wrong. The ritual bubbled and flourished into itself, but not with the same fervor it had done before. A section of the flesh remained flesh as the bone desperately climbed up to make the frame. It was a weak and tiny frame, skinny and fragile compared to the hobgoblin. The bone dust had finally formed into a frame just as the bubbling flesh had turned a dark black. He hadn’t looked this far before, choosing to close his eyes when he had made Tock.

He was right to have done so. The black flesh folded itself into a skin, draping itself onto the frame and shuddering into the right place. It bloated and tightened onto the bone as flesh entered, slowly being filled through the bottom like a sausage casing. It took a balloon-like animal form in places and then molded and tightened into actual recognizable body parts, until the end when the whole creation was finished. Michael was sick, his brain was lightheaded and he felt like he was going to pass out. He was so out of it that he didn’t notice the snake tattoo on his arm squeezing the life out of him.

The next time he made anything he'd make sure to look away. Once he had pulled himself back together he decided to get a good look at the monster. It was a tiny black creature, no more than a foot tall. It stood amongst the remnant flesh and bone that didn’t get sucked up. The creature rubbed its eyes and looked up at him, which was when he noticed the horns. It was a little devil monster.

It looked almost like what he’d thought a fairy would look like, except for its glowing yellow eyes and completely black skin. The bat wings didn’t help either, he thought as the little creature unfurled them. He poked the thing in the head and watched in utter disappointment as it screamed like a baby bird, falling on its side. It stood back up and inched away from him, it’s eyes darting around as if it had no idea what it was doing here. After a bit of panicking it locked onto him, eyes narrowed as if Michael were the suspicious one in this situation... He looked down at his shirtless, tattooed body covered in blood, sighing. Maybe he was a little suspicious. It showed more intelligence than Tock, at least, who was still comfortably sleeping next to the tree.

That wasn’t the main problem right now, though. He needed to remedy the situation. “Hey, little guy… I’m not gonna hurt you. We’re buddies now, or something… right?” Weren’t the monsters bound to him or something? Wait… did Tock just follow him out of luck? He reached his hand slowly to it, making sure not to act the least bit threatening. The black fairy thing looked at him for a couple more seconds before jumping onto his palm. It opened and chirped like a bird, a sweet and beautiful song that reverberated through him. Unlike a bird, however, the chirps sounded like an intelligent language, as if it were trying to tell him something.

It kinda sounded like a greeting, he guessed. “Um, hi? How are you?” It tilted it’s head at the question only for it to fly up to him and punch him on the nose. His head rolled back and he stumbled a bit before catching himself, the fairy’s punch a lot stronger than it seemed. Michael almost crushed the thing in his hands, moments before he heard a tinkling bell sound. The black fairy was back on his hand, on its back laughing its heart out while shaking it’s little legs in the air. It’d have been cute if it didn’t look so evil, and if it hadn’t just bopped him on the nose.

He wrapped his hand around it, making sure it wouldn’t go anywhere. The fairy complained and struggled, looking at him with angry eyes. It almost escaped with it’s inproportianate strength, but he managed to hold it tight. At some point it stopped struggling, looking at him with narrowed eyes full of anger and… fear? “Hey! Don’t look at me like that! You were the one that started it! why’d you hit me?” The fairy let out an accusative series of chirps and rings, reminding Michael he didn’t know the language. He sighed in annoyance before opening his palm, letting the little creature fly around him.

It chirped and rung all around, happy to be free. He almost smiled as it grabbed onto his hair and hung on, jumping off and landing on his shoulder. He reached a finger it to it and it grabbed on, shaking it with its tiny arms. “So, we’re friends now? No more hitting me, right?” It seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding and smiling, sharp and cruel teeth clearly shining through. It just occurred to Michael that this thing could have been powerful, extremely so. Fairies were magical beings, right? Then that meant this thing could use those kinds of powers as well!

He was vibrating with excitement as he stared at the black fairy once more, creeping the little creature out. “Hey, uh… You’re a fairy, right?” He asked, tentatively. The creature tilted its head inquisitively, before shaking its head. It showed its sharp teeth and pointed at its horns, as if they were supposed to clarify things. Michael nodded his head like he understood, even when he didn’t have a clue in context. “Are you magic? ...er, I mean, can you use magic?” Once again it shook its head, again pointing at its teeth and horns, but now also pointing to its eyes.

Michael wasn’t paying much attention, a pitiful smile on his face as he realized his hopes for a new powerful creature weren’t going to come today. The dark fairy wasn’t going to be much help… outside of what he wanted it for in the first place. He needed something to reach the middle of the forest, not something to kill. “Can you go up the trees and help us go deeper into the forest? We need to reach the middle soon.” He asked. It nodded, stretching its little arms and wings before jumping off his shoulders and flapping up.

It went higher and higher until he couldn’t see it anymore, alone. Amidst the dark sky, he stood in the quiet, tired and weary. The only sounds being Tock’s gentle snores. His eyes became heavy as he realized he was finished with everything for today. Sitting himself down next to Tock he rested his head on the giant tree. All he had to do now was wait for his little fairy friend, wouldn’t take too long. He yawned deeply, satisfyingly. Everything was finally coming together, So maybe he’d just rest his eyes a bit.