The new room had quite a different air to it.

In place of little crystals, some torches were placed here and there, how they could be burning without end, Maximilian didn't know.

"Meh, magic I suppose. "

The room was a little bigger than the last one. The ceiling wasn't very high, maybe three or four meters at most. Ten meters diameter, the room was circular.

All around the room, covering nearly all of the walls were shelves, on which were disposed all kinds of dried plants, flasks of different forms in which were liquid of different colours. There were also some glass jars filled with what Maximilian guessed was blood, but some of those were not red at all so...who knows.

In the center of the room was a cauldron, around it were three big books, covered in leather with golden runes written on it.

Approaching the books, Maximilian began to hear a small noise, like a little grumble coming from the cauldron. With caution, he looked inside, not really sure what to expect, and arced an eyebrow as he discovered what it was.

Inside was a girl, quite a tiny girl to be exact. No more than ten centimeters tall, with short emerald hair Naturally put back making small spikes behind her head. White skin cover by a brown shirt and a black long skirt. On her back were a pair of wings, looking a lot like a dragonfly 's ones.

*A fairy? My god that's a fairy, what should I say, it doesn't seem like she noticed me so...*

"hum....Hello"

"KYAAA!!! "

Surprised by Maximilian, the fairy jumped and, in a little puff of golden smoke, disappeared. Maximilian scratched his head, an embarrassed smile on his face.

"oopsy, seems like I scared her."

"WHO'S SCARED YOU GIANT PRICK!? "

As he was talking to himself, a voice came from somewhere on the shelves. It was quite funny because the tiny voice screaming like that made him think of a little girl making a scene, he repressed a laugh by coughing in his fist, at this the little voice stopped a moment.

"Are.....ARE YOU MAKING FUN OF ME? "

Trying to locate the fairy, he was surprised by the discovery of a new skill, "scan".

He took an instant to maximise this new power, revealing a new spell in his head.

*So the simple fact of unlocking the skill gives me a new spell to use.... That 's useful *

Not hesitating, he used this newfound power. The words, although not specials, came from his mouth imbued with mana, resonating in the room.

"zone scan "

For an instant, the room seemed to flash black for Maximilian. Then, one by one and in a second, all the ingredients, potions and other elixir seemed to shine as all the informations about them were displayed before his eyes.

As he tried to look throught all this informations, not really knowing where to look as there was simply too much, another skill appeared. "knowledge Assimilation " was now visible on the list.

*What the hell, is it going to be like that all the time, I mean it's useful but...ho well, when given a horse, don't look at the teeth. *

With that said, he maximised the new skill, guessing what it would do.

Just as the name implied, as soon as the skill was activated, the different informations before his eyes started to disappeared. And as they did,Maximilian remembered them, gaining knowledge quickly.

When the last information remained, it was the one about fairy,the very one hidding behind a clay pot on the shelves.

*So let's see...race: fairy...thank you captain obvious. Level 15, capacity: fly level 10, wind magic level 6, water magic: level 3, teleportation: level 8, ok ok i don't think i need to know everything. But now i know where she is so...*

Coming near the pot on the shelve, he took it off, only to see the remnants of the puff of golden smoke.

"You don't have to hide, I'm not here to hurt you. "

The voice of the fairy, this time from the other side of the room, could be heard again.

"LIAR. YOU HUMANS ARE ALL THE SAME! "

"oh come on that's not true, there's a lot of different types of human. "

"SHUT UP!!"

Coming near to where the voice came from, he stood still in front of dozens of glass vasks and little bottles, all filled with different types of potions, the scan spell had given him all the informations about what was what.

*Hmm, funny to see that health and mana potions are red and blue, good guess from video games team in my world, good job guys .*

Slowly looking behind the potions, he could once again only see the puff of golden smoke.

*Okay, you want to play, I will play along. *

Taking the Havenbag, he put one of the bottle in it, who seemed to fall into the darkness. For the experience, he took different types of potions and put them inside, always having the same result, and not feeling any weight. Continuing the experiment, he put his hand inside and, simply thinking of what he wanted, pulled out the health potion he wished for.

Satisfied with the result, he started to take every single ingredients and potions on the shelves.

"So... My name is Maximilian. "

"I DON'T CARE "

The "game " in Maximilian 's head was simple. Each time he talked to the fairy, he used the scan spell to identified where she answered him from. After that he went to that location, she disappeared and he took what she was hidding with.

For a time it continued like that. He tried to talked to her, she screamed something not very pleasant in return, then he found her and took her hidding place.

He remarked two things in the process. One, the Havenbag was truly marvellous, he had take almost everything in this room, but there was no weight at all, it even could stretch quite a bit to accommodate to something a little bigger. For testing he had tried and stretched it to the max, figuring it would go to more or less one meter in diameter.

The second thing was that the fairy was getting frantic, and the disappearing and transportation seemed to exhaust her.

"Are you alright? Seems like all this disappearing succession is taking all your energy. "

"I...You will see... Once the dragon will be here, you won't have a chance. "

Maximilian stopped a moment.

"The dragon? "

The fairy, significantly weaker than before, laughed a little.

"Ho yes, the black dragon is the one you have been robbing all this time, I don't know how you have managed to pass through the crystal magic, but know that I already have ring the alarm, he should be here any minute now. You are finished "

Maximilian looked at the fairy, sitting on the cauldron, a satisfied smile on her face. He stood there for a second, not knowing how to explain what happened earlier.

"was he... a friend of yours? "

The fairy seemed surprised by the question.

"why would you care... And why "was he "? You talk as if he was dead."

She laugh a little, but stopped when she realised the serious face of the human in front of her.

"why the long face human, if you only now realise the gravity of your actions , it's a bit too late. you shouldn't have taken what's not yours to begin with "

Maximilian scratched the back of his head, sighing slowly.

"It's... Not taking what's not mine... "

"what? "

"if I follow what is writen on the pedestal in the other room, Dragnïr himself has write that everything in the four room were mine to take. "

The fairy laughed again, clearly not believing him.

"So typical of human, lying to justify your act... Wait a moment, how could you know his name? "

"Well he told me... And it was write on the pedestal so..."

The fairy shaked her head slowly from right to left.

"but it can't be, the crystal magic cannot be pass through, or at least not easily. It would taked several mages of high rank and a long time for the differents incantation to be performed. Dragnïr would not let that happened."

"that's why I told you I didn't infiltrate in here, he gave me the key."

"prove it, every crystal key is unique, describe it to me..."

"A golden orb."

Quite concise but he didn't know how to describe it better, and the astonished face of the fairy made him believe it was sufficient.

"But why? What would Dragnïr give you, a human, the key to his treasures. The dragons are not known for sharing. "

"Listen...I don't know how to make it not painful so I'm gonna say it quickly... He's dead...I killed him."

A silent moment pass in the room as the fairy sat there just watching him opened mouth... Then she began to laugh.

"HAHAHA... Dead? And you killed him by yourself you say? HAHA...you know what I think human..."

Standing on the edge of the cauldron she joined her hands a moment.

"...i think you lie. Everybody knows that killing a creature so powerful leave a trace on the body."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play the idiot with me human. It is common knowledge that when a sentient being manage to vanquish a legendary level creature, the gods reward this achievement by power, but also something on the body. Some kind of mark to prove his success. "

Looking himself, Maximilian said.

"do you know what it could be? "

"Nothing human, because I think you lie. You stall the key. And the fact that you didn't attacked me until now made me realise that I... "

In a puff of golden smoke she disappeared, just to reappear behind his back.

"...am stronger than you. "

Maximilian didn't know why, but something in his mind told him to jump away, that's what he did.

He felt something brush against his back, like a blade. As he looked, he saw what seemed to be a blade of air, that vanished before it hit the shelves.

He managed to evade it, but it had torn off the back of his shirt.

"HEY are you mad. I could have been hurt you know. "

"That's the idea you moron!!! "

New skills appeared. As he continued dodging the fairy 's attack, thanks to his high stats it wasn't too hard, he looked at them.

Wind magic: resistance and wind magic: control, appeared. Quite simple to understand what it would do,he maximised them. Just as he finished, another attack from the fairy came straight at him, but this time he chose to take it.

*Let's see if this works or not*

When the spell hit him, he closed his eyes, waiting... And he felt nothing, apart from a gust of wind to signify he have been hit. But no hurt at all.

"what!!! How are you still alive? This is a level 15 "cutting edge" wind spell, you should be cut in half right now."

The fairy was frantic.

"I know, you must have some kind of protection on you. "

She looked him from the feets to the head.

"I don't see any ring or pendant on you. Maybe a talisman draw on your skin. "

Maximilian stand there looking at the little being thinking out loud in a kind of funny fashion, but he decided to not point it out.

"ha, I know. If you faced my attack, that means that the protection must be..."

She disappeared once again to reappeared behind his back.

"on your ba...!!"

The fairy stopped midway in her sentence, mouth opened. Turning around, Maximilian wondered what could have been the cause.

"you OK?"

Pointing him, she asked.

"what is that?"

"what is what?"

"WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR BACK ?"

"Listen you'll have to be more precise cause I don't understand what's freaking you out like that "

Clapping her hands together, the fairy made a sphere of water appeared. Another clap and the sphere flattened to become some kind of oval mirror made of water.

"Look at yourself. "

Getting near the mirror to look at his back, Maximilian stopped in his track.

*what the...did I get younger?*

As he looked at his reflection in the mirror, he saw that, for one, he was still covered in dried blood from the dragon. The absence of shoes and his torned apart shirt let him stand in nothing more than trousers. Second thing he noticed was the fact that he seemed to have lost a dozen of years, looking barely 25. At least as much as he could tell by his reflection, he still had the same size, witch ment it was after his 18 year (a late grow spur). His beard was the same as always, the one/two day no shave style, so not very disturbing. His hairs were the same brown as before, maybe a bit lighter. He looked at himself up and down.

*Did i lose weight? I mean, i was never obese to begin with, but i can clearly see that the bit of belly i had is gone and that...yep, the muscle are more defined than before...Maybe it's because of the level up and the high stats, i suppose the high strenght and agility are playing a role...*

His eyes had changed a bit in the colour departement. Before he came here, he had blue sky eyes, now they were deep blue, with here and there what seemed to be a bit of golden reflect. Maximilian looked himself in the eyes a bit, and decided he like it.

"How is that possible... Ho well, better a bit younger than a bit older I guess, so what's freaking you on my b...holly crap !!!"

In his life, Maximilian has get quite a few opportunities to "change " himself. A tattoo here, why not a piercing, those kind of thing.

He never did it, not that he was fundamentaly against it, he just had never find the right one.

Or now, the reflection of his back was showing a strange thing. From the back of his neck to what seemed the bottom end under his trousers, all along his spine, golden scales were tattooed on his skin.

Maximilian supposed it was the so called symbol of victory the fairy was talking about. Although it looked a bit strange, like in relief.

Reaching in his back, he touched it. He stayed like this a moment, slowly brushing his back with his finger, realising the truth.

"That's... Not a tattoo "

"What?!"

The fairy exclaimed as he said that. Coming closer, she slowly touched the golden scales, as if not believing what she saw.

"true scales... No, it cannot be... "

Retracting her hands, she looked Maximilian in the eyes as he turned to face her again.

"You... You killed Dragnïr... "

"Yeah, sorry about that. "

The fairy looked mortified as she land on the cauldron edge, letting herself fall on her bottom as tears began to appear in her eyes.

Maximilian was feeling bad for her.

"Listen I... "

"What have you done... "

The fairy wasn't screaming anymore, her voice trembling and tears running down her cheeks.

"You...you doomed my people. "

"Wait, what? "