I darted through the nymph's forest in a hurry, branches seemingly reaching out to stroke me as I passed, but I took care to avoid each detestable pink leaf I passed, and once I reached a sufficient height I heard the forest whisper, its tree's collectively sighing as one.

Ha! I was finally free! So long, you weird trees! And weird nymph ladies.

At some point I thought it would never happen. After setting the task, the nymph had gone on and on, gushing about her sisters. She was clearly stalling for time.

And then, every tree spirit had become oh so fascinated with polishing my scales with their hair, like I'm their pet! Like I couldn't see through their intentions – most of it was really them admiring their reflections on my body!

Who knew these tree spirits were actually so narcissistic.

No way was I visiting them again.

I welcomed the mist above, thoroughly enjoying the rush of air through my wings as I soared even higher to get clear of the forest. But then, I heard a childish voice speak.

[Slow down! Slow down!] The dark fae squealed. [It's too fast! Do you want me to fall off!]

I must be imagining it. I turned left and right to find the source of the voice, even bending my head down to look below me.

[Kyaaa! I'm going to fall!] The dark fae sobbed pitifully. [Don't bend down like that!]

Don't tell me…

[WHY ARE YOU HERE?]

Was she still on my head? I swore I left her back with the nymph.

The fae squealed again. [Slow down! I'm barely hanging on to your horns. If I fall I will be ugly.]

Did she forget she could also fly?

Heh. I guess her brain was rather small considering the size of her head. Still, I slowed down by a little bit, switching to gliding over the wind instead.

[Why did you follow me? Shouldn't you go home?] I asked in irritation.

The dark fae huffed arrogantly. [I can go wherever I please.]

[Don't the spirits need you to do your chores.] I mocked. [Aren't you their mouthpiece?]

[I'm not!] The dark fae huffed. [I stay there, but I can leave at any time.]

Well, that was interesting. Unlike my initial impression, it seemed she wasn't bound to them at all.

In short, she was living rent free with the nymph and was probably a pest.

[Go home!]

[No! Not until I get more fruit.] The dark fae whined.

The scenery of the misty forest met me once more and I was pleased to see the usual tall trees without the pink leaves that seemed to have given me a trauma instead of the peaceful soothing feeling I had at first.

I accessed the system to find the location of the lake one of the teams had discovered and headed towards it. But then, I felt the tiny fae wiggling around on my head and heard her sigh as she settled down to rest, using my forehead as a seat and my horn as her backrest.

What the heck did she think I was? Some kind of mount?

I spun upside down in irritation and the silly fae fell off my head like a dry leaf, shrieking loudly as her tiny figure disappeared through the mist.

I waited for a few seconds, tracking her descent with [Heat Sense].

Why wasn't she flying? Don't tell me she was really going to fall to her death.

I rushed down after her at full speed. Catching her with my body probably wouldn't end well due to my spikes and I really didn't want to see a splattered fairy, so I grabbed her dress with my teeth instead. But the dumb fae kept screaming with her eyes closed, her high pitched screaming making me wince.

I considered this as well deserved payback, but right now I was tempted to drop her again.

Soon, I reached the lake and carefully scanned the water before landing. Aside from the monsters swimming in the water, there were no other creatures, and it seemed my team of snakes were long gone.

I landed near the area of water that was the most quiet and threw the dark fae into the lake, before creeping over to check my reflection.

The Nymph's kiss looked no different from a tiny leaf circlet around my left horn. Kinda beautiful, but ominous, nonetheless.

Right now it hadn't grown at all, but I knew it was inevitable. Unfortunately, the quiet atmosphere was soon shattered, when the sopping wet four inch fairy proceeded to smack my scales.

[What did you do that for? I nearly died!] She cried out loud, trembled hysterically as she paced around. Since her wings were wet, she couldn't fly and proceeded to pout below me, shivering in a truly miserable state.

Of course I felt nothing, so I continued to stare at my reflection, examining the pink leaf.

Then I felt tiny fists smacking against me that made me roll my eyes. How was it my fault she forgot to use her wings?

I gave her some fruit as compensation, watching her face light up immediately. Soon she had climbed back on my head, the events of before forgotten completely as she gorged herself on sugar.

I didn't know what to think – wasn't she too forgiving? I expected her to kick up more of a fuss to give me an excuse to leave her by the lake, but nothing happened. In fact she seemed rather content to just sit and eat on my head.

I soon left the lake to return home, wondering if she got enough to eat.

[They feed you right?] I probed. [The spirits I mean.]

The tiny fae shrugged. [They eat only when it's cold, they get all their food through roots, so I always find my own.]

[What do you eat then?]

[Fruits, flower nectar sometimes. Honey if I get lucky – then I make honey cakes.]

Did she just say honey?

It seemed bringing her back with me was the right decision.

[Where do you find this honey?] I questioned her immediately, immensely interested.

The dark fae laughed mischievously. [It's very easy! You just need to be faster than the monsters who guard it.]

It seemed the two of us were going to get on very well!

I arrived back at the cave and everything was just as I left it. It was now very spacious, and sparkled with all sorts of décor. The flight back let the fae dry her wings and now she buzzed around everywhere, staring at everything with her eyes wide.

[Is this where you live! Amazing!] she exclaimed as she backpedalled in the air to stare at her reflection on a piece of armour.

Why was she getting comfortable?

I was beginning to consider adding prison pits to the cave. It might be a good idea to keep some monsters for the nestlings to train or for those I capture as food.

And I could even throw in the annoying creatures who get too comfortable and refuse to leave - like this annoying fae for example.

I peered around the cave with [Heat Sense], and found the cave empty. It seemed no nestling team had returned yet, so I checked the atlas to see which team was closest.

Since I couldn't tell who was in each team, I pinpointed the closest one. The five snakes were in the area and I expected them to return within the hour. Fortunately, the penalty wasn't in effect yet, but I knew there wasn't much time left.

So, first, I returned to the opening that led to the bat creature's cave. The sword insect I had freed was back with its brethren and the bats were once again asleep. I didn't want to be involved with them so I sealed the opening quickly.

Then I checked the system store.

"I need to upgrade [Dimensional Box]. How do I do this?" I asked Sensei.

«Purchasing it again will double the size.» he nonchalantly replied.

Ah, why didn't I think of that. "What if I need more?"

«Then quadruple the purchase.»

Quadruple? Was he mad? That would make it four times the size! And the cost!

I nearly cried when I worked out the math. I wasn't so rich yet to spend so wantonly, so I settled for tripling its size at the cost of [700XP].

But I still cried when my Experience points went from [3582] down to [2882].

Ah! This leech of a system.

It may seem like I still had a lot but each point was earned with my blood and sweat.

Anyway, I decided to test out [Dimension Box]'s improved capacity on the walls when I heard the dark fae scream from the other room. I rushed out to see what was wrong, and to my surprise Ophelia was there.

The four snakes on her team each stared around the cave, marvelling at everything. But Ophelia had been the only one to notice the living oddity and now the dark fae was currently in the grip of her constriction hold.

On seeing me Ophelia leapt up and down in excitement, travelling around me to look at my new wings from every angle, all the while the tiny fae struggled in her grasp.

I felt very bad for the fae who was dragged along for the rough ride. She looked like she had been through a lot.

However, before I could command Ophelia to release her, the dark fae squealed and five inky dark spheres of her magic appeared in the air, floating around herself and Ophelia like bubbles.

Unfortunately they were both trapped within the space around the spheres and unable to move.