The hits just kept on coming! I checked the remaining messages that had popped up during combat and saw that I had gained a level in my Polearm Mastery skill on top of a bonus stat point to both my Fort and Will due to depleting my energy completely during the fight. While not the best way I could think of to gain free stat points, who was I to turn such a gift down?

I was a little peeved that I hadn’t leveled up from that fight, but seeing as I had just gotten level 2 right before heading into the cave I supposed I shouldn’t have gotten so greedy. Looking back on the fight with the Guardian, I wondered if there were any people watching my stream through the DT promotional website. Surely that would interest a few spectators into joining the game.

Lost in thought and flipping through message windows as I was, I didn’t notice the Fairies as they emerged from their hiding spots to fly around me and the pool of water, the flow into the chamber once more streaming down the wall now that the boss was gone and out of the picture.

When I finally did finish all of my private musings, I looked up and saw a matronly looking Fairy floating in place before me. Clad in a simple dress of a dark green color, I would have placed her age at around sixty or so if she had been a normal human, but I had no idea if Fairies aged like normal people did. Actually… The thought of where these wild Fairies got their clothes once again distracted me momentarily. Was there a store they could go to for such things? Or did they simply make the clothing themselves with salvaged material?

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts of such details, I smiled at the Fairy and gave a nod of greeting. “Hello there. I do hope you will pardon my intrusion into this beautiful cavern.”

She returned my smile and gave an elegant curtsy while floating in the air on her lovely butterfly-like wings. I noticed her long hair was pure white, the wrinkles on her face further hinting at her old age. “Greetings, Outlander. Nay, there is nothing to apologize for with your presence here at this time. You have done us a great service in slaying the monster, and in fact I find myself in a position where I must thank you for your services.” She smirked softly with a knowing look on her wizened features. “Even if you were not aware of our plight before you entered this chamber.”

I had to let out a small chuckle as she caught me dead to rights on that part. “Yeah, you got me. I was here for a totally different reason, although I must say it is rather fortuitous that I came in any case. No matter the reason for me coming here though, I am honestly glad I was able to help you all out here. That snake was a bully if I ever saw one. My name is Calamity, by the way. What is yours?”

She joined me in the light laugh, but shook her head slightly at my request for her name. “While you have done us a great service by freeing us from that menace of a creature, our names are not so freely given. I know you humans all want something to call others, so I will say to just call me… Sarah.” She tilted her head, as if weighing the name in her own mind. “Yes, that name will do as I find it pleasing. I am sure you aren’t aware of the nature of us Fairies, so I will choose not to take offense at the blunt asking of my name, but do try and remember that for the future?”

“Forgive me Sarah. I indeed did not know about that, although I am curious as to why it is that way? If it is not too presumptuous of me to ask, that is. I freely admit I am absolutely clueless as to Fairies, as I do not even have a Fairy Contract of my own yet, but would love to know more as I believe I will need to borrow upon the strength of Fairies in the future if I wish to further myself in this world.”

With a beckoning gesture, Sarah slowly flew off to the side as she headed towards the wall. Once there, she turned and sat on the edge of one of the holes which hid the Fairies earlier. When I approached her she once again began speaking. “Fairies are magical creatures, Calamity. As such, our true names have power over us and we tend to keep them to ourselves when dealing with beings outside of our race.” She motioned to the glowing item in my hand, a soft smile on her lips. “That there is a new Fairy that will join this world very shortly. You say that you don’t have a Fairy Contract yet, so I offer you this one here and now.” The tone of her words shifted, a sense of power infusing her speech as she went on. “Protect this life, guard it against the profane horrors of the world. Treat this soul well and with kindness, and in return may it grant you the power you seek in order to attain the heights to which you desire.”

When the sound of the old Fairy’s voice faded away, a new screen opened up before me while I stood awkwardly with what I thought was a curious bauble held in one hand.

Congratulations!

You have been offered a Contract with a Unique Fairy that will be born into the world just for you. By agreeing to the terms of this Contract as set forth by a Fairy Matriarch, you will be joined with this new soul and become bonded as Companions.

Will you agree to these terms?

Yes / No

Well, that was as dumb of a question as I had ever heard before… Yes! I focused and accepted the terms of the Contract without any outward indication of my inner joy. The moment felt solemn and sacred, and I sure as hell didn’t want to ruin it by doing anything stupid, so I spoke in as polite a tone as I could. “I agree to these conditions whole-heartedly, and will do my best to ensure the safety and wellbeing of my Companion.”

With another warm smile, Sarah bobbed her head in acceptance of my words and motioned once more to the, well I guessed it was an egg, in my hand. “Then the only thing that remains to seal this Contract is to hold the soul stone in both hands and focus your will upon it. Search within it for the true name of your new Companion, seek it out and beckon to it in your mind to call it forth. Only then will the Contract be complete.”

I honestly had no idea how exactly Sarah intended me to do what she said, but I would sure as hell try my best in order to not lose out on this opportunity. Lifting the soul stone in my hands so it rested cupped in both of my palms, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the item carefully. A strange pulsing came from the object, the waves emanating from it were extremely faint as they flowed into my hands, but I felt them acutely as I concentrated.

How it happened I will probably never understand, but as I stood there I felt an odd sensation within my mind. Not quite words, not quite pictures… It was more like emotion or a feeling that began to take shape in my thoughts, growing and shaping into a sense of rightness. The sensation grew slowly in both depth and clarity in a time frame that somehow felt like hours and mere seconds at the same time until a name took form in my thoughts. When the structure of it solidified, I called it out in my mind, not daring to utter it aloud and break myself out of this trance I was in.

Alysandaria.

A bright flash of light nearly blinded me despite my eyes being shut as the weight in my hands shifted suddenly. Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, focus slowly returned to my sight as I looked upon the tiny being in my hands.

The first thing I noticed was the bright electric blue color of her long hair, the color a shocking difference compared to all of the normal hues I had seen upon Fairies thus far in the game. Four thin wings like those of a dragonfly extended out behind her back and over the tips of my fingers, the Fairy’s legs tucked underneath her body as she sat calmly. Eyes the same color of her hair were part of a pretty face, as I had yet to see an ugly Fairy, and she appeared to be fully grown despite having just been born.

Sarah’s words cut into the silence that had fallen over the area, startling me with the sudden intrusion to the stillness. “Congratulations Calamity, and welcome to the world Alysandaria.” The old Fairy had a joyful smile on her face, her eyes shining with the reflection of her emotions.

I frowned slightly as Sarah spoke the name of my Fairy aloud. “Wait, why are you saying her true name so casually? I thought it was a bad thing to do among your kind?” My game play was being streamed to the world at all times, and I sure as hell didn’t want to give other players a leg up on me just because they knew my Companion’s name.

“Do not worry, Calamity.” It wasn’t Sarah who responded to me, but Alysandaria who spoke up in a high musical voice. “Once a Contract has been formed, only my bonded partner can use my name to draw power from me.” The weight of her small body lifted out of my hands as she flew up into the air a little, smoothing her simple white dress out as she smiled. “Nice to meet you, by the way.” Before I could respond, or even react, to her words, a message box appeared in my sight with a deep bell tone accompanying it unlike any other sound I had heard so far in the game.

To all within Realm of Infinity, Rejoice!

A new Unique Fairy has been born into the world! The power this wonderful being has chosen is now unable to be obtained by any other Fairy until such a time has come that it is released from its Contract.

I waved away the box that I assumed was a system-wide announcement just in time for another message to appear before me.

Congratulations!

You have successfully formed a Contract with the Unique Fairy Alysandaria! As the first player to have bonded a Unique Fairy, you have been awarded +100 fame.

Once again I waved the window away after reading it over. I was happy about getting an extra reward from this, but I still hadn’t ready anything where fame was concerned. Going off of all the other games I had played, I assumed it would have something to do with unlocking new quests and being able to build relations with NPCs more easily, but it was still just a speculation when it came to this game.

I turned my attention back to my Fairy and couldn’t hold back a happy grin. “It is nice to meet you too, Alysandaria. May I call you just Aly?” Her name really was a mouthful, and hopefully the AI controlling her wouldn’t punish me for not wanting to spit the long name out every time I needed her attention.

“Of course!” She seemed overly excited at that, and looked at Sarah as she flew in a quick circle around my head. “Matriarch, I got a nickname already!” My companion sounded just like a child who was praised, and it drew a laugh from both myself and the older Fairy sitting and watching the exchange.

“Wonderful, my dear! A lovely name both in full and shortened version.” Sarah focused on me once more and waved a hand at my partner. “Alysandaria…”

“Aly!” My Fairy cut in sharply, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at Sarah.

“Ahem… Yes. Aly here is obviously still young, but she will mature quickly as you experience the world together. To that end, you will need to supply her with your mana in order for Aly to use her powers. The bond you two share will make that easy with practice, and the more mana you can supply her, the stronger of a manifestation she can create.” The elderly Fairy had taken on a lecturing tone like one of my college professors in a way I found amusing and had to bite my lip to keep from laughing again. She frowned slightly however, and studied Aly carefully. “What is odd though, is that I cannot tell what exactly her powers are… It is strange as I can normally tell exactly what my kind are capable of just by looking at them.”

That seemed a little ominous. “Uhm… Could it possibly have to do with me being an Outlander?” I hadn’t tried to use my inspect skill on Aly yet, but turned towards her now so I could focus and do so. Another odd thing happened when nothing came up at all. I felt inside of me when the skill worked, but nothing happened and no window appeared to show me her information.

“Maybe. At least I hope that is the case. Calamity, try and feel the bond in your mind and will your mana into her.” Sarah quickly held up a hand and added more into her advice. “Just a little bit, mind you. I want to see if you need to somehow activate her abilities before they become apparent.”

I shrugged, figuring it couldn’t hurt to try. There were no actual spells within the game from what I read, and to use the power of a Fairy one had to do just as Sarah said and feed mana into the Companion while imagining what you wanted to happen. As it was described in the manual, one would have to feed mana to a Fire type Fairy and picture a fireball in order to create the equivalent manifestation. Simple enough, in theory at least…

From the moment that Aly was ‘born’ I had felt a connection to her, subtle though it was, and that bond is what I focused on. I couldn’t exactly feel my mana, but the mere knowledge I had it gave me the motivation to try and push a sense of power through that link and towards the eight inch tall woman floating beside me as I stared at her.

Those bright eyes of Aly’s began to glow softly with their exotic color, giving me hope that the process was working even without me consciously picturing what I wanted to happen. With a blur of movement, Aly dashed through the air with a cry of glee at a speed the eye wasn’t able to quite follow. She was able to fly all the way to the far side of the cavern and back within the span of three seconds before she stopped right in front of my face. The shock of her sudden solidifying appearance there broke my concentration and caused the flow of mana to stop, her eyes losing their glow.

“Oh my god that was so fun! Do it again Calamity!” She clasped her hands in front of her pleadingly as her gaze begged me to resume the flow of energy to her. Despite having the image of a fully grown twenty-two year old woman, if downsized to eight inches tall, Aly’s personality was still that of a much younger girl and made me laugh with her innocence.

“Sure, sure.” I went to push my mana into her once again, and blinked. “Eh?” I couldn’t feel anything to give to the tiny Fairy… My vision went to my mana bar at the top left of my UI and I frowned. It was almost completely empty! Aly had taken over 200 mana in the span of three seconds, that glutton! “Uhm, it seems you will have to wait a bit, Aly. I am all out of mana, sorry.”

My bonded Companion pouted and flew over to flop her negligible weight onto my shoulder, her bare feet kicking into my collarbone in irritation. Sarah, meanwhile, had kept her gaze on the younger Fairy with curiosity. “Ahhh, now I see what she is capable of. Calamity, you too should now be able to get a read on young Aly here. Quite fascinating really, if I may say so.” Interested, I once again tried to use inspect on Aly and was rewarded with a result this time.

Alysandaria the Chronomancer

Level: 1

Type: Support

Born in the Grotto of Tranquility, Alysandaria is the Contracted bond partner to Calamity. Upon entering the world, she has chosen dominion over the power of time itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with her abilities.

Skills:

True Haste

Such an awesome Fairy to have received as my first Contract! The possible potential of such a Fairy really blew my mind, though I doubted the devs and AI would allow the effects to get too carried away and OP. She did only have one skill so far, and I had heard of a Haste spell before, but this one was slightly different in name. I tried to focus on the skill itself and opened up an explanation.

True Haste

A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Unlike a normal Haste ability, True Haste actually modifies how a target perceives time itself. The effects are similar as the target will have increased movement and attack speed, but the True Haste skill also lets the target think faster than normal as their whole body will be moving at a faster rate of time.

Time increase: 20%

MP cost: 30MP/s

(Cost is calculated and paid in relation to the time perceived by the target of the skill)

Well, that explained how I burned through all of my mana in no time at all. While three seconds had passed to my mind, seven had passed for Aly as she flew through the air. Doing the calculations in my head, it still seemed a bit off to me. If she only grants an extra 20% with the skill, how did she move so fast…?

As if reading my thoughts, Sarah explained her opinion on the matter. “Don’t hope to move as fast as Aly did just then for quite a long time, Calamity. As a Fairy, she can use the skills full potential on herself from the start, while only being able to impart a portion of the ability to others, yourself included. While support classification Fairies are rare, they aren’t so uncommon that we do not know how they operate.”

I nodded, thinking I understood the Matriarch and her words. “Got it. But at least that gives me a good idea of what the skill will let me do in the future. Even still, I think it will be quite interesting to see just how Aly here will grow.” I caught a glimpse at the clock on my UI and did a double take. Damn, it was already past three in the afternoon and I had only leveled up once so far! Not to mention that there was an icon flashing by the clock that I had missed. It must have been the warning to log out. “Hmmm… It is getting late in the afternoon, Sarah. Is there anything else I should know before we head on back to town? There is a lot I need to get done, and not much daylight left to do it in.”

“No, not that I can think of at the moment. But please, don’t be a stranger to us here Calamity. You have done us a great service, and even if the others are quite shy, we do appreciate what you have done and will always welcome you here.” The old Fairy smiled warmly at me before shifting her gaze to Aly as she sat on my shoulder. “And Aly, you behave yourself and do everything you can to help your partner. Upholding a Contract is a Fairy’s greatest responsibility in life.”

In a serious moment, Alysandaria nodded her head in agreement. “Of course, Matriarch. I have all of the inherited memories, although it is difficult to sort through them all at the moment. I swear I will do my best.”

With a final wave of farewell and round of well-wishing, I turned us back towards the entrance to the chamber and headed out of the cave. I paused at the last of the glowing bulbs and looked at it wistfully, but decided that I couldn’t risk taking one in the off chance that it would ruin all of the remaining bulbs. Pretty sure I would feel bad for the wild Fairies if I took away their light source just because I wanted a sample of a plant.

Sighing at my display of altruism, I carried on and left the cave passage and emerged out into the open air again. I normally wasn’t one to be bothered by tight spaces, but being out of the cave seemed to lift a weight off my shoulders I hadn’t realized was there. A deep breath of fresh air seemed to lift my spirits, and I noted that my mana bar had almost completely refilled.

“Right then. Ready to take on a few wolves on the way back to town Aly?” I wanted to try out this True Haste skill, and having a baseline already set for the wolves around here I would be able to judge just how effective this skill was.

Her small form leapt from her seated position on my shoulder to fly ahead of me eagerly. “Yup! Let’s show those things what we can do!” She spotted one of the wolves as it emerged from behind a tree thirty yards away and froze. A sudden squeak came from her mouth before she turned and dived behind me. “Actually, on second thought… You show them and I will stay out of the way.”

I laughed at her and shook my head, willing my weapon into a normal spear shape and starting off towards the wolf. “This is just a weak mob! What are you going to do if we run into another creature like the Grotto Guardian?”

“Eeep!” I could feel her bury her face into the back of my neck as she tried to hide herself even more. “Don’t even joke about that Calamity! I never want to see a thing like that for myself. I am glad I was still locked up in my soul stone and didn’t see that one outside of the memories I got when I awoke.”

Actually, those words brought up the question of how that all worked. Inherited memories? Must be the way that the game allowed a new Fairy to be born fully grown and functional. I should have asked Sarah before we left, but I had already wasted enough time in the Grotto and wanted to get on with the game.

I banished those thoughts from my mind as I got nearer to the wolf, the growl from the beast rippling through the air. No time to consider such things now, it was time to have some fun! “Aly, what do you need me to do in order to give me True Haste?”

The little Fairy flew straight up into the air high enough that the wolf wouldn’t be able to get at her with a jump and giggled at me. “Silly, just send me mana with the intent to gain the skill. I will handle the rest.”

Could it really be that easy? Considering what I had read from the manual it actually should be, but now that I was in a position to actually use a Fairy’s power I had my doubts. Well at the very least I knew I could handle a single wolf without any issues if the skill didn’t work right. I charged straight at the beast while starting to feed mana to Aly with the thought of using True Haste on myself.

The wolf charged towards me at the same time, but as it did so Aly’s skill washed over me and the creature seemed to slow down a good bit. In fact, everything around me slowed down… A leaf falling through the air as it fell from a branch above floated gracefully down towards the ground in slow motion while my own actions didn’t feel effected at all. It was interesting to experience, and I was distracted almost to the point where I missed the wolf leaping towards my throat even with the Haste skill activated.

While the world around me was moving slower, it wasn’t quite like slow motion in a movie as things still moved somewhere between that aspect and normal speed. The edge was more than enough for me to anticipate the wolf’s movements and shift my body to the side, my spear jabbing forward to catch the beast right in the eye. It was quite easy to adjust my aim to match the slowed motion of the animal and my strike was true, causing a fatal crit to the mob in once attack!

As soon as my spear connected with the wolf, I cut the flow of mana to Aly and checked my mana bar. Almost half of it was gone already, and I realized that this wasn’t going to turn into a free ride skill. The cost was just way too high for this to carry me through an extended fight. Timing was going to be important if I was to make full use of Aly’s power.

Clapping could be heard above me as the body of the wolf settled to the ground unmoving, my Fairy dropping down to eye level as she grinned at me. “Good job Calamity! You showed that wolf who was boss. Though I don’t suppose it will remember that for future meetings…”

I laughed again at her words while looting the creature, another wolf pelt added to the pile in my inventory. “No, I don’t think it will. Pretty sure it won’t be remembering anything from now on.” The corpse faded away as I stood up straight and turned in the direction of Tyrith. “Right, let’s head off to town. I have some things to take care of and there are a bunch of wolves between here and the city to try and stop us.”

“Ha!” Aly snorted her thoughts on that happening and settled down to sit on my shoulder for a free ride. “With how easily you managed that one, I am pretty sure I can just take a nap while you prance back to the city.”

I marveled at the Fairy. Not twenty minutes ago she had seemed like a child and already I could feel her maturing in mentality. It must be her sorting out all of the memories she was born with but didn’t have straightened out in her mind. I was secretly happy that I didn’t have to deal with that initial personality for long, as I was never one who did well with children over long periods of time. “Yeah, yeah. You go ahead and sleep the journey away if you want. I can handle the few wolves we run into on the way…”

She didn’t really take a nap while I walked, and floated up into the air during the two other fights I had before arriving at the city gates once more. I noticed that the wolves gave me less exp now that I was the same level as them, and I didn’t want to waste time on the small fry when my SL was so much higher than the area I was in. I had also been using True Haste whenever my mana was full, wanting to get used to the feeling of being effected by the skill. As soon as I entered Tyrith, I put my weapon away and called up my character sheet to see where I was at now.

Name: Calamity

Player Level: 2

Stat Level: 13

Exp: 1420

Title

None

Fame

100

Armor

9

HP

230/230

Energy

230/230

MP

154/210

Str

21

Fort

23

Dex

21

Int

21

Agi

21

Will

21

Skill List:

Polearm Mastery: lvl 2 (19%)

Inspect: lvl 1 (68%)

Advanced Herbalism: lvl 1 (65%)