“Ah, Shit! It hurts!” I curse while trying to free myself from the Terror Bear’s corpse and immediately check my status.

[Status]
Name: Benji
Age: 17
Race: Human [Vampire]
Level: 17

HP: 18/62
MP: 137/137
[BP: 14/21]

Skills:
- Swordsmanship (Rank H)
            - Katana (Rank H)
            - Longsword (Rank H)
- Dismantling (Rank H)
[- Concealment (Rank H)]

Race-Abilities:
- Analyze (0 BP)
- Blood Needle (1 BP)
- Blood Regeneration (passive)

* The information in [] is concealed

That is way too close. Ah, I can’t really think straight, because of the pain. I think at least both of my legs and maybe a few ribs are broken. But luckily I can still move arms, so I manage somehow to bring my face close enough to put my teeth into the dead body. I can feel how my regeneration is working. It took a few minutes, but after I am fully healed, I let go of the Terror Bear and finally completely free myself.

I really should have killed it immediately with a barrage of Blood Needles. Either that or I need to improve my swordsmanship more if I want to defeat enemies like this without relying on my vampire powers. Another way would be to learn magic, but that would still take some time before I could do that.

I relax for a bit, to calm myself down and then dismantle the Terror Bears body. It takes actually quite some time, since the body is so big and difficult to cut, but about two hours later I am finally done.

I am quite lucky that I am still at the tower ruin, since my provisional smoker is still standing. So I put one portion of the Terror Bears meat aside to grill it for my late breakfast and put the rest of the meat in the smoker to preserve it.

A bit after noon, the meat is done, and I put it away and continue to walk along the mountain range for the rest of the day. The next day was the sixth day since entering the forest, but it is quite uneventful until the reaches its end. When the sun starts to set, I arrive at a waterfall with a big lake beneath it. And I have to say the view is quite beautiful and calming, so I set up my camp next to it and just enjoy the evening. I also use the chance to take a bath before going to sleep. And while I slowly drift into my dreams, I hear a small giggling.

When I wake up the next day, I am actually a bit confused when I remember the giggling. I didn’t sense any presence nearby, which is why I just continued to fall asleep. But to be honest, I don’t think it was a dream? Or was it? At least nothing happened during the night and I can’t see anything nearby. So I put the thought aside for now and eat breakfast while enjoying the sight. I can not believe that there is such a peaceful place inside a forest that is considered as a cursed place.

While I enjoy the beautiful sight, suddenly a slight glimmer caught my attention. When I look more closely, I almost can’t believe my luck. There is a beautiful flower growing next to the waterfall on a small plateau about 3 meters above the ground. But that is not the reason it caught my attention, but because of the translucent appearance.

“Is this the Crystal Flower?” I move closer and use my Analyze skill, which confirms it. I really found the Crystal Flower. Just when I was about to climb to pick the flower, something pulls my hair and I hear a high-pitched voice.

“No, you can’t!” I froze and look at my surroundings and see a small light ball flying in front of my face. Then the light ball disappears and a tiny creature appears in its place. The creature is about the size of my hand. It’s a tiny woman, with an angry look on her face. She has light blue hair and translucent wings on her back.

“Cute…” I said without thinking.

“Huh?” She blushes and looks down, but after a moment, she becomes angry again. “No, don’t change the topic! You can’t take it!”

That brought me back to reality. I actually wonder why I didn’t sense her, but for now that’s not important, because she doesn’t seem directly hostile towards me.

“You’re talking about the Crystal Flower? And are you a fairy?” I ask her.

“Yes, the flower. You can’t take it, because it’s mine. And yes, I am a fairy.” That is actually a problem. I could look for another Crystal Flower, but there is no guarantee that I find one. Maybe the fairy knows of another Crystal Flower that I can take. I ask her, but she says that there was no other Crystal Flower in this forest.

“You know, I really need a Crystal Flower. There is a child that will die, if we can’t make the medicine. And for this, we need a Crystal Flower. It doesn’t have to be yours. So is there maybe a way how you could help me?” I try pleading with her. And she thinks for a minute before answering.

“I can tell that you’re not lying, but somehow it’s also not the truth. I am confused.” Hm? She can tell? I realize I didn’t analyze her abilities yet. So I took a moment and confirm and she has a race ability called “Eye of Truth”. I think it might be the best to tell her everything. So I explain that there is another party that needs the medicine, but I am not related to them. I want to get the flower for them for my selfish reason, but I don’t mean any harm to the other party. And I emphasize that there is really a child that will die, if it doesn’t get the medicine.

This time she thinks longer. She says nothing for about ten minutes until she opens her mouth again. “Alright, I’ll help you. But it’s not because you called me cute, you understand?” She blushes for a moment and then adds. “And you can’t anyone tell about me!” I couldn’t help but smile at her comment. She really is cute, but this time I don’t say it out loud.

“Thank you. But why did you show yourself, if you don’t want people to know about you?” That actually made me curious. Now that I think about it, that giggling last night, that came from her, right?

“Well, I could see that you’re not a bad person. So, I talked to you first.” Well, I am glad about it. First of all, I don’t want to fight a cute fairy, but more importantly, I am pretty sure I would have died in that case. She might be small, but after looking at her status, I realized she was way stronger than me. She can not only use magic, but her level also exceeds 50.