Chapter 2 : Adventure (2)
When the troll first swung its club, Ariel raised her arm to defend herself.
It wasn’t something she particularly intended to do.
Ariel had been distracted by the fairy, and when the club approached, she instinctively raised her arm.
With a thunderous boom, the wind blew fiercely around her. The troll’s club was probably quite powerful.
However, it did no harm to Ariel. She felt the club make contact with her arm, but that was all.
There was no damage. She didn’t feel any pain, nor was she injured.
Considering Ariel’s defense stat, the outcome was understandable.
Defense: 9999999…
With infinite defense, it made no sense for her to be hurt by the troll’s club.
“Grrh?”
“Huh?”
Both the troll and the fairy let out bewildered sounds.
They were stunned because Ariel, who should have been crushed, was standing there perfectly unharmed.
The troll raised its club again, and the fairy shouted at Ariel to run away.
Ariel looked up and watched the troll’s club coming towards her.
It was a terrifying sight, but she knew it wouldn’t harm her. No matter what the troll did, it couldn’t hurt Ariel.
Even so, Ariel decided to move.
Her defense had been proven; now it was time to test her attack power.
Just before the troll’s club made contact, Ariel’s figure vanished, leaving only a blur behind.
She moved at nearly the speed of sound.
Thanks to her infinite agility, Ariel could move at any speed she desired.
The troll’s club struck where Ariel had been standing.
Boom!!
The sound was even louder this time, and the ground caved in under the force.
The troll chuckled, shaking its shoulders. It was sure that this time, the young elf had been crushed into a bloody pulp.
If the troll had been a bit more intelligent, it would have noticed that nothing had connected with its club and would have been puzzled.
But the troll was a very low-intelligence monster.
All it could do was drool at the thought of tasting the young elf.
As the troll waved its hand to clear the dust, the spot where the club had hit the ground was revealed.
There was nothing there. Only a deep depression in the ground.
“Grrh?”
The troll was even more confused. The young elf hadn’t disappeared before, though it was strange that she was unharmed. At least she had been standing in place.
But now she was gone without a trace. To the low-intelligence troll, this was like magic.
The troll rolled its large eyes around, searching for the young elf.
And soon, it found her.
The young elf was now perched in a tree, looking down at the troll with the same calm expression as before.
The troll grew angry. It was frustrating that it couldn’t just eat the young elf as it wanted.
“Rooaaar!”
The troll charged at the young elf with a fierce roar, one of its signature moves.
Even as the troll charged, the young elf remained unfazed. She simply waited for the troll to approach, then drew back her arm and thrust her fist forward.
To the troll, the young elf’s fist looked very small. Surely, being hit by that tiny fist would only tickle.
Moreover, the troll’s hide was exceptionally tough, even among monsters. Most weapons wouldn’t even leave a scratch.
The troll found the situation more amusing than anything else.
That was the troll’s last thought.
With a soft thud, the troll’s head disappeared.
Red rain fell in the lush forest.
The rain was mixed with soft chunks and bone-like fragments.
It was the result of the troll’s head disappearing.
The red liquid that poured down was blood, and the soft chunks were brain matter.
Ariel stood in the rain of red, reflecting on what had just happened.
Just moments ago, after dodging the troll’s club, Ariel had climbed up a nearby tree.
Then, she waited for the troll to approach before thrusting her fist at it.
She hadn’t particularly controlled her strength. She just casually threw her punch.
However, the power was beyond imagination. The moment Ariel’s fist connected, the troll’s head exploded like a watermelon.
The troll, now headless, collapsed and stopped moving.
Ariel was certain now. Her attack power was also unquestionably infinite.
Having confirmed this, she decided to continue her adventure.
“W-wait a minute!”
As she was about to walk away, a voice called out from behind her.
It was the fairy from before.
“Are you really just going to leave, ma’am? We’re both forest folk, right? Like, we’re practically family. Please, get me out of here!”
The fairy was desperate. If Ariel left her behind, who knew what fate awaited her?
She would likely be stuck in the magic cage, unable to escape, and would rot alongside the troll’s corpse.
“Please, ma’am!”
At first, the fairy had addressed Ariel in a familiar tone, calling her a “kid,” but now she saw that Ariel was a very powerful “ma’am.”
She had never seen anything like it before—someone who could crush a troll’s head with a single punch. She had never even heard of such a thing.
Trolls were harder to kill than ogres, primarily because of their unique regeneration ability.
Since trolls could quickly regenerate from most wounds, the best way to kill one was to deliver a fatal blow in one strike.
But that was no easy task.
There were countless instances where someone aiming for the troll’s head was caught and became its meal or was struck by the troll’s club and killed instantly.
Yet Ariel had dodged the troll’s club at an invisible speed and defeated the troll with a light punch.
It was only natural for the fairy to address her as “ma’am” now.
The fairy even pretended to bow inside the magic cage, but Ariel remained indifferent.
Ariel had already decided to help the fairy; it wasn’t a difficult task, after all.
She reached for the door of the magic cage, and at that moment, she felt a resistance.
“Ma’am, this door is enchanted. Are you by any chance a mage?”
Ariel nodded. After all, her character’s class was technically a mage.
“That’s great!”
The fairy clapped her hands.
“You’ll need to dispel the magic first. Only then can you open the cage door! Honestly, I don’t know how humans even came up with something like this…”
But Ariel simply pulled on the door of the magic cage. Even though she was technically a mage, she didn’t know how to dispel magic. She had no choice but to open it by force.
Crack! Crack!
The magic binding the cage shattered, and the door broke off.
“Huh…?”
The fairy blinked in surprise. Ariel hadn’t shown any signs of dispelling the magic; she had just ripped the door off with brute strength.
Even the troll hadn’t been able to do that.
“So… it was possible to do that by force.”
The fairy scratched her head and exited the magic cage. Then she took to the air with a strong flap of her wings, circling around Ariel.
She was trying to fly with grace, showing off her beauty, but to Ariel, she looked like nothing more than a pesky fly.
“But seriously, you’re really beautiful up close, ma’am. You’re small now, but when you grow up, you’ll probably be an amazing beauty.”
The fairy continued to chatter at Ariel, fluttering around her.
“My name is Rue! May I ask for your name, ma’am?”
“Ariel…”
“Ma’am Ariel! It’s nice to meet you! You were incredible when you killed that troll! That troll had been so rude, carrying me around on its waist for days. It even took me along when it…”
Fairies were naturally talkative, but this one was exceptionally so.
Ariel half-listened to Rue’s chatter as she started to walk away.
In any case, she needed to continue her adventure.
At that moment, Rue grabbed hold of Ariel’s sleeve.
“Ma’am! You’re not just going to leave, are you? That troll’s body is worth quite a bit! Not as much as a fairy, but still, it would fetch a good price. Letting it rot away like that would be such a waste!”
Ariel paused and glanced back at the troll’s corpse. Was it really worth that much?
“Hm… But it would be tough for you to move that huge thing by yourself. At the very least, you could take some of its blood…”
While Rue was muttering, Ariel casually walked over to the troll’s corpse and reached out her hand.
Rue tilted her head, not understanding Ariel’s actions.
“Ma’am? What are you…”
The next moment, the troll’s corpse vanished without a trace.
“What?!”
Rue’s eyes widened in shock.
“What just happened?”
Ariel had simply stored the troll’s body in her inventory, but to Rue, it was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
Or perhaps, was it possible with magic? Rue wasn’t sure, as fairies only had the ability to sprinkle dust. But with magic, even the most extraordinary things could be possible.
“You can’t try to understand magic with logic.”
That’s what the human mage who captured Lu said not long ago. At the time, it sounded like nonsense, but now it seemed to make sense. Well, that mage got eaten by the troll less than an hour after saying that.
“Sister, where are you headed now?”
Lu flapped his wings as he asked.
“Do you have a goal?”
Ariel stared into the distant sky and answered.
“Adventure…”
At that single short word, Lu’s body began to sparkle with light.
Adventure! What an exciting word!
Lu’s goal was also adventure. The fairy village was peaceful but boring. Unable to overcome that boredom, Lu had run away from the village.
To adventure out into the world!
But it was too dangerous for a fairy to wander alone. Lu was admiring flowers in the forest when he was quickly captured by a human mage.
It happened just one day after he boldly ran away from the fairy village.
“Sister! Take me with you!”
Lu pretended to bow in midair again.
“I can be quite useful, you know! You know fairies have special dust, right? If you get hurt, I can heal you. I can make you fly, or help you sleep comfortably! So please, let me join your adventure!”
Ariel looked at Lu with an expressionless face. Outwardly she showed no interest, but inwardly she was quite intrigued.
Of course, fairy healing dust or sleep dust would be useless for Ariel. With infinite defense, she can’t get hurt, and she sleeps well anyway.
But flight dust piqued her interest. She did want to fly in the sky once.
“Flight dust.”
Ariel held out her hand to Lu, asking for the flight dust.
A happy smile spread across Lu’s face.