In Loki's Honor

They say New York is "the city that never sleeps". While I agree wholeheartedly with that phrase, that's compared to human cities that have a night-day cycle. I still heard fewer cars dashing down the 9th avenue at midnight than at noon. The goblin city, without lights, was the same buzzing swarm at any given moment.

I woke up to the horrifying news that I gained a level in my sleep.

You reached Monster Hunter level 19.

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 3 Skill Points.

You gained 2 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You reached Human [moon-bound] level 18.

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 4 Skill points.

You gained 6 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You reached Cartographer level 8 [16]

You gained 3 Skill Points.

You reached Apothecary level 16

You gained 3 Skill Points

All of my Skill points were already squirreled away to level up the Skills I bought the last day. The amount of Exp I was getting from each goblin kill was getting diminishing returns as time went by or because even the System thought I'd killed enough. Or because the initial surprise passed and those that were dying now were secondary casualties. In any case, I didn't look too deep into it. I felt sick for all the death.

My HP was looking good. With all the levels I gained, I was sitting at 2,091 HP. Contrast that with the 4,000 HP the Barbarian King had with fifteen levels above me and you'll see why having a lower Attribute cap was hurting me. And I was sure the brute didn't focus on Endurance.

I found a good balance with my levels. Split fourteen ways, my Exp was going one share for each profession, four to my human levels, and eight to my Class levels. It ensured all of them would level up at the same time without hurting my main progression too much.

But enough messing up with my status. Just looking at my Skill list gave me a headache. I wiped out my log and started my day.

Looking from my perch a hundred meters above the goblin city, I could see the goblins going on with their "day". They didn't have many things to burn so there wasn't a haze of smoke and ashes floating on the cavern roof. Most of the wood I saw was used for torches. I wonder how dwarves solved that problem. They might use lava to heat their forges for all I knew.

But the city below wasn't the bustling hub of green flesh smacking against each other I saw in the previous days, even when I was busy hunting the warriors. Gloom and shadow were blanketing over the whole city. Most torches were out, leaving sections of the city in absolute darkness. The torches that were still lit looked like they were in their final hours. They weren't replacing the lights. The goblins were spread around, too sedated to work, as if they were drunk or starving. Or very thirsty and deathly afraid of drinking any water, I realized. Under close inspection, some of the goblins I assumed were lazying around were actually not moving at all.

I withdrew to my nook and hugged my knees. I became a genocidal monster. I wanted to go home but I realized I didn't have a home. I had a guest room in the elven city and I had express orders to not come back for any reason. Only if the gem teleported me back. They didn't tell me how it would happen. Just that I had to seek to "challenge myself alone," as it is their rite of "dead-dude's-name".

But I was hungry and there wasn't enough organic matter to feed me in the stalactite I put my bedroll in. I had to go down and find something to eat.

I was halfway down the cave wall when I noticed something odd. There were no warrior patrols in the city. All the goblins I saw were civilians. Once among the goblins, I noticed a dreary amount of dead rats.

I hurried up to the shore and found some poisoned fish to eat. The water was murky and tasted awful. I delegated my hydration to the pseudopods while I chewed some cold monster meat.

The water quality only added to the mystery. Why was it clean before and what happened to make it become not-clean-anymore like now? Did my poison overload the regenerative ability of the lake? Did my poison kill whichever creature was responsible for cleaning the lake?

I saw a flash of blue light in the middle of the lake. For a brief moment, that light illuminated the whole cavern. I'd seen documentaries with the same image that burned my retinas. Thousands of fish of all sizes floating sideways along with some water monsters. Then nothing as darkness swallowed all.

A pinprick of blue light appeared where the flash came from and it flew straight at me. As it neared, I saw the blue luminescence had the shape of a woman. With wings. A fairy. An angry fairy.

It buzzed and scolded in front of me. I felt an urge to swat her out of the air. To pounce and chew those wings off. I reined my impulses in. I couldn't understand what it was saying.

I shifted to my human form and spoke in Fulgenian. "Excuse me, miss fairy? I can't understand you."

"Defiler!" She shouted. "You are no elf!"

The cat inside me wanted to kill the bug. Focus, Lily. "You are correct, miss. I'm Lily and I'm a human."

She paused and inspected me. "You looked oddly hairy for a human. And I didn't know humans had whiskers. Or tails."

"Or sharp claws," I growled before I recovered my manners. "I became a moon-bound. I take the shape of a cat."

"I see... I see... Well met, Lily and I'm a human now I take the shape of a cat. Wait! That's not that! Defiler! How dare you beguile me to forget your transgressions!"

I wanted to puff my cheeks to stifle a laugh but cats are unable to hold their lips shut. So I just hissed a throaty roar. Great cats don't purr.

"And NOW she threatens me with violence! As if her foul berry concoctions weren't bad enough! Glad I could toss most of your surface trash out!"

My pack. "And where did you toss it, miss? I would gladly take it away from your lake. Are you perchance the guardian fairy of this lake?"

"Oh, so the beast CAN be polite if she so wishes! I don't remember. I tossed it on the rocky shores of the lake."

"Well, if that's all, I'll be on my way. I would loathe seeing someone else get sick because they messed with my trash," I told the fairy and stood up. If going around the lake was the key to finding my pack, I would do it.

"Well, good riddance. No! Stop!" She chased after me. "You have to clean up your mess!"

"Then you have to clean up yours as well. You see, one of your tentacle monsters tried to eat me," I bluffed. Good lies had a kernel of truth. "It stripped me of my belongings while I struggled to survive. Were not for its interference, nothing like that would've happened. And now you went and stole my property. You better bring it back, young lady! I won't mellow up just because you have a pretty face!"

"Well, thanks," She blushed a deeper shade of blue at my compliment. "NO! I'll get your filthy things back. Then you clean the lake!"

"Getting my things back is a matter of courtesy since you tossed them out. Get all the belongings I dropped in the lake back, and I'll agree to listen to your request."

The fairy grumbled, pouted, but said "Okay. I'll bring everything back! You stay here!"

She zipped away, her blue glow dimming a bit. I shifted back because it was too cold and damp to stay as a naked girl. A mostly defenseless naked girl in a goblin city. Without much to do, I just hid next to the stinky dead fish I ate and waited.

She returned a few hours later. I saw not a single goblin warrior or shaman during this time. Some goblins came next to the lake but fled when they saw the monster corpses. From the number of ribs they were showing under their emaciated green bodies, it seemed to me that they were starving and thirsty but too afraid to drink the water.

"I'm back!" She came, the waterlogged backpack too heavy for her tiny frame. It was a funny sight that might've come out of a cartoon. But the fairy did drop my pack down. I shifted to hybrid form and checked the contents. The leather balls of pollen were soggy and some white paste was leaking outside but everything else was in there.

"My belt, where is it?"

"Aw, shucks!" She zipped away. This time she only took minutes. "There you go. All your things are there. Now listen, I task you with cleaning my lake! I'll kill you if you don't!"

I felt a wave of ancient power coming from the fairy. It was nothing like I' felt before even with the whole pantheon before me. I had no doubt that the fairy could do what she threatened. I had no way of cleaning the lake or evading her fury. So I thought of the only thing I could do. I took a page from Loki's gambit when he evaded beheading by the dwarves that forged Mjollnir.

"Not all my things are here," I told her with a straight face. "Most of my poison is missing. These bags here, they used to be filled with poison gel."

I knew I pushed too far when the fairy became violet. She would soon add an "N" to that color and bring it down on me.

"YOUR POISON?" She screeched! "I'll give you your poison back, you smug wench! What do you say?"

"You can give me my poison back, but none of your water," I replied.

She summoned even more power. A whirlpool of energy the same color as the fairy glowed. It was so violet it would give goblins skin cancer. My eyes were hurting. The whirlpool rose, a twister of water snaking over the lake. The fairy pointed at me and the water twister bent over. It flowed in my mouth without carrying water. Pure and dry deathberry extract invaded my throat, esophagus, and stomach, liters of it. I retched and tried to puke but it wouldn't come out.

"Wallow in your own noxious concoctions and die!" The fairy cackled.

In the corners of my teary eyes, I saw the poison leave the bodies of the goblins and monsters and fish only to flow inside me. The pressure in my stomach was so strong my body was forced to let the poison extract into my intestines. I felt my stomach valves rupturing. My liver hurt my belly was twisting inside as my intestines filled and packed with the extract.

I fell back, foaming through the mouth.

"Yes, how did you like that, silly cat?" The fairy snickered.

I didn't answer. I thought my lungs had a fair dose of poison as well. It hurt when I breathed. All my focus went to create pseudopods inside my mucous membranes to absorb and process the material. I foamed and retched but the fairy made me swallow it all back.

The sugar rush hit hard. My whole body burned.

You lost 100 HP. You are bleeding.

No shit.

The message repeated several times. I groaned, roared, convulsed. It was the end, it seemed. I was sure I was going to die, but before I did, I would get back at that stupid and haughty fairy. I bled. The fairy shoved my blood back in my mouth. I pooped. The fairy...

Yeah. She did that.

I had no notion of time. Just that my body was being repaired, fed my own body fluids back, and damaged again. I think I saw goblins come to check on me but the fairy didn't let them kill me. She just watched and enjoyed my "punishment".

Days? Weeks? Or maybe just minutes? I didn't know. I was trapped in an endless cycle of torture. But my body didn't die. I think the fairy healed me. I didn't become unconscious either. My mind reeled from lack of sleep. My body was busy processing the poison.

I regained some modicum of consciousness and looked up. The fairy winked, "Oh, wow! Are you still alive?" She cruelly asked.

I twitched and shifted until I could lap the lake water. The monster bodies were gone. I looked around and saw fat goblins. Fat. Goblins. The buggers ate my kills, that was all I could think of. I had notifications. For whatever reason, I had leveled up again. A deep analysis of my kill log showed that several goblin shamans and warriors died of poison during my ordeal.

You reached Monster Hunter level 20.

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 3 Skill Points.

You gained 2 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You reached Human [moon-bound] level 19.

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 4 Skill points.

You gained 6 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You reached Cartographer level 9 [17]

You gained 2 Skill Points.

You reached Apothecary level 17

You gained 2 Skill Points

You gained the Pain Resistance (rare) Skill. Your sensation of pain is reduced by Rank x Endurance x 0.095%. (current 13,9%).

You gained the Empower Healing [self] (ultra rare) Skill. Effects that restore your HP are Rank x Endurance x 0.5% more effective (current 72%).

You gained the Eat Anything (ultra rare) Perk. Your body can process and draw nourishment from almost any source.

My points were once again spent without my input.

I regained my footing and felt everything spin. After drinking pure water, I started to slowly recover. I looked up. The fairy looked at me. My head rang and I wanted to kill the pest.

"I fulfilled MY part of our bargain, mortal. Now, clean my lake!" She ordered.

"Okay. I'll clean your lake. Could you illuminate it for a moment, please?"

She snapped her tiny blue fingers and the whole cavern came alive with thousands of orbs of light floating on the roof. I saw the lake in its entirety. It wasn't as big as I thought. Its shape was a crescent moon surrounding the goblin city as if the city was the little spoon. But you couldn't see the far shore because the waterfall mist reflected and blocked the light. That made me think the lake was bigger than it was. But there wasn't a single corpse floating on the lake.

"How long was I out?"

"I don't know. I don't track time, mortal," She replied with a snort.

The goblins were watching us.

"NOW CLEAN THE LAKE!"

I nodded. "Okay. Let me stretch first, then I'll clean your lake."

My joints creaked and popped. I felt like shit. I looked around and saw the goblins watching.

I waved my hands and chanted some mumbo jumbo in English. "Abracadabra, newt's eyes! Frog leg, squid dyes!" Then I put my knuckles on my hips and smirked. "It is done," I told her in Elvish.

"What arcane language was that! My lake IS clean! What magic did you do? I didn't sense anything!" The fairy gasped.

She must've been so engrossed in torturing me she missed what was happening around her. Given the size of her head, pea-brained was a eulogy.

"I'll tell you my secret. But I don't want the goblins to hear. Come closer. Here, bring your ear closer to my mouth," The cat-girl told the fairy.

She came. I chomped.

No, I didn't kill the fairy. Gosh, that would be horrible. She was not a creature but a force of nature. The guardian of the lake and its waters. I just wanted to give her a scare. I was surprised when she started to weep.

"CAUGHT!" she cried. "Caught by a mortal! Oh, please, moon-bound lady Lily, have mercy!" She begged. "Please don't put me in a bottle!" The last line was filled with terror. I wasn't some pyramid-seeking mute elf, but there were tales of people putting fairies in jars well before the video-games were invented.

"What do you give me in exchange for your life?" I mumbled. If it was hard to speak with a feline muzzle, it was harder to speak with a fairy in my mouth. But elvish could be hummed almost as well was spoken.

"I'll give you my newborn daughter! She's a good fairy! She can be your familiar until the day you die!" The elder lake fairy bargained.

"How?" I was curious. How did familiar bonds work?

"She'll be bound to your soul. She'll answer your summons, lend you her magic. She'll live in your soul's space until the day you expire and meet the gods."

"Until the day of my FINAL death?" I asked. "And no hostility from either you or the goblins?"

"Yes. Until your final death and you'll have our word we won't attack you if you don't become hostile to either me or my goblins! She'll be bound to your soul. That's what being a familiar means."

"Even if I change bodies? What if I become undead?"

"Yes and yes. Wherever your soul goes, she'll be with you. The day the gods claim your soul, she'll return to my side. It is not like you humans live more than a century!"

"No promises on how long I'll live. You might be surprised. But I take your deal as it was spelled by our conversation."

A heavy burden settled upon my body. No, upon my soul. I opened my mouth and the fairy flew free. She waved her hands and I feared I would be annihilated that very moment. Then she pressed the lake surface and a glop of water came free, floating in the shape of an egg. It was not transparent, more like a gel. A tiny blue light shone and grew before my very eyes.

A tiny baby fairy appeared. It had chubby arms and legs and looked like her mother. The fairy opened its tiny little eyes, giggled, and flew straight at my forehead, diving inside my skull.

"Give her a name," the elder fairy said softly. "One that represents what she means to you."

"Nenandil. It means 'friend from water' in one of my world's tongue."

"The bond is done. Our debt is paid. Let be peace between us," The fairy declared. I saw the goblins nodding in agreement around us.

You gained the Water Fairy Familiar (unique) Perk. You have a water fairy familiar. It will grow stronger as it ages. Its powers are always limited by your own level.

You peacefully settled a conflict! First-time Exp bonus. x8.

You defeated level 100 Elder Lake Fairy. You gained 48,000,000 Exp (100,000 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 0.8 size x 1.25 perk x 100 rank x5 bonus x 0.6 non-lethal ).

It seems the size penalty for killing things smaller than oneself wasn't equal to the size bonus of killing bigger things.

You reached Monster Hunter level 21.

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 3 Skill Points.

You gained a perk.

You gained 2 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You reached Human [moon-bound] level 20.

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 4 Skill points.

You gained a perk.

You gained 6 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You reached Cartographer level 10 [18]

You gained 3 Skill Points.

You reached Apothecary level 18

You gained 3 Skill Points.

The amethyst pendant attached to my neck glowed. The cavern vanished. I looked around and I was in the middle of a room with a lot of old elves sitting around a horseshoe-shaped table.