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Disengaging the shadow curtain and hovering incandescent ball, I checked myself out under natural sunlight.

As I had thought, the new fabric had done an extraordinary job of protecting me from sunlight despite being quite a bit thinner than the triple layers I had originally worn. The weave was so tight, yet everything felt so light.

I moved my arms around and swished my hips, allowing the material of my new robes to sway. The way it slid across my skin felt even smoother than the coarse weave of my old silk robes to the point that it was a bit insulting to even compare them.

While the silk had been dyed black as I had asked, there was a slight rainbow shimmer as a small part of the light that hit the surface reflected off of it. The effect was the same as the ones on the underwear, but much more subdued. It was only really noticeable when you looked closely enough at it, but it was there, and felt like a nice added touch.

(I wonder how she even did such a thing?)

The little gems sewn in were especially nice though. I could only see them as purely an aesthetic choice, but it felt like it emphasized my connection to the fluffballs, and tickled my sentiments thanks to that.

"Your design for the underwear had made me really worried, but this is really nice."

"Ooh, you like, you like?"

"I do. The robes at least."

The underwear was incredibly comfortable as well, but the aesthetics on the other hand was a bit...no, way too much for me. There was no way I could let anyone see it.

Not like I had any inclinations for showing, but that was a different story.

"Ooh, thanks to the silk, the fabric turned out great!"

"Was this only just a really good weave? It looks different from anything I was able to make from that silk."

"Ooh, you can tell? It's hunter spider silk combined with fairy dust!"

"Fairy dust?"

(That mystical material that sprinkle from fairy wings in various fantasy stories?)

"Ooh, yes! Fairy dust collected from us fairies have all sorts of great properties. They conduct mana like orichalcum! But unlike orichalcum, mana can only move in certain ways through fairy dust! Once fairy dust is processed properly, it can make mana flow through it in very specific ways!"

"Like, how?"

"If you put it in a weapon, you can make all the mana that touches it flow to one side, making enchanted weapons even more powerful than normal if used right! In armour, it can force any mana that touches it to flow through the armour rather than pass to the wearer!"

"Is that...any mana?!"

"Ooh, yes! Fairy dust infused armour can protect from any magical attack or harmful ambient mana! Depending on how it's used, it can be even better than orichalcum!"

"Seriously?"

"Ooh yes! Orichalcum is the best when it comes to taking in mana, but its a hard metal, and any ways to make it flexible makes it worse at discharging the mana it's absorbed. But fairy dust can be imbued into cloth, just like all the clothes I made for you!"

"Wait, you did that to the underwear as well?!"

"Ooh yes! Your underwear is almost as strong as orichalcum armour! And its base is hunter spider silk, which makes it strong even against blades! It can protect you from blades even better than most armour!"

(So in effect, she made me bikini armour?! Now I'm having second thoughts about actually wearing it!)

"So these robes are also infused with fairy dust then?"

Continuing that line of thought was becoming a drain on my sanity, so I quickly switched topics a bit.

"Ooh, it is! Used a lot too!"

"Huh. So aside from blunt trauma, these robes are pretty strong armour huh? What about these gems then?"

"Ooh, those are condensed fairy dust! They take any mana that your robes collect and can be used for your own magic!"

"That's...pretty incredible."

"Ooh it is! And if you don't use them, they'll just discharge the mana safely after a while too!"

"Really, this is pretty high spec."

It's not only the best clothes I've owned between both of my lives, but these robes are also some pretty impressive armour as well.

"But still, is that really fine? The elder might have said that it was to pay me back, but this fairy dust seems to be quite valuable."

"Ooh, to others they are, but to us, they're pretty cheap!"

"Really? How come?"

"That's cuz they grow as part of our wings!"

Orphne answered in Anthousai's steed.

"They come off if we flap our wings hard enough, so it's a pain to clean up! But if someone's gonna use it, then we'll properly clean our wings to get a whole bunch! Then we don't have to have to worry about cleaning up the dust that falls to the ground! It's like buy one, get one for twice the price!"

(That's not even remotely a good deal!)

"Ah! Then the sparkly stuff that trailed behind you during the feast was...?"

"Yup! Those people hadn't cleaned their wings in a while!"

If I remembered right, pretty much all the fairies had sparkling dust trailing them as they flew around at high speeds.

(Do they hate cleaning their wings, or is it just a hassle?)

"How do you clean them normally?"

"Ooh, we wipe them down with a wet cloth. But wiping so many people's wings takes a lot of time and is tiring."

"That's it? Isn't that the same as just washing your bodies?"

"Ooh, yes. The scales of our wings are more delicate than our skin so we have to more careful though, so it takes time."

"Huh. Then is splashing your wings with water not sufficient?"

"It works, but then we have to collect the dust from the water and everything else it touched. We have to do even more cleaning then."

"Ah. So I guess that also means you don't take baths, and just wipe your bodies with cloths?"

"Ooh, that's right. Removing the fairy dust from bath water is just too much work."

If there was a way to filter the water in real time, then a bath sounded like a better possibility. But since they couldn't do that, most fairies just didn't bother cleaning themselves as often as they needed.

It wasn't like I was obsessed with baths, but they were quite enjoyable, and it was unfortunate that an entire race couldn't enjoy them due to the fact that they caused more trouble for them than solved.

(A normal filter wouldn't really be of much use either, as it would fill up with particulates too fast to be economical.)

I threw away the thought. There wasn't really any way to solve the problem without coming up with a solution that was economically viable.

"Anyways. So I have a favour to ask."

"Ooh? What is it?"

"If I bring you more silk, can you make me more clothes? I want an extra set of both the robes and underwear, as well as two sets of shirts, pants, and gloves. Also a nice pair of shoes."

"Ooh...I can't make shoes. I don't think there's any fairies good at it either. At least for a walker."

The fairy in a bear outfit responded despondently.

"A walker?"

"A walker! Someone who walks instead of flies!"

"Ah."

Thinking about it, it wasn't really a surprise that fairies weren't competent at making shoes. Shoes was nothing more than fashion for them, and the most practical part about them was keeping their feet warm. For creatures that spent virtually all their waking hours airborne, shoes had little practical purpose.

"Alright. Well, I still have a decent pair of shoes, so it can do for now. But the rest of the clothes, is that fine? Can I use the silk as payment as well, or would you prefer something else?"

"Ooh, yes! More silk! I can make lots and lots of things with plenty of silk!"

"Alright then!"

After that, we discussed the design of the shirt and pants for a bit. I wanted a simple t-shirt and shorts, but after seeing a drawing of them, they were rejected outright by Anthousai. She didn't even let me try to convince her.

So with some arguing, I was forced to settle for 'something that was easy to move in, but covered my body decently.'

What that actually entailed made me nervous, but I also made sure to reserve the right to refuse any design she made that I didn't like.

If she made it even remotely like that bear outfit she was wearing, there was no way I would accept that.

On my way back, Magni showed up.

He was complaining about there not being much good to hunt. Everything was either too strong to be to be hunted for everyday food, or too weak to be filling.

To me, he should have just filled up on the easy prey and used the strong ones to raise his level, but at the same time, I HAD promised to let him use the dungeon to hunt prey for himself.

That said, when I pointed out that he could do just that on his own, Magni stated that he didn't want to bother with the early floors full of weak monsters and asked me to take him to a more difficult floor where he could start hunting real monsters.

It was a little annoying, but I relented, as it wasn't like it would take much time.

When it came to actually bringing him to the later floors, according to Claret, it seemed that all we had to do was touch while I selected the destination, and everyone else would come with me automatically.

I hadn't really thought about it when it came to Claret, and since there wasn't any problems then, the thought never really crossed my mind. As she usually hung on my shoulders in the first place, it was a given that it would work without any issues even if I wasn't aware of them.

It was nice of her not to point out that I was already doing it and how odd it was for me to ask about it afterwards.

But that being said, it was nice that it was so simple.

I took the big dragonkin over to the 56th floor where the sheep monsters were with instructions to bring back as much milk as he could. I'd pick them up in fountain room at a later time.

As for myself, I spent time alternating between farming various materials, making batches of soap and hair oil, enjoying myself in a nice, relaxing bath while working on the skill which would allow me to bear Alicia's now body, and occasionally going outside to play with the fairies and fluffballs.

But there was the fact that the rest of the fairies were going to show up soon, so I also brought Orphne and her squad to a few of the dungeon's floors to help collect various ingredients. I still hadn't quite decided what to make, but eggs, milk, flour, and lots of sources of sugar were likely going to be necessary.

There were also plans on the fairies entering the dungeon for both levelling up and for gathering other resources, but that wasn't something that would happen until after they got the rest of the migratory fleet settled in.

The fact that Aurae actually called it a fleet at one point made me pretty nervous.

That said, the gathering of ingredients for the treats was going well and I had decided on a recipe. Though that meant that even more ingredients had to be gathered, it wasn't particularly a difficult thing to do. I had the fairies gather plenty of berries of various types as well as lemons. I'd sort through them later and make desserts of different flavours. It would be easier than having them gather only one specific fruit to flavour all of them.

As for myself, I hunted and collected fresh, unprocessed animal hides. It was my secret weapon to make the welcoming of the rest of the fairies into a success.

Another week later, my rabbit shaped magic bag was filled with a veritable warehouse worth of materials for the welcoming party.

To be frank, it was surprisingly how well the fairies did. Despite their appearances, they didn't have trouble fighting the monsters in the dungeon, despite them being mostly about halfway to the point where I got stuck. They even managed to reach floor 60 when they got bored just farming ingredients at some point. I was pretty surprised when they were fooling around with a broken set of armour.

Despite the damage, it was easily recognizable as the parts of the living armour that inhabited the 60th floor. Or rather, this specific set looked more like the boss of that floor, meaning that they reached the 61st floor as well.

I had no choice but to admit that I've severely underestimated these fairies. Just because of their childish demeanour and cute appearances didn't mean that they weren't powerful.

That said, it was difficult to accept them being respectively strong when they each hid inside of different pieces of the armour and pretended to be a still working set of living armour. It was even complete with a poorly done spooky voice, even though the living armours of that floor never let out any voices of any kind.

In the end we went with floundering about while dancing in some sort of mix of a folk dance and a waltz.

The fact that the difference in height meant that I was staring at the bottom of the chest plate was especially awkward though.

When I stepped out of the dungeon entrance, I stood there in shock.

Whether it was a good shock or a bad shock, it was difficult to tell.

No, rather than either, it was definitely both at the same time.

Upon exiting the dungeon, the surrounding light felt completely different. Rather than oppressive light of the sun reflecting off of the green vegetation all around, the colours felt distinctly different, like it wasn't the usual painfully white light that was shining down from above.

Hesitantly, I looked up, and the view made me freeze.

Again from the beginning, the view made me stand there in shock.

Instead of the sky, it was the image of a ceiling of soft looking lights of various colours that entered my eyes.

"...This is...?!"

"Oh wow. I haven't seen so many spirits in one place in a long time."

"So they're all spirits then?"

There were so many that they blotted out the sky.

[That's amazing...!]

"It's like the entire world's spirits have all come here."

"Yup yup! That's the whole point!"

Orphne showed up from behind. It seemed like she had enough of hunting and gathering.

"Wait, does this mean that the other fairies have arrived?"

"Probably! So does that mean we can have more of those tasty flans you made last time?"

"I was thinking I'd try something different this time."

"Boo! I want more flans! Enough to make my belly all full and round!"

"It'll have a part of it that's similar to a flan. Isn't that enough?"

"Like a flan? Then hurry! Hurry! Make it!"

"Okay okay, but I'll need a bunch of you fairies to help. There's no way I can make it all on my own."

"Yay! I'll go get a bunch of others!"

The little fairy flew off like a cannon without even confirming where to meet up.

"Haaa. Still, that's a lot of fluffballs..."

It wouldn't do to only make treats for the fairies, so I started generating a whole bunch of mana treats in my hands. As the numbers were insane, they were smaller than usual. Even still, it was a serious drain on my MP.

"Hey you guys! Welcome to your new home!"

I tossed the bundle of mana treats skyward.

"Wha! You guys!"

As if some sort of dam broke, the swarm of fluffballs descended like a storm. The mana treats disappeared in an instant as the flood of spirits swarmed around me, spinning around like some sort of spiritual tornado.

I instinctively checked my skills and confirmed that [Spirit Form] and [Materialize] had been turned on, with the latter only partially activated so I could equally interact with the physical and spiritual.

And it wasn't a moment too soon, as the fluffball swarm started to rub their bodies against my own, ruffling up my brand new robes and flying through every gap imaginable. From below my robes to through the gaps between the buttons, to the neck and hood, and even the sleeves. It was like they all wanted to touch some celebrity, but the ones behind them were pushing the ones ahead to move on as quickly as possible.

But it wasn't like it felt bad. They were all soft and warm.

"It looks like they all like you Master."

At some point Claret had detached herself from me, as if she was saying that because she was with me all the time, it was everyone else's turn to have their fun. Maybe that was actually what she was thinking. If that was the case, I needed to give her a nice, big mana treat later.

"Isn't this a bit too much though?"

"Really? But the spirits have been spreading the word about you for a while now. I think they all wanted to meet the one that everyone's been talking about."

"What am I? Some sort of celebrity?!"

"I'm sorry. I don't know what that word means, Master."

"A famous person! Someone lots of people really like!"

"Oh, then you're probably the world's biggest celebrity then, Master! Every spirit probably likes you after all!"

That in itself was quite the terrifying thought. I hadn't done anything worthy of such emotions. These fairies were working so hard for the fluffballs. They deserved the recognition rather than someone like me who just fed them here and there.

"But why me? What about the fairies? They've been trying to save the spirits for a long time! I've only been feeding them, and even then only for a little while!"

Claret though, just tilted her head to the side. It kinda figured that she didn't really have an answer for me.

"Did you protect them a lot this last little while?"

"Huh?"

"You protected them, drew them away from dangerous places, and lead them all to a new home where they wouldn't be abused."

"I didn't do anything like that!"

(What's with piling on credit where it wasn't due?!)

"But you did. For us spirits, the safest place has always been near you. While most people can't see us, there's lots of monsters that can. By feeding the little ones, you drew them away from dangerous places and protected them by hunting monsters along the way. And this place, near the dungeon is safer than almost anywhere else in the world for us!"

I was exasperated. Even if all that was true, it was merely a coincidence. I hadn't consciously done any of it to the fluffball's benefit. All I did was feed and play with them.

"I had no intention of doing any of that! That's just a misunderstanding!"

"But that's the result. The little ones don't understand the difference of intent if the results are the same."

And there it was, the core of the misunderstanding and why it could never be resolved.

"The fairies have been protecting the little ones for a long time, but most of them are too young to remember that. And they don't know what they're being protected from."

"They don't even know?"

"Or they don't understand?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"They don't understand that when the fairies say stay away from the elves' mana treats, or don't form a familiar contract, they don't understand that they're being protected? Even if why is explained to them? Though I suppose that the fairies would neglect any explanations if it's too annoying to bother with."

"I guess? Mana treats are so tasty after all. Especially Master's!"

It was a bit sad, but I could understand. The fluffballs were even more short term minded than the fairies. They probably found the idea of people who fed them turning on them being unfathomable. Even if it was explained to them, it would often be thrown out of the window when they stared on a mana treat within reach and told that they could have as much as they wanted if they formed a contract with the person giving it to them.

Changing the ways of a race that lived almost purely on instinct was extremely difficult, and if the rate that new ones were born was as high as the fairies suggested, it would severely hamper any attempts at changing those ways, as they'd have to teach each and every fluffball what to be careful about.

It was a pure numbers game, and the fairies were facing an impossibly high wall due to it.

(So that's why what I've been doing had such a bigger impact?)

"Or rather, the real reason why I'm so popular is because I just give them tons of mana treats, isn't it?"

I looked at my familiar spirit through the gaps of fluffballs surrounding me.

"They're really tasty, Master!"

That full-faced grin answered all of my suspicions.

Giving up, I let out a massive sigh as I started to scatter around countless mana treats.

By the time I stopped, my MP had fallen to 10%, but even then there were a ton of fluffballs who hadn't had a chance to eat yet.

(Just how many of these guys are there?!)

Ninetailed_Furball

Hi everybody! It's your usual furball! (/◕ヮ◕)/

Did you enjoy today's chapter? Part of me feels like we're spending a bit too much time with the fairies, but another keeps reassuring me that it's better to stick to the original plan.

Well, pretty much everything has been ending up longer than I originally expected, and this arc has been no different. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

For those who are concerned, the dungeon will be featured more extensively soon, but not the next chapter.

That aside, how's everyone doing? The riots have been quite the surprise to me when it showed up on the news. There's even been a bit of protesting on this side of the river.

Hope everyone's staying safe, and that things will calm down soon, though I worry that it will only escalate instead. There seems to be quite a lot of tension buried beneath the surface, and things lately have only stretched everyone's nerves even further. (⊙﹏⊙)

Remember, the best thing everyone can do is to stay at home whenever possible! Not just for COVID-19 but also to avoid getting caught up in any future riots!

If any of you gets bored staying at home all the time, consider learning a new skill. Something that doesn't require you to buy anything physical. Skillshare, Curiosity Stream, or one of the many language learning systems are a great way to occupy your time in a productive manner!

Anyways, stay safe everybody! (≧∇≦)/



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