171. Fairing Well

171. Fairing Well

As a Fairy, Lily didn’t need to sleep, just like me. But apparently, unlike me, she could fall asleep whenever she wanted to. Which was odd. I didn’t understand why you’d go to sleep if you could choose not to.

“You’re still a young Demon.”

Lily flitted over to the Fairy Mound, sitting crossed leg at the very top of the rubble.

“When you live for centuries, you’ll realize that experiencing every moment of it starts to be a bore. Whether we spend most of our lives awake or asleep, it doesn’t make a difference for you and me.”

“Why not?”

I cocked my head, and she grinned.

“Because time is on our side.”

She spread her small arms wide.

“We’re no mortals, at the mercy of age and illness. Humans, Dwarfs, Elves, Beastmen, and even Kobolds are beholden to their lifespan. If they wish to overcome it, they are pressed to fight, to level, to become something more than just a meager mortal. But Demons? Spirits? We’re born free from the shackles of time.”

I could only stare at Lily as she made her speech, a satisfied look on her face. My jaw hung open, letting out a single word.

“Woah.”

The Fairy nodded.

“Good. Now if you understand that time is insignificant to us, I will go and take a nap, thank you very much.”

She flickered into the Fairy Mound, out of sight. I paused, feeling the sense of wonder slowly fade away and logic return to me.

“Wait, did you just give that entire explanation to justify why you should sleep?!”

I only heard her snores in return.

—–

“So, for today—”

“I don’t think it’s been a day. I’m pretty sure you only took a few hours of napping.”

Lily glared at me for speaking over her. She crossed her arms, repeating herself.

“So, for today, we’re going to be continuing your training by doing the same thing.”

I raised my hand.

“If we’re going to be doing the same thing, you didn’t have to say all that, did you?”

She rolled her eyes.

“We start… now.”

And she vanished. I shrugged.

“What? It’s a legitimate question!”

It was a repeat of just a bit ago. I managed to recover most of my mana and stamina. Lily did too, but since I actively knew how to track her down now, it wasn’t so hard finding her. Catching her, on the other hand, proved to be as difficult as before.

Only when she ran out of mana did I manage to get my claws on her. We collapsed. The Fairy was in my hand as I lay on the ground, grinning and panting with her.

“I did it again! I… wait.”

“Let go of me already!”

Lily snorted, and I did as she told me to. She spoke as she dusted herself off.

“What is it? Why do you have that confused expression on your face?”

“I just… I didn’t get a Skill for it.”

That was odd. I got a Skill for catching her earlier. But now… I got nothing?

The Fairy wasn’t surprised.

“Did you think you’d get a Skill every single time you chased me and caught me? Or even every time you push yourself to your limits? No— Skills are only learned when there’s actually something for you to learn!”

I blinked.

“Um, doesn’t that just mean what it means?”

“Yes, I said what I said!”

“This confusing conversation is making me confused.”

I rubbed at my temples, but Lily sighed. She flitted up to meet my gaze.

“Look, let me ask you this: how did you catch me the first time?”

“I, um, found you with [Spectral— but no, I don’t have the Skill yet. So, first, I used [Spatial Sight] to familiarize myself with the unperturbed space. After that, I found the disruption in space you created with your magic. Then I followed it until I found you. And finally, I chased you until you gave up while keeping track of where you’re going?”

I wasn’t entirely sure if that was the right course of events, but it sounded like it was right. Lily nodded as if that didn’t really matter.

“Yes, yes, yes. Now, how did you catch me the second time?”

“Oh, I just did the same thing! Although, I think I skipped the first step?”

“You did.”

She agreed, and that was apparently where the problem lay.

“You can’t expect to learn anything new by doing the same things over and over again. Refining your Skills or skills has its place. It’s not bad. If we repeat this training lesson ten more times, I’m certain you’ll get faster and faster each time— even if barely.”

Taking a deep breath, she floated upwards. Further away from me. And she shone brighter as she continued.

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“But if you truly want to learn new things, you’ll have to do new things! You’ll have to change!”

Lily snapped her fingers, and another portal opened behind her. She flew back into it, facing me.

“Try to catch me again. This time, don’t follow my trail!”

It closed shut behind her as I took a moment to register what just happened. I tilted my head back.

“So, you don’t actually need to take a break?”

—–

The third time I caught Lily, things played out the same with only one key difference: I decided to find her with the same tactics, I continued to chase her, and won when she grew tired, but I paid careful attention to her too.

I observed how she moved. The spell she cast each time she teleported. I saw the way it unraveled the threads of mana in the air. Space magic. Something I could hope to replicate. I ran after her as she blinked in and out of existence, repeatedly getting further and further away from me.

I didn’t learn it immediately. It took me a few days to learn this Skill, since it happened so briefly each time, I couldn’t grasp all of it at once. I dissected each individual component of the spell, until I learned how to do it. Even then, it wasn’t the exact same Skill Lily used. It was my own variation of it, which in turn rewarded me with a more refined and uniform Skill to use compared to my rough magic.

Skill [Short Range Teleport] Learned!

Experience is awarded for the learning of a Skill!

Class [Adept of the Fae] Level Up!

[Adept of the Fae – Lvl. 28] -> [Adept of the Fae – Lvl. 29]

Gained 2 Secondary Skill Points!

Even after I learned that Skill, Lily wasn’t done with this same routine. We continued this little act as time— I wasn’t sure how long down in this cave, whether it was days or weeks— passed. I learned another Skill. And I even leveled in [Rest] for the first time in a while!