As was typical for the routine of a strong and mighty morning-room shut-in, I was the type more accustomed to being awake at night than during the day.
However, for a fairy at the absolute bottom of the food chain, sleeping by day and active at night was basically the same as begging predators to eat me.
So, to survive in the wild, I had no choice but to correct my lifestyle pattern.
Sunlight poured through the gaps between fallen leaves. A miracle morning.
It was light that, for my usual self, signaled it was time to sleep.
"…Gotta get up."
Feeling a strange awkwardness about how it now served the exact opposite role as an alarm, I roused my languid body and sat up.
"Ugh—."
With half-lidded eyes, I stretched both arms overhead lightly, then stared blankly into space with a hazy mind.
✦ Evolution Complete ✦Fairy⟱FairySize increased. New skills unlocked.
Soon, the status window popped up, notifying me that my evolution had safely completed. I tilted my head down slightly to check my status, but…
"…It's the same?"
At first glance, nothing felt particularly different.
…No, there was something different.
I brushed aside the fallen leaf I'd been using as a sunshade. As bright light filled the stump interior, my fluffy, brand-new body came into view.
A pure white dress. The ragged mess soaked in fruit juice and bodily fluids had returned to its pristine original state. Not only that, but my body, which had been covered in dirt from rolling around, was now as clean as if I'd just stepped out of a bath.
"Hng…."
Sure, I'd get filthy again soon enough once I headed out for exploration today.
'Well, not bad.'
Still, the fact that I didn't have to feel sticky right now made the corners of my mouth curl up slightly.
With a refreshed feeling, I picked up the fork from one corner and poked my head out through the gap.
Thud. "?"
My shoulder and wing base bumped against the entrance, which had easily accommodated me yesterday.
I couldn't risk injuring my wings by forcing it. So, I carefully pulled back first.
"Hmm…."
Then I closely examined the gap. Upon closer inspection, it felt subtly smaller.
Thanks to the stump having rotted from long neglect, though.
Pok. Pok. Creak—.
A couple of fork thrusts widened the gap easily.
Thud. Crunch—.
"There."
I slipped through the now slightly larger gap and emerged safely from the stump. Then I held the fork with its tines pointed skyward and stood straight.
A more stable grip. My hand rested in a different position than yesterday.
"…Aha."
Only then did I finally realize the biggest change after evolution.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇Since I'd already confirmed last night that the tree fruits nearby were safe to eat.
Nom nom nom.
I filled up on fresh, just-picked wellness food from the bushes for breakfast. Then, to hide the widened stump gap from detection, I carefully covered the entrance with fallen leaves.
Tap. Roll—. Tap. Roll—.
I rolled the silver fork on the dirt ground a few times to dull its shine. Then, floating slightly into the air.
Whirr—. "Breakfast, done. Door secured. Weapon, check. …Good. Let's go."
After finalizing my pre-outing checklist, I flew eastward to tackle today's agenda.
.
.
This outing had three main objectives.
First: Scout the area around the stump, and ultimately the entire forest.
In a world where fairies like me existed openly, the vegetation might seem identical to Earth's at a glance, but subtle differences appeared here and there upon closer inspection.
So, it was easy to infer that a unique ecosystem I didn't know about had formed here.
If I got ambushed by some predator I'd never seen before in an unexpected situation, a fragile fairy like me would be dead meat.
Know yourself and your enemy, and you'll win a hundred battles. First, grasp the creatures here roughly and devise countermeasures.
Furthermore, mapping the terrain—marking off-limits areas and hiding spots in advance—would skyrocket my survival odds.
'Bonus if I find a long-term home while I'm at it.'
Honestly, the stump I was using now wasn't a suitable base for extended stays.
It was too open with no good hiding spots nearby. The stump's durability wasn't great either. The only food around was tree fruits from the small bushes, it was far from the stream, and above all…
'It's cramped.'
The interior was cozy, but I couldn't call it spacious even as a compliment.
If I grew bigger later, I might not even fit through the gap anymore. Better to secure a new place before that happened.
'Not urgent right now, though.'
Considering my current leveling speed, it would take quite a while until the next evolution.
Swoosh—. Stab. Poke.
Second objective: Hunt any small animals I spotted on sight.
'At this height, now that I've grown a bit….'
It wasn't like I'd suddenly developed a hobby for killing creatures.
'Roughly 10cm to 13cm….'
I'd simply realized I could level up and evolve by killing living things.
'About 30% growth… I guess?'
And that evolution directly affected my physical growth.
Judging by the fork's length, my height had increased by about 1.3 times from Fairy to Fairy. Meaning, just the first evolution gave a 30% height boost.
Swoosh—. Stab. Poke.
Assuming current height at 13cm, next evolution: 16.9cm. The one after: 21.97cm.
If growth continued smoothly like this, by the 10th evolution, I'd be around 137.8cm—child-sized. One more after that: about 179.2cm.
Of course, this was just my estimate. No guarantee it'd go that smoothly.
'No way growth stops there, right?'
Still, based on my sharp insights honed from dominating stock and crypto communities, reaching at least 170cm was a sure bet, even if 180cm was a stretch.
Splurch—. Stab. Poke.
After that, if I could figure out how to hide the wings on my back, I could even infiltrate human society.
"Kyaha."
I couldn't live my whole life as a wild forest hermit. So, for rapid evolution, I needed to slaughter any easy prey I saw.
However.
Fairy lv.3
As a Fairy, catching a few critters got me to evolution level easily, but now…
"Hmm… Yeah, leveling's slower."
Even though I'd killed twice as many as yesterday, I'd only gained 2 levels.
'Harder as you evolve, huh.'
A bit disappointing, but I wasn't impatient.
'Blindly grinding levels isn't everything anyway.'
Recalling yesterday's evolution.
Just hitting the racial evolution level wasn't enough.
No matter the level, if options were snake, spider, or chicken, evolution was practically impossible.
So, for smooth evolution, I needed to unlock proper paths. And I'd already figured out how.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡Skills
Thrust lv.3 → Thrust lv.4
"Oh, it leveled."
From yesterday's status window.
Evolution path unlocks were closely tied to my skills. The skills I acquired and how much I leveled them expanded my evolution options.
Third goal: Acquire as many diverse skills as possible, and max their levels while I could.
That way, step by step, I'd escape this pathetic bottom-feeder fairy life in no time.
"People really need goals."
It wouldn't be easy, but as long as there was potential, it was worth trying.
Stab. "Kieek!"
One thing.
'This is kinda fun… no.'
I had to be extra careful about fairy instincts or whatever taking over. This was just a stepping stone for fast, reliable growth—not some 'fun game.'
Steeled expression in place, I…
Stab. Splurt—!
"Hmph, hmph—."
…reinforced my resolve again. I casually wiped the insect fluids splattered on my hand onto my dress and continued my satisfying fork-thrusting.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇Hunting focused on insects like beetles, squirrels, baby rabbits, and occasionally sparrows that landed in the grass to peck seeds.
Of course, there were easier targets than those.
'But they lack… hand-feel, I guess?'
Tormenting caterpillars that could only wriggle when stabbed wasn't fun at a—
…No, prioritizing rapid growth, I'd gritted through the boredom and popped a few under leaves.
'No EXP anyway.'
But after bursting dozens, I realized easy prey like caterpillars wouldn't level me properly and quit.
Plenty of fun, productive things to do—no need to cling to pointless tedium.
'Small game feels the same now anyway.'
Humans evolve. At first, I fumbled stabs and got counterattacked plenty, but persistence built skill.
Few creatures could counter aerial ambushes.
Fly up and stab, hide and stab, frontal stab.
Once routine, it became repetitive labor rather than hunting.
But what kept exploration exciting was spotting rare mobs.
Tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. "Oh, another rare one."
A rabbit with small horns on its head. A stag beetle with five eyes. A rat with a drill tail.
As serious scouting began, I occasionally found mutant animals impossible on Earth.
Like a scorpion, but a stag beetle with elongated front legs. Body slightly larger than mine. Closer look: those 'claws' each had eyes and mouths.
'Cerberus… no, Sarberus?'
Watching the Sarberus peacefully sucking tree sap while clinging to bark, intrigued.
Tap. Tap tap.
Streeetch— "Whoa!"
Suddenly, one of its front legs extended long toward me in attack.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read 22 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!
https://noveldex.io/series/reborn-as-a-fairy-obsessed-over-by-heroes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━