The fairy was a piece of art! She brandished her sword and looked at me as if I had woken her up from her nap.
I knew her kind! She wanted to be left alone. The fairy dust must have come from her washing her bathtub!
"I come for the fairy dust." I was using my staff to show that I was strong as well. But the day I hit a fairy was the day I would hit myself.
Most days, fairies might be crime ladies, but they were also the only alchemists who dealt with witches.
But then, the fairy threw her flaming sword at me! It got tangled in my hair!
I yelled, falling and rolling to the ground!
The hell?
Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the fairy, my hat's rune activated, and the fire was put out.
But I wanted revenge! I wanted revenge more than I wanted air!
I jumped up, my staff hitting the fairy's house.
"I came in peace, you wretched creature!" I yelled as I tried to hit the fairy.
"I don't want to bother with you! I already cursed you!"
The fairy… cursed me?
I froze, my staff in the air.
"My family has been cursing yours for generations!" The fairy continued, as she called her sword to her. "And I will curse your…"
My staff met the fairy dead on! I sent the cretin flying towards the horizon.
My curse was the product of a fairy's curse? Then… then there was no hope for me!
Unless…
Would my doing one million quests change my fate? Would I eliminate the curse if I did one million good deeds?
It didn't hurt to try, but there was one thing I believed in: If you wanted to do good, you had to have a full belly first.
I took some napkins and began to gather the fairy dust. It was very time-consuming work, but I didn't care. I only cared about whether I could gather enough to start my rune journey.
When I was done, I began to look for the fairy.
Now, murder was not a good deed. And I would probably need to do another one million good deeds to wash it away.
But this was a fairy who practiced black magic! I couldn't leave her alive! What if she cursed someone else?
It was purging time!
"Well," she was twitching on the ground. Her limbs were at odd angles. Her eyes were wide. "I hope you enjoyed the mana you stole from me, because now you will need it."
I raised my foot high. Then I brought it down on her, squashing her without a shred of mercy.
But it wasn't just fairies who cursed people. There were the goblin shamans, the witches, who, unlike me, also practiced Black Magic. Then there were the orc shamans, who even used plagues on the world from time to time.
But the worst were the fairies. I knew that I needed to get rid of them all.
I could even use other dark arts practitioners to help me.
Because if there were any race that could put a permanent curse on someone, then it would be the fairies.
The forest was their hiding place. The home. They didn't even want to live among people. They didn't want to accept change.
Petty creatures who were prone to jealousy and hate. To dark curses and magic so vile, they poisoned the world with their dark souls!
"Millie the Fairy Hunter!" I yelled in the forest. A couple of birds chirped, and some flew away.
But I didn't care.
It was time to make the world a better place.
As I scrubbed the fairy's remains off my white shoes, I couldn't help but think that if I didn't have allies, I would end up like that.
Maybe even stepped on by a giant.
Still, what choice did I have? The curse would be lifted, eventually. But the world would never change if more people fell prey to the fairies.
Those creatures that had come one day and then began to curse people!
I blinked. There was something foul in the air.
"Hey! I don't want a Black Magic contract!" I yelled at the demon who was egging me on. "I am competent to do this on my own!"
The imp who came out of the bushes and snorted at me didn't look impressed.
I snorted right back at him.
"It'd be easier if we helped," the red creature told me.
But I knew his kind. He was the traitor who stabbed you in the back. The friend who told you that you meant the world to them, only to say to you that you should take a hike when you asked him to help you bury a corpse.
The cat who meowed at you until you fed it, then went and broke your special mixing glass jar!
"Yes, I know," I even smiled a bit. Just enough to show that the option would be considered, should the need arise.
"Good hunting, then," the imp said, as he disappeared.
The forest was my new hunting ground. But I needed to work smarter, not harder. The best option at my current level of strength was the goblins.
They had a nasty reputation when it came to how they treated women. But I was more than just a woman.
I was a woman with a shadow familiar! Which was why I ended up burned when I went to church. Power has a price. The price I would pay was a stay in a cauldron in hell, after, let us say, 100 years.
But that didn't matter to me. The only thing I wanted was to restore balance to the world.
To kill all the fairies, get a job, and then live a good life—a life free of cons such as reading the future or even cons such as giving people love potions.
But I thought to myself, as I looked at the sky, cleansing the houses and leading ghosts to the other side could still be a good business venue.
With my goals set, I began to follow the crude scratches on the trees.
Towards the Broken Skull Goblin Camp.
A place where more than one adventurer got their skull cracked…